Hood to Coast

Yes, I finally did the Hood to Coast.

Would I ever do it again? Ummmmm.... maybe. Not really my cup of tea.

I did better than I thought I would do. I had leg 6 whose 2nd leg goes uphill for 4 miles. I didn't think I would do well with that but I did. I kept the same pace throughout just a bit slower than my first leg which was downhill quite a bit.

I kept a 10:15 pace for most of my legs. Hilary and I talked about it and he said I am probably a tempo runner in that I will try to keep the same pace regardless of the terrain. So on the downhill I don't push the pace but relax and on the uphill I push it harder to keep it up.

Test Swim Set

Today I picked out the test set workout. I didn't realize it was that workout until I pulled it out.

During the warm up I just did the TI drills working my way up to whole stroke freestyle. Warm up was 100 kick, 100 swim, 100 kick, 200 swim, 100 kick, 300 swim, 100 kick, 400 swim.

Then we did a set of 6 X 100's 75 Build Free, 25 K... Odds Free, evens back.

Test set was
4 X 100 @ 1:55
2 X 100 @ 1:45
4 X 100 @ 1:50
2 X 100 @ 1:40

I made all of them pretty much on 1:40 except the last one. It was a 1:43.

I focused on letting gravity help me. To relax into my stroke and let gravity push me forward instead of strength. I found I was not that tired when i was done although my stroke was falling apart a bit at the end. When you relax it doesn't fall apart. It's when you put all that effort into it that it falls apart.

I also focused a little bit today with exhaling through the full cycle. I think I'll concentrate on this more when I feel a bit more comfortable with all the nuances. I did feel like it relaxed me more so it's worth the effort but my brain can only concentrate on so many things.

I did notice today when my hand didn't hit the right spot which is good. I really felt it when I crossed over so that is huge progress too.

Yeah! Swimming!

It's great to see some old friendly faces back at the old pool! Sybil has returned to be somewhat regular. Wilderness Chris, is back in the pool too! Now if we can get Rob back into the pool and Ann back in September that would be awesome!

Anyway, today was a masters day. I truthfully was not looking forward to it as I felt like crap in the water yesterday. So I went reluctantly hoping that it would feel better than yesterday and it DID! YEAH!!!

I did not do many drills however I have spend about 4.5 hours doing drills over the past 3 days. It's hard to do drills when you are expected to do a written workout. So I incorporate them in the warm up and then try to have a focus for every set.

Todays sets were:
Warm up 800 yards
3 X (100, 50, 50) 100 DPS, 50 Side Kick, 50 Catch up
8 X 50 1:00
4 X 100 1:55
2 X 200 3:40
8 X 50 1:00

The main set was easy. Usually it would be really tiring for me and I would be struggling at the end but I ended the 8 X 50's on the same :50. Things felt good and effortless. I didn't feel any strain in my neck at all. I noticed I let my head relax and my focus was lower than usual and so my breathing was not as big of a turn of my head. I also focused on keeping my hand relaxed both on recovery and catch. That makes a huge difference. No energy just disipating for no reason. I see things now with completely different eyes now. It's good.

Swim

I swam this morning. At first I felt like I had lost "that feeling". However, as I kept swimming it came back. I wish I could describe it in words. Its feeling long but not stretched because when I stretch forward I over rotate. Long and relaxed, maybe.

15 - 16 strokes seems to be my ideal/length right now. If I could keep that stroke count and increase my velocity I think that would be ideal. It seems to be the stroke count where I have the most flexibility of speed.

The other thing I discovered is coming into the walls let the hand float out there longer and then let both arms take you around. Creates a much faster flip.

Today:

90 min Bike
60 min Swim
60 min run

That's the intent anyway.

Workouts this weekend

Run. 2:15
Swim 1:45

Sunday. Swim. 1:15
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Swimming with arelaxed hand

Relaxing my hand is the key for me right now to increse my stroke length. The other thing for me to remember is to allow my should to relax too. Not bunch my shoulders up around my ears.

I have also beedn concentrating on keeping a calm focus. Letting my mind relax and focus on one thing at a time.

Its helping a lot. It is very different for me but I am starting to feel like those people in the video who have smooth beautiful and efficient strokes.


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Total Immersion Ideas and Notes

Perpetual motion Freestyle presentation:

• Practice with Intent: Thinking about not just getting from one end of the pool to the other but everything you do in between
• Improvement Oriented Swimmer: Swim better than ever have in life
• Swimming is a concious act not a natural feeling
• Yard are to imprint correct movement
• Intervals are to be used to accomplish a task. Go when ready to complete the task in the manner of the intent.
• Gap between propulsive force and resistive force need to get bigger
• Resistive force is easier to change and improve

Training so far this week

I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do this weekend. I'm thinking a 2 hour run tomorrow morning and then a long ride on Sunday. I may ride out to Michelle's party tomorrow too.

Monday: Ride 90, Run 90
Tuesday: Ride 90 , Swim 90
Wednesday: Ride 90, Run 60
Thursday: Ride 90, Swim 90
Friday: Ride 90

So far this week that is 13 hours.

Do Over

Today Barb had to go into the ER again. I noticed however that I was compelled to compulsively eat. I did try to find other things to distract me but noticed that my hand kept going to my mouth.
I did try to control it a bit by just recognizing and acknowledging what I think was triggering it for me. That helped but did not stop it entirely.

Relaxed swimming

Today my concentration was on:

1. Relaxing my hand
2. Splashless entry
3. Figuring out the right amount of roll

The #1 thing for me right now is relaxing my hand when it enters. I notice immediately that my hand and forearm almost double the amount of surface area when I relax my hand. My palm is automatically in teh right position to catch the water. Also my arm is deeper and ready to catch more water at the front of the stroke.

I find that I resist letting my hand go as deep as it will when it is relaxed. The habits in my body are to keep it close to the surface. I find if I just relax my stroke and let my hand "sink" naturally that works.

The splashless entry is really not a huge deal I think at this point except that it really does make you think about how you are placing your hand. I find that I sometimes do not relax however when I concentrate on the splashless entry.

Now the right amount of roll is key. Not too much. Not too little. That requires those midline stablilizers and training them. Again I need to just relax. I can feel when I go beyond my sweet spot. I just haven't drilled the sweet spot in yet. It's coming.

Did long swimming today just focusing on relaxing. My intent was to swim the last 25% of each distance more relaxed than the first 75% yet maintain the same speed.

Swimming relaxed

Today I watched a video with Terry McLaughlin talking about swimming and something just clicked. Relax. Relax the hand. Relax the shoulder. Relax the legs.

It just clicked so I was very interested to try it out and WOW!!!! I totally felt it. When I relaxed my hand on entry I totally felt like I was sccopping the water instead of pulling through it. It was great.

I did lots of yards. Never got tired. Felt smooth and relaxed. It was awesome. The video was from the Beginners triathlete site. They had 2 part to it. I hope to feel it again.

Hot Days

I am trying to practice my relaxation technique of trying to just breath into the fact that sometimes things don't work the way you want but that you are blessed with another opportunity instead.

With the heat it is a little difficult (minimally really uncomfortable) to do all my workouts in the time frames I usually do them in. There is only so many workouts you can get in before work you know.

So last night I contented myself with reminding myself that I had done an extra run on Sunday in anticipation of the heat the next 3 days and didn't try to go running.

This morning I missed swimming because we slept in the other room and I had set my watch to go off but apparently did not hear it. But today Shirley has a doctor appt so will take E'llee with her to that and bring her over afterwards. So I can run to the gym for a bit after I get off work and get a workout in. Good stuff. cool and won't add any additional time to my transitions. And dinner is already made! Camarones soup!

Paradigm shift

So I am one of those people who is pretty much an all or nothing person. I am wholely commited or not. I am completely passionate, or not. I do not do balance well. It is something I struggle with.

However this week I had training Monday - Wednesday which I don't like because my routine got broken. I didn't get to ride in the mornings and afternoons.

The other things I determined is that if I don't sweat enough to need a shower it doesn't count.

Well Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday i decided that during lunch I would find somewhere I could go and walk instead of going somewhere to eat. This is not something I would have done in teh past.

I found that I enjoyed the walk and felt renewed and usually less hungry immediately after the walk. I timed my food so that I ate when i was hungry instead of at specific times too. I brought good healthy food from home and enjoyed that instead of eating a burger or going to the Sweet Tomatos buffet and over eating during lunch.

Do Over

I am trying to use the technique of doing a mistake over and reworking it so that next time it will be better.

Last night was a frustrating night. I took off early from work to take E'llee swimming. We had a good time but afterwards she wanted to go to the park. I thought Etta was going to be there at 5 so I figured I would go home and get ready for a ride. Etta didn't show up until 5:30 and E'llee was pretty needy and demanding so I spent my time meeting E'llee's demands and not getting ready for a ride and trying to watch the TT from the tour.

When they arrived, things went smoothly and I got ready for my ride. I swapped out my pedals, put new tubes on both wheels and checked the tires for glass. Got my stuff ready and finally got out for a ride.

About 7 miles in I got a flat. I had scrounged to find the 1 canister of Co2 I could find and accidentally blew off about half the cartridge and could not limp home on that little in the tire without damaging the rim. So I called Cate for an emergency ride or pump. It felt like the tire was still not holding air so I decided to give up the ghost and just go home.

Cate and Hannah had been at Shirley's purse party but decided that they would go to Macy's and look at purses there as the purses at the party were over priced. So they dropped me off and went off to shop. I took my shower and made myself some nachos. I made less than what I would usually make at first but then ended up making another batch. not because I was hungry or even particularly enjoying them. I was filling the feeling. I was disappointed, frustrated, and wanted to just relax and do what I wanted. So if this is what I could do then that is what I was going to do.

So needless to say I wasn't happy with the fact that I over ate. However, I am happy that I know exactly why I overate. So now the do over. What to do instead?

I think instead I need to change my perspective on the whole situation. I looked at what I didn't have or couldn't do instead of what I did get from the situation.

• I got to take E'llee swimming
• I got to spend time with E'llee enjoying her energy while waiting for etta
• I am blessed to have Etta in my and E'llee's life and that she is so dedicated to being a part of E'llee's life
• I did get to watch most of the tour
• I have a partner who will come rescue me whenever I need it

I was focussing on the things I didn't have and the limited time I had. I will change my frame of reference next time and look at the abundance of things I have. not at the limitations.

Naturally Slender Eating #7

Episode # 7
Discussion of metabolism and how to eat based on your metabolism. I have always seen myself as someone with a slow metabolism. I am active yet do not appear to be able to eat like many of the people who work out as much or less than i do. However I honestly think that the truth may be in the times I don't see them. They likely do not consume as much when I am not around.

There are many people around me who are over weight so if I compare myself to those people I eat an average amount. However, if I compare myself to people around me who are naturally slender I notice that they don't eat as much nor as fast. I watch Hilary eat. He takes the entire morning to consume a bagel. Give me a break. If there is food in front of me it is gone.

I am working on slowing down so that I pay more attention to where I am at with my fullness and whether I have had enough. I actually find I enjoy the food more even though I may not eat as much. I enjoy the flavors instead of the quantity. It's another mind shift for me.

So her point here is to eat like a Naturally slender person. That being that those who are Naturally Slender are able to adjust their eating naturally based on various factors. That is the balance that I want to master. How do they know when to start or stop eating? HUNGER

I have noticed lately that I am afraid to be hungry. When I get hungry I feel this compulsion to eat to get rid of the feeling. Why should my response be fear? Have I ever not had enough? Never. Am I likely to not have food in the future? No. So why fear? Is the fear based on the feeling? Am I just afraid to feel? I wonder if this is more the issue? My tendency is to stuff my feelings. So I stuff my hunger (but is this a feeling or a sensation?) with food.

One of the tools she recommends is to use a hunger diary. To rate your hunger on a scale of 1 - 10 of how hungry you are before you eat and after you eat. I doubt I will actually keep a diary as I have a hard time with having the same format with me all the time but I can definitely keep track of and ask myself where am I currently on the scale before I eat and after I eat.

Recovery week

This week I am on vacation so I timed a recovery week along with this week knowing that getting in my workouts would be unpredicatable. However, what I have discovered this week is that my workouts are of higher quality when I give myself time to workout. The other thing I noticed is that when my nutrition is of high quality and consistent my workouts are better too.

I just got done with an hour run. I usually run in the morning but am discovering the joy of running when you have extra energy to burn instead of trying to run on an empty tank in the morning. It makes a big difference. I started my run at 5.3 and worked up to 6.0. I ran a mile at the speed and it didn't feel effortless but I knew I could sustain the effort.

I hadn't run on a treadmill for quite awhile so have lost touch with how fast or slow I run. Also it could be that this treadmill was way off too. I don't know. It's good either way because I felt good and pretty easy.

Progress

For the first time in my life I am enjoying running. I am surprised to admit it but I would rather run right now than bike. Odd isn't it. Me! Running! Me! Enjoying running! Wha's up wid dat?

Last night I ran for an hour and just felt light and fast. I never feel light and fast on my bike. I feel fast and strong. In the water I sometimes feel long and strong but never light and fast. It's a fun sensation. I love it.

I think part of it is because I am allowing myself to relax and just lean into my run. I am enjoying running at night too. It's nice to do that at the end of the day. It's a great way to wrap up the day.

I am also slowly discovering my fitness again. My body is changing. My muscles are becoming more apparent again and I a quick step again and a huge amount of energy. It's good to feel that returning.

I have been doing alot of thinking about running lately. I have a hard time psychologically psyching myself up for a marathon. When it's part of an Ironman I can do it but just the marathon is difficult. I think it's for a couple reasons. In a triathlon, I get a chance to feel like I am faster and stronger than others in the swim and bike that the run isn't so psychologically difficult. But when I just run I never feel like I really belong or excel (although I hope that will change in the near future).

The other thing is that I am enjoying being injury free. I keep thinking about Gordo Byrn's picture of turning a styrofoam cup inside out. It has to be done slowly. That's what I feel like with running right now. I am increasing my frequency and intensity but not so much the duration right now and I feel fabulous. Can you truly do all three at the same time and stay injury free. I remember getting up in the mornings and barely being able to walk the next day. I remember the pain in my knees the day after a long run. I don't miss that stuff. I want to be able to run long but I also want to be able to run long comfortably. That's my goal now. To increase my duration frequency and intensity while remaining pain free (or minimal pain). Somehow I think maybe you can do this and not abuse your body.

The other thing I have been pondering is why am I feeling such an improvement in my running right now. I think it is a few things:

• I have decided to just let go and relax and quit trying so damn hard at it.
• I relax more when i run
• My nutrition feels like it is right in balance. I am losing weight but at a comfortable speed. Before I would starve myself. I think that really effected my recovery. Now I'm trying to do enough but not too much. It's good.

Balance

I think I did a pretty good job balancing things yesterday as well as starting to change some of our patterns. Last night was date night and instead of going to dinner and movie I rode out to Women's Forum and had Cate meet me there with a picnic dinner. We hung out there at the overlook enjoying the view and then drove up to Larch Mountain and walked out to the viewpoint there.

It was a good way to end the day. I got in 8 hours of work and 3 hours of working out, time with the honey and time with e'llee. A perfect day!

Long Term Goals

Life Long Athlete
Ability to keep up with E'llee and her activities until I'm 80 (I figure at that point I'll have an excuse)
2011 Train and compete in another Ironman
Maintain healthy lifestyle
Maintain healthy weight

2 hour ride

Today I went for a quick ride down Marine Drive and back for about 2 hours. I am trying to learn how to balance my training with being mom at the same time. I had a hard time convincing myself that it was OK for me to go out for a bike ride today. I timed it with E'llee's nap which was perfect. After she fell asleep I went out for a ride. I was taking a shower after my ride when she got up. Perfect timing!

For longer rides I'll probably go early in the morning, when it gets a bit warmer and just miss morning time with her.

This weekend my goal was to get in my workouts, and eat controllably. I definitely got my workouts in and did pretty well with my eating even with going out this morning for breakfast. I ate until I felt satisfied. I do admit that I wouldn't eat the scramble again because it didn't feel good in my stomach long term. So next time I'll try something else. Tonight I seem to be needing to replace more calories because I had an early dinner after my ride and have had a couple snacks since. I have been also drinking lots of water to give me a full feeling.

So overall a good weekend. Nice and balanced I think.

Tomorrow is date night so I'm going to have to figure out my intent for that.