Rained here most all day Friday into the evening. Sat morning we woke to this for race day
Plenty of cheery faces still around
Temps at race start were around 31 but with snow still coming down it felt colder than last week when it was 1 degree.
Here's what we ran .. up and down.. and up.. and down.. and up... over 6500' of elevation gain for 15 miles!
The big Finish line- which I almost missed.
The first trail on this race is abt 4.5 mile loop and wasn't too bad. With the rain from the day before the ground under was not frozen and pretty mushy. With the extra rain the creeks were full and the ones I could jump before, were a bit too wide to cross. After stepping in more mud and water than I cared to, finally ended up just going straight through them. We ran abt 1 1/2 mile on the park and local road (which feels really weird with trail shoes on- kinda like running on pebbles the whole way.) to the second trail which is a 5 mile loop that will kick your tail. Definitely the toughest trail at the park but absolutely gorgeous. I played George of the jungle once (hanging from a tree to keep from going down) and only landed down once. My toes got so numb abt 2+ hrs in I ended up tripping up on a root. The last loop was down and around a lake where the 50K folks separated from us and ran the trail from the Nov Half Mary I did. I can't begin to imagine how challenging that must have been!
Finished in 3:21- good enough for a tie for 3rd woman overall (sometimes it pays to be a woman!) My shoe laces had frozen I couldn't get my shoes off. They had all kinds of wonderful, WARM soups, coffee & hot chocolate which was like heaven at the finish. Had lots of fun and ended up napping the rest of the afternoon (and getting warm!) Super sore but made it up to spin for almost 2 hrs Sun am with a great group of friends. Fun weekend!!
Right now, we're hunkering down for another possible 3-6" of snow. Nothing like our friends up north, but enough to send grocery sales through the roof. I'm ready for SUN!!!
Almost forgot.. our very cool buffs....
Also sharing a neat little video one of my friends (also a race sponsor) took! I have a cameo shot somewhere in the middle as we are walking out to the start. I'm to the left of him as he's walking!
Kris- that took major guts!!! I hate the cold- just HATE IT!!!! I will generally run in cold weather, but wet cold feet? NO NO NO NO! Now where is that little smiley that bows down over and over again when you need him?
Nemo- cold = no problem... wet & cold = yuck! A group of us ran out there the week before at 1 degree but I never felt cold. I ran with hand warmers in my gloves and layers every where else and was totally surprised how comfy I was. Sun was also out with no wind so does make a diff! You would have LOVED the race day vibe and scenery. Very laid back, totally fun bunch of folks. At one of the first creek crossing, one of the guys stopped and gave a few of us a hand over as we jumped the creek. Now how many races have you ever seen that happen?
Olivia... I hope this is the end of the weather woes. I've certainly paid my dues to Mother Nature!
KrisF, nice pics and the race sounds good!! this was from this morning....
Snow Day and Joshua and Grace were outside building a snowman! School cancelled tomorrow! it snowed from when I got up at 7 am. thru 3 when it started to rain... we have a nice mess out there right now but for the kids ?? = "partay!"
*edit button is not working for me today so made another post!! Pics taken at the Peabody hotel before the kids went to dinner there. yep us parents showed up with cameras in hand and I took ### of them but did get one of me and him. Actually I had been cleaning house all day after my bike ride and had on tennis shoes and faded, holey light blue jeans so I said make sure you take the pic from the waist up.
This was from Saturday night. Andrew escorted a beautiful girl, my BFF's daughter, to the Winter Dance at her school. He and I leave for Guatemala 27 Feb which is only 18 days away!!
Linda- I have no idea! I could swear there was a delete button at one point.
OK ladies- who all is in for the challenge this weekend? Now, I don't want anyone training into a brick wall or doing more than they should. But the gals training for IMSG will already be riding Sat/Sun- right? And for those of us in the OS, consider just shuffling up the workouts this week so you can ride Sat/Sun or Sat/Mon. Time for some fun! Just be sure you get yourself signed up on the tracking spreadsheet over in the Challenge thread.
Oh- and we need more input on Coach R's speedo!
I'm in on the challenge. I'm on week two of my HIM race plan so I have 5 hours of biking on Saturday and Sunday anyway. BTW....if I'm on the trainer...do I really do 5 hours of biking? 3 on Sat, 2 on Sun? Last Saturday I quit early. I was eyeing the clock because I got started late and knew that I had about 12 hours of studying to do for my class.......I have watched Syriana about 5 times so it did nothing to incent me to stay the course and someone took my fan so it was hot......I will take one for the chicka team this weekend and do all the hours....I need to hit it anyway. I've been lazy with my studying.
The winter pics are awesome. I took some of our snow dog today but I can't get pics to show up in the forum. Oh well. He LOVES the snow and come in looking like a big rug covered in snow.
ps....Marianne...the pics of your kids are wonderful.
oh no...in the past 30 minutes....I have gotten that foreboding lumpy/tickle in my throat and feel like I have lead weights hanging on me....I'm headed to bed in a desperate attempt to ward it off....
Hope everyone else is avoiding the cruddy stuff....
the video was great KrisF!! I almost felt I was there! congrats on your placing too and the buff is really cool.. good idea on RD. I love stuff like that, one of my favs is a headband, fleece I got for running a 15k, I wear it all the time! Sheryl, so did you get sick?? sounds like strep. I looked at the challenge, and right now I am not on Twitter and note you need to post pics and results to Twitter, I tried Twitter so probably still have that account and had it going into my blog, but it was one more thing that took up time so I came out of the Twitter experiment!! of course if I developed a following I might actually get some answers back!!! lol. anyways school is out today, it is colder here but the sun is out... but the roads will be bad even tomorrow as it wont' be warm enough to thaw. power went off in night so wasn't sure what time it was but I got 9.5 hours of sleep!!! and I took a one hour nap yesteday!! yep sometimes I wonder if I am well!! but one day a week I am committed to rackin! m
Abt 5" or so on the ground here and still coming down. It's slushy right now and roads wouldn't be too bad if it would quit coming down. Things are covered back up shortly after they scrape. Made it to work and hoping I'll make it home! Supposed to snow till mid afternoon, then wind, cold and ice.... Blah! Hoping I can get a run somewhere in the middle of all this! That groundhog musta dove immediately back in his hole 20 feet down (kinda like Alice....) Hope everyone on the east coast is safe & warm!
TOO MANY!!!!!!! Well, except that with the calf injury I'm actually greatful right now that there's lots of time between me and IMWI. That video was cool- I really like the background music- such a contrast!!! Oh, and was that Paul I saw walking to the start with you? Did he race as well? Please tell him I said "hey"!
Nemo - will do. Had lots of friends to share in the craziness which made it a fun day. With the loops I was able to see everyone but my super fast friends Susan, Larry & Andy till the end. Really was an unexpected blast (besides the wet and frozen foot thing).
I'll need to remember a day like this in mid Jul when I'm dripping wet with sweat! Going down to teens tonight with wind chill around zero! Sounds like a soup/chili night
Kris -- You are my weather hero. I think this is excellent progress in efforts to be more Chrissy-like. Would Chrissy run in a blizzard? No problem. Pouring rain? Yup. Or maybe you will have to become her role model.
Marianne - Adorable, adorable children!
Gina -- More puppy pics?
Linda - Love the idea of boobs to the tube riding every once in a while. What's up with patience and discipline if we can't remember we do it to become fastie, fastie bike riders?
Me -- Still unpacking. I'm sorting all the books now. So many books.
Rest of the story in Jan OS thread..... hey do a little dance says Rudy, cuz we just ran outside! we found a bit of dry land and did laps on it... who know what the neighbors think of us!! ha. doing housework now and generally enjoying school out snow day theme! haven't even left my house!
OK Ladies- I'm plugging the Prez Weekend Challenge again! But I'm keeping it on the DL by posting it in this thread! Here's the deal, we can TOTALLY take this challenge. AND- you don't need to do any more than whatever it is your plan says. All you gotta do is submit a Pic or Video with each ride you do and you will earn us extra points. We are the pic submitting super stars around here- so I know y'all can pull this off!!!
Go check out the Challenge and get signed up. We gotta win this time!
okay I signed up.. I need a lesson on how to do pics in Twitter though!! and if video how to do that too! I only signed up because of you Nemo!!! she stayed awake while I finished up IMLP so a girl gotta do this!! note you get points if you ride all three days, take pics and vid.. so y'all get pooped up on how to do that if you don't know (like me for Twitter) and note each zone gets points... a bit tricky filling that out on data sheet so write it down or have computer handy to transfer data... of course if you just do prescribed workout then easy. Note that Valentines is Sunday so don't leave your DH or SO out in the cold while riding your bike!!! lol..... no challenge is worth that. Also any smacktalk, posters that say Chicas Rule or other inflammatory stuff works as those silly guyz need a bunch of motivation!!! I can dish it and need some other cooks to serve up some home cooked "Is that all you got?" menus.... so go to the Challenge thread and see the spreadshee t and sign up, you are gonna ride anyways!
I use Picasa for my pics and I found this tool called Tvivo which adds a little button to Picasa and lets me automatically Tweet a pic right from Picasa.
Hi Ladies! Wow, if you miss a day or two on this forum, you really miss it! Great pics of puppies and cute kids! So, I haven't paid attention to the challenge. Sounds like there is a collective vibe of kickin' some male tail!! I have no idea how to post pics here, let alone through Twitter! If I can figure it out, I'm in. Been busy as heck lately, but I'll check it out. Had a good run this morning! (Indoors of course.) Still snowing here in NW IN, but all hype about the 'big storm'. Only thing it did was make the kids mad that they didn't get a snow day, so my students and others, were grumpy and snippy! We only got about 2-3 inches. Supposed to possibly get 12 more? Wish I owned a pair of snowshoes, just in case we have a snow day. I'd so be out playing in it!
I've struggled this first couple days of IM training. I freaked myself out with how to organize the travel to and from workouts and work etc. Getting it settled though. I just need to chill!
You gals have such beautiful families (puppy families counted too)! I love seeing the pics. Robin those cakes look to die for too.
I'm definitely in for the challenge, but I haven't signed up yet. It's a no brainer for me to do it because, um, hello, I now have serious volume on the IM plan! Not sure if I'll be able to handle the pics...I'm horrible about that and I've not been converted into a Twitter-bug.
Beth, so glad you're getting settled in the new pad! The book packing and unpacking was always my favorite part of moving. It just seemed cool to get to see all of the stuff I'd read...made me feel smart and learned. It always took me forever to get through that stuff. I'd seriously wallow in it. I do have a Kindle now though so the collection has ceased to grow...but at this point no moves on the horizon so we're good.
Sheryl, just say Noooooo! to the sore throat ickiness!
KRIS F IS MY RUNNING HERO!! Those conditions are whacked!! But I have to say it does look like a really fun time!
OK....I gotta jump on a conference call...and multitask while cooking dinner.
More later. Oh, and let me just say that I am loving being back in the pool. Swimming feels good!! (Not loving the goggle marks on my face though....people at work today and yesterday asked me if I was OK, and said I had dark circles under my eyes that made me look sick and tired...hmm. First, who says that to someone? Second, what if I were sick and tired? ;0)
This is our third day of no school!!! except this morning I got up and then found out!! it wasnt posted last night when I went to bed! I am loving the extra sleep! but okay I havent left my house and I think today I am gonna have to go to the store!!! my legs are a tad sore from the lunges, leg lifts, squats and etc that I did!! anyways you can see why I would have a hard time doing IMSG!! although I want to for the experience..... but our weather is poor this time of year and only decent starting in April, as March can be pretty rainy. I am not ruling it out though. Olivia can you look ahead and tell me what weeks the Race Sims are? I didn't get that info and would like to calendar that. before they were 2 and 4 weeks back from race day. Also if there are any epic weekends or other ##dates, that would be great for me to get on my calendar. if you can believe it, my son graduates HS on 15 May and my brother gets remarried May 15th in Greenville SC and my small group thru church is planning a weekend canoe trip that same weekend!!! I am already picketing for the canoe trip to get moved!! it has been 15 years since I have gone and every year I express desire to do another one! my brother?? well that sounds like a done deal! aaahh. shoot. that is my same wedding weekend too so a good one.... anyways the IMSG peeps, I would love to know any of the big stuff as I have races that I am not sure will work and haven't signed up for any of it!! and family vacay that hasn't been planned either.
M - Race sims are shown in weeks 6 & 9. So for me that's the weekends of March 20th and April 10. March tends to be our snowiest month in CO. So I've got to be ready for the possibility that I may have to do everything indoors....hoping that's not the case, but I know it's possible. Good luck getting to the store today!! Mind you don't slip on ice anywhere.
I'm coming to the conclusion that I have a mental block with testing. Well at least on the bike and run. The numbers seem to whack me out. I'm starting to think that rather than push me and whipping me to "Rock on wit' my bad self", they seem to scream at me "YOU SUCK". Then I get discouraged and have a harder time mustering the strength. The run test this weekend yielded no change, and then my bike test this AM started out strong and then waned seriously in the second 20 mins. End result was an FTP of 202, when I've been training at 211 for all but the first 8 week block of OS. This is all good experience because it can only help me get my mental mojo in line around the fact that regardless of results I'm doing solid work and have to be getting fitter, and helping me to focus on the process itself rather than the sign post test results. Plus at this point I don't have the energy in reserve to get concerned with it. Can't bother with the individual trees at this point, gotta keep a view of the forest. I do wonder if there is (or could be) a training protocol for how to progress or change things if test results aren't showing the typical progress. I know that there are "off days" in racing, training, and testing, but what if there is another measurement approach that I should be using? What if the tests are actually indicative of a need to change and train at slower paces in order to see an improvement later? At what point does the data signal a need for a change (other than just resting which we know is necessary at times)? Just musings...and would be interested in some input or discussion...
The swim test that I did yesterday was really solid, and I sorta wonder if one of the reasons for that is that I just went based on feel & technique because that's all I had.... I couldn't see any numbers to give me any feedback positive or otherwise.
I guess I'd better shower up and get my boo-tay to work.
Oliva- Are you using WKO to analyze/download your power #'s and pace? If so, I remember Rich saying you can pretty well tell your FT by looking at the numbers (in a bit smaller scope) on the performance manager charts. Of course- to do so, you would have to be consistent about downloading your data on a regular basis. I did very little testing last year as I felt the numbers on the chart were right on. If you PM me, I can give you a bit more info.
Another snowy COLD day here! Windchills below zero this morning. Ran on treadmill last night and it was U-G-L-Y. Quads are thanking me for making them stronger running all those hills. just wish they could be a little more subtle in their praise! Feel like coming down with start of a cold (making it's way through office). Will look at the challenge but haven't been doing but one longer bike on the weekends. With weather here the past few weeks, long runs have been on the weekends and biking on Thurs instead. Think I'm going to make a crockpot of the Taco Bean soup and cornbread.
M - do you have a recipe for the crockpot choc cake? Been really good with cleaning up the diet past few weeks and the weight is slowly dropping along with body fat. Downloaded the app Rich has been using called Lose it and gonna give that a try!
KrisF--You are one tough chicka! What a fun race. You quietly go about hitting it out of the park left and right! Luvs ya too!
Olivia--there are several ways to check FT--1 hour TT, 2x20 test; 5/20 test, AND the drop off in your 28-day bins in WKO+. Look at the Power Distribution, Last 28 Days. Where you have the biggest drop off in the bar graph--between the high and the low is a very good FT indicator. I have to say though, if you read between the lines around here, people are cracking. My FT actually went down about 5 watts in what I am able to hold in workouts like 2x15. I have the early weeks of OS results where I was hitting my ranges of around 172-175 week after week. Now I'm at 167 and almost killing myself to get there. My legs are running dead, and I have NO idea what is going on, and what I should have done differently. Working harder (ala VO2max) does not seem to be the answer, so is it pulling back even more? I am vexed, I will admit. Check your PM . Check your FB messages. Seems I can't PM you from here. What is with that function!
I don't think I was the one with crockpot choc cake....?? I have done the chocolate chip cake in bundt. well my weight went up 2# with snow days!! haven't lost anything. I am in the minority with no IPHONE so can't upload cool app. wonder if it is online. back from the store... just went in my run clothes, think like yesterday's clothing still coldhere and no sun today.... and when I came out of the car this guy said "are YOU the one that has done the Ironmans?" and I said YES! I am always in a good mood post running.... and so he starts chatting from across the lot... he used to live in Oregon and ran competitively, knows the Nike peeps. blah blah but quit running at age 41 and started riding Harleys... and somehow a relative of Prefontaine makes cool running jewelry which then he came over to show me, sterling silver pendant that says Run on it.. now I can't find the website at all when I got home .....was gonna share it with you. but I have fresh fruit again!! and salmon etc still in run clothes though so about to do some core/ after I finish tidying up. okay on weeks 6 an 9 so basically three weeks before race day and also 6 weeks before race day.
I will have to look at some of the other charts in WKO+ and see what they tell me. I do look at my PMC quite often. I love that little blue line! The very positive indicator that since October I've done a lot of good work. I haven't known in the past what or how to do what with those other charts. I will look at the 28 day details.
I didn't know that there were so many others that were having some struggles...Do we need to plan an intervention with the coaches to ask them for some advice? Maybe a "health check" of the team would be reasonable for all of us as a learning opportunity. You didn't hear that from me though.
A friend of mine said to me yesterday, "how 'bout less testing and more fun." Maybe when tests show up if I think of them as just another workout and an opportunity to just run or ride, then I can get that test mentality off the mind so much.
Olivia- I've found for the run tests my best bet is finding a local race and hopping into it to get my vDot. And WKO 28 day power buckets is a great way to get your FTP without suffering through a test. Although, I also like to find local time trials for that too whenver possible.
Ladies- the wind is blowitn 50+ here and the water is now over the bulkhead. We are watching closely- might have to evacuate my "office" and head upstairs!
Nemo and other ladies with weather -- be careful and stay warm.
Olivia -- Totally sucks. Yeah. I can't run a vdot test without company -- or it being really, really cold. Then, I just want to run fast so I can be inside sooner. In October, I did manage to trick myself into a vdot test: One day, I decided to do my favorite 10-mile route and allowed myself to run as fast I felt like running. So I just bopped along to my ipod and ran like an eight year-old. Garmin verified a shiny, new vdot when I got home. If they could all be that easy. . . .
My mojo is seriously off. I'm giving myself points for simply showing up to workouts this week. I'm glad there's the president's day challenge this weekend to hopefully kickstart the mojo a bit with some some cycling and goofing off. I just bought a ridiculous blue satin headband with sparkly sequins at Anthropologie. And it is going into the pain cave. I wonder what it will do to my ftp numbers?
Comments
Rained here most all day Friday into the evening. Sat morning we woke to this for race day
Plenty of cheery faces still around
Temps at race start were around 31 but with snow still coming down it felt colder than last week when it was 1 degree.
Here's what we ran .. up and down.. and up.. and down.. and up... over 6500' of elevation gain for 15 miles!
The big Finish line- which I almost missed.
The first trail on this race is abt 4.5 mile loop and wasn't too bad. With the rain from the day before the ground under was not frozen and pretty mushy. With the extra rain the creeks were full and the ones I could jump before, were a bit too wide to cross. After stepping in more mud and water than I cared to, finally ended up just going straight through them. We ran abt 1 1/2 mile on the park and local road (which feels really weird with trail shoes on- kinda like running on pebbles the whole way.) to the second trail which is a 5 mile loop that will kick your tail. Definitely the toughest trail at the park but absolutely gorgeous. I played George of the jungle once (hanging from a tree to keep from going down) and only landed down once. My toes got so numb abt 2+ hrs in I ended up tripping up on a root. The last loop was down and around a lake where the 50K folks separated from us and ran the trail from the Nov Half Mary I did. I can't begin to imagine how challenging that must have been!
Finished in 3:21- good enough for a tie for 3rd woman overall (sometimes it pays to be a woman!) My shoe laces had frozen I couldn't get my shoes off. They had all kinds of wonderful, WARM soups, coffee & hot chocolate which was like heaven at the finish. Had lots of fun and ended up napping the rest of the afternoon (and getting warm!) Super sore but made it up to spin for almost 2 hrs Sun am with a great group of friends. Fun weekend!!
Right now, we're hunkering down for another possible 3-6" of snow. Nothing like our friends up north, but enough to send grocery sales through the roof. I'm ready for SUN!!!
Almost forgot.. our very cool buffs....
Also sharing a neat little video one of my friends (also a race sponsor) took! I have a cameo shot somewhere in the middle as we are walking out to the start. I'm to the left of him as he's walking!
"Olivia... I hope this is the end of the weather woes. I've certainly paid my dues to Mother Nature!
KrisF, nice pics and the race sounds good!! this was from this morning....
Snow Day and Joshua and Grace were outside building a snowman! School cancelled tomorrow! it snowed from when I got up at 7 am. thru 3 when it started to rain... we have a nice mess out there right now but for the kids ?? = "partay!"
*edit button is not working for me today so made another post!!
Pics taken at the Peabody hotel before the kids went to dinner there. yep us parents showed up with cameras in hand and I took ### of them but did get one of me and him. Actually I had been cleaning house all day after my bike ride and had on tennis shoes and faded, holey light blue jeans so I said make sure you take the pic from the waist up.
This was from Saturday night. Andrew escorted a beautiful girl, my BFF's daughter, to the Winter Dance at her school. He and I leave for Guatemala 27 Feb which is only 18 days away!!
Edit button not lovin me either.. hopefully, here's the vid clip
I'm in on the challenge. I'm on week two of my HIM race plan so I have 5 hours of biking on Saturday and Sunday anyway. BTW....if I'm on the trainer...do I really do 5 hours of biking? 3 on Sat, 2 on Sun? Last Saturday I quit early. I was eyeing the clock because I got started late and knew that I had about 12 hours of studying to do for my class.......I have watched Syriana about 5 times so it did nothing to incent me to stay the course and someone took my fan so it was hot......I will take one for the chicka team this weekend and do all the hours....I need to hit it anyway. I've been lazy with my studying.
The winter pics are awesome. I took some of our snow dog today but I can't get pics to show up in the forum. Oh well. He LOVES the snow and come in looking like a big rug covered in snow.
oh no...in the past 30 minutes....I have gotten that foreboding lumpy/tickle in my throat and feel like I have lead weights hanging on me....I'm headed to bed in a desperate attempt to ward it off....
Hope everyone else is avoiding the cruddy stuff....
Marianne, woke up feeling better. Off to SNAP to run on the stupid treadmill.
Everyone drive careful on the icy roads.
How many days till summer?
TOO MANY!!!!!!! Well, except that with the calf injury I'm actually greatful right now that there's lots of time between me and IMWI. That video was cool- I really like the background music- such a contrast!!! Oh, and was that Paul I saw walking to the start with you? Did he race as well? Please tell him I said "hey"!
I'll need to remember a day like this in mid Jul when I'm dripping wet with sweat! Going down to teens tonight with wind chill around zero! Sounds like a soup/chili night
Hi Ladies!
Kris -- You are my weather hero. I think this is excellent progress in efforts to be more Chrissy-like. Would Chrissy run in a blizzard? No problem. Pouring rain? Yup. Or maybe you will have to become her role model.
Marianne - Adorable, adorable children!
Gina -- More puppy pics?
Linda - Love the idea of boobs to the tube riding every once in a while. What's up with patience and discipline if we can't remember we do it to become fastie, fastie bike riders?
Me -- Still unpacking. I'm sorting all the books now. So many books.
Rest of the story in Jan OS thread..... hey do a little dance says Rudy, cuz we just ran outside! we found a bit of dry land and did laps on it... who know what the neighbors think of us!! ha. doing housework now and generally enjoying school out snow day theme! haven't even left my house!
Go check out the Challenge and get signed up. We gotta win this time!
Woohoo Marianne! OK, I might have to make a stop at Staples this weekend to pick up poster paper so I can make an EN Chica's ROCK poster!
According to Cary, the easiest way to Twitter pics is to use one of the following: http://twitpic.com/ or http://yfrog.com/
I use Picasa for my pics and I found this tool called Tvivo which adds a little button to Picasa and lets me automatically Tweet a pic right from Picasa.
Nemo- Where is the thread for the challenge?????? Will sign up later tonight. Gotta make dinner and feed gangsta puppy!
I've struggled this first couple days of IM training. I freaked myself out with how to organize the travel to and from workouts and work etc. Getting it settled though. I just need to chill!
You gals have such beautiful families (puppy families counted too)! I love seeing the pics. Robin those cakes look to die for too.
I'm definitely in for the challenge, but I haven't signed up yet. It's a no brainer for me to do it because, um, hello, I now have serious volume on the IM plan! Not sure if I'll be able to handle the pics...I'm horrible about that and I've not been converted into a Twitter-bug.
Beth, so glad you're getting settled in the new pad! The book packing and unpacking was always my favorite part of moving. It just seemed cool to get to see all of the stuff I'd read...made me feel smart and learned. It always took me forever to get through that stuff. I'd seriously wallow in it. I do have a Kindle now though so the collection has ceased to grow...but at this point no moves on the horizon so we're good.
Sheryl, just say Noooooo! to the sore throat ickiness!
KRIS F IS MY RUNNING HERO!! Those conditions are whacked!! But I have to say it does look like a really fun time!
OK....I gotta jump on a conference call...and multitask while cooking dinner.
More later. Oh, and let me just say that I am loving being back in the pool. Swimming feels good!! (Not loving the goggle marks on my face though....people at work today and yesterday asked me if I was OK, and said I had dark circles under my eyes that made me look sick and tired...hmm. First, who says that to someone? Second, what if I were sick and tired? ;0)
I'm coming to the conclusion that I have a mental block with testing. Well at least on the bike and run. The numbers seem to whack me out. I'm starting to think that rather than push me and whipping me to "Rock on wit' my bad self", they seem to scream at me "YOU SUCK". Then I get discouraged and have a harder time mustering the strength. The run test this weekend yielded no change, and then my bike test this AM started out strong and then waned seriously in the second 20 mins. End result was an FTP of 202, when I've been training at 211 for all but the first 8 week block of OS. This is all good experience because it can only help me get my mental mojo in line around the fact that regardless of results I'm doing solid work and have to be getting fitter, and helping me to focus on the process itself rather than the sign post test results. Plus at this point I don't have the energy in reserve to get concerned with it. Can't bother with the individual trees at this point, gotta keep a view of the forest. I do wonder if there is (or could be) a training protocol for how to progress or change things if test results aren't showing the typical progress. I know that there are "off days" in racing, training, and testing, but what if there is another measurement approach that I should be using? What if the tests are actually indicative of a need to change and train at slower paces in order to see an improvement later? At what point does the data signal a need for a change (other than just resting which we know is necessary at times)? Just musings...and would be interested in some input or discussion...
The swim test that I did yesterday was really solid, and I sorta wonder if one of the reasons for that is that I just went based on feel & technique because that's all I had.... I couldn't see any numbers to give me any feedback positive or otherwise.
I guess I'd better shower up and get my boo-tay to work.
Stay warm chicas!
M - do you have a recipe for the crockpot choc cake? Been really good with cleaning up the diet past few weeks and the weight is slowly dropping along with body fat. Downloaded the app Rich has been using called Lose it and gonna give that a try!
KrisF--You are one tough chicka! What a fun race. You quietly go about hitting it out of the park left and right! Luvs ya too!
Olivia--there are several ways to check FT--1 hour TT, 2x20 test; 5/20 test, AND the drop off in your 28-day bins in WKO+. Look at the Power Distribution, Last 28 Days. Where you have the biggest drop off in the bar graph--between the high and the low is a very good FT indicator. I have to say though, if you read between the lines around here, people are cracking. My FT actually went down about 5 watts in what I am able to hold in workouts like 2x15. I have the early weeks of OS results where I was hitting my ranges of around 172-175 week after week. Now I'm at 167 and almost killing myself to get there. My legs are running dead, and I have NO idea what is going on, and what I should have done differently. Working harder (ala VO2max) does not seem to be the answer, so is it pulling back even more? I am vexed, I will admit. Check your PM . Check your FB messages. Seems I can't PM you from here. What is with that function!
I didn't know that there were so many others that were having some struggles...Do we need to plan an intervention with the coaches to ask them for some advice? Maybe a "health check" of the team would be reasonable for all of us as a learning opportunity. You didn't hear that from me though.
A friend of mine said to me yesterday, "how 'bout less testing and more fun." Maybe when tests show up if I think of them as just another workout and an opportunity to just run or ride, then I can get that test mentality off the mind so much.
Thanks for the input!
Ladies- the wind is blowitn 50+ here and the water is now over the bulkhead. We are watching closely- might have to evacuate my "office" and head upstairs!
Nemo and other ladies with weather -- be careful and stay warm.
Olivia -- Totally sucks. Yeah. I can't run a vdot test without company -- or it being really, really cold. Then, I just want to run fast so I can be inside sooner. In October, I did manage to trick myself into a vdot test: One day, I decided to do my favorite 10-mile route and allowed myself to run as fast I felt like running. So I just bopped along to my ipod and ran like an eight year-old. Garmin verified a shiny, new vdot when I got home. If they could all be that easy. . . .
My mojo is seriously off. I'm giving myself points for simply showing up to workouts this week. I'm glad there's the president's day challenge this weekend to hopefully kickstart the mojo a bit with some some cycling and goofing off. I just bought a ridiculous blue satin headband with sparkly sequins at Anthropologie. And it is going into the pain cave. I wonder what it will do to my ftp numbers?