Thursday, February 21, 2013

Week 4: Rockstar Motivation

It's definitely a bad sign when I don't have time to post my weekly recap. I did, however, get most of my workouts in. While the rest of the country was freezing their asses off, temperatures here reached 80 degrees on Friday and Saturday. Add to that the fact I saw a killer concert from a VIP table in the "suites" at the Staples Center and my honey was here visiting, I had a pretty darn good week.

What I was supposed to do:        What I did: 
Monday
Rest Day


I really wanted to swim on Monday but I was so tired. My pool
is open for lap swimming from 6:00 am until 2:00 pm and every
hour I said to myself I'd go the next hour. Like an exercise snooze
button, I did this until the pool closed. When it opened up again in
the evening I was definitely out for the count. Ultimately I did
what I was allowed to do and rested. 
Tuesday
Swim

Bright and early I went to the pool for SCAQ's 90 minute
Beginner Triathlon workout. Beginner my ass! It was a 90 minute
endurance swim. Clearly out of my league, I moved into the
slow lane to practice my stroke with the "Dave's Drills" video Jen
had sent me. It was 6:00 am and 43 degrees. Too fucking early
and too fucking cold, even for Southern California. 
Wednesday
Run 

My ankle has been bothering me and is visibly swollen. I had a
doctor's appointment Thursday so I decided to swap my run until
I got it looked at.

My ankle the night before the
Surf City Half Marathon





















I went back to the pool Wednesday evening to the SCAQ swim
clinic with Clay Evans again. He wanted to work on extending
my stroke and taking less of them across the pool. I went right
to Dave's "slow arm recovery with hesitation" and voila! I cut
strokes from 22 to 10 (although I think ideally I'll end up
around 14)

Thursday
Bike - Trainer only

This was my first workout that seemed like a chore. I don't love
the trainer. It's freaking boring! Jen suggests watching a movie.
I'm looking forward to the new season of Game of Thrones. 
That's when I'll look forward to trainer sessions. 
Friday
Endurance Swim

It was 80 degrees out!!! Sara, her husband Tim and I jumped on
the bike path and headed for the beach. I rode the old beater again
(I need to come up with a good name for her) in high gear. It's a
real quad burner. Sara brought watermelon for the halfway point.

My favorite bike jersey shrank!
Now I need to so it fits better. 

Swim was on the plan so at 6:00 pm I went back to the pool.
It was still 77 degrees out! Last Wednesday it was taking 
2:20+/100 but changing my stroke and learning to kick without 
bending my knees got my average time per 100 down. I really
need to work on the core exercises Jen sent me. It's definitely
my weak spot in swimming. 

Saturday
Long Bike w/hills

I was bad on Saturday and skipped my workout. Dave was
coming in and I wanted to tidy up before he got here. Jen will be
happy to hear that I found the heart rate monitor strap for my
Garmin exactly the same time Dave arrived with his. Now I
have 2 and no excuse to not have one at the ready.

Hanging in the VIP suite at the Pink concert. 
















That night my friend Penny (hot chick in pink wig above) hooked
us up with a table in the Staples Center suites to see Pink. It was
AWESOME! Also, I only had one drink. Yay me!
Sunday
Long Run w/Drill Work

Dave had a conference call in the morning so I got up and
took to the streets. The doc's diagnosis of my ankle was
inconclusive. An xray showed no fracture and since it doesn't
really hurt she said I could either get an MRI (the price of a car)
or keep an eye on it and take it easy. Basically she said don't run
on it if it hurts. It's more of a twinge than pain. I went out for a
slow hour run.

Then we went to the beach to watch Sara play volleyball, people
watch and pet snakes.

Lot's of people showing off at the beach.

For 25¢ you can pet a python.





































Then we went back home and jumped on our bikes and
headed back to the beach. I saw the position of the sun
when we got there I was a little worried whether we'd
make it home in time but we did. Just barely.

7 miles back to the car and no lights on our bikes. 



Even though I basically put the hours in I might not have effectively got my training in. Coach Jen explained that there's a fine balance to building fitness. Workout levels and order are as important as getting the workouts in. Now that I have a heart rate strap I can really start working on it properly (provided I can figure out how to get it to connect to my Garmin).

I'll leave you with a badass example of my Grandmother's favorite piece of advice. When I'd get down about something she used to always tell me to "Accentuate the positive." Looking on the bright side is often hard to do in this complicated world. Along with most of those I care about, I'm extremely stressed and buried in work lately. The few days off I took while Dave was here put me way behind. But, I'm focusing on the great things and soldering forward.

A couple years back Pink and her husband separated. Even in despair, with her life falling apart, she looked on the bright side and wrote one of my favorite running songs. What's more badass than singing your revenge every night while flying over 20,000 people!?!

Her bright side?

So What, I'm still a rock star! 



I'm happy to report that they have since reconciled and she continues to write awesome angsty running songs about their tumultuous relationship.


4 comments:

  1. Ha ha, I never thought about that song as a running song, but how awesome!!

    Your ankle looks ROUGH! Take it easy! Keep up the GREAT work!!

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  2. Hey you..great work on the swimming. Sounds like you made some progress. Just one of your bike jerseys shrank? Consider yourself lucky..All of mine did..and my pants too.

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    Replies
    1. Well, technically I only have one winter bike jersey. I'm sure the other one "shrank" too.

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  3. good stuff, Lee. And I love the "exercise snooze button" analogy. I've definitely hit that one too many times in my life!

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