I CANNOT STAND wearing my HR monitor when I run. It is painful, distracting and annoying. I do not enjoy my run and I am never paying attention to form or how I FEEL. Rather I'm a slave to this damn monitor and I really don't want to deal with it anymore.
Anyway, tonight was a 90 minute run on the treadmill at FFC North Avenue. I think I am learning the ways as far as parking, etc. FFC-NA has free parking for the first 2 hours, but after that it's $9. FFC-GC has paid parking $2.75 for the first 2 hours and $3.75 for the first 3 hours... so if I'm in and out in 2 hours- North Avenue all the way.... but if I've got a longer workout, I'm going to head to Gold Coast. At FFC-Pine Grove, I was able to find free street parking, so that's cool all together too, but their pool is awful, so I can't be for a pool workout (15 meter pool won't cut it!).
Anyway, tonight's run was 5 minute walking warm up, 10x 4 minute zone 2 build, 1 minute walking and then 6x 10minute zone 3 build with 1 minute walking. I know, this doesn't add up to 90 minutes, but over 2 hours. It confused me too! I just did the warm up, the 10x and however many of the 6x until I hit 1:25 and then I walked to cool down.
The best part was that I got out of there within 2 hours (unshowered, yes) so parking was free. No matter since tomorrow morning I have to be up at 6am to get to Train for an hour ride at 6:30am!!
Monday, March 18, 2013
St. Patty's 2 hour ride, strength and brunch with Melissa!
Sunday was action packed as far as Ironman training goes!
I woke up at 6:15am to get to Train with my bike for my two hour, 7:30am ride. I wanted to make sure I had enough time to find parking, carry my (27lb) bike up to the third floor and calibrate. I wanted to see how it felt with the new fit.
I was the first one there and totally ready for the ride to start on time and get in my full two hours. I rode about 31-32 miles. It was a cadence ride, so I would ride several minutes in a low cadence (60-65 rotations) and then recover for a shorter period of time in a high cadence (closer to 90-95). I was SO HAPPY to not worry about heart rate!!!!! Even so, I wore my HR monitor and I wasn't even close to the heart rates she wanted during the cadence required. I was killing it on power... YEAHHHHHH!!! In low heart rate zones, which is awesome! But also a big reason I want to do another VO2 assessment and a power assessment to see where I'm at after all this long, slow, low intensity crap!
After my ride, I scooted over to FFC Gold Coast to meet my friend Melissa, who is also training for Muncie this year. She had a long ride and I met her there at the end of her ride, so I could do my 30 minutes of strength training. Afterwards, we got cleaned up there in the fancy locker room and went to O'Donovan's on Irving and Damen for a delicious Bloody Mary and St. Patty's brunch. It was a great time and so fun to see a friend at the gym! I loved having a friend gym date! I honestly wish Michael was into that and was up for making that a priority in his life. C'est la vie! At least I have gal pals who are into it! :)
I woke up at 6:15am to get to Train with my bike for my two hour, 7:30am ride. I wanted to make sure I had enough time to find parking, carry my (27lb) bike up to the third floor and calibrate. I wanted to see how it felt with the new fit.
I was the first one there and totally ready for the ride to start on time and get in my full two hours. I rode about 31-32 miles. It was a cadence ride, so I would ride several minutes in a low cadence (60-65 rotations) and then recover for a shorter period of time in a high cadence (closer to 90-95). I was SO HAPPY to not worry about heart rate!!!!! Even so, I wore my HR monitor and I wasn't even close to the heart rates she wanted during the cadence required. I was killing it on power... YEAHHHHHH!!! In low heart rate zones, which is awesome! But also a big reason I want to do another VO2 assessment and a power assessment to see where I'm at after all this long, slow, low intensity crap!
After my ride, I scooted over to FFC Gold Coast to meet my friend Melissa, who is also training for Muncie this year. She had a long ride and I met her there at the end of her ride, so I could do my 30 minutes of strength training. Afterwards, we got cleaned up there in the fancy locker room and went to O'Donovan's on Irving and Damen for a delicious Bloody Mary and St. Patty's brunch. It was a great time and so fun to see a friend at the gym! I loved having a friend gym date! I honestly wish Michael was into that and was up for making that a priority in his life. C'est la vie! At least I have gal pals who are into it! :)
Saturday Swim 3/16
I arrived a few minutes late to our 9am swim, closer to 9:15 and split the lane with another swimmer who had already started the workout. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't brutal. My problem always seems to be that I cannot see the clock so workouts with a lot of time variations and MATH cause me some distress. I can see but I due to my goggles always fogging, I honestly cannot see the clock unless I remove my goggles. This proved problematic for Saturday's workout and I think Coach Russ wasn't super excited by my questions and lack of proper timing.
The workout started simply enough, but then was essentially descending 100s over and over.
I believe that I did the first interval at about 1:50 and then modified each following accordingly. There were a few times that my brain and my math skills left a little to be desired and when I would ask Russ, "do I go on the 1:45?" and he'd reply, "you were supposed to go on the 1:30" or whatever it was... After so many 100s my left shoulder was killing me and I was grateful he made a few suggestions for drills to correct the error and helped with the pain. (I was supposed to ice and compress and totally forgot...)
Anyway, I think in the end, after all my bloopers, I didn't swim about 400 yards of the total workout and overlapped into the 10am swimmers and just split the lane then with my own coach.
After swimming, I rushed to the cycle gym to pick up my bike (since I had forgotten to take it with me after riding on Thursday) and then went to my new gym nearby to shower, clean up and get ready to meet Michael for lunch at the massive North Avenue Whole Foods.
After that, we both went up north to Deerfield for a bike fitting. Greg took a ton of measurements and adjusted my bike more "aggressively" than casual rider- as it had been- and I felt good on it on Sunday. I'm still no convinced my seat is right since I'm constantly adjusting my bike shorts (??!!)@&&), but everything else felt good and I killed my threshold goals and power watts goals for the following day's ride.
Saturday night I was zonked and totally passed out!
The workout started simply enough, but then was essentially descending 100s over and over.
Anyway, I think in the end, after all my bloopers, I didn't swim about 400 yards of the total workout and overlapped into the 10am swimmers and just split the lane then with my own coach.
After that, we both went up north to Deerfield for a bike fitting. Greg took a ton of measurements and adjusted my bike more "aggressively" than casual rider- as it had been- and I felt good on it on Sunday. I'm still no convinced my seat is right since I'm constantly adjusting my bike shorts (??!!)@&&), but everything else felt good and I killed my threshold goals and power watts goals for the following day's ride.
Saturday night I was zonked and totally passed out!
Friday- day off!
I was in a recovery or "cut back" week this week, so I had a day off on Friday.
I had meetings in the suburbs during the day and a delicious work lunch at Parkers in Downers Grove and after running a few errands, I headed home to work from home.
At the end of the day, I was picked up by my friend Hugh and went to drink and have some snacks at Bar on Buena. It is kind of a hidden place, but super cool! I hope to go back again! When we got there it was just 5pm and when we left around 8 it was packed!
I had meetings in the suburbs during the day and a delicious work lunch at Parkers in Downers Grove and after running a few errands, I headed home to work from home.
At the end of the day, I was picked up by my friend Hugh and went to drink and have some snacks at Bar on Buena. It is kind of a hidden place, but super cool! I hope to go back again! When we got there it was just 5pm and when we left around 8 it was packed!
Friday, March 15, 2013
Thursday brick
I'm in a "cutback week" which means my workouts are much easier and I get more rest. It feels like a vacation from Ironman training...
Yesterday, I had an hour ride at Train Chicago Studios With the Max team followed by a 30 minute treadmill run. Doing multisport workouts on the same day, back-to-back is called a "brick". I have often wondered why it is called a brick: maybe because that's what your legs feel like afterwards?! ;)
Instead of using my heart rate monitor I did the ride based on power or watts.
Although my coaches philosophy centers on heart rate, I am becoming a bigger and bigger believer in power measurements, particularly on the bike. Heart rate may be better suited for running. The workout yesterday was a gradual hill finishing at 9.9%. It went up by 1% until 9% and then skipped to 9.9%. Between each course there was a plateau at 0% to recover. I really enjoyed this work out; it was an excellent ride for me. What I also found interesting was that with the eight riders, I started off at the back of the pack. But as the hill incline grew, I moved up the positions in the ride. This is important -not only for my psyche- but confirmed a lot of my training the past two months. I was able to comfortably climb the hill, keeping my heart rate low (my perception based on my breathing), and felt fine at the end of the ride. I think I preferred to start at the back of the pack and build up and finish at the front, rather than start off at the front and lost steam.
The run yesterday was a slightly different story. I think a lot of multisport comfort is based on "equipment". And part of equipment is apparel... I had planned well enough ahead of time do you think you wear my jogbra under my bike jersey but my bottoms were another issue. Of course I had on my bike shorts during the ride, but underneath I was wearing a pair of Under Armor "booty shorts". You know, the type you might wear to hot yoga. I figured, I would take off my bike shorts and just run in those... It would have been fine but I had some major "chub rub" happening on the run!! So what was to be 30 minutes at an easy 11 minute pace, became incredibly painful!! Lesson learned from yesterday- or rather a reminder- was that I really need to think about what I will be wearing, not only for my workouts, but for each leg of the race. Unlike other shorter distance triathlons where you wear one outfit for the entire race, at Ironman I will be changing after each leg of the race.
Friday is another off day this week, so I intend to rest, hangout with friends, and feel my wounded "thunder" (thighs)!!
Yesterday, I had an hour ride at Train Chicago Studios With the Max team followed by a 30 minute treadmill run. Doing multisport workouts on the same day, back-to-back is called a "brick". I have often wondered why it is called a brick: maybe because that's what your legs feel like afterwards?! ;)
Instead of using my heart rate monitor I did the ride based on power or watts.
Although my coaches philosophy centers on heart rate, I am becoming a bigger and bigger believer in power measurements, particularly on the bike. Heart rate may be better suited for running. The workout yesterday was a gradual hill finishing at 9.9%. It went up by 1% until 9% and then skipped to 9.9%. Between each course there was a plateau at 0% to recover. I really enjoyed this work out; it was an excellent ride for me. What I also found interesting was that with the eight riders, I started off at the back of the pack. But as the hill incline grew, I moved up the positions in the ride. This is important -not only for my psyche- but confirmed a lot of my training the past two months. I was able to comfortably climb the hill, keeping my heart rate low (my perception based on my breathing), and felt fine at the end of the ride. I think I preferred to start at the back of the pack and build up and finish at the front, rather than start off at the front and lost steam.
The run yesterday was a slightly different story. I think a lot of multisport comfort is based on "equipment". And part of equipment is apparel... I had planned well enough ahead of time do you think you wear my jogbra under my bike jersey but my bottoms were another issue. Of course I had on my bike shorts during the ride, but underneath I was wearing a pair of Under Armor "booty shorts". You know, the type you might wear to hot yoga. I figured, I would take off my bike shorts and just run in those... It would have been fine but I had some major "chub rub" happening on the run!! So what was to be 30 minutes at an easy 11 minute pace, became incredibly painful!! Lesson learned from yesterday- or rather a reminder- was that I really need to think about what I will be wearing, not only for my workouts, but for each leg of the race. Unlike other shorter distance triathlons where you wear one outfit for the entire race, at Ironman I will be changing after each leg of the race.
Friday is another off day this week, so I intend to rest, hangout with friends, and feel my wounded "thunder" (thighs)!!
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Celebrate 125 years of Heartland Alliance today!
Check out Sid's message about the organization in the link below!
On this day—March 13—Heartland Alliance celebrates its 125th Anniversary, and since 1888, we've been providing the very services people need to end poverty and build a safe and stable life for themselves and their families.
On this day—March 13—Heartland Alliance celebrates its 125th Anniversary, and since 1888, we've been providing the very services people need to end poverty and build a safe and stable life for themselves and their families.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Monday run, I would punch you in the face if I could
3/11/13
90 Minute Run... pretty easy, actually it was only really a 75 minute run with a bunch of "cool down" or easy jogging/walking at the end.
That being said, I was super annoyed and angry during this run.
I went to my new fancy gym and used their treadmill... it has a built-in TV and plug in for iPhones (not mine, I have a 5) and my headphones are wireless, so they didn't work either. Neither of these are the reasons that I was so mad, I just put on BravoTV and closed captioning and attempted to zone out during "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" and "Real Housewives of Atlanta". Unfortunately, due to my erratic heart rate monitor, I was not able to just run.
The heart rate monitor that I use is wirelessly connected to my watch and my watch is also connected wirelessly to my foot pod to capture distance and pace. The strap of the HR monitor is stretchy with a receiver that sends the data and it's hooked on and can be adjusted to chest size. It sits below my chest and generally directly under my bra line.
This is not really a comfortable strap and it's their "new" model. The old model, which was surprisingly more comfortable was harder molded plastic rather than a stretchy band. Anyway, the strap sits under my bra. It is not unusual for me to have to adjust it on my breast plate so it can send the data or read the data as it's under the center of the bra. It also has created some super lovely cuts and now scabs (yes, you read that correctly) on the underside of my rather nice (in my own opinion!) boobs. This is really not ideal for real life either since I do regularly wear a bra-- that's now sitting on scabs (eventually I supposed these will be my "battle scars"- it certainly could be worse!).
However, what made me increasingly angry during the run was the HR wasn't reading correctly, so from one second to another it would go from reading zone 1 to zone 3 and bouncing around. This makes for a difficult and frustrating work out since I'm supposed to be running based on my HR zone. I know my body well enough to know that when I'm running a 10 minute or less mile, I'm not in zone 1. I'm probably in zone 3, maybe even mid zone 3. My HR monitor was not conforming to this reality, so I found myself running really hard and then walking to get the right zones. Plus, at one point, I thought it might be reading someone else's foot pod for distance and I got really mad then... but I eventually realized that the distance was in kilometers rather than miles!!
Anyway, after sending my coach a seething text (while running, mind you!), I will not be using the HR monitor for the remainder of the week as to not totally throw it out my car window!
90 Minute Run... pretty easy, actually it was only really a 75 minute run with a bunch of "cool down" or easy jogging/walking at the end.
That being said, I was super annoyed and angry during this run.
I went to my new fancy gym and used their treadmill... it has a built-in TV and plug in for iPhones (not mine, I have a 5) and my headphones are wireless, so they didn't work either. Neither of these are the reasons that I was so mad, I just put on BravoTV and closed captioning and attempted to zone out during "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" and "Real Housewives of Atlanta". Unfortunately, due to my erratic heart rate monitor, I was not able to just run.
This is not really a comfortable strap and it's their "new" model. The old model, which was surprisingly more comfortable was harder molded plastic rather than a stretchy band. Anyway, the strap sits under my bra. It is not unusual for me to have to adjust it on my breast plate so it can send the data or read the data as it's under the center of the bra. It also has created some super lovely cuts and now scabs (yes, you read that correctly) on the underside of my rather nice (in my own opinion!) boobs. This is really not ideal for real life either since I do regularly wear a bra-- that's now sitting on scabs (eventually I supposed these will be my "battle scars"- it certainly could be worse!).
However, what made me increasingly angry during the run was the HR wasn't reading correctly, so from one second to another it would go from reading zone 1 to zone 3 and bouncing around. This makes for a difficult and frustrating work out since I'm supposed to be running based on my HR zone. I know my body well enough to know that when I'm running a 10 minute or less mile, I'm not in zone 1. I'm probably in zone 3, maybe even mid zone 3. My HR monitor was not conforming to this reality, so I found myself running really hard and then walking to get the right zones. Plus, at one point, I thought it might be reading someone else's foot pod for distance and I got really mad then... but I eventually realized that the distance was in kilometers rather than miles!!
Anyway, after sending my coach a seething text (while running, mind you!), I will not be using the HR monitor for the remainder of the week as to not totally throw it out my car window!
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