6 posts tagged “training”

Today is SO my day.

I should work backwards, starting with simple pleasures. A moment ago I flipped the TV to PBS and there's some special playing that has Brian McKnight singing Earth, Wind and Fire's 'After the Love is Gone'. [Let the universe hear this...I WILL see Earth, Wind and Fire live one of these days. True, I have thus been thwarted but I shall prevail!]

In the same vein of good, guilty pleasure TV, back on NBC they're rerunning the recent SNL with Neil Patrick Harris. SNL is nothing if hit or miss, but from what I remember this was a good one, plus, I really do love Doogie.

[It's actually not the Doogie show that hooked me. I saw him in Rent at the Ahmanson theatre in L.A. back in 1997 and have been a fan since then. (Here's a fun fact that will further reveal what a nerd I am/was. I came in 3rd in a Regional Optimist Club Oratory contest in Roswell, NM--when I was 9 years old and in 4th grade--that Doogie won 3 years earlier when he was 11. At the time we were the youngest to have won our local contests and moved onto the regional competition.)]

Before plopping down for a bit of TV and blogging, I took a hot and wonderful shower where I used my favorite St. Ives apricot scrub and now I'm smooth all over and so relaxed and groovy. I'm hoping that will translate to sleep soon as I've had a long day of activity.

Woke at the crack of ten today (hey--I was in bed at 3 am last night), handled the animals and did some chores before heading to the office gym. Though a bit of an auspicious start--cardio on the eliptical while sobbing to the last thirty minutes of Titanic (I was the ONLY person there, thank you)--I ended up having a great work out. It was the first time I'd done this mix, officially through week 1 of 4 weeks, and I'm beginning to feel like my body's actually taking new shape. My legs are still burning a bit. It's a great sensation.

THEN I met up with my friend Chris and his family at the Austin Rock Stars American Speed Handball scrimmage tourney. No, it's not like your dad's handball with a couple of dudes and a wall. It's a modified version of real team handball--which is played, apparently, the world over except for the U.S., like soccer was twenty years ago--because we don't have courts large enough to play by those rules and numbers. After watching the game for about 10 seconds, no joke, they asked me to jump in and play. I gave in about 5 minutes later, making an ass of myself on the court for several minutes, followed my several more minutes of frustration while still learning the rules. It was fun for the last 30 seconds when I started to understand the game. I may start joining them for practice. We shall see. But it did feel good to get out and do something that I have no muscle memory, or other memory, for...like being a newborn deer tottering around on legs that won't work and then, suddenly, a step!

Anyway, after that bit of activity I met up with Dominic and we hit a part of the Town Lake trail I haven't been on before. We made it about a mile before he tweaked his ankle, so the run became a nice walk up to South First and back. As we tend to do, we chatted about all sorts of stuff...shoes and ships and sealing wax, etc...and along with a talk with another girlfriend last night, I now feel like I have my head back on straight, just behind my heart which I'm glad to let take the lead on this road...especially when I realize how much faith I have in my traveling companion.  Lastly we drove over to El Chilito for burritos de cochinita pibil...I'm salivating a little at the memory.

(Hot damn! There's an episode of Frasier on right now. I haven't seen it in ages and if I believed in signs, I would say this is one.)

And just for fun, another guilty pleasure...I just saw a tweet from urlgirl for Lily Allen's 'Fuck You (Very, Very Much)'. Dammit if I have to start liking her. (Lily Allen, not urlgirl--I already dig her.) New song in my brain. Another first.

So what did you do today?

I spent most of today figuring out how to get some work done while my access was limited and Outlook was giving me many issues. Seems my services were terminated, or so sayeth IT. And no, that doesn't mean I'm fired...just that I'm coming up in their system as term'd. I'm not the only one with issues though. Had a co-worker denied VPN access (which I still have for some reason) on Monday morning and he called in first thing to be told he was terminated on Christmas Eve. Can you say heart attack? Anyway, it all appears to be some sort of automated snafu that no one has been able to identify, but the fix is having two levels of managers reinstate access. Give you 3 guesses how many managers aren't on vacay right now. Alright, true they do work hard, blah, blah, blah, but terribly inconvenient to all be gone right now. They are checking email in the evenings, however, so hopefully all will be fixed manana.

Other than playing dueling laptops today, I also finished the paperwork to refi my mortgage. Always a fun time, and hard to swallow those damn closing costs, the refi will nevertheless make a difference in my monthly cashflow, which in turn means the ability to pay down my credit card debt (owing about half to Evita's med bills) in the next few months while not incurring anymore, and still being able to make my reduced student loan payments. I won't be in the position to save, beyond what already goes to my retirement and health care spending plans, but zero credit card debt will save me the cost of interest and that alone makes me feel hopeful.

Today was day 2 of week 1 of my targeted training for the Austin Half-Marathon. I've modified a first-timer's 10 week start-up from Runners magazine to get me there in 7 weeks. The type-A side of my personality was inclined to go balls-out and modify the experienced marathoner program, but I'm trying to hold that psycho beast at bay. Taking it slow with just 2 mile runs yesterday and today. Despite some soreness, I felt stronger today and pushed my minutes-per-mile to 10.5. I probably could have pushed it to between 9 and 10, but that's not what the program calls for and I'm going to do my best to stick to a set regimen. I don't want to burn out or injure myself like some daffy weekend warrior who doesn't know any better. Besides, every Saturday calls for serious distance--beginning with 8 miles this weekend--albeit with breaks, and I want to save my knees for those hauls.

I'll be in Arlington again this weekend. The boy is going to add me to his gym membership, which is very kind of him and will make my gym dues well below what they would be otherwise, and I'll be able to do that 8 miler at the River Legacy park that I love. (Just pray the unseasonably warm Texas weather continues. I despise running in the cold.) I'm uber excited to see him and celebrate the new year, watch his Huskers battle it out in the Gator Bowl, and generally have another wonderful time. The twist is that this time I'll be bringing the Cheese, also known as Evita/Velveeta with me. She traveled so well to and from El Paso that I'm not too worried about her on such a short trip. I just hope his cats aren't too startled by her. She won't mind them, but I'd hate for them to hide all weekend because of her.

As for actual New Year's Eve, I will be walking over to a neighbor's house to hang out with them, their little boy, and another pair of good friends and their 2 daughters who also live just down the street from me. It will be quiet and laid back, but sure to have good food and laughs and, really, I prefer that to just about anything else--especially the club scene. Blech! [Side note: my sister was groped repeatedly at a 'nice' club back home and finally had to make a scene to get one drunken a-hole to back off. If I were her, well, let me just say that I can take care of myself. And if I had been with her...well, that's another story. She's much too 'nice' in my opinion, at least to strangers.] Then I shall wake early, refreshed and rested, to pack the car, pick up some menudo, and hit the road.

All for now I suppose. I'm going to do some quick ab work, then make dinner and try to write. Hoping to get back on schedule soon. Oh, one more thing--a major milestone was reached today when I did my first unaided pull-up since high school. True it was with a close-in, underhand grip, and from a standing position and not a dead-hang, but it shows progress since I started with my over the door pull-up bar. I know it probably doesn't sound like much, but it's a big deal to me. I dislike feeling weak. And it's not about size, either. I don't mind body weight as long as I can carry it, as long as it's useful. It's much more a mental/physical sense of being capable...being able to run if I need to, lift if I have to, knock the wind out of some douche-bag at a club if he dares touch my little sister...you get the point.

Home now, after a long weekend away visiting the boy, and as is best in these situations, the homecoming is bittersweet.

Good to be home with the animals and all my little trappings of comfort and routine...and so clumsily exasperating and disappointing to know I will crawl in bed alone tonight, and that tomorrow I won't wake first in the morning and have a moment to notice how long his lashes are before he consciously or otherwise pulls me back into his arms for a few minutes of sleep

Sigh.

It is always the little things, isn't it?

It's going to be a crazy couple of weeks ahead. I have tons of work to catch up on, despite my working remotely, and of course my tri workouts to ramp up in preparation for the September 1 Austin Triathlon. I'm spending the coming weekend in El Paso too, which will present its own training challenges, not to mention the challenges of seeing friends and family and fielding the usual questions and answers. Glad, though, to have the opportunity to be doing too much instead of pining that life is filled with too little this, that, or the other. For now, I'll take the competing interests of work, sport, family, romance, writing, and leisure as they come, and try to make more hours out of the usual 24 in the day.

I'm turning my trip into one long training jag. I'm loving it.

• Ran on Saturday morning around Princeville neighborhood and a couple hotel beaches and trails--about 3 miles
• Drove to Hanalei Beach early Sunday morning and ran 4 miles, about 1.5 in shoes, the rest barefoot; then abs work, some yoga, and swim--actually, just getting accustomed to swimming in open water--first time in non-pool since that one episode of water panic
• Today, up at 3:30 a.m. for work, went to local golf club at 7 (the noon hour back in austin) where my pop's round of golf allowed me a free day pass--did 15 minutes high intensity cardio, then weights--day 2 of a new upper/lower split; abs work; back to work until noon; then to Hanalei for surfing lesson (after catching a few with the instructor's help, I insisted, stubbornly, on trying on my own, so I missed a lot of the waves my sibs caught, but...I did catch one on my own in the end!); then after brief shopping and dinner in Hanalei, I headed back to the golf club for 300 m swim in the lap pool and some sauna time.

I can barely keep my eyes open. It's bedtime. Especially since I need to be up again at 3:30. No pics today--too active for camera work. Hope all is well with the hood. Goodnight.

[That's what the voice in my head said at least once today.]

So, I did the Belterra Sprint Triathlon this morning. It was hella hard, to borrow a midwesterner's phrase. And I was extremly disappointed with both my swim and my bike--the bike was especially difficult as the hills were more than I've experienced thus far. I rocked the run though (considering how the bike worked me over, I think "rock" is an accurate depiction), thankfully, so I finished with a slightly cheerier disposition than I'd had post-swim and post-bike.

I studied the swim and bike times that the organizers posted, and what had felt like hours was less than that, but still, I wasn't pleased with my times. So I grumpily drank water and gatorade and ate part of a banana. Eventually I chilled out a bit and chatted with the 2 other tri-club members who participated today. At least I know what I need to do more than anything else to improve my performance: run and bike hills to increase my lung capacity in the water and my strength on the bike. Sigh. Still...I just wanted to do better, you know? It sucks to see your name at the bottom of the lists for 2 events.

Ha.

So I'm standing and chatting and rubbing the excess, dried up sunscreen off my face (thank goodness for SPF 70--applied liberally multiple times, I STILL got darker) and generally looking like a goober, I'm sure, when they call my name...for second place in my age group (25-29). Qua? Moi? I had to wonder, did everybody suck? Apparently not, but my run just made up for a lot of the time I lost on the bike, and tada(!) I got a cheesy medal and was made to feel like a five year old for being so churlish, and for being so hard on myself (in a non-constructive way.) They made a little bit of a big deal about me being a first timer too.

I was wearing a sheepish grin from that point until I left.

Still somewhat unconvinced, I double checked the times for the other age groups and it turns out that I would have still received 2nd place for two of the three other groups: 20-24 and 35-39. Unfortunately, I would have earned only 4th place in the 30-34 year old age group. (It's a phenomenom of triathletes that they tend to continue to improve their time as they get older. The 30-34 range is the most competitive next to the 20-24 year olds.) I am determined to whoop ass when I join their ranks soon.

Lessons learned:

(1) Don't be so damn hard on myself. (Rinse, Repeat.)

(2) Go with my gut when I think something's wrong with my bike. That brake issue I've been troubleshooting for weeks bit me in the butt again today. I handled it, but it is definitely bad news--turns out the damn thing was rubbing on the actual rubber of the front tire from time to time. Took it all the way to Pedal Power in San Marcos (I'll never go back to the other unnamed place again!) right after the race so they could replace the brakes and install an aero-bar--that's what those triangular or oval shaped handles in the middle of the handlebars, jutting out over the front tire, are called.

(3) Address the "I'm too antsy to sleep the night before my triathlon" issue. I was super tired today because I could NOT get to sleep last night...I did today's tri on less than 2 hours of shut-eye. Stupid, I know, but it couldn't be helped--I was all wound up. Just imagine how much better I could have done if I had been rested? (Dummy girl!)

My times were:

300 M Swim--9:30:4 (Grrrrr.)

9 Mile Bike (includes transition time)--46:46:4 (Damn those hills. I probably could have walked faster.)

3 Mile Run--26:30:2 (Eh, not bad, considering.)

And now it's time for a shower, food, and a nap. In that order.

I have officially registered for my first timed athletic event. Yes, on March 30, I will be running the Austin-American Statesman Capitol 10K through downtown Austin. My goal is to finish in time to (a) not get too bored and (b) not finish sad and alone, panting and dragging my ass across the finish line with only the streetsweepers for company.

I feel really good about my training lately, and I feel it's an experience I'm in shape enough to enjoy. I am, however, going to push it in my training these next few weeks just in case. It's not like the distance is that daunting--it's only 6.2 miles--but I think it's smart for me to treat this, my rookie experience, with a great big dose of respect. And fear...fear of tripping over my own feet and being trampled by a thousand runners before you can say, "Sucker!"

:-)

Cheers!