Longest workout of the year to date

[Day 66]

Oh no I missed another blogging day! Yesterday was so hectic it completely slipped my mind that I hadn't blogged. This is what happens on rest days. I forget stuff. Okay well let's do a recap of yesterday and a recap of the week before we get into today's workout log.

Rest day: Yesterday was a pretty good day all in all, got some studying done, went to Schnucks Screenings, performed in the Vagina Monologues, had fun focusing on non-training related things that made me feel like I had a life again. I actually had a great day just being a normal person. That was probably why I forgot to log lol. The body felt pretty good most of the day, a little bit of residual exhaustion from the run on Friday but nothing super notable. Good stuff all in all.

Weekly Recap:

• 2 swims, 2 runs, 1 trainer brick, 1 gym session, 1 core session for a total of ~10 hrs in 7 sessions.
• I missed a swim this week and took 3 rest days which sort of made it not the week I wanted it to be but for what it's worth, I think I put in some great efforts during this week's sessions, especially with regards to running.
• It was nice to finally hit some harder efforts with the running. I'm pretty slow but it's coming along really well I think in terms of finding speed while tired. It's really shown through in the bricks, where I've been taking much faster efforts than I typically do. Makes me think I could pull out a pretty good 10k time in the next race. We'll see.
• I haven't done great this week with the sleep. I think that's worth noting. I've had to take afternoon naps twice and I think it says something about my sleep habits that needs to be fixed. Gonna really try and fix that in the upcoming week because it'll be a big week and I'll need to try and keep my energy reserves up. 

Okay time for today! Here's the weekend brick update:

Today's Workout: Brick (30 mi ride + 4 mi run, moderate effort)
Summary:

• Bike: 29.66 mi, 2:00:30, 14.8 mph (Geyer-Adams-Ballas route)
• Bike speed splits by 5 mi: 14.4, 14.7, 15.2, 14.5, 14.7, 15.2
• Transition: 2:30.60
• Run: 4.24 mi, 38:07, 8:59 pace, 178 spm cadence (flat half of the park)
• Run splits by mile: 8:36, 8:56, 9:13, 9:08, 9:11 

Hit Rate: 69/76 (90.7%)

The ride felt really good. I took it pretty moderately and honestly felt way more energized in the second half than I thought I would. Was mostly pretty calm too, wind started up towards the end but it was very manageable. I spend some time out of the saddle in the first half but pretty much tried to keep my climbs seated in the second half because I need to work on the steady seated climbing (Collegiate Nationals and Chicago should both be flat courses so it makes more sense to just stay seated rather than amp up heart rate with standing climbs when there are small hills). The run felt pretty rough today, not gonna lie. Didn't have the same spring in my step I usually expect and I felt outrageously slow, but the splits came out well and I got some good practice forcing myself to focus and stay positive and finish strong. It's just as important to work on the mental side of things so I'm glad there are days that really challenge me in that department. The only other thing worth noting about the workout is that I took two gels on the bike and had most of a bottle of Gatorade. I didn't eat breakfast beforehand, just had a Clif Bar, some water, and 3 Shot Bloks. It seemed to meet my calorie needs pretty well though, so it's good to feel like I have that part of the game plan down. Will probably stick to a similar pattern for the rest of the workouts that clear 2.5 hours in length. 

It's pretty cool to note that my longest workout last summer in the lead up to September racing was a 30+5 brick and a 24+6 brick and I've hit a 30+4 and we're still 7 weeks out from racing. I'm feeling super fit and super pumped to keep working towards putting together a good race in April. Excited to see where this goes. 

Lifting in the morning tomorrow and taking a nice easy run lap of the park in the afternoon. Seems like it'll be a light day in terms of school hours which will be nice, give me a chance to keep trying to catch up on lectures and things. Big week of training coming up, let's get it! (:

Much love,

Jess

Quick rest day update and weekly recap

[Day 59]

Updates! Resting is great. So is eating really high calorie foods apparently because I had two cinnamon roll cupcakes today (recipe via BuzzFeed, go look it up) and for the first time in what feels like eons, I was satisfied for more than an hour and a half. I wasn't scavenging for food after dinner. It was amazing.

Body is not sore but very tired. Even walking out and back from the grocery store today was a bit of a struggle. It's funny to have to think about efficient walking form because your body is tired. I feel like it's gotten better as the day has gone on though, confident it won't continue to be a problem.

Weekly Recap:

• 1 swim, 2 rides (1 trainer, 1 outdoors), 3 runs, and 1 gym session for a total of 12:44 in 7 sessions. Hours skewed by that one long ride. 
• Wasn't quite the week I wanted, really bummed out about the low swim counts, but we'll work on getting back on track with the swimming in the upcoming weeks. 
• I'm not a big fan of having one single long workout take up the majority of the training hours in the week, it's pretty not sensible in my mind, but this weekend was probably unique in that regard so I'm not gonna dwell on it too much. We'll see if the long rides continue to be a thing or not, really up to how Brian and the teammates want to plan things and how they fit in my schedule.

Next week we officially move into Block 2, so there'll be some more specificity (brick work, faster runs, etc.) coming. Ready to do some good work before finals for med school Block 2! (:

Much love,

Jess

Jess doing stability/accessory work? What?

[Day 51]

Today's Workout: Gym sesh! 90 mins (:
Summary:

• Flat bench: WU 12 @ 45#, 3 x 8/8/7 @ 85# + 12 push ups to finish (I probably should've kept going but uh they didn't feel too hot and this was an impromptu decision so I just let it go lol)
• Pulldowns: 4 x 12/10-2/8-4/8-4 @ 7 plates
• Leg superset: 3 rounds, no rest
• 15/side steps ups (no weight, just focusing on hip stability; my L is better at this than my R)
• 15 band squats (20 on the last round)
• Shoulder press: 3 x 8/8 @ 25#/15# (the next time you do this, go for 30# no drop, I wanna know if you can do the extra weight, take extra sets if you really feel like getting all the reps in)
• Back superset: 3 x
• Straight arm cable pulldowns: 12 @ 6 plates
• Low cable rows: 12 @ 7 plates
• Leg superset: 3 x
• 10/side alternating single leg bridges (from the bench, again focusing on hip stability)
• 10/side lunge & hops (you need to GET HIGHER and work on single-leg explosive movements more in general)
• Incline bench: 3 x 8 @ 65# (okay this increase in weight came outta nowhere and felt so good it blew my mind, maybe it's just the extra rest between the upper body things and this lift but it was awesome)
• Lateral/front raise superset: 12/12 @ 12#/side and 25# plate
• Single leg Romanian deadlifts: 10/side @ 20# (single DB; you can probably go up to 12 with a little more weight)
• Arms superset: 3 x
• DB bicep curls: 8 @ 20# (well good to know I can do more weight than I've been doing...)
• Overhead DB tricep extensions: 12 (mostly broken somewhere though) @ 25# (Okay what exactly do people do with failing reps on this exercise? Do you just get stuck at the bottom and die? #confused)

Hit Rate: 56/60 (93.3%)

I think the notes say most of what I wanted to say. I did stability/accessory work today! Because I wanted to save my legs for tomorrow. I was actually super surprised by how challenging the stability work is. I usually don't wanna do it because I would rather feel like a badass and move lots of weight around, but I'm realizing that not only is it really valuable but it's really challenging, and that makes me want to do more. Will maybe try and find a way to more regularly integrate this into my schedule. Although my schedule is so packed I have no idea how I could actually possibly do that. We'll see.

The weekly recap!

• 1 swim, 1 swim time trial, 2 gym sessions, 1 run, 1 trainer ride, 1 outdoor ride, and 1 trainer brick for a total of ~10:45 in 8 sessions. 
• Um this was sort of a strange week, because my plans got wonky on Thursday and then everything just sort of shifted around strangely. I've stayed pretty on track though and I'm happy with how the adjustments turned out in the end. It's been good work, nothing to complain about here.

Morning long run with friends in the morning, gonna hit my first 10 miler of 2016. Then just lots and lots of studying and more meal prep so I have loads of food to get me through the week. Happy Saturday!

Much love,

Jess

Loving something so much it hurts to stomach

[Day 37]

Today's Workout: Cycling (outside) with Molly! (MCT trail system)

Summary: 18.28 mi, 1:16:55, 14.3 mph

Speed splits by mile: 13.7, 15.6, 13.4, 14.6

Hit Rate: 40/41 (97.5%)

Notes/thoughts:

• Riding outside is amazing. It was really cold when I first got up this morning and I was worried it was going to be freezing and awful, but it was a super sunny day and the temperature came up a bit and I layered up real good and it was actually a totally fine temperature to be riding at. I had sort of shied away from riding outside because of the weather (not that I don't ride to practice in this weather anyways, but that's in like sweatpants and a ski jacket so it's sort of a different deal) but now I feel like there really isn't any good reason to, so I might hit the outdoors more often. 
• This set of trails Molly found is great. No traffic, not very many riders out today, well-paved, nice environment, I was just really happy about it. It's a bit of a trek to get out there, but with a buddy it's totally worth it. Also her tri bike is sick. Way jealous, really hoping she has some great races on it this year. 
• I fell once, trying to make a turn I should have really just clipped out for because the road was narrow. Luckily I was totally covered so no road rash besides a scrape on my ankle that I managed to get through my sock somehow.
• Molly has a heart rate monitor, which I'm sort of jealous of. There are so many things that I need to prioritize about getting before I want to invest in a heart rate monitor though that I'm just sort of like, okay another thing that's cool but not actually that important. xD
• I definitely felt like it took more effort to ride that pace than it should have today. Probably just fatigue from the week, but the speed demon in me is a tad bit disappointed because the biking felt so controlled and I normally prefer it to feel less controlled. I feel like my brain interprets biking really similarly to skiing and I want biking to give me skiing levels of speed rush which is basically impossible unless I'm shooting down a hill at a likely unsafe speed. All that really means though is I have to get more bike fit, which is what I'm working on right now, so maybe in a month or two I will be going faster and therefore be feeling happier about it. 

Weekly Recap:

• 3 rides (2 trainer, 1 outside), 3 swims, 4 runs (3 outdoors, 1 on a treadmill after lifting), 1 lift, 1 core specific session for a total of ~12:45.
• This was a big week, sort of artificially so because I included a half hour of core in the log and it was a 7 day week instead of a 6 day week because I swapped today's ride and tomorrow's rest day to accommodate other schedule things in my life. 
• I have been really tired. Like way more blown out at the end of each of my days (or even by mid-afternoon) than I was all of January. Makes sense because more volume. Surprisingly enough, I've been really impressed with the actual workout performance given that. In terms of late week workouts, runs have been really slow but the swims have been really solid and I'm super impressed with my body managing to hold that together despite feeling genuinely terrible. 
• It's been an emotional week. A lot of doubt, dissatisfaction, and self-pity at night but also a lot of big moments that have really re-affirmed to me why it is that I go through all of that. I love what I do. I could not not do what I do. It's really not a choice, it's just a part of who I am and who I will always be. So it's really hard, but I gotta buckle down and take that because this is what I want.
• I was just out at dinner and one of my friends said something really nice about how she was really impressed with how motivated I am and she probably doesn't realize this because I honestly had no idea how to properly respond to that comment but it meant so much to me. It always means so much to have someone say, hey I see you. I feel like this is a part of my life that is not actually seen by very many people because so much of it happens when I'm essentially alone, so to have someone acknowledge that meant a lot to me. It's just good to be seen. It makes me feel a lot less alone.

Next week is also gonna be a big week, followed by a short 4 day decompress before we get into what is officially speaking Block II. Honestly the plan is just to go really really hard and take all I can take and then let off for a bit and hopefully see the work pay off at the start of Block II. Much needed rest day coming up tomorrow. Happy Saturday! (:

Much love,

Jess

Let's keep things brief

[Day 30]

I was definitely not very productive today so let's keep today's update brief.

Some things that happened today:

• Had an interesting conversation with Henry about nutrition and race weight. Still figuring that stuff out, but we're gonna make little changes one by one and see what happens with it all.
• Got to think about why it is that I do what I do. I didn't want to say this out loud but I feel like the kind of love I have for racing and training is written into my soul, sort of like the kind of love I have for medicine and human health/functioning. A lot of people get to look at things like sports from the perspective of it being an optional thing they could partake in if they wanted to. I feel like I'd be lost without this. It's weird. It makes me feel a little bit different and a little bit separate from everyone else. But at the same time I know what my callings are, so I guess I really can't complain right?

Weekly recap time!

• 3 swims, 2 trainer rides, 2 runs, 1 lift for a total of 8 sessions and a little over 8 hours.
• I was worried about it being a crowded week because the number of sessions was high given the number of days, but since the runs were short and the overall hour count was low, it actually felt completely fine. It was a good week, I'm still a little worried about the little joint issues (back, wrists, knees) but things are looking up and I'm okay with that for now.

Things are going to ramp up by a lot the next two weeks. I'm a little bit terrified, but that's always how these things go before you really dive into them. I think I'll probably feel better once I'm in the midst of it. Tired but determined is usually how that plays out. That starts with an easy morning run with Molly tomorrow morning (slowly continuing that distance increase) and what will likely be a pretty rough two hour trainer ride in the afternoon. Wish me luck!

Much love,

Jess

Mixing it up with friends! (And the weekly recap!)

[Day 23]

I didn't go swimming in the morning. I woke up around 5 am and realized I didn't get nearly enough work done yesterday to be able to spend my extra time in the pool, so I used the time to get some work done instead (and was actually fairly productive, so it was time well spent). Just stuck to the original plan of hitting the gym w/ Fay and doing a leg day. I tried things out her way today, which was a lot more volume than I'm used to (even though she typically goes even more volume heavy than this - I now totally understand why Henry gets disgruntled about volume when he's working out with me). I had a ton of fun though, even though that first giant set was killer tough. It was nice just to like go to the gym and mix it up and do something new for a change. Everyone can use a change of pace every once in a while. (Isolation work? What even is isolation work?) We also met a dude at the gym who talked to me about music briefly and let me put on a playlist based around the latest Bring Me The Horizon album off of some cool app he had on his phone and I got to rock out while working out which was pretty awesome. (Also meeting new people was pretty cool. All in all, was a pretty cool morning.)

Today's Workout: AM Gym Sesh w/ Fay! (Yay workout buddies!)
Summary:

• Giant set: 3 x 
• 15 back squats @ 75#
• 15/side split squats @ 30# (DB)
• 15/side reverse lunges @ 30# (DB)
• Leg extensions: 3 x 12/12 drop sets of 90/50#
• Seated hamstring curls: 3 x 15 @ 70#
• Leg press: 3 x 15 @ 130/150/150#
• Not super strict about rests/pauses/etc.

Hit Rate: 23/24 (95.8%)

I have no important notes or thoughts lol. I think I was having too much fun maybe. xD I just kept wanting to like jump up and grab pull up bars and just hang off of things and do handstands. It was silly. It wasn't like my legs weren't hurting or I wasn't actually working or whatever, I just had a lot of energy and was having a really good time. (Maybe it was because it was a 9 am workout so I got to eat breakfast a couple hours before and energy stores were looking good? Hmmmmm...I wonder. But also maybe because friends make everything happier? Hmmmmmmmm...more wondering.) Things feel good now, legs are a bit tired but definitely doing okay. Will try to maybe do some core work tonight and will definitely be stretching. 

The week in review!

• 1 run, 2 lifts, 2 dryland sessions (circuit + rowing, just rowing), 2 trainer rides, and 1 swim for a total of ~9:15 (8 sessions total)
• It's been a weird week. I guess that's what happens when you get injured. I sort of thought I would end up upping the swims and bikes more to compensate for running less but I guess I just went the "go to the gym more" route. Which is fun, and this wasn't yet a serious week, so I have no qualms about it being just fun.
• Next week gets more serious though, that's sort of what I consider my first week into a real block of training. The block will be focused on quality riding and swimming but the first week will really just be an ease into it kind of week. I'm going to take tomorrow (Sunday) off and the Saturday at the end of the week off to get back on my Saturdays off schedule, so it'll only be a five day training week (yaaaaas) but I'm still going to try and get 8 workouts in so we'll see how that goes. The breakdown as of right now is 3 swims (praying for not super freezing weather so I can bike out to practices), 2 trainer rides, 1 gym sesh, and hopefully 2 short runs to get back to running (first one on Wednesday, fingers crossed that the IT band holds out!). I think the overall breakdown of number of workouts will be comparable in the next few weeks as they had been in the past two weeks, I'll just shift my focus a little bit to cater more to the "important" days (and of course many of those workouts will be seeing increases in length...yay...).

In completely unrelated news, I bought myself two massive tubs of ice cream after the health screening today, so I should have enough ice cream to last me the remainder of my lifetime. Awwwwwww yeah.

More med school learnings time now!

Much love,

Jess

Double double toil and trouble (and weekly recap!)

[Day 8]

Two double days in a row is usually real rough but we made it work!

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

• WU: 3 x 300 
• 1 - swim (free) 
• 2 - 50 kick/25 swim (free) 
• 3 - 50 drill IMO/25 swim (free) 
• Main Set: straight through unless break indicated 
• 100 IM fast (1:30) 
• (break) 
• 4 x 50 fly @ 1:00 
• 3 x 50 free @ :50 
• 4 x 50 back @ 1:00 
• 2 x 50 free @ :45 
• 4 x 50 breast @ 1:00 
• 1 x 50 free @ :40 
• (break) 
• 100 IM fast @ 1:40 (1:30) 
• 200 IM fast (3:10) 
• (break) 
• 4 x 50 kick @ 1:05 (back) 
• 50 fly @ 1:00 
• 3 x 50 kick @ 1:05 (back) 
• 50 back 
• 2 x 50 kick @ 1:05 (back) 
• 50 breast 
• (break) 
• 300 IM @ 10 SR 
• 200 IM @ 10 SR 
• 100 IM @ 10 SR 
• WD: 50 easy (lol "warmdown") 
• Total Distance: 3450 SCY

Hit Rate: 7/7 (100%)

Thoughts about the swim:

• I'm starting to mind the bike out and back a lot less. It's hard because I'm tired on the way out and on the way back and none of it feels good per se, but it's nice to be able to do the biking at a relaxed pace and just try to focus on not being stressed out. It's therapeutic transit time I guess.
• I felt sort of bad today because there were two slower swimmers in my lane who were struggling with the pace times and I hate to do that to people, but I don't set the pace times, even when I do lead the lane (which is what happened today)...this is why I prefer lanes and workouts based on base times better since everyone has a better sense of where they stand in a workout, but I guess there's not much to do about that. 
• That having been said, the pace times were mostly pretty forgiving to me. I feel like I probably should have done other strokes during the kick or at least worked on something (like improving my underwaters, which suck) but I just wanted to enjoy getting back into the pool and I didn't want to try that hard this morning honestly. My body's starting to feel much better, I probably should have worked harder, but I just wanted to be in the pool and swim and enjoy swimming. So I did that. I'll probably continue to allow myself to slack off in the interest of having fun for the next couple of weeks since they're just base weeks anyways. Will worry about putting in the actual hard work later on. 
• The biggest places where my core weakness shows through is (a) during fly and (b) when I try to swim freestyle with faster turnover and I wobble in the water. I really need to do more core work. But I hate it so much. God help me.
• My shoulders are also super weak right now. On the 300 IM, by the 75 I felt like such an age grouper, it took soooooo much effort just to get my arms to clear the water. I either have to swim more or lift more or both because that problem also really needs to be remedied. 

Today's PM Workout: Base run w/ Tsehay

Summary: 6.79 mi, 1:05:28, 9:38 pace.

Pace splits by mile: 9:11, 9:31, 9:40, 9:41, 9:43, 9:51, 9:55

Hit Rate: 8/8 (100%)

Thoughts about the run:

• Another swim/bike/run day! (If you count the biking commute to and from practice.)
• Friends are lifesavers. Tsehay and I just talked the entire time while we ran and every once in a while it would register in my mind that I felt awful but I had someone beside me so I just kept going and it was done before I knew it! I felt kind of bad because she was about a step ahead of me the entire time and I'm pretty sure I was holding her back, but I honestly couldn't have run any faster...I did tell her to go ahead up the last hill and she charged away from me which was kind of fun to watch from behind. 
• The weather was great today. In the sense that it wasn't too cold. It was really overcast and I was worried the sky would open up and rain us out but that didn't happen which I'm very happy with. The sun even made an appearance for our last mile!
• My turnover is still terrible. 166 spm again, really need to focus on bringing that up.
• Today has been weird in that my legs hurt markedly less but they feel really exhausted. It's funny how soreness and energy/strength don't always go hand in hand. 
• I MADE IT! Week 1 is done! Rest day tomorrow yay (:

Reflections on Week 1:

• 2 swims, 2 trainer rides, 3 runs, 1 lift with a short extra run for ~9-9.5 total hours.
• Things could honestly not have gone any better. There was the unexpected soreness and the hiccup on Wednesday but honestly that's all so minor in the grand scheme of things. If the next two weeks of base focused work go as well as this week, I'll be in a great place to start ramping things up and start going longer/faster/whatever it may be.
• The major takeaways from this week: sleep is super key (earlier jetlagged days were mentally rougher than they needed to be, sleeping well makes everything better), I need to do more core work and strength work (but that has to come slowly, as evidenced by my body's really negative reaction to Monday's gym sesh), and batch cooking a ton of food on Monday really came through in the clutch for me.
• It's always funny seeing my body realize that we're getting back into training again. I'm normal appetite wise for the first couple of days and then all of a sudden it's like, I NEED CALORIES NOW. GIVE ME ALL THE CALORIES. Basically I'm hungry constantly. -sigh-
• As for next week, I technically have a plan laid out already but I'll revisit it today or tomorrow and make adjustments as necessary and put it all in my schedule (and I'll also work my studying and meal prep time into that schedule). 
• Not too much else to say, other than what a great way to kick off 2016! Really hoping to keep up this great momentum going into next week! (:

Much love,

Jess