Train-This Testing Day in the 'Cuse

Yesterday was the most fun I've had in a while. A bunch of my Train-This teammates (as well as Coach Mary and Coach Kelly) congregated at the city YMCA in Syracuse for a testing day! This YMCA has a room with (I think) 8 computrainers and a bunch of spin bikes. 13 team members gathered from near (Syracuse) and far (Canada) with some coming from Rochester and Buffalo as well.

Those of us who hailed from the west hit a bit of a snowstorm about 20 miles out of Syracuse. This resulted in almost EVERYBODY arriving late (me included). No worries, since Mary is basically the most laidback coach ever.

that's me in the pink headband and
Amelia making the funny face.. looks
like we were really working hard, right?

I was in round one on the computrainers (supposed to start at 10, didn't even get to the YMCA til 10:15). We found the bike room, changed into our gear, and then warmed up on the bike and got them calibrated. The man in charge of the computrainers, Ted, did a GREAT job getting everyone calibrated and familiarized with how the system works. Then we did a 10 mile time trial. There were 7 of us "racing." I am not very pleased with how I tested but whatever, I don't train with power since I don't have a powermeter, so the watts are irrelevant to me. What I did get was actual good HR data for Mary because this was a legit testing day for me. I do NOT test well on my own. The computrainers are interesting (this was only my 2nd time on one). I'm not really sure if there is any way to really replicate riding outside, and when riding a computrainer it does change the resistance that you feel when you climb a "hill." However, it is pretty interesting to watch the elevation change. In my option, nothing will ever be a substitute for outdoor riding. But for the winter months, I think the computrainer is definitely the best option. Now just to rob a bank save enough money to buy one...

After cooling down and taking our bikes off the trainers, we changed and hopped in the pool while the other group did their bike tests. Mary had rigged up the "coach cam" which was basically an underwater video camera taped to the bottom of a broom. I kid you not. This way she could videotape us swimming directly at her, and then walk alongside us on the deck with the camera in the water so she could get side action shots. Pretty ghetto/awesome!

The testing was really fun because I was able to do it alongside teammates - some who I see often (such as Kim), some who I see rarely (such as Amelia) and some who were there for their first time (like Greg). I also met some teammates that previously were only known to me through the Train-This google group. Fun times are had when everybody gets together, especially when the 4 vegans on the team convince us to go to a vegan cafe to get lunch after testing. (For the record, I am vegetarian, not vegan). Note: vegan milkshakes are delicious, but my stomach was still disagreeing with me 12 hours later!!

Greg got his initiation into Train-This while at lunch; all of the girls were talking about how Bree Wee dropped out of IM Cozumel because she got her period, and we were discussing what our strategy would be if we had that problem. He was the lone guy left at the table with nothing to contribute and probably was feeling pretty uncomfortable. Oh Greg, you just have NO idea what you're in for with this team! :)

book & itunes from Kim, mix CD from Amo, bottle brush from Mary!

I just love seeing friends and getting to spend the day with them, especially doing something that we ALL love! I love that my friends care about me, and that I got 3 birthday presents! (Not that I care about presents at all, but getting gifts from people makes me feel special!!).

I mean really, could I have asked for
an any more fun day than this?

swimming backwards

I just did what might be the most depressing thing ever.

I am at work, on nights, required to stay awake, so I figured I would create a table showing all of the "testing" that I did in 2010 (most of these are swim tests - I also found one bike test) so that I can track how I am doing this season against last season. Every time I do a swim test, I have to click back through tons of workouts in Training Peaks in order to see how fast I was last time. I decided to get organized. (Alexa-organized which means I will create this testing table but I won't clean my apartment for another 3 weeks).

I also created a table to fill in my 2011 testing so that all the times will be there in one place for comparison - i.e. my refrigerator.

What is depressing is how much I suck.

I am NEVER taking a 1.5 month off-season again. I don't care how glorious the laziness was; it's just not worth the backsliding in fitness that I am now trying to deal with.

For example. My first swim test ever was on 1/21/10. It's a 400 yd swim test that we repeat twice. Always the same. I swam a 6:20. This was after I had been training with Mary for 21 days. This improved to 6:02 by May, and has now backslid to the horribly slow time of 6:27 as of Nov. 9th. Granted, that 6:27 was like my 3rd swim after many, many weeks of NO swimming, but it's still discouraging. I test this weekend, and if that time doesn't drastically improve, I may drown myself.

I AM swimming 3x a week at the moment instead of 2x, and I'd like to keep that up as long as possible because I'm sure it will be a huge help in improving my swim.

As depressing as it is to think about the loss of fitness during the length of time that I was out of the pool and off the bike, it is even more depressing to think about how long it's been since I've really been able to run. We're talking 3 months. I ran today for 30 minutes. I can't even hold a 10 minute mile. That right there is enough to make me cry. I am not a bad runner - I should be able to pop off 8:00 - 8:30 minute miles without a problem, but I am so out of shape that I just can't do it. I'm starting to freak out because I REALLY want to see gains on the run in Ironman, and how is that going to be possible if I'm barely running?! I'm ready to say f- this injury, which is what's going to happen anyways because as of the first of the year, my chiropractor is no longer going to accept my insurance.

Going back through my training log also made me lust after high volume weeks. Screw this recovery week that I am on, give me more hours! (Ugh, I know, recovery is apparently IMPORTANT). Pssssh. And perhaps since I am on overnights, I shouldn't fight the recovery week because this week is going to be hell anyways!