Trifecta

Didn't do the race I registered for yesterday because of me knee. That was tough I like that race and wish I was able to compete! I did a CF wod instead.

10 rounds of
10 Good Mornings @ 45
5 Pushups
3 Standing Ab Rollouts

time - 18.03

putting a barbell on my sunburned back for these was tough. I actually wore a shirt for this wod. Pushups went well. The ab rollouts were a ripper as my abs still hurt from the GHDs the day before. That being said it was fun having them in a wod for a change. I didn't go too heavy on the good mornigns because i haven't done them in forever and I was doing 100 of them. I also didn't go too fast on them either. didn't want to get hurt doing them. That being said my hangstrings are tight from them today!

Also did my running drills. The knee still isn't moving correctly compared the other legs. All of the bunny hopping aggravated my foot surgery site as well. I didn't do any drills today maybe I should take days off between them. Overall my knee is doing a lot better. It still has some weird moments where it warns me but i am not limping or in pain like I was.

Started today off with 300 of drills, catch, shark and hesitate and then a 45 minutes Time trial. Covered 94 laps if i counted correctly which is the hardest part of a wod like that. The form actually felt pretty smooth today. 50 breaststroke to cooldown.

CF wod - "karen" - 150 wallballs for time. used a 14 lb ball at a 9 ft target. time 12:31. This is a PR. by 21 seconds over the last time I did the wod. my wallballs are getting better which is good because it isn't one of my favorite exercises. especially in this format. if you have like 10 or 20 to do they are fun. once you hit about 75- 100 they get old pretty fast! Around 100 i started feeling my knee a bit but it is more of a tightness than a pain. still using the ice and the nsaids.

it's finally warmed up here. in the 90s which is good I am trying to acclimate a bit to it as i've heard it can be hot at eagleman. still trying to decide what compenents to get on my new r3. I am going to go ride a 52 with ultergra and a 54 with sram rival when I get fit. Right now I am thinking sram red because I like the adjustable shifting especially since i like to ride in the drops. and also because then the brakes are just the brakes. both my specialized road bike and my cervelo TT bike use shimano and i think the brakes are crappy on both of them. I have to find out if i can easily switch race wheels between the two bikes if i run both sram on 1 bike and shimano on the other. It's a little cheaper and lighter too.

Went to ride a 12 mile TT tonight. It was the first time I am on my bike in 4 days! I took 3 minutes off my time for a 12 mile course. last time i went 40.30 this time i went 37.31 per the results. my garmin actually recorded 37.03. We go off in 30 second intervals so maybe something got screwed up. Not a big deal. so I pretty much blew my old time away and i am happy with that! average speed 19.5. last time i had the kool race wheels too. this time just my trainers. It would be interesting to see what I could do on that course if i didn't already hit 2 wods first. However, I had 3 really good workouts today. Maybe the extra rest over the last few days. Sometimes I probably push myself a little too hard and don't recover enough. I am def someone that likes to push the envelope with things probably why i am attracted to crossfit. I have to learn to balance a little better and maybe i wouldn't end up with an injury and some forced downtime. The knee was good to begin with. started to feel it a bit as I pulled up on the hills, By the end i could feel it a bit. When it got off my bike it was stiff and tight. Im hitting it with ice and hoping that it feels better tomorrow.

mending

got a crossfit wod in today. still looking after the knee but this went ok.

AMRAP 9 minutes of
5 pullups
10 GHD situps.

Completed 11 full rounds and 2 pullups in the 12 th round.

I was pretty happy with that. Did the pullups as ring assuie pullups. I didn't like the way the kip felt on the knee.

then some shoulder pressing
45x3
50x3
55x3
60x3
65x3 this was more like 65x 1 - 3 times.

Iced my knee down when I could today. It is feeling a lot better but I won't be racing tomorrow as sad as that is. I went to the track and started doing some running drills and based on how it felt I know racing tomorrow is the wrong decision. That being said I still wish I was.
drills were ball of foot hops with a lean, wall drills pulls, pulling with 1 foot alternating side. I could tell the knee still isn't right when switching sides. It isn't painful but it feels restricted and not smooth. Maybe they will feel better tomorrow. still thinking over the options for my r3!

now im down.

Got stefan back on friday. The bike shop was able to fix him up. I took him for a spin in the parking lot a bit but no major riding as I have really scaled back the training to let the knee heal up. I also took a cervelo R3 for a ride and I am loving that bike and working on getting one. I also took out a specialied tarmac which was also really nice but I preferred the R3. I have to decide on components and get a fit.

yesterday and today were both swimming only days and they have allowed my knee to start feeling a lot better. I am icing it when possible and using kinesio tape. Either it is healing or all of the celebrex i've been taking just has me not feeling the pain anymore.

friday - 500 drills to warmup and 500 more to cool down
25yds 1 min rest, 50yds 50 sec rest, 75yds 40 sec rest, 100yds 30 sec rest, 125yds 20 sec rest, 150yds 10 sec rest then back down the ladder.

saturday
1000yds countinuos drills to warmup

5 x 100yds paddle and pull buoy on 20 sec rest

5 x 100yds kick with board and fins on 10 sec rest

cooldown 100 breaststroke 100 backstroke

I used my new hydra vision open water googles in the pool just to test them out. I had a few issues with leaks, gotta sort that out.

 

 

but not out....

I took stefan to the bike shop today and he is there overnight for them to work on him. the dereuiller hanger broke so that needs to be replace. they need to straightened out the dereuiller its bent. Also the wheel has bent spokes and is out of true. But it all sounds fixable.
Which was good news. I still want to get a more competition worthy road bike but i still want to keep this one for commuting, bad weather. etc. I had to commute on my mountain bike today and that is just slow going.

CF WOD

sealfit complex
used a 65 lb barbell for 5 reps per round and 5 rounds total. 1 time through the sequence is a rep

Deadlift
Upright Row
Squat Clean
Front squat
Push Press
back Squat
Burpee

The deadlift to upright row start looking like a sumo dead lift high pull. The squat clean to the front squat put a good hurting on the legs. The push press to the back squat is always tougher than a regular push press because of the behind in the neck negative. It was finally a sunny non raining day here so i took my barbell outside while getting this one done.

jay wanted some running videos of me to check on my form and see if that is what is causing my knee pain. So did a 1 mile warmup and then 8 x 200 meters on 1 minute rest. I started out running them in 41 second but hit 45-46 by the end. My knee was hurting while i was running and afterwards. It also hurt on the bike today too. I am icing it and that helps a lot. Jay wants me to shut down the biking and the running for a few days. I am disappointed because I wanted to race a crit on saturday and a circuit race on sunday. Monday I am entered in a 5 mile road race. I know eagleman is the bigger race and i should try to get myself in order for that since it is coming up soon.

stefan is down!

cf - recovery wod - legs were a little cooked from the last few days and my energy was low.

3 x 15 - GHD situps

3 x 15 Back Extensions

3 x 15 Kettlebell swings @ 35

3 x 10 pullups

3 x 10 pushups

Did my usual commute today except my bike broke on the way home. The rear derailleur ripped off my bike and took part of the frame with it. It doesn't look like the derailleur hanger to me it looks like part of the frame. It was very weird because i was riding home at an easy pace on a flat road at the time so it wasn't under much load  when it just snapped. I was able to get myself off the bike without falling. I was supposed to go ride with some friends but Jeff was nice enough to come nad pick me up. Since we were both already in bike clothes and ready to ride I took Damon out for a spin instead. We did the TT course twice. A little over 24 miles in 1.28.  It actually was a decent recovery ride for me because my legs were pretty cooked. sadly thought it made my knee hurt! avg 16.3 speed and maxed at 35. Hopefully Ill be feeling much better tomorrow.

I have to take my bike into the shop and see what they think. maybe time for a new road bike.

A Pain I am used too

So my hamstrings and butt were feeling the squats today.

CF wod was
5 rounds of
3 backsquats @ 95
10 body blasters

time 10 minutes

had to go with 95 on the backsquats because my legs were sore. This was my first time doing body blasters and i have to say i do like them! This helped to loosen me up a bit but the legs were not feeling fresh.

team crit tonight. approximately 30 miles. I only have 25 something on my garmin because i forgot to start it until we were already into it. 1,337 of climbing. 15.4 avg speed. max speed 31. no HR info because i my friction burn still isn't completely healed although it is looking better. I am hoping to wear it again sometime soon. I think I did better than I did last time.

My knee was feeling better today. The ice helps it a lot. But it is flared up again after riding. Not as bad as it had been but not as good as has been either. I was super tired today i am wondering if it isn't from the nsaids.

another deposit in the pain bank

My knee was really sore last night. I did put some ice on it but not for as long as I would have liked to. It hurt while I was sleeping. I kept waking up feeling like my knee had a fever in it. It was a rough night sleepwise overall. I was awakened several times by things outside of my control and it was just ugly this morning heading to the pool. 

Did 400 of drills just to warmup and get myself awakened for the workout. Thankfully my friend jeff was there to do the workout with me so that helped me to get through it. Jeff swims better than I do and I love when he does the wods with me because that way he keeps track of the reps and the rest time and I just have to follow him. It's a sweet deal. we did 20 rounds of 100s on 20 seconds rest. I started out swimming the first 5 at least on 1:35. Then it slowed down to 1:40. The last couple of I was really pushing to meet the 1:40 and I know on at least one I didnt make it. It was a great workout or as jeff puts it another deposit in the pain bank. Did 100 of breaststroke to cool down.

Cf wod was front squats. the pure strength training stuff is always my least favorite thing to do. I love the sexy metcons and the endurance stuff so much more. while I was doing this I was feeling the effects of the last couple of bike rides. It went well considering that.

front squats
bw x 10
45x5
65x5
75x5
75x5
85x5
95x5
100x5
105x5
110x3
110x2
110x2
110x2
105x3
95x3

meal 1 - vega wfo w/coconut water
meal 2 - vega wfo w/ soy yogrt, blueberries, strawberries, ground flax, mac nuts
meal 3 - tofu ravioli w/ red sauce
meal 4 - banana

meal 5 - tempeh, mushrooms, spinach, yellow beans, guacamole

im hitting the ice hardcore today and it helps a lot! I also kinesio taped.

It takes a lot to laugh, it takes a train to cry

took a recovery(ish) ride of sorts today. It was about 25 miles. rode down to the WB Duathlon course and then previewed it for a couple of friends that are doing it this year. I ended up getting some extra mileage on the course as a couple of people got lost and i had to do a search and rescue mission to find them. i can report all were recovered unscathed. not sure if I will do the ride leader thing again as it is stressful when you lose people and have to go find them. My legs werent hurting today although i did feel them a little bit when we started riding. i did push the pace at some points to open up my legs a bit and they are feeling better now. the knee sadly was hurting again as usual when i am pulling up a hill in the saddle. I gonna hit the ice as much as possible and try to get it back under control so training doesn't have to altered too much.  I found out I took 3rd in my age group at the mon-tour race yesterday and that I was the 8th female overall. I am a little happier with my performance now that i hear that.

The Mon-Tour Race Report

did the mon-tour cycling road race yesterday. it was a tough ride for me but overall a great experience. i'll be looking forward to doing it next year! the race is well organized and attended. i can only say one bad thing about the race and that was the water situation. Only at one place on the course did they have someone on the course handing you water and it was actually cups of water not bottles you can put on your bike. i took one and pretty much downed it. An actual bottle exchange would have been much better for the racers. There were actually water stops on the course but that is literally what you had to do get off your bike and stop at a station and get a cup of water. when i am racing even though i am not really in it to win it I won't take the time to do that. perhaps i should have but more about that later. They may have done this because teams were allowed to register team cars to support them on the course with bikes, wheels, food, etc. however, our team didn't do this and even if we did it wouldn't help the riders that are dropping off from the leaders anyway. Although I do have to admit that when your riding it feels kinda kool to see the team cars driving around you, feels like a real serious race! i had some issues from the start we got there on time but i guess we were screwing around too much instead of getting ready because i was getting myself ready during the race meeting and then when they started i was still at my car not on my bike in race. so i had to book it out of the parking lot and into the peloton! They asked the peloton to stay together for the first 3 miles and not "race" as we had a rolling escort out of the city by the police and to let people watch the race before we got out in the country. That being said we were clipping along at 3 minute miles so much for a warmup. 3 miles deep you hit your first category 4 climb and start to understand exactly what your in for the rest of the day. it was my first time trying to climb a hill with that many people around. it is a little different you can't necessarily take the path you want because there isn't the space to do so. this hill lasted for 3 miles so the group started to splinter in smaller sects of riders from there. I stayed with most of the race for the first 10 -15 miles then after that i pretty much only saw the riders around me. good news is i was passing other riders and not getting passed. It was a rough day on the bike for me. i am not good at nor used to that kind of climbing and my lower back was killing me for probably the last 15- 20 miles. the way i started the race i expected to be done in about 3 hours. ended up taking me 3:16 for 46 miles. most of my passes initially came either on the descents or what flat sections there were. But by the end of the course even i was passing people on the climbs! I did feel good on the descents. there were probably a couple of sections i took a little too fast as the roads were wet. it rained before the race started, we started in a fog but that burned off to a sunny warm day. also not knowing the course there were turned off the descents that i was really ready for and i had to hit my brakes to make them kinda killing my momentum. One section of the course i was just hoping not to flat we had to ride through a loose stone road over a wooden plank covered bridge. I actually saw a few flats on the course but not many crashes. i hung on through the race as i was determined to take every climb. my knee was hurting when I was trying to stay in my saddle and pull up on my pedals when climbing. It was 3785 ft of climbing. Most of the climbs were long 2+ miles. There were also shorter hills in the course but those were a steep grade. i averaged 13.8 mph max speed was 42. I don't have HR data because my chest still has a friction burn on it and i can't wear my HR monitor yet. I am wishing it to heal up soon! the bad news of the ride is I ran out of water in about 2 hours. i only took 2 bottle with me. i considered taking a 3rd in my jersey but since i heard there was water on the course i thought i would just grab it on the course. As I mentioned above i made the decision not to stop. Probably not the best idea as i had a decent glaze going on from the heat and the climbing. I know i wasn't in my right head by the end of the race. I was light headed after it for a bit. I did take salt tablets and also some clif shot blocks. I didn't finish the 3 packets of shot blocks even though i was out there over there 3 hours and probably should have finished all 3 packets. I took in about 500 calories and burned 3415. My reason being they are gross and i probably wont use them again. Why? you had to chew them and they taste like candy. I am much happier with gel packets you can just swallow and be done with. i understand i have to fuel on to the go but i want it to be the least amount of time and effort as possible. I ordered myself more hammer gels last week and will be happy to be back to using them. so did I feel so wasted at the end because of my effort? not enough water? not enough food? or was it just that kinda day for me. The signage on the road was also really fun to read during the race. My favorite - as we finally hit out first flat the road read "Get some!" a lot of them were cute though, one of the climbs later in the race it read - riding bikes isn't so fun now! Or keep dancing on those pedals! A guy riding next to me said i am happy to still be clipped into my pedals. the crest of one of the biggest climbs read "oh the humanity!" the shirts for the race are cute too they read "the mon-tour - proof that nature can be cruel!" i finished the race and even sprinted to the finish, just for fun. i took a long cooldown coast afterwards because i felt like i didn't have the ability to dismount and not fall off my bike. post race my knee is bothering me. didn't have time to ice yesterday so I need to get back on that today.  The picture above is me with the trophy they give the winning team. It is kinda cool because the top piece is designed by the same artist that does the trophies for the tour de france.

How do you go on?

asier day on the training schedule today so I should be good for the race tomorrow.

took a 30 minute easy bike ride on stefan. 7+ miles. Of course it rained so i have to clean him up tonight and get him all spiffy for the race tomorrow. Noticed the knee a little not nearly as much as before. Then again I wasn't riding hard either.

CF wod was 4 x 800 meters on 2 minute rest. used the c2 rower

1 - 3.33
2 - 3.34
3 - 3.40
4 - 3.35
I started to notice my knee on the 3rd and 4th reps. although it wasn't pain like it has been.

Fairly happy with the times except for the 3rd rep where I clearly stopped focusing for a second and let the pain get to me.

My knee is starting to feel better. The ice and nsaids are working. I am wishing for this to clear up quickly so I don't have to be modifiying my training. I did enough of that last season. I would be really nice to just train this year without injury issues.

wear and tear

had a great training day today! I finally got enjoy quality sleep last night and it feels so good to wake up before the alarm instead of attempting to drag myself out of bed when the alarm goes off. overall pretty happy with the way today went.

first up was a swim - did 500 of drills to warm up then 10 rounds of 200s paddling on the odds and pull on the evens. I actually felt like I was swimming really well. Alternating between the paddles and the pull really helped to work on my stroke. I felt like I was swimming really smoothly. It was great. This needs to be in my programming more often. swam a 50 breaststroke to cooldown. would have done more but didn't have the time.

cf wod = helen

I actually thought for awhile I was going to get this as rxed and not have to modify anything but of course i ended up having to do it the same way ive been doing it for at least a year now which is rowing instead of running. It was good in the sense that I had a real comparison to my previous times. That was nice because I crushed the workout bettering my time by 1.16 seconds!

Helen is 3 rounds of run 400 meters, 21 kettlebell swings @ 35 lb pounds and 12 pullups.

I am particularily happy with the time because i did not connect a single pullup because my hands are still torn up and raw so i was trying to save them a bit. The combo of kb swings and pullups always tears them up. I only got one new tear today. I held my own on the row times but I was able to go unbroken on the kb swings for the first 2 rounds and only took 1 break in the 3rd round to chalk. Like i said the pullups could have gone faster if i connected them but given the situation I am ok with it. for now anyway.

The reason I had to row the wod instead of run it is because my left knee is bothering me. I have been trying to avoid admitting to this but it is time to get serious about it and get after it and get over it. I think I have chondomalacia because steps seem to bother it the most especially going down them. Also running flares it up and sometimes cycling too. the pain is on the anterior part of my knee right up the knee cap. I have been using ice on it all day and even took some ibu. Im going to try to rest it from running and see if it improves. I have been trigger pointing my lower legs everyday trying to get them to loosen up in addition to the usual stretching. If that is what is wrong with my knee it could either be from when i got hit on my bike or just an overuse thing. Or most likely a combination of both. This is just an inflammation of the cartilige under the knee cap hopefully. Having my lower legs be so tight doesn't help the situation but as much as i work on them they really just do not seem to get any better in any significant way.

Tomorrow I will be riding (hoping it won't be raining!) and rowing so that's a little of a recovery day for saturday's cycling race. the mon-tour!

here is a little info about the race.....When we created this course, it was based on trying to put together the hardest ride in Montour County. We were looking for ways to make the smallest County in Pennsylvania ride like a beast. And I think we accomplished that goal with the 75 mile version of the race. We incorporated every horrible hill and valley we could think of over a post ride conversation and beer. Then we went and rode the course; and it was good.

That being said, it has its warts. It has uneven roads. It has dirt roads. It has gravel (some of which is loose). It has always had at least one section under construction for the ride. It has off-camber turns that are hard to negotiate at speed. It has railroad crossings on active tracks that could cause a delay if you are unlucky enough to catch a train. Things happen on a 75 mile course.

But to our way of thinking (as Organizers) that’s part of cycle road racing. It’s not about perfect conditions. It’s about racing in the conditions you are given.

Paris–Roubaix has its cobblestones. The Tour de France has its sketchy sections of road. All great rides have their “warts” that actually define their character. The 75 miles is no different. It’s a road race and not a track race. Things happen in Road Racing, and that’s what makes it exciting!

twilight

Tried to run the stiffness out of my legs this morning. they are a lot better than they were but not 100 percent yet. Downhills didn't feel as good as the rest of the run and my knee hurt afterwards. I am going to have to start taking the knee thing seriously and going after it more aggressively. ran 5.65 miles in 1 hour. It was raining so it irritated the blisters on my feet a bit.

CF wod
back squats
bw x 10
45 x 10
65 x 5
85x3
95x3
105x3
115x3
125x3
130x3
135x3
All were onto a medicine ball to ensure depth.

Been really tired the last few days. Hopefully my sleeping situation will get corrected tonight and I will get caught up on rest the next few days. I ordered some new goggles for open water swimming today. I can't wait to try them. Hopefully better vision and more comfortable. Also took my road bike into the shop to have the shifting addresses a bit. I'll try to get out and ride it the next few days and test it out before I do the Mon-tour on saturday. It is a really hilly cycling race.

outside the palace

ended up doing 3 wods today. first was a swim - 500 of drills to warmup then it was supposed to be 25 x 25 with a mid pool start on 10 seconds rest. it ended up being at least 30 as i kept miscounting and doing them over. It's a weird wod because with the mid pool start your really don't have any speed going and then it is a few stroke and flip turn and a few strokes. I didn't time these. I just used the lap clock for the 10 seconds. had extra time so i did another 500 of drills to cooldown.

cf wod
21 - 15 - 9
Deadlifts @ 135
Clapping Push Ups
Time 6:16

This was a little light on the deadlift weight for me but it felt decent for the wod. The clapping pushups were rough.

The weather broke for a little bit this even and I was able to get the team TT session in. It is a 12.5 mile/20k loop. I wore my garmin but actually forgot to start it so no serious data. I was nervous starting because your completely clipped in and i was hoping i wasn't going to fall over. Of course I didnt but the thought did cross my mind. This was my first time doing this course. Overall I like it and i can't wait to see how my times improve on it as I ride it more and I improve my cycling fitness. There are a few little hills but no serious climbs in it.  My time was about 40 minutes. Ill have to look on the website tomrorow and see for sure. I didn't feel like i was giving it 100 percent. next time i will now that i have experienced the terrain. I don't feel like i train on my tt bike the way I race on it. I am more cautious when I am training. I guess I am less focused then.  Another cyclist who is a much better rider than me actually said that I  inspire them because i train so hard. 

meal 1 - vega wfo w/coconut water
meal 2 - vega wfo soy yogurt blue erries strawberries, ground flax
meal 3 clif bar
meal 4 - tofu, brown rice, broccoli, carrots, mushrooms
meal 5 - clif bar
meal 6 seitan, hummus

Hands

actually recovered fairly well from the race yesterday. My foot was aching last night but i iced it and no issues with it today. My lower legs are sore so i trigger pointed those and stretched. my knee is sore too. I put some kinesio tape on it.  overall thought pretty decent so i went back to training.

swim - 1,000 of drills then 500 TT - hit 8.44 for that. not my fastest but for the morning after a race pretty decent.

cd wod - amrap 20
12 kettlebell swings @35 lbs
5 toes through rings.

got 15 full rounds in 18 minutes. abandoned the wod in the 16th round with 2 minutes left to go. I have 3 tears on my hands and my grip was killing me. I figure it was safer since i was not holding onto the kettlebell or the rings all that well at that point. my hands were shaking afterward my grip was so shot. Overall it was a great wod and I wish I was able to make it through the full 20 minutes. I might do it again once my hands recover from the tears. I went with the 35 lb kettlebell because i wasn't sure how many unbroken rounds i would be able to get with a 44. I was kipping the toes thru rings and i think between that and the kettlebells the friction was just too much.

the workouts are going to get jumbled around a bit this week i think due to the weather.

meal 1 - vega wfo w/coconut water & sprouted grain bagel
meal 2 - clif bar
meal 3 - tofu, brown rice, veggies,
meal 4 - clif bar

meal 5 - black bean dip, ezekiel tortillas, tomato, broccoli, guacamole

Pocono Mountain Half Marathon Relay Race Report

Pocono Mountain Run for the Red Half-Marathon Relay - Race Report

The time from my garmin for my 13.16 miles was 2:01:17. I will check tomorrow online to see what my chip/clock time was. avg page per mile was 9:12 avg hr 155 max 184. Although I believe this to be fairly accurate. I had a decent race which I am happy about. I would have liked to go under 2 hours but honestly yesterday i was feeling pretty fried. just not enough sleep this week to recover from all of the training but I hope to get that corrected this week. I had time before the race to stretch my legs out so this helped a bit. My only complaints after the race are blisters on my feet. probably should have body glided them because we were running in the rain and the wet socks/sneakers combo is yucky on the feet. Also I got a friction burn from either my heart rate monitor or my sports bra. again body glide would have been a good idea just didn't think about it since it wasn't a tri. Legs feel good and my energy is decent so i expect to be recovered and back onto training tomorrow! My half of the course was the "hilly" part of the marathon. That being said it was net downhill overall but mostly little rolling hills all the way. None of the hills had a serious grade to them although a few of them we a little long. If you have the legs to take advantage of the downhills it can be a fast course to race. It is really pretty too just winding down country highway. The last few miles are actually in town and less scenic but there are a lot more people cheering there. It finished on a stadium track so that's really fun and will be awesome for impm. The rain wasn't really heavy but more of an annoyance. It was cool about 60. but the humidity was high at 92 percent. Running in a full marathon as a relay especially the last half is a weird thing. You are flying by all of these people who are suffering just passing people constantly because they have been out there suffering a lot longer and are a lot more beat up. Overall it's a decent marathon but the organization of it wasn't the greatest. I wasn't frazzled by it but a lot of people were upset. Iced my heel afterwards as it is a little achy but it did not give me any problems on the course so hopefully after a little ice and rest it will settle down. Im happy i took the time to do this race 1) i got to preview the course and 2) I probably wouldn't have thrown down such a good time running by myself so overall it was a successful training day. I wasn't really feeling it before the race it was hard to get excited for since there was no swimming or biking involved but i do have to admit it is a lot easier to run without those first. But that really isn't the point of triathlon. I have to be able to run off the bike better. I had a much easier time today running than I did at devilman last week. Hopefully running at impm will feel as good as today did.

Horseshoes and handgrenades

started raining before I even took off on my ride today so took my road bike instead of my tri bike. the only bad part of this is I wanted to get more acclimated and conditioned to staying aero for a longer period of time. I haven't done any really long rides on my tri bike and towards the end of devilman last week I was noticing that it was harder to stay aero comfortably. Hopefully between now and eagleman in a month I will have more time to spend hitting it tt style!! now if the weather will just cooperate! It was a cold and rainy 56 miles. I think the training for this week and well as the fact that i haven't slept well or long enough all week caught up to me a bit on this ride. I didn't feel like getting out of bed this morning and i was dragging myself around getting ready to head out. Had a bagel and off we went. total ride time was 3:38 avg 15.5 mph. I just didn't feel like i could nail it today. I had to pee twice and i puked at mile 34. Too much gel and water I guess as I wasn't feeling sick. I didn't even stop the bike though just spit it off the side! I took a break from the gel and water for a while until i started feeling better. Didn't have any problems the rest of the way. avg hr was only 135! I've never had trouble with gels before so I am just going to let it go and say it was a bad day. I lwas a spa style ride. free exfoliation and mud treatment. Tomorrow I am running in the pocono run for the red marathon as part of a marathon relay. I'll be hitting the second half marathon which is the ironman pocono mountain 70.3 course. I am tired and my foot is sore today so we will see how it goes. I will go and do it and use it as a training run just to get experience on that course. I have to say I would be more excited about it if it involved swimming and biking! yes i am a tri brat.

Wake up dead man

What a different ride last night. On my skills class last night people were telling me I'm their hero and they want to ride like me someday. I totally told them they want to ride like people that are way better than me. It was just kinda funny the reasons they were giving me were things like your a strong triathlete I want to do that or your such a strict vegan and have such control over your diet. Your my hero. I guess inspiration is where you find it.

swim - i've been riding my bike to the pool in addition to my usual commuting around town to work and the gym etc. I actually took stefan in the grocery store with me today and walked around with him because i had nothing to lock him up with. Surprisingly no one said a word. Anyway back to the point the pool water has actually felt warm to me lately but I think it is because I am cold from riding my bike. 1,000 of drills, 2 rounds of 100s of switch, catch, drag, shark and hesitate. Then 2 rounds of 300s with pull and paddles. This was the kind of workout I needed to start the morning. I was dragging from 3 wods yesterday. 3rd wod was my skills class it wasn't a terribly hard ride but I was tired going into it. we worked on cornering. On nights when I have some time but not the energy to go for a ride I am going to set up water bottles like we did and just practice cornering skills. Getting closer and closer to the bottle without knocking it over and also being able to do it faster and faster. It actually is a great way to practice the skills because where I live with traffic being able to take a corner that way usually isn't going to happen. And in the words of coach phil "we're going to do this until someone falls over!" Also worked on TTT skills. We weren't killing the pace just working on getting on and off the line smoothly. We also did a little climbing because if's there a hill, then there's phil. around 20 miles but I would say 15 was on the roads and 5 was just riding in a circle cornering. I am not adjusted to training at night. When I get home from a ride, It's later than I like to get home, i need to cook shower and eat and I really just want to go to bed. It's hard to get up the morning after I ride at night or I am just not used to it yet. So not having to kill it in the pool today helped me recover and loosen up a bit. I actually felt good on my form drills and strong on my paddle work.

CF WOD
3 rounds of
15 Hanging Power Cleans @ 65 lbs
15 Burpees
time 8:24

I think I could have gone a little heavier on the cleans. I wasn't having an issues cleaning the weight but my grip forced me to put the bar down and reset a few times. It was a lot of reps to try to go unbroken though.

I mapped out a 56 mile route for my TT tomorrow. I am hoping that it isn't raining in the morning so I can take my TT bike and get acclimated to being aero for that long. But they are calling for raining starting tonight and through the weekend so I might end up riding my road bike (Again). It sounds like it will also be raining for my half -marathon on sunday. maybe ill get lucky though.

meal 1 - vega wfo w.coconut water & a sprouted grain bagel
meal 2 - clif builder bar & almonds
meal 3 - banana, hummus, 2 veggie burgers, granola bar

I really need to get to the store tomorrow the food hasn't been the best the last few days.

One Hot Minute

swim - no warm up as I rode my bike to the pool. 35 TT - definitely 74 possibly 80 laps. I was on my 75 lap with the alarm went off but i lost my lap count about 3 times. Felt good swimming. One of the guys at the pool told me I went too hard in the beginning because I was swimming faster in the beginning than I was in the end. The trouble with doing time trials in the pool is i have no idea where i am at time wise when completing them. It isn't like I know i have 5 minutes left and just go all out for those last five minutes etc. Doing a TT for distance is easier. I wasn't unhappy with my performance though. 150 of breaststroke to cooldown. After my last race you never know when your gonna have to throw in some breaststroke.

CF WOD - 5 x 5 Thrusters
I actually don't mind thrusters in this format. It is when they are for time I hate them!
45x5
50x5
55x5
60x5
65x5
70x5
75x5
80x5
I actually think i could have gone a little heavier but no time left. I did about 2 minutes of stretching in between each round. Just trying to get my lower legs sorted out and also I was feeling my shoulder on these so i worked on that too.

Have a bike skills class tonight. my legs are not the freshest but that's ok ill make it through it. great weather and it will be fun!

meal 1 - vega wfo w/coconut water, clif bar
meal 2 - vega wfo w/ soy yogurt, strawberries, ground flax, clif bar
meal 3 - tofu, zucchini, cabbage, guacamole. clif bar

New Pony

Tired and out of it getting up this morning. Legs were cooked from last night's crit practice. And I had a track workout to get to! Jeff was in the driveway waiting to go so he kinda dragged me to the track. Normally I would jog there as a workout but I was in such sad shape we walked there. then ran a mile to warmup on the track. Main workout was 10 x 100 on 15 seconds rests. My times were not great but considering how sore and not recovered I was I can deal with them.

1 - 19
2 - 22
3 - 24
4 - 23
5 - 24
6 - 23
7 - 20
8 - 22
9 - 21
10 - 21

mile cooldown on the track and then a jog home.

CF wod -

10 rounds of
10 Wallballs - 14lb ball @ 9 ft target
20 situps.

Time 13:26

For a second I considering doing the situps as GHDs but it was a lot of reps and lets face it my legs were wrecked enough. It was a good change to do real situps since normally I would do GHDs. This wod went well. Probably the best wallballing I've done. It was a short enough set that I didn't have to break. I only missed 2 in the entire workout so I was moving at a pretty good clip. That makes me happy because wallballs have never been one of my favorites but while I didn't love them today I didn't hate them either.

Even more surprising is my legs and everything else actually feels better after the CF wod than it did this morning. If this trend continues where I am super sore after the team sessions I may have to rearrange the schedule so that I am swimming the morning after instead of hitting a track workout.

meal 1 - sprouted grain bagel & vega wfo w/coconut water
meal 2 - clif bar mac nuts
meal 3 - lentils & brown rice, almonds, clif bar

You Spin me Right Round (like a record)

tabata air squats
1 - 20
2 - 19
3 - 17
4 - 17
5 - 17
6 - 17
7 - 17
8 - 16

rest 1 minute

tabata row ( in meters)
1 - 94
2 - 93
3 - 87
7 - 85
5 - 91
6 - 90
7 - 87
8 - 93
9 - 90
lost count so i did an extra round

meal 1 - bagel & vega wfo w/coconut water
meal 2 - clif bar, mac nuts, banana
meal 3 - tofu & roasted green beans, clif bar, mac nuts
meal 4 - vega wfo w/coy yougurt, ground flax, mango & strawberries

 

first night of the training series. It was a good workout but I really just can not hang with these riders! It is 3 mile loop that is hit 10 times for a total of 30 miles. I rode it 9 times for a total of 26 miles. My chain got caught in between my cranks twice. I need to get it checked out. I would have done it again at the end but it was dark. The loop has 2 pretty good hills to climb.avg hr 147 max 172. avg speed 14.6 took me 1:45. I wasn't feeling up to even going today just tired but I knew I would feel better once I got other there. Since I couldn't stay with the pack i rode with the coach awhile. He was giving me good tips. So it is totally worth it just to be riding with a pro out there. He seems to think that my power and strength will come and that where i am at right now is just part of the learning curve. I hope he is right! I've got a headache now that I am home. I think a lot of my not feeling well is allergies

meal 5 lentils & brown rice - clif bar

Look what the cat dragged in

Went to bed too late and got up too soon. Hit the pool this morning. 500 of drills to warmup, 100 switch, 200 catch, 100 shark, 100 hesitate. I upped the catch drills because this is basically how I swam a lot of the race on saturday so that I could protect my face! It was actually pretty useful. workout was 8 x 100 on 4 minutes rest. this is not one of my favorite wods. I don't like standing in the pool for that much time not swimming. I stretched and floated trying to make the best of it. I was happy (for today) with the times I threw down. I must be recovered from the race. I was resting for so long the lifeguard came over to ask me if i was ok! 1 - 1.34 2 - 1.32 3 -1.31 4 - 1.32 5 -1.31 6 -1.32 7 - 1.32 8 - 1.34 Run - 30 minutes. 3.20 miles. back to crossfit tomorrow. I actually have a horrible headache tonight. I think it is allergy related. my eyes are tearing, my nose is running and my ears hurt! Taking all of my allergy meds! Tomorrow also starts my first time training session. It is supposed to help sharpen skills of Riding in a pack, planning breakaways, bridging gaps, sprinting, working through different race scenarios, Time trialing against the clock in a race format. It is well knows that the best training is racing so these are mock races. 1 week a 30 mile crit the next week a 12.5 mile TT. The team is a USAC AND USAT member. A tri coach is on board for the TT session and has planned to add a 2 mile run on the TT days to make a brick workout for the triathletes. Overall I think this is all going to be very good for me but hard too. The people on this team ride much better than I do so I am going to be dying just to hang in! meal 1 - vega wfo w/coconut water meal 2 - vega wfo w/ soy yogurt, straberries, blueberries & mango, ground flax seed meal 3 - banana meal 4 - black eyed peas, brown rice, broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, clif bar,almonds meal 5 - tofu, red pepper, zucchini, guacamole

Devilman Half-Lite 50 mile Triathlon Race Report

swim 1 bike 40 run 9
 

Pre-race - didn't get to sleep as early as I would have liked because there was alot of noise at the hotel between 9 and 10 when people must have been checking into their rooms. When I travel for eagleman I plan on bringing my white noise machine with me. It makes a huge difference for me in terms of sleeping. I also didn't plan to get up too early since my wave didn't go off until 8:30 but again everyone around me in the hotel was getting up at 4 something for the tri so I was up too. Oddly the alarm clock in my room went off at midnight. that didn't make me very happy. I literally ripped the thing out of the wall. But I had slept well during the week so I didn't really feel too bad once I got myself together and the car packed up and was on the way to the race. I wanted to eat a clig bar for breakfast but I couldn't eat it. I don't think it was nerves thing. I just can't stomach food when I don't get enough sleep especially that early in the morning. I scoffed down as much of it as I could.

Got to the race and wish I brought my bike and supplies directly from the car before going to pick up my packet because it was a really long haul and it would have saved me a lot of time. thankfully I had enough time. One of my gripes about the race was that there was over 700 people doing it and it was just was not staffed well enough. The line for packet pickup took forever! If I didn't have plenty of time it would have been stressful. Also there was literally 1 guy working on bikes. the line for that was long too. I had to wait in it to get my pit stop. When I went back to my car I literally just yelled out does anyone have any tape and a bunch of voices came back "what kind of tape" Triathletes are better than boy scouts when it comes to be prepared. Taped the pit stop to my frame and headed down to transition. Transition was really tight which confused me a bit since they had a huge area in while to put it but only utilized a fraction of the space. The temperature was actually not too cold so I wouldn't be needing any extra gear beside my tri suit. Put my wetsuit on and headed down to the water.

The Race - my wave was the last to go in the swim start. The water was absolutely freezing. I got into the water telling myself out loud. it's not that cold... its not that cold... a women behind me goes "oh good, it isn't?" to which I reply, no it freezing I am just trying to convince myself it isn't. They said the water was 65 degrees but there is no way. My hands and feet pretty much went numb in the minute we were treading water before the swim start. Everything inside my wetsuit was ok. When we started swimming the coldness kinda clipped your breathing a bit. The worst part of the swim though was the men's wave that went before was just coming around for their second loop and it was just got ugly from there. Of course there was the usual get elbowed and kicked which i could deal with. That is just going to happen. What I wasn't fond of what that my legs were getting pulled on. I also felt like I was pushed under more than once. I swallowed some of the pond water which just had my coughing it up pretty much everytime I was trying to breath. It was bad. at one point I thought to myself wow, my day is going to end here. I am going to get pulled out of this water because im dying here. That kinda scared me a bit because I didn't come here to "swim" for a minute. So I literally just stopped swimming freestyle completely and switched to swimming breaststroke with my face out of the water all the water to the next buoy just to collect myself and get myself to the point where I felt like I could swim again. Luckily the plan worked, I of course lost a bunch of time swimming that way. The rest of the first lap wasn't much better Every turn was fight so i went back to breaststroke for it. finally by the second lap I felt like I could swim. There was still some bumping especially around the turns but it was definitely the better of the 2 laps. Part of it I think was the water conditions. Literally the water was a brown/black and you couldn't see anything in it. Normally I would see a person's feet before I felt them but not in this water. It was so weird to not be able to see that at some points I would just close my eyes in the water and only open them when I was breathing or sighting. I think my sighting was ok considering it was my first OWS of the season. I wouldn;t say my form was good on any of the swimming. I was breathing every 2 strokes either because the water was cold or because i had swallowed some of it and my lungs just hurt to breathe. or maybe a little of both. But I made it out of the water and considering the way the swim started that alone was little victory for the day! Time was 25 minutes. The run to transition was far and rough because you were running barefoot over these broken up shells. I had put all of my bike stuff inside of my helmet and put my helmet on my bike so I wouldn't forget anything and someone must have knocked it over because I was looking for my stuff. I was still feeling like crap from the swim and I was talking to myself in transition as I geared up to get myself together for the rest of the race. The things I say to myself sometimes are funny. I amused some other guy in transition because he yelled over to me that I was having entirely too much fun already. If he only knew i was just trying to get myself out of the bike course because i wasn't feeling well at all. The run out of transition to the mount line again was really far and on a dirt road with shells again. I had my tri shoes on but it wasn't a fast run for sure. I couldn't get my garmin started when I first got on the bike. I was a little worried It wasn't going to start but it eventually did and that was good because I needed it for my nutrition times. the bike course was mostly flat. The first 10 miles I was riding well averaging about 20 mph and I was pumped! I thought i was going to ride the course in about 2 hours! then the next 10 miles back you were riding into a head wind. Dropped my avg for those down to about 16. It was a 2 loop bike course and the averages stayed in tact for the second loop as well. I didn't have any issues nutrition and hydration wise on the bike. They had a bottle exchange which was helpful. The only issue I had on the bike was in the last 10 minutes my back and my crotch were killing me. I had to come out of aero a few times just to relieve the pressue and make myself feel better so I could ride on. I think most of it is I just haven't spent enough time on my tri bike. That is one of the drawbacks I see with using Crossfit Endurance training. I just wasn't conditioned to have myself rolled forward over the bike for that long of a period of time. Mostly because many of my workouts are shorter than that and due to weather, road conditions, riding with others etc. all of my longer rides were done on my road bike. Ill see how it turns out on my tri bike for some longer rides in the future. if it doesn't get better Ill have to switch out the saddle. I was passing people on the bike and that felt pretty good. Sad part is some of them passed me on the run but at least I am able to run! got 2:17 off my garmin for the ride. Long transition from bike to run again. My bike and race wheels felt great and I didn't have any issues with the aero helmet. I do right in the head up position so the long tail was down my back and not in the way. It was pretty hot by the time the run started. It didn't really bother me but I did make it a point to take in some water at every water station which was pretty much every mile. The first 2 miles I wasn't feeling my legs. Around mile 3 they started to feel better. In my mind I thought I had picked up my running pace but I don't thin kI actually did as I was running about 10 minute miles for the whole race (Except for the last one). I did walk while drinking my water taking my gel or salt but it was a only a few seconds. I was having trouble drinking on both the bike and the run. I was couching while doing it because my lungs still hurt. The run was also flat and the wind on it actually felt ok because of the heat. I got another nice sunburn. The best part of the run was that it smelled like the beach! The run took me 1:30. My knees were hurting when I was running. Finished the whole thing in 4:22 with transition times etc. I haven't seen the results/photos from the event yet. Curious to see those. THe times I got were off my garmin and the results posted that I saw before I left the race.
Post Race- I actually felt ok other than the lungs. I was still coughing after the race. Packed up the car and headed for the long drive home. That was rough. I am very happy that I won't be driving home from eagleman until the next day because i was tired and it was a long drive. Also jay's hydration protocols had me looking for a bathroom a couple of times. My knees hurt after the race but overall I wasn't really sore just tired. Thought I would sleep really well but while i did fall asleep at my normal time I also woke up at my normal time and various times throughout the night too. I felt good when I woke up other than the knee thing. I also felt pretty good today too. So i added about 20 miles onto my last tri distance and ill b adding another 20 at eagleman.


Only thing on the schedule was a 20 mile recovery ride. Did it with my friend who was recovering from a half -marathon so we werent riding hard but we were riding out in the country so there was hills to climb bu we were talking as much as riding. I am happy that i wasn't sore today. This knee thing a little scary though. It got much better as today went on. It will be interesting to see how the half -marathon goes this weekend. Im not expecting a great time.

meal 1 - bagel and soysage
meal 2 - 5 spice tofu & vegan mac N cheese, brown rice pasta, almonds
meal 3 - tofu, black beans, tvp, onions, peppers, guacamole, tomatoes, daiya & corn crackers. almonds

Live from New Jersey

Im here and ready to take on devilman tomorrow! thankfully I slept well this week! I also followed Jay's little taper to the T for tomorrow. I took Damon out on a little spin this morning. I think the 404 is a losing a little air. I while try to inflate before the race and see how it goes. I may have the onsite bike shop look it over. I need to go and see them anyway because they have some Vittoria's Pit stop for me! that makes me really happy I don't want my race to be over because of a flat! Hopefully I won't need it and everything bike wise will jsut roll smoothly tomorrow. The weather was actually pretty warm when I arrived in town this evening so I am hoping that the water isn't going to be too cold! I am happy i left work early because the drive down was rough. It took me forever to get through Philly. It gave me enough time to get myself in order tonight and relax a bit. It was a rough few days getting ready for this with work being busy etc. but it feels good to not be running around the night before a race. I have to remember this feeling and plan accordingly in the future. Race wise I am just looking to have a good race. my 1st one at the 50 distance. I think it would be good to have some open water experience in this early in the season. Also the bike and run course are supposed to be flat and therefore similar to eagleman.

meal 1 - bagel - little vega
meal 2 clif bar mac nuts
meal 3 - tofu raviolis, seitan
meal 4 - vega wfo w/coconut water
meal 5 - seitan & gnocchi, mac nuts, coconut water

race ready?

been crazy busy and hating the stress of it all. The zipps are on but i was unable to locate the pit stop tubular sealant I want. Still trying a few other options but It looks like I may just have to ride the race without it. I tried all of the local bike shops my hope now if i can find it near the race. Anyway, had trouble getting air into the zipps so that ate up a bunch time. Also my spare tubular wouldn't find the xlab bags so thankfully i had straps from jay and I was able to attach it using those. I gotta say if it weren't for my friend jeff none of this would be going down. he is pretty much keeping me from completely losing my mind today! I only hope that things get better before the race and that tomorrow isn't as crazy as today was. I semi-packed my stuff. I will have to finish packing tomorrow when i get out of work before i drive down to the hotel I am staying at. Wishing the travel goes smoothly and i that I don't forget anything. This is a busy time for me at work between the stress of that and the stress of trying to get everything together I need to keep this in mind which picking out future races. Im sure i will make it through all of it but it isn't going to be an easy day. Sometimes being an endurance athlete is about enduring so much more than yourself. Got in a 20 minute swim this morning. it actually was really fun to just go swim without having to count the laps or go as fast as possible. i actually felt like i was able to focus on just swimming more. Of course I wouldn't wnat to do it all the time i like to push myself but it was fun for a day. Also took a 20 minute spin on the new race wheels. sadly it was super windy so i didn't really get to relax and enjoy the ride. I was kinda just getting blown around a bit. I hope to get out for a bit again tomorrow and hopefully have a better ride. I want to sleep in if possible. I plan on getting out of work early. If something screws that up I am really gonna be behind the 8 ball. I'm learning lots of lessons though. like don't wait on doing any of this stuff until before the race. My head would be in a better place right now if most of this was already done and I just had to travel and race. It is good i am getting that before going to eagleman. I even need to pack earlier when possible. I am actually a little tight and sore today nothing too major so i hope to be rested and in good shape for saturday.

meal 1 - vega wfo w/coconut water
meal 2 - vega wfo w/soy yogurt, blueberries, strawberries, ground flax
meal 3 - clif bar & mac nuts
meal 4 - tempeh spinach peppers daiya
meal 5 - clif bar
meal 6 - tofu, brown rice & veggies

I think that i would die

It was a cold wet track workout this morning but I am happy to get it in. It wasn't ideal conditions but it was the right time to get the workout done as the next few days are a taper for saturdays race.

ran 1 mile to warmup. then 8 x 200 meters on 1 minute rest.
1 - 47
2 - 45
3 - 49
4 - 47
5 - 46
6 - 48
7 - 47
8 - 47
My target time was 45 seconds but I missed it by a few seconds on most of the reps. I am just slow coming off this surgery in the winter. I will put the work in to get the speed back. walked a 400 to cooldown. It was so cod and wet that i was freezing by the end of the lap and happy to go get a hot shower! I do have to say my legs were feeling yesterdays back squats and bike before I even started this.

Deadlifts were the cf portion of today's programming

warmed up going 135x5, 155x5, 185 x 2

Workout was 2 reps on the minute for 12 minutes. I choose to do 185 as my weight for all 13 rounds as it is about 75% of my current 1 rep max. My hammies were already tired from the day before and the running so while I would have liked to go a little heavier this was a good working weight for today especially with the race on saturday.

The training the next few days will be light. I am taking my tri bike into the shop tonight to get the zipps a friend loaned me checked out. I also need to workout a spot for my garmin that I can actually read the data while riding and also pickup some nutrition.

meal 1 - vega wfo w/coconut water & tempeh bacon
meal 2 - clif bar & mac nuts
meal 3 - tempeh scallopini with mushrooms and broccoli, mac nuts
meal 4 - clif bar

zippity do da

got good sleep last night. I'm happy about that as I don't want to go into the half -lite tri this weekend as tired a I went into the sprint last weekend.. Last week was just a bad week with the accident though. I want to sleep well the next few nights because I probably won't sleep well in the hotel the night before.

12 minute bike TT today. due to time issues I actually didn't warmup before the workout. I just went out and hit it for 12 minutes. probably not the best idea. I also didn't get the best effort in due to traffic. I couldn't stay in the aerobars the whole time and I got stuck trying to turn during it which I am sure ate up some time. I avged 19.5 mph with my max at 22.5. HR avg was the 155 max was 165. I covered almost 4 miles. I actually ended up riding longer than the 12 minutes but my watch shut off after 12 so that is the end of my data. I never heard the end workout alarm go off so I keep riding until I realized it had to be longer than 12 minutes and saw my watch had stopped. That is one of my current issues I had to wear my garmin on my wrist because there is no place for it on my tri bike and i can't read it on my wrist unless I sit up and look. I hope to get this resolved tomorrow when I take the zipps a friend is loaning me to the bike shop to see if they are race ready for saturday. I really hope that they are. I want to get the cassette and the brake pads switched out and just be ready to roll! I didn't feel bad when i was riding but I was kinda tired afterwards.

CF wod
7 rounds of
7 back squats @ 95 lbs
5 pullups
time 6:26

I liked this wod because I was able to go unbroken on all of it. I did take little chalk breaks mostly to try to prevent tearing my hands up. I did some back squats to warmup to this weight for the wod. I actually feel better after the CF wod than I did before it. The body is happy to be working again. That is how I get with time off. I know it is good for recovery but I swear in some ways it actually makes me more tired.

meal 1 - tempeh bacon
meal 2 vega wfo w/coconut water
meal 3 - grit tofu, roasted yellow beans & red beets, mac nuts, clif bar
meal 4 - tempeh scallopini with mushrooms, broccoli

come on come on

easier recovery day on the schedule today. I actually didn't feel bad at all today. No soreness and my energy level was ok too. Headed to the pool in the morning. 500 of drills to warmup. Then 4 x 500 on 20 seconds rest. time were slower than normal so i am probably recovery from the weekend.
1 -  9.33
2 - 9.24
3 - 9.41
4 -9.46

So I listened to the body for once and didn't do any other training today. took the extra time to do some errands and cleaning.  I'd rather be training.

meal 1 - vega wfo w/coconut water
meal 2- clif bar
meal 3 - red beans & brown rice, peanut butter
meal 4 - clif bar & almonds

meal 5 - sesame tofu, broccoli, mushrooms, corn & water chestnuts, almonds

Got a few training days coming up then it is taper time for devilman Half-Lite 50 Tri that I am racing this weekend. Work will be busy this week and I will be traveling for this tri so I am going to try to stay on a good schedule this week. 

Tour De Scranton

First here are my race splits from the DACC Tri yesterday.  

Swim        Run         T-1         Bike        T-2         Run        TOTAL 

5:52          32          58       52:11          39       30:00      1:30:09

Surprised the swim was so high. The no flip turns and the lane changing did screw me

up a bit. Actually expected my bike to be higher and my run to be lower. These are 

the best transition times I think I have ever seen. All of my numbers were in the top 

few for females on this course. I actually felt really good after the race yesterday.

A little sore and tired but work up feeling good this morning and just in time for the

tour de scranton which is a 65 mile bike ride featuring 4900 ft of climbing. I rode

the course in 4:34 for an avg speed of 14 mph. avg hr of 137. It was a fun ride and

I am happy that i did it. I actually was a little concerned when we started the ride

because my legs were not feeling fresh and I was thinking if they feel this way now

how are they going to feel after more miles but after the first 20 miles or so they 

actually started to feel better. I felt better at the end of the ride than at the

beginning. I actually ran into a little trouble in the middle where i started 

getting a headache and wasn't feeling great. Then I noticed my left hamstring was

starting to cramp and i took some salt and it really refreshed me and I was good to

go for the rest of the ride. I did a few gels. There was some gatorade at the water

stations that I also used. It all worked ok. I actually was handing out salt to other

riders that were getting cramps.  I had to convince them that gatorade just doesn't

have enough of what they need. I have to say I think following my nutrition actually

had me feeling good through the end when people were really starting to hurt. The

climbing in this course is more stacked towards the end. The last several miles are 

fflat and I still had the legs to put down sub 4 min miles. I'm pretty happy with 

the way that today went. i didn't crank too hard in the beginning but rather paced

pretty well throughout the race. I am especially please with myself for not walking 

any of the hills. Some of them were ugly and steep. A lot of them were long. It 

helped that I was riding my road bike so I had my triple gear available as was able 

to just set a good pace and just keep going up them. Made me wonder if i don't try

to climb hills too hard and fast just to get them over. I actually felt pretty good

on a lot of them that other people were complaining about. me and the hills are still

not friends but maybe we are learning how to get along together.  After the race my 

biggest complains are i'm sunburned, my lips are chapped and my eyes are red. All 

little things. So far my legs don't feel bad. They don't feel fresh but they are

not really hurting yet either. I actually rode this race a little smarter. If I was

hurting and needed to recover. I sat on someones wheel and let them pull me until I 

felt recovered. I did plenty of pulling too especially towards the end.

meal 1 - bagel & gnocchi

meal 2 - bananas

meal 3 - gels, gatorade, salt etc on the bike

meal 4 - potatoes, clif bars,grit tofu

meal 5 - red beans and brown rice