anti climax and brs day

quakerman race report: 3:00 a.m. the weather looked pretty crappy, so it was decided that we wouldn't drive to an event that was looking like it would be cancelled or partially cancelled. i had set my alarm for 4:00 b/c i wanted to check again in an hour..but set it for 4:00 p.m. oops. woke up at 8:30 a.m. what a bummer! ever so resourceful CM (coach maija) suggested that i go for a long bike and swim today instead, where she would time me on a 1.2 mile swim including 100m splits. since i was overloaded with a scone, 5 cookies and major carbs from the day before i was rearing to go.

i biked for about 2 hours and felt good about the cadence and speed, and whenever i had the urge to mash it, tried to pedal faster instead. i'm still a little nervous about biking by myself b/c of my sense of direction (how cool would that be if you had a gps stuck to your bike?!) so there are not a lot of options for me as to where to go (straight, turn only when you have to). i was trying to eat on the go, w/ gatorade every 10 mins and a few bites of a cliff bar every 15 mins but halfway through my cliff bar, some jerk in a car honked at me and i dropped it. doh! well to his credit, i do need to learn how to steer and eat.

original plan was to bike for 3 hours then meet cm and sb at the pool but after about 1:30 of biking i had an urge to do a track workout, or at least try to. so after 2 hours on the bike i put on the running shoes, and since the track was being used for a game, i did intervals of 4x5 mins fast plus 2 mins rest. i swear, time does not pass more slowly than when you're doing interval runs. i didn't feel like i was going very fast although the effort going into it was certainly there.

then onto the swim, and it was a pleasant surprise to see G there w/ matt, and coach joe (or former coach joe). we did the pre-race workout and then maija got me into the timed 1.2 mi swim. we set a goal time of under 37 minutes, which made me nervous! and then we set up a plan that she would indicate every 10 laps w/ her hands, and then the last 10 laps with a kickboard, and the last 1 lap with a yellow stick. so off i went, listening to bohemian rhapsody playing in my head and wondering what the heck is a "fandango", counting out of lack of anything else to keep my pace. i noticed that i was getting nervous (i was worried about making 37 minutes, i thought i was going to do 40) and out of breath, esp on the flip turns so i stroking to the mantras, "relax" and "just keep swimming." i got pretty tired around lengths 40 to 60 and started feeling a little sick again. i started feeling sick during the run since i'm not used to drinking and eating on the go. i was thinking of telling cm that i didn't want to do it anymore but she would probably just kind of stand there at the top of the pool until i kept going, and that pause would have added to my time. finally i was on length 70, in my mind i was gunning it the last 10 and finished. 35:12 baby!! cm pointed out my splits and i had actually done a 1:34 the first 100 and had hit the high 1:40's and even a 1:50 towards the middle and end (when i thought i was going super fast those last 10 laps). looking back, i slowed down after the first few laps b/c i was afraid i wasn't going to be able to keep it up, but then i'll never know if i can keep it up until i try.

so even though today wasn't a race day, it was a really good workout day and i really appreciated cm timing the splits and counting the laps for me. after the swim i just lay on the bench for a good 10 minutes. apparently i am "prone to overtrain" which i have heard from multiple sources for a while, so i need to consider revamping my workouts getting used to a few easy days and a few hard days rather than having some moderately easy and moderately harder days. and eventually work in lifting weights =oP