Epic Week Day 8: Sleep is a grand thing!

Oh boy was I grumpy and tired yesterday! I wouldn't have wanted to be around me. I just couldn't seem to shake my mood or my fatigue yesterday.

Zan and Robert came by and we drove out to swim at hagg lake and then do a bike and a run. Well the swim went fine. It actually felt really good to be in open water with no walls where I could just swim and not have to turn. It was interesting being in a wetsuit again. Now that my body position is better I totally felt like I was almost on top of the water. I didn't have to kick hardly at all and I felt like I was just cruising along. It was great. It took me awhile to put my "new" stroke into place but once I had it I felt like I could sustain it. Especially since I didn't feel like I needed to kick. My left hand was dropping some so I really concentrated on extending it out there and it finally came around. i did notice that my recover felt much different and even took a good deal more strength. next time i swim open water I think I'll check my wetsuit out a little better and try to get a little more mobility in the arms. I think I may not have had it fitted well. I don't remember it feeling like that in the past.

After the swim I got on my bike and it was all I could do to sit on my bike. I couldn't find a comfortable position to save my life. I was also on a new route where I didn't really know where I was going and I ended up going up a really steep hill that after Silver Falls the day before I was not ready for. It took everything I had to get up it. Then I took a wrong turn.... ARGH!!! Needless to say it didn't help my grumpiness.

So when i got back i didn't run. I was completely exhausted. I ended up going to bed around 7:30 and asleep by 8. I ended up sleeping about 12 hours, maybe more.... I definitely needed it.

Today I rode out to Crown Point. It was good to be back on a familiar route. I like my new position on my bike. It was certainly much more comfortable. And I think I like my new shoes except i don't know how you run in those. I feel like I slide all over the place. I'm tempted to just carry them to the bike mount and put them on there. I can't believe anyone could actually run on those. maybe on grass it would be fine.

I definitely need a cleat fitting though because my feet were cramping up. I think they need to be slid back a ways toward the ball o fmy foot.

The ride was good. I still have fatigue in my legs but not too bad. I felt strong most of the way and my run afterwards was good. I had a hard time bringing my heart rate down to even 153. It was staying in the upper 150's even when i felt like I was running really slow and easy. I only ran for 20 minutes so maybe I should try to run until I can get it down next time.

Tomorrow i just swim and bike to work. I'll only work on form tomorrow at swimming so that I can have a good ride on Wednesday.

Epic Week: Day 7 Silver Falls Brick

Today I rode from Champoeg State Park to Silver Falls State Park. It was a great ride. I think I was pretty well rested after yesterday. I did ride a little harder than I probably should have because I rode with someone else who was on my wheel all the way up the hill.

I'm pretty tired tonight though. Tomorrow is a triathlon day. Swim, bike and run.

Epic Week: Day 7 Recovery Day

Today was a recovery day. I did not sleep well last night at all. I could not fall asleep so ended up taking some tylenol PM to get to sleep. Finally I slept but had night sweats again. Ugh!

I didn't feel too bad however. I could tell that I still had some accumulated fatigue in my legs from yesterday however when I walked upstairs. I did get a massage this morning. It was OK. Not the best. She is on and off again sometimes. My calf/foot feels much better however. very little pain left. So that's really good.

I then went to work although that was for little more than checking e-mail and a meeting. I didn't get much else done. I guess that's OK. That's the way it will probably be next week as well.

I thought I had a swim lesson today but Laurie didn't have me on her calendar. So we worked together just a little bit. It was good though. I only really needed a couple pointers. She did recommend that I enter a long course swim meet and see how my stroke holds up when the adrenalin is pumping. that is actually a really good idea especially if she is going to be there. maybe Cate will want to do it too.

The things I worked on was keeping my head down just a bit more. It helps to see my shadow on the bottom of the pool. I like that about Southwest. It helps me keep my focus because I can see my hand extending in front of me. The other is to drop my fingers a little in my extension. Also to get a little more energy/momentum in my hand entry while also making it clean.

Other than that I came home and got ready for tomorrow's ride I'm posting it here. It is 90 miles from Champoeg Park to Silver Falls and back. It should be good. Looks like there are 4 of us riding. That will be good to have some other people there.

Then tomorrow night we have dinner with Patricia and larry. That will be nice.

Epic Week: Day 6 Eagle Fern Ride

Today I rode the Eagle Fern Ride. I haven't done it in about 3 or 4 years. It was much easier this time than last as I recall. It's a beautiful ride. Just hard. It was 4800 feet of elevation over just over 50 miles.

I also swam today. 4100 yards. Felt pretty good. At the end of the practice I felt like my toes were on the surface and my hand was extending really well.

Today I tried to keep my form while adding in the kick. It took awhile.

Free Form

I'm still working on my Free form. Today was "IM" day for our masters crew. Instead of working on stroke I did drills during the stroke set and used the particular stroke to work on a particular stroke focus.

The other thing I figured out today was that I can use a modified fist drill. When I breathe I close my hand into a fist so that if I start pressing down early it doesn't have nearly the benefit. Yet if I extend it is a huge benefit.

I guess I could modify that to breathing only to one side and keeping that hand closed.

Swim Focus Week

This week I'm concentrating on my swim. I am working on my form. It feels like this is a never-ending process for me.

So today I did mainly 25's working on that feeling of swimming downhill. I really think that between than and getting my hips into the picture for my rotation I'll start improving.

The thing that I find really helps me to think about using my hips is to think about a roll onto my side especailly when I breathe. I think about continueing to extend my hand underwater as I breathe. That seems to inhibit the desire to jerk my hand back and lift my head.

Today the PAC kids were swimming and some of them are just so effortless looking. That's what I want to look like. Like all I'm doing is really just gliding. You can really tell the difference between those kids who just glide and those that are working to keep it up. It's amazing the effort they expend.

SO I will just keep working at it. I get impatient and want to push it but I know that it's going to come eventually. The more I practice it the more it will come. I still have a lot of time before Canada. No need to stress about it.

Two Firsts!!

Yesterday when I arrived I went for a ride just about as soon as I got in and I had two firsts!

I took my jacket off while I was riding my bike yesterday. Granted this is on my road bike, not my tri bike. I think the headset is looser on my tri bike.

The other is that I rode the Lacamas Lake loop which is 52 miles round trip in 2:57. Under 3 hours. Granted I didn't stop at the rest stop which made the trip about 5 minutes faster.

Week in California

I hate traveling. It totally screws up my routine. I guess I didn't do too bad considering the limited time I had to train. The other factor is that I don't have as much control, and over indulge while I am out of town. So now I get to pay the price.

My weight is back up to the high end of my low range when i thought I was done with that. I do think some of it is just normal weight gain because my period is coming soon and I also seem to gain water weight when I fly.

So I did pretty well last week. I ran every day. Monday I got 3 hours of running in. Every other day I got at least 45 minutes in. I swam twice for 2 hours each just focusing on form.

I'll write about yesterday's ride in my next post.