Relaxing

I'm not sure which direction I'm going in with my training. I haven't swam or biked since my last race. Thursday I did a 25 minute run and a 45 minute arm workout. I'm feeling ok, so not great. Not sure what I'm missing. I want to work out hard, but I'm losing my motivation. I have the Muddy Buddy race in three weeks but I haven't been on my mountain bike in over a month. I haven't had anyone to ride with. Skyler won't take me and Carrie is too busy. I'm still looking for my fantasy body shape, but I don't have the motivation because it seems that no matter how hard I push, I'm not getting any better.

Saturday I ran in the Chapman 5k. I finished in 23:02, my fastest 5k time (post high school). I wasn't satisfied because I wasn't 1st in my age group, I was 5th. Carrie finished after me, but placed 3rd in her group. How did my group suddenly get so competitive? My legs were pretty sore that day and the following day. I guess I did push myself.

I thought that my half Ironman race in next March might be my last race, but I think I may have another full race year. Kids were a topic of conversation, but we just can't afford one right now. Maybe in 2011.

Today I am going to swim. I need to speed up my swim. Not sure how to do that, but I will try. Long swim set today.

Plans

So I've been slacking on blogging since my last race. Well, I have a good reason for that. I'm taking some time off....from triathloning, at least. I am done with races for the season so I am going to cut back on biking and swimming. This winter I am going to focus on running and strengthening my muscles and core. So for the past two weeks I have been running and doing exercise videos. I also plan on doing weights at the gym, more cardio (elliptical, stair master), and maybe throw in a swim or bike workout once a week. I am feeling a little lazy about this plan, but I think it will be good for me. Let's see how it goes.

Doing a local 5K on Saturday morning. I'm hoping to place first in my age group. I will be able to do that based on last year's times. Good luck to me and Skyler (his goal is under 20:00 minutes)!

OC Tri

I did great! Well, my swim could have been better...it was about 45 seconds slower than last year, but the rest was faster. My total time was 2:44:06 (2:30 better than last year! Yeah!

My next event is a local 5k next Saturday. I did an at-home workout yesterday. Today I am going to run. Working on speed, not distance.

Tapering continues

Monday I swam at the gym. I swan 67 laps in about 30 minutes. I might be off two or so laps so the time isn't important. Plus it's a taper. I did 10 laps of drills after.

Tuesday I did an at-home workout. It was 35 minutes. I felt a little sore when I woke up this morning so I really need to take it easy tonight. Maybe a short 20-30 minute run.

Tapering starting today

Friday afternoon I rode my bike home. Felt good. I think I might ride my bike more often. I did a workout video for 20 minutes before Skyler got home.

Saturday I went running at Peter's Canyon. It was hot and there are a lot of hills there. I ran for about 45 minutes and walked for about 25 minutes. It felt wonderful to walk through the area. I need to do that more often.

Today I am swimming. I think it will be my last hard swim of the week.

Tomorrow easy run.

Wednesday easy bike.

Thursday easy run or swim.

Friday nothing.

Saturday nothing.

Trying Hard

Wednesday Skyler picked me up from work and drove me part of the way home. I ran the rest of the way. 8.2 miles total in 69 minutes. About an 8:24 mile. Pretty good considering how horrible my running has been lately. I wonder if something is wrong with my quads.

Yesterday I rode to the beach and back. 6:55 to trail, 43:05 to beach, 36:44 back, 9:20 home. I felt like I pushed myself very hard on the way back. Hopefully my training is helping me be faster.

Today I rode my bike to work. I think it's about 12 miles. It took me 50 minutes. I will be riding home too.

Updates

Saturday I did a one hour run. It was hot outside, but it felt great to be running. My feet didn't hurt, so that was a huge plus.

Monday I swam 108 laps (1-1/2 miles) at the Orange gym in 48:28 (26.93/lap).

Yesterday I attempted to do a mountain bike race. I feel twice, my chain fell off, and then my back wheel fell off. I stopped because I was worried my bike would break. It was super embarrassing. I wish it would have gone differently.

Not Bad

This week hasn't been too bad. Tuesday I swam 100 laps at the Anaheim Hills gym. Felt good to swim with the hot weather. Wednesday I did an at-home workout that lasted 55 minutes. Thursday went to gym. Stairmaster for 15 minutes, weights for arms 10 minutes, spin class 60 minutes. Today nothing.

Tomorrow I want to run and maybe ride bike. I have the whole day to myself so we will see.

The Disneyland Half Marathon

Raced in my first run-only half marathon. I was a little nervous because my running has been so horrible lately. I wasn't sure what my goal time would be, so decided that under 1:50 would be great. Surprisingly, I did pretty well compared to the other racers, but I didn't finish under my goal time. My time was 1:51:08. I thought I was running in front of the 1:50 finish group, but it turns out that I was a little behind. I was 31st out of 1340 in my age group. That's pretty good...top 3%. The race course was a lot of fun. All of the fan, bands, cheerleaders, and Disney characters made the race go by so much quicker. My legs were pretty sore that afternoon and the following day. I got a little shortness of breath during the race. It was a tight feeling under my ribcage. I was worried that I would have to drop out but it went away after about 2 miles.

I think I might do the Surf City half marathon in February. Skyler is contemplating the full. He's crazy. My legs wouldn't last.

Today I am swimming, to give my legs a little rest. Tomorrow I'm biking. Thursday running. Friday..who knows? Skyler will be gone all week so I will have a lot of time to work out.

Running Fail

Yesterday I decided to run at Peter's Canyon so I could run up some hills. It was a HOT day yesterday. It was probably 100 degrees in the location I was running. Plus, I had a limited amount of time to run. I only ran about 4 miles and it wasn't even fast. I'm really worried about my running skills. I haven't had a good running day for months!

Tonight I might mountain bike with Skyler. We'll see if there's time!

I <3 Swimming

If I could, I would swim every day! I absolutely love it! Yesterday I swam 100 laps at the Anaheim Hills pool. That equals 2500m, which is 1.56 miles. It took me about 50 minutes, not sure exactly because I still don't have a watch. Hopefully it will arrive tomorrow!

Today I am going to do some running, hopefully for about 50 minutes.

Tomorrow I am going to do a long road bike ride. Hopefully it will be about 2 hours.

Catch-Up Again

Wednesday I did the mountain bike race! So much fun! It was a 3.75 mile loop course. Carrie and I did the beginner race which consisted of two loops. It was fun pushing myself to ride fast on a mountain bike. I never do that.

Thursday I didn't have time to work out because of softball.

Friday nothing of course.

Saturday did a short run, probably only 5 miles total. My endurance level is ready for this race but I'm not sure my body is. My legs have been giving me all kinds of problems. I need to remember to bring band-aids with me during the race in case my pinky blisters decide to act up again.

Tonight I'm swimming.

Tomorow running.

Wednesday biking.

Thursday swimming?

Scary!

Yesterday I swam 96 laps (1-1/2 miles) at the Anaheim Hills pool. I did a couple of 50m sprints in there too. In the morning I did some deep lunges at home. Now, my legs are super sore. I could barely sleep last night. Ahh!

Tonight I am doing a mountain bike race in the Over the Hump series at Irvine Lake with Carrie. I am a little nervous because I don't like going fast on my mountain bike. I ride it for fun. I think we are doing 2 laps that are 3.75 miles each. Fingers crossed that it will go well!

Catch-Up

Wednesday I swam 92 laps. Weird number, I know. Just got annoyed with the person next to me. No times available because I don't have a watch.

Thursday I did an At-Home workout with Jillian Michaels. 45 minutes.

Friday I swam again. It felt great. I think I swam 72 or 80 laps. I like working out on Friday nights, except that the gym was a lot busier than I expected it to be.

Saturday I ran at the beach. I ran a total of 7 miles. I didn't have a watch so I'm not sure of my time.

Yesterday I went running. I ran a little over 5 miles total, but I also did some hill repeats. It wasn't a majorly steep hill but it was still a good workout. My running sucks! I want to be more positive about it, but I think that something is wrong with my legs. Plus, my shin splints are coming back! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Tonight I'm swimming. Tomorrow a mountain bike race. Thursday swimming or running. Friday running or swimming. Saturday long bike ride.

I need a new watch!

My wonderful Puma watched died on me the other day. That watch served me well. It was always reliable. It was waterproof, so I could wear it during races. It is now in a better place.

So now I've resorted to wearing my $5 Target watch. Unfortunatley, it died on me three days after I brought it back out. It allowed me to use it for one last workout last night. So sad.

So now I am without watch and it is driving me crazy! For all my life I have always had a watch. I have two other watches that I could possibly wear but they are not sports watch and not waterproof.

Anyways, last night I rode me bike down to the beach and back. I really wanted to do a hill workout, but I was feeling lazy yesterday. 27 miles total. There was a strong headwind so it took me like 45 minutes to get down to the beach. Obviously, I was way faster coming back. It only took me 37 minutes. I tried pushing really hard so I could get some climbing legs.

I'm not mountain biking tonight because I'm going to the OC Blogger Awards. I'm pretty sure I didn't win, but at least I was nominated. So instead, I will swim.

Good Run Yesterday

The Half Marathon isn't very far away! And I haven't been running well lately. I got a new pair of running shoes last week hoping that new shoes would help. Yesterday I ran 8 miles in 67 minutes. That's a 8:22 pace. Not my finest work, but it's better than what I've been doing lately. After half-way throug the run I felt a blister forming on my left pinkie toe. Two miles later a blister was coming on my right pinke toe. I'm attributing it to the new shoes. I can understand that my feet may need to adjust a little bit since I had been wearing the same style of shoes for two years. And I'm not using the superfeet in my running shoes anymore. I shouldn't need to. So today I woke up and my right knee was hurting pretty bad. Again, my legs are just adjusting. They need the adjustment because I don't think they were in the correct alignment before. I am going to make sure that I do my arch exercises so I don't get shin splints. Then, I will be ready for this race. I need to have a 8:00 mile pace for it. I can do it!

Tonight I will probably ride my bike. I need to get my bike legs back. I would love to go mountain biking, but there isn't anyone to ride with this week. Oh well.

Good Swim

Yesterday I swam 80 laps at the Anaheim Hills pool (2000m). It felt great to be back in the pool. I think it's been almost two weeks. My total swim time was 39:58 minutes. And then my watch died. I'm so sad because I really loved that watch. It was the perfect mix between normal wear and sports wear.

Not so great this week

Monday I did a long run, but "ran" into quite a few problems. First, I was carrying a backpack because I was dropped off from work 9.5 miles from home. The backpack rubbed against the back of my neck the whole time. Second, my left shoe started rubbing on my arch. It made me stop running at the 7 mile mark. Third, my time sucked! I was running 9:00 miles!...something I wouldn't expect at all!

Tuesday nothing because of family pcitures.

Last night I went mountain biking with Carrie. It was nice to do some climbs. We rode the Oaks. We didn't time it perfectly because it got dark before we were done. I got scared of mountain lions. Luckily we didn't see any.

Tonight I am swimming and then softball.

Horrible Running

Tuesday was the worst run I have ever done! I think it was a combination of the 100 degree weather and me being sick, but it was horrible. I started at Weir Canyon and was planning on running for 30 minutes and then turning around. Within a few minutes I was ver hot and tired and had to go to the bathroom. I guess my bladder couldn't wait because I started to go. I had to find a bush quickly. I rested for about 3 or 4 minutes then started running again. I was so tired! I stopped at the turn around point. I had to use the bathroom again! Argh! Luckily I was bear a porta-potty. Did that, then started running again. Had to stop after 15 minutes. I started to get the chills since I assumed isn't good when it's 100 degrees outside. I jogged the rest of the way back. I still ran 7 miles but it was start-stop most of the time. It was super frustrating. Tomorrow I am going to run in the morning, before it gets too hot.

Yesterday I didn't work out because we went to the OC Fair. Double-whammy...no workout and ate bad, bad food. Today I am riding my mountain bike with Carrie. It's been too long. I'm pretty excited.

Tired is an understatement

Brandon is crazy! Saturday Skyler and I rode our bikes to UCI (21 miles) for a track workout. Brandon met us there. We did a one mile warm-up. Then we started doing 800m sprints around the track. 800m is probably the hardest distance to run because it's too far to sprint but too short for pacing yourself. I ran 7- 800m (1/2 mile) sprints in 3:30 minutes each. Skyler did 10 and Brandon did 12. We ended with a one mile cool-down. I was so tired because I was feeling sick, it was hot, and I was pooped. After the workout, Skyler and I rode the rest of the way to the beach where we met Kenny and Jill. Then we rode home on the river trail. We were gone for 6 hours and both got so sunburnt.

Today I will probably run. I need the miles to be ready for the half marathon.