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

Letting things not go according to plan. Being bigger than the fear.

So the drafting of the training plan from now until the Hot Chocolate 15k is well underway and my life has already thrown me enough curve balls that I've had to modify my first week plans about three times. It's a funny reminder to just keep focused on the big picture instead of getting caught up in the details. I guess it's really the only way to make training work alongside everything else in my life (by which I really just mean med school). Flexibility is key and flexibility is not detrimental to my progress so long as I do it right. Gotta remember to keep that in mind over the course of this training block.

Yesterday I went for a swim in the evening with Victoria. I don't know why I decided not to take a day off (I'm actually not planning on taking a day off for a while, just planning on doing a lot of active recovery) but that's what I decided, so I rode my bike out to the Athletic Complex and took a swim! I blew a flat on the way out which was a bummer because (a) I had to ride half the way there and the whole way back on a flat, which was rough on my legs and also likely rough on my bike and (b) I was planning on going to masters swim on Thursday morning but it seems like that won't be happening until I get my new tubes in the mail (thus more plan readjusting!).

In any case, the swim itself was alright. I had been planning on just chilling it but ended up doing some real work because Victoria was there with a friend and they were actually working out so I hopped in and out for parts of their set. I was extraordinarily slow and it really hurt to be swimming intervals that should have realistically been easy. I'm sure it was a combination of having been out of the pool for a while (and not really focused on the swimming in recent months even when I was getting pool hours in) and having run a half marathon the day before. There was also a lot of dawdling and chatting during the workout so I spent about an hour and a half at the pool but only maybe 50% of that was real swimming. It was fun though, I got to hang out with my friend and meet someone new and make a new friend, and I got some swimming in. All in all it was a very enjoyable experience.

Monday's Workout: PM rec swim

• WU: 1000 SKIPS
• Main Set:
• 2 x (2 x 100 free @ 1:30) w/ copious amounts of rest in the middle (I just butted in during parts of Victoria/Thomas's workout)
• 8 x 75 @ 1:15, odds 50 swim easy/25 kick fast, evens 50 kick fast/25 swim easy (this was particularly rough on my already roughed up legs...)
• WD: 100 easy
• Total Distance: 2100 SCY

Hit Rate: 1/1 (100%)

Today, after quite a long day in terms of general life, I took a short easy run just to shake out the legs. Nothing fancy. I had this entire conversation with myself while I was out there about the upcoming training block and how it's crazy that my PB in this recent half marathon has really made me feel like if I worked hard for it, I could improve my running by a lot. It makes me want to be really focused and disciplined and structured about my training and it really makes me want to chase speed rather than just chasing more endurance. That's also really tough though, I find intensity a lot more mentally challenging and intimidating compared to distance so I know it's going to be a struggle to really get myself to commit to something that is in reality just going to hurt a lot and be really difficult. But now that I think I have the ability to improve, I can't just let that go to waste, I feel like I have to pursue it. And I guess more importantly, I really really want to pursue it. So it's all very scary and I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to rise above that fear and get what I need to do done. I have no answers, but I figure if I tackle it one workout at a time the way I tackled the race one mile at a time, I'll end up getting to where I want to be (or at least I'll be however many steps ahead of where I am right now, even if I do ultimately fall short). 

Today's Workout: PM easy recovery run

Summary: 3.13 mi, 30:35, 9:46 pace.

Pace splits by mile: 9:40, 9:54, 9:44, 9:38.

Hit Rate: 2/2 (100%)

As you can see, I'm starting up the hit rate measure again. I'll keep this up until the race in December and see if it continues to serve me well. In the meantime, the current update is that tomorrow will be an early morning gym session, the contents of which I will be flexible about pending how my body feels when I wake up. I'll hopefully be reporting back more frequently than I have been the past few weeks as well. I think I'm off to a pretty good start. Excited to start on this new block! Yay! (:

Much love,

Jess

PS - I signed up for next year's Rock n Roll St. Louis Half Marathon yesterday! Presale pricing was too good to pass up, can't wait to run this race again in a year and hopefully scrape off some more time! (:

The blessing that is pep talks and an exercise in flexibility

It was hot on Monday and I was totally going to skip my afternoon run and take a trainer session instead, but by the time I got out of school in the afternoon, the sun was starting to come down and it was getting cooler so I decided to take the run anyways. I'm glad I did it, I went slightly further than I did the last stand alone run I took and surprisingly slightly quicker too. I took the loop in reverse of what I usually do, putting the hills first, and although that was rough, the back end cruising was worth it. Will have to keep mixing up the directions to keep things interesting.

Monday's (8/3) PM Workout: Base/long run (I don't even know what to consider these distances anymore...)
Summary: 8.42 mi, 1:24:07, 9:59 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 9:49, 10:15, 10:03, 10:07, 9:33, 9:47, 10:02, 10:19, 9:58.
Hit rate: 27/29 (93.1%)

I had been feeling really great about myself and my progress. I was really impressed that my body had held it together so well over the course of the past week and I had been feeling pretty on the up and up after my run, but the more time went on, the more the exhaustion started to kick in and wear down on me pretty hard. By the time bedtime swung around, I was really not feeling having to get up super early in order to put myself through another workout. I was just exhausted. And I did something uncharacteristic of me: I asked for what I needed. While we were getting ready to go to bed, I asked Henry to motivate me. He gave me a wonderful pep talk and reminded me that he was proud of everything I do and how hard I work. He told me that it's hard because it's going to make me faster and the pain was going to make me faster and I just needed to hold onto my goals to make it through. It helped a lot, I could feel the resolve sort of set in and replace all the guilt I felt about really wanting to skip practice and I steeled myself for how hard it would be to get up and do the work that I knew needed to be done. See usually I don't have a problem getting up in the morning and doing what has to be done, I have a hard time committing to it at night and feeling positive when it's the end of a long exhausting day and the challenge of the next day just seems so daunting. Having someone to give me a pep talk in that moment was so important. It's the weakest I ever am and he helps me keep my head up. It was important and I'm so glad I asked for what I needed.

Tuesday morning, I took the swim as per usual. Waking up and going didn't even feel like a struggle after a night's rest. The workout was tough and coached by Hap, the head coach of the club. He was a really friendly guy. I swam at the end of my lane and generally struggled to make the pace, but when I voiced my concerns about being too slow, he (and my lane mates) told me I was fine, so I guess I will continue to struggle along in this lane. The workout was well thought through and thoroughly enjoyable despite being difficult.

Tuesday's (8/4) Workout: CSP practice, mid-distance free day.
Summary:

• WU: 400 free
• Pre-set:
• 8 x 50 free @ :50 (I only did 6 because I missed the first two while warming up)
• 4 x 50 IMO @ 1:10
• Main Set:
• 4 x 200 free broken at the 100 for up to 10 secs @ 3:30, negative split reps 3 and 4
• 4 x 50 free fast @ :45 (my lane made none of these)
• 5 x 100 kick choice w/ fins, last 15 m swim free (focus on reaching length coordinated w/ kick) @ 1:40
• 4 x 50 free @ :50
• 200 easy
• 100 mod-easy
• 200 MAX
• WD: 
• 200 easy
• 6 x 50 free breathe 8-7-6-5-4-3-3-3... @ 1:00
• Total Distance: 3600 LCM (as written, 3700 LCM)

Hit rate: 28/30 (93.3%)

Tuesday afternoon I had planned to take a trainer ride, but the day was extraordinarily emotionally overwhelming (med school stuff) and I really needed to take some time for me so I spent some time getting to know a fellow M1 I randomly ran into at the book store and then spent some time on Skype with Henry before going to a mandatory debrief dinner with a small M1 group and an M2 in the evening. So no workout was done. I think it was the right call and I'm not even going to give myself a hit rate demerit for it.

I was originally planning on taking today off, but the schedule tomorrow is pretty tight so when I woke up earlier than I intended today (5:15 AM, whoops) I decided that it would make more sense to do my double day today and take tomorrow off instead. So I just swapped the days. I lifted in the morning and followed it up with a short soft brick run on the treadmill and I took a bike trainer ride in the afternoon.

Today's AM Workout: Lift, soft brick (treadmill)
Summary:

• Front squats: WU 12 @ 45 lbs, 12 @ 65 lbs, working 3 x 8 @ 85 lbs
• Flat bench: WU 12 @ 45 lbs, 12 @ 65 lbs, working 3 x 10 @ 75 lbs
• Pulldowns: 4 x 12 @ 6 (the weight stack is weird so I don't know what this means) alternating wide and narrow grips by set
• BB push press: I used the squat rack today which was nice, WU 12 @ 45 lbs, working 3 x 8 @ 55 lbs(rest pause as necessary)
• Lunges: 3 x 12/side using the short bar (idk the weight of that thing) + 10 pop ups after each set
• DB rows: 3 x 12/side @ 35 lbs
• Soft brick: 15 min run @ 6.5-7.0 mph pace, 1% incline

Hit rate: 29/31 (93.5%)

I am a little weaker than I was back in the spring when I was lifting pre-injury but I didn't lose as much strength as I thought I would which was nice. The front squats instead of back squats was a good call because my back is pretty tight now despite having tried to protect it during the lifting session. It should be okay though, we'll see how it feels tomorrow.

Today's PM Workout: Bike trainer interval session

Summary: 

• 17.73 mi, 1:16:08, 13.7 mph
• WU: 8 mins easy, 2 mins base of a hill
• Pick ups:
•  8 x 40 sec pick ups w/ 20 secs rest, base/base/+1/+1/+2/+2/+1/+1
• 2 mins easy recovery (b/-1)
• Steady state sets: 4 x 5 mins base @ 85-95 rpm, 2 mins easy recovery (b/-1)
• Strength work:
• 2 mins @ base
• 5 x (1 min seated climb, 30 sec jog (c+1), 1 min standing climb (c+3), 30 sec seated recovery (c/c-1))
• WD: 5 mins base, 5 mins easy spin down

Hit rate: 30/32 (93.7%)

I sort of stayed under legs burning feeling like I'm going to die effort today on the bike trainer. My legs felt like they'd been through a lot in the morning so I didn't want to completely demolish them. I definitely struggle with the smoothness in the pedal strokes during the set, especially the strength work. It's apparent during some parts of the seated ride, but it's really really bad during the standing parts (especially jogging, standing climbs are slightly better). It's something I have to work on more, my riding technique is just not up to par. I'm glad I have the trainer because this is something that spin bikes really don't simulate at all, so the realism is much appreciate. I'm realizing that my being light probably helps a lot with the natural speed I pick up on the roads, since my average pace is much slower on the trainer. I don't put out much power, but when you compare it to how much I weigh, it gets me where I need to go. 

Glad I exercised the flexibility that I've been reminding myself is important these past couple of days, opting out of the Tuesday night workout and swapping today and tomorrow. Rest day finally coming up! It's been some good work. (:

Summary stats for the week: 7/30 - 8/4, 7 days

• Total 11 sessions, 15 hrs
• 1 brick (transition run)
• 1 lift + soft brick run
• 4 rides (2 outdoors, 2 trainer; 106.2+ mi including bricks)
• 3 swims (10.8 km)
• 2 runs (20.1 mi including bricks)

And that's all for the massive update because I haven't log blogged in a while. Yay! (:

Much love,

Jess

Chasing Consistency

I feel like my big complaint about last year as a training year was lack of consistency. The thing about success at any endurance sport (and I count competitive swimming amongst them, because it's true for that too) is that you need to be consistent with your training in order to make progress. Sure, the stalling that comes with hiccups in training is possible to overcome, but it's difficult and comparably more mentally and physically taxing than it needs to be. Usually being consistent wins out in the long run.

The problem I've started realizing recently though is that as a normal human being trying to balance my normal human being life with trying to progress at my sport is that consistency is oftentimes hard to come by. Looking back on the last year, consistency was hard to find because of travel for medical school interviews, then travel for my long distance relationship, then summer things that included spending time with friends and family and moving out to St. Louis. Looking ahead to the next year, there's my erratic August orientation schedule, travel to Asia over Winter Break, my upcoming wedding next summer and Henry moving out to St. Louis, and probably other things that will pop up whenever they feel like it. Looking even further ahead, there'll be my changing schedule from year to year (and rotation to rotation), Step I, and who knows what else. I won't always be able to settle into that consistent schedule that I want, because like I talked about in an earlier post, the priority in my life is realistically not training. And that's okay.

I guess today's situation is related in some ways and unrelated in others. I was planning on taking a swim in the morning, but my period started today and my mother really doesn't want me swimming through my period. I've had a lot of issues with stomach cramps this year and she knows the cold and the exertion make it a lot worse. If I was still seriously swimming competitively like I did when I was younger, she would have understood the need to be at practice and let me go. But she's a firm believer that my priority should on my health and not on my performance (she thinks I train too much and too hard as is) and I'm willing to oblige her while I'm living in her house. The more the day goes on and the worse my cramps get, the more I am glad I am obliging her.

In any case, what I'm trying to get at is that while I'm here, my priority isn't training, it's family. Part of that means making time for them and making sure I have the energy to spend quality time with them but part of that also means trying to balance their needs with my needs. Living by my mother's rules for a few days is a part of me trying to satisfy her needs. So for the next few days, I won't be swimming like I planned. I don't even know that I'll be running like I planned. I'll just play it by ear day to day and see what happens.

The problem with that plan is that it starts to knock down at the consistency I've been building towards this month though, and that's a disappointment. But I think acknowledging that consistency is difficult to find in a life where training really does take a back seat to a lot of other priorities (and acknowledging that it's okay for training to be taking a back seat, it doesn't mean I'm not a committed, hard-working person) will be important for me moving forwards in terms of getting comfortable with the inevitable hiccups in the schedule that generally seem so frustrating to me. They are all part of the part-time athlete act and that's perfectly okay because it's just that: part-time.

So I'm going to work around it and move forwards and accept that consistency is a great goal to have but you don't always meet every single goal. That's the point of the 80-90% rule; do your best as often as you can and don't worry about the rest. (I'm also not even penalizing my numbers these next few days with that rule, there will be no adding or taking away from the hit rate regardless of what I do since they're planned as flexible days.) I am going to really try to be consistent moving into the fall triathlons seeing as those races are important to me, but if there are any more unexpected hiccups in the road, I will try to face them with the same attitude I'm facing these next few days with. Really working on having the right mentality and keeping training a positive experience. (:

Much love,
Jess

PS - A quick note on the recovery front: Mom has been rubbing out my legs sporadically throughout the day while I'm functionally disabled from stomach cramps and it's been wonderful but they're still sore. The joint pain is mostly gone although my knees have been flaring up occasionally when I'm lying down. Still mostly better than I was expecting though, I've had much worse from hard gym days so this I can live with.