Triathlon training: Week 4, Day 1

Here we are folks. The end of Week 4 will mean I'm halfway through the triathlon training. SCARY!

Saturday, I went downtown with my friend Brittney, her sister Kelli, and Brittney's friend Kim for her bachelorette party! I was so excited for this all week and am sad the night is over. I wanna do it again! We stayed at the Hyatt on Wacker and had dinner at the Grand Lux Cafe on Michigan Avenue, which is a lot like the Cheesecake Factory. I had a yummy pasta and chicken dish. Then we went out to Sound Bar and McFadden's. The night was a lot of fun, but McFadden's was about 100 degrees inside! We were all melting after about 10 minutes. Here are some pics from the night:
















It's always a fun time with Brit and her sister Kelli! I'm so excited for Brittney's wedding in 2 weeks and am very happy for her and her fiancee, Brent.

Tonight, training called for a 30 minute swim and a 45 minute run. I swan for about 25 minutes and ran for 40. Clearly, trouble pushing myself those last 5 minutes. When I was in the pool, I wanted to stop at about 15 minutes so I just said "Only 10 more minutes." I am going to meet with a friend of my mom's in the coming week for some swimming instruction, because I'm not happy with how it's coming along. I felt like my heart was going to explode today.

I was hoping to go running outside, but since it was downpouring that didn't happen. After swimming, I changed into my running clothes and got on the treadmill. I brought my 30 minute "Turn up the Burn" treadmill plan with me and followed it:

MINUTES SPEED INCLINE PLAN
2 4.0 mph 0-2 Warm-up
5 4.5-6.0 0-2 Increase speed by 0.5 mph each minute until you reach
6.0 mph; maintain for 2 minutes.
7 4.0-4.5 2-10.0 Increase incline by 2.0 each minute until you reach
10.0; stay there for 3 minutes.
1 6.0 mph 2.0 Descend
4 Varied 2.0 Sprint (your best effort) for 1 min., then jog (4.5 mph);
repeat combo, trying to sprint faster second time.
1 5.0-6.0 4.0 Climb
4 6.0-7.0 4.0
1 4.0-4.5 0 Recover
1 5.0-6.0 0 Jog
2 Sprint 0 Best effort
2 2.0-3.0 0 Cooldown


Last week, I ran for 40 minutes outside with my brother and it went by pretty quickly. 40 minutes on the treadmill today felt like an eternity. That's why I brought the interval training along, helps speed up the time a bit since you have to pay attention to adjusting your incline and speed. Very long workout today, glad I got it done. Starting 2-a-days tomorrow to make up for my missed workouts last week.

Triathlon training: Week 3, Day 7

My back is back, baby!!!

Yesterday I felt a lot better, especially because I didn't have to use the heating pad all day. I didn't take any muscle relaxers before bed, either. Today, my back felt like it was pretty much 100%. Rather than wait until tomorrow (Sunday) to work out and officially kick off Week 4, I decided to get some exercise in today, considering the huge break I've been forced to take.

I just went for a bike ride, and it was a tough one! My legs were back to the "Jell-O" feeling when I got off the bike and tried to walk. It's pretty aggravating how it takes over a week to build up your stamina, and then just 4 days to lose it. I just went on an 8 mile bike ride, part of it was the actual triathlon route.

Tomorrow was supposed to be the day where I do 30 minutes of each activity back to back. I'm going to have to push that back to next Sunday, since I haven't been able to train all week : ( I'm trying not to let myself get TOO discouraged - I usually work out 6 out of 7 days, and this week I worked out 2 - meaning I only missed 4. But I'm also aware that this is still a setback, and I am going to have to work very hard in the coming weeks to make up for it.

For now, I'm just happy that I was able to do some exercise again. So excited for tonight, it's my friend Brittney's bachelorette party in downtown Chicago! Going to be lots of fun.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Triathlon training: Week 3, Days 5 and 6

STILL having too much back pain to be able to work out. Getting very upset, frustrated, depressed, and concerned at this point. I KNEW some sort of injury was going to happen to me mid-training. THIS SUCKS.

Triathlon training: Week 3, Day 4

Still on the DL.

My back is feeling 90% better. I am going to go to the gym tonight to do some of the weight machines for my arms and then try to do some light cardio, like the elliptical. Still a bit upset about this messing up my triathlon training, however, I've accepted that there's nothing I can do but give my back the time it needs.

On Tuesday night, my back was hurting so badly that I took one of my mom's muscle relaxers before going to bed. I had a heating pad on my back all day at work yesterday, and have been doing stretches that my dad had to do for his back in physical therapy awhile ago.

In the grand scheme of things, I'm thinking that missing 4 days out of an entire 8 weeks of training won't do TOO much damage. That's my hope, at least.

Triathlon training: Week 3, Day 3

THIS SUCKS!!!!!!!

The same area of my back that I strained a few months ago is KILLING me right now. I should never have helped Nels lift a lot of the stuff I did yesterday. Stupid, stupid, stupid! This is the 2nd day this week of my training that I'm missing. Last time this happened, I had to take an entire week off.

I'm so pissed right now.

Triathlon training: Week 3, Days 1 & 2

Darn holidays.

My training schedule for this week is already out of whack. I did a great job last week and even did the running I was supposed to on Saturday. Yesterday, the training called for a 30 minute swim and 45 minute run. Had it been a regular Sunday, I would have got this completed. But with it being the 4th of July...didn't happen. I am going to have to make that up one of the days this week. Not sure when yet. Maybe I'll swap my Friday rest day for it, since I rested on Sunday?

I feel disgusting today. Hot dogs, burgers, Frosty floats, and beer all weekend. Really hoping I'll start feeling back on track tomorrow. We'll see...

Today was supposed to be a strength day, normally I go to boot camp. My mom had physical therapy tonight so I had to take care of making dinner while she was there, so I wasn't able to make the 7 p.m. class. I did, however, have to help Nels move most of the stuff out of his Sycamore apartment today so with the way my body is feeling, I'm thinking that's what will have to suffice for today. I swapped Tuesday's workout for today, went running 4 miles with my brother. He is really fast, so I am wiped out. I appreciate him going with me because I know that even though he's still fast for me, he's actually going quite slow for his normal place. Thanks bro : )

Besides all of that, I really did have a wonderful 4-day weekend. Nels and I won't be seeing each other this coming weekend due to some bachelor & bachelorette parties, so it was great that we got to spend so much time together. It was a little sad that it was our last weekend in Sycamore. We hope to move back there one day. We spent some time walking around the NIU campus & lagoon area -





Nels, the Goose Whisperer:



Then we grilled out with our good friends Sean and Burcu - they're a great excuse to visit DeKalb : )



Then we all went to see the fireworks in Kirkland, a small town about 15 minutes from DeKalb. They may be a small town, but they have an AMAZING fireworks display! This is the 3rd year in a row we've all gone together to see the show. We laid out our blankets to claim our spot (which ended up getting wet from the rain) and spent some time at the carnival before the fireworks. I had so much fun on the Tilt A Whirl with Sean and Burcu! Nels didn't go on it because he gets motion sickness from it (BABY!!! haha) but he took some pics:





Overall, a good weekend. Thought it was interesting how different my body felt after eating crap food. I didn't like it : (

But I do like him : )

Triathlon training: Week 2, Days 4 - 7

Been too busy for blogging the last few days! But I've still been getting my training in, I swear!

Day 4

My mom had surgery on her shoulder last Friday, and it's a tough one to recover from. I've been helping her out as much as possible. Wednesday was a busy day with errands, including some grocery shopping and laundry for the house. I understand now why it's so hard for parents to find time to exercise - I imagine having kids is similar to what I've been experiencing, except 10 times busier!!! Anyway, after everything finally got finished I made it to the gym after 9. I was SO tired by then and believe me, I did not want to go. It took a lot to motivate myself to get through the workout.

On this day, I was supposed to swim 15 minutes and run for 30 minutes. I swam about 20 minutes and completed 16 laps (yay!) and then moved on over to the treadmill. I would rather have run outside, but it was dark out by then and I don't like running alone in the dark. I only made it about 11 minutes on the treadmill. I was bored and tired and couldn't stop staring at the clock. I switched over to the crossramp machine for another 20 minutes to still get my cardio in. I wanted to quit at minutes 3, 9, 11, 18...etc. Couldn't wait to go to bed that night.

Day 5

Thursday I went jogging and walking with an old friend that I haven't seen in awhile. We did a jog/walk combo of a little over 4 miles. It was great to catch up with her!

Day 6

REST DAY! Hooray.

Day 7

Seeing as how I didn't go running last Saturday, I made sure that I did it first thing in the morning to get it over with this time. It was also helpful that I'm back in Sycamore for the weekend, whereas last weekend I was in Moline with Nels and do not know that area. It takes about 10 minutes to walk from Nels' apartment to the trail near his place, so that was my warm up and then I ran 2 miles into the trail with a time of 20 minutes, 12 seconds - keeping that 10 minute mile pace going strong. Then I turned around and ran the rest of the way back. Made it 4 miles without stopping! My final time was about 38 minutes, 40 seconds. I really pushed that last mile to be under 10 minutes.

Completed the full 6 days of work outs this week! Yay!

Happy 4th of July everybody : )