Transitions

I am letting myself go lol. And it's not a bad thing. I think I need to learn to let myself go if I'm going to do the rest of my life and really be happy. Achieving stuff is pretty cool. This year and everything that's gone into it and how much I've improved has been really cool. But I want to feel like I have control over my life. I want to feel like I can make choices about what I do and don't do on any given day. I want to take a little bit of pressure off of myself and be a little bit happier than I usually am.

So really what I'm saying is I've been training less. I'm sort of throwing the plan out the window. And unfortunately with that goes a lot of the goals. I'm not expecting to run very fast at the 10k because despite the fact that I'm supposed to be in peak training weeks right now, I've taken four straight days off from training (and 6 off from running). I'm doing life instead and I love it and I'm willing to sacrifice a good 10k time to just do life instead. It's weird, this isn't how I usually roll, but I think it's something I needed to come to terms with and I'm glad I'm doing it.

I think the other responsibility I'm going to drop for a little while is this blog. It's been fun and it's been really meaningful and helpful to have a place to reflect on training and voice my frustrations and record everything I've accomplished and to let myself be proud of how far I've come. But I guess without really concrete goals and without me being really committed to something right now, it seems like a bit of a time sink that I don't need. I'll keep logging the way I used to, in short form locally on my computer, but I think I'm going to let the daily blogging fall away for a while. I'll probably be back at some point, but I don't know when or why. I'm sure I'll know when the time is right. For now, I'm going to go on a new adventure of finding the new balance in my life now that all the priorities have shifted. Wish me luck. (:

Much love,
Jess

No apologies...

[Day 160]

...For being missing for a few days this time. I was busy enjoying my weekend and I don't do that often enough so I'm glad I just let myself go and did whatever this weekend. And then I started work on Monday so things have been busy managing life and real work hours. That having been said, I do owe you/myself some training/race updates so let's get to it! (:

Skipped the swim on Friday morning because I had cramps Thursday night and wasn't sleeping well, took the Friday evening interval workout as planned, did a way better job than I thought I would and was really happy about that.

Friday's Workout: PM interval run, main set of 2 x 1 mi @ 10k pace (7:35-7:50) w/ 3 mins rest, 3-4 x ½ mi @ 5k pace (7:05-7:20) w/ 3 mins rest (walking rests)
Summary:

• Totals: 7.27 mi, 1:11:23, 9:50 average pace
• 1 mi splits: 7:40.2, 7:38.4
• 1/2 mi splits: 3:35.6 (7:11), 3:37.4 (7:15), 3:34.9 (7:10), 3:36.4 (7:13)

Hit Rate: 21/28 (75%)

Took Saturday off as planned so I could be ready to try and run fast on Sunday! At which I was sort of successful. Went a 23:17 (official time), which wasn't what I had hoped it would be (was aiming for a 22 something) but I feel okay about it. Aimed high, fell short, still came away with a PB which I'm not gonna complain about.

Sunday's race official: 5k, 23:17, 7:30 pace

Sunday's race via Garmin: 3.14 mi, 23:24, 7:27 pace, 182 spm average

Pace splits by mile: 7:24, 7:22, 7:42, 6:36

Hit Rate: 22/29 (75.8%)

Thoughts about the race: It was harder than I thought it was gonna be. It was a rainy cool day, which played to my advantage, no wind which was good, but I just didn't have enough in me for the third mile. The first mile felt strong, the second mile took a little pushing to hold pace and I really genuinely thought I could sustain that effort through mile three but I just didn't have it. I think I did mentally quit a little bit when it got tough and I settled for something in the 7:40 range when I probably shouldn't have, but really there was genuinely not much left in my legs at that point. Henry has a wonderful (read: awful) finish line photo of me and the look on my face is just such a disaster. I push my jaw forward when I'm in a lot of pain because it helps me restrict the tension to my face so it doesn't tighten up my shoulders when I'm running, but it looks so terrible, you can tell I'm just absolutely dying. In any case, it was what I had to give. 

For reference, when I ran this race last year, my splits were 7:25, 7:43, 7:50 so I was able to really improve on that seeing as I can hold that first mile pace for another mile now. The next time we do this (early July), the goal will be to see it through for all three miles. We'll see how it goes. For now, I'll take the PB and move on.

Monday's Workout: AM easy/base run, 8 mi

Summary: 8.44 mi, 1:23:53, 9:56 pace, 172 spm

Pace splits by mile: 10:08, 10:12, 10:12, 10:04, 9:55, 9:49, 9:43, 9:48, 9:07

Hit Rate: 23/30 (76.6%)

This one felt bad. It was a fasted morning workout the day after a race, what was I expecting really? I just felt sluggish the whole way, it felt like a struggle just finishing, although the splits will speak to the fact that I did seem to get warmer after the first four miles and things were incrementally improving as the run went on. In any case, it was just a run I took to get some more miles in, and that was all I needed from it.

Tuesday's Workout: AM CMSC practice, mid-distance free day

Summary:

• WU: 400 swim, 3 x 100 swim
• Pre-set: 4 x 150 @ 10-15 SR, 50 kk/50 dr/50 sw
• Main Set:
• 6 x 50 @ 10SR, odds build to 80%, evens hold 80%
• 3 x 200 @ base (3:10), descend 1-3
• 4 x 50 @ 10SR, odds build to 80%, evens hold 80%
• 3 x 200 @ base +5 (3:20), descend 1-3
• 2 x 50 @ 10SR, odds build to 80%, evens hold 80%
• 1 x 200 @ base +10 (3:30) - this was 3 x 200, descend 1-3 as written but we ran out of time
• WD: 100 easy
• Total Distance: 3400 LCM

Hit Rate: 24/31 (77.4%)

I was not a happy camper about going to this practice. I had been really emotionally upset about a lot of things the night before, although Henry did eventually get me to sleep. I didn't get a ton of sleep, I had actually planned on not going, but I woke up around 4:50 and I would've felt awful if I just went back to sleep so I sucked it up and went to practice. I really wasn't feeling it at all. I swam in the 1:35 base lane, turns out that the pace times are fine although everyone in the lane is super super fast which made me feel kind of crappy because I just like hung off the back 10-15 seconds behind everyone else and it's sort of obvious that I'm really slow. I couldn't really find a good excuse to leave the lane though. Honestly the slower lane is just way too slow and it wasn't like I was missing pace times or getting lapped so I felt like I just needed to suck up my pride and put my head down and do the work. 

In reality though "doing the work" was really just finishing. I didn't try that hard, I didn't actually descend anything, I just swam and made the pace times and that's all I did. I actually really wanted to leave like pretty much immediately after the warm up, and I kept saying to myself, "Okay I'll leave after this set", but I never did. I just kept saying it after each little bit of the set and at some point it was like, "Oh it's actually time to leave". So yeah, I got through it somehow. Only other notable thing was that I had that right shoulder kink again during warm up, but it actually didn't bother me at all during the set (my swimming was probably higher quality during the set), so hopefully it stays better.

This morning I skipped practice, just didn't feel like going, so this is happening...Hit Rate: 24/32 (75%) And this PM, I took a run!

Today's Workout: PM base run

Summary: 8.42 mi, 1:14:21, 8:50 pace, 173 spm average

Pace splits by mile: 8:55, 8:51, 9:03, 8:56, 8:45, 8:47, 8:48, 8:55, 7:55

Hit Rate: 25/33 (75.7%)

This was supposed to be a tempo run, but I've decided that I really don't care. There is so much in the world that I do care about and feeling the weight of expectations tethered to all of my workouts was really getting to me. I would like to go back to that phase of my college club swim career where all I did was show up to as many practices as was reasonable given whatever else was going on in my life and racing on random weekends knowing I was going to swim terribly and actually swimming terribly and having a blast doing it anyways. I want to be fit enough to race and enjoy the experience of racing. Improving and dropping time and winning things on the occasion is fantastic, but it takes so much out of me in order to do that. Sometimes you just have to decide when things aren't worth it anymore. I want to have mental and physical energy to put towards my clinic work and my studying and the time I have to spend with Henry and friends. I want my life to drift a little more closer to normal because I've been getting tastes of it here and there recently and I really like that. I want to keep racing and training because I love it, but I don't want either of those things to feel like a chore. It was starting to feel like a chore. So I'm gonna drop the expectations and the run training plan and just swim and run and try to do things because they're good for me and because I love them. I've never been good at that, but I'm gonna try. I'll still keep "planning" in the sense that I'll pen things into the calendar ahead of time because if I have no structure I'll just spend all my time napping, but it'll be flexible and there will be no demands on the kinds of workouts I have to do. Gonna keep working on that whole balance thing.

In any case, with regards to the actual run today, it felt sort of interesting...I knew it was a comfortable pace mentally just from the info I was getting from my legs and from my heart rate and breathing rate and what not, but it really never felt comfortable. I have a bit of a head cold so my nose is simultaneously really runny while feeling really dry and I've been coughing so my airway is a little irritated and the end result is that I think that's why I never got comfortable. It's hard to be comfortable with a head cold. The weather was cool though and the pace was quick in a very relaxed way and I was surprised that I was able to take a run at this kind of distance at this kind of pace and have it feel as good as it did. I really hope that's not an anomalous thing, I really hope my natural running pace is just coming up bit by bit. It'll take a lot of time to sort that out though, I'll try not to read too much into one run.

The plan as of right now for tomorrow is morning swim practice and a run with Henry in the evening. We'll see what actually happens. Happy Wednesday! (:

Much love,

Jess

Taking an extra day off

[Day 154]

After some talk about it with Henry last night, we decided to forgo running today. I need the extra recovery day, I wanna do well this Sunday, that involves actually being rested so I'm going to rest today. I will count it against the hit rate, but I won't count it against my chain/streak thing because I do think I'm making the right decision. Be back tomorrow. (:

Hit Rate: 20/26 (76.9%)

Much love,
Jess

Sometimes I need to listen to my body more

[Day 153B]

So there are these two completely conflicting things that I find myself saying to myself a lot:

"Start where you are, not where you want to be." - for when I get too aggressive and try to do too much too fast.

"Bite off more than you can chew and chew it." - for when I'm scared of what I have planned and I need a little jolt of motivation.

I'm really bad at toeing the line between these two sentiments though. Inevitably I just spend all my time swinging too far from one end to the other and the balance seems like it's never there. But I think I'm starting to realize that balance isn't a thing anyone has perfected from day 1 when they draw up their plans. Every time I make plans I find myself changing them precisely because things feel off-balance and I need to get myself back on track. Today was life reminding me that I'm veering too far in one direction and I have to center myself again.

I'm not recovered. You'd think that'd be obvious to me given the fact that I don't really sleep through the night because of the nagging pain in my legs but no. I gave what I had to that tempo run and boy was it rough. The first 2 miles at HM pace were actually pretty solid, legs felt heavy but the pace wasn't hard to find or hold. As soon as I tried to hit the 10k pace mile though, things just fell apart. To the point where when I did finally decide that there was no way I was going to be able to do the rest of the workout and I should just run home at whatever pace I felt like, I couldn't even keep myself running at faster than 10:30 pace AND I was taking walking breaks. It was a rough day. I got ambitious this week with the residual soreness from the weekend combined with adding swimming back into my schedule and it wasn't prudent to be doing what I was doing but I did it anyways. Now I know I have to step back. And I have to go back to my calendar for the summer and re-plan things out in a way that will allow me to get the most out of my job and my training and the time I have here in Boston. And the way to do that is definitely not the way I've been going about it right now. Will have to figure out where the right balance is.

Today's PM Workout: A planned tempo run that sort of devolved into do whatever you can, logged as 6 miles in an hour, there was a good 2 mi pick up at HM pace (~8:20) in there.
Hit Rate: 20/25 (80%)

I needed a wake up call. Life gave it to me. Re-vamped schedule for the week involves not doing stadiums tomorrow and taking an easy short run with Henry in the AM instead. Then swim practice and an interval workout on Friday, Saturday off, and race day Sunday! Yay!

Much love,
Jess

All I do is sleep

[Day 153]

Things accomplished today: Woke up, went to practice, came home, ate breakfast, promptly fell back into bed and just woke up again. Good job Jess lol. Doubled up yesterday, so here's the summary from yesterday and today!

Yesterday's PM Workout: Easy run, 4 mi
Summary: 4.34 mi, 42:00, 9:40 pace, 176 spm
Pace splits by mile: 10:05, 9:29, 9:53, 9:41, 8:21
Hit Rate: 18/23 (78.2%)

This was way harder than I thought it was going to be. My legs just didn't feel with it, it was a struggle for most of the way until we did a little pick up push at the end of the run. Henry pretty much pulled me the entire time. I know he has a much easier time running with me when I'm beside him but I spent a lot of the run tucked in behind him because my legs just didn't feel like they could go any faster. It was rough. But whatever, we got it done.

Today's AM Workout: CMSC practice, IM day
Summary:

• WU: 400 swim, 3 x 100 swim
• Main Set: I have no idea what any of the pace times were, I was just going last and leaving 5 off the person in front of me...
• 4 x 150 @ base + :10/:15, 100 fly/50 back, 100 back/50 breast, 100 breast/50 free, 100 free/50 fly
• 4 x 100 @ base + :10/:15, 50 build stroke/50 recovery choice
• 4 x 50 @ base + :10, 15 underwater fast/35 recovery choice
• (break)
• 4 x 150 rolling IM @ base + :10/:15 (pretty sure these were on the 2:50?)
• 4 x 100 @ base + :10/:15, 25 stroke FAST/25 recovery choice (pretty sure these were on the 1:50?)
• 4 x 50 @ base + :10, 35 moderate/15 sprint to the finish (pretty sure these were on the :55?)
• Did these 1-3 free as written, 4 easy b/c ran out of time lol
• Total Distance: 3100 LCM

Hit Rate: 19/24 (79.1%)

Swam a lane up today, was definitely the slowest in the lane and really hope I wasn't ticking my lane mates off by being too slow. They seemed fine though, they left on whatever interval they were doing and for the most part I made all the pace times so I wasn't really holding people up I don't think. And I wasn't THAT much slower than the second slowest person in the lane lol. I'm gonna try to stick it out and see how things go with swimming in this lane. I don't even know what base pace they were using, but whatever it was, it worked for today.

I'm feeling stronger in the pool than I was expecting to. I mean long course fly is non-trivial but I managed to make an okay go of it. I had some pain in my right shoulder today but it's because my hand tends to deviate outwards on my freestyle catch, especially when I'm breathing to the left. If I'm careful about my freestyle form, my shoulder holds up fine, so I guess it's a good thing that it nags at me when I swim poorly. 

My legs are less sore today than they were yesterday for sure, but they're still keeping me up at night and they're definitely far from perfect. Gonna try and take that tempo run today, I feel pretty confident in my ability to at least hit the HM pace intervals, but less sure about those 10k pace intervals...just gotta remind myself that how I feel is probably not gonna be an accurate reflection of what my body is capable of and I just have to not freak out and focus on holding good form and get after it even if it seems way harder than it should be. Hopefully things will go alright. I'll report back in the PM.

Much love,

Jess

Back to CMSC (:

[Day 152]

Today's Workout: AM CMSC practice, mid-distance free day (test set day)
Summary:

• WU: 400 free, 3 x 100 free
• Pre-Set:
• 300 as 25 kick/25 drill/50 swim
• 4 x 150 free @ 10SR, 50 easy/50 build/50 cruise 
• Main Set:
• Test set of 10 x 100 free @ 1:40 (made them, yay!)
• 100 easy
• 2 x 200 free @ 3:30
• WD: 100 easy
• Total Distance: 3200 LCM

Hit Rate: 17/22 (77.2%)

Went to master's! Swam a lane down from where I usually swim, but will probably be moving back up tomorrow because I led the lane and I think they normally swim on a 1:45 base pace which feels a tad slow (even though 1:35 or 1:40 would be super challenging based on where I am right now, I think it'd be worth it to go back up a lane and try and hang with the faster swimmers). I don't feel as out of shape as I was expecting to, honestly the stroke felt strong, my legs which are completely non-functional on land presently actually did pretty well in the water, all in all I'm really happy with it. Long course will take some adjusting to, the pool feels endless and sometimes I don't stay focused the entire length and my form really drops off towards the end of each 50. I'll just have to figure out a way to cue myself back into focusing on my swimming since there's no wall at the 25 to help me reset. But yeah, it was a good way to get back in the pool. Hopefully I'll keep that up.

The plan was originally to take a tempo run today but I think I'm gonna swap today's run for tomorrow's because my legs definitely aren't up for it yet and I want to hit that workout right. Will take something short/easy with Henry today and try and hit the tempo run tomorrow instead. Trying to keep quality the priority. 

Much love,

Jess

Falling off the radar

[Day 151]

Exams will do that to you! I am pleased to report that I did in fact survive exam week. As of yet it is not officially known whether or not I actually passed all my exams, but I think I did fine, so I will just pretend that I did pass and that I am done with first year of med school for real. I came out to Boston on Thursday after my last exam and have been mostly adventuring with Henry. We went paddleboarding on Friday, hiking on Saturday, and ran stadiums with Tony and went to a movie yesterday! It's been good. I'm not gonna bother logging paddleboarding and hiking here, although it's up on Garmin Connect if anyone really cares. Here are the rest of the updates:

Yesterday's Workout: AM stadiums (~1/2 of Harvard stadium) + dryland circuit (5 rounds)
Summary: dryland reps

• Push ups: 19, 16, 14, 14, 15 (78 total)
• Sit ups: 14, 15, 14, 14, 14 (71 total)
• Dips: 24, 21, 22, 24, 23 (114 total)
• Squats: 21, 21, 21, 22, 22 (107 total)

Hit Rate: 15/20 (3 skipped exam week workouts; 75%)

Today's Workout: PM easy run, 4-5 mi

Summary: 4.88 mi, 43:38, 8:56 pace, 175 spm

Pace splits by mile: 9:21, 8:56, 8:45, 9:00, 8:34

Hit Rate: 16/21 (76.1%)

Notes/thoughts:

• I'm really sore today. Really hoping that fixes itself by tomorrow because I have a tough tempo run on the books (and I'm planning on swimming in the morning, so it'll also be a double day) and I'd like my legs to be functional for that. 
• The Harvard stadium is brutal. They were not kidding. I'm gonna try and work on that while I'm here, good way to try and keep some power/kick in my legs for the cycling while I'm away from my actual bike.
• For some reason my body was like, RUN FASTER RUN FASTER my entire run today. I was gonna go for an easy 9:30-10:00 paced run and the entire time my brain/heart/lungs were like ew this is too fast what are we doing but my body was like, nah this is good let's keep going. It was bizarre. But I guess that instinct is also exactly why I do what I do. Sometimes I think at the core of who I am is just this sort of crazy inexplicable desire to go faster all the time. I guess that's why I keep at it. 

So yup, master's swim practice in the AM tomorrow and a tempo run in the PM. Wish me luck! (And happier legs!)

Much love,

Jess

Easy run

[Day 142]

I think this may be the last workout I get in before I head to Boston. Things are getting real crazy with exam week stuff, so good luck me...Took an easy 6 miler today, ran with Brian, he was struggling a little bit (maybe b/c it was warm? maybe because it was early? idk) so we took it slow. He made it though, which is good and fairly impressive because he didn't sound like he was doing too hot. I also honestly wasn't feeling great the first 3-4 miles, but things settled down for me in the last 2 and they felt real smooth and real easy, so I don't really know what the deal was with that either. In any case, here are the deets.

Today's Workout: Easy 6 miler
Summary: 6.13 mi, 59:41, 9:44 pace, 175 spm average, not gonna worry about the splits today b/c it's late and they don't really matter lol
Hit Rate: 14/16 (87.5%) - this is about to plummet...loooool

Beeeeed time. Happy Saturday! (:

Much love,
Jess

Sometimes I run fast!

[Day 141]

Took an interval run today. Needed more sleep last night lol. Opted to walk the 1/4 mile recovery intervals, no regrets on that front because the running was spectacular. I'm finally starting to see run training sort of like swim training and things are falling into place in a way I really wasn't expecting. Details first, then thoughts.

Today's Workout: Interval run, 4 x 1/2 mi @ 10k-5k pace descending (under 7:45/7:40/7:35/7:30) w/ 3 mins rest (jogging), 8 x 1/4 mi @ 5k pace (7:05-7:20) w/ 1:30 rest (I walked these)
Summary:

• Totals: 9.05 mi, 1:27:09, 9:37 pace
• 1/2 mile splits: 3:51.9 (7:44), 3:47.7 (7:35), 3:44.1 (7:28), 3:39.7 (7:19)
• 1/4 mile splits: 1:47.7 (7:11), 1:49.2 (7:17), 1:48.4 (7:13), 1:48.6 (7:14), 1:48.9 (7:16), 1:49.2 (7:17), 1:47.3 (7:09), 1:48.2 (7:13)

Hit Rate: 13/15 (86.6%)

The half milers felt real relaxed today. The pace just came real easy and I tried to ease into all the repeats so that I picked up speed as the interval went on. I also tried to channel the kind of focus I have during races into my running today and really worked on feeling smooth and strong instead of thinking too much about effort. There's a huge difference between trying to run hard and trying to run fast and I think focusing on the latter is what made my run today so good. For the first time I'm starting to see how this crazy pace I'm working around could be do-able for an entire 5k. It doesn't feel like I'm fighting the will of the universe every time I try to get up to that pace, it feels like a good aerobic pace instead of a push push push push push kind of pace, the breathing is much more under control now than it had been when I first started doing these interval runs. It's all coming together and I love that I'm finding a comfortable, smooth, AND quick stride. It's something I'm familiar with in the pool, that the key to swimming fast is feeling fast in the water. Turns out the same thing applies with running on land. In any case, been really excited about the progress I've been making with the running. Have no idea if this will translate in race conditions yet, but just knowing that I can hit workouts like this and throw around speed I definitely thought I didn't have makes me happy. Time for more studying!

Much love,

Jess

What is training fasted...

[Day 140]

It's been the first time in a while that I've literally gotten up, thrown clothes on, and went for a workout. When it was routine, it never felt as good as a fed afternoon workout, but it didn't feel terrible either. Now that it's not so routine, my body was rebelling against me as hard as it could this morning. I swear I was half asleep the entire run. Everything felt hard, my legs didn't feel like turning over, it was short and slow yet somehow still real rough. Glad I got out and did it though, another full day of just sitting around studying would've probably killed me. (My schedule didn't allow for an afternoon run break so I opted to just get something short in in the morning before things picked up for the day. Case in point: I'm writing this from lab at 9:30 pm. Yeah it's been one of those days.)

Today's Workout: AM easy run
Summary: 4.58 mi, 43:29, 9:30 pace, 174 spm average
Pace splits by mile: 9:26, 9:42, 9:35, 9:34, 8:56
Hit Rate: 12/14 (85.7%)

Officially speaking I think I'm gonna try and get that interval run in tomorrow afternoon. I also have a lot of studying to do though and some errands to run and I have to cook for lunch which may turn out to be a major time suck...we'll see how productive I am and play it by ear. If I don't have time or the mental energy for something hard and heavy, I'll just take another easy to moderate 4-6 miles and live with that because I'm in med school and exams are a thing and what are you gonna do right?

Gonna head home and do core work and stretch and hit the sack now. Happy Thursday! (:

Much love,
Jess

And there goes the dropped ball, but it's okay

[Day 139]

I go to med school. Sometimes I think I can suck it up and be exhausted and get on fine doing what I do but that's just not true. Opted to nap in the pm today because I was entirely non-functional. Chose to focus the rest of my time on school work rather than on squeezing in a workout. It was the right call. It's nice to not be training super seriously for something and have the ability to just axe workouts when I have to prioritize other stuff. I spent a lot of the past few months feeling torn between all of these different things that I wanted to accomplish. It's nice to have a single clear priority that I can put above other things and not constantly feel so conflicted about. Gonna try and run in the AM tomorrow if I can. No promises lol.

I'm tempted to drop the hit rate count because I know it's not gonna look good, but I'm also really curious about what the hit rate will turn out to be if I continue tracking it and choose to just live my life instead of constantly trying to work my life around training. I think it'll be an informative number honestly so I'm going to keep tracking it, even though I think there's a chance it might make me feel a little bad. The knowledge is worth that risk. Besides, I finished that last training block on a stellar 91.6% while still managing to do med school, so I'm allowed to drop the ball however much I want now. xD

Hit Rate: 11/13 (84.6%)

Send me good vibes for a good studying day tomorrow, I'm really needing it for the upcoming exam week. (:

Much love,
Jess

PS - Still going strong on that daily core/stretching! So proud! (:

Rainy days

[Day 138]

Today's Workout: PM easy run
Summary: 4.90 mi, 46:40, 9:31 pace, 173 spm average
Pace splits by mile: 9:31, 9:38, 9:23, 9:37, 9:25
Hit Rate: 11/12 (91.6%)

Ran with Brian in the rain today. Took the bike path so we were a little short of 5 miles but whatever. Interval run on the schedule for tomorrow.

Much love,
Jess

It's a good thing the schedule is flexible

[Day 137]

Some days you got work to do and your long run has to be a not so long run. Whatever school's the priority.

Today's Workout: AM base run, 6 mi
Summary: 6.17 mi, 54:42, 8:52 pace average, 179 spm average
Pace splits by mile: 9:17, 9:14, 9:01, 8:46, 8:29, 8:27
Hit Rate: 10/11 (90.9%)

Easy run in the AM tomorrow. Happy Monday e'erbody! (:

Much love,
Jess

Rest!

[Day 136]

I'm really just procrastinating work by writing this. I always forget to do posts on rest days so I guess it's good I'm doing it. Am a tad sore from yesterday, not the worst thing in the world but it's been forever since I've been in the gym and experienced gym soreness that my brain is just like, noooooo nooooooo nonononononono. Yeah. Long run tomorrow morning, considering doing it fasted just b/c I'm limited on time. Don't know if that's a good idea, but it'll be a slow/chill pace so it couldn't hurt right? I'll take some Shot Bloks before I head out (and maybe eat right before bed tonight to try and keep energy stores up when I wake up) and hopefully things will be chill. We shall see.

I somehow slept like close to 10 hours last night and still woke up tired. What a crazy life. I also haven't made/found time to go grocery shopping and am not sure when this week I'll get to do that. Slightly concerning. We'll see what comes of that too.

Happy Sunday! (:

Much love,
Jess

Dranks and the gym

[Day 135]

Was planning on taking a ride this morning. Didn't, by virtue of spending last night getting wasted out of my mind and pretty much all of today dying because I was so hungover. Did go to the gym with Hayley, had a really chill session b/c I was still hungover...Opted to keep all the weights really conservatively low since it's been like a month since I was last in the gym.

Today's Workout: PM gym sesh w/ Hayley
Summary:

• Back squats: 3 x 12 @ 95#
• Flat bench: WU 12 @ 45, 3 x 12 @ 75#
• Pulldowns: 3 x 12/12/8-4 @ 7 plates
• Straight arm cable pulldowns: 3 x 12 @ 5 plates
• DB rows: 3 x 12 @ 40#

Hit Rate: 9/10 (90%)

Taking tomorrow off and getting back at it next week. Happy Saturday! (:

Much love,

Jess

Suck it, expectations!

[Day 134]

Lol I think I'm better at tempo runs than I am at intervals. Or maybe I'm just better at working out when my stomach isn't pissed off at me? Who knows. I had a great run today. Was expecting it to be tremendously horrible because the set was tough, but it was actually super great. Numbers first, then thoughts.

Today's Workout: Tempo run, 1.5 mi WU, 4 mi @ HM pace (8:10-8:25), 4 mins recovery (under 11:00), 1 mi @ 10k pace (7:35-7:50), WD (should've taken a longer WD but really didn't want to so...yeah...)
Summary: 7.53 mi, 1:06:01, 8.46 pace, 180 spm average (!!!!!!!!)
Interval Splits:

• WU: 1.5 mi, 14:33, 9:42 pace
• 4 mi @ HM:
• 1-2: 16:40 (8:20 pace), 105 ft gain, 10 ft loss
• 3-4: 16:30 (8:10 pace), 66 ft gain, 125 ft loss
• Recovery interval: 4:00, 0.41 mi, 9:43 pace
• 1 mi @ 10k: 7:42 pace
• WD: 0.62 mi (loooooool), 6:46 (loooool), 10:54 pace

Hit Rate: 8/8 (100%)

Notes/thoughts:

• Little bit of anterior knee pain in the R leg, probably related to the fact that my IT band on that side is really tight, but it's okay b/c I'm taking 2 days off from running (probably gonna ride my bike tomorrow and I'm also hitting up the gym with a friend who wants to get into lifting) over the weekend and will be sure to do lots of stretching and maintenance stuff to get that fixed up.
• Mile 2 of the 4 mi tempo was rough. It was mostly this long protracted low grade uphill and I was thinking that if I had to maintain that effort for another two miles I might die. Turns out it made the rest of those miles feel like cake because yay subsequent net elevation loss! Lol
• My brain is definitely adjusting its definition of "pick it up" pace. Like HM pace used to feel insanely fast to me and now it feels sort of just like generic quick running. Gotta focus to stay there, but not as destructive as it used to feel. 
• The 1 mi interval started off really great. The first like 1/4 mile-ish of that was fast and fantastic and then things started to gradually fall off. It's kind of like swimming I guess, the third leg is always the hardest, b/c the third 1/4 mile of that was bad. And then it was like, DON'T FALL OUT OF THE PACE RANGE RUN JESS RUN for the last bit so it all turned out fine in the end, but uh trying to figure out what a consistent 10k effort is is something I'm gonna have to work on.
• I didn't walk the recoveries! I walked a little bit after the 10k effort, but even then it was a tiny bit before I was back jogging again. I just didn't feel as generally wrecked by this run as I had been feeling after the last few fast runs, which is good. My stomach cooperating had a big role to play in that I think.
• The crazy thing is, I'm here like, omg I did so awesome yay! And then I look at next week's workouts and obviously they get harder because that's what workout progressions do and I'm back to freaking out. xD But not in a bad way. I actually felt really confident going into today's workout because I felt really good on yesterday's easy run and so I had faith in the ability of my legs to do what had to be done, which was nice. I'm going to try and carry this momentum forward into next week so I don't spend all my time cowering in fear of upcoming workouts. It'll be tough but I think I have it. And I'm getting back in touch with my inner age group swimmer who is all like "tough things are the funnest things to do ever!" and half of me is like "yeah!" and the other half of me is like "who is this crazy chick and why are we still friends with her?!" Lol crushing workouts is/are immensely satisfying though, I'm pretty lucky I get to do this in my free time. 

Work work work work work for the rest of the day now, followed by the screening of our med school class show!!!!!! Just listen to this awesomeness: click here. So pumped! Happy Friday everyone!

Much love,

Jess

Falling short

[Day 133]

I had a rough night last night, had a late start this morning, had to cut my run short so I could still make it to small group/lab. Disappointed that I wasn't on top of my sleep schedule, disappointed that I didn't suck it up and get up early enough to get my entire run in anyways, just generally disappointed with myself.

Today's Workout: AM easy run, 4 mi (planned 5 mi)
Summary: 4.05 mi, 39:31, 9:45 pace, 178 spm
Pace splits by mile: 10:23, 9:55, 9:23, 9:25
Hit rate: 7/7 (100%) - I honestly don't even feel good about giving myself credit for this run but I know that dropping a mile on an easy day isn't actually as atrocious of an offense as it feels like to me...

Notes/thoughts:

• That mile that I dropped this morning is probably going to haunt me for a while, especially if I fall short of my goals/expectations this summer. I'm not good at letting things like this go. It's probably a terrible trait of mine, but I can't help it. Cutting things short or not giving all the effort I want to give just doesn't sit well with me. I can't help it. 
• I started out real slow but was surprised that after about15-20 minutes my legs seemed to get into it and I actually felt real strong and smooth on the way home. It reminds me of in-season swimming. I need insanely long warm ups to get my body into it but it will perform if I give it time to warm up. Apparently this may be a thing that holds true for the running as well.
• Freaking out about tomorrow. The run is gonna be long and tough and ends on some real fast running and I just don't know what to expect of myself and the level of effort it'll take to hit all the paces right. And the thing is, I really don't think I can mentally take another disappointing day. I need a good day, I really need a good day, but I have to make those good days with my own two hands (or I guess legs in this case) and the pressure feels really crazy sometimes. I don't know if I can do it, but I know I have to try and I know that if I try and I fall short, Friday night will be a long one and I don't want that. Pressure pressure pressure.

Have a good Thursday folks (:

Much love,

Jess

Can't stop won't stop

[Day 132]

There's a lot I feel like I have on my mind but not so much that I want to write down. Let's talk numbers, then feelings.

Today's Workout: PM run, intervals

• 15-20 mins easy WU
• 4 x 1/2 mi @ 10k pace (7:35-7:50) w/ 3 mins rest (jogged the first three, walked the last)
• 4 x 1/4 mi @ 5k pace (7:05-7:20) w/ 1:30 rest (walked these)
• 15-20 mins easy WD

Summary: 7.56 mi, 1:16:28, 10:07 average pace
Interval splits:

• 1/2 milers: 3:53.1 (7:46), 3:51.4 (7:43), 3:40.7 (7:41). 3:51.7 (7:44)
• 1/4 milers: 1:47.6 (7:10), 1:48.3 (7:13), 1:49.0 (7:16), 1:49.7 (7:19)

Hit rate: 6/6 (100%)

Notes/thoughts:

• My stomach was really bothering me today. About 10 minutes into my warmup, I had some pain and nausea started up and I just thought to myself, Jess you've gone to swim practice on so much worse and cranked it out, there's no reason you can't do this. So I did it. With some amount of compromise. I let myself walk half the rest intervals because I felt like I had to to keep the contents of my stomach in my tummy. I felt pretty horrible, would have much rather gotten to just concentrate on the running instead of concentrating on fighting the feeling in my stomach, but you know what, it's been a while I think since I've been really mentally challenged and I always welcome that. I think you need to be mentally challenged regularly to remind yourself that you can dig deep and overcome that so I'm glad I was forced to be tougher today than I am on any other regular day. 
• I was really surprised by how easy the 5k paced 400s came. 1/4 mile is an incredibly short distance apparently. Honestly the first four 1/2 milers didn't feel great compared to last week, but I got through them fine, and I was just worried about not having any kind of speed in my legs but I shot through that first 1/4 miler and I knew I was gonna be fine. I would like to not be walking recoveries in the future but it let me do the important work on pace and kept me from having to throw in the towel early so I'll take it for today. 
• There's something qualitatively different about running at 10k pace versus 5k. It's really interesting to be finding run speed gears because I'm starting to learn the difference with my body in terms of how to maximize efficiency at each pace. The swimmer part of my brain turns on and that's just what it does. It's really amazing to have been doing sports my whole life and still get to learn new things about my own movement and feel those patterns form and shape and adjust as I get better. That's one of my favourite things about exercise and it's really awesome that intervals really bring that out for me when it comes to running.
• I've genuinely just missed working hard and getting my ass kicked by workouts. I feel like I had a lot of intensity the past few months on the bike trainer because that's something I've been really focusing on and trying to improve on, but I haven't been very intense in the pool and I have never been very intense about running. It's just really satisfying to lay everything you have out on the line during a set and then spend the 15-20 minutes of warm down willing myself to not drop dead on the side of the road or in the park somewhere because I'm almost too tired to even want to go home. That's fun, I get a kick out of that. 
• I want to be really proud of what went on today. I don't feel it as powerfully as I know I should. These paces are cake to so many people but this is insanely fast for me and is a level of running that I didn't think I was capable of doing. So I want to be insanely proud and insanely happy with myself. Instead I feel sort of meh because I walked some of the recoveries and I feel like I should've jogged them but I didn't. I don't want that to drag me down but it does. I'm a little too ambitious for my own good sometimes. I'm bad at just being happy when I do a good job. It wasn't a perfect job, but it was a good job and I should be proud. I am trying to just repeat that to myself over and over again and perhaps it will eventually cement in my head as reality. Who knows.

Easy run on the schedule for tomorrow, 5 miles on the schedule, I'll play the turn around point by feel because I feel pretty wrecked from today and I do want to actually recover tomorrow so I can hit another insane tempo run on Friday. In other news, have a running agreement with Henry that I'm going to try and do 10 minutes of core work and 10 minutes of stretching every night, so I'm gonna finish the work I have to do tonight and then go do that. Working hard, staying hungry. Happy Hump Day! (:

Much love,

Jess

EM II exam today help

[Day 131]

Today's Workout: AM easy run
Summary: 4.56 mi, 43:18, 9:29 pace average, 177 spm average
Pace splits by mile: 9:40, 9:43, 9:32, 9:23, 8:54
Hit Rate: 5/5 (100%)

Definitely feeling a little bit of residual fatigue from yesterday but nothing horrible. Freaked out about having to run fast tomorrow as always but I'm sure it'll be fine. It was drizzling a bit today and there was some lightning, which kind of freaked me out because EM II has made me really scared about getting struck by lightning. Evidently I didn't actually get struck by lightning, so it's all good lol. So much studying to do today. Interval workout tomorrow! Happy Tuesday folks!

Much love,
Jess

Long run (:

[Day 130]

Today's Workout: PM long run, 10 mi
Summary: 10.46 mi, 1:41:46, 9:44 pace average, 176 spm
Pace splits by mile: 9:47, 9:53, 9:42, 9:49, 9:48, 9:23, 9:50, 9:42, 9:50 9:41, 9:24
Hit Rate: 4/4 (100%)

Still marveling at the fact that I can take this distance at an easy pace and have it actually feel comfortable nowadays. There was a time where every 8+ mile run hurt simply by virtue of it being long, no matter what the pace. It's kinda cool to find progress in how far I can run comfortably. Legs are feeling it now, but in general I'm doing pretty well today. I was really hungry the last 3-4 miles though which was rough. Was really just thinking about running home so I could eat. Food = life.

Easy run on the books for tomorrow morning. Will probably take 4 miles but we'll see how I feel. Happy Monday everyone!

Much love,
Jess

PS - I just stretched! Yay good job Jess (:

The spring training post-mortem

[Day 129]

There's so much data from the past four months that the idea of going through it freaks me out. So know that I'm writing this as I'm looking through everything and I expect the post to be way sloppy because it's so unplanned. But honestly, if I had to put more effort into it than this, the reflection would never happen so I'm gonna do this and be satisfied with it.

Here's what the full schedule ended up looking like (if you click on the images, they should get bigger):

And here is the month by month breakdown via Garmin:

• Swimming: 
• Jan: 9 swims, 19.13 mi, 11:10 total hrs
• Feb: 9 swims, 18.52 mi, 10:15 total hrs
• Mar: 5 swims, 11.08 mi, 6:15 total hrs
• Apr: 9 swims, 14.82 mi, 8:21 total hrs
• Biking: 
• Jan: 9 rides (all trainer), 172.43 mi, 12:21 total hrs
• Feb: 10 rides (4 outdoors, 6 trainer), 250.59 mi, 17:59 total hrs
• Mar: 6 rides (5 trainer, 1 outdoors, 2 bricks - 1 trainer, 1 outdoors), 163.01 mi, 11:17 total hrs
• Apr: 8 rides (2 trainer, rest outdoors including 1 brick, 2 races), 185.08 mi, 10:59 total hrs
• Running:
• Jan: 10 runs (6 treadmill, 4 outdoors), 41.44 mi, 6:37 total hrs
• Feb: 10 runs (1 treadmill, 9 outdoors), 67.68 mi, 10:43 total hrs
• Mar: 15 runs (all outdoors, 2 bricks), 93.47 mi, 16:04 total hrs
• Apr: 11 runs (all outdoors, 1 brick, 2 races), 56.74 mi, 8:40 total hrs
• Other: 
• Jan: 11 sessions (6 lifts, others were core/rowing/etc), 8:50 total hrs
• Feb: 6 sessions (5 lifts, 1 other), 7:10 total hrs
• Mar: 6 sessions (5 lifts, 1 other), 6:57 total hrs
• Apr: 3 sessions (2 lifts, 1 other), 3:15 total hrs
• Total time by month:
• Jan: 38:58 hrs
• Feb: 46:07 hrs
• Mar: 40:39 hrs
• Apr: 31:22 hrs
• Totals: 
• Swim: 32 swims, 63.54 mi, 36:01 total hrs
• Bike: 33 rides, 771.11 mi, 52:36 total hrs
• Run: 46 runs, 259.33, 42:04 total hrs
• Other: 26 sessions (18 lifts), 26:12 total hrs
• Time: 156:53 hrs

Okay that was actually sort of cool to compile. On one hand, the numbers are too large for me to really comprehend so it's like, oh apparently I worked out a lot. On the other hand, it's cool to see what the swim/bike/run distribution looked like.

Overall thoughts:

• On the goals from back in these days: 
• Consistency w/o burnout towards the end of the big training block: Somewhat accomplished? I think I definitely did way better than I did in the fall and managed to keep up what was for me a very high volume of work both in terms of training and school and somehow stay on track for almost four entire months. There were some off days/weeks towards the end both because of inevitable schedule issues relating to travel and just mental things (some weird mix of burnout, anticipation, and anxiety) but it was a margin of error I am more than happy to accept. I feel like if I can hit serious training blocks like this every time I went for it, I would be in a fantastic place. Sure, there's always room to improve when it comes to consistency but given the constraints of reality and the fact that there's much more to my life than just this sport, I am 100% satisfied with what consistency looked like this block.
• Picking up the slack on the biking and swimming: Biking yes! Swimming no...Which I'm sort of okay with honestly. I think there's still room to improve on the biking. That's something that I want to continue working on moving forwards. My swimming hasn't been improving but it also hasn't been getting significantly worse and for now I'm willing to accept that while I focus on upping my game in the disciplines I'm weaker in. I've gotten a lot better as a cyclist these past few months and I really hope to keep that moving in the right direction as time goes on. I will say that the lifting supplement to my swimming did go phenomenally well this block, something else I hope to keep up as time goes on.
• Run mileage: goals were 20-25 miles per week which turned out to be waaaaay ambitious. I had a few kinks in the early parts of the year involving my knee and my IT band that kept that from being a reality, but I was there in that range in March (which was my highest volume month) so I would consider that a success. I'll be running a lot between now and July so we'll see where the weekly mileage lines up in the upcoming weeks/months. 
• Core/stability/mobility/stretching/recovery: Um no. Fail. I have always sucked at this and pretty much continued to suck at it this cycle. This is something I'm going to try and work on more in the upcoming months. 
• Being more present: I think I'm getting better at this. I think I still have a long ways to go before I am where I want to be. I think what has improved is my acceptance of myself and the things that I feel and the way that I think. I think I'm more okay with being who I am and having the quirks that I have and accepting that one of the consequences of just being me is that I'm maybe not going to be as happy as other people are sometimes and that's okay because it is what I want and what I choose. I think I'm better at being thankful for having the ability to do what I choose to do. That's valuable. Do I still have to work more at being present? Yes, but in terms of my mentality as a whole, I think I'm moving in the right direction. I hope the people who have been reading this madness agree.
• On the future:
• Honestly training is going to be way less serious in the upcoming year because I know I need to focus on other things like school. There are plenty of things that I want to work on because there are always plenty of things that I want to work on, but I think it's important to take it one step at a time and remember that it has to take a back seat compared to some of the bigger things happening in my life right now. So for the next few months, the two main things I'm going to be working on are as follows...
• Running: Most of my races are running races in June/July, so I'm going to focus on running for now. (After that, there'll be a mix of different races from August through October so I'll probably get back to a more balanced tri training schedule. By the time the winter rolls around, I expect to be switching over from endurance work mode to strength work mode because I've always wanted to put some work in at the gym just getting stronger. I've never really had the chance to focus on that specifically because I've always been doing one endurance type race or another. Since there really aren't races on the calendar after October, I expect to have some time to just hit the gym and have fun focusing on something that is normally more of an accessory part of my schedule.)
• Core/maintenance/stretching: I suck at paying attention to this and doing this and I really need to make it a more habitual part of my schedule so it's something I'm going to try and really tackle in the next few months.

There is so much more I could look at and so much more I could talk about and over-analyze when it comes to this stuff but honestly, I want to leave it at this: I did something in the past four months that I didn't think I was capable of doing. I think I've worked harder than I've ever worked in my life (not necessarily just in regards to training, but in regards to literally everything else too) and I've learned a lot about myself and my limits and my strengths and my weaknesses. Most of all I've learned a lot about how to make this life and my passions work within the constraints of reality and I've learned that I have the best support person in the universe who does so much to give me the best chance I have at reaching my goals. I couldn't have imagined any of this would go the way it had when I first laid out all my crazy plans at the beginning of the year. I couldn't have imagined that it would be so hard. I couldn't have imagined that I would realize that it is so hard and keep going. I couldn't have imagined that anyone would support my crazy crazy life and my crazy crazy dreams. I've been so lucky just to experience the things that I've been able to experience and come out the other side. Sure, there are a billion ways in which I've fallen short along the way but I really couldn't be more satisfied with my decision to try. I couldn't be more thankful to have had Henry standing beside me every step of the way. I couldn't be more proud of how far I've come. 

The lofty goals are getting laid aside for a little bit. You can bet I'll keep training and keep working and hopefully keep improving, but the priorities are definitely going to shift in the next few months and maybe even years. I'm going to try to be a little less uptight and a little more forgiving and a little more focused on school. I'm sure everything that's gone into these past four months will only help me even as things start to change. It's just another adventure and I'm sure it'll take me to just as unexpected places as this one has, even with all my overbearing planning. I hope you'll stay with me as I take it on. Happy Sunday everyone!

Much love,

Jess

PS - It was a rest day today. I didn't do much of anything, which was fairly glorious. Long run tomorrow! (:

Learning to train faster

[Day 128]

I psych myself out a lot when I try to run fast. I consider myself a slow runner. You can put any amount of distance in front of me and I don't generally find it too daunting because I just tell myself I can run slowly and go forever. Fast running freaks me out and for the most part I feel like I can't do it in contexts that aren't racing. I'm trying to work on that though because I want to be faster and today went a long way towards boosting my confidence in my ability to run fast on just a normal day of the week.

Today's Workout: PM tempo run, 1 mi easy, 4 mi @ half marathon pace (8:10-8:25), some amount of WD
Summary: 5.82 mi, 51:54, 8:55 average pace, 175 spm average
Pace splits by mile: 9:31, 8:22, 8:17, 8:17, 8:19, 11:07
Hit Rate: 3/3 (100%)

The run didn't feel as hard as I was expecting it to. Once I settled in, it took a lot of focus to hold the pace but it didn't really get painful until about 2.5 miles into the run. The last mile hurt but it didn't feel like I had to reach too hard to stay on pace, it was just that it was starting to get to me by then. I really tried to focus on my breathing because Henry had commented that my breathing yesterday was atrocious, and I think it helped today, both with my running and with keeping myself mentally calm so I could stay relaxed through what my body was feeling. Henry biked alongside me while I ran today and really helped keep me positive and keep my confidence up which was super key. I was definitely scared going into this workout and doubtful of my ability to do a training run at this pace and to have him reassure me as I was going really helped get me through enough miles to objectively look at my effort and say to myself, "everything is okay and I can do this". It's crazy that I still doubt myself even though I've done a half marathon at that pace but honestly I just never train at anything close to race pace so playing around with that on a normal day is still a new phenomenon for me.

Between yesterday and today, I'm feeling really good about everything that's coming up with run training. Seeing as I can't really bike or swim or lift for the time being with all the bike crash related injuries, I'll just keep focusing on my running and trying to make the best of this situation. I'm excited to spend a bit of time just working on getting faster and building confidence in my ability to train faster than the moderate pace I like to take all my running at. Happy Saturday! (:

Much love,
Jess

And so it begins again

[Day 127]

I should've written something yesterday but I didn't because it was a day off and I was busy doing other things, like watching the new Captain America movie with Henry lol. Don't judge me, it was awesome. In other news, I took the first interval workout of this block today! Yay! Henry came with and ran most of it with me and pushed me through the tougher moments. Here's the summary:

Today's Workout: Interval run, main set of 6 x 1/2 mi @ 7:30-7:50 pace (yeah, I know that's a wide range but I like to give myself breathing room - goal 10k pace) with 3 minute jogging rests and some amount of warm up/warm down
Summary: 7.83 mi, 1:15:15, 9:36 pace average, 170 spm average (not super informative b/c there was some walking and some stopping for water, etc. etc.)
Interval splits: 3:49.7 (7:39), 3:52.5 (7:45), 3:50.8 (7:42), 3:49.3 (7:39), 3:52.5 (7:45), 3:48.7 (7:37) - In the interest of full disclosure, I did walk a little bit instead of jog for some portion of the rest between rep 5 and 6
Hit Rate: 2/2 (100%)

Notes/thoughts:

• The first two felt so easy and so smooth and so good. And then it all went downhill from there. The last two were brutal, wouldn't have hit the last one if it weren't for Henry running next to me and telling me to stick with it. 
• The speed actually isn't hard to find surprisingly enough, what's hard is holding onto it as I get tired. It's nice to know that I have the pace, I just have to work on accessing it when my brain wants my body to slow down. 
• Running fast is fun. Hard, but fun. It's cool to really feel like I'm moving at some amount of speed, I don't do that very often so when I do it's a really awesome novel feeling. 
• Good start to running shorter and running faster, excited to see where things go from here. (:

Happy Friday folks!

Much love,

Jess

Recovery recovery

[Day 125B]

Took an easy run in the middle of the day today. Partially to clear my head, partially to see how the body is doing post-race. I took two full days off, which I don't always do before my first post-race test drive, and I think it was a good call. I felt pretty good on the run and stronger as the run went on which is always nice. I also haven't collapsed in the hours since (which happens to me sometimes, even when the workout itself feels good), so I think I can genuinely say that my body is doing well. That's good because I'm gonna jump right into 10k training starting this Friday and I wanted to know that my body would be ready for it. We'll see how the harder workouts go later this week. Here are the deets:

Today's Workout: Easy run, 4 mi
Summary: 4.21 mi, 39:52, 9:28 average pace, 176 spm average
Pace splits by mile: 9:45, 9:46, 9:29, 9:03, 8:39
Running Hit Rate: 1/1 (100%)
Overall Hit Rate: 1/1 (100%)

You will notice that I'm resetting the hit rates for the summer block! I want to really focus on improving my running between now and the BAA 10k at the end of June, so I'm making a run workout specific hit rate to track how I'm doing on the running specifically. I will probably let the overall hit rate carry over all the way until August when I do the Chicago Triathlon. Yay!

Another day off tomorrow and then we get back to work starting Friday! Alright, back to studying now. (:

Much love,
Jess

Race Report: Wildflower Olympic Distance (Collegiate Division)

[Day 125]

I'm gonna try and get back on that daily blogging bandwagon soon. As in right now. So let's talk about Wildflower. (:

The lead up: I returned from Collegiate Nats and was immediately greeted by a looming neuro midterm. As a result, I only got two workouts in between Nats and Wildflower, which honestly I didn't think was the most terrible thing given that it was meant to be a recovery week anyways. I got an easy run in on Monday (4.21 mi, 40:39, 9:39 pace) and an easy ride in on Thursday (12.83 mi, 47:04, 16.3 mph) and that was that.

Travel and pre-race: Travel was a little insane. To make a long story short, we grossly underestimated the amount of time it would take to get from the airport to the race site. This made it pretty awkward for our one teammate who was racing the 70.3 on Saturday (we had flown out on Friday) who wasn't able to get to bed til close to 11:30 pm Friday night. A few of us decided to get up early the next day to help her get set up at the venue so it was an early morning. I was able to go back to the lake house we had rented for the weekend and get some sleep after that though, so it wasn't too bad.

The day was filled with some random adventures, including going to the town's only breakfast place and market to get food and spending some time at the venue after the 70.3 to get our bikes fitted (we were all riding rentals because transport from Clemson was too complicated, and it turned out to be pretty cool because I got to ride a full carbon bike for the first time). A highlight of the day was probably being lied to about the distance of a closed road on course and being told we could talk to the venue in 1.5 miles when in reality it was closer to 5 miles away from where we were. Yeah, it was a bummer. We walked for a long time. After bike fitting in the afternoon, we went home and had dinner and relaxed and packed/prepped for race day!

Race day: I got up at 4:30 am for a 5:00 am departure to the venue. Had the typical bagel and banana breakfast and then rolled out to get transition set up. This race was a little different because there were two T1s, one where the bike course starts (T1b) and another where the swim ends (T1a) because there is a 2.2 mi run from the lake to the bike transition. After setting up T1b, we took a shuttle bus over to the swim start and set up T1a and hunkered down for the start. Because the shuttles were only running until 7 am, we got to the start really early. The sprint racers were off at 8 am and the Olympic distance waves didn't start until 9 am (I was in a 9:05 am wave). During that time, I had a bottle of water, a Clif Bar, and three Shot Bloks and just sat around with my teammates, waiting for the race to start.

Swim: I took a dip in the water just after the 9 am collegiate men's wave start to get a feel for the temperature (a nice toasty 70F which I swam in my sleeveless wetsuit) and we were off at 9:05. I started at the front of the women's pack but slowly got dropped by the lead girls as we rounded the first turn buoy. It was a tough course to sight on the way out due to the glare of the sun off the water. I ended up sighting the wrong buoy after the first turn buoy and got pretty off course before a kayak redirected me in the right direction. I was pretty upset with myself at that point because I knew the lead girls had probably pulled a good deal ahead of me at that point but if anything, it really lit a fire underneath me and I kicked up my swimming a notch to try and make up for lost time. It wasn't long before I was catching the boys from the collegiate men's wave ahead of me and rounding the turn at the halfway point in the swim. There were two other pink caps with me the whole swim in that I tried to keep ahead of on the swim back to shore. In the end, my split wasn't as horrible as it could have been given that I went off course, but the off course-ness of it all definitely showed. I was still the 7th collegiate female out of the water though (out of 61 athletes who went on to complete the race), so I was satisfied with that.

Garmin numbers: 1,877 yards, 28:43, 1:32 min/100yd pace
Official numbers: 27:32, 1:50 min/100m pace

T1 and Transition Run: I was super super dizzy coming out of the water. The transition was situated on this huuuuuuge boat ramp and the combination of gravity and changing blood pressure from getting out of the water and trying to transition on a ramp instead of flat ground really messed with me. I just kept falling over as I was trying to get my wetsuit off and put my shoes on and get all my things shoved into the bag we were given to store our T1a items for transport back to the finish line by race staff. It was sort of a mess. Eventually I got it worked out though and set off on the 2.2 mile transition run.

The run started off real rough. My lungs were exploding because that's the nature of starting the run out of the water and we had a huge ramp to climb followed by another uphill before we got to the rolling terrain. The run also finished on another huge long boat ramp which wasn't the most pleasant thing in the universe. I definitely tried my best to just enjoy the process though because we were running along a trail that ran through the dried bed of where there lake used to sit before the draught caused it to recede as much as it had. It was definitely the most beautiful terrain I had ever raced on and despite the fact that the course was really tough (and turned to sand at some points), I just tried to remember how blessed I was to be able to do what I was doing and to have the opportunity to be there and racing. I didn't push very hard on this run, just focused on being steady and getting to T1b so I could get on my bike and do what I knew was going to be A LOT of climbing.

Garmin numbers: 2.37 mi, 22:01, 9:16 pace, 172 spm average, 285 ft gain, 171 ft loss
Pace splits by mile: 9:34, 8:50, 9:40
Official T1 time: 3:58

Bike: The climbing was real. I was on a light bike with a better set of gear ratios than my own bike though and was surprised by how manageable the climbs were. Of course, I didn't ride very hard on any climb, just kept the gear real low and tried to spin up slowly (5-7 mph speed). I definitely opted to let people who wanted to pound pass me. Part of it was fear of blowing my legs out early, but another part of it was realizing that my knees were not at all prepared for a the kind of strain that would accompany this volume of climbing so I opted to be conservative.

I tried to enjoy the scenery on our ride out and keep a reasonable level of effort. I definitely took advantage of the downhills, hitting a max speed of 39.6 mph. I took my gel early in the ride rather than later, spreading out my consumption of the gel over the course of many many miles because I didn't want to run into the same issue as I had during Nats where I couldn't get my gel down at the end of my ride. Somewhere along the way out, I passed Brian and he and I leapfrogged for a little bit before I made a serious push to get and stay ahead.

Then on the way in, there was a small disaster. We had crested the third big climb of the ride and we were around the 16 or 17 mile mark in the ride and I was just riding away on this nice straight flat section when I dropped my head for a little bit because I was tired. A combination of things happened at that point. My very twitchy bike (yay first time riding a full carbon bike...) hit an uneven patch of the road where potholes had obviously been patched and all of a sudden my front wheel was out from under me and I was bouncing on the pavement. My left shoulder hit the ground first, then my head (which bent my neck forward from the impact), then the rest of my body. I was lucky enough to have bounced off of the road and slid into the dirt so no cyclists behind me hit me (and many asked to make sure I was okay, which was nice of them). The adrenaline meant that I felt absolutely nothing at that point and I got up and checked out the bike to see if I could keep going.

By some miracle, the bike was virtually unscathed. I had to fix a dropped chain, realign the front brake, and reattach my hand pump to the frame, but then I was right back on my way. I took stock of my situation once I got back on the bike. I had hit my head but I hadn't blacked out and I wasn't having any problems with vision or any cognitive symptoms, so I figured I was likely not concussed. I couldn't rule out the possibility of a slower presenting brain bleed, but that also wasn't likely to get me for another couple hours anyways so I ignored that possibility. I had some road rash on my arm and what looked to be a pretty serious cut on the middle finger of my left hand. There was definitely a skin flap and a lot of blood, but honestly I couldn't really tell what was going on beyond that because it was so bloody. I touched it and it hurt, so I decided I wasn't gonna do more of that. I could tell that it was a soft tissue wound and likely didn't have any bone involvement, so I thought about the possibility of maybe losing that piece of my finger and it honestly didn't seem that important, so I pretty much decided that if I wanted to finish, I could do it and I could do it without any serious risks to my health. So that's what I decided I was going to do.

I did slow down the rest of the ride though. I rode my brakes down every hill, I didn't let the bike go faster than 25 mph because I wasn't about to lay myself out on the pavement again. Again, I didn't ride too aggressively, I sort of changed my whole mentality towards the race from doing the best I could to just finishing at a decent effort. I was less shaken up by the whole event than I thought I would be, but still a little shaken nonetheless, and I was happy to not push it and just be grateful that despite the crash, I was going to have the opportunity to finish.

The race finishes on a long windy downhill on which you could easily be going 45 or 50 mph. I let about 20 riders pass me on that hill because I wasn't willing to take it fast. On the second to last turn, there had been a crash and a girl was down on the pavement lying motionless face down as the paramedic vehicles came up the road towards her. A runner, probably one of the fastest collegiate boys, had positioned himself up higher on the road to slow the riders down as we came in and as we slowed and made that turn, I think everyone was pretty shocked to see what had happened. I don't know if she's okay, but in that moment all I could really think was, "that could've been me". I got so lucky that I fell in a flat going not super fast (~17 mph) and that I hit the ground the way I did (shoulder first, instead of face first or hands out-stretched or really just about any other way) and that I wasn't in the same place as this girl who was now being tended to by the paramedics. I hope she's alright.

Garmin numbers: 24.48 mi, 1:41:50, 14.4 mph average, 1837 ft gain, 1745 ft loss
Garmin speed splits by mile: 13.6, 15.0, 14.5, 15.7, 13.5
Official numbers: 1:42:07, 14.50 pace

T2: The accident just up the hill was the only thing that had my attention in T2. I had forgotten to put my race number on and was afraid I would be assessed a penalty for it, but thus far I haven't seen any penalty minutes added to my time, so I don't know what happened with that. T2 was a pretty normal transition, I racked my bike pretty distractedly and headed off on the run.

Official T2 time: 1:08

Run: Since T1 had a 2.2 mile run, the actual run portion of the race was only 4 miles. Unfortunately it was four miles with the most insane amount of elevation gain I've ever seen in that distance in my life, including by far the largest hill I have ever had to "run" up. It was a mile 2 hill and I was confused at first because so many of the athletes were walking but as I looked off into the distance, I could see the top of the mountain we were climbing and it was very far away and very high (and people were walking up there too). I decided that I would alternate speed walking and jogging depending on the grade because I wanted to be out of the blazing sun and I wasn't about to casually walk up the entirety of this hill like some athletes seemed to be opting to do. I got to pass quite a number of people that way and was pretty proud of my effort. If I had it my way, I wouldn't have walked any of it, but I knew it was the right call to make given the grade and the sheer length of the hill.

The day had warmed up by a lot at this point and it was hot. I had drank most of both of my water bottles on the run, but hadn't finished the second one completely because I didn't want to take my hands off the handlebars of my bike after my crash. I hadn't taken in enough fluids on the course up to that point I don't think and I was worried about where my hydration was at because of the heat. Athletes around me were obviously cramping as they climbed this hill and I prayed and prayed and prayed that it wouldn't happen to me.

As I crested the top of the hill, I felt my right quad tweak with the beginnings of a cramp and it terrified me. I did everything I could to hold it at bay on the next downhill and flat into the next aid station. I walked through the aid station and drank an entire cup of water and an entire cup of Gatorade before setting back out at a running pace. Luckily enough, the quad cramp did not ever come on in full force and I was able to run the rest of the way into the finish.

Garmin numbers: 4.14 mi, 41:06, 9:56 pace, 499 ft gain, 463 ft loss, 168 spm average (my watch didn't record splits for this run)
Official run time (T1 and end run combined): 1:01:19, 9:53 pace

Post-race: I finished, got my finisher's medal, and immediately was taken to the med tent to deal with my road rash. They wiped everything down with alcohol wipes and told me to go to an ED to get my finger checked out because the doctor said it would likely need stitches and they couldn't do that on site. I returned the rental bike and the rental guys were extremely nice about it and told me not to worry about bleeding all over their bike. Brian did a lot of work to make the race officials let us leave the venue (roads from the lot we were parked were closed due to the race) and it took about an hour but eventually we got out of there and to an ED. The doctor there opted to not do stitches. They debrided the wound and picked some embedded pebbles out of my hands and taped everything up instead. Hopefully that will heal fine in time. I would tell the rest of the story of my night drinking wine and playing Battleship and watching random Czech movies with Brian and sleeping only 3 hours and driving out to SF and getting on a flight to come home, but honestly that one sentence pretty much sums all of it up.

Now I'm home, healing from the crash and from the weekend in general. The road rash (left arm, back, and hip) was really painful the first 24-48 hours but it's died down since then. The finger laceration is still very much so open, I've just been keeping it taped and hoping that it'll grow together in time. I had some neck and back stiffness as well that peaked probably yesterday morning, but has also been gradually going away. It seems like my left wrist, elbow, and shoulder all got kind of messed up and knocked loose in the crash. Probably won't be swimming or lifting for a little while because of it, going to give those joints some time and hope they heal on their own too. Got some magnesium Monday night and have been taking it, which seems to have helped a lot with the recovery process. All in all, feeling pretty good, feeling really grateful that I didn't get hurt any worse than I did and that I was still able to finish an amazing race. It was a great trip.

Finish line stats: 3:16:04, 23/61 in Collegiate Women, 90/156 in Collegiate Overall, 60/266 in Women Overall, 255/661 in Olympic Distance Overall.

Thoughts: Trips like this are a huge reminder of how lucky I am to get to do what I do. I got to travel to a beautiful place and race a beautiful course and challenge myself on terrain that I've never had to tackle before in my life and learn new things about racing and about myself and have new and somewhat scary experiences that I know I'll be better off for having. I was lucky enough to not get seriously hurt, I was lucky enough that in tough conditions my body managed to hold out and get me to the finish line, I was lucky enough to have teammates that fought for me and took care of me and got me to where I needed to be when I needed them to help me out. The entire race/trip was a huge blessing. I'm really lucky.

I hope that I get to go back one day. I don't think I was prepared for how grueling that course was and I don't like to race for survival but that's what it was this weekend. I didn't have the fitness or the skills to tackle that kind of course competitively, all I could do was try to make it to the end. I want to get to go back and I want to conquer it for real. I want to be good enough next time that I can push to go faster instead of push to just get to the end. It's probably going to be a long time before I take another shot at Wildflower, but one of these days I will, and hopefully when that time comes, I'll be taking a good chunk off my course time with it.

Loose ends: I'll be doing a Spring season post-mortem later on when I get the time. I'll post the overview of what my training has been and just some reflections on the whole process. I think it'll be good to take some time to reflect after a long training cycle, so I'll try and make time to do that in the next week. I'm also going to try to get back to logging every day, so expect more regular posting to return. Thanks for reading about my crazy first trip to California! (:

Much love,
Jess

Race Report: USAT Collegiate Club National Championships 2016

[Day 116]

Wow. Where do I start with this one?

I went to nats with my team and it was a blast! I am really happy with how I did. Officially speaking my time was slightly slower than at my last Olympic distance race (Cyman) but given the fact that the transition area was larger/longer and the run wasn't really true to distance (it was a quarter to a half mile too long, kind of hard to tell specifically based on watch GPS data alone) and the fact that the course was tougher (trade wind on the bike at Cyman for hills here and add a bit of terrain on the run), I definitely see my performance as an improvement over the fall.

Pre-race happenings: Thursday was a rest and travel day. Travel went pretty smooth, we ate dinner at an Olive Garden where I had an absolutely atrocious amount of breadsticks and salad. We got to the hotel sort of late but I got a decent night's sleep on account of having nowhere to be in the morning. On Friday, the girls spent the morning getting breakfast, hunting down coffee, hitting up a Walmart for some race day essentials (breakfast foods, sunscreen, shampoo, etc.), and studying at our hotel because we're all still students with school to worry about. We hit the course in the afternoon for packet and bike pick up and did a short shake out run and a warm up swim. It was raining in the afternoon so our swim times got pushed to later in the afternoon and we got to watch the delayed start of the high school race, which was pretty cool. My swim felt particularly fantastic, it was a 750 m on the draft legal course and the temperature and my wetsuit both felt great which was a huge confidence booster. We opted out of the pasta dinner run by USAT and found a nice Thai place instead, where everyone loaded up on noodles and/or rice. Then it was home for some chilling before a nice early bedtime for a 5 am wake up on race morning.

Race morning: We got up at 5 am, ate, prepped, did fun things like put our race tattoos on (Juhi put one of hers on backwards, which was hilarious), and rolled out for the course around 6 am. I didn't get the best sleep overnight, but knowing that I had decent rest in the week leading up to the race meant I didn't worry too much about night before rest. Transition set up was pretty simple, my spot was in a row directly in front of the bike/swim entrances and towards the very back of the row near the bike/run exits so I was prepared to do a lot of running on the swim and bike in. I chose not to get in the water for the early swim warm up because I didn't want to get in and back out again. Breakfast was two whole wheat bagels with cream cheese and a banana. Pre-race nutrition involved a bottle of Nuun, mostly consumed in the car around 6 am with a little bit saved to take with the three Shot Bloks I had around 15 minutes prior to my wave start.

Swim: I was wave two and the girls were allowed in the water after wave one had gone off for an in water start, so I was able to try and get acclimated to the water temperature. I got a spot at the front of the pack and waited for the gun to go off. I was surprised by how many fast girls there were in my heat, I'm used to being in a pretty good place in the swim in most races and the number of girls ahead of me surprised me. Nonetheless, it didn't take very long to get into a good bit of open water and just do my swimming.

On the way out on the single lap loop, I thought I was straying a little too far in because the rest of the pack was a little further out, but my Garmin suggests that the course I took was fine and I believe it. I sort of struggled in the earlier two thirds of the swim. It was cold and I really felt like I couldn't catch my breath. I knew I was drawing in regular and big breaths though and to keep me from freaking out I was breathing 3-2-3-2 instead of every 3. I briefly entertained the notion of turning over onto my back and getting myself calmed down before I continued but I realized that I could deal with the discomfort of mild panic and just push through and finish. I couldn't guarantee how I was doing and how fast I was swimming, but I could focus on making the best of it, so I did. Eventually things settled down and I felt much better on the way back in.

I got out of the water in a decent time, 24:38 which was an improvement over Cyman, although I was in a wetsuit this race (sleeveless BlueSeventy Reaction) which I'm sure made a huge difference. I wasn't too happy with where I was mentally at during the swim, not because of the little bit of panic but more because of the negativity that it sort of led to. Once I calmed down a bit, I was really worried that the swim had gone really poorly and I was disappointed before I even really knew what was going on. I really want to try and curb negative thinking like that during races because it really doesn't help anyone. In any case, once I was through T1 and got a look at the time, I knew the swim hadn't gone as badly as I thought and I was able to redirect my focus and worry about putting in the best bike split I could. I turned it around, but in the future the less turning around I have to do the better.

T1: I'm always surprised by how breathless I am on the T1 run, but that's just something I mentally brace myself for and try to get through as calmly as possible. The run was a short uphill into the transition zone. I feel like I fumbled around a lot more than I typically do in T1, but it wasn't a slow transition compared to a lot of the field so I feel okay about it.

Bike: I got out on the bike course with the goal of hitting an 18-19 mph average. It started out fine but then I found that the rollers on this course were way more than what I was expecting to find. I decided that I wanted to do the best I could and hammered the course harder than I usually would have knowing that there could be consequences down the road on the run. I figured it was worth it to go for it. It was a two lap course that was very scenic through these forested roads with one climb that I had to use my small ring for and a second slightly smaller climb that I could have powered up in my big ring but opted to small ring anyways because I didn't want to blow my legs out. There were also some fun descents on this, I hit 35 mph at one point and it was glorious.

The entire time, I had my eyes peeled for Juhi (in my heat) and Connie (in the heat ahead of me). I never saw Connie but I did catch a glimpse of Juhi on my second lap and knew that she was probably closing on my lead from the swim but couldn't get a great sense of how much ahead I was keeping. I realized though that I might have a chance to finish ahead of her and that gave me a bit of a new push. Also near the turn around and transition area, the boys had set themselves up on course and cheered for me every time I passed, which was really sweet and fun and helped put a little bit of kick into my speed on that particular flat.

I felt like the mental bits of the bike were a little strange. Sometimes people would pass me and it would get me fired up and I would chase them down and sometimes I just settled back behind another girl and decided that whatever pace that was happened to be okay for me. It was strange. I think I had a good sense for how hard was too hard and was willing to ride my own race, which is why I had sort of weird non-uniform reactions to the things going on around me with regards to the other girls, but it was interesting for me to see that in action because usually the races I'm in aren't that dense with other people in my age group. In any case, I came out of the bike a tad slower than I had hoped, but given that the ride was definitely hillier than what I was used to, I'm really happy with that pace for that course.

T2: Was so long. That's all I have to say. I'm not great at running with my bike in tow and the sheer distance I had to run with my bike made me not a happy camper.

Run: I'm not a fan of two lap runs. I like being able to just zone out on the run until I get to the finish, turning around for multiple laps always makes me feel like a small part of my soul is dying. The course was strange because they laid it out in such a way that we had a bunch of 180 turns to make, which was odd. It could have been flatter but what terrain there was wasn't that bad and I won't complain about that. I will, however, complain about the fact that the course was definitely set too long, even taking into account the general mistakes that GPS watches make...I definitely played pace by my watch even though I knew that wasn't going to end up being accurate given the course and just set myself the goal of staying under 9:00 mile pace by my watch. (Which I did manage to do! My watch gave me a final average run pace of 8:43.)

The first lap felt really good. The course opens onto a flat followed by a downhill and I didn't have any issues with jelly legs or anything weird like that (I like running off the bike). I felt pretty good most of that lap but when we got around to lap two, I was really feeling myself slow down and I had to really proactively think about keeping my cadence high and keeping that pace going. I took the first lap pretty conservatively and upped the effort on the second lap, although it really did feel more like I was just hanging on rather than pushing in any meaningful way on that second lap. I took a bit of water at every aid station (hit four in total) and although I was starting to feel the heat towards the end of the race, the weather conditions really were pretty perfect and I didn't have any core temp issues at all.

The run was fun because I got to see the other girls on it. We made a point of high fiving when we passed each other and it was good to have a sense of how I was doing in relation to Connie and Juhi. Again, knowing where I was and that I was in a position to possibly be the fastest female finisher on the team really kept me going. All the other competitors were really nice too. It was great to hear words of encouragement from the faster girls passing me on the course and to be able to pass that forward when I passed other girls on the course as well. (Speaking of which, this is the first race at which I've passed a significant number of people on the bike and/or run. Usually races are one of attrition for me: Get out quick on the swim, try and finish before literally everyone else passes me. But I held my own alright on the bike and run and I'm proud of that.) There were also lots of random teammates lining the road cheering, not just for their own team but also everyone else. It was always nice to hear things like "Looking good WashU! Keep it up WashU!". I should just change my name lol. The boys were still on course during my first run lap and I really enjoyed getting yelled at by them too.

Biggest cheering shout out of the day though definitely goes to Molly. The way the course was set up, we had to run up a low grade but somewhat prolonged hill into a straightaway into a turn into the finish. I had just come out of that hill and was struggling because it was the end of the run and it was one of those points where I'm sure my face made it really obvious that I was hurting. Molly saw me while she was starting her second lap of the course on the other side of the road and yelled a bunch of things I don't think I really processed, but I knew she was cheering me on and it gave me the kick I needed to get myself down that final stretch.

As I made the turn into the finish chute, there was a girl probably just a few meters behind me whose mom was yelling at her to pass me. I wouldn't have even known she was there had her mom not tipped me off, so as soon as I heard that, I picked it up and sprinted into the finish. I did manage to stay ahead of her, which made me really proud. I was also surprised at my finish time. I thought with the longer swim and the non-spectacular bike due to the hills and the sheer length of transitions that for sure I would've been a 1:55 or slower so it was a really pleasant surprise to have done better than that.

Here are my finish details:

Garmin Numbers:

• Swim: 1860 yards, 26:51, 1:27 average pace, definitely totally not accurate because I started the watch about 20 seconds before the actual start (in water) and didn't remember to hit it again until I had run up halfway through transition
• T1: 1:26.6, again, inaccurate because I hit it halfway through the run in and didn't make the bike transition until I was already out and moving steadily on the bike course
• Bike: 24.82 mi, 1:25:42, 17.4 mph average, 1,437 elevation gain
• Bike speed splits by 5 mi: 18.8, 17.1, 17.3, 16.3, 17.6 (fell off as time went on, have to work on maintaining that bike speed consistency - I struggle with climbs in particular later on in the biking portion)
• Run: 6.61 mi, 57:33, 8:43 average pace, 180 spm average cadence (yaaaaaas this number is soooo good)
• Run pace splits by mile: 8:17, 8:34, 8:55, 8:45, 8:50, 8:53, 8:46
• Total time: 2:53:31

Concluding thoughts about the race: I'm glad to see the training has paid off. Even though it wasn't really reflected in that finish time, I think it's reflected in my standing overall (I was definitely expecting a finish somewhere in the 250-300 range so to have come in at 211 is really amazing) and in how well I managed to ride on a course that was tougher than what I was used to and how solid I felt on the run given a much quicker pace than what I did in Cyman (by my Garmin numbers of course). Something that I loved was how the entire lead up to this race Henry kept reminding me over and over again that I had done enough and that I was in a good place to put together a race that I was proud of, and I wasn't sure I believed him. Now that it's over, it's good to see that he was right. I did do enough, I did put together a race I'm really proud of, that is super super cool.

It's really cool to see myself improving but I also recognize that there's a lot for me to improve on still. I feel like I can be better across all the disciplines, swimming included. I'd like to be a better climber on the bike, I'd like to be a faster runner in general, I'd like to continue improving on my swim endurance. Racing is great because it brings everything I want to improve on into focus. There's a lot there that I think I can work on (leg strength/power, swim technique, core strength/stability, sustaining higher aerobic loads, base because you can never have too much base, etc. etc.) and what it'll come down to is whether or not I have the time and want to commit myself to a whole new slew of goals. I'm going to race Wildflower and finish off my semester and give myself some time to figure out where I'm going and what it is what I want out of this sport moving forward.

All in all, I'm really glad I did that. It was a huge honour to race with some of the best in the country and I felt like I held my own on that course amongst a lot of phenomenally talented athletes. I'm really proud of how my race went and the entire weekend did what racing always does for me: it makes me want to get after it more. I always have a hard time with training because I spend so much time feeling so much pressure to improve but once I'm on the race course I always feel so free just doing what I've prepared myself to do. That's amazing. That's my favourite part of racing. It's this great opportunity to show off what's gone into your preparation and that's a pretty special occasion. I am simultaneously terrified and super excited to get to do this again this upcoming weekend at Wildflower.

Post-race: After getting a super cold wet towel thrown over me to cool me down (fun finish line fact: I definitely remember looking up as I was coming down the chute and seeing the medical personnel lined up at the finish and thinking, yes if I collapse at the end there'll be people to take care of me xD), I hung out with the girls and cheered the rest of the women's team in while drinking huge amounts of Gatorade and eating free food (they had Southern fare, baked beans and pulled pork and corn muffins). Then we went back to the hotel, showered and changed, and came back out to cheer on the boys. We hit up Cook Out on the way and I got myself chicken strips which were exactly what I needed at that moment. Once we were back at the venue, I went out onto the run course to bring them in while everyone else went to the finish line. It was great to see the boys out there doing their thing but it was also a little bit soul-crushing to watch. The day had heated up significantly because of their later start time and the struggles were very very visible. I texted Henry and told him that watching these guys compete made me feel like throwing up because it honestly just looked so tough. 

After the boys finished, a small group of us took off a little bit earlier because one of my teammates was catching an earlier flight out than the rest of the group, so our car headed to the airport early. I spent a couple hours at the airport, chugging iced coffee and getting some work done. I had a super greasy burger and sweet potato fries for dinner which was every brand of glorious. Two flights and a very kind car ride home from one of my teammates later, I was finally back in my own bed. (One of the boys brought up how we had probably used more modes of transportation that day than we ever had in the past: walking/running, swimming, biking, car, MetroLink, and airplane.) 

Yesterday was Sunday and I just slept and did work and ate plenty of food all day (which involved making two pasta bake casserole things and a tray of blueberry muffins which will be my only sustenance for this week). Today I'll take an easy run (goal is about 4 miles at 9-10 min mile pace, nothing specific really, just shake things out and see how it feels) in the afternoon after a pretty long school day that will hopefully involve getting some productive work done. Neuro midterm on Thursday as well as a lot of life responsibilities and other things going on this week. Will have to bust my ass to clear up everything related to school this week so I can go to Wildflower and have some more fun tri-ing in California! Happy Monday everyone!

Much love,

Jess