Happy Sunday! Yesterday was such a gorgeous day for a ride... and in typical San Francisco fashion, a nice day is generally followed by a foggy day. I lay here listening to the foghorns, sipping my coffee, planning my week. Ok (confession), actually I was in my blog reader looking for more updates from you all, but nothing's been posted since last night!! What's up with that? Do you people think you have a life or something? Ha. Ok fine, I'll write my own post.
Bike: Already wrote about my favorite bike ride yesterday. Next week brings more biking, and a slightly sadistic schedule from coach who put a hill workout the day before a hilly group ride already on the calendar. I suspect that's to tire me out so I don't exceed my HR zone on the group ride like I did last weekend :-).
Swim: This was a big swim week. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I got above 4k yds/week last year (when I was "coaching" myself.) This week was a record for me: almost 7k. I was so happy yesterday was a rest day; my shoulders are wondering what the heck I'm trying to do to them. But I'm making progress! Cut a couple seconds off my 25 yd sprint time, and am now close to being able to bilateral breathe. I've been feeling like such a newbie trying to breathe on my left side, snorting water up my nose and flailing around in the water like a spastic donkey. Finally discovered that it's easier to learn this with pull buoy and paddles because I can't drop my lead arm as easily. Will try this again today.
I will confess, I almost ditched the bilateral breathing after the third time I snorted/inhaled water. I thought, f- this, I am fine just breathing on my right! And right at that moment, one of my motivator songs came on (I was wearing my new waterproof iPod! Such a great Santa gift).
I am a fighter and I(I'm a fighter)
I ain't gonna stop(I ain't gonna stop)
There is no turning back...Makes me that much stronger
Makes me work a little bit harder
Makes me that much wiser
So thanks for making me a fighter
Oh right. That's why I'm doing all this. So I sucked it up, kept going and felt really good about it. The power of music is pretty cool... the right music can change my mood in seconds. What is your power song?
Run: Whoo hoo! I completed a successful test run this week. All of 12 minutes of running, but no piriformis pain and just a little hamstring tightness. I spent 2 hours yesterday with an "Active Isolated Stretching and Strengthening" specialist yesterday afternoon who said she could help my residual/chronic hamstring tightness. I'm not sure whether she can help my hamstring (feels exactly the same now as it did before) but she added a significant amount of mobility to my hip flexors and quads. I don't think my legs have felt this much range of motion since I was like, 12. So I think this is a definite injury prevention resource, and it should make me a faster runner. My next run test will be later today, and after 2 successful tests I can start adding more run time.
Strength: Last time I posted, I'd done a bunch of stair repeats. I love the stair workout because the next day (and the next) my body usually notifies me of what I've been neglecting in strength training. This time it was partly my quads, but the real story was my calves. 2 days later I could barely walk. Even today, they're still a little sore! On the bright side though, it's the first time my glutes and hamstrings haven't hurt the day after stairs so I've been doing something right. More stairs next week. And whoo hoo! TRX classes start on the 27th so I need to work harder on strength this week so it doesn't completely kill me. I know I'm going to be so humbled...
Non-Training: This is such a busy month. I'm working with a large Foundation to develop content for their upcoming forum in Oxford, England and our deadline is rapidly approaching. Actually our deadline is this Friday to have everything baked, and we're not even close. Eeek! But I managed to push the ball forward on a potential new project with a VERY large global consumer products company. If I can get this, it will be the big break I've been needing in order to build my fledgling company. Cross fingers!!!
More random non-training: My cats making out cleaning each other's faces. Gym bag in the background. So glad I don't live with anyone because training-related stuff is now all over my apartment.
Hope you're all having a great weekend!
Keep on with the bilateral breathing. It will really help the rest of your swim. Try swimming 25 breathing left, then 25 breathing right. Part of the inhale issue is not rotating quite enough. I wear a nose clip now, that might help as well.
Posted by: Keith | 01/16/2011 at 07:06 PM