I am currently loving AND hating my 3 swims per week (up from 2 swims per week last year). I am loving it because it gives me an extra workout to do per week (more hours = more badass) and I KNOW it will make me faster in the water. However, I hate it because now I smell like chlorine almost all the time, I hate trekking to the gym that 3rd time (actually I hate all trips to the gym), and it messes up my schedule of MWF bike/run, TT swim/lift. The 3rd swim is on Friday. Friday is a hard day to have an extra workout, but it does beat having it on the weekend, where I was prone to skipping it. So last week I HTFUed it and got it done.. pretty late because I had to work til 6:30. Tomorrow I will HTFU it again and get it DONE!
The drive to destroy my (only) Ironman PR is what is REALLY getting me to the 3rd swim.
Today I had Mary's infamous "Ironman swim set." Let me run you through this set, which has been gazed upon by the eyes of many Train-This athletes, but I had yet to see it. I actually didn't even realize that I had this workout today until this morning because I tend to not really look at workouts in advance (I know more or less what my workout structure is like, and I look at details right before I do the workout). So, here it is!
Warm Up:
500 yds easy
Main Set:
500 yds: every 4th 25 FAST
500 yds: every 3rd 25/50 hard
500 yds: every other 25/40 hard
500 yds: maintain best average 100 yd time
800 yds: kick with or without fins
5x400 yds: pull with P&B on T-time + 10 sec
Cool Down:
200 yds easy
Total: 5500 yds
Now, this is not as bad as it looks. Instructions were to swim as much of the set as possible in an hour, and then stop. Every swim workout I do takes about an hour, so I was not overwhelmed by this. I managed to do all of the 500s, the entire kick set (I used fins FOR SURE), and 200 yds of pulling before I ran out of time, totaling 3500 yds. I think I did pretty well, and I REALLY liked the set. I loved the 500s with the hard/easy intervals because I think that caters to my swimming abilities (i.e. I am terrible at speedwork of all kinds) and will really be helpful for Ironman because during Ironman there is no resting at the wall!
Also, I will 'fess up to being the girl from Mary's blog post today who never remembers her T-time. That's me! For the past 2 months I have been blatantly disregarding my T-time (although I can gauge it pretty well while swimming) until Mary made me look it up and then double checked to make sure I had followed through (which I did!). If that's the worst thing I do as an athlete (Mary, no answering this!!!!) then I don't think I'm so bad!
So I am excited about swimming more, I am being honest about my swimming, working hard, not cutting corners, and I am ready to go balls to the wall in all aspects of my training this year. I am already hitting 13 hours per week and it's only January!
Let's get GOING!
Showing posts with label swimming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label swimming. Show all posts
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
swimming, sweatpants & Syracuse marathon!
Just want to wish Coach Mary and her family good luck as they travel to Panama City for IMFL today! Matt C. will be joining them down there at some point as well. Ironman day is Saturday!
I don't know where my brain has run off to lately. Yesterday was my first swim workout for the new season. Swimming is my least favorite of the 3 things to do, but I understand that it needs to be done so I go and I do my workouts. I may whine, but I get that shit done. I printed my swim set at work, stuck it in my purse, and then went straight to the gym after work. I was all ready to go - swimsuit on, cap and goggles in hand - when I realized I had left the workout in my car. Which was parked half a mile away in the parking garage. F%*&. There went my motivation. The tiniest thing can derail my motivation to swim because it's BARELY there to begin with. I did not want to have to put all of my clothes back on and walk back to the 3rd floor of the parking garage for a piece of paper. This is where having a cell phone with internet capabilities would be so very useful. Unfortunately, I am stuck with a 3 year old ghetto cell phone that likes to turn off at random. Anyways, I decided to pull my workout out of my ass. The only thing I could remember was the drill that I was supposed to do. So I did a warmup. Made up a set. Then I did the drill work.
Not the way I wanted to get back into swimming, but oh well.
I went home after the gym, changed, then walked to my polling site and VOTED! Yeah America!
On my walk home from voting, my friend Mark over at TriDadofFive called me. He wanted to see how my training was going. Also, he is hosting one of my Syracuse teammates (teammate AND Train-This coach), Kelly (TriMommyLife), for a 50K in the Rochester area this weekend. I think they know each other from grad school maybe? Not sure. Anyways, while I was talking to Mark, Kelly called him. And this is what ensued..
Mark: Hang on, Kelly is calling me on the other line.
Me: ok
Mark (comes back to the line I'm on): Kelly wants to know if you're wearing pants.
hahahahahah! I think these crazy triathletes know me a little too well.
Unfortunately, I was wearing pants. It is just too cold in my apartment now to go pantsless. :( It is a sad day for Alexa when the weather turns cold and forces me to slip into my winter version of no-pants: giant sweatpants.
On a final note, Ultra Adam brought this to my attention last night - Syracuse is getting a marathon (and half-marathon)! It's surprising to me that Syracuse does not already have a marathon, but good for them!
http://empirestatemarathon.com/
I'm always up for a half-marathon within driving distance. It's kind of funny, the course is just a giant loop around Onondaga Lake, which I believe is one of the most polluted lake in the USA. Maybe the runners can pass the time by looking for wildlife with odd-numbered legs. However, October in Syracuse is very pretty so that will be nice! So all of you NY state residents, keep that one on your radar!
I don't know where my brain has run off to lately. Yesterday was my first swim workout for the new season. Swimming is my least favorite of the 3 things to do, but I understand that it needs to be done so I go and I do my workouts. I may whine, but I get that shit done. I printed my swim set at work, stuck it in my purse, and then went straight to the gym after work. I was all ready to go - swimsuit on, cap and goggles in hand - when I realized I had left the workout in my car. Which was parked half a mile away in the parking garage. F%*&. There went my motivation. The tiniest thing can derail my motivation to swim because it's BARELY there to begin with. I did not want to have to put all of my clothes back on and walk back to the 3rd floor of the parking garage for a piece of paper. This is where having a cell phone with internet capabilities would be so very useful. Unfortunately, I am stuck with a 3 year old ghetto cell phone that likes to turn off at random. Anyways, I decided to pull my workout out of my ass. The only thing I could remember was the drill that I was supposed to do. So I did a warmup. Made up a set. Then I did the drill work.
Not the way I wanted to get back into swimming, but oh well.
I went home after the gym, changed, then walked to my polling site and VOTED! Yeah America!
On my walk home from voting, my friend Mark over at TriDadofFive called me. He wanted to see how my training was going. Also, he is hosting one of my Syracuse teammates (teammate AND Train-This coach), Kelly (TriMommyLife), for a 50K in the Rochester area this weekend. I think they know each other from grad school maybe? Not sure. Anyways, while I was talking to Mark, Kelly called him. And this is what ensued..
Mark: Hang on, Kelly is calling me on the other line.
Me: ok
Mark (comes back to the line I'm on): Kelly wants to know if you're wearing pants.
hahahahahah! I think these crazy triathletes know me a little too well.
Unfortunately, I was wearing pants. It is just too cold in my apartment now to go pantsless. :( It is a sad day for Alexa when the weather turns cold and forces me to slip into my winter version of no-pants: giant sweatpants.
On a final note, Ultra Adam brought this to my attention last night - Syracuse is getting a marathon (and half-marathon)! It's surprising to me that Syracuse does not already have a marathon, but good for them!
http://empirestatemarathon.com/
I'm always up for a half-marathon within driving distance. It's kind of funny, the course is just a giant loop around Onondaga Lake, which I believe is one of the most polluted lake in the USA. Maybe the runners can pass the time by looking for wildlife with odd-numbered legs. However, October in Syracuse is very pretty so that will be nice! So all of you NY state residents, keep that one on your radar!
Thursday, October 21, 2010
my poor hamstring
So I have a few things to blog about that are actually triathlon related!
Today I had my 6th trip (I think??) to the chiropractor. Kenny, the chiropractor, has been doing a variety of things to my hamstring, glute, and hip flexor including ART, ultrasound, and Graston. While I am fairly optimistic that this treatment WILL help me, it has succeeded in making my hamstring more sore than it was before all of this nonsense. Today was my first foray into Graston since.. 2001 when I had it done on my ankle because of tendonitis. And my memory was correct - it HURTS. Actually, it REALLY F-ING HURTS!
I was lying facedown on the table and he was flexing my hamstring and rubbing the stainless steel Graston tool along the grain of my muscle. You wouldn't think it would hurt but it really, really does. You can feel the tool scraping against the scar tissue. It's making me cringe just thinking about it right now! He said to me, "I can tell you're in pain when I hear the crinkling of the paper." There is a paper thing under the headrest of the table - I'm assuming for sanitation purposes, and while he was doing the Graston I was cramming my head as far into the table as I could. Seriously, I need a leather strap to bite on or something. It's just awful. My hamstring is now KILLING me. But if it helps, then I don't care! I think next weekend he is going to send me on a run to test it out, and hopefully I will be ok to do some short runs because my off-season is over in 10 days!
Tuesday morning, Mary dragged me out of bed to swim at 8 am. Yes, I know, I'm lazy, but I worked until 11:15 pm.. so I think I'm allowed to not like getting up at 7 am the next morning! We went to her super swanky gym where there is a heated, outdoor pool that is still open in mid-October! I was skeptical that it wouldn't really be that warm, but it was sooooo nice to be swimming outside, in the morning, in freaking October! I would say I swam for about 45 minutes and then she taped me using an underwater video camera thingy, which will get analyzed this weekend! I really don't even want to see it. I hadn't swam in weeks, I was tired after 10 minutes, and I don't think my swim form is great to begin with. Plus, swimsuits are not flattering. Period. Every time I saw her with the camera, I started laughing.. while swimming.. so I'm sure that the video just looks absolutely ridiculous. But then we sat in the hot tub which made up for the embarrassing swim video.
Our machine is down at work so we are really, really slow this week. Last night I had one thing to do. The most exciting part of my night was when my coworker left his cell phone on his desk and I had to take it out to him at the gate at like 8 pm because he didn't want to come inside. Tonight I have one thing to do as well. I'm hoping that tomorrow (Friday) my supervisor will let me come in on days instead of evenings because it's pointless to be sitting at work on Friday night with nothing to do. I'm hoping to work 8-4 or so (it's hard to work evenings on Thursday and then get up and go into work at 7 am on Friday.. 8 is more feasible). It's not that I have any fun activities planned for Friday night (I never plan anything on Fridays when I'm on an evening shift).. it just makes the weekend longer when I don't have to spend Friday evening at work.
So that's that! 10 days left of being a lazy blob! I am almost excited to start training again. Almost, but not quite. :)
Today I had my 6th trip (I think??) to the chiropractor. Kenny, the chiropractor, has been doing a variety of things to my hamstring, glute, and hip flexor including ART, ultrasound, and Graston. While I am fairly optimistic that this treatment WILL help me, it has succeeded in making my hamstring more sore than it was before all of this nonsense. Today was my first foray into Graston since.. 2001 when I had it done on my ankle because of tendonitis. And my memory was correct - it HURTS. Actually, it REALLY F-ING HURTS!
I was lying facedown on the table and he was flexing my hamstring and rubbing the stainless steel Graston tool along the grain of my muscle. You wouldn't think it would hurt but it really, really does. You can feel the tool scraping against the scar tissue. It's making me cringe just thinking about it right now! He said to me, "I can tell you're in pain when I hear the crinkling of the paper." There is a paper thing under the headrest of the table - I'm assuming for sanitation purposes, and while he was doing the Graston I was cramming my head as far into the table as I could. Seriously, I need a leather strap to bite on or something. It's just awful. My hamstring is now KILLING me. But if it helps, then I don't care! I think next weekend he is going to send me on a run to test it out, and hopefully I will be ok to do some short runs because my off-season is over in 10 days!
Tuesday morning, Mary dragged me out of bed to swim at 8 am. Yes, I know, I'm lazy, but I worked until 11:15 pm.. so I think I'm allowed to not like getting up at 7 am the next morning! We went to her super swanky gym where there is a heated, outdoor pool that is still open in mid-October! I was skeptical that it wouldn't really be that warm, but it was sooooo nice to be swimming outside, in the morning, in freaking October! I would say I swam for about 45 minutes and then she taped me using an underwater video camera thingy, which will get analyzed this weekend! I really don't even want to see it. I hadn't swam in weeks, I was tired after 10 minutes, and I don't think my swim form is great to begin with. Plus, swimsuits are not flattering. Period. Every time I saw her with the camera, I started laughing.. while swimming.. so I'm sure that the video just looks absolutely ridiculous. But then we sat in the hot tub which made up for the embarrassing swim video.
Our machine is down at work so we are really, really slow this week. Last night I had one thing to do. The most exciting part of my night was when my coworker left his cell phone on his desk and I had to take it out to him at the gate at like 8 pm because he didn't want to come inside. Tonight I have one thing to do as well. I'm hoping that tomorrow (Friday) my supervisor will let me come in on days instead of evenings because it's pointless to be sitting at work on Friday night with nothing to do. I'm hoping to work 8-4 or so (it's hard to work evenings on Thursday and then get up and go into work at 7 am on Friday.. 8 is more feasible). It's not that I have any fun activities planned for Friday night (I never plan anything on Fridays when I'm on an evening shift).. it just makes the weekend longer when I don't have to spend Friday evening at work.
So that's that! 10 days left of being a lazy blob! I am almost excited to start training again. Almost, but not quite. :)
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