Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Bike and track

You remember how I said yesterday that I need to do bike, run, swim today? Well, I should have but then I started to think about it and I realized that do bike intervals followed by running intervals followed by swimming intervals is not such a great idea. I am sure that I could do it, but will that swim still be quality workout? I doubt it. Plus I got my period and honestly the first day of that thing is getting worse as I get older. Plus, and I am really ashamed of this but I want to be honest: I like to use every opportunity I have to postpone a swim workout. I know that it will not go away, but I would rather do it on Sat with pool being half-empty than today with pool being half pool So I scrathced the swim and will do it on Saturday instead.

Today was my second day on my new job without any supervision. You know, a girl that trained me was there last time on Friday and my boss is on vacation for the whole month (she is German...) so you can imagine what I am doing there. But so far it is ok, I think that I have not messed up too many things yet:) But it was only second day. Still 2+ weeks to go before someone knowledgeable comes in.

So I did a bike workout, nothing too bad, only 1h of riding with 1min intervals. And I used my new pedals! I tried to focus on pulling and not only pushing. I think that it indeed makes me faster! But I need to adjust my seat because it is too low now.
I wonder how do people run out of/in to transition in biking shoes? I know that some people keep their shoes clipped in and thus run barefoot but I won't be able to do that because my shoes are not tri shoes but biking shoes and I cannot slip my foot in easily. Anyway, am I supposed to run in biking shoes and cleats on them? Is that even possible?

And then I did the track workout. I was again joined by the guy from work but this time he knew he needed to keep it controlled otherwise he would die by the end like he did last time. So he stayed with me the whole time.
800m w/up, 1000, 800, 600, 600, 800, 1000 w/2 min standing/walking break, 800c/d. With second half (upward going intervals) faster than first half.
1000: 3:45 Easy, well, relatively easy. This is the longest interval I have done since early December.
800: 2:55 Easy.
600: 2:08 Somehow easy.
600: 2:08 Managable.
800: 2:53 It is getting harder here, went steady, controlled and managed to make up time (2 sec) in a finish kick:)
1000: 3:43 Felt really sluggish/slow the first 600 (2:15) but then pull my s*** together and picked it up for the last 400.
Perfect! Exactly how it was supposed to be. It was not a super easy workout, especially last 800 and 1k, definitelly made my heart beat hard and my lungs gasping for oxygen in this water-filled air. I thought that I was not going to make the last 1k, but I stayed focused and mentally strong and did it and it was not that bad after all! 2min breaks went by too fast though.

ITB felt great, no problem. I do not know what the deal is because I felt it on Sunday. I am starting to think that although it is ITB it is not only it. Before, when I did aquajogging it felt as if my muscle on the outside side of thigh was detached from the tendon that attaches it to the knee. Ok, I know it was not detached but I had this weird dangling feeling as I was moving my leg up and down in water. And that inflammation or whatever it was this past weekend was exactly at that spot. I iced it every 2-3 hours yesterday and today and thus it did not bother me at all. Just weird. But these intervals do not bother it at all.
I did leg weights on Friday and I think that it might be what irritated it and caused that pain this weekend. It is either that or running.
So I am just going continue running and do not do any weights and see what happens.

I have very mixed feelings. But not like frustrating bad mixed feelings. I just cannot decide what I love more. Hard life, isn't it? I LOVE track intervals. And I LOVE tri training- long bike rides and intervals and long/steady swims (swim intervals, no so much because I suck at them for now). And I am sure that I will love IM training and I am looking forward to it. But I LOVE track intervals. I wish I could train on track for IM. Maybe I should start a new IM training approach:)

3 comments:

  1. Killer track workout!!! Glad the ITB is doing well...hope everything else stays healthy/strong too :) Good luck with the new job...we're both "the new girls"

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  2. About running in bike shoes- can do it if the Transition area is not too big. If it's a super long T1 you can run barefoot and then put your shoes on right before the bike mount line. Most people truly suck at getting their feet into their shoes while they're riding so they try to do it but then crash their bike in the race. Not good. BUT, learning to get your feet OUT of your shoes before t2 is easy (usually depending on your shoes I guess) and is a good way to save some seconds.

    I'm not even going to address IM training on the track. Trails, ok. Track, sorry.

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  3. I am just messing with you Michelle:)

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