Dropped off the radar

I evidently dropped off the radar for a bit there...It was a mix of things. I'm a little squeamish about blogging when Henry's around because I don't really want to show him how neurotic I am (even though he totally already knows) and then we started our first week of classes and life got sort of busy so I just let myself go. I'm supposed to be on a trainer ride or a long run right now but instead I'm sitting here writing this because I hurt my back again at the gym this morning. It was just one bad set of front squats (set 4) and bam. And the worst part is, I only did about half the workout because I didn't want to aggravate my back any more and yet it's been really hurting all day. It hurts when I stand, it hurts when I walk, it hurts when I sit, I pretty much can't do anything. It doesn't hurt so badly that I feel like I couldn't get through a run if I tried, but I'm worried about making it worse so I'm taking it easy. Let me do all the updates on the missed workouts (mostly without context because I've forgotten the majority of the context by now) and then I can do the update on where I'm at right now.

Thursday: Day off

Friday's Workout: Base run
Summary: 7.00 mi, 1:04:04, 9:09 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 9:43, 9:20, 9:11, 9:02, 8:55, 9:00, 8:53.
Hit rate: 40/43 (93.0%)

This run was solid. I had been having a shit morning (had a shit night prior to it) and I felt awful and discouraged and yet the run was pretty good so I finished feeling somewhat better about everything. The cool weather and overcast skies helped.

Saturday's Workout: Trainer brick
Summary:

• Bike set: 
  • WU: 8 mins easy, 2 mins base of a hill
  • Pick ups: 
  • 8 x 40 on/20 off, base/base/1/1/2/2/1/1 
  • 2 mins easy recovery
  • Main set:
  • 1/1, 2/2, 3/3, 4/4, 3/3, 2/2, 1/1 (+2 90-100 rpm/easy; I actually split the 4 min interval at half +2, half +1)
  • Climbs (16): 2 x 
  • 1 seated, 1 seated + 10 rpm, 1 seated, 1 easy
  • 1 seated, 1 standing, 1 seated, 1 easy
  • I may have screwed up the gears on this and done the first one a gear too low.
  • WD: 12 mins transition spin
• Bike summary: 18.82 mi, 1:20:06, 14.1 mph.
• Bike splits: 13.8, 14.6, 14.5, 13.4
• Transition: 0:58.5
• Run summary: 4.05 mi, 37:02, 9:09 pace. (Henry ran with me!)
• Run splits: 9:23, 9:26, 9:04, 8:46, 7:58

Hit rate: 41/44 (93.1%)

This workout was unbelievably on point. The bike set was rough but the run felt so solid. Part of it was having Henry next to me but part of it was just going for it and not worrying about a possible crash. I felt strong so I attacked the run and it worked so great for me. If I can start off my 10k run in the race like this I will be so satisfied.

Sunday's Workout: Base run

Summary: 7.01 mi, 1:07:36, 9:38 pace.

Pace splits by mile: 9:49, 9:50, 9:36, 9:46, 9:17, 9:33, 9:32, 10:08

Hit rate: 42/45 (93.3%)

I want it to be noted that it was a 90 degree day and it was sunny. There was a time not so long ago when this exact same run in the same weather took me 5 minutes longer to do. There were a combination of things at play, not the least of which I imagine is just less fatigue because I had been working out less intensely that prior week, but I'm definitely acclimating to the heat and that's progress I will take. Also honestly the run started off feeling real poor, it took my limbs a while to get the hang of things but once they were going they were solid so I was really happy with the pick up as time went on in the run.

Monday's AM Workout: CSP Practice, distance free day

Summary:

• WU: 500 swim
• Pre-set:
• 200-150-100-50 kick w/ fins @ 1:55 base
• 10 x 50, 1-4 @ :55, 5-7 @ :50, 8-9 @ :45, 10 FAST (made the first 7…)
• Main set: As per usual I'm not really sure what the pace time situation was because my lane was slower…
• 400 fr @ 6:45
• 2 x 150 @ 2:20
• 400 free @ 6:30 (??)
• 3 x 100 free @ 1:35 (??)
• 400 free @ ??
• 6 x 50 free @ :50
• WD: 2 x
• {100 choice
• 2 x 50 choice}
• I did a mix of pull w/ paddles (free) and swim (free and back)
• Total Distance: 4000 LCM

Hit rate: 43/46 (93.4%)

This swim was brutal. I think I had gone to bed a little hungry so I woke up epically underfueled and the set was long and faster than I could do and it was really all I had just to finish out every set and not skip any lengths. I did it though so I'm really proud. The only upshot was that I met a cool girl who seemed about my age who is faster than me and led my lane. We were also the only two in our lane so it was nice and spacious. And she was gracious enough to wait for me when I wasn't making pace times which was unnecessary but really sweet of her. I appreciated it. I was proud to have just finished that day to be honest. 

The plan had been to take a trainer ride in the afternoon, but Hoang invited me on an evening group ride with him so I did that instead. Maya also came along and she was on a hybrid and new to group rides so we ended up cutting the ride short because she was struggling towards the end. It was a lot of fun though and I had a great time and I'm really glad I chose to do that instead of my serious workout. Sometimes it's nice just to go out and do something and enjoy yourself and not worry too much about achievement/goals/whatever. I mean don't get me wrong, I love being an achievement/goals oriented person and I do think I'm really different from some of my friends in that I really love the pain of a good hard workout and I really chase after that day to day, but I think it's good to throw some chill balance of just hang out and have fun in there too. It helps curve the neuroticism slightly, which is probably good for me. 

Monday's PM Workout: Group ride with South Side Cyclery (we went through downtown and it was sooooooo beautiful and so nice!)

Summary: 20.21, 1:34:56, 12.8  mph.

Pace splits by mile: 12.2, 13.9, 17.4, 10.6, 10.0

Hit rate: 44/47 (93.6)

Tuesday's Workout: Rec swim (w/ Victoria)

Summary:

• WU: 200 free, 200 kick, 200 IM 
• Prep set: 
• 3 x 75 descend @ 1:10
• 3 x 50 descend @ :50
• 3 x 25 descend @ :30
• 50 kick no board easy
• Main Set:
• 6 x (75 FAST @ 1:00, 25 easy @ :30) best average
• 100 easy alt. kick/swim by 25
• 6 x (50 FAST @ :40, 25 easy @ :30) best average
• 100 easy alt. kick/swim by 25
• 6 x (25 FAST @ :20, 25 easy @ :30) best average
• 100 easy alt. kick/swim by 25
• IM Set:
• 3 x 200 IM @ 3:15 
• 6 x 75 stroke/free/stroke by 25 rotate strokes IMO @ 1:20 (probs should've tried to go for 1:15...)
• WD: 200 choice easy
• Total: 4000 SCY, ~1:15

Hit rate: 45/48 (93.7%)

Because of the late night on Monday (I got home late and then I stayed up late just sort of having an honest heart to heart with Henry about fun and achievement and whatnot), I decided not to go to CSP practice in the morning and slept in. Instead I hit up the Wash U pool for the first time with Victoria in tow. She's a great swimmer, would kick my butt if she were in shape but as it stands is a little slower than I am right now. I would have totally dropped the IM set if she weren't there to say that we should keep going, so I'm glad I had her to push me to finish it out. It was nice to be back in short course (although going back to CSP now is probably going to feel newly brutal again) and although I'm a tad slower than I'd like to be, I also realize that I haven't been swimming enough to be able to reasonably expect to be faster. I'll keep working at it. Also, Victoria has these beautiful turns/underwaters that really forced me to at least try to kick underwater off my walls. Positive peer pressure, it's good stuff.

Today's Workout: AM Lift

Summary: 

• Front squats: WU 10 @ 45, 10 @ 65, 2 x 8/7 @ 85. Then I tweaked my back and decided not to keep going.
• DB flat bench: WU 12 @ 25/side, 2 x 6-8 @ 30/side, 1 x 8 @ 25/side (honestly I did sort of quit on the last set and I really shouldn't have...)
• Pulldowns: 4 x 12 (sets 2-4 splits 8-4) @ 6. 
• Walking lunges: 1 set of 12/side @ sb+20 before I couldn't even get the bar off the ground because of back pain...

Hit rate: 46/49 (93.8%)

Honestly I was not happy with this morning's lift at all. Part of it was that I aggravated my back, but worse than that was that my head really wasn't in the game and I wasn't as strong as I wanted to be and it just wasn't fun or enjoyable to be there. And now my back hurts again and I don't know how the rest of my workouts this week are going to go or if they're even going to happen. This afternoon's workout is definitely already something I'm going to have to pass on. We'll try again with CSP practice tomorrow I guess. Since the changes to my schedule are now in consideration of an injury, I'm not going to count any "missed" workouts against my hit rate because the best thing I can do for myself right now is to rest and recovery properly.

As for where I'm at right now, I think I'm going to forego taking an entire day off this week, unless it is Saturday because Saturday is a busy day (coming back from the retreat late, might not have time to get a real workout in and I don't want that to add extra unnecessary stress to my life). At the very least I'll try to swim tomorrow and Friday. If I can, I will try to take a long run tomorrow afternoon as well, but we'll see what the status of my back is. If it still hurts when I walk, putting 10+ miles on it will probably be a bad idea...In the meantime I think I do have to make an effort to stretch and do mobility/core work because my back will never fully heal without it. I also think I should stay out of the gym until after all my races (triathlons in September through to half marathons in October/November) and just focus on letting my back heal completely before I try to get back into strength work. No sense in just repeating this cycle over and over again, I'm only asking for trouble this way. Maybe I'll do strength work mainly with bodyweight or something. In any case, I'll reassess in the winter and decide where to go from there with this whole back issue. 

I did end up going out and buying real cycling shoes today though after I was encouraged by many people to do so. I'm going to head over to Hoang's and have him put my pedals in right now. Hopefully I'll be able to make it back home okay with the new pedals...I'm really scared about not having adequate clip-in/clip-out experience. Wish me luck!

Much love,

Jess