I'm much faster in the cold. I think it's a combination of being more comfortable and being a taller person that produces more body heat that's hard to get rid of which makes me faster in the cold. I made a point of running in the heat and working on improving my heat tolerance over the summer, but I do feel real good about it cooling down. It makes everything so much more pleasant.
My original plan had been to take today off, but seeing as the weather was threatening rain tomorrow, I decided to just take an easy base run today and switch that for a day off tomorrow, that way I could spend some time with Henry in the morning before a very busy Saturday afternoon. I started out quicker than I was expecting so I thought I would try to stay under 9:00 pace today. I figured the weather was cooperating and I felt pretty good so I just went for it. I didn't even push particularly hard, it was actually a fairly comfortable pace to hold, which surprises me. I had to remind myself not to slow down periodically, but all in all it didn't require much push and it was definitely within threshold. My hamstrings are still pretty tight from Monday's run, which also surprises me because it's been an entire week, but I definitely was feeling them the second half of today's run. All in all it was good though, exactly what I wanted out of an end of the day base run.
Today's Workout: Easy base 7 mi run
Summary: 7.04 mi, 1:02:16, 8:51 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 8:42, 9:00, 8:59, 8:54, 8:51, 8:46, 8:47.
Hit rate: 10/11 (90.9%)
Day off tomorrow! Yay! (:
Much love,
Jess
Friday, October 30, 2015
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Some days are just tough
And you have to fight through them. It's odd for me to have two tough days in a row. Things typically bounce back the day after a hard day, but I guess not this time. After not feeling great yesterday and truncating a workout, I got to masters practice this morning and spent most of the workout wanting to cry. Honestly I woke up feeling fine and figured I would have an average swim if not the best swim in the world, but there were a bunch of factors at play and it didn't turn out too great.
For one it was a great turnout today, which is awesome on one hand, but also crowds the pool and pushes some faster swimmers into the lane that I typically swim in. Not only am I currently slower than I had been most of the current year but my lane was also faster than it typically is, which made me feel pretty horrible for being the last one into the wall by a significant amount every time. I know that really no one cares or judges and I'm probably not holding the workout up by that much, but it just doesn't feel great. My discomfort with being last by a significant margin surprises me a little bit though. I've been in this position a lot in my life. I know that you have to have a certain degree of comfort with being in this position in order to progress. You don't get faster leading a lane that doesn't challenge you. Playing catch up is always how I've always improved. So it's strange that I don't like doing it right now. It's probably because I don't feel like I'm where I should be. If I felt like my swimming was the best that it could be right now, I would accept being slow, but I know I can do so much better and underperforming alongside being the slowest in our workout group is just rough.
As far as being slow right now goes, a lot of it comes down to not having the same kind of upper body and core strength as I used to. I let some of that go for the run training and due to the back injury which has kept me out of the gym, and the swimming has definitely slipped because of it. I also just don't have the same kind of sprint power I used to or the technical skill in terms of stroke efficiency/turns/etc. Part of that is probably because long course didn't lend itself to really pushing myself and part of it is wrapped up in the fact that I just haven't been swimming as much and everything down to my lung capacity is feeling it. All in all, my swimming just hasn't felt great.
Finally, there was the whole issue of expectations. It was sprint day, I guess I was just expecting nice easy short sets and there ended up being an early set of 5 x 200s with pickups in the middle on a 1:30 base (which would have been a piece of cake 4 or 5 months ago but is quite the struggle now) that just knocked all the confidence out of my person. I felt especially terrible when some of the other swimmers in my lane chose to put paddles on and basically left me in the dust despite the fact that I was still making the intervals. It was rough. There was literally nothing I wanted more than to just get out and go home in the middle of that set. But I got through it (because really what other choice did I have?) and things got a little bit easier from there on out. One of my lane mates who I swim with pretty frequently at masters practice could definitely tell that I was out of it and feeling discouraged today so he made a big point of turning back and saying encouraging things like "time for the fast one!" or "almost finished!" in a very peppy manner every once in a while between intervals. That really helped keep me going. It made me feel like someone was rooting for me and that meant a lot.
In any case, here's the summary!
Today's Workout: AM CSP practice, sprint free day
Summary:
Tomorrow is the day off! We made it! Weekend plans are yet to be confirmed because the weather is being questionable. I'll keep you posted. Time for Pats vs. Dolphins! Let's go Patriots! (:
For one it was a great turnout today, which is awesome on one hand, but also crowds the pool and pushes some faster swimmers into the lane that I typically swim in. Not only am I currently slower than I had been most of the current year but my lane was also faster than it typically is, which made me feel pretty horrible for being the last one into the wall by a significant amount every time. I know that really no one cares or judges and I'm probably not holding the workout up by that much, but it just doesn't feel great. My discomfort with being last by a significant margin surprises me a little bit though. I've been in this position a lot in my life. I know that you have to have a certain degree of comfort with being in this position in order to progress. You don't get faster leading a lane that doesn't challenge you. Playing catch up is always how I've always improved. So it's strange that I don't like doing it right now. It's probably because I don't feel like I'm where I should be. If I felt like my swimming was the best that it could be right now, I would accept being slow, but I know I can do so much better and underperforming alongside being the slowest in our workout group is just rough.
As far as being slow right now goes, a lot of it comes down to not having the same kind of upper body and core strength as I used to. I let some of that go for the run training and due to the back injury which has kept me out of the gym, and the swimming has definitely slipped because of it. I also just don't have the same kind of sprint power I used to or the technical skill in terms of stroke efficiency/turns/etc. Part of that is probably because long course didn't lend itself to really pushing myself and part of it is wrapped up in the fact that I just haven't been swimming as much and everything down to my lung capacity is feeling it. All in all, my swimming just hasn't felt great.
Finally, there was the whole issue of expectations. It was sprint day, I guess I was just expecting nice easy short sets and there ended up being an early set of 5 x 200s with pickups in the middle on a 1:30 base (which would have been a piece of cake 4 or 5 months ago but is quite the struggle now) that just knocked all the confidence out of my person. I felt especially terrible when some of the other swimmers in my lane chose to put paddles on and basically left me in the dust despite the fact that I was still making the intervals. It was rough. There was literally nothing I wanted more than to just get out and go home in the middle of that set. But I got through it (because really what other choice did I have?) and things got a little bit easier from there on out. One of my lane mates who I swim with pretty frequently at masters practice could definitely tell that I was out of it and feeling discouraged today so he made a big point of turning back and saying encouraging things like "time for the fast one!" or "almost finished!" in a very peppy manner every once in a while between intervals. That really helped keep me going. It made me feel like someone was rooting for me and that meant a lot.
In any case, here's the summary!
Today's Workout: AM CSP practice, sprint free day
Summary:
- WU: 450 swim (should have been 600, I got in a tad late)
- Main Set:
- 5 x 100 free @ 1:30, moderate w/ head down sprint last 12.5
- 5 x 200 free @ 3:00, moderate w/ head down sprints at the end of each 100 (I didn't do the pick ups, I was just trying to make the interval)
- 4 x 50 free MAX @ 1:00
- 200 easy
- 4 x 100 kick w/ fins @ 1:30, focus on the jump off the walls
- 10 x 50 free @ 1:00
- 1, 4, 7, 10 MAX
- The rest moderate focusing on where you would breathe in a sprint 50 (breath control)
- 100 easy
- WD: 4 x 75 @ 1:15, moderate, first 25 breath control
- Total Distance: 3650 SCY
Hit Rate: 9/10 (90%)
Tomorrow is the day off! We made it! Weekend plans are yet to be confirmed because the weather is being questionable. I'll keep you posted. Time for Pats vs. Dolphins! Let's go Patriots! (:
Much love,
Jess
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Today, I was kind to myself
I'm not often kind to myself when it comes to training. I guess that's really not the point of training. Sometimes I have days like today when I think that maybe I should change that. Exercise is supposed to be a kindness to your body and a kindness to your mind and a kindness to your soul and it's so easy for someone like me to push all of that aside in pursuit of faster. But today, I was kind to myself, and I'm proud of that.
I had an interval set planned, a repeat of my October 1st treadmill interval workout at a slightly faster pace, and it was one of those days where I felt like from the very outset it wasn't going to go very well. I thought maybe it was just a matter of being slow to warm up though, so I gave myself a nice long warm up before launching into it and things really didn't feel much better. There are a lot of excuses I could make (and will talk about later in this post) for why I then decided to just axe the set and go home, but in reality all it was was that I didn't feel well. I had woken up feeling well, way better than what I was expecting given the combination of the load on my body and the work at school and the hours of sleep I've been getting (which have been acceptable, but not perfect), and I didn't want to give that up today. I wanted to feel good, and I listened to myself, and I was kind to myself, and I am allowing myself to feel good.
Now here come all the things that could be construed (if by no one else, then at least by myself) as excuses, but I want to remind myself that they're also perfectly valid reasons to make a decision. Not every decision to not stubbornly charge ahead at full speed at all times is the wrong decision. It's like Henry said, if life were a race, you would have to pace yourself to get the most out of it.
I could have probably gritted my teeth and gotten through the workout I had planned or down-adjusted the pace, but honestly I don't know what my body would have been willing to take from that experience. It would have spent the rest of the day exhausted and likely not gotten enough sleep tonight before I hit the pool for a workout early tomorrow morning. My body would be beat up and unhappy and I would be beat up and unhappy and the marginal physical gain I was going to get from that workout really didn't seem like it was going to be worth those consequences.
Also, there is the obvious and real issue of the fact that I was tired running today, which meant my form was sloppy. That can get dangerous on a treadmill, and even when I tried really hard to focus on correcting my form, my exhausted brain really couldn't keep up with both the physical effort and the mental effort. So in the end I just called it quits, took it as a short "easier" day, and will focus on trying to make tomorrow better.
Today's Workout: AM treadmill run
Summary:
I had an interval set planned, a repeat of my October 1st treadmill interval workout at a slightly faster pace, and it was one of those days where I felt like from the very outset it wasn't going to go very well. I thought maybe it was just a matter of being slow to warm up though, so I gave myself a nice long warm up before launching into it and things really didn't feel much better. There are a lot of excuses I could make (and will talk about later in this post) for why I then decided to just axe the set and go home, but in reality all it was was that I didn't feel well. I had woken up feeling well, way better than what I was expecting given the combination of the load on my body and the work at school and the hours of sleep I've been getting (which have been acceptable, but not perfect), and I didn't want to give that up today. I wanted to feel good, and I listened to myself, and I was kind to myself, and I am allowing myself to feel good.
Now here come all the things that could be construed (if by no one else, then at least by myself) as excuses, but I want to remind myself that they're also perfectly valid reasons to make a decision. Not every decision to not stubbornly charge ahead at full speed at all times is the wrong decision. It's like Henry said, if life were a race, you would have to pace yourself to get the most out of it.
I could have probably gritted my teeth and gotten through the workout I had planned or down-adjusted the pace, but honestly I don't know what my body would have been willing to take from that experience. It would have spent the rest of the day exhausted and likely not gotten enough sleep tonight before I hit the pool for a workout early tomorrow morning. My body would be beat up and unhappy and I would be beat up and unhappy and the marginal physical gain I was going to get from that workout really didn't seem like it was going to be worth those consequences.
Also, there is the obvious and real issue of the fact that I was tired running today, which meant my form was sloppy. That can get dangerous on a treadmill, and even when I tried really hard to focus on correcting my form, my exhausted brain really couldn't keep up with both the physical effort and the mental effort. So in the end I just called it quits, took it as a short "easier" day, and will focus on trying to make tomorrow better.
Today's Workout: AM treadmill run
Summary:
- All at 2% grade
- WU: 2400 m @ 6.0-6.5 mph
- Main Set: 400/200, 800/400, 400/200 @ 8.0/6.0 mph
- WD: 800 m easy @ 6.0 mph
- Total (machine): 3.55 mi, 32:41
- Total (Garmin): 3.33 mi, 32:40, 9:48 pace
Hit Rate: 8/9 (88.8%)
Notice that I still let it count towards my hit rate. I'm reminding my future self that it is acceptable to be kind to myself. Also, a shortened workout is different from a missed workout and if nothing else, I'm still moving in the right direction. Not every day has to be a destructively hard and impressive day. Some days are just average. Some days are less than average. But I got out there and followed the advice that every recreational athlete has been given: Do the first 20 minutes. If you're still not feeling it, you can be let off the hook. And usually in that time period, you get into it and you can finish the workout. But some days, it just isn't meant to be. On those days, it's worth accepting that you tried and that it's better to come back and try again tomorrow. I will try again tomorrow. (:
Much love,
Jess
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
The rain can't stop us!
I woke up to a soft drizzle this morning. I didn't want to run the risk of getting caught in a bigger storm on my bike so I opted out of swim practice and decided to go to the gym instead. Since I woke up so ridiculously early, it meant I had loads of time this morning after I got home to Skype my family and eat breakfast and generally chill before the day really got started. The gym session was pretty chill. I wasn't very strong today, which was a bummer, but it was nice just to get in there and move some weight around. I also tried to focus on some of those pre-hab/re-hab things and did some stability work which was much needed and will hopefully be appreciated by my body. Here's the rundown!
Today's Workout: AM Gym, ~1 hr.
Summary:
Today's Workout: AM Gym, ~1 hr.
Summary:
- Flat bench: WU 12 @ 45 lbs, working 3 x 10/8/7 @ 75 lbs, burn out 12 @ 55 lbs
- Pull downs: 4 x 12 alt. wide/narrow grip @ 6 plates
- Squats: 4 x 20/12/20/12 alt. bodyweight w/ band and goblet @ 35 lbs
- Superset: 3 x
- DB row: 12/side @ 35 lbs
- Single arm standing shoulder press: 12/side @ 15 lbs (that core work though)
- Step ups: 3 x 12/side @ 15/10/10 lbs/side (dropped the weight down because of hip sway, still focusing on that glute engagement)
- Incline bench: 3 x 12/10/8 @ 55 lbs
- Superset: 3 x
- DB curl: 12/side @ 15 lbs
- DB skull crushers: 12 @ 10 lbs/side
- No rest: 3 x
- 20 bridge w/ leg extensions
- 20 bodyweight forward lunges
Hit Rate: 7/8 (87.5%)
I guess I'm gonna try and hit the pool on Thursday or Friday (probably Thursday, because Thursday night is the Pats game and I will probably want to watch that and sleep in on Friday). First up is tomorrow's treadmill workout though! That's all for today. (:
Much love,
Jess
Monday, October 26, 2015
Alllllll the running!
Turns out being consistent about working out is easier to come by than being consistent about log blogging. Oh well, I'm trying!
I had the pleasure of running with a friend yesterday, which isn't something I typically do. It's sometimes hard to find someone of a similar training pace as you and to have schedules line up. A lot of it is because I am slightly neurotic about my workouts, so I want them to be perfect, and it's really only the casual runs where I allow a little bit more variability by outside influences like friends. Typically I only run with friends on easy days, but yesterday I took a pretty normal base day run with a friend. Granted, this friend when she's in shape would be way faster than me, but she hasn't really been training seriously these past few months so it put us in a good similar place. It was nice because we took most of the run fairly relaxed (I had run a grand total of 3 miles since the half and yet my body was still feeling all kinds of beat, so I wasn't trying to be aggressive) and then we picked it up in the nice straight flats towards the end. We were holding the kind of pace that would have usually been hurting me, but it was so much easier and more intuitive with a partner holding the same pace next to you. It was really nice, really reduced the mental load, made the entire run way more enjoyable. Here's the summary!
Yesterday's Workout: Base/easy 7 mi run (which turned out to be less than that b/c we started from her apartment which is closer to the park, but whatever)
Summary: 6.49 mi, 58:57, 9:05 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 9:42, 9:42, 9:26, 8:53, 8:35, 8:28, 8:30.
Hit Rate: 5/6 (83.3%)
Today, I did my run in the afternoon and tackled an outdoor long interval workout for the first time in a long time. It was aggressive and painful and I spent most of the day dreading it and being terrified, but I went out and conquered it and I am immensely proud of the effort. Typically when I had run mile repeats before, I did a mile out and a mile back, but because of the layout of the park, I decided to do each mile as an out and back in order to take advantage of a nice straight flat path without intersections. The turn around sapped energy every time but working through that was a big confidence booster. Also I had my watch set to give me splits for the first and second half, meaning I had to hold a more even pace throughout the mile. (Before, I used to do a lot of going out super fast and just sort of dragging my feet the second half.)
Some interesting notes: The pace felt really aggressive until I really lifted my head up and looked ahead on the path instead of at the ground and then I started feeling like the pace was fast but definitely maintainable in a long race under the right conditions. Trying to bring down the perceived effort while I'm doing these is definitely a goal that I have and today I got a glimpse of the fact that it really is possible. Also, I had been aiming to do 8 mile repeats, but was fully prepared to only get to maybe 6, since I hadn't had one of these workouts in a while and they are really tough. I gritted my teeth through number 6 and told myself it was the last one, but after stopping and getting a drink (I strategically picked my start/end point so that I could get a drink between reps) I felt like I had enough for one more, so I buckled down before my brain could change its mind and went for one more (which I made!). I thought about just getting that 8th one in but my legs felt like they were going to disintegrate so I decided I would save it for about two weeks from now when I'll try this workout again. Hopefully I'll get to work both on making the reps feel easier and getting to that 8th one!
Today's Workout: Interval run, 7 x 1 mi repeats @ 7:30-8:00 pace w/ 3 mins rest between reps
Summary: 10.79 mi, 1:44:13, 9:39 pace (total including warm up and warm down)
Pace splits for each set: 7:45/7:40, 7:46/7:43, 7:53/7:43, 7:53/7:44, 7:55/7:48, 7:53/7:49, 7:56/7:52
Hit Rate: 6/7 (85.7%)
Needless to say, my legs feel pretty destroyed right now. I'm going to hit the sack early tonight, planning on hitting up masters swim in the morning, so lots of rest will be needed. It'll be a tough couple of days, but I will most likely either be taking Thursday off or taking it as an easy run or easy swim day (or putting my planned Friday gym day on Thursday and taking Friday easy) so there will be some amount of relaxation waiting for me later on in the week. Just gotta get through it! (Still riding that super proud of myself high. Awwwwww yeah. Hope this feeling stays!)
Much love,
Jess
I had the pleasure of running with a friend yesterday, which isn't something I typically do. It's sometimes hard to find someone of a similar training pace as you and to have schedules line up. A lot of it is because I am slightly neurotic about my workouts, so I want them to be perfect, and it's really only the casual runs where I allow a little bit more variability by outside influences like friends. Typically I only run with friends on easy days, but yesterday I took a pretty normal base day run with a friend. Granted, this friend when she's in shape would be way faster than me, but she hasn't really been training seriously these past few months so it put us in a good similar place. It was nice because we took most of the run fairly relaxed (I had run a grand total of 3 miles since the half and yet my body was still feeling all kinds of beat, so I wasn't trying to be aggressive) and then we picked it up in the nice straight flats towards the end. We were holding the kind of pace that would have usually been hurting me, but it was so much easier and more intuitive with a partner holding the same pace next to you. It was really nice, really reduced the mental load, made the entire run way more enjoyable. Here's the summary!
Yesterday's Workout: Base/easy 7 mi run (which turned out to be less than that b/c we started from her apartment which is closer to the park, but whatever)
Summary: 6.49 mi, 58:57, 9:05 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 9:42, 9:42, 9:26, 8:53, 8:35, 8:28, 8:30.
Hit Rate: 5/6 (83.3%)
Today, I did my run in the afternoon and tackled an outdoor long interval workout for the first time in a long time. It was aggressive and painful and I spent most of the day dreading it and being terrified, but I went out and conquered it and I am immensely proud of the effort. Typically when I had run mile repeats before, I did a mile out and a mile back, but because of the layout of the park, I decided to do each mile as an out and back in order to take advantage of a nice straight flat path without intersections. The turn around sapped energy every time but working through that was a big confidence booster. Also I had my watch set to give me splits for the first and second half, meaning I had to hold a more even pace throughout the mile. (Before, I used to do a lot of going out super fast and just sort of dragging my feet the second half.)
Some interesting notes: The pace felt really aggressive until I really lifted my head up and looked ahead on the path instead of at the ground and then I started feeling like the pace was fast but definitely maintainable in a long race under the right conditions. Trying to bring down the perceived effort while I'm doing these is definitely a goal that I have and today I got a glimpse of the fact that it really is possible. Also, I had been aiming to do 8 mile repeats, but was fully prepared to only get to maybe 6, since I hadn't had one of these workouts in a while and they are really tough. I gritted my teeth through number 6 and told myself it was the last one, but after stopping and getting a drink (I strategically picked my start/end point so that I could get a drink between reps) I felt like I had enough for one more, so I buckled down before my brain could change its mind and went for one more (which I made!). I thought about just getting that 8th one in but my legs felt like they were going to disintegrate so I decided I would save it for about two weeks from now when I'll try this workout again. Hopefully I'll get to work both on making the reps feel easier and getting to that 8th one!
Today's Workout: Interval run, 7 x 1 mi repeats @ 7:30-8:00 pace w/ 3 mins rest between reps
Summary: 10.79 mi, 1:44:13, 9:39 pace (total including warm up and warm down)
Pace splits for each set: 7:45/7:40, 7:46/7:43, 7:53/7:43, 7:53/7:44, 7:55/7:48, 7:53/7:49, 7:56/7:52
Hit Rate: 6/7 (85.7%)
Needless to say, my legs feel pretty destroyed right now. I'm going to hit the sack early tonight, planning on hitting up masters swim in the morning, so lots of rest will be needed. It'll be a tough couple of days, but I will most likely either be taking Thursday off or taking it as an easy run or easy swim day (or putting my planned Friday gym day on Thursday and taking Friday easy) so there will be some amount of relaxation waiting for me later on in the week. Just gotta get through it! (Still riding that super proud of myself high. Awwwwww yeah. Hope this feeling stays!)
Much love,
Jess
Saturday, October 24, 2015
RNR
It's weird to have to admit that despite having a lower load training week than usual (easy swim/run on Mon/Tues, Wed off, real workouts on Thu/Fri) I'm still not really fully recovered from my half. There are plenty of people who can run a half marathon and have a super quick turn around time, people who don't get sore or stiff or achy and have bodies that bounce right back. I'm not one of those people. I noticed it after my last half too: Even though I wasn't really sore, it took quite a few days of real rest before I was back to being ready to run again. And it was summer, so I was at home relaxing, which really helped push that process along. This week has been crazy for me because the training that I have done has been interwoven with a lot of school/life busy-ness and the recovery has been slow but I haven't wanted to slow down. It's meant that I've not really recovered as well as I wanted/expected and that's made for a couple of tough nights this week. Last night Henry really convinced me that I need to take it easier on myself, so I decided to sleep in today and thought about canceling my other plans too if I didn't feel well.
I'm feeling really good actually. After a super restful night's worth of sleep, I'm definitely feeling better both physically and mentally. I'm going to try and keep it low stress and low pressure today. It feels weird not to be working out when I had planned on working out, but I know that in the grand scheme of things it's not all that important. Once again, I find myself making adjustments to my training plans, but we'll make them work. The week ahead will be tough but I really have to work on finding the right balance so that I can keep mental stress a little lower. Sometimes I forget that the summative tole on my body can be really high and I need to respect that and give myself some quality RNR time. It's okay to not be constantly pushing forwards, you have to pace yourself in life just like you have to pace yourself in racing. It's a marathon, not a sprint. We're gonna make it. (:
Hit Rate: 4/5 (80%)
Much love,
Jess
I'm feeling really good actually. After a super restful night's worth of sleep, I'm definitely feeling better both physically and mentally. I'm going to try and keep it low stress and low pressure today. It feels weird not to be working out when I had planned on working out, but I know that in the grand scheme of things it's not all that important. Once again, I find myself making adjustments to my training plans, but we'll make them work. The week ahead will be tough but I really have to work on finding the right balance so that I can keep mental stress a little lower. Sometimes I forget that the summative tole on my body can be really high and I need to respect that and give myself some quality RNR time. It's okay to not be constantly pushing forwards, you have to pace yourself in life just like you have to pace yourself in racing. It's a marathon, not a sprint. We're gonna make it. (:
Hit Rate: 4/5 (80%)
Much love,
Jess
Friday, October 23, 2015
First thing's first!
Started the day with a swim today. 4:30 am alarms are never easy, but I think it's generally better to start my days with a workout rather than spend the entire day anticipating it. The thing about genuinely loving and caring about everything that you do on a daily basis is that it's draining. The things we learn sitting down in a lecture hall are draining, the things we learn standing at a dissection table or at the bedside are draining, the extracurricular things I do that I care about and love are draining, and genuinely being about everything that you're doing does not make it any less draining, so given the choice between the 5:15 am workout with a 4:30 am alarm and the 5:00 pm workout after a full day of school/work, I'd probably prefer the 4:30 am alarm just because it's so hard to have anything left to give at 5:00 pm.
That having been said, I have "I've been up and at it for 12 hours already now" problems. It's 4:30 pm, I should really have spent the past half hour of somewhat free time either working or cleaning my apartment and I did neither, I just sort of sat on my computer and browsed Facebook. I get that everyone needs breaks throughout the day but honestly I feel terrible when I'm this busy and I take breaks. I don't have time to take breaks. I really just have to get through what I have to do.
The weekend's also shaping up to be a stressful one. Weekends are full of errands for me (grocery shopping, lots of preparatory cooking for the week, cleaning, etc.), as well as long workouts, sometimes volunteer work, and time I have to carve out to spend with Henry and hopefully get some amount of academic work done, so it's a lot and they're honestly not very relaxing. You know you're probably in a bad spot when it's the end of the workday on Friday and you're dreading the upcoming 72 hours. (And I cap it at 72 because I can't think about the upcoming week after that yet.) Just want to rest. But no rest for the weary...Anyways, the point: I'm glad I swam this morning, because if I had a workout scheduled for now (which I don't because I have a PT appointment in less than 30 mins and an event I have to attend from 6-8 pm after that), it would so not be happening.
Today was the first time I'd gone back to masters swim in a while. The commute is long, a half hour on my bike out and a half hour back, going at a leisurely pace on my hybrid. It means I tack about an hour of activity onto a 1:15 swim and on the way back, my legs burn real easy if I don't make a conscious effort to go real slow and just spin in low gears. Today was IM day, which I generally enjoy, although the soreness from yesterday's gym session made certain parts of the workout a little rough. I'm generally disappointed with how slow my swimming is right now, but seeing as I haven't been seriously training the swimming recently, it's to be expected. I've got a lot of work to do in the pool, but for now I'll save that for January and those mid-winter months when I'll probably be spending a lot of time focusing on my swimming while working on base building for the bike and maintenance for the running in the lead up to prep for USAT Collegiate Nationals. I treat my pool time now as just a necessary part of staying well-rounded while I do my little run-focused block. Here are the details!
Today's Workout: AM CSP Practice, IM day
Summary:
That having been said, I have "I've been up and at it for 12 hours already now" problems. It's 4:30 pm, I should really have spent the past half hour of somewhat free time either working or cleaning my apartment and I did neither, I just sort of sat on my computer and browsed Facebook. I get that everyone needs breaks throughout the day but honestly I feel terrible when I'm this busy and I take breaks. I don't have time to take breaks. I really just have to get through what I have to do.
The weekend's also shaping up to be a stressful one. Weekends are full of errands for me (grocery shopping, lots of preparatory cooking for the week, cleaning, etc.), as well as long workouts, sometimes volunteer work, and time I have to carve out to spend with Henry and hopefully get some amount of academic work done, so it's a lot and they're honestly not very relaxing. You know you're probably in a bad spot when it's the end of the workday on Friday and you're dreading the upcoming 72 hours. (And I cap it at 72 because I can't think about the upcoming week after that yet.) Just want to rest. But no rest for the weary...Anyways, the point: I'm glad I swam this morning, because if I had a workout scheduled for now (which I don't because I have a PT appointment in less than 30 mins and an event I have to attend from 6-8 pm after that), it would so not be happening.
Today was the first time I'd gone back to masters swim in a while. The commute is long, a half hour on my bike out and a half hour back, going at a leisurely pace on my hybrid. It means I tack about an hour of activity onto a 1:15 swim and on the way back, my legs burn real easy if I don't make a conscious effort to go real slow and just spin in low gears. Today was IM day, which I generally enjoy, although the soreness from yesterday's gym session made certain parts of the workout a little rough. I'm generally disappointed with how slow my swimming is right now, but seeing as I haven't been seriously training the swimming recently, it's to be expected. I've got a lot of work to do in the pool, but for now I'll save that for January and those mid-winter months when I'll probably be spending a lot of time focusing on my swimming while working on base building for the bike and maintenance for the running in the lead up to prep for USAT Collegiate Nationals. I treat my pool time now as just a necessary part of staying well-rounded while I do my little run-focused block. Here are the details!
Today's Workout: AM CSP Practice, IM day
Summary:
- WU: 500 swim
- Pre-set:
- 4 x 125 IMO, 50 kk/50 dr/25 sw @ 3PR
- 3 x 100 pull w/ paddles @ 1:35
- 4 x 75 IM no free @ 3PR
- 6 x 75 kick choice w/ fins @ 1:15, 50 mod/25 fast
- Main Set: 3 x
- 50 stroke IMO by round @ 1:00
- 200 IM @ 3:30
- 50 stroke IMO by round @ :55 (1:00 for breast)
- 100 free @ 1:35
- Extra 30SR per round
- WD:
- 50 easy
- 4 x 75 free/stroke/free @ 3PR
- Total Distance: 3600 SCY, 75 mins
Hit Rate: 4/4 (100%)
Tomorrow morning will start w/ an easy 7 miler I'm planning on running with one of my friends. She's a lot faster than me so hopefully I'll be able to reign her in and keep the pace where I want to keep it. That's important to me right now since I've been aching from last weekend still and a lot of it is in my joints so I want to prioritize being safe while I'm easy back into the serious running. Time for PT! Send me good vibes to get me through the rest of this long long day...
Much love,
Jess
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