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

The fourth month has not been kind to the blogging

[Day 102]

Sorry. I'm trying. I swear.

Friday's PM Workout: Base run w/ Henry riding on a bike next to me offering words of encouragement the whole time
Summary: 8.67 mi, 1:18:45, 9:05 pace, 176 spm
Pace splits by mile: 8:59, 9:08, 9:07, 9:03, 9:03, 8:56, 9:10, 9:12, 9:09
Notes: Definitely felt like I was fading towards the end and it was a relatively flat run since I took the bike path instead of the footpath, but I'm still happy with the pace and effort overall.
Hit Rate: 98/108 (90.7%)

Saturday's Workout: Easy run, paced Helena through the Go! St. Louis 5k!
Summary: 3.15 mi, 31:20, 9:57 pace
Notes: Was definitely hoping to get to a point pace wise where she could finish strong but we underestimated the terrain and she wasn't really prepared for that so things started out a tad too fast and fell off a bit as time went on. I'm still super proud of her though, she took something crazy like 8 minutes off her last 5k! Hoping she keeps running and we can do this again with more races in the future.

Sunday's Workout: Trainer brick, 2 hours on the trainer (mix of speedwork/sprints and hill work) and 4 mi FAST off the bike
Summary:

• Trainer set:
• WU: 10 mins easy
• Pre-set: 8 x :30/:30 spin ups, 2 mins easy
• Main Set: 
• 8 x (3 mins on, 2 mins recovery) at 95 rpm, starting at base (big ring in front, 2nd biggest ring in back to start), going up one gear each minute
• 4 x 5 segments at base +3/+4/+5/+4/+3, alternating 2 min segments and 1 min segments by set (total climb times are 10/5/10/5), 2 mins easy spinning recoveries between 
• 8 x :45/:45 sprints @ base +1 
• 10 mins steady state (prep for transition) 
• Total time: 120 mins
• Summary: 29.13 mi, 2:00:37, 14.5 mph
• Trainer speed splits: 13.4, 15.3, 14.6, 14.9, 14.8, 14.1
• Transition: 1:03.3
• Run summary: 4.49 mi, 38:45, 8:38 pace, 181 spm
• Run splits by mile: 8:32, 8:44, 8:42, 8:35, 8:36

Notes: I was challenged by Henry to do the run under 9:00 pace average (for a reward of ice cream, which I didn't actually take in the end lol) and I would have never gone for it if he hadn't made that challenge, but I did and it went spectacularly well. Things oscillated between feeling tough and feeling remarkably easy but basically as long as I kept my cadence up I felt pretty strong. I pushed up the hills and found it pretty easy to recover after them and I was holding pace well in the flats which I struggle with sometimes so all in all I was very very very happy with how things went. I wasn't going to be this aggressive with my run at the race but people tell me the Clemson course is flat so I think I'm going to shoot for under 9:00 pace on my 10k and if it falls apart in the last 2 miles, then so be it. But given how that run went, I think I definitely have it in me and it would be shame not to give it a try so that's the game plan for now.

Hit Rate: 99/109 (90.8%)

Today's Workout: Gym sesh, last lift before racing! (~1:15)

Summary:

• Back squats: WU 8 @ 95# (was rotating with a friend, this was the weight she was doing so I just went with it), 5 x 8/6/8/8/8 @ 115/115/105/105/105 (disappointed that I had to drop down, but it was the right call, 115s were a real struggle)
• Deadlifts: 4 x 8/8/6/6 @ 155# (probably could have gone for 8s on the later sets but prioritized protecting my back, don't want to take any injury risks this close to competing, felt strong even though it was right after squatting, the big deadlift plates definitely help since the bar starts pretty far off the ground)
• Pulldowns: 4 x 10/10/10/7-3 @ 7+ plates (didn't go for sets of 12 because honestly I just didn't feel like it...)
• Flat bench: WU 12 @ 55#, 3 x 10/8/7 @ 85# (these continue to disappoint...just gotta keep doing the thing)
• Leg stability set: 2 x
• Single leg glut bridges: 10/side (body weight)
• Single leg Romanian deadlifts: 10/side @ 25# (one DB)
• Band squats: 20
• Shoulder press: 3 x 12/10/8 @ 25#/side (still not understanding how I can do 8-12 drop sets at 25#/15# but somehow I still can't hit full sets of 12 with just the 25s...)
• Single arm DB row: 3 x 12/side @ 40# (go. up. in. weight. And need more grip strength looool.)
• Incline bench: 3 x 12/10/8 @ 65#
• Fly pulls w/ resistance cords: 4 x 30

Notes: I felt pretty weak today, which was sort of disappointing, but I also made a point of trying not to take myself too seriously. The point of today was just to remind my body to try and hold onto as much muscle as possible between now and when I race so the strength doesn't just fall right off my body, the details of how much weight I'm moving right now aren't super important. The other half of that story is the fact that I'm as strong as I've ever been in my life which means inevitably I'm going to get to a point where it gets harder to keep going up in weight without some changes to how much time I'm spending working on strength. I'll save the attempts at serious progress making for when I'm not so focused on triathlons, for now just holding close to this set point is fine by me. I also went to the gym in the middle of the day, which I never do, and I had an interesting revelation about how vulnerable I feel when I'm training and how it freaks me out to show that kind of vulnerability around others. The other thing that I realized though is that I need to be willing to take ownership of what I'm there for and what I'm doing. Sometimes I worry about what other people think about the random girl in the boy space at the gym but at the end of the day, I know exactly why I'm there and what I'm out to get and it really doesn't matter what anyone else thinks about it. (And you know, I don't subscribe to the patriarchy and all and I need to stop talking like I do.)

Hit Rate: 100/110 (90.9%)

I was really tired after this but it seems like a good amount of coffee is bringing me back to life. Much school work to be done now. Tomorrow will be a swim in the morning and if there's good weather, a chill ride in the afternoon, either in Forest Park or maybe elsewhere if I'm feeling adventurous. We'll see. But it'll be chill. Because we're starting to err into taper territory...not officially yet (I've been hesitant about declaring a day as official start of taper) but I do want to get some decent recovery in so that'll be the point of the ride. Happy Monday!

Much love,

Jess

Blogging "every day" amirite?

[Day 95]

Tired right now. Break was great. Too lazy to go into all the details. Here just have the summaries.

Monday's Workout: Gym sesh w/ Henry
Summary:

• Back squats: WU 12 @ 75#, 3 x 8 @ 115#, last set drop set for 12 @ 95#
• Pulldowns: 3 x 12 @ 90#
• Flat bench: 12 @ 55#, 3 x 12/8/6-2 @ 85#
• Trap bar deadlifts: 3 x 8 @ 165# (split 6-2 or 5-3 just sort of depending...) - we just googled it and found out how much the bar weighs, turns out that's why those were sort of rough lol
• Legs superset: 3 x 
• 15 goblet squats @ 45#
• 15 split squats @ 15#/side (DBs)
• 15 reverse lunges @ 15#/side (DBs)
• Dips: 3 x 12 @ 50 lbs of assist
• Seated cable rows: 3 x 12 @ 70#

Hit Rate: 87/95 (91.5%)

Tuesday's Workout: Run

Summary: 8.66 mi, 1:23:24, 9:37 pace, 171 spm average

Pace splits by mile: 9:11, 9:31, 9:43, 9:43, 9:47, 9:38, 9:42, 10:13, 8:57

Things worth noting: I had really bad period cramps that started about a mile in, I ended up stopping at 1.5 mi and thinking that I would just have to walk home and call it a day, but the cramps faded and I ended up deciding that I should try and get through it anyways and if I had to, I would just walk when the cramps acted up. They didn't come back, so I got the rest of my workout in nice and smooth. Was glad I decided to stick it out. (:

Hit Rate: 88/96 (91.6%)

Wednesday's Workout: Indoor brick at the hotel gym

Summary: (continuous)

• 20 mins biking as 10 mins @ 6-8 warm up, 5 mins @ 9, 5 mins @ 10, all at 95 rpm
• 10 mins running @ 2% incline, 6.2-6.4 mph speed
• 20 mins biking as 5 mins @ 10, 5 mins @ 11, 5 mins @ 12, 5 mins @ 11
• 10 mins running @ 2% incline, 6.5 mph speed
• Summed totals:
• Biking: 11.50 mi, 40:06
• Running: 2.19 mi, 20:42

Things worth noting: So sore from the gym sesh...but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Hit Rate: 89/97 (91.7%)

Thursday's Workout: Stadiums at Princeton w/ Henry

Summary: 2 rounds of stadiums with rest between rounds, lower level only, alternating singles/doubles by staircase

Hit Rate: 90/98 (91.8%)

Friday's Workout: Indoor biking at the hotel gym

Summary: 17.68 mi, 1:01:03

• All at 90-95+ rpm
• WU: 10 mins @ 6-8
• Main Set: 9 x 5 mins @ 9/10/11/12/13/12/11/11/10
• WD: 5 mins working down from 10 to 6

Things worth noting: Henry had to kick me out of bed so I would do this. I really didn't wanna do it, but I'm glad I did. Stadiums were really bad to my ankles so I stuck with non-impact work.

Hit Rate: 91/99 (91.9%)

Saturday's Workout: Gym sesh w/ Henry, upper body only

Summary:

• Flat bench: WU 12 @ 55#, 3 x 12/8/8 @ 85#
• Pulldowns: 4 x 12/12/12/10-2 @ 90#
• Incline bench: 3 x 12 @ 65#
• Single arm DB rows: 3 x 12 @ 40#
• Shoulder press: 3 x 8-12 @ 25#-15#
• Bicep curls: 3 x 12 @ 20#
• Dips: 3 x 12/12/10 @ 40# of assist
• Superset: 3 x
• 12 lateral raises @ 12.5#
• 12 front plate raises @ 25#
• Leaning lateral raises, one set of 12/side @ 7.5#
• Skull crushers: 3 x 12/12/6-4 @ 15#/15#/15#-10#
• Machine flyes and reverse flyes: 3 sets of each, 12 reps, the weight was whatever Henry set the machine to (I think I did the same for normal and reverse flyes, which I guess says something ridiculous about my front/back strength ratios), alternating exercises

Hit Rate: 92/100 (92%)

Sunday: Rest day! Ah glorious rest days.

Today's AM Workout: Base run, 5 mi

Summary: 5.04 mi, 46:20, 9:12 pace, 175 spm

Pace splits by mile: 9:09, 9:18, 9:18, 9:09, 9:06

Notes: Felt sluggish, but got through it. Probs b/c I hadn't run fasted in a while and last week is catching up to me fatigue wise, but it's fine. I'm happy with this for a normal run of the mill run.

Hit Rate: 93/101 (92%)

Today's PM Workout: Outdoor ride w/ Hoang (who puuuuuushed me, it was awesome)

Summary: 28.87 mi, 1:43:33, 16.7 mph

Speed splits by mile: 16.2, 16.9, 16.3, 20.9, 16.5, 14.2

Notes: New 40k PR today, 1:25:44, kinda cool.

Hit Rate: 94/102 (92.1%)

Yayyyyyy. Swim tomorrow. Sleep now.

Much love,

Jess

...And we're back

[Day 87]

I think I passed all my exams! I think we're in the clear! Lol I have so much I want to write about now that I'm back on the bandwagon. Let's get to it!

Life updates:

• I'm in Maine w/ Henry and his family. The rest of break will involve some mix of Boston and Princeton (for wedding planning). The training this week is pretty arbitrary - whatever I get in is whatever I get in. I'm trying to be consistent the whole week so I can put in a big 7-10 day push once I'm back in St. Louis before taper, but that's really the extent of goals.
• I basically opted to take the whole week away from training to focus on school. It was the right call. I have probably studied more this year alone than I have in my entire life prior and it's so amazing to feel like I'm learning things and getting this whole medicine thing figured out. Like by the time I got to the end of exam week and sort of looked back and took stock of everything I'd managed to shove in my brain during the week, it blew my mind. It's really nice to feel like working hard pays off in the end. It makes me feel a lot more reassured about this training too - I haven't given it a chance to show me what it's worth yet so of course I'm swimming in self-doubt but I think exam week made me feel like there are great things coming in the next few months. I've put good time and effort in, I trust that it'll pay of. It's nice to just feel steady and confident for once. 
• Taking time away really makes me appreciate swimming/running/biking/lifting/generally being active for the sake of loving the feeling of moving. I just missed being active. I didn't care about racing or getting faster or whatever, I just wanted to get out and do what I feel like bodies are made to do. Bodies are made to move. It made me really sad to feel like I didn't have time for that. It really puts things in perspective. Sometimes I put a lot of pressure on myself to work hard and to succeed and it makes me forget that I just genuinely love doing what I'm doing. Time away always puts that in perspective. I think I need that every once in a while.
• Being still is sort of a physically horrible thing. I had some back pain (lower and upper) and knee pain (left) that nagged me all week and it was just like, ugh why I haven't been doing anything but sitting all this time. But I guess that's what happens when you sit all the time. Yeah it's awful.

Anyways, I'm in Maine now and I took two runs, one yesterday and one today. Yesterday's was nice and quick and I really enjoyed that. Today's was a little bit slower. One of the things I really like about running here is that the terrain is nice and rolling, just gentle longer uphills and downhills which we don't really get in St. Louis. I'm enjoying playing with the effort on the slight terrain. I've also been running without keeping track of pace live as I run (time of day stays on my screen throughout and I get mile splits as they happen but that's it) which is nice. It's good just to focus on the feeling of running instead of worrying about how my running actually is and trying to compare perceived effort to what I think perceived effort should be based on pace. I'm just happier when I trust my instincts and don't feel the need to have the clock validate those instincts. And it tends to work out really well for me in terms of overall pace anyways, so I'm real happy with it. 

It's worth noting that I've had some naggy come and go foot pain (not soreness/achy-ness, actual pain) which worries me a little (which was also why I opted for a shorter slower run today). I think the plan of action is to continue with what I'm doing and just keep distances short (under 6-7 miles) so long as I can handle what that feels like during my runs without compromising stride form and hopefully with the consistency things will ease up day to day. I'm also hopefully gonna be back in the gym tomorrow. The weight work typically helps with my foot strength/balance so maybe that'll make a difference as well. I'll keep you updated. In the meantime, here are the workout numbers. I'm also going to include a fun little exercise at the end: I need practice with my H&P write ups, so I'm gonna do one for me and my foot! Hope you enjoy that little tidbit. Here we go:

Yesterday's Workout: Base run, 6.5ish miles

Summary: 6.74 mi, 58:44, 8:43 pace, 178 spm

Pace splits by mile: 8:56, 8:27, 8:22, 8:51, 9:00, 8:43, 8:42 

Hit Rate: 85/93 (91.3%)

Today's Workout: Base run, 5.5ish miles (w/ Henry for the first 3.5 miles)

Summary: 5.66 mi, 51:08, 9:02 pace, 176 spm

Pace splits by mile: 9:11, 9:19, 9:16, 8:54, 8:54, 8:26

Hit Rate: 86/94 (91.4%)

Jess's H&P: We're going to pretend I'm presenting to a walk-in clinic in Maine w/ foot pain.

• CC: foot/ankle pain (R)
• HPI: Miss H is an otherwise healthy 22 yo Asian female presenting with pain in her right foot/ankle. This began yesterday during a run in which she felt the pain come and go a few times throughout the run. She had a similar experience on a slightly shorter run today and states her pain today as worse than yesterday. Her pain is localized to the area under her medial malleolus and the arch of her foot and does not radiate to any other locations. She has no pain when the foot is resting but experiences pain when the ankle is bearing weight or with movement (e.g. rolling her ankle, pointing/flexing her foot). While she is running, she feels that the pain increases with uphill and downhill running, but tends to fade away on flat terrain. When she is not exercising, the pain is more mild than it is during her runs and does not interfere with her activities of daily living, although she does not limited range of motion in her right compared to left ankle, which concerns her. At the worst, she rates the pain a 5/10 and otherwise on average a 2/10. She denies any trauma precipitating the onset of the pain. It is worth noting that she is a triathlete and recently took a week away from training on account of exam week. She reports that her current training mileage/intensity is lower than what is typical for her training. These two recent runs are her first runs back from her break. She reports a history of MSK problems (previous ankle injuries/pain/weakness, knee injuries including a right ACL tear, ongoing lower back pain) that have largely been managed through PT. She has not tried NSAIDs or other pain medication. She has iced the ankle which does appear to help with the pain and slightly improves her range of motion. 
• ROS: Negative for symptoms outside of those reported in the HPI.
• PMH: No significant past medical history.
• PSH: Two major dental surgeries in distant past (8+ years ago). 
• Medications: None reported.
• Allergies: Tylenol (acetaminophen - hives reaction, unclear at the time if the true cause was Tylenol but avoids the medication anyways)
• FH: (redacted)
• SxH: Pt is from St. Louis, MO, lives alone in an apartment, attends medical school, is currently visiting fiance's family. Denies any history of tobacco or recreational drug use. Reports occasional alcohol use. (Sexual history redacted.) 
• Physical:
• VS: (not actually available, but let's assume they're normal because they probably are)
• General: Well-appearing young female in no apparent distress, sitting up and breathing comfortably on room air
• Mental status: A&O x4
• Cardiac: RRR, no S3 or S4, no murmurs/rubs/gallops
• Lungs: CTAB, no wheezes/rales/rhonchi
• Abd: Normoactive bowel sounds, soft, non-distended, non-tender to palpation, no hepatosplenomegaly
• Neuro:
• CN I-XII intact (symmetric where applicable)
• 5/5 strength in all four extremities, normal passive motion and tone
• +2 biceps, triceps, brachioradialis, quadriceps, and Achilles reflexes
• Soft touch and vibratory sensation intact and symmetric in all four extremities
• MSK: Pain with touch pressure on medial arch of right foot and below medial maleolus. Slight +1 edema on posterior aspect of right ankle joint surrounding both sides of Achilles tendon. Pain on active inversion of right foot reported, no pain reported with passive inversion. Marginally reduced range of motion on plantarflexion and inversion of right foot when compared to left. 
• Aw yeah, I did the thing. Without looking at a template. And you know what? I feel like I'm doing okay for myself given that I'm an M1 that really doesn't know what I'm doing. 

Okay I'm gonna go rejoin civilization and be a normal social person now. Yay! Happy Easter friends! (:

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

Killington day one and weekly recap!

[Day 16]

Not a ton to talk about today honestly. I'm out at Killington right now, shredding it up with Henry. Actually got to spend a lot of time working on the technicals today, doing less aggressive runs, working on short turns, skiing on bumps/moguls, doing things I don't typically do. Had a ton of fun just exploring and learning and getting better. I love skiing, it's been a fantastic day! It's good to be back on my own skis instead of rentals too. I've been running my short all mountain Rossignals today instead of my Atomics (there was some fresh snowfall overnight and in the morning so I figured the wider more versatile skis would be the better choice). Will probably keep with it for tomorrow because I'm actually enjoying the short turn radius.

The only thing I sort of feel bad about is the fact that I eat terribly when I'm on vacation. When it comes to skiing, I think it's just part of the experience. I like to be fueled by copious amounts of really fatty food and alcohol, because that's just what the ski life is. I need the extra calories to balance out the cold? Right? RIGHT? Lol it's only two days, I'll survive the lapse in reasonable food-related judgment for two days. xD

Some reflections on Week 2:

• 3 swims, 2 trainer rides, 1 run, 1 lift with a short run for a total of ~8.5-9 hrs.
• Slightly shorter week than last week, mostly because of the dropped late week double b/c of the knee. In general I have felt way better physically this week than the last, although the workout quality has been pretty comparable across the two weeks. 
• I actually amazingly have nothing really more significant to say about the week than that. Maybe it's because I'm distracted from dinner/drinking/PATRIOTS FOOTBALL (Pats leading 21-6 some amount of minutes into the third, Gronk just scored a TD) but you know. Whatever!

I've updated the "Current Project" page with the general training plan for the next few months if anyone wants to check that out. Other than that, I guess I shall return tomorrow with day two updates from Killington! (:

Much love,

Jess

Easing back in

I really have to get better about the updates. What happens is I miss one, and it sets off this chain of, "Oh well I'll have to blog that other workout at some point anyways so I'll just do them together later" and it lasts into eternity because the size of the post gets longer and longer and longer which makes me feel like I'll never have time to do it. In any case, I've got some downtime between now and class in the afternoon, so I'm going to take care of this before I fall too far off the wagon. Here's what I've been up to since the race!

9/21 - 9/24 Monday - Thursday: Off - part rest, part "I'm really behind and need to study like mad for anatomy" (which I passed, and P=MD, so yay!).

9/25 Friday: Easy run, easing back into it because I took a bunch of days off. Also it was early morning which put me in a bit of a time crunch. 3.3 mi, 31:45 total time, 9:38 average pace.

9/26 Saturday: "Tempo" run, by which I really just meant that since I only had time for short workouts, I figured I might as well take them quick(er than I usually do, because even though it felt like I was trying to run fast, I was still pretty slow objectively speaking). (Still studying for anatomy at this point in time, the exam was on Monday 9/28). 5.13 mi, 45:27, 8:51 pace.

9/27 Sunday: Off - studying, football, you know the deal with Sundays.

9/28 Monday: Post anatomy run! First full lap of Forest Park in a while. Took the counterclockwise loop. 7.04 mi, 1:07:16, 9:34 pace.

9/29 Tuesday: Still time strapped, went short, 1 mile easy, 2 fast, 1 easy. Aimed for under 8:30 pace in the middle two, which realistically should have been easy but wasn't (I think I missed it by a little bit on the second fast mile too, which I wasn't too happy about). 4.31 mi, 37:54, 8:48 pace.

9/30 Wednesday: It was an 8:30 am - 5:00 pm then need to go grocery shopping and eat sort of day so I cut myself some slack and just took it off. A couple late nights and budding cough made me feel like it was the right decision.

10/1 Thursday: Today! So the continuation of the late night trend did not end last night, but Henry convinced me it was worthwhile to power through my dread for today (it's a long busy day and it started earlier than I've been starting my days recently - habit is a powerful force) and just get what I needed to do done. So I did it. Took my first treadmill interval run of the year, it was an inevitable development as daylight hours get shorter and I'm really glad I just bit the bullet and did it. Now there's less novelty and I'm not going to dread having to put in treadmill time as much as I had been previously; I've already proven I can handle it. The set was as follows (all at 2% incline):

• WU: 1600 m @ 6.0 mph
• Main Set: interval pyramid
• 400 m @ 7.5, 200 m @ 6.0
• 800 m @ 7.5, 400 m @ 6.0
• 1200 m @ 7.5, 600 m @ 6.0
• 1600 m @ 7.5, 800 m @ 6.0
• 1200 m @ 7.5, 600 m @ 6.0
• 800 m @ 7.5, 400 m @ 6.0
• 400 m @ 7.5, 200 m @ 6.0
• WD: 800 m @ 6.0
• Total: 7.51 mi, 1:07:17
• Total by watch: 6.94 mi, 1:08:46 (forgot to turn this off at the end…), 9:55 pace.

So according to my watch I was going way slower than the treadmill said I was. In reality I'm guessing it's more of a midway between what my watch said and what the treadmill said. I feel like I was working at the right intensity though, the longest repeat hurt and so did every other repeat after that, I was definitely pushing just under threshold and that's where I want to be for now. Not being super aggressive with the speedwork, seeing as I haven't done much of it in the past few months, I don't have the best running base in the world right now, and I haven't seen a treadmill since I was in college. It was a good confidence boost though, just knowing that I can run intervals (which I'm pretty intimidated by still) and can handle myself on a treadmill for over an hour while staying focused and motivated (thank you for all the pep talks Henry) makes me feel like I'm in a better place and am moving in the right direction.

All in all, my plans to do a recovery week followed by two weeks of working hard are not really going that way. I took a "recovery" week but only because I was really busy and I think the ultimate result is that I'm not in a position to be doing really hard work. I'm adjusting appropriately and just focusing on finishing the Rock n Roll half in the best time I can given what I've got right now. So I'm focused on just preparing my body for the pounding and not worrying too much about the speed. I signed up for a December 15k, so I'll probably try to make a more regimented plan to build up to that race because I really do want to work on the speed side of things instead of just the endurance. That'll be a training plan I'll try to stick a little tighter to and will share once I've written.

As for the rest of the week, I'll be doing some morning stretching and dryland work (particularly stability work for my lower back) in the morning and taking a short run outside (3-4 miles, depends on what time and daylight allow) tomorrow, taking a long run on Saturday (probably around 10 miles), and taking a ride (24 mi) with Molly on Sunday. Still trying to figure out what the best plan is for next week, I'll post it up once I have it sorted out. Yay!

Much love,

Jess

Back injury update, start of taper!

So after my redemption brick, my back injury got way worse and I ended up spending a week doing very minimal training and just trying to rest it off. The only workout I got in that week was a short trainer ride that back pain cut short. I got back on the train the week after though, despite continuing back pain, because I figured if it wasn't getting better or getting worse, I had nothing to lose by just trying to tough it out until the races. I also saw a doctor during that time period, who put me on some NSAIDs and referred me to PT, although my appointment isn't until next week so that's not looking to be helpful for a while.

The combination of getting back in the pool and NSAIDs seems to have helped and the back pain seems to be easing up day by day. What's important is that I can swim and bike and run on it fairly unencumbered for now and that's all I need to be able to race this weekend and next. I would give you the full rundown of workouts from the last week, but my med school life is mildly insane and I don't really have the time for all the details, so the vague outline sketch will have to do.

8/31 Monday: AM CSP practice, distance free day, 3200 LCM, I fell off during the middle of the main set mostly because of back pain, but I did what I could. 51/55 (92.7%)

9/1 Tuesday: AM CSP practice, mid-distance free day, 3500 LCM, back starting to get slightly better (really sore when I wake up, eases up as the day goes on). 52/56 (92.8%)

9/1 Tuesday: PM short easy run, 4.28 mi, 39:24, 9:12 pace, way better than I thought it was gonna go. Could definitely feel the loose back, but I focused on form and it was never really pain so things were good. 53/57 (92.9%)

9/2 Wednesday: PM tri team swim practice, 3600 SCY, sort of a hot mess because it was fairly disorganized but I got what I needed to do done. I was also planning on taking a ride but decided against it because I needed to put time towards school work, which is the priority. I counted that as a missed session. 54/59 (91.5%)

9/3 Thursday: PM easy ride, 3 laps of Forest Park w/ friends, 2 easy, 1 fast, 18.99 mi, 1:22:36, 13.8 mph. 55/60 (91.6%)

9/4 Friday: AM CSP practice, IM day, 3600 LCM, some back pain off during the short axis strokes but things were generally improving. 56/61 (91.8%)

9/4 Friday: PM base run, this was really bad and it turns out I had a bit of an illness that day (combination of dehydration, slight fever, heat, stomach pain). I ended up having to walk a significant portion of it and the pace was real slow. I did technically finish the intended distance, but I felt pretty low about it and it really knocked my confidence when it came to pushing through pain. 6.66 mi (on 7 mile route around Forest Park), 1:07:22/1:14:32, 10:07 pace. 57/62 (91.9%)

9/5 Saturday: AM tempo ride brick, Midland-Ashby route and 4.5 mile run, restored a little bit of my faith in myself after Friday's terrible run. 58/63 (92%)

9/6 Sunday: OFF - Had been a planned workout day, but I needed to focus on school so I opted out. Hilariously enough, Henry and I ended up doing that timed 100 push up challenge again (I did really poorly compared to last time, so we're not going to talk about it) and I did some core work afterwards (fueled by my discontent about the push ups). I'm not counting that as a real workout, although in hindsight, it was pretty real...58/64 (90.6%)

9/7 Monday: AM tempo ride brick, Midland-Ashby route and 6 mile run, taking advantage of Labor Day and making sure I can go the distance on the run. 59/65 (90.7%)

The next few days will be taper followed by a race this coming Saturday (Club Nationals - sprint distance), lots of recovery, and another race the next Sunday (Cyman Triathlon - Olympic distance). I'll try and be better about these updates, but honestly, med school is pretty real so we'll see. At the very least I'll do reflections on the race weekends. Forgive me! I'm doing my best. (:

Much love,

Jess

Dropped off the radar

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

Thursday: Day off

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

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

Saturday's Workout: Trainer brick
Summary:

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

Hit rate: 41/44 (93.1%)

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

Sunday's Workout: Base run

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

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

Hit rate: 42/45 (93.3%)

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

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

Summary:

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

Hit rate: 43/46 (93.4%)

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

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

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

Summary: 20.21, 1:34:56, 12.8  mph.

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

Hit rate: 44/47 (93.6)

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

Summary:

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

Hit rate: 45/48 (93.7%)

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

Today's Workout: AM Lift

Summary: 

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

Hit rate: 46/49 (93.8%)

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

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

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

Much love,

Jess

Start of Tri Specific Training!

I will consider the Thursday that just passed (7/30) as the first official day of triathlon specific training. As of today, I am six weeks out from USAT Club Nationals (where I will be racing the sprint distance) and and seven weeks out from the Cyman Triathlon (where I will be racing the Olympic distance and hopefully using that finish to qualify for Collegiate Club Nationals in the spring). The plan is a six week build split into two three week blocks with 2.5 weeks of going pretty hard and a couple days in a row of rest. I opted to set myself up like this because the typical 3-4 weeks hard and 1 week recovery doesn't work as well for me (I'm bad at both the longer period of continuous work and the longer period of recovery) and also because the 3 week splits just work better with the schedule. (I couldn't start real prep earlier than this do to travel/moving in/etc.) The activity split in my mind is pretty even and I'm more than willing to be flexible with the plan I have made for myself moving forward, just sort of depending on where I'm at and what else is going on in my life and how I'm feeling. A lot of variables go into optimizing training and I think what I've learned this summer is that flexibility, a willingness to listen to my body, and a respect for the other obligations in my life are going to be very important to me being successful in the upcoming weeks.

That having been said, I've missed some blogging, so this post will be long because I'm going to recap all of it here. Let's go!

Thursday's Workout: Bike trainer session
Summary:

• WU: 10 mins, mix of seated spins and jogs, just getting used to the trainer and getting blood to the legs
• Main Set: split as 95% steady state seated/105% +1 gear and max cadence/recovery spin in minutes
• 1/1/1
• 3/1/2
• 5/1/3
• 7/1/4
• 9/1/5
• Gears: B3/B4/recovery
• WD: 5 mins easy spin
• Total time: 60 minutes

Hit rate: 20/22 (90.9%)

My bike trainer showed up, so I figured I would put it to good use. Didn't have my speed/cadence sensor yet, so I really just played it by feel. I think I was definitely too slow on the cadence and could have maybe been better off working in lower gears at higher cadences, but that was hard to figure out without the sensors since I don't have an intuition for it yet. The sensors have come in since, so the next trainer session I do, I will be able to put these observations to the test.

The trainer session was a great reminder that riding can be a lot a lot a lot of pain. Sometimes I want to say swimming pain is comparable, but when the burning really fires up in your legs there's really nothing that actually compares. Trainer sessions are so mental in that realm. That's something I'm really going to have to settle down and focus on in order to become a stronger cyclist. 

On a more technical note, the upper body involvement in biking always surprises me. It's just like everything else, your upper body is so important to keeping everything stable and energy directed the right way that you can't just assume it's not involved because it's not the key force driver. Will have to focus on simple things like my body position and keeping my shoulders relaxed as the efforts get harder, etc. I also really have to work on smoothness with my pedal stroke. I know that's hard when I'm in toe-clips instead of real cycling shoes, but there's definitely still room for improvement even given that so I'm really going to make an effort to work on that pedaling efficiency. 

Friday AM Workout: CSP swim practice, IM day

Summary: 

• WU: 400 free
• Pre-set:
• 4 x 150 kick/drill/swim by 50 IMO
• 10 x 50 swim @ 1:10/1:15
• 4 free, 3 breast, 2 back, 1 fly
• Main Set: 4 x
• 200 IM @ 3:40
• 150 free @ 2:30
• 100 IM @ 2:00
• No time for real warm down lol...
• Total Distance: 3300 LCM, 75 mins

Hit rate: 21/23 (91.3%)

Lindsey coached yesterday (don't quote me on the spelling of her name) and she was really sweet. Workouts are given orally, which hasn't happened to me since my high school days so my listening comprehension and memorization skills were pretty poor and needed some work. I swam in the faster half of the pool, but we were the awkward lane that was fast enough to be given the faster workout but not fast enough to finish it with time to actually warm down. The people in my lane were pretty cool though, mostly young'uns like myself. There were some hardcore triathletes around throughout the pool, one woman in my lane was going for a ride after practice, turns out there are pretty inspirational people to be found throughout this city.

As for the actual swim itself, the set doesn't look that bad but it was brutal. The combination of me having been out of the pool for a while and the pool being set in long course was just rough, especially on the fly. My quads were cramping up towards the end (probably from the trainer session the day prior) and I was not having a good time. I also have no idea if my lane was actually hitting the intervals. We wanted to make sure everyone was getting some amount of rest so the send offs got sort of arbitrary and I don't like the clocks at this pool very much, they aren't very clear and I just couldn't get a sense for whether or not we were making the intervals just barely or missing them by a lot. It was confusing and weird. But the workout was quality nonetheless so that was appreciated.

The other nice thing about swimming long course is that it forces you to be really cognizant of your technique. You can't hide it with the "oh but it only happened once this length" excuse and if your technique falls apart when you get tired, it shows at the end of the length and you really have to work on holding it together. I like that the setting of the pool is forcing the issue.

The other nice thing is I think practice really gets back at that whole issue of being surrounded by excellence. It's easy to want to complain about getting up at 4:15 AM so you can commute to a 5:15 AM swim practice, but when you are surrounded by others that are doing the same thing and some athletes who are taking bike rides or runs right afterwards, it seems like what you're doing is so small in comparison. Just being around other people who are committed to the same insanity that you are makes what you're doing seem normal instead of commendable or downright strange. And on top of that, when you really really want to quit on repeat 2 of 4, you can't, because everyone else is struggling through the same thing too. I love that. I can't wait to go back next week. Although freestyle is so not my jam.

Friday PM Workout: Outdoor base ride

Summary: 18.13 mi, 1:10:31, 15.4 mph, 577 ft gain

Speed splits by 5k: 14.8, 15.6, 16.0, 15.4

Hit rate: 22/24 (91.7%)

Took 3 laps of Forest Park, really struggled with that incline up on Skinker, but it's good that I'm getting practice with it. Cadence was sort of low on average (74 rpm; I don't look at that on my outdoor rides, trying to get a natural feel for it) so I'll have to work on that. I was going to go for a fourth lap but I decided that I didn't want to blow myself out in case the group ride today required me to be more on top of my game than I was feeling. My legs were pretty shot. It was nice to get outside and be forced to take some quick turns and avoid human beings and get the feel for some climbing and fast descending. The next time I take this ride I might try and do it the other way around to get some of that steeper climbing in and cruise down the Skinker hill and see which I prefer. In general I think the alternating will make me a better cyclist so it's worth doing. 

Today's AM Workout: Short-mid ride w/ 8 AM Big Shark group (including my commute out)

Summary: 23.34 mi, 1:56:56, 12.0 mph, 879 ft gain

Speed splits by 5k: 10.6, 11.0, 14.0, 12.0, 13.5.

Hit rate: 23/25 (92%)

This morning I took my first ever group ride! There were only 4 of us, it was really chill, probably too chill, but the route was nice (and bonus very few cars in the morning) and the company was nice and I'll probably try this route out again tomorrow as the lead in to my brick. Not too much to say I guess other than that riding on the roads was less scary than I thought it would be (mostly because there are so few cars out on the road on a Saturday morning) and spending two hours out riding really digs into your appetite even if you don't go very far or very fast. At some point I would love to go out and try the faster 7:30 group ride but they are faster and that intimidates me so I don't know that I'll be taking that on until I have a little more confidence in my riding abilities. 

One nice thing to note was that I was pretty solid on the uphills (learning to control the effort, realizing that I can climb slowly and keep effort in check and it's really key to longevity in the ride) and there was a ton of coasting down hills which was really nice and a lot of fun. I think the biggest take away from this morning was that riding can be a lot of fun and I need to try and find that and enjoy it whenever possible so that saddle time isn't just torturous all of the time. Also I needed the recovery session for my legs and that was pretty key.

In other news, Henry made me stretch last night and this morning after my ride, and that's definitely been doing me some good. I haven't had the will power to bring myself to do any core work yet, but baby steps I guess. As long as I'm hitting my sessions and stretching and recovering properly after them, I will accept my present shortcomings. We'll work towards putting the rest of the pieces in place as things continue on. I've also taken short 1.5 hr naps both yesterday and today to help keep me rested. Won't be able to do that once school starts next week so that'll be an adjustment. I assume caffeine will have it's role to play when the time comes.

As for the rest of today, I plan on taking a base run sometime in the afternoon (while Henry goes to the gym!) but it should be a fairly easy-moderate effort and I'm just gonna focus on coping in the heat. Things are off to a great start, I'm really excited about where this is headed! Yay!

Much love,

Jess