Countdown...

School starts today. End of summer. End of just training. Ugh. Not cool. I still haven't figured out my schedule. I'm debating between taking 5 or 6 courses. (The fifth and sixth would be relatively easy courses; the other four would be moderate to hard.) I probably should not do it because of

1) the job hunt for next year (all the recruiters are coming to campus this month)
2) I am probably going to intern somewhere (so thats 15-20 hours gone)
3) I wanna do really well this semester (spending lots of time in the hell hole named LAU aka the library—it is actually an architectural nightmare)
4) I need to train because I signed up for a Half Ironman in March.

Ok I should probably explain. I really want to do an Ironman within the next two years. Like really badly. So I think doing a 70.3 is a really good idea. It's also a good way to force my mom to come see me race (she backed out of coming to see me race at Nation's).

I've done quite a few workouts since I last posted.

Irene hit on Saturday, so I decided to get my butt up early (after a night of some drinking at the college bar). I was up at 8 AM, and headed down to Haines Point. Boy was it crowded. The weather was great though! Cool and crisp, my favorite weather. Anyways, my workout was supposed to be a 2 hour easy zone 2 ride followed by a 30 min run. It was marvelous. I averaged 17 mph during moving time! woot.
The run on the other hand was a disaster. Not cool. It was supposed to be 20 min at 10K pace (aka 8:30-8:45) followed by 10min at an easy pace. I hit my targets; 8:22 and 8:45, but my shins were killing me. Painful. I ended up stopping 5 min into the last 10 min to just let my legs quasi recover. I'm pretty sure I now have shin splints. CRAP.

Once I got back home, I grabbed something to eat and iced my legs. They felt soooo good. Funny story. I got a keg tub from the local liquor store, it's this massive black tub. By the time I got it (and the ice) it was raining. So I cleaned out the tub, put some ice in it and proceeded to use a brita jug (w/o the filtration system) to fill up the tub. Fun stuff.

It gets better.

I hadn't really thought the whole process through. Now I was on the top floor of my house. The tub was very heavy when it was filled. I couldn't lift it to the sink to dump out, nor to the shower. I didn't even attempt to pick it up to dump the water out of the window (it was raining pretty hard). I ended up using the brita jug to dump the water out my window! WOOT!

Saturday night, I stayed in. I lie. I went to a friend's house for a bit. I didn't drink (that much), and then just went home and passed out. The next day I had plans with a friend of mine to go on a ride. He had just arrived, and had bought a tri bike over the summer. Before going on the ride we took my bike to get its 30-day tune up. Everything went as planned. Got back to campus and went for a spin to my favorite spot: Haines Point. We did 1:20 pretty fun. After that we went to Ray's Hell Burger. AMAZING. I had a burger and a vanilla milkshake. YUM.

Monday: I went back to see my swim coach at AU. I'm pretty sure I did something else, but I don't remember. I got drunk off of a few beers. Oye.

Tuesday: Tried to go for a run with a friend of mine, made it 1.6 miles. My shins were killing me. NOT GOOD. I did a baseline bike test that afternoon. Felt amazing. The test part, I averaged 20. Eh. Not good. TOO DARN SLOW.

Today: FIRST DAY OF CLASS! AHH. The beginning of the end. Holy smokes. Still trying to figure out my schedule. This morning I did 1:45 with my friend from Sunday. Haines Point once again. Felt good.

Tonight I'm going to do some run surges. Might go running with the Georgetown Running Company. Not sure. AHH.

Oh and the Half Ironman is in San Juan.

I promise to write another post by the end of the week!

Happy training.

Woah.

It's already Friday. Holy Crap. School starts this coming Wednesday. Nation's is in 15 Days. Holy SH*T! Hopefully I'm ready for it. I don't think it's gonna be pretty, but I'll get through it. The swim is gonna be the worst.

Speaking of swimming. I haven't really done anything in the pool since I hurt my shoulder. While I was at the beach, I swam. (I'm not sure if you can call that training...) So I decided to get some more lessons to improve my technique. I asked my tri coach and she recommended a swim coach up at AU. She's great. I've had two lessons so far, and I'm planning on having at least 3-4 more. WOOT!

Tuesday, I went for an intense ride with a friend who just graduated. We did the MacArthur loop, and our average moving speed was 18MPH. I'm pretty sure we held 22 for quite a significant portion. After that I had my swim lesson. And then my bike fit! WOOOT. No more shoulder/arm pain!

Yesterday called for another swimming lesson and a practice 10K. The lesson went well. The 10K not so much. I warmed up for about a mile, stretch at the boat house (TBC) and then continued to warm up. I started out at a 9:30, got that down to a 9:10, then an 8:10. I went all out. I was dropping mid 7s splits. I was cruising. Then my calves started killing me. I tried this trick I read about at Erica's blog; count to 100 and if it goes away you're golden and it's your mind playing tricks. It didn't go away. I slowed my pace to 8:40 for the fourth mile. And I just stopped. My legs really hurt. So I just walked back, and my shins still hurt. By the time I was about half a mile from home, my shins were feeling a bit better. Not sure what it was. I probably should have iced it last night. Ugh.

My sister flew in last night from LA. She was visiting our dad. She goes to Columbia, and might be going up today to avoid Irene. Hopefully Irene won't ruin my planned workouts.

Happy training.

Wild Thaaang

I've named my bike wild thaaang. Last week was a good training week. Got back into the rhythm of things. The wednesday group run kicked my ass, but it was good. My run splits are dropping, as are my bike splits.

Wild Thaaang and I.

My coach is scolding me for doing too much in the no man's land that is zone 3. Urgh. Whenever I do something, I can't go slower than what i'm used to. I just go to where is comfortable, and try and make it as fast as possible. (hopefully that made some sense.)

My bike baseline test went really well. I jumped from a 18.6 MPH to 20.6 MPH in a little over a month. I felt really good on the test, and probably could have pushed it a bit more. But that's neither here nor there. Another bike issue: I'm starting to get pain in my upper arm, shoulder and upper back because of how far forward the cockpit is. I can't bring it in anymore because I keep hitting the handlebars/my elbows with my knees. Luckily I have a fit appointment tomorrow.

I was supposed to do a baseline run test on sunday, but that didn't happen. I had gone up to my friend's beach house on saturday for his birthday. We didn't really do much drinking, but I had forgotten my running shoes back in DC (intentionally?). His parents left on Sunday, and my friend wanted me to stay longer. I was really anxious to get back to DC to start training some more, albeit he did have a good point that I could swim there (both in a bay and in the ocean!). I ended up leaving yesterday. Partly because of the training, but also because my sister is coming to visit soon.

How I spent my weekend...

Swimming wise. Just some ocean swimming. I'm gonna meet with a swim coach on wednesday, and then again on thursday. I've gotta ramp it up.


My first olympic is right around the corner! AHH. Time to HTFU.

Oh and if this doesn't motivate you, then I don't know what will.

(Via DCRainmaker's Google+ Stream)

Tired.

So. Wednesday was my birthday. I also got a new seat for my bike (I still need to name it; it has to be something that oozes sexy (but not sluttiness), speed and sleekness.)! I can no longer blame (future) infertility on my stupid fizik bike saddle.

I went to dinner with some of my good friends (all rowers) at bourbon steak. I had a porterhouse. Yum. Oh and a bunch of oysters. yuuuuum. We ended the night at the tombs, and closed it down. Great birthday.

Thursday, I did about 1:30 ride.

Friday, I was planning on doing a half century ride. I decided to take MacArthur out to Falls Road to River Road. I only had 2 water bottles because I found my aero bottle to be very annoying. I finished both my bottles before the ginormous hill that connects MacArthur to Falls Road. I had to stop at a gast station and buy a bottle of water. I had 2 gels with me; a Honey Stinger and a GU Choco. At this point I hadn't taken either; just water. When I stopped at the gas station, I checked my phone and a friend of mine texted me she wanted to "christen" her new bike with a ride at 5 PM. So I had to cut my ride short. At this point I was about ~14 miles into my ride. I decided to continue and just turn around before I hit the 25 mile marker.

River Road.Is.Hilly.But.So.Much.Fun.

I loved it. The hills were insane. The descents are speedy. I hit a max speed of 41.5 mph on one hill. Talk about a high.

My heart rate was all over the place. Same thing with my cadence. I had planned on going out to Seneca Road and go back to DC via Rock Creek Park. But I turned around about 2 miles before Seneca. Pretty uneventful, except for the random car passing me and not giving the required 3 feet. Schmucks.

I got home, and took a long shower and stretched. I went to Chipotle and had a burrrrriiiittto. Yum. And then I went on a 10 mile ride at 5:30, after watching an episode of Suits (which is amazing btw). 

Today I woke up at 9, went on a run with a good friend of mine. I had to run 9 miles, she had to run 6, so I was gonna be running the majority by myself. It was supposed to be an easy run at 9:26 pace. We left Georgetown, passed the Kennedy Center, around Lincoln and then around the Washington monument. We were cruising at a comfortable (for me at least; it was supposed to be a hard run for her) 8:40. Once we rounded the Washington monument, I split off and went around the Tidal Basin and back to the Lincoln memorial and Georgetown. I thought it would be longer, but it ended up only adding about 3 miles more. So I only ran 7 miles at a comfortable 9:13. (I think the actual split should be lower because I had to stop for lights and water etc.) UGH. I didn't know where else to run so I just went home. I know lazy.

That's been my Thursday-Saturday. I'm still debating whether or not I should do something tomorrow. I may just go to the pool. 

One thing though. I've been having some pain in my shoulder/upper arm when I'm in aero for extended periods of time. I think its because my cockpit is too long. 

Anyways thats it.

M.I.A.

Sooo I've been MIA! Sorry about that.

Last thursday I went to a friend's beach house on an island off of long island. I stayed till yesterday. It was amazing. Just a lot of fun. There are no cars, and you bike everywhere. Oh and in this particular town no shoes, doors were left unlocked, etc. It was a blast. thursday was margarita madness. I don't have to say that friday was a recovery day. Saturday was the lobster party = DELICIOUS and then some drinking. I'm probably gonna go back up there in a few days (it's my friends birthday on the 20th).

Anyways.

I ended up not working out. Well. I swam in the bay and the ocean. And did a lot of drinking...

That brings me to today. It's my birthday. I did not workout today...I'll resume workouts tomorrow.

plug your ears

Yesterday I went for an 1:10 bike ride with some intervals thrown in. Felt good. Except for down there. I really need to get my seat switched out. I think I need to raise the cockpit a bit as well because my neck is really strained. After the ride, I went for a short run with a friend. Overall good workout.

After working out went with my running bud and a tri friend to surfside. Yum. We were soooooo full, so we decided to walk back. Great idea. Except I think I was bitten by a bunch of mosquitos. Not cool.
My running bud is living with me for a few weeks, but I have another roommate as well. My RB and I watched shark week when we got back, and pumped up the sound so we didn't have to hear my roommate and his girlfriend play the bagpipes. Fun stuff. Not.

Today calls for a tempo run and some swimming. I'm gonna throw in some lower body stuff as well. 

Past few days.

Lots of things have happened in the past few days. The major one being that I am now the owner of a brand spanking new 2011 Cervelo P2. And boy am I ecstatic. It's soooooooo beautiful. And sexy. I still need to name it. I got it on Thursday (or was it Wednesday, pretty sure it was Thursday). I didn't ride it till Friday because I wasn't sure if I was going to return it to the bike shop all the way out in VA and get a bike from a LBS. After consulting with the loving mom, I kept the cervelo. The guys at my LBS were a bit bummed for a minute, and then they helped me get some accessories for my baby.

Friday, I wanted to ride my baby, but had to go to the LBS and get the stuff put on (Edge 500, aero bottle, wing + cages). And get the icky reflectors off. By the time I got out of the shop it was close to 11. I was planning on heading up to NY on a 2pm train so I could be in the city by 5 and get my name down for a spot at the Spotted Pig. (See what I did there?! Oh and excuse my horrible grammar.) Back to the bike. I figured I only had 30 min or so to ride my bike before I needed to shower, grab lunch and jump in a cab to the train station. 

I took it down to hains point, and boy was it fast. It felt amazing. Up until the 25th min, when my nether regions started to....ummm....go numb? I eased off the aero bars and the pedals and took it slow. I definitely need to get properly fitted at my LBS. With that I made my way home, showered and went to NYC.

(The Spotted Pig is amazing. I had dinner w one of my best friends as it was her last night in the city before heading home and then to London to see her boyfriend. Great food. Great wine. Great company. Although I couldn't really sleep because of some acid reflux. Ew.) 

Saturday:

Went to brunch at Bubbys in Tribeca with her before she had to leave for the airport. sooo good. and cheap. I still felt the acid reflux, but I ended up running through it. Literally. Well kinda. I did 6 miles on the treadmill for my long run. I felt great. I ended up averaging 8:14. WOO. In reality the average was much lower if you ignored my cool down. It would have been in the 7:55-8:05 region. 

Had a friends birthday party. Yum. Went to artichoke pizza at 2 AM and ordered 5 jumbo slices. Ate 3. Left 2 in the hotel lobby. Delicious.

Woke up in the middle of the night w more acid reflux. (maybe its like shark week and only comes around once a year?!)

Sunday (funday?):

went to bubbys again with my hungover friends (I wasn't hungover because I only had 1 bourbon and ginger). then went to a friends house in connecticut. saw captain america. (horrible ending btw.) watched entourage. slept like a baby.

Today: 

caught a flight back to DC. did nothing. slept a bit. watched some suits. went to shake shack for dinner with a friend. and then watched shark week. now its off to bed...

tomorrow calls for a long ride on the new beauty + run and then an afternoon swim + gym workout. 

annnnd break.