I'm Alive!

My swim yesterday was tough, but I lived.  I took a pre-work that made me feel like I had gone skiing (not literally).  I took a half scoop of Dyno.  You can get some info from BodyBuilding.com or click here.  There is 400mg of caffeine.  This is why I only took half a scoop.  I got lemonade and it tasted like tart lemonade.  I got a slight tingle, but manageable.  Definitely don't take more than a quarter or half scoop if you don't take caffeine often.  I drink coffee and Monsters 3 or 4 times a week and a half scoop of this was enough.  

Sometimes I feel like taking a pre-workout is like cheating.  But, only sometimes.  Some days I'm just too tired to get in a good workout without some kind of boost.  Anyway, here are my swim splits from yesterday's main set of 100 X 10 - fast on 30'' rest (this was done in a 25m pool):

1. 1:30.63
2. 1:29.19
3. 1:30.69
4. 1:31.75
5. 1:33
6. 1:32.69
7. 1:33.19
8. 1:31.88
9. 1:31.32
10. 1:31

So, my Fast pace is 1:30.  I didn't exactly make it, but I'm ok with what I was able to pull off.  It could have been way worse if I wasn't swimming for the last 4 weeks.  That is my one piece of advice for today - don't quit swimming after your A race.  It takes way too long to get used to swimming again.  Especially if you weren't a competitive swimmer.

Then you'll be more like this when you get in the pool:


Instead of this:

Spring Is In the Air

Yes, finally it is Spring time.  Yay!  I haven't needed to wear two layers of clothes on my bike rides in a couple of weeks now and my toes have stayed warm  :).  Training is going well.  Boston is in a week from Monday!  I'm super excited.  I know this year is going to be awesome! 

Here are a few things that I've missed posting in the last month:

• I participated in the Sarasota Half Marathon for the 2nd year in a row and it was awesome. 
• About the race:
• I highly recommend this race to anyone.  It's a small race that's flat with one bridge that you run over twice in the beginning (while you are still fresh).  It's at a good time of year where it's still cool.  I say cool because sometimes it can be 50s and sometimes it can be 60s.  But, not likely to get warmer than that. 
• The medal is awesome and the post-race food is catered by First Watch

• About my race:
• I started the morning with nothing to eat and waited until about 30 min before start time to eat a Honey Stinger Waffle (those are sooo yummy) and some gatorade with a scoop of NO Explode pre-workout.  I had a chance to use the bathroom before the race.  If I hadn't the race would have turned out very badly. 
• Waiting for the gun to go off I was talking with Sarah (and myself) saying that I was just going to go with the flow.  I wasn't expecting to PR and I wasn't going to push myself trying to reach one.  But, I started the race and my first mile was 7:28 and each mile got faster from there.  Except mile 5 which was the second time going over the bridge - that was at 7:35. 
• I took to gels, one at mile 7 and one at mile 10.  I didn't have any stomach issues during or after the race.  The races that are like that, where I don't have any stomach problems, are my favorite.  Regardless of my time. 
• I did PR... by 3 minutes from the St. Pete RnR Marathon that was a month earlier.  Finishing time 1:35:04 - 7:19 min/mi. 
• I have taught one more spin class that went really well.  So, I think I'm getting the hang of it.  My first couple of classes were too structured.  I was literally teaching the class by saying something every 30 seconds or less.  It's too distracting for them and for me.  I will most my spin profiles in another post. 
• I ran my longest distance ever - 28.01 miles @ 8:28 min/mile. 

• This was the longest distance for my Boston training.  I know that some people like to follow a plan that only takes them to about 20 - 24 miles as their longest, but I prefer to get as close to the actual mileage as possible in my training.  I do think there are added physical benefits, but for more it's more the mental.  If I do the distance, I know that when I get to race day, and I can tell myself "you've done this before.  Relax, you can do it again".  Everyone is different though.  Some people are satisfied and feel prepared come race day by breaking up all the mileage throughout the week.  To each their own.  Whatever works for you is what you should do. 
• I decided to back out of the Vineman Full Distance tri this year. It was getting to be too expensive to go out there and I need to save my money to pay for Florida IM and for a wedding next February.  I want to do Augusta again, but I have to see when it gets closer.  Maybe I will miraculously get my money affairs in order.  I don't know, though.  I want to upgrade some of my bike components too.  Decisions, decisions...
• I follow Meghann on Meals and Miles and she got a full time job working for Iron Girl.  I am so jealous.  And, on top of that, she gets to (and is encouraged to) go swim in the Gulf on her lunch break with other people she works with.  Even more jealous.  She also posted a swim session about a week ago with her normal swim group.  A couple of take aways from this:
• Take away 1: When I do kicks in the pool, I normally just go at a normal pace.  Nothing too fast or too slow.  But, Meghann mentioned that she did some of the lengths with fast kicks.  So, the next time I went to the pool, I warmed up with 200 swim, 200 kick, 200 pull.  For the kick and pull, it was one length normal, one length fast.  I like this and I think I will continue to do that.  I never thought about trying to improve my kick.  No one really every talks about making your kicks stronger.   
• Take away 2: I've been thinking about trying to squeeze a workout in at lunch time.  After reading about her swimming at lunch I decided that was it.  So, I tried it out today.  It worked out ok.  I will probably have to take a little longer of a lunch and either come in earlier or stay a little later on those days though.  I need about 15 minutes longer than a normal lunch hour to get to the pool, change, swim for at least 30 min., cool down, change, and then drive back to work.  Notice the time needed to cool down.  Well, funny story.  Today after my swim, I couldn't stop sweating.  I needed to go next door to the SwimBikeRun store to ask some questions about and look at their aerobars.  When I walked in, the bike guy Bruce, asked me if it was raining outside!  LOL.  Hence, I need about 5 minutes to just sit and cool down. 
• My brother, Marcus, and his boyfriend, Myke, are on day 89 of P90X.  They have both lost around 25 pounds each.  I can't wait to see them.  But, even better than this (to me because it's selfish) is that Myke has run a 5k and is now looking to bump it all the way up to a half marathon.  I am so excited about this!  I told him we can plan race-cations together now.
• I got invited to be a part of the elite wave of the new Iron Girl triathlon in Clermont.  I was very excited about this.  It's not like getting invited to participate in Ironman, but I'll take it  :)
• So, upcoming races:
• 4/13 - Escape from Ft. DeSoto (yes, two days before Boston.  I think it will be a nice way to keep my legs warmed up  :) )
• 4/15 - Boston Marathon 
• 4/28 - St. Anthony's - I'm getting pretty pumped about this one.  I haven't been able to do it the last couple of years because I've been participating in the Nautica S. Beach Tri with a team.  
• 5/4 - Iron Girl Tri
• 5/19 - Haines City Half  

I think that about sums up everything that's happened in the last month.  After Haine's City, I don't have any major races planned until the Women Rock Marathon in Minnesota on 8/31/13.  I am definitely going to be looking forward to that one because I'll get to hang out with Sarah for a few days.  Since she'll be moving in June I won't have a good friend and my best running partner around for a couple of months. 

Splish Splash

Oh, swimming, how I love thee.  NOT!  I’d be lying if I said that biking and running didn’t get boring sometimes.  Heck, even doing strength training can get lame at times.  But swimming is so lonely.  I guess it’s not so bad when it’s a shorter workout and the sets are broken up into smaller bits.  Then it makes it a little more interesting.  Training with a group probably makes it better too because there’s a little bit of competition to keep you entertained.  So, why am I venting about swimming?  Well, today was my last long swim for my B2B (Beach 2 Battleship) training.  By ‘long’ swim I mean 7 sets of 600s (12 laps, down and back = 1).  It usually happens where I’ll get to the 5^th set and I just want to quit.  And, I almost did today.  But, I took a little break and chit-chatted with the only other person in the pool at the time for about 5 minutes and then continued on with my 6^th set which I still did half-assed.  I continued on with the 7^th because I knew that this was the last time, for a while anyway, that I would have to do this training number.  These were my times for each set:    

Set 1 - 10:30

Set 2 - 10:15

Set 3 - 10:03

Set 4 - 9:49

Set 5 - 10:08

Set 6 - 15:56 – First 25m was breast stroke, 2^nd 25m was back stroke, freestyle rest

Set 7 - 10:21

While I was at work taking a quick break I read this article about swimming faster called ‘Break the Rules to Swim Faster’.  Of course I was interested because 1) anything I can do to make my swim get over faster is much appreciated, 2) I’ll take any tidbits on swimming faster because, well, I’d like to swim faster.  Just like I’d like to bike faster and run faster, and 3) making improvements also keeps me motivated to keep going.  I was particularly drawn to the pieces about forgetting about perfect form and forgetting about reducing stroke count.  The 36-week Ironman training plan from Trifuel.com that I’m following mentions that a lot in the swim practices.  I’ve tried to keep perfect form when it tells me to and I’ve only tried a couple of times to reduce my stroke count.  It’s too hard to keep track of my laps and how many strokes I'm doing.  I pretty much have a one column spreadsheet in my head and it’s not expandable to two columns unless there’s only 2 or 3 lines max needed.  So, I gave up on the stroke counting.  And, I’m glad to know that it’s not that important to my overall gains in the speed department.  As for perfect form, I do try to maintain it even if I’m swimming fast.  I always thought that if I did perfect form then I would glide through the water better.  But, from the article is seems that just swimming as fast as you can is better than slowing down to try and maintain perfect form.  What the heck, I'll give it a try.