January Swim Challenge - check!

I challenged myself in the 2nd week of January to swim 20,000 yards by month's end. I was in desperate need of "get into the pool" motivation, so this little challenge was exactly what I needed. And after reading that this girl swam something like 12 miles in a week, I was feeling lazy and the pool was calling my name.

I'm happy to announce that I swam 20,600 yards in January! That includes 10 visits to the pool. I tell myself that it's not worth it to go to the pool unless I swim at least a mile, but I strive for at least 2,000 yards. If I have to wake up early and instantly get in a pool, I might as well swim for awhile! I do a mix of workouts - easy, speed intervals, distance - to mix things up so I never get bored in the pool. Today's workout was aimed more toward distance:

I didn't time all my intervals (I never do), but I was happy with the ones I did time. Over the course of the month, I have gotten my average/100 yards down to 1:52 from 1:55ish. If I really push it, I can sustain sub-1:50 over about 300 yards. Very, very happy with this progression.

So what is my challenge for February? Swim 30,000 yards (13 pool visits) and bike over 200 miles. I haven't been biking more than 16 miles at a time on my trainer, so it's time to up the saddle time and get in some rides outside.

In running news - I'm 99% sure that my IT band is flaring up again. I have had a bad pain (different though from past IT band injuries) on the outside of my knee for the past two week. I was able to run though it for awhile, but this weekend it said no and I was unable to complete my 9 miler. I have an appointment with the chiropractor on Friday, so until then, no running. Sigh. Will running ever come easy for me? Can I please get a freaking break?


What is your February challenge?

Weather doesn't stop me

Did you see it? Seattle made National news with our Snopocalypse this week. What was originally forecast as 8-15" of snow in Seattle came to reality with about 4-5 inches. All that angst for 4-5 inches?!

Anyway, I did not let the snow or cold stop me from getting my workouts in. I have my trusty Jetta Wagon with studded snow tires and I love driving in the snow, so I went on with my days as usual.

Wednesday, I had a glorious 1,700 yard swim with the pool all to myself. One more reason to love snow! If you can drive in it, you're rewarded with an empty pool. This swim workout was a speed one and I was happy that I hit all my 50 yard sprints at :47. By the way, I'm up to 8,050 yards in my January Swim Challenge - woot! Wednesday night I did a 30 minute spin on my trainer and did some core work.

This morning (Thursday) the snow was supposed to end and warmer temps were to be on their way. Not the case. These weather-people are really good a guessing... Anyway, more snow and ICE everywhere. Still made it into work and then met a friend at Green Lake for a short run. I was happy to see so many people out and about - walkers, runners, cross country skiers and even 2 people on bikes (that looked hard). It made for a nice compact snowy surface to run on. I forgot my Garmin, but I'm sure our pace was around 10:00-10:30. Snow just makes you run slow... well, unless you're sliding down a hill...

They keep saying the rain will come tomorrow and wash away the snow - we'll see if that actually happens. I'd like to it so my long run on Saturday is done on solid surfaces. :)

Do you like running in the snow? I think I want some yaktraks, but it really only snows once a year here in Seattle. Not sure if it's worth it.

Snowy Run

View from my work

Took 3 days off

I can't remember the last time I took 3 days off from working out. Seriously. I came down with a nasty cold on Wednesday and have been couch-ridden since. I've missed two runs and a swim since then, so I feel, well, you know how I feel. Lazy, blah, and the more I lay on my couch, the less I want to get off it...

I attempted to get back into things today with a run/walk. Since my energy has been really low, I know I couldn't get crazy and bust out 5 miles, so I ran/walked 4. I hope this week I'm successful in getting my body back to good health and hopefully it will repay me in some good runs. :)

Since I've missed those 2 runs (one long run), I've slightly altered my half marathon plan to get things back on course. I'm not too worried about it - I still have 8 weeks to get in those long runs.

Before my cold came, I got in swim #2 in my January swim challenge. I've completed 4,000 yards and have 16,000 to go. I'm going to have to add in an extra swim one of these weeks since I missed my Friday swim. This is what Wednesday's swim looked like:

So here's to getting healthy again. How to you get back into running after being sick?

Getting my butt to the pool

Since October, I've swam so little I'm embarassed to tell you how many yards that equals... What? It was off season! Anyway, I need to start building my swim base again before serious training starts in a couple months, so I am challenging myself to swim 20,000 yards by the end of January. This may seem miniscule to some, but for me to get this done I need to get up early and in the pool 3 days a week for the next 3.5 weeks.

I don't know how I've lost my motivation to wake up and go to the gym in the past few months. I used to ONLY workout in the AM and now I do most of my sweating in the PM. But swimming after work sucks because the pool is ALWAYS full and my stomach usually isn't digested enough to swim, so I really need to find what works for me to get up, drive to the pool, swim, drive home, shower and be at work before 9am. This is very doable, just gotta put the plan in motion, which is the hard part.

I put a little countdown on the top of my sidebar so I can mark down all the yards I swim - I hope that is motivating in itself. When do you swim?

Speed Work: Track vs. Treadmill

The past two speed work sessions I've done have been indoors on the treadmill. Let's just get one thing straight: I HATE the treadmill. But, when the only time I can get a speed workout in is during dark hours, a treadmill is a safer bet than a dark track at the nearby college.

When I do my workouts on the track, I run a lot faster than I do on the TM (30 sec faster/mile pace), but I find that the case with all treadmill runs vs. outside runs. I think the pace on the treadmill is faster than it actually says...does anyone agree? Anyway, the past two workouts I've pushed myself to run faster than it is comfortable, so I figure I'm getting some kind of benefit from it.

I've been doing a mix of 400s and 800s at a 8:06-8:13 pace on the treadmill. If I were to run these on the track, I could probably hit around a 7:35-7:45 pace. Am I cheating myself by not making the treadmill pace equal my outdoor pace? The effort seems just as hard when set to 8:06 pace.

So I'm looking for your thoughts on this. Should I bump the speed up? Add a bit of incline? In general, are speed workouts done on the treadmill as effective as the actual track?

2012 Goals

2011 was a great year for me in the world of swimming, biking and running. Based on what I did this year, I have some goals I'm going to work toward in 2012. Here is what I did in 2011 that is notable, and what I hope it do in 2012.

• I swam, biked and ran farther than I ever have. Swim = 134,525 yards. Bike = 2,074 miles. Run = 900 miles. I'm very proud of this and the goal is to increase all of these numbers in 2012.
• I PR'd a half marathon - 2:02. The goal was to go sub 2 hours in 2011, but since I didn't reach it, it is now a 2012 goal.
• Completed my first Olympic distance triathlon in 3:02 2012 goal is to go sub 3:00

Other goals include:

• Getting to know more people in the Seattle triathlon scene. I need more training buddies!
• Race a bike race. I know I'm not fast, but I would like to experience racing on my bike outside of triathlon.
• Run farther than 13.1 miles
• Keep up on weekly speed workouts. I would be ecstatic if my average pace was around 8:30 by end of 2012.

I know all of these are realistic given I properly train, stay injury free and push myself. So here's to 2012 - lets get sweating!

It wasn't a fluke

Just a quick note here...

I just want it to be known that I ran a short 3.1 miler after work before a dinner party. In most cases, this wouldn't be blog worthy, but after my 2 months of sucky runs, this run deserves a headline.

I ran those 3.1 miles and averaged 8:50 pace. Yippee!

It's not a fluke, my running is back and I can't think of a better Christmas present than getting my speed back.

And I got a new shirt to really tell the world what I love