I'm alive, really I am!

Holy couple of months, batman. I have been TOTALLY slacking on the blog. My bad. I know, I stink. BUT....race season is almost here so time to get back on the blog-wagon. Mooseman is a month away (International Distance) I can't wait to race again, it's been since Sept. YIKES!

Ten

What does the number ten mean to you? To me, it's the number of pounds I've been trying to lose for a while. Well, today is a day to celebrate. I have officially lost TEN pounds since Jan 1, 2009! And fifteen pounds since our return from Hawaii in October. 

I am finally feeling the differences, small things. My favorite jeans don't fit well anymore (they look sloppy.) My core feels stronger, more muscular. My legs are definitely leaner/stronger.

JRM steered me in the right direction and I've followed his advice religiously and what do you know? I'm seeing results. It's a beautiful thing! 

Seems I can lose a tad more. So I will strive to be leaner/stronger by tri season this summer- I have no doubt I will see positive race results if I continue on this path! 

Ten has new meaning to me; it's not so intimidating after all!

Harpoon Indoor Time Trial (ITT)

On Sunday I was christened by my first ITT (where you race other riders on bikes set up on trainers) and you follow the progress on a screen at the front of the room. I have never done one before, but thought it might be fun, so we signed up (Greg, Pam, Brandy and myself) Pam and Brandy rode with the "A women" (read: Pro Women) which went off at 12 noon, so we showed up early to watch them! They both did great!  

Soon after their heat, it was our turn. Greg and I in the same (co-ed) heat. I knew I wouldn't win the heat (b/c G will beat me everytime!) But I had high hopes for Greg to win...if you win your heat. You got a case of Harpoon Beer.

So I got started and took it a little easy (you can see in my power file that my rpms (green line) were high so I switched gears a few minutes in and started to work a little harder. The course had a minor hill about half way and then a more substantial (5% grade) hill from Mile 6-7 (If you invert my speed, blue line, you can envision the course profile.) 

My power (yellow line) was fairly consistent (which is good!) and I averaged right where I thought I would (232watts on my powermeter, although the computrainer/official results list 226watts) Overall I was 13th female, not too shabby considering there were a few Pros and bigger name road riders present. I'll take it for my first ITT. It was SO fun! My official time was 24:09 (19.9mph)

Here is my power meter data:

ITT:

Duration:   24:10

Work:       336 kJ

TSS:       46.2 (intensity factor 1.071)

Norm Power: 232

VI:         1

Pw:HR:       n/a

Pa:HR:       n/a

Distance:   8.406 mi

Elevation Gain:     98 ft

Elevation Loss:   108 ft

Grade:     -0.0 %  (-10 ft)

Min Max Avg

Power:       154 288 232 watts

Heart Rate:   0 182 66 bpm

Cadence:     80 107 93 rpm

Speed:       10.6 28.5 20.9 mph

Pace         2:06 5:41 2:52 min/mi

Altitude:     676 689 682 ft

Crank Torque: 121 271 211 lb-in

Temperature: 60.8 64.4 62.7 Fahrenheit

 

Oh, and Greg does not disappoint! He won our heat (21:21 total time) and graciously gave the case of beer (minus a couple) away to Brandy and Pam/Daniel. They stuck around to watch (and cheer, loudly!) for us in our heat. It was a blast!! I'm so proud of Greg...won our heat and was 31st overall (out of 168 people) I only wish he would stop showing off :P

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly- Swim Video

So Patrick (with Endurance Nation) invited G and I to a swim clinic back in Jan. where we did a classroom chat, swim drills and ended with a video analysis. Mine was not as bad as I expected, but there are always things to work on.

The Good:
Good rotation
Good Pull

The Bad:
Back side sinks
Entry could be better
Work on rotating hand slightly inward to initiate catch and get elbow up

The Ugly:
Being in a swim suit on camera, lol!

New Beginnings and New Approaches

I'm SO excited to start training today. We're now working with Janda Ricci-Munn, I cannot wait to see how his approach to training can help us both improve this season! Bring on the pain!

Week of rest and sleep…Timmy was thankful to have company on the couch.

A week ago tomorrow, I went for a run with my pal Pam and was DRAGGING…poor Pam must have thought I eaten a few too many cookies at the Holidays because I simply could not keep pace with her for the life of me. But she dragged me along until about mile 9 when I proclaimed “I’m bonking” little did I know my body had other plans for me. I made it home safely and showered, curled up on the couch to put my feet up and BAM. Chills, fever hit and I asked G if he “caught the license plate of the MAC truck that hit me?” I spent the entire weekend sprawled on the couch freezing, sweating, repeat. I knew I had a fever. Anyway, a week later and zero workouts (I mean not one) I’m feeling a LOT better and hope that I can get some easy workouts in this weekend in preparation of a better workout week next week!

Oh, the cherry on top of my crappy flu week: On Monday as I was walking to the Dr.’s office, I was using my mouth to assist in putting my mitten on when SNAP- I chipped my tooth. Ugh! I spent the week worrying about what my dentist would say (and do to fix it.) Well, I have GREAT news! My dentist fixed me up last night and my smile is better than ever :) I am SO excited!!

Can’t wait to start off a new week, and new month! Smile often!

Bart Yasso’s got nothin’ on me…

Yasso 800s are evil, but a great way to measure improvement. Last winter I was in “full running mode” with my 5th Boston Marathon on the horizon, I was running a lot. This year, not so much. Over the past few weeks went from <20mi/week to up over 30mi/week (I’ll be between 36-40mi this week by the time it’s over) and I’m struggling to find my running mojo. Don’t get me wrong, I can do the work, but my endurance isn’t there (yet) and I’ve felt “slow” ever since IMWI in Sept.

So, I’ve been going to indoor track for a couple weeks now and last night’s workout was 4-6x800s, Yassos if you like. Well my friend Pam turns to me and says “my watch battery broke, can I pace off you” Sure Pam, I’m thinking (until you smoke me!) See, Pam ran a 3:37 marathon to BQ last year…I’m not quite up to snuff with Pam’s running. I was thinking I might have one or two 3:40-3:45/800s in me until I fall apart b/c I haven’t been doing speedwork a lot, and I haven’t done a run over 9mi in months. We’ll see, I thought…

So turns out, I had more in me than I thought. And I was only going to do 4x800, not 6x800…until Pam convinced me she needed to do 6, so I caved. And did 6. Here is how they went:

#1: 3:34
#2: 3:34
#3: 3:29
#4: 3:30
#5: 3:32
#6: 3:33
I chased Pam until I couldn’t chase anymore and she was easily 5-10secs ahead of me on every 800, but it’s awesome to have friends to run with and chase..so not too shabby all things considered and looking back on last March and all the miles I logged and the speedwork I was doing then, my Yassos were anywhere from 3:36-3:31. I’m exactly where I was back then. I seem to have a love/hate relationship with the track…