Hang Over Ride

Last night David and I  celebrated our  11 year anniversary and since two of my early morning clents cancelled we splurged a bit and stayayed out too late.  I'm mostly crabby, but also not feeling motivated at all.  Later today we drive out to the Forth Fork of Long Isalnd to spend time with in-laws and I"m really looking forward to time with them as well as training outside of the city.  So today was supposed to be easy anyway, but I cut my ride 15 min short, from 1 hour down to 45 minutes. I set my trainer up outside.  Warmed up for 15 minutes and then managed to work torough a pretty good workout.  Working about 8bpm below threshold i did 3 minutes seated at 60rpm, 3 min standing 60rpm, 2 min seated 50rpm, 2 min standing 70rpm, 1 min seated 40rpm, 1 min standing 80 rpm.  Recover for 3 minutes at 90rpm seated.  Repeated the entire set.  Sweating a bit, along with a lot of water was good for my hangover.

Pick me up Run and Weights

Im feeling like going heavy on my weight trining today.  Spent an hour on mostly multi joint movements for chest and shoulder at 4x8 reps.  Some single joint at 3x10-12.  About 8 exercises total.  Worked back and shoulders heavy and chest moderate. Was able to do un-asisted dips without pain for the first time since my shoulder surgery.   Before this session i started with some shoulder band work for rotator cuff and scapular retraction.  Finished at home with 10 minutes of ab work.  Have not had time for a full hour and a half weight and PT session in a long time.  Good times! It was 84 degrees and partly cloudy and humid when I set out for my run.  Went from the John Street gym down to battery park, along the Hudson River up the west side runner's path.  Ran at an easy 9:20 mm pace for most of it and inserted 40 stride pick ups of 7-7:30mm 9 times throughout.  Headed back to the gym along Chambers Street because i was feeling like some hills.  The traffic lights allow for some rest but i hit the hills at a moderate pace, not too hard.  Overall felt like a good run, but it was real humid and my heart rate was a bit higher than it should have been and was feeling a little something in my left shin.

What excellent bars can do for a bike

My training ride today was supposed to be an easy ride up Coney Island Ave to Roy's Sheepshead Cycle to replace my bike's current bars with new carbon Easton Attack TT bars.  I found that the tube I replaced on Saturday had a damaged valve as I suspected and I needed to replace the tube.  Except the only tube I had left was the wrong size.  Oops.  So the bike went onto the car and off I went.  After an hour and a half at the shop I had my new bars and decided to replace the back tire as it was quite worn and had a few significant holes from glass.  What the hell, i'm over budget anyway. Oh, by the way, these bars are normally $600 and i got them for $300.  So call my shop or order on line, they seem to have more stock www.roysbikes.com. Now for the test.  I've never ridden in true tri bars so I was feeling a bit out of sorts riding through traffic to prospect park.  Noticed that my shoulder placement was much more narrow and therefore a less solid base of support.  Once in the park I had planned a workout that I did the previous week.  Basically, a tempo ride for muscular endurance combined with  long hills for force.  After one loop of prospect park I was getting a better feeling for the new bars, shifting, weight balance, and relaxing my hands.  Really like my shoulder position, head position and generally more relaxed upper body placement.  I completed 6 laps of the park working around 70 rpm on flats and 60 on hills.  Felt really good!

When I compared results from previous workout I had increased my best lap time by 20 seconds over 3 miles, not bad considering it's like riding on a new bike.   Looking forward to riding this weekend on Long Island.  Feel i'll be adapted to it for my race in 11 days.

Didn't do any weights today.  Will have a chunk of time between clients tomorrow, so will save it for then.

Sometimes goals are unreasonable

I almost never swim two days in a row, and today i was wisinging i could go for a run instead, but since the weather is holding up nd my closest pool is outdoors, I'll stick with my plan and go to the pool.  Since yesterday was really light,  and i'm feelng like a run I jogged 15 minutes to the pool and again home. The pool was not crouded today, probably because it's only about 78 degrees outside.  I started with 23 minutes of warming up, focusing on long stokes and varied breathing between 2 and 3 strokes.  Then i started my main set which was supposed to be 10 short cruise intervals of 160 meters in HR zone 4-5a.  My goal was to complete them in 3:30 sec and take a 30 second rest inbetween.  I set my tempo trainer at .50 seconds per stroke.  I only completed 5of these because after only 3 sets i felt like i was struggling, my stroke was getting shorter and swimming should not be a struggle.  So I continued the set but at a much slower pace and stoker rate hoping to get the length back into my stroke.  Each set I increased the stroke rate a bit and was feeling more easy in the water, but not very long or fast.  Really disappointed that the speed workouts are not working for me.

The results were that during the so called hard set I swam about 36:53 per mile at best and yesterday i swam a full 1500m set with longer strokes per lap at a 37:32 min mile pace.  I'll keep playing with workouts, but getting discouraged that the speed workouts are not helping my long swims, and just swimming long all the time is not the answer either.

Also did 45 minutes combined of shouder physical therapy, shoulder strength super sets and abdominal work earlier in the day.  Noticing that when I do shoulder work on swim days I'm not as effective in the pool.  Will keep that in mind for next week.

Short speed set and long swim

Feeling ready today for a swim.  I find i have to put a swim on my calendar for Mondays or else I don't get in three sessions and although it's a bit cool today it is sunny.  I'm feeling recovered because I only did some light wweight training on Suday, so this thould be a good day.  Drove to the pool, easy parking,   Red Hook is the he only neighborhood I ever go to where parking is not a problem. Today I start with drills, single arm, catch up, and long strokes for 20 minutes.  Followed by full effort 4x 80 meter with 30 second recovery.  Stroke length was pretty good, about 50 and times were between 1:41 and 1:46.  Hr was in Z5 as planned.  the main set was 1500m with the tempo trainer set at 1 second stroke rate and 50-54 strokes per length.  The stroke felt faster than usual but using the tempo trainer gets you into a zone that is still new to me.  My HR was in zone 3 as planned and final time indicated a 37:32 min per mile which is a little better than what I was swimming without the tempo trainer.

Will keep experimenting with using the trainer to find a pace a bit slower that will allow for a longer, easier stroke.  I did feel  a bit rushed during this set although not tired at the end.

Earlier in the morning I did 45 minutes of weight training.  3 back movements, 2 chest and 2 legs.  Straight sets 8-12 reps.

Long Ride and Flat

My time was limited today so David and i got started early .  We drove over the GW Bridge to ride 9W.  I planned for a 2:45 min ride, about 45 miles.  Was mild and very little wind.  Was really enjoying the ride, turned around and then on the way up a long 4 min climb i heard the unmistakable sound of a tire going flat.  Bummer. I'v actually never changed a flat out on a ride.  For some reason I've always been near home and gould change my tube in the comfort of my home.  I had everything i needed including a CO2 cartridge which i've never used before.  Had a terrible time changing the tube.  First it was twisted because i didn't put enouth air in it to start out.  Then the co2 cartridge didn't work.  When i finally finished i had a little bulge in the tire.  Prayed i would get home.  Taking bike to shop in a few days anyway and if need be, will have them change it for me.  Give me a little lesson.

Good thing i had water and food on me.  Was frustrated so having a Pure bar to eat was helpful.  The other thing that was nice is about half of the riders on the road asked if i needed any help.  Good to know it's available if you need it.  Interesting that i saw no women during this time.

New drills with new tools and an easy swim

Between clients this morning i put in 45 minutes of weight training.  7 shoulder exercises and one chest.  Rep range was varied depending on the movement, but worked from 6 reps to 12. Around noon I jogged to the pool, about 20 minutes.  My purpose today is to get to know and use a couple new training tools.  One is the forearm fulcrum, designed to assist my stroke with elbow placement and the other is the tempo trainer to help maintain a steady stroke.

I did some easy swimming and drills for about 15 minutes and then tried the forearm fulcrum.  Found that my hand was not as relaxed as i would like and that my stoke per length was shortening.  Decided to put that toy asie and check out some videos before using it agein.  The tempo trainer i really liked.  The tempo trainer is like a metronome.  You attach it to your gogggle strap or slid it under your  cap and it provides  an audible tone which you can set for a specific time.  Whenever it beeps, your hand should enter the water.  I started with a setting of 1.25 seconds per stroke and worked the pool a couple laps and then increased the rate slowly to 1 second.  I like that it evens out my stroke, but found that 1 second was a bit rushed for the workout i wanted to continue with.

I left the tempo tainer set at 1.15 seconds, focusing on long strokes and swam 1500 meters.  Each length was about 48-52 strokes and final time was 37:51.  My HR ave was 134.  This speed is pretty typical for my long swims.  Next week i want to do some fast repeats using the tempo trainer and then follow with a long swim at a faster stoke and see how that goes.  The stroke today felt slow and very controlled but i was hoping for a better stroke per length.

The pool deck was chilly as some clouds had arrived.  I wiped off with my cool mini towl that's like a shammy and threw my stuff back into my bag for an easy, refreshing run home.

Long run and Tempo combo

Another beautiful day.  After finishing with my personal training clients I spent 30 minutes weight training back at high volume, low reps.  About 6 exercises. Left John street and headed down to battery park and up the Hudson river parkway.  I have not had a chance to do a nice flat long run since winter when I was training for the Rome marathon and it was so pleasant outside.  About 72 degrees and a nice breeze coming off the river.

Spent the first hour running at an easy long distance pace of about 9mm and then turned around to run 45 minutes at Tempo.  I took a gel at the hour mark and re-filled my water bottle.  During the tempo portion my HR was at about 88% max and average pace was  8mm.  The plan was to combine a long run with a tempo run reaching a pace of about 30s per minute slower than my 10k pace.

I only have two more weeks before the NYC Triathlon and this was a good combination for this weeks hard run workout.  Legs feel great.  I've been running less but focusing my run program on race specific workouts.  My other run this week was only 30 minutes.  A brik following a heavy bike ride.  All is well!  Tomorrow will be a light day of 45 minutes weight training and swimming.  Hope this weather holds out.