March 19, 2010

Mental Toughness!!

Yesterday was a good mental toughness building kind of a day for me. For some reason recently I have been having anxiety about my speed workouts so I obsess about the weather all day and worry that the weather will be horrendous and I won't be able to complete my workouts. This is mainly running but cycling kind of freaks me out right now too. It is strange and if it doesn't resolve itself soon I will probably talk to my coach about it. I think with running it will help to start doing my track workouts in the mornings again, there's just less time in the day to worry, eat something weird, or have the wind pick up to horrendous levels. Yesterday I kept obsessively checking the weather and when I saw that the wind was 18 MPH I was not happy - that is a stiff breeze! Also, I went to Chipotle for lunch which was incredibly delicious but Chipotle generally is not the best pre-hard run meal. I kept thinking about how I could run today instead but realistically I knew the best thing was to get it done.

So I trotted down to the middle school and started my strides, oh boy was it WINDY!!! The track is oriented North-South and the wind out of the North was just awful. I was so un-excited to start the real workout that (luckily I was the only one at the track) I had to give myself an out-loud pep talk. Nothing crazy, just 'okay, you can do it!!!' I finished the workout but I must say it was not pretty. It was also really hard to get my heart rate up to where I like it because pushing into the wind was just physically demanding and it was almost impossible to run fast enough to feel anything with the tailwind. Oh well - not every workout can be the most amazing workout ever!!

Today, after a string of amazing 60-70 degree days, we are in the midst of a snowstorm. Luckily my only workout today is a long swim which is awesome in the snow! My streak of outdoor cycling is somewhat at risk but I am planning to switch my long ride and run, so as long as the weather is decent Sunday, I will complete my all-outdoor week!! That will be awesome!!

Posted by barb at 8:23 AM | Comments (1)

March 17, 2010

Barb = 2, Trainer = 0!!!

So far my week of minimizing trainer time is going well!! I've ridden outside twice so far this week and I'm planning a third outdoor ride for this afternoon, when it will be ALMOST 70 DEGREES!!! OMG I am so excited. I think I might not even have to wear knee warmers, hold the phone!!! I have definitely moved my schedule around a bit to make this all outdoor riding thing happen, but it is SO worth it. Yesterday my ride was a bit annoying as I was doing a speed workout and the park where I ride was totally insane, there were tons of cyclists, walkers, runners, rollerbladers, dogs, etc. I should have taken a picture to illustrate how the setup is and how nuts it was. But the good news was I got my whole workout in, I didn't almost run over anyone (or actually run over anyone), and I didn't even yell at anyone! That is big progress for me. I tend to have a bit of road rage on my bicycle when people walk in the bike lane and do other stuff that annoys me.

This weekend the weather looks decidedly not awesome, but I think I will be able to keep my non-trainer streak alive by riding on Sunday. I do not like riding on Sundays because I like riding on Saturday and doing my long run Sunday to kind of simulate race situations, but I think it's worth it to switch things up if I get to keep the streak alive!

I am slowly but surely adjusting to the time change. I think by the end of the week I will be way more glad that the time changed than annoyed by my tiredness, but today I am a bit sleepy. Luckily I ran this morning, then I have a swim at lunch, and I'm riding tonight, so I can pep myself up with training! Tonight after my ride I am hanging out with Michelle and then I think I will collapse into my bed in an exhausted state!

Good night!!!

Posted by barb at 9:31 AM | Comments (2)

March 15, 2010

Boulder Spring Half Marathon - Expensive Training Run Report!

I had such a nice, fun weekend of training that was only made less awesome because of a bad sleep night Saturday night. On balance the weekend was totally awesome and almost on the border of amazing! I decided on Wednesday that it would be fun to run the Boulder Spring Half Marathon on Sunday as a training run so I could hang out with my friend Cathy, and run some hills. I didn't even consider it a race so I didn't taper or anything and in fact ended up doing a nice brick workout on Saturday when the weather was incredible - 60 degrees and sunny! So I knew I wasn't into racing and that was a good thing as I just wanted to hang out with Cathy and help her with her workout.

I got to Boulder around 8:00 yesterday after a rough 6:30 (i.e. formerly 5:30) am wakeup. Michelle was out late and I ended up having her dog over all night, he is a fat dog so he snores really really loud! Also I was restless because I expected both Michelle and Matt to walk in at some point. I don't know, it was just a bad night of sleep.

Anyway I found Cathy right away and planned to meet her at the start. Then I sat in the car for a long time, warmed up, froze waiting for the bathroom, and got to the start (and luckily found Cathy since we have a history of losing each other at races!) about a minute before the start. Her team is wearing hot pink now which I thought would be really easy to spot but I guess that is a really popular color scheme now?

We took off into a horrendous headwind. The course is pretty much uphill the entire way out and downhill the entire way back so the way out was rough - cold, windy, and uphill. At the turnaround it got way better. I felt pretty good the entire way and I just tried to keep Cathy in good spirits since I knew this was an important tuneup for Boston (she is training for the marathon so she had to run 4 more miles when we were done, I am amazed!). She tracked our splits and sent them to me, here they are:
8:03
7:55
8:05
8:04
8:04
8:00
7:57
7:31
7:35
7:38
7:45
7:54
7:47

We are pretty sure the course was long because we hit 13.1miles in around 1:43, yet our official time was 1:44:35. I didn't care but it was annoying for anyone going for a PR. Then again it was not much of a PR course, ha!!

After we finished I thought about looking for Katie whom I thought I saw (it turns out I was right actually, how funny!), but I was really really cold so I cooled down by walking to the car. Then it was time for a big breakfast and some shopping. It was a good weekend and if only the time had not changed I think I would feel okay :) I am trying to use my mental toughness to gut out this week and get used to the new time. I'm sure by this time next week I'll forget about it but this is rough.

My goal for this week, which I think is doable if the forecast doesn't change, is to ride my trainer for no more than one hour. Wish me luck!!!

Posted by barb at 12:56 PM | Comments (0)

March 11, 2010

I love running :)

I guess the theme for my blog this week is things I love!! Sleep, running, I wonder what will be next!!! Anyway I had a nice little speed run workout this morning. Even though I am obsessed with tris these days, I still love running the most. It is just so simple and easy, you throw a pair of shoes on (and these days lots of clothes) and you are off!! I especially love running first thing in the morning, everything is so quiet and peaceful and the sun is rising which is really nice too!! I have a busy training day today in front of me, I will be going for a swim at lunch and riding for an hour after work. I like triple days, I feel so productive! And when I have a big day a lot of times that means I have a nice mellow day the next day - tomorrow I just have to swim!! I like having Fridays as light days because by the time Saturday morning rolls around I am always super excited to get a good training day in. Last night I went to a yoga class, I am really into yoga these days. I have so much going on right now, yoga helps me de-compress and de-stress myself! I think it is important to take time to focus on the present. A lot of times I use training time to work out different issues that I'm encountering - it's like a problem-solving exercise. That is really useful but sometimes I want to turn my brain off and focus on looking at my forehead in the mirror, balancing on one leg, and just feeling my muscles stretch and contract. So I guess the long and short of it is that I love running, I love sleep, and I love yoga!!

Luckily it is Thursday so it is almost time to love a long ride on my bicycle, hooray!!!

Posted by barb at 10:37 AM | Comments (1)

March 10, 2010

I love sleep!!!

I am super super busy these days so my blogging is somewhat sad and pathetic. Work is super hectic, training is busy, and my social life is not as non-existent as usual, so that all adds up to a great lack of free time!! I don't think I've read a book since this weekend, which is not all that shocking, but it is kind of weird since I'm obsessed with the book I'm currently reading, and that usually leads me to make more time for reading. Yeah, this week not so much.

I did not have a good night of sleep Monday night so yesterday by the time 7:00 rolled around I was a hot mess! I couldn't handle the thought of eating dinner so I had a mini-bagel and a cupcake, oops!! Then I went to sleep at 8:30 and slept like a ROCK until 5:45 this morning which was amazing. I feel like a new person today!! Of course then I had a horrendous morning (after my speed bike workout, which was fun) so I am stressed again but at least I am well-rested and stressed which is better than the alternative!

I have decided to run a half marathon on Sunday just for fun, I am excited!

That is the news right now! Just a little over six weeks till my first tri of the year, I really can't wait for that!!!

Posted by barb at 11:06 AM | Comments (2)