Open Water Swim *ACTUAL* and redemption workout today...

Okay,
If you read my last post, you got an idea of how my weekend was "supposed" to go.  Here in Vegas, by the way, we have had an early Spring with warm temps and pretty much AWESOME weather.  Until this weekend, when a front moved in...

So I was expecting this: (beach start, clear-sunny-fun-ness!) Spitting turtles too!

Instead I got THIS!

Ambient temperature about 54, wind gusts 20-40 mph. Water temperature about 56.  Completely overcast, so you don't have that pretty sun making you *think* you are warmer than you feel.  I know you tri-geeks out there have "been there/done that", but cut me a break!!!  

This was my first experience!! I sooo wanted to go back to my warm hotel room.  But I PAID for this experience!!! 

I  met my friend, Coco (who got me into this in the first place) my descent into madness...  I digress... but anyway, flash forward to Coco and I on the beach.... conversation went like this:   Me: "are we really going to do this?" 

Coco: ("Puerto Rican curse words spoken freely........  and in English:  the key words: " I can't do this, my feet are too cold,")  to which I said, "Hey, we can skip it and do it another time"

Forget Mexican stand off,  it was now Puerto Rican standoff:

(which I guess means if the gringa says "no, we can skip it",  then we HAVE to do it!)  So, next thing I know, she is waist deep in the water, which silently means "I have to go too"!

CRAP SANDWICH!!!  I really didn't want to get into the water, but I did it anyway.....  

**Okay, it's an unspoken secret that if you are getting into cold water in a wetsuit, you should "pee in your wetsuit" to warm it up.  (I heard this in scuba training too, so I know it is not a prank)  But, thing is, I am sooooo cold, I can't concentrate enough to do it!  All I know is that I am F*****n cold, and wet (which btw, are my two LEAST favorite sensations!)  Now we just have to get going on the swim.  It's a warm-up 400, and then the race simulation.  We start...  forget technique, we (me) are just SURVIVING!  Some freestyle, (without my head in the water because everyone just peed to make their wetsuits warm) some breast stroke, back stroke, dog- paddle.....back to free-style (should be pee-free by now).... back to breast  stroke, side stroke, then all out "get to the end as fast as I can" stroke!!   

Statistics:  Warm- up done:     Kerri....Done, and heading to the jacuzzi of shame!!!  Coco, my hero... back for another round of torture....  

To be continued....

Open water swim nightmare and plans to redeem myself tomorrow...

Okay, I was totally jazzed to do my "very first" open water swim this past Saturday!!!  Friday's weather was a little windy, but sunny and warm.  I was even making a whole weekend out of it, by staying at the hotel that is hosting "IronGirl"!!!

This is how I felt:

Coco looked worried:

Plan was as follows:
  
  * Drop off young child at in-law's, then proceed to hotel for gourmet meal, wine, and nice night in with  hubby.
  * Get up at a leisurely 8:00 am, for coffee and powerbar, registration at 8:30.
  * Nice swim practice with my friend Coco in Lake Las Vegas... both of us kicking ass and taking names!
  * Long shower to wash off the "lake goo" and then a nice lounge by the pool (with cocktails of course)!
  * Hubby was supposed to go fishing with a friend, so "total girl day"!!  Meet up with hubs for dinner Saturday night, then well, who knows?
   *  Sunday, get up and ride the course,  maybe some spa time for both of us...  Perfect weekend right?

Perfect Weekend,  TOTAL FAIL!!!!

To be continued....

Love this post!!!

Truer words have never been said!!  I LOVE this!!

Credit goes to Shelby at Eat, Drink, Run!

Your Body Called...
click on above....  

6 minutes

One of my favorite ride profiles tonight!!!

 Tough, but exciting from beginning to end!!!  It is an "Out and Back" ride with TEN "6 minute" blocks (give or take). I have 3 versions of playlists, but this is the one I used tonight because my husband requested rock!

Breakdown:   6-8 minute warmup (kinda depends on how many Tabata intervals we do.  Tonight we did 10, so my warm up was about 7 minutes)
                      4-6 minute Tabata:  20 sec @ 95% MHR/ 10 sec. recovery x 8, 10, or 12 ( I have a timer on my iPad so I will set it to do 8:(4 min) 10:(5 min) or 12:(6 min)  Last night I did 10 to "Shoot to Thrill" add a little recovery at the end, to equal the 6 min. ( If you go the full 6 min. Tabata, use the first part of the next sequence for recovery...)
                       6 min moderate to hard: 3 min moderate, then 3 min hard.  (In this playlist, my first song was 2:18, so I used that as moderate, and the next song 3:58 as hard, with about a 30 second recovery at the end.
                       6 minute "Modified Tabata",  1 min HARD/ 30 sec. recovery x4: The next two songs total about 6:50 in time, so you can use the first 45-50 seconds to get ready, then "go for it" for 1 minute, and back down for 30 seconds x 4.
                       6 minute hill climb: This is the kinda "half-way mark". Depending on your class, you can either leave it to them to push as hard as they can to the top, coach it as a hill climb, or stay in active recovery and focus on the trip back, in which we repeat the sequence.
                       2 minute recovery:   1 minute downhill, 1 min. flat.
                       6 minute "Modified Tabata" Same as above
                       6 minute moderate to hard: Same as above
                       6 minute Tabata: same as above
                       6 minute cool down: or use some of the left over Tabata time too!

Playlist:

Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing / Chris Isaak

Country Song / Seether

Shoot to Thrill / AC/DC *not available on iTunes

Molly's Chambers / Kings of Leon

Lies of the Beautiful People / Sixx: A.M.

Get Some / Lykki Li

Next to You / Buckcherry

The Catalyst / Linkin Park

A-Punk / Vampire Weekend

Machine Gun Blues / Social Distortion

She Builds Quick Machines / Velvet Revolver

Well Thought Out Twinkles / Silversun Pickups

Bleed it out / Linkin Park

Whole Lotta Rosie / AC/DC *not available on iTunes

Simple Man (acoustic version) / Shinedown

Into the Mystic / Van Morrison

Hope it makes sense!  Comment or email with any questions!!!  I mixed some in "Mixmeister" to make it a continuous 6 minutes.... I think it makes it easier to follow.

Kerri

              

I'm Baaaaack!!!! (well, fingers crossed...)

Okay,
I think my cold has finally subsided (after almost 4 weeks)!  I have kept my training going as much as I can.... just holding my own until I felt good enough to "go for it!"  That breakthrough happened Sunday!!!  

Yay success!!!

I taught a 60 minute spin class and then jumped on the treadmill for what I call:  "insert dramatic music here" dueling goals!

It goes like this:  I write down 4 miles as goal. ( if you were paying attention to my previous blog, you know I like to undershoot and over-achieve)  so real goal is 5.  I also have a history of training for a half-marathon that went like this:  the whole event is going to take about 2 hours give or take, and running 2 hours is boring, so I will cross-train two hours.

AND, not unlike my half-marathon mind talk, the workout inner dialogue went like this:  Okay, the LEAST amount of work I have to do today is 3.2 miles....  well that feels pretty good and my goal is 4, but hey I think I can tackle 5!  At about mile 4.5, I thought, screw it,  let's go for my old training routine of 1 hour on the treadmill after 1 hour on the bike! And I DID it!

I know I need to get outside and run this week, and get biking.  The weather has gotten nicer here in Vegas, so no excuses!

Triple threat workout...Fail!

I posted a full distance goal (in segments) on facebook for Monday.  (if you post it, you have to do it right?) So I was prepared to do an 800 meeter swim, 5K run, and 1 Hour bike (I teach spin on Monday...) Here's how it actually went:

Monday started off awesome!!!  Kids were out of school, got to sleep in (slightly) before I went to the gym for my swim.  Swim went great!  Felt great in the water!  Form: getting better,  endurance: a little better, but not there yet... but the main thing is I think I am getting more efficient with my stroke!   I churned out about 1100 meters (with small rests and switch ups), but I DID it.  I train with a very hard-core bunch on Mondays and Fridays (read: super-humans), but my friend Coco (the one that dragged me into this) and I have hired a tri-swimming coach and we are starting some serious workouts next Friday. So swim... check!

Next I was planning to go home to run a 5 K at the park near my house.  Well, that never happened.  My mistake was calling the kids on the way home to see if they needed anything....  Braden:  "can you stop at the grocery store and get some lunchables for this week?  I don't like what they are having on Wednesday and Thursday at school.... Tanner:  "I'm STARVING!! Could you get us some KFC on the way home ?" (at this point I am having that post-swim hunger, and NOTHING sounds better than KFC potato wedges, so I give into their demands.  After all, I need to get some carbs in for my run right?)

I get home and get kids fed (and sneak a few potato wedges in between my powerbar and half a banana). Ready to run..., gathering Garmin, water bottle, etc. When... husband calls (love him to pieces btw) but CRAP! Now I need to do some banking stuff and try to figure out why his printer isn't working because he needs to print something and fax it to some company asap. Add to that some Spring Break planning and before you know it... running time is shot because now I have to start planning my cycle class for tonight and finish laundry. Yikes!!!

Finished playlist just in time, went to gym exhausted....  taught a great spin class... guess the run will happen later this week....

Back in the saddle again....

Week so far...

Last post was sort of a cheat... I wrote it but it was incomplete and I turned it in for partial credit...

THIS WEEK (ta da da) (okay, just imagine the dramatic introduction...) I started logging my workouts in the official "The Triathlete's Training Diary, by Joe Friel"  Yay!!!  Here's how it works:  You write your weekly plan, then you put in what you "REALLY" do.  I like undershooting, so when I do more, I feel really proud of myself :)!  It all worked pretty well until today.  Ummm... today I had some intestinal upset (read:  the dreaded "Starts with D and ends with arrea".  Run, definitely out (since I'm doing that already), butttttt (yeah, pun intended) I planned an AWESOME cycle class for tonight!!! (and I needed to get my daily training in)  So what does an IronGirl do?  She just takes some immodium and ignores the problem!! After all, the show must go on, right?

So tonight's class went as follows:  Feeling good, selling the concept..."We've got a great show tonight ladies and gentlemen"... no wait.. that's the "Saturday Night Live" intro my brain is going into because it is trying to divert the attention from my digestive system that is not "on task" tonight.  Seriously though, I did have an amazing class planned for tonight.  It was going as planned except for:  my iPod playlist happened to skip a few key songs..... no problem, I have a geeky musical brain that can improvise with my lightning fast fingers to find a song (of the 4 thousand that I have on my 160GB classic iPod) to make it seamless.  Seriously, I am THAT big of a music dork!  Problem one solved!!!  Yessssss!(Quote from Napoleon Dynamite)

Problem #2:  (LITERALLY):  20 minutes into class.... you know that feeling,  yeah, THAT feeling.  Okay if you are at home, but NOT okay when you are teaching a cycling class.

Skip forward (because I don't want to be categorized with those "TMI" friends)  I successfully managed the situation.  We had a great class!  I explained that I  wasn't feeling well so I was holding back a little so I could focus on my class a little more (and THAT'S putting an ultimate SPIN on SPIN instruction my friends)  LOL!!!  Kidding aside,  we all have those days that we are not "on our game" so to speak.  The biggest challenge is keeping the motivation alive and doing our job!  On the flip side, we need to be cognizant of others in our class that may be getting over an illness or possibly overtraining.  If someone is not pushing as hard as you think they can, try to nudge them, but be understanding if they don't.

You just never know....