Month #2: it's a wrap

Since tomorrow's a rest day, I'll just wrap up this month a day early. I'm a few days into my rest week and I'm finally starting to feel normal again, albeit rather lethargic. I'm looking forward to jumping into month 3 in a couple more days. Overall, month two went pretty well:

Swim: I have seen huge improvements since starting the master's swim class every Monday and Wednesday. The coach spotted some odd quirks in my stroke and we've been working them out. I bumped up to the intermediate lane and for the most part am hanging with the faster girls as long as we're not doing anything fast. Alas, when coach says "fast" I know I'm gonna get lapped. But in really good news, I've dropped from 8:19 for 400 yards (working really, really hard) to 7:45 for 400 (casually timed during my warm-up this evening.) Ready for my next swim test, coach!

Bike: I've been so fortunate to live in an area where I can ride outside in February. While I've seen improvement on the trainer (about 2 MPH faster at the same HR) I'm unfortunately not seeing the same improvement outside on hilly terrain. I did a ride last weekend that I haven't done since last September, and I'm slower now than I was then. Disappointing, but I also have to remember I'm keeping my HR lower this year and that's limiting my speed. And I'm guilty of having slacked a bit on my strength training, which I plan to rectify with my new TRX.

Bike/seat: I've been excruciatingly uncomfortable as I was trying to adjust to a firmer seat; I finally gave up and ordered a test saddle: the Cobb V-Flow Plus (formerly called Blackwell Flow.) I read a ton of great reviews on how comfortable it is... so I found this cycling shop in Seattle that carried the saddle and (better yet) has a test program (I can't find anyplace in SF that allows me to test saddles!). I received my test saddle a couple days ago and it's a really interesting design: it's narrow... so narrow in the back that it fits between your sitbones. Because of this shape, you're just sitting on soft tissue supported by foam, not gel, and tilting your pelvis forward a bit to allow it to be cradled rather comfortably. I've used it now on one trainer session and it wasn't bad. My only concern is that, while very comfortable when in drops or aerobars, it's awkward to sit up if you want to take a break. It's so narrow there's nothing to sit back on. I'll see how it feels on a longer ride outdoors and report back. So far it's definitely better than the last one I tried (Specialized Ruby) but that's not saying much. I'll happily fling the Specialized off a cliff if I get a chance; I was worried that my ass would become permanently bruised.

Run: Lots of improvement here... I can actually run! Last month I was still struggling with hamstring tightness and pain, but this month it's gotten so much better. Still an occasional tightness, but I'm pretty much back to normal. I've mostly just been doing heart-rate training and slower distance stuff, but I'm very happy that I'm back up to 8 miles. I think I tripled my miles from last month.

Run/Shoes: I bought new shoes a month ago -- Saucony Kinvaras -- and LOVE them. They're a bit flat but I added my Superfeet inserts (I have very high arches) and now they're perfect. Very comfortable and super light. I can see why people have a hard time adjusting, though. I started running in them right after an injury and therefore was only going 2, 3, 4 miles at a time... that was exactly the right break-in process for these shoes. I had to build up my calf muscles gradually as the heel drop is so much lower. My calves got so much bigger from wearing these shoes that I no longer can zip up my nice brown boots! But on the plus side, I now have nice calves and feel like the extra muscle should help with injury prevention. The only time I'm not sure about running in them is doing hills; because of the lack of heel padding, it's just a LOT more work. I might try a different brand just to mix in for any hill training.

Bricks: We added in some transition runs this month, and I'm so relieved that my legs don't feel as awful this year as they did last year when running off the bike. I guess once your body learns it, it gets easier each season. I'm hoping that this will also be the case with cold-water swimming once that starts in April... wow, it took me 10 swims in Aquatic Park before I (sort of) acclimated to the temp!

Month summary: