The Weekend Update

Wow, what a weekend!

It all started Friday (don’t they all?). 

Friday night was a team social.  It was great getting to know people in a more casual environment.  Of course the most discussed topics were training and fund raising but it was great to get to know people and get some great tips and ideas.  As is usual with me, socializing ran long.  I ended up not getting home until about 11:00PM.  That’s not much of a problem except that I hadn’t run yet J  But I had gone into the evening knowing that if I was going to socialize I was going to get my workout in no matter what time I got home.  And I did.  It was a 20 minute workout (as scheduled) and in an effort to push myself just a little I choose the ‘harder’ of the two beginning workouts.  That meant of every five minutes I ran for 2 and walked for 3.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that I did it without any real issues and managed to get 1.3 miles logged for the evening.  I did find that my lower legs hurt really bad when I was done but nothing a little hot water in the shower and a few ibuprofen couldn’t take care of.  

Saturday morning though I was like this:

I just didn’t want to get out of bed!  But I did.  We had an ‘unofficial’ bike meet up planned for the morning and I wanted to join the others and get my workout out of the way early.  We met up at 8:30 and a quick glance at those who had shown up made it really clear to me that these weren’t people who I could keep up with.   Let’s just say I was the only one with a trail bike and NOT wearing lycra.  I wasn’t that worried about it though – I’ve come to terms with my lack of exercise prowess and I’m simply looking to improve – not keep up with everyone else right now.  

Anyway, a quick coordination w/cell phones etc and we were all on the road.  I feel back as I expected but worked to try to keep up my speed and my cadence.  I did alright but I have to admit late in the ride was sick of cadence and several times down shifted and muscled my way up the hill.  I find rolling up the hills in a high gear just to keep the revolutions per minute but barely moving at all more tiring then just getting up as quickly as possible J  Granted I know people do the whole cadence thing for a reason but after an hour of it I was pretty tired of feeling like I was getting nowhere.  All it all I did a 60 minute bike ride and made it 11.3 miles.  There were a LOT of hills, some of them big, so I don’t feel too bad about that.  I am looking forward to at least getting to the point of enjoying riding the bike again.  At the moment it’s a lot of hard work!

Sunday morning was another early day.  I didn’t have to be there until 10:30 but the coached workout was about 2 hours from my house (if traffic was bad).  It was going to be the day they taped us while swimming and gave us feedback on our stroke.  I felt I had already come a long way on my own with my swimming so I wasn’t too nervous about it.  I ended up getting there really early but that gave me plenty of time to warm up.  I rolled through the first 700yards of the workout in less than 30 minutes.  Everything seemed to be going well.  I had been a little stiff and sore when I first got in.  Feeling the run in my lower legs and the biking in my gluts but everything loosed up quick.  This ended up being one of the most fun workouts I had attended.  While we were waiting for our group to be taped and then waiting for the results to be reviewed the bunch of us, about 6 women, as just kind of chilled in the pool and chatted.  It was a fun bunch and we laughed and joked.  It was nice to be around a bunch of people interested in the same things as me.    

Then came the swim analysis.  Turns out I have more to work on then I thought.  I didn’t realize that the years I had spent in Synchronized swimming had messed up my stroke so bad L   So, the things I need to work on.

1)      Feet too low.  This is such a leftover from Synchronized swimming and the ‘no splash’ rule.  I need to actually work on breaking the surface with my feet when I swim so that I get my hips out of the water.

2)      Over rotation.  Yeah – I’m one of the few people who got told that.  The problem is I’m over rotating my hips (think baseball swing) and it’s causing my body to twist instead of rotate.  I’ve got to work on keeping my entire body on the same rotation axis and not let my hips lead my shoulders too much.

3)      Arms/hands too high.  Again with the synchronized swimming K  when you’re doing water ballet, it’s all about the flash.  Arms go high and the movements are big so that it shows up to the crowd.  I need to remember to keep my elbows up but not leave so much room between my hand and the water.  I see a LOT of fingertip drills in my future.

Uh – I think that was it J  it was enough.  A lot of my workouts are going to be about drill drill drill.  They promise me it’ll all ‘click’ eventually.

It was a little hard to judge this workout – because of the start/stop and the taping.  I think I ended up doing about 950 yards in the three hours I was there.

Then it was the last run of the week.  I was a little skeptical when the coach said he wanted us ‘beginners’ to do 3 minutes of running and 2 of walking.  Three minutes?!  I only just bumped up to 2 minutes the other night.  But I figured I may as well try – how can I say I can’t if I haven’t even tried?

To my surprise I did manage to do the 3 minute intervals – and I was very proud of myself too.  1.4 miles on Sunday to put the cap on my day and week.

So the biggest positive out of the weekend (besides getting to know some really cool people better?).  Well the swim video did manage to show that I still have a bit of muscle underneath all this… fat.  While coach is showing me one of my stroke flaws I keep looking at my shoulder caps and going.. Yes!  Look at those sirations!  Do you see that separation!? Lol – I’m a freak.  I really made me want to get back into the gym and lifting weights.  I haven’t felt this strong a urge to do that in AGES – would love to get back to this – (and better).

So totals for last week?

Swim:  2.1

Bike: 11.3

Run: 5.7

Total:  19.1

To Date:  38.5