The past 7 days have comprised one of my biggest swim weeks ever.  All of the guys are tapering for their meet on Sunday, so that left me going about 20,000 of my 35,000 yards solo.  Swim training has its ups and downs, and I’m currently riding high on an upswing which feels exceptionally good after the big rut I was in for most of the winter.  It serves as proof that even when you think you are doing negative work (as in getting slower and slower) it all adds up in the end to make you faster.  About two weeks ago I was struggling through a set of 5 300s, doing the first 2 on the 4:00 before falling back to the 4:10 for the last 3.  I was more than frustrated, I really couldn’t go any faster.  Last night for the last set of my week I went 10×300 on the 4:00, getting about 15 seconds rest for each and feeling really smooth and relaxed.  Swimming that pace for almost double the distance of an ITU swim has me excited…I know I still need to take a lot more time off, but it’s a leap in the right direction and I know I can crank it up a few notches come race time.

This whole week was made easier by knowing that on Saturday I’d get an entire day off of training to rest up and get ready for another solid week before coasting into Mazatlan.  Thursday I hit my only tough patch, Jordan and I were up in the mountains spending the night and I had to get my second swim in at the rec center (the only day I broke it into two swims, which I was regretting!).  I was hungry and the night before I had cooked up some of Mollie’s Mac n’ Cheese and the leftovers were beaconing.  Luckily, Jordan was driving and pulled up to the rec center and booted me out of the car.  4,500 yards later I was devouring the best mac n’ cheese of my life.  Thanks Mollie!

[BTW: Mollie was another teammate of mine at BU and now has a great blog devoted to 3 wonderful things: eating, running, and reading.  Check it out at eatrunread.blogspot.com...but not before a workout.]

Swimming totally redeems itself!

Last night we got back into the Thursday night Riptide tradition of Team Goals: a bunch of all-out 100s, with an in-water start.  Swimming still hasn’t been going too well, 1:20s are usually a struggle, even with decent rest and I haven’t swam all-out since August, so I didn’t have incredibly high hopes for the workout.  The one “good” thing about Team Goals is that it’s a short practice, rarely over 3000y.  Last year I started off around doing these around 1:12s, then by Christmas I was hitting all of them under 1:10, and eventually got to a 1:05, but mostly hovered around 1:06/1:07.

Last night they were on the 4:00 (for non-swimmers, this means if you come in at 1:30, you get 2:30 rest).  Of course I got put in the lane with my fiancé/business partner/roommate/co-Gully owner/aquatic nemesis.

First one.  All out.

1:14.  There is no way I can do that again.  I am totally spent.  How can I possibly feel so awful and out of shape?

Second one.  I’m still sucking wind from the first one.

1:16.5.  I quit.

Third one.  Obviously I didn’t quit.

1:17.  Ok I’m done.

Fourth one.  I can tell that Jordan thinks I’m starting to feel sorry for myself and I want to prove him wrong.

1:11.  Yay.

Fifth one.

1:07.5.

Sixth one.

1:08.

Finished!

I needed that swim!  Maybe I didn’t reach my triathlon peak at the age of 24 after all.  And as for my aquatic nemesis?  He had a good workout and is now off to Texas this morning to race the Austin 70.3 on Sunday.  I think his Tweet says it best:

jordanj191 After a race season with a broken chain, broken tibia/torn meniscus, giardia, flat tire/crash I’m due for a good race Sunday!

Last week I was summoned back to the pool by Sean.  The first day of swimming wasn’t so bad, but each day thereafter got worse and worse.  I’m not ready to be submerged for 2 hours everyday, and really haven’t been too into the whole exercising thing for the past few weeks, let alone training several hours a day for a race season that is months and months away.  So yesterday I skipped swim practice, worked later, and then drove up Lookout Mountain for a run that turned into more of a hike….

I’m not sure if it’s the time of year, getting out in the fresh air, or reading my former teammate, Mollie’s running blog, but for the first time in awhile I feel like running again.  When I’m training for triathlon, running is my least favorite of the 3: it can’t take me far away like cycling can, and I don’t see the improvement I see with swimming.  Running always gets the backburner while I develop in the other two, and hopefully someday I’ll be able to come back and focus more on running.  I thought I might be able to do that this winter, focus on running for a month or 6 weeks, and go run some indoor races at BU (I admittedly have ulterior motives…).  After I got crushed on the swim in Tuscaloosa, it’s obvious that plan was not a sound one: I have to spend my winter in the pool.

…but it’s not winter yet, it’s cross-country season!*  I’m taking the next month or so to find as many XC races as I can.  It’s a little hard to do as an adult.  I could probably pass as a home-schooled high schooler, but I stumbled across this little gem and now I don’t have to: a Euro-style cross-country race in Addenbrooke Park!  Water jumps!  Mud!  Grassy field!

It’s less than 2 weeks away, but I’ve run twice in the past 3.5 weeks (both this week), so I’m ready to go.  I did actually get off my lazy rump and start training today though: 62 minutes from the new office, up into White Ranch — awesome!!!  Not sure if I mentioned how great our new office is?

*Clearly this does not mean I don’t have to swim…I just am not subjecting myself to 4-5000 yards/day right now, just a few shorter workouts per week so I’m not starting from scratch later on.

For real.

Next month Jordan and I are taking off for Miami to race in the Miami International Triathlon and spend some time with my brother and his family.  We’ve been debating whether or not to go for awhile, but when we saw how cheap the airfare was this weekend we jumped on it.  Hopefully Denver will actually have some wintry weather over the next month so the tropical air will feel even better.

Now the pressure is really on to get my run into respectable shape.  It’s been really up and down; the high being a 10 miler with Taylor two weekends ago averaging around 7:10s, the low being a really ugly tempo run this past weekend.  I think I have 5-6 weeks before the race so that gives me just the right amount of time to improve my tempos a bit.  I’m planning on racing the Snowman Stampede 5 miler on Feb 21st so that should provide some indication of where I am.

Mmmm Miami…

Tonight the Riptide team is heading down to Englewood to swim in the ACES swim meet.  What does this mean for me?  I’m going head to head in the 1650 against girls half my age who are crazy fast (I can’t believe I am old enough to use the expression “half my age”).

My only other experience in the 1650 was last March when I swam in the Colorado Masters Swimming State Championships.  I managed a 22:59 there, so hopefully I’ll improve on that.  Looking back, I am surprised I was able to swim that then, only swimming with masters a few days per week.  You’d think there would be no doubt in my mind that now, after a year of consistent swimming, that I would be able to go faster, but swimming is weird.  Somedays 1:20 pace feels like a walk in the park, other days it’s just doesn’t happen and I don’t know what it is.  The last 3 days (ever since I wrote the post about feeling good again) I’ve felt terrible in the pool.  It’s so up and down.

It’s a race though, and everyone knows that races are completely different than practice.

That being said…my plan tonight is to click off as many 1:20s as I possibly can.  If I can do that for 1650 yards I’ll have a 21:40 which I will be pretty pleased with.  It would also be nice to not finish dead last, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

Here goes!
EDIT: 1:20 pace for 1650 = 22:00 not 21:40 =)

Yesterday morning the Table Mountain Triathlon website launched.  Table Mountain Triathlon (herein referred to as TMT) is another great event put on by Sean Wendt and Riptide Multisports.  It’s a super-sprint event, with a 500yd pool swim, 12.5mi bike, and 5k run.  …I know a lot of people who would be happy about such a short swim!  It’s based out of the Duncan YMCA in Arvada, Colorado with the bike and run portions taking place on surrounding neighborhood roads.  It’s a great race for beginners and a nice fitness check for veterans.

The site design is similar to the other Riptide sites, but I added bullet-proof tabbed navigation to this one to create a better user experience.  It’s always nice to know where you are on a website, and the tabs provide a nice sense of direction.  The best part?  No Javascript, no Spry, just standard HTML + CSS.  What does that mean for the user?  A super-light design that loads faster and is highly compatible across all browser types.

Table Mountain Triathlon site screenshot

I went with an old-school recreation softball team look for the site theme, for no other reason than it will look great on a race shirt (and wait until you see the logo I’ve been dreaming up).  In my opinion, race shirts are the single best marketing tool triathlons have: make a shirt look cool and you ensure that the athlete wears it around and it doesn’t get tossed in that wretched old rag bag.  It might just be me, but if I see someone wearing a sweet race shirt I instantly become interested in the race; my logic being if they make a cool shirt, they probably put on a pretty cool event as well.

Check it out! tablemountaintri.riptidemultisports.com

Already?  Yea, I know.  Last Wednesday swim practice started off suffering as usual, then somewhere within the main set of 20×100 on 1:30 I got it going again.  I think it was around numero 5.  All of a sudden my form was back and I was swimming fast [for me] again.  I might’ve got it going a bit too much, because in a flurry of excitement at feeling good again, I hammered over the weekend, and again on Monday morning.  Tuesday morning I was knackered.  Totally wiped out.  After much deliberation I decided it would be best if Gulliver and I snuggled back under the covers for another hour and a half.

Best dog ever.

A lot of people feel bad about unplanned off-days, including a former version of myself, but I don’t anymore.  The only reason an athlete should feel bad about an unplanned-off day is if she isn’t putting in the work to begin with.  This morning I assessed the situation: 3 weeks w/o an off-day (planned or otherwise) + 5 days of hammering = time to let my body recover.  Instead of looking at it like I am a lazy ass, I see it as another important workout.  Today I let all the little microtears in my muscles heal, mentally easy, but my body was still working hard.  I wouldn’t be able to make any significant fitness gains without giving my body time to catch up.  An easy day could have worked too, but I think I had dug myself in deep with too many intense workouts in too little time so that even one easy day probably wouldn’t set me right again.  And besides, I’m swimming the 1650 Friday night - I need to be ready to take on those 12 year olds!

Race season doesn’t begin for another 3 months, I have to relax a little bit.  Now’s not the time to get overzealous.

Easier said than done.

Whew, these Colorado winters are just brutal:

Saturday — 60°

Sunday — 66°

Monday — 66°

Tuesday — 72°

Wednesday — 72°

Thursday — 67°

Friday Jordan and I were skiing some of the best snow in world, and Saturday I was outside mountain biking sans jacket and gloves.  Sunday I ate breakfast outside.  This morning I ran in shorts.  You get the idea.  It’s a rough life.

Pic from the trail: Looking S. from N. Table Mtn on Saturday. Coors Brewery is in the foreground. N. Table Mtn. is my new favorite place.

The warm weather has me really excited about the upcoming race season, now just 3 short months away!  It’s looking like I’ll kick the season off at St. Anthony’s, but I’m still toying with the idea of heading to Miami in mid-March to see some fam and get the rust out with the Miami International Tri.

My itch to race will be quelled slightly with a 1650 at a swim meet in two weeks.  In December my swim felt great, and I was seeing significant progress each week, even busting out a 1:05 (100 yd) in team goals one day — though admittedly, I caught a bit of a draft from Cyrus — 1:05 nonetheless!!  Now, it’s hurting.  I was sick for 2 weeks around New Years and didn’t feel back to normal until this past Saturday.  Hopefully I can get things moving before the swim meet and make a big improvement off of my time from my 2008.

As for cycling and running?  TBD.  I’m on the trainer a lot more this winter, so that can only mean good things, right?  Last winter around this time I was really ramping up my running in preparation for the Boston Marathon, so it’s silly to compare apples to oranges.  There’s no doubt in my mind that come April I’ll be ready to go across the board, but now I am getting impatient and itching to have some fast workouts to get a feel for where I am.  I should be patient, but that’s never going to happen.

Sunday trainer ride at Bicycle Village with the Riptide Team. Hurtin.

There you have it: my mid-Winter training update =)

Introducing my first race website!  The Littlefoot Triathlon is a sprint distance event (750m swim, 15mi bike, 5k run) held in Bear Creek Lake Park by Sean Wendt and Riptide Multisports.  The 2009 race will be the third running of the event.  Last year I had the opportunity to compete in the event, and despite frigid water temps (~55F), I can’t say enough good things about the race. Overall a really well organized event with a delicious hot breakfast afterward.  What more could you want?

Designing the site I had two goals:

1. Strong branding that easily links Littlefoot and Riptide Multisports.  I wanted the Littlefoot site to have the same basic layout as the main Riptide site.  Littlefoot also needed strong branding for the race specifically.  While I am still developing the logo, it was important to design the site with a unique and strong feel,  provided with the black and lime green color scheme coupled with a rugid, but modern look.

2.  Ease of use.  Triathletes range in age from 14-80+ (seriously).  The site has to look cool, but also be highly functional.  Nothing is more frustrating than hunting around forever trying to find how much the race costs or the link to register.  All information can be accessed within 2 clicks from the Littlefoot home page.  This is very key when designing in general, but even more so when you must appeal to a variety of ages and demographics.

Coming soon for the Littlefoot Triathlon:

• race logo
• race shirts

Coming soon for other race sites:

• Table Mountain Triathlon
• The Great Colorado Triathlon

Please visit (better yet, register for it!) the Littlefoot Triathlon site and let me know what you think.

http://littlefoottri.riptidemultisports.com

After working on my own site for over five months, it’s finally presentable to the outside world.  Since August I’ve been fortunate to have my plate full of other sites to design, so this one has taken a backseat.

So here we go!  This blog will be more work-focused than my old one, but of course with the occasional triathlon and skiing posts mixed in.

Please share your comments!

Enjoy =)