Just running to run

As a triathlete, or so I call myself, I often wonder what it would feel like to just run. Only run. I haven't just ran since the end of 2009 and maybe before that. Sometimes I read running specific blogs and crave for miles after miles day after day of running. And often what I crave is running to just run. Not to train for anything, just get some exercise, some fresh air and sweat. 

There are people out there that do that all the time (imagine that!), I wonder how their relationship with running is? I bet pretty chill, they get along all the time, it's okay if they don't see each other for a couple days and I bet for the most part, pace isn't a huge issue. Or am I wrong, are all runners serious? Do they all get stressed about pace?

I've been struggling with my runs, especially my longer runs lately - just can't get into it. I think it might be the pressures to keep on pace, always staring at my Garmin - it stresses me out! But I think I found a cure yesterday. Last night, I simply went for a run. The Gods must have made me leave my Garmin (a blessing in disguise) at home, so I just ran - me, some good tunes on my Shuffle and sunny Seattle. I know I covered 4 miles because I know the mile markers from my work down the Burke Gilman trail, but have no idea how fast (or slow) I ran. It felt great. I didn't think about biking or swimming or work or life - I thought about how grateful I am to be able to run and how wonderful, although sore, my body felt.

I think my Mondays runs always need to be like this. I usually go to run group on Monday, but often run too fast for my easy days. I was reminded today that you have to take it easy sometimes.

Do you ever run sans Garmin or watch?

A Saturday full of biking

I didn't plan it, but it just happened. On the training schedule today was a 1:30 bike followed by a 3 mile run also known as a brick workout. The run hurt, but I finished it with a little bit of nervousness for my Oly tri in less than a month...

I had plans to hang out with my friend and I knew she wanted to go for a bike ride, so I thought we'd do something chill, especially after my brick this morning, but she chose a hilly route (it is my favorite route in Bellingham, so I couldn't complain) and I sucked it up and pretended to not be sore from a workout this morning.

We did another 28 miles from my house around Lake Samish and back. It was fun to ride with her and I wasn't being pressed ride fast, so it was a more leisure ride, but I still had to climb hills that my legs would have rather not seen after my brick this morning. We had a blast - it was sunny, the route was scenic and we celebrated by going to Boundary Bay for some beers and Hummus plate (my fave!).

I got in 51 miles of biking plus 3 miles of running today - I'm happy, physically spent and not guilty for having 2 beers. Tomorrow will be an active recovery day with a swim and a bike. I may swap the bike for a run though, we'll see.

I love the feeling of being spent, but I have to be careful because I think I got sick from overtraining/not enough sleep, so it's early to bed tonight to get a solid 9 hours in a do some more sweating in the AM.

What are you up to this weekend?

When sickness comes out of left field

This week I was planning on writing a post about how to balance work and working out, cause let's face it, I have no life outside of these two things. :) This week at work is particularly busy with training and after-work functions which cut into my workout time so I need to plan wisely to not miss any workouts.

But then I woke up with a cold on Tuesday that got worse throughout the day and now I'm at home, not at work, sneezing uncontrollably and have already missed one workout. Funny how I was worried about balancing work and training, then this third element comes out of left field to throw a wrench in everything. Just lovely.

But it is these kinds of times when you have to get creative if you want to fit it all in, even if you're sick. So I look at my training schedule and see what I can swap around so that I take my day off now instead of Friday. Being flexible is key and not stressing if you miss one workout is also important.

So this is what my week was supposed to look like and the adjustments I've made in red.

Tuesday: Swim, bike rest
Wednesday: Track workout bike on trainer, but take it easy
Thursday: swim, easy run track workout
Friday: off day easy run

There you have it - no missed workouts! It all depends on how I feel later on to get on my trainer for a spin, but honestly, I think if you stay active through sickness, you can beat it faster. I have noticed if I lay on the couch, do nothing and "marinate" in my sickness I stay sicker longer, but if I do low intensity activities like walking or an easy bike ride, I'll feel better. Plus fresh air cures all, right?

But I am pissed that I'm sick. This is the 2nd summer cold I've had this year and prior to that, I hadn't been sick in over 2 years... what's up with that?!

Seattle Danskin Triathlon race recap

If you read my last post, you know I wasn't looking forward to racing on Sunday. Really, I wasn't looking forward to the logistics of getting to and from the race. It was putting a damped on my weekend and excitement to actually race.

I paid the $20, parked at Safeco Field the morning of the race and took the shuttle to the race site. Expense for this race is not $120 plus gas... But, it was there that I saw my aunt and realized she was racing too! I instantly got in a better mood - I knew someone else who was racing (always awesome)!

We both set up our transitions, and I had over an hour until my wave started. I was confused why the 25-29 age group was 19th out of about 25 waves to start, so I asked a volunteer. This was their reasoning: They want the older, slower people to go first because in theory, they'll take longer and they want people to finish within a time frame. Then I asked, but what about all the younger people (like me) who are kind of fast who will be passing all these so-called slow people? The volunteer said, "well then you'll feel good about yourself, won't you" Uh...ok. 

To me the organization of waves didn't make much sense, but whatever, I couldn't do anything about it. I could also not do anything about my HORRIBLE transition area. It was at least a 2 minute run from the swim finish. At least I got a half rack all to myself, so I spread my stuff out quite a bit.

I'm standing where you've already ran 100 yards out of the water...still got a trek!

When I lined up for my wave to start, I was feeling better about everything. I had gone through all the hoops and it was finally time to RACE! I was excited, not nervous, and wanted to push myself hard on this sprint. Oh, and since I left my watch at home, this race was done "naked." Had no idea what my times were until hours after when I got home.

SWIM - .5 mile - 15:49 - 

I felt great for the first 2/3 of the swim. I passed a lot of girls because 50% were doing breaststroke... When I rounded the last buoy, I could not swim in a straight line and could feel myself getting tired, so I'm sure I added on some time that last bit. 

T1 - 3:52

I had to run a bagillion miles from the swim to my transition area then another bagillion miles to the bike start, so I'm not surprised at this time. 

BIKE - 12 miles - 38:50 - 18.5mph avg

This was a fast bike course. It was all flat except one short steep hill and a couple small rollers. Only 1 girl passed me on the bike and I did a whole lot of passing myself.

T2 - 1:31

The bike finish was a bit closer to my rack, thank goodness! Did my thing and went on my merry way.

RUN - 3.1 miles - 27:15 - 8:47/mile pace

The start of the run was a little tough, but running off the bike usually is. Since I was racing without my Garmin I had no idea how fast/slow I was going. At about 1.5 miles, I paced off this girl in my age group and I thought we were clipping along quite well. She got me on this uphill at the very end - urg. I would have liked to see my run time more around 26 minutes.

I came in 9th out of 120 in the 25-29 age group and was 86 out of 2036. Despite my negative feels prior, this race ended up being a-okay. I love racing and seeing where I can push my body to, so I'm happy to have the opportunity no matter if everything outside the actual race blows. Will I do this race next year? No.

Not pumped to race tomorrow...

Tomorrow I'm doing the Danskin Women's sprint triathlon in Seattle and believe it or not, I'm not excited about it. I originally signed up for this race last year, but got injured, so Danskin pushed my registration to this year. I am grateful for the fact that I didn't just loose my $100 (!) registration for this race. Really, a sprint for $100?!

Anyway, since I'm in the midst of training for my A race, this C race is just a training day. Any race is good practice, especially for transitions, OWS and getting your mind in race mode. I am excited to race, but what I have to do from now until the gun goes off is really cramping my style.

Today (the day before the race) I have to go to Seattle Center and pick up my race packet. From there, I'll drive to Genesee Park to rack my bike for tomorrow's race. I've heard parking is a you-know-what around the park, so I get to look forward to that. Then I'll drive home.

Tomorrow, since the race starts at 6:45(!), I'll leave my house a little before 5am and drive to Safeco Field, pay $20 to park (hopefully I'll find cheaper parking) and take the shuttle 4 miles to the park where the race is held. I'll set up transition with 3,000 other women, 75% in which are all about "women power" then wait until a little after 8am when my wave starts.

Since this is not even close to an A race, all this stuff I have to do, especially the day before, is a hassle. I want to enjoy my Saturday, but instead, I get to drive, which I already do way too much. Ugh. I would be way more excited about this race if I knew someone else doing it - that would make it way more fun.

I know once I'm finally at the park tomorrow morning in the water waiting for the gun to go off, I'll be so flipping excited, but until then, I'm working on turning my attitude around.

Have you ever been not really excited for a race?

8 weeks of focus

I'm 8 weeks out from my first Olympic Triathlon. 8 weeks to get solid training in, prepare mentally and keep my body as happy as possible.

I know I can complete this race, there is no question about that. I could knock out the 1500m swim, 24 mile bike and 10k run right now if I wanted. Heck, I may even impress myself with my times. But "just finishing" this race is not my goal. I want to crush this race. This is my A race and I want to show up ready to kick ass and take names.

So with 8 weeks to go, I'm fully devoted to making myself 110% prepared for race day. For me, it involves more than just sticking to my training plan. It means:

• Eating well - try and stay away from crappy office food
• Getting enough rest - I get at least 8 hours/night, so I'm good here
• Stretching, icing, foam rolling, "sticking" regularly - get those muscles ready for the next beating
• Laying off the beer - this is the hardest of the whole list. I'm limiting myself to beers only on the weekend
• Envision myself killing it race day - what needs to happen from the moment I wake up to the moment I cross the finish line for the day to be a success?
• Find a support team - as of right now, I have no one coming to cheer me on :(

I have yet to determine goal times, that will come closer to the race. What do you think about my list? Would you add anything?

Training and relaxing on vacation

I am back from vacation and although I really didn't want to leave, I'm ready to get back into my training schedule. I was able to swim and run quite a bit in Minnesota, but I've missed my Masi so much and I'm ready to take her for a loooonnnggg ride today.

A classic Lake Vermilion sunset

Vacation is a funny thing when you're in the midst of training. I look to vacation for a week of no stress and relaxation, but I also look at it as a week that I have a completely free schedule and can train whenever I want. Being so far away from home and without my bike, I decided to give into rest and relaxation, but not totally.

Many boat rides were taken

 I did a few runs, but they weren't the most awesome of runs because of the humidity and crazy hilly terrain (yes, MN is hilly!), but they were runs nonetheless. I swam a couple times and realized that swimming when it's windy is so. freaking. hard. I didn't get down on myself for only doing half of my 30 minute swim or if I ate a few more sweets than normal - I was on vacation and giving myself a hard time for not being a perfect athlete would have added stress, which is not allowed on vacation. My goal for the week was to stay relatively active and not get sucked into the front porch swing too often.

Plus, I kept reminding myself that I was only away from my routine for one week which will probably be a good thing in the long run. It was a week that I gave my body a break and let it heal from the tough weeks I put it through in July. I'm excited to see how my body responds to this next week of training. I'm hoping for fresh legs and a strong pull in the pool. Although my arms are really sore from water skiing this week...

Only on vacation do I drink Bud Light...

 I do think it would be a lot of fun to take a training vacation though. How fun would it be to pack up all your gear, head to somewhere beautiful and get in a week of serious sweating?! Someday...someday...

Do you try and stay active on vacations? How do you keep the balance between working out and relaxing?

3 thing Thursday - vacation edition

GeoTagged, [N47.87248, E92.37967]

Greetings from beautiful Lake Vermilion in Tower, MN!

I thought I could bust out an iPhone post as long as it was kind of short... So here are my 3 things "lake style."

1. The weather has been amazing. 80-85 every day with a warm breeze. I don't mind the heat at all as long as I have a lake to jump into, which I've been doing multiple times a day. :)

The only drawback to the warmer weather is running... It's hard when it's hot! I'm from Seattle, so this heat/humidity is out of my league. My pace is slower, I sweat even more buckets than I normally do and I'm thirsty all day after a run.

I've been trying to run in the AM, but that's takes a lot of coordination between being dropped off on mainland (our cabin is on an island) and being picked up. Going back and forth can be a pain, so I try to work it around other trips being made.

2. I've been helping my Dad with some cabin maintenance. I learned how to re-screen a screen door! I'm helping out with cleaning up fallen trees and assisting my dad with the new outdoor shower he's building. I feel really accomplished when I help out with cabin stuff - I gotta learn how to do it cause someday I'll have to do it!

3. This place is such a gem and I look forward to coming up every single year. It's all about relaxing, seeing family, being grateful for having this place, and getting away from our usual hectic lives. It let's me take a deep breath and let my mind calm for a week. This is my 18th summer up here and I've loved every year!

I'll blog more when I get home. Hope you all ate having a great week.

-Megan