Up and down

This morning has had a lot of ups and downs. Here are a few... My alarm was set for 5:20 so that I could get up and get to the gym by around 5:30. When it went off, I did what I do every morning--decide whether I'll actually get up or if I can do the prescribed workout later in the day or even another day. At 5:20 this morning, another day sounded like a good idea since Saturdays are usually one of my days off from training; so, I reset my alarm for 6:20 and rolled over. About 3 minutes later, I changed my mind and just got up to go the gym. Today's workout was the long bike ride for the week--48 minutes. Since I'm riding a bike inside at the gym I can set it to different programs based on what I want to do. This morning I set it to a random hill program hoping this will help with the transition to actually riding a real bike outside once its not so hot. So, I rode up and down hills for 48 minutes. My attitude about my workout was up and down the whole time. When I first started, I felt good and confident that I would be able to finish. By about 20 minutes in, however, I was already exhausted and ready to quit. A few minutes later I was exhilarated and ready to ride forever. This went on and on, up and down, for the entire 48 minutes. Finally, the fan. This is my fave feature of the bike that I ride at the Y. It has a fan that blows at you right on the bike. Amazing! This is a great feature because it gets really hot riding for 48 minutes without any airflow around you. This morning I discovered an awesome feature of the fan--it moves up and down! I noticed that it was missing my face and so I tried to adjust it and it worked! This was my favorite up and down of the morning.

Some observations on my long swim

Tonight was the first long swim I did on my own. (The first week Becky was here, and last week I was still feeling sick so I didn't do it.) I was pretty apprehensive about my ability to swim for 24 minutes, but I'm happy to report that I did it! I'm pretty proud of myself actually, since I didn't even really take any long breaks, just short ones between every couple/few laps. Anyways, here are a few things I noticed tonight during my swim:

• I seriously cannot swim in a straight line. I guess this isn't particularly surprising given my inability to walk in a straight line, but I'm amazed nonetheless. I would guess swimming straight when doing backstroke is hard since there's no real way to gauge whether you're going straight or not. On the other strokes, though, I tried Becky's suggestion of looking at the line in the bottom of the pool. Unfortunately, this didn't seem to make much of a difference. I'm hoping that this will get better over time.
• I got some bad foot cramps in both of my feet during my swim tonight. It was rough, but I pushed through and made it. If this is going to be a regular thing during my swims, I'm going to have to do something about it. I know that I probably need potassium, but I can't eat bananas. Becky suggested Gatorade, which I could do. Any other suggestions?
• Switching strokes every other lap or so seems to work for me. I know that freestyle is the most efficient stroke, but I just can't do it for prolonged periods just yet. So, this week (Monday and tonight) I tried to vary a bit more often, and it seemed to work. I was able to keep going for longer without taking long breaks, and I wasn't as worried about inhaling water. I think this will be my new plan, at least until I get a bit better at this whole swimming thing.
• It's important to pay attention to where you are in the pool when doing the backstroke. I tend to zone out when I'm doing the backstroke since I like it the best; (My face isn't in the water at all!) however, I need to pay more attention since I almost hit my head on the side of the pool several times tonight. Perhaps next time I'll learn from Becky!

A bit of advice...

I tried to go to the gym right after work tonight since I figured if I went home first I wouldn't get off the couch; however, the gym was packed at 7pm, so I didn't go in. Instead I decided to get something to eat and go to the gym for my run after that. I was really looking forward to it, since I like running. Unfortunately I made a seriously poor choice for dinner, and then went running...YUCK! My 14 minute run, which usually wouldn't feel too long to me, felt like it would never end all because my dinner was sitting like a brick in my stomach. It was a disgusting 14 minutes. So, here's my advice: do not go running after you've eaten nachos! Maybe no one besides me would try this, but just in case you might be thinking about going out for a run after a yummy nacho dinner--don't! I promise that you'll regret it.

Can someone explain to me...

why airlines oversell by ridiculous numbers of passengers which is preventing me from getting home to complete today's training requirements!?!?!? After 16+ hours on Friday, 9 of which were spent at Hartsfield International Aiport in Atlanta, I finally made it to DC for the weekend. Had a fabulous weekend, totally DIDN'T run like I was supposed to yesterday, and now find myself stranded again at Hartsfield (this time probably overnight), and again missing another day of tri training fun. I'm a bit irritated with the airline industry, but am enjoying an afternoon of people watching...the highlight of that so far is definitely the PINK poodle! Will try and get a picture to post if I can do it without being completely obvious...

Must-Have-Better-Attitude

After almost a week of slacking off from my training (I just couldn't quite get myself together after being sick early last week), I got up super early this morning and got to the gym for my Monday workout--14 minute swim, 29 minute bike. My 14 minutes in the pool, once again, felt like an eternity. Here's the thing, I don't think the problem is that I'm not a good swimmer, though I'm not; I think that the problem is that I just can't get over how terrifying it feels to have my face submerged in water. Its unsettling to know that if I opened my mouth, I'd inhale water and that wouldn't be good. Though I'm embarrassed to admit it, I had a bit of a taste of this as I was swimming this morning. Twice I had to stop mid-lap because I'd forgotten to not breathe in water. It was especially embarrassing because 1. the pool was packed at 5:30 am--get a life people!--2. it happened both times right in front of the 16-year old lifeguard. I must work on this. Despite my embarrassing moments, I made it through. After my swim, I got on the bike and road from 29 minutes. I'd forgotten my headphones so I had to read a magazine instead of enjoying cable--which, let's be honest is part of the reason to go to the gym. I read Ladies Home Journal and learned that men are in fact better at forgiveness than women and that all activity involving water from drinking it, to soaking in it, to listening to it, and swimming in it, is relaxing and should result in my feeling better equipped to face the day. Interesting. I agree that most interactions with water are relaxing, but I'm not ready to say that swimming is. Perhaps by the end of this training I'll feel differently.

A Day Off...

How excited am I that I'm off today!!! No running, biking, swimming, or anything dramatic like that. I'm especially excited about the day off since I've been up since 3:20am when AirTran called to tell me my flight was cancelled. NOT cool...and so I sit at the Tampa Airport hoping to get out on standby well before my "guaranteed, rebooked" flight at 3:45pm. Wish me luck!

Lightning Strikes AGAIN!!!

Thankfully, it struck right after I had finished swimming last night. Lifting and biking today and running once over the weekend. The plus about this weekend's run is that it will be in DC :) I can run past the Capitol, Supreme Court, the monuments, and old favorite spots around Capitol Hill. I'm almost looking forward to it...

Rain Delay

More accurately, lightning delay. The storms here in FL are absolutely fabulous, however, the lightning does interfere with my swimming laps in the outdoor pool. I was stormed out last night and was going to combine that short swim with today's longer one, but lightning stuck again and ruined my plans and left me with two other options: running or swimming. To be perfectly honest, I didn't want to do either! I'm sure you're shocked - Ms. Lacking in Self-Discipline Related to Exercise not wanting to do a workout?!?!? 

It was true. But I mobilized and headed to the somewhat sauna-like, poorly air-conditioned fitness room at the old apartment complex and got it done. I RAN of all things! And I ran 11 of the 13 minutes of the "short run" for the week and spent some quality time on the elliptical while watching a particularly great episode of "What Not to Wear".

And so it was that I made it through another day of the training plan. Just 5 billion more to go. Don't worry, I'm totally up for it! Or at least I am pretending I am..."fake it till you make it" as my friend Karin is fond of saying :)

Sicko...

Since I've been sick the last couple of days (yes, I suppose that is an admission), I haven't been able to keep up with my training schedule. Yesterday I was forbidden to run, and today I was way too tired and gross-feeling to get up to swim and bike at 5:30 this morning. I certainly wasn't sad to miss the swim this morning, though I seriously need the practice, but I must admit that I missed the run yesterday. Unlike Becky, I actually enjoy running and am looking forward to that part of our training. Too bad I can't trade my swimming leg of the triathlon for Becky's running one. Becky tells me that you can compete as a team in the longer triathlons with a different person doing each leg of the event. Maybe Becky can do the swim, and I'll do the run. Anyone up for the biking part? We can be a team! Anyway, I'm feeling a bit better today. I hope that after tomorrow I'll be back at full strength, and I can get back into my training. I suppose I should try to get today's short swim into my schedule sometime this week so that I don't get out of practice, but we'll have to see if I can get that motivated. Wish me luck!

The LONG SWIM...sounds menacing, huh?

Tonight was our first long swim and it was SO LONG! Ok, 20 minutes isn't that long in the grand scheme of things, but for me, 20 minutes of swimming seems like an eternity. Becky came to town for the weekend since she had a few days off, so we went to the pool together tonight to do our swim. Having her in the lane next to me made me feel a bit better about swimming. I mean if I started to drown, at least Becky could save me rather than the 16 year old lifeguard looking at me like I'm crazy from his chair nearby. Becky gave me some tips on my technique during our swim which I'm sure will prove to be helpful once I get over this whole being terrified of having my face submerged in water thing. Yes, I recognize that most people get over this fear when they take swimming lessons as kids, but I'm not most people. So, in the meantime, I'll just swim a lap or 2, notice that I haven't drowned, catch my breath, and swim on.

Post Run Blues

How is it that I can be on the freakin' elliptical for 45 minutes with no problem and not even run for 12 minutes straight? Does this make sense to anyone else? I KNOW it uses different muscles and all that crap, but I feel like the endurance part has got to transfer between activities somehow. Doesn't it? 

I'm not one of those girls who doesn't sweat or perspire or whatever, but I was totally drenched after my 9.5 minutes of running and my 2.5 minutes worth of walk breaks. I couldn't even finish the short run running. How pathetic is that? And I"m pretty sure I hated every minute of those 9.5 of running. Well, I guess the first 3-4 weren't completely horrible. I'm pretty sure that my aversion to running might somehow be more mental than it actually is a physical inability to perform the activity. My roommate, Sarah, suggested I read a sports psychology book. Maybe I should. I also was telling Erin I need to give myself a limit to the number of negative comments I can make about running and/or myself in relationship to running in any given week. I really should do that, but then what else would I write about? I wouldn't be able to complain about my 20 minutes of running I have to do on Sunday that there's no way in #*@^ that I'm going to be able to finish. Really, I will work on my attitude. And if anyone has any running secrets, I'm totally open to trying them and maybe even to not hating running anymore...

Tomorrow's a day off!

I'm not sure that starting training for the triathlon and my new job in the same week was that good of an idea. That said, I'm really looking forward to the day off from training tomorrow. It's sad that it's only 2 days in and I'm already SO excited about a day off! My run this morning was good. I'm not really worried about this part of the triathlon--unlike Becky, I don't think I'll die while running...swimming, however, is a different story.

Running

Most of you who know me know how much I absolutely HATE running!!! I really don't like it and generally have little use for it unless I'm being chased by someone scary. There are only 2 situations I have ever (almost) liked running in: a light to moderate drizzling rain and on the trails along the Chatahoochee River in Atlanta following a crazy day at work. Running in FL where it is approximately 5 billion degrees and 99.9% humidity most of the time does not fit either of those categories and therefore, I have to rely on Erin to tell me that I will not actually die while running and the teensy tiniest bit of self-discipline that I can muster.

12 minutes. That's the SHORT running day for Week 1. Are you KIDDING ME!?!??!?!?!?! I have to do that tomorrow? Eeeew! And then 20 minutes for the long run over the weekend. I have only a few times in my life ever run for that long continuously, one of which was when I ran my  first and only 5K a few years back. Thankfully there are some months between now and said triathlon - perhaps enough time for me to gain a bit more self-discipline and endurance for running. Time will tell, I suppose. 

Erin's first sports injury*

This is quite a momentous occasion--on the first day of my tri-training, I got my first sports injury. No worries, my injury is not serious and will not derail my training. I was swimming this morning before work and the pool was much more crowded at 5:30 am than it really should be so I had to share a lane with another swimmer. People who have ever walked anywhere with me know that I can't walk in a straight line to save my life. Well swimming apparently isn't any different--I can't swim in one either. In my attempt to stay clear of the super-fast swimmer who was sharing the lane with me, I tried to stay really close to the side of the pool and scraped my hand on the side. The cut is small, but hurts just the same. I'd like to use this injury as an excuse to stop the swimming portion of my training since I hate swimming, but I'm sure Becky wouldn't go for that. So, I will live to swim another day, injury and all. *I must confess that though I thought this was my first sports injury my mother reminded me that it wasn't; I broke my toe in gymnastics when I was a little girl. I will, however, claim this as my first sports injury as an adult. Here's hoping it's also the last!