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

Race pressure

So today was one of those days where I had totally committed to being useless when I woke up. It was gloomy and the weather said it was about to rain and I just sat in bed (not even dressed) and derped on my computer for hours. I got an email yesterday from the collegiate tri team here about an NCAA Nationals qualifying race that USAT wants Wash U to send athletes to and I was interested so I spent some time looking up more information about the whole status of women's triathlon as an emerging NCAA sport. The ultimate result of my wandering through the depths of the internet and past race results was me determining that I really need to step up my running. So when things cleared up a bit in the middle of the day, I went out and took the run I had been planning on doing before I mentally bailed on it (while blaming the weather). I don't know what I would do if it weren't for race pressure getting me off my butt to train. I need that kind of motivation and I'm really glad I found it today and did the work I had to do. Here it is!

Today's Workout: 5+ mi base run, similar to the past two days, negative split RPE was the goal (evidently did not happen - I would say it was because I got lost, but I think mostly it was because I got too excited and went out real fast).
Summary: 6.42 mi, 59:29 total time, 9:16 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 8:50, 9:05, 9:02, 9:46, 9:21, 9:25, 9:38.

Some interesting things happened today. The weather was MUCH cooler (64 F, slight breeze, overcast, not too humid) which meant I felt great starting out (and for most of the run actually) and decided that I would take it out fast because I was feeling inspired to be great and why not right? You can see where that went during mile 4, when I encountered a road that was (a) longer than I thought it was (took a new route today) and (b) on a slight uphill. The redemption in that though was that I ran at a pace that felt comfortable effort wise and tried to keep my heart rate down and recovered quite well and got back into the groove. I think my body really dislikes any deviation from my forever pace effort/heart rate so learning to cope with the inevitable ups and downs of terrain and race conditions is an important skill for me to practice.

I did get very lost shortly after that though. Part of my run involved going down the stairs at the World's Fair Pavillion because I had no idea where else I could go. I did make it back in one piece though! And the total uncertainty about what the final length of the run would be (it was about 0.5-1 mile longer than I was planning) kept my pace/effort in check. I tried to stay as quick as I could while still being comfortable and not risking dying before getting to where I needed to go. I've also realized that it is worthwhile to run in the middle paths through Forest Park. There are some nice wooded (but paved) trails which are shady and very pleasant and there's more terrain within the park itself (I need practice with terrain). I will have to explore more on future runs.

I think this run was reassuring because it was a reminder that when the weather cooperates with me, I am quite a faster runner than I am when the weather is hot. Which means I only need to build up adaptations to the heat, not necessarily to raw running fitness (however you want to define that). That'll take time and practice and a lot of patience (and I'm a very impatient person), but knowing that it really is the heat that's my issue is comforting and will help me work through what I'm sure will be some pretty rough and miserable training ahead.

I head back to Canada tomorrow briefly to pack and pick up furniture from my old house. I will try to get a run in on Thursday and a swim and a run in on Friday before taking Saturday off to make the drive back, but we'll see how it all fits in. There's some more rain expected in Windsor (although that's what I said earlier this week and I've gotten all my three runs in so far) and my mother may have plans that keep me busy, but I'll do my best. Then back to STL briefly before heading back for about two weeks just to spend some time at home. Okay gotta finish cleaning up the house and packing for tomorrow now. Good talk. (:

Much love,
Jess