MaryStella's Triathlon training crossfit endurance

[Rob PMFF]

Did you win?!

[MaryStella]

Devilman Half-Lite 50 mile Triathlon Race Report

swim 1 bike 40 run 9

Pre-race - didn't get to sleep as early as I would have liked because there was alot of noise at the hotel between 9 and 10 when people must have been checking into their rooms. When I travel for eagleman I plan on bringing my white noise machine with me. It makes a huge difference for me in terms of sleeping. I also didn't plan to get up too early since my wave didn't go off until 8:30 but again everyone around me in the hotel was getting up at 4 something for the tri so I was up too. Oddly the alarm clock in my room went off at midnight. that didn't make me very happy. I literally ripped the thing out of the wall. But I had slept well during the week so I didn't really feel too bad once I got myself together and the car packed up and was on the way to the race. I wanted to eat a clig bar for breakfast but I couldn't eat it. I don't think it was nerves thing. I just can't stomach food when I don't get enough sleep especially that early in the morning. I scoffed down as much of it as I could.

 

Got to the race and wish I brought my bike and supplies directly from the car before going to pick up my packet because it was a really long haul and it would have saved me a lot of time. thankfully I had enough time. One of my gripes about the race was that there was over 700 people doing it and it was just was not staffed well enough. The line for packet pickup took forever! If I didn't have plenty of time it would have been stressful. Also there was literally 1 guy working on bikes. the line for that was long too. I had to wait in it to get my pit stop. When I went back to my car I literally just yelled out does anyone have any tape and a bunch of voices came back "what kind of tape" Triathletes are better than boy scouts when it comes to be prepared. Taped the pit stop to my frame and headed down to transition. Transition was really tight which confused me a bit since they had a huge area in while to put it but only utilized a fraction of the space. The temperature was actually not too cold so I wouldn't be needing any extra gear beside my tri suit. Put my wetsuit on and headed down to the water.

 

The race - my wave was the last to go in the swim start. The water was absolutely freezing. I got into the water telling myself out loud. it's not that cold... its not that cold... a women behind me goes "oh good, it isn't?" to which I reply, no it freezing I am just trying to convince myself it isn't. They said the water was 65 degrees but there is no way. My hands and feet pretty much went numb in the minute we were treading water before the swim start. Everything inside my wetsuit was ok. When we started swimming the coldness kinda clipped your breathing a bit. The worst part of the swim though was the men's wave that went before was just coming around for their second loop and it was just got ugly from there. Of course there was the usual get elbowed and kicked which i could deal with. That is just going to happen. What I wasn't fond of what that my legs were getting pulled on. I also felt like I was pushed under more than once. I swallowed some of the pond water which just had my coughing it up pretty much everytime I was trying to breath. It was bad. at one point I thought to myself wow, my day is going to end here. I am going to get pulled out of this water because im dying here. That kinda scared me a bit because I didn't come here to "swim" for a minute. So I literally just stopped swimming freestyle completely and switched to swimming breaststroke with my face out of the water all the water to the next buoy just to collect myself and get myself to the point where I felt like I could swim again. Luckily the plan worked, I of course lost a bunch of time swimming that way. The rest of the first lap wasn't much better Every turn was fight so i went back to breaststroke for it. finally by the second lap I felt like I could swim. There was still some bumping especially around the turns but it was definitely the better of the 2 laps. Part of it I think was the water conditions. Literally the water was a brown/black and you couldn't see anything in it. Normally I would see a person's feet before I felt them but not in this water. It was so weird to not be able to see that at some points I would just close my eyes in the water and only open them when I was breathing or sighting. I think my sighting was ok considering it was my first OWS of the season. I wouldn;t say my form was good on any of the swimming. I was breathing every 2 strokes either because the water was cold or because i had swallowed some of it and my lungs just hurt to breathe. or maybe a little of both. But I made it out of the water and considering the way the swim started that alone was little victory for the day! Time was 25 minutes. The run to transition was far and rough because you were running barefoot over these broken up shells. I had put all of my bike stuff inside of my helmet and put my helmet on my bike so I wouldn't forget anything and someone must have knocked it over because I was looking for my stuff. I was still feeling like crap from the swim and I was talking to myself in transition as I geared up to get myself together for the rest of the race. The things I say to myself sometimes are funny. I amused some other guy in transition because he yelled over to me that I was having entirely too much fun already. If he only knew i was just trying to get myself out of the bike course because i wasn't feeling well at all. The run out of transition to the mount line again was really far and on a dirt road with shells again. I had my tri shoes on but it wasn't a fast run for sure. I couldn't get my garmin started when I first got on the bike. I was a little worried It wasn't going to start but it eventually did and that was good because I needed it for my nutrition times. the bike course was mostly flat. The first 10 miles I was riding well averaging about 20 mph and I was pumped! I thought i was going to ride the course in about 2 hours! then the next 10 miles back you were riding into a head wind. Dropped my avg for those down to about 16. It was a 2 loop bike course and the averages stayed in tact for the second loop as well. I didn't have any issues nutrition and hydration wise on the bike. They had a bottle exchange which was helpful. The only issue I had on the bike was in the last 10 minutes my back and my crotch were killing me. I had to come out of aero a few times just to relieve the pressue and make myself feel better so I could ride on. I think most of it is I just haven't spent enough time on my tri bike. That is one of the drawbacks I see with using Crossfit Endurance training. I just wasn't conditioned to have myself rolled forward over the bike for that long of a period of time. Mostly because many of my workouts are shorter than that and due to weather, road conditions, riding with others etc. all of my longer rides were done on my road bike. Ill see how it turns out on my tri bike for some longer rides in the future. if it doesn't get better Ill have to switch out the saddle. I was passing people on the bike and that felt pretty good. Sad part is some of them passed me on the run but at least I am able to run! got 2:17 off my garmin for the ride. Long transition from bike to run again. My bike and race wheels felt great and I didn't have any issues with the aero helmet. I do right in the head up position so the long tail was down my back and not in the way. It was pretty hot by the time the run started. It didn't really bother me but I did make it a point to take in some water at every water station which was pretty much every mile. The first 2 miles I wasn't feeling my legs. Around mile 3 they started to feel better. In my mind I thought I had picked up my running pace but I don't thin kI actually did as I was running about 10 minute miles for the whole race (Except for the last one). I did walk while drinking my water taking my gel or salt but it was a only a few seconds. I was having trouble drinking on both the bike and the run. I was couching while doing it because my lungs still hurt. The run was also flat and the wind on it actually felt ok because of the heat. I got another nice sunburn. The best part of the run was that it smelled like the beach! The run took me 1:30. My knees were hurting when I was running. Finished the whole thing in 4:22 with transition times etc. I haven't seen the results/photos from the event yet. Curious to see those. THe times I got were off my garmin and the results posted that I saw before I left the race.

 

post race- I actually felt ok other than the lungs. I was still coughing after the race. Packed up the car and headed for the long drive home. That was rough. I am very happy that I won't be driving home from eagleman until the next day because i was tired and it was a long drive. Also jay's hydration protocols had me looking for a bathroom a couple of times. My knees hurt after the race but overall I wasn't really sore just tired. Thought I would sleep really well but while i did fall asleep at my normal time I also woke up at my normal time and various times throughout the night too. I felt good when I woke up other than the knee thing. I also felt pretty good today too. So i added about 20 miles onto my last tri distance and ill b adding another 20 at eagleman.

 

 

Only thing on the schedule was a 20 mile recovery ride. Did it with my friend who was recovering from a half -marathon so we werent riding hard but we were riding out in the country so there was hills to climb bu we were talking as much as riding. I am happy that i wasn't sore today. This knee thing a little scary though. It got much better as today went on. It will be interesting to see how the half -marathon goes this weekend. Im not expecting a great time.

 

meal 1 - bagel and soysage

meal 2 - 5 spice tofu & vegan mac N cheese, brown rice pasta, almonds

meal 3 - tofu, black beans, tvp, onions, peppers, guacamole, tomatoes, daiya & corn crackers. almonds

[lobsteriffic]

Awesome race report!! Mary, you rock so much! At the risk of sounding super corny, you really have no idea how inspiring you are to me!

[MaryStella]

awe lobster! thanks!

 

Went to bed too late and got up too soon. Hit the pool this morning. 500 of drills to warmup, 100 switch, 200 catch, 100 shark, 100 hesitate. I upped the catch drills because this is basically how I swam a lot of the race on saturday so that I could protect my face! It was actually pretty useful. workout was 8 x 100 on 4 minutes rest. this is not one of my favorite wods. I don't like standing the pool for that much time not swimming. I stretched and floated trying to make the best of it. I was happy (for today) with the times I threw down. I must be recovered from the race. I was resting for so long the lifeguard came over to ask me if i was ok!

 

1 - 1.34

2 - 1.32

3 -1.31

4 - 1.32

5 -1.31

6 -1.32

7 - 1.32

8 - 1.34

 

Run - 30 minutes. 3.20 miles. back to crossfit tomorrow. I actually have a horrible headache tonight. I think it is allergy related. my eyes are tearing, my nose is running and my ears hurt! Taking all of my allergy meds!

 

Tomorrow also starts my first time training session. It is supposed to help sharpen skills of Riding in a pack, planning breakaways, bridging gaps, sprinting, working through different race scenarios, Time trialing against the clock in a race format. It is well knows that the best training is racing so these are mock races. 1 week a 30 mile crit the next week a 12.5 mile TT. The team is a USAC AND USAT member. A tri coach is on board for the TT session and has planned to add a 2 mile run on the TT days to make a brick workout for the triathletes. Overall I think this is all going to be very good for me but hard too. The people on this team ride much better than I do so I am going to be dying just to hang in!

 

meal 1 - vega wfo w/coconut water

meal 2 - vega wfo w/ soy yogurt, straberries, blueberries & mango, ground flax seed

meal 3 - banana

meal 4 - black eyed peas, brown rice, broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, clif bar,almonds

meal 5 - tofu, red pepper, zucchini, guacamole

[MaryStella]

tabata air squats

1 - 20

2 - 19

3 - 17

4 - 17

5 - 17

6 - 17

7 - 17

8 - 16

 

rest 1 minute

 

tabata row ( in meters)

1 - 94

2 - 93

3 - 87

7 - 85

5 - 91

6 - 90

7 - 87

8 - 93

9 - 90

lost count so i did an extra round

 

meal 1 - bagel & vega wfo w/coconut water

meal 2 - clif bar, mac nuts, banana

meal 3 - tofu & roasted green beans, clif bar, mac nuts

meal 4 - vega wfo w/coy yougurt, ground flax, mango & strawberries

[MaryStella]

first night of the training series. It was a good workout but I really just can not hang with these riders! It is 3 mile loop that is hit 10 times for a total of 30 miles. I rode it 9 times for a total of 26 miles. My chain got caught in between my cranks twice. I need to get it checked out. I would have done it again at the end but it was dark. The loop has 2 pretty good hills to climb.avg hr 147 max 172. avg speed 14.6 took me 1:45 I wasn't feeling up to even going today just tired but I knew I would feel better once I got other there. Since I couldn't stay with the pack i rode with the coach awhile. He was giving me good tips. So it is totally worth it just to be riding with a pro out there. He seems to think that my power and strength will come and that where i am at right now is just part of the learning curve. I hope he is right! I've got a headache now that I am home. I think a lot of my not feeling well is allergies

 

meal 5 lentils & brown rice - clif bar

[MaryStella]

Tired and out of it getting up this morning. Legs were cooked from last night's crit practice. And I had a track workout to get to! Jeff was in the driveway waiting to go so he kinda dragged me to the track. Normally I would jog there as a workout but I was in such sad shape we walked there. then ran a mile to warmup on the track. Main workout was 10 x 100 on 15 seconds rests. My times were not great but considering how sore and not recovered I was I can deal with them.

 

1 - 19

2 - 22

3 - 24

4 - 23

5 - 24

6 - 23

7 - 20

8 - 22

9 - 21

10 - 21

 

mile cooldown on the track and then a jog home.

 

CF wod -

 

10 rounds of

10 Wallballs - 14lb ball @ 9 ft target

20 situps.

 

Time 13:26

 

For a second I considering doing the situps as GHDs but it was a lot of reps and lets face it my legs were wrecked enough. It was a good change to do real situps since normally I would do GHDs. This wod went well. Probably the best wallballing I've done. It was a short enough set that I didn't have to break. I only missed 2 in the entire workout so I was moving at a pretty good clip. That makes me happy because wallballs have never been one of my favorites but while I didn't love them today I didn't hate them either.

 

Even more surprising is my legs and everything else actually feels better after the CF wod than it did this morning. If this trend continues where I am super sore after the team sessions I may have to rearrange the schedule so that I am swimming the morning after instead of hitting a track workout.

 

meal 1 - sprouted grain bagel & vega wfo w/coconut water

meal 2 - clif bar mac nuts

meal 3 - lentils & brown rice, almonds, clif bar

[MaryStella]

swim - no warm up as I rode my bike to the pool. 35 TT - definitely 74 possibly 80 laps. I was on my 75 lap with the alarm went off but i lost my lap count about 3 times. Felt good swimming. One of the guys at the pool told me I went too hard in the beginning because I was swimming faster in the beginning than I was in the end. The trouble with doing time trials in the pool is i have no idea where i am at time wise when completing them. It isn't like I know i have 5 minutes left and just go all out for those last five minutes etc. Doing a TT for distance is easier. I wasn't unhappy with my performance though. 150 of breaststroke to cooldown. After my last race you never know when your gonna have to throw in some breaststroke.

 

CF WOD - 5 x 5 Thrusters

I actually don't mind thrusters in this format. It is when they are for time I hate them!

45x5

50x5

55x5

60x5

65x5

70x5

75x5

80x5

I actually think i could have gone a little heavier but no time left. I did about 2 minutes of stretching in between each round. Just trying to get my lower legs sorted out and also I was feeling my shoulder on these so i worked on that too.

 

Have a bike skills class tonight

 

meal 1 - vega wfo w/coconut water, clif bar

meal 2 - vega wfo w/ soy yogurt, strawberries, ground flax, clif bar

meal 3 - tofu, zucchini, cabbage, guacamole. clif bar

[lobsteriffic]

Yikes, those thrusters are looking STRONG if you ask me!

[MaryStella]

thanks lobster! I was feeling strong on the thrusters. wish i had time to go a little heavier and see where i failed.

 

What a different ride last night. On my skills class last night people were telling me I'm their hero and they want to ride like me someday. I totally told them they want to ride like people that are way better than me. It was just kinda funny the reasons they were giving me were things like your a strong triathlete I want to do that or your such a strict vegan and have such control over your diet. Your my hero. I guess inspiration is where you find it.

 

swim - i've been riding my bike to the pool in addition to my usual commuting around town to work and the gym etc. I actually took stefan in the grocery store with me today and walked around with him because i had nothing to lock him up with. Surprisingly no one said a word. Anyway back to the point the pool water has actually felt warm to me lately but I think it is because I am cold from riding my bike. 1,000 of drills, 2 rounds of 100s of switch, catch, drag, shark and hesitate. Then 2 rounds of 300s with pull and paddles. This was the kind of workout I needed to start the morning. I was dragging from 3 wods yesterday. 3rd wod was my skills class it wasn't a terribly hard ride but I was tired going into it. we worked on cornering. On nights when I have some time but not the energy to go for a ride I am going to set up water bottles like we did and just practice cornering skills. Getting closer and closer to the bottle without knocking it over and also being able to do it faster and faster. It actually is a great way to practice the skills because where I live with traffic being able to take a corner that way usually isn't going to happen. And in the words of coach phil "we're going to do this until someone falls over!" Also worked on TTT skills. We weren't killing the pace just working on getting on and off the line smoothly. We also did a little climbing because if's there a hill, then there's phil. around 20 miles but I would say 15 was on the roads and 5 was just riding in a circle cornering. I am not adjusted to training at night. When I get home from a ride, It's later than I like to get home, i need to cook shower and eat and I really just want to go to bed. It's hard to get up the morning after I ride at night or I am just not used to it yet. So not having to kill it in the pool today helped me recover and loosen up a bit. I actually felt good on my form drills and strong on my paddle work.

 

CF WOD

3 rounds of

15 Hanging Power Cleans @ 65 lbs

15 Burpees

time 8:24

 

I think I could have gone a little heavier on the cleans. I wasn't having an issues cleaning the weight but my grip forced me to put the bar down and reset a few times. It was a lot of reps to try to go unbroken though.

 

I mapped out a 56 mile route for my TT tomorrow. I am hoping that it isn't raining in the morning so I can take my TT bike and get acclimated to being aero for that long. But they are calling for raining starting tonight and through the weekend so I might end up riding my road bike (Again). It sounds like it will also be raining for my half -marathon on sunday. maybe ill get lucky though.

 

meal 1 - vega wfo w.coconut water & a sprouted grain bagel

meal 2 - clif builder bar & almonds

meal 3 - banana, hummus, 2 veggie burgers, granola bar

 

I really need to get to the store tomorrow the food hasn't been the best the last few days.

[lobsteriffic]

Hoping for good weather for you!

[MaryStella]

start raining before I even took off on my ride today so took my road bike instead of my tri bike! that only bad part of this is I wanted to get more acclimated and conditioned to staying aero for a longer period of time. I haven't done any really long rides on my tri bike and towards the end of devilman last week I was noticing that it was harder to stay aero comfortably. Hopefully between now and eagleman in a month I will have more time to spend hitting it tt style!! now if the weather will just cooperate! It was a cold and rainy 56 miles. I think the training for this week and well as the fact that i haven't slept well or long enough all week caught up to me a bit on this ride. I didn't feel like getting out of bed this morning and i was dragging myself around getting ready to head out. Had a bagel and off we went. total ride time was 3:38 avg 15.5 mph. I just didn't feel like i could nail it today. I had to pee twice and i puked at mile 34. Too much gel and water I guess as I wasn't feeling sick. I didn't even stop the bike though just spit it off the side! I took a break from the gel and water for a while until i started feeling better. Didn't have any problems the rest of the way. avg hr was only 135! I've never had trouble with gels before so I am just going to let it go and say it was a bad day. I lwas a spa style ride. free exfoliation and mud treatment. Tomorrow I am running in the pocono run for the red marathon as part of a marathon relay. I'll be hitting the second half marathon which is the ironman pocono mountain 70.3 course. I am tired and my foot is sore today so we will see how it goes. I will go and do it and use it as a training run just to get experience on that course. I have to say I would be more excited about it if it involved swimming and biking! yes i am a tri brat.

 

meal 1 banana

meal 2 - gels and salt

meal 3 - grit tofu & brown rice pasta w/red lentil sauce

meal 4 - clif bar, grit tofu

[lobsteriffic]

Ha, hope nobody was behind you at mile 34!

[vivalasvegans]

did you puke from working or puke from an upset stomach?

i would guess that if it was cold and raining you didn't need so many electrolytes.. some solutions would be to carry your gel in a flask if you don't already, so you can just grab a little swish of it, or carry cliff blocks/gu chews so you can just take 1 or 2 at a time. i never leave home without a cherry larabar... i've convinced myself that the iron in the cherries makes me go faster but it's a good carb boost without the salt. i wish those cherries worked better, i still need to go faster.

[MaryStella]

@lobster - of course there was! drafting off of me has it's price!

 

@viva - just too much water/gel for the conditions. Im not worried about it.I don't do the flask thing becuase then i can't monitor my calorie intake. i couldn't eat a larabar or i would puke for sure.

 

 

Pocono Mountain Run for the Red Half-Marathon Relay - Race Report

 

The time from my garmin for my 13.16 miles was 2:01:17. I will check tomorrow online to see what my chip/clock time was. Although I believe this to be fairly accurate. I had a decent race which I am happy about. I would have liked to go under 2 hours but honestly yesterday i was feeling pretty fried. just not enough sleep this week to recover from all of the training but I hope to get that corrected this week. I had time before the race to stretch my legs out so this helped a bit. My only complaints after the race are blisters on my feet. probably should have body glided them because we were running in the rain and the wet socks/sneakers combo is yucky on the feet. Also I got a friction burn from either my heart rate monitor or my sports bra. again body glide would have been a good idea just didn't think about it since it wasn't a tri. Legs feel good and my energy is decent so i expect to be recovered and back onto training tomorrow! My half of the course was the "hilly" part of the marathon. That being said it was net downhill overall but mostly little rolling hills all the way. None of the hills had a serious grade to them although a few of them we a little long. If you have the legs to take advantage of the downhills it can be a fast course to race. It is really pretty too just winding down country highway. The last few miles are actually in town and less scenic but there are a lot more people cheering there. It finished on a stadium track so that's really fun and will be awesome for impm. The rain wasn't really heavy but more of an annoyance. It was cool about 60. but the humidity was high at 92 percent. Running in a full marathon as a relay especially the last half is a weird thing. You are flying by all of these people who are suffering just passing people constantly because they have been out there suffering a lot longer and are a lot more beat up. Overall it's a decent marathon but the organization of it wasn't the greatest. I wasn't frazzled by it but a lot of people were upset. Iced my heel afterwards as it is a little achy but it did not give me any problems on the course so hopefully after a little ice and rest it will settle down. Im happy i took the time to do this race 1) i got to preview the course and 2) I probably wouldn't have thrown down such a good time running by myself so overall it was a successful training day.

[lobsteriffic]

That's a great time I think!

[MaryStella]

thanks lobster - i think it is a decent time for coming off of surgery and not doing much run trainign yet. this is the first time i've run that far since the surgery.

 

actually recovered fairly well from the race yesterday. My foot was aching last night but i iced it and no issues with it today. My lower legs are sore so i trigger pointed those and stretched. my knee is sore too. I put some kinesio tape on it. Have to hit the ice later. overall thought pretty decent so i went back to training.

 

swim - 1,000 of drills then 500 TT - hit 8.44 for that. not my fastest but for the morning after a race pretty decent.

 

cd wod - amrap 20

12 kettlebell swings @35 lbs

5 toes through rings.

 

got 15 full rounds in 18 minutes. abandoned the wod in the 16th round with 2 minutes left to go. I have 3 tears on my hands and my grip was killing me. I figure it was safer since i was not holding onto the kettlebell or the rings all that well at that point. my hands were shaking afterward my grip was so shot. Overall it was a great wod and I wish I was able to make it through the full 20 minutes. I might do it again once my hands recover from the tears. I went with the 35 lb kettlebell because i wasn't sure how many unbroken rounds i would be able to get with a 44. I was kipping the toes thru rings and i think between that and the kettlebells the friction was just too much.

 

the workouts are going to get jumbled around a bit this week i think due to the weather.

 

meal 1 - vega wfo w/coconut water & sprouted grain bagel

meal 2 - clif bar

meal 3 - tofu, brown rice, veggies,

meal 4 - clif bar

[lobsteriffic]

ew, more bad weather?

[MaryStella]

ended up doing 3 wods today. first was a swim - 500 of drills to warmup then it was supposed to be 25 x 25 with a mid pool start on 10 seconds rest. it ended up being at least 30 as i kept miscounting and doing them over. It's a weird wod because with the mid pool start your really don't have any speed going and then it is a few stroke and flip turn and a few strokes. I didn't time these. I just used the lap clock for the 10 seconds. had extra time so i did another 500 of drills to cooldown.

 

cf wod

21 - 15 - 9

Deadlifts @ 135

Clapping Push Ups

Time 6:16

 

This was a little light on the deadlift weight for me but it felt decent for the wod. The clapping pushups were rough.

 

The weather broke for a little bit this even and I was able to get the team TT session in. It is a 12.5 mile/20k loop. I wore my garmin but actually forgot to start it so no serious data. I was nervous starting because your completely clipped in and i was hoping i wasn't going to fall over. Of course I didnt but the thought did cross my mind. This was my first time doing this course. Overall I like it and i can't wait to see how my times improve on it as I ride it more and I improve my cycling fitness. There are a few little hills but no serious climbs in it. My time was about 40 minutes. Ill have to look on the website tomrorow and see for sure. I didn't feel like i was giving it 100 percent. next time i will now that i have experienced the terrain. I don't feel like i train on my tt bike the way I race on it. I am more cautious when I am training. I guess I am less focused then. Another cyclist who is a much better rider than me actually said that I inspire them because i train so hard.

 

meal 1 - vega wfo w/coconut water

meal 2 - vega wfo soy yogurt blue erries strawberries, ground flax

meal 3 clif bar

meal 4 - tofu, brown rice, broccoli, carrots, mushrooms

meal 5 - clif bar

meal 6 seitan, hummus

[MaryStella]

Tried to run the stiffness out of my legs this morning. they are a lot better than they were but not 100 percent yet. Downhills didn't feel as good as the rest of the run and my knee hurt afterwards. I am going to have to start taking the knee thing seriously and going after it more aggressively. ran 5.65 miles in 1 hour.

 

CF wod

back squats

bw x 10

45 x 10

65 x 5

85x3

95x3

105x3

115x3

125x3

130x3

135x3

All were onto a medicine ball to ensure depth.

 

Been really tired the last few days. Hopefully my sleeping situation will get corrected tonight and I will get caught up on rest the next few days. I ordered some new goggles for open water swimming today. I can't wait to try them. Hopefully better vision and more comfortable. Also took my road bike into the shop to have the shifting addresses a bit. I'll try to get out and ride it the next few days and test it out before I do the Mon-tour on saturday. It is a really hilly cycling race.

[MaryStella]

had a great training day today! I finally got enjoy quality sleep last night and it feels so good to wake up before the alarm instead of attempting to drag myself out of bed when the alarm goes off. overall pretty happy with the way today went.

 

first up was a swim - did 500 of drills to warm up then 10 rounds of 200s paddling on the odds and pull on the evens. I actually felt like I was swimming really well. Alternating between the paddles and the pull really helped to work on my stroke. I felt like I was swimming really smoothly. It was great. This needs to be in my programming more often. swam a 50 breaststroke to cooldown. would have done more but didn't have the time.

 

cf wod = helen

 

I actually thought for awhile I was going to get this as rxed and not have to modify anything but of course i ended up having to do it the same way ive been doing it for at least a year now which is rowing instead of running. It was good in the sense that I had a real comparison to my previous times. That was nice because I crushed the workout bettering my time by 1.16 seconds!

 

Helen is 3 rounds of run 400 meters, 21 kettlebell swings @ 35 lb pounds and 12 pullups.

 

I am particularily happy with the time because i did not connect a single pullup because my hands are still torn up and raw so i was trying to save them a bit. The combo of kb swings and pullups always tears them up. I only got one new tear today. I held my own on the row times but I was able to go unbroken on the kb swings for the first 2 rounds and only took 1 break in the 3rd round to chalk. Like i said the pullups could have gone faster if i connected them but given the situation I am ok with it. for now anyway.

 

The reason I had to row the wod instead of run it is because my left knee is bothering me. I have been trying to avoid admitting to this but it is time to get serious about it and get after it and get over it. I think I have chondomalacia because steps seem to bother it the most especially going down them. Also running flares it up and sometimes cycling too. the pain is on the anterior part of my knee right up the knee cap. I have been using ice on it all day and even took some ibu. Im going to try to rest it from running and see if it improves. I have been trigger pointing my lower legs everyday trying to get them to loosen up in addition to the usual stretching. If that is what is wrong with my knee it could either be from when i got hit on my bike or just an overuse thing. Or most likely a combination of both. This is just an inflammation of the cartilige under the knee cap hopefully. Having my lower legs be so tight doesn't help the situation but as much as i work on them they really just do not seem to get any better in any significant way.

[MaryStella]

here is a little info about the cycling race I am doing on saturday - the mon-tour! When we created this course, it was based on trying to put together the hardest ride in Montour County. We were looking for ways to make the smallest County in Pennsylvania ride like a beast. And I think we accomplished that goal with the 75 mile version of the race. We incorporated every horrible hill and valley we could think of over a post ride conversation and beer. Then we went and rode the course; and it was good.

 

That being said, it has its warts. It has uneven roads. It has dirt roads. It has gravel (some of which is loose). It has always had at least one section under construction for the ride. It has off-camber turns that are hard to negotiate at speed. It has railroad crossings on active tracks that could cause a delay if you are unlucky enough to catch a train. Things happen on a 75 mile course.

 

But to our way of thinking (as Organizers) that’s part of cycle road racing. It’s not about perfect conditions. It’s about racing in the conditions you are given.

 

Paris–Roubaix has its cobblestones. The Tour de France has its sketchy sections of road. All great rides have their “warts” that actually define their character. The 75 miles is no different. It’s a road race and not a track race. Things happen in Road Racing, and that’s what makes it exciting!

[Rob PMFF]

That sounds cool. Kinda like a mud run but for cyclists eh?

[MaryStella]

anytime it rains cyclist get a mud treatment just like going to a spa!

 

easier day on the training schedule today so I should be good for the race tomorrow.

 

took a 30 minute easy bike ride on stefan. 7+ miles. Of course it rained so i have to clean him up tonight and get him all spiffy for the race tomorrow.

 

CF wod was 4 x 800 meters on 2 minute rest. used the c2 rower

 

1 - 3.33

2 - 3.34

3 - 3.40

4 - 3.35

 

Fairly happy with the times except for the 3rd rep where I clearly stopped focusing for a second and let the pain get to me.

 

My knee is starting to feel better. The ice and nsaids are working. I am wishing for this to clear up quickly so I don't have to be modifiying my training. I did enough of that last season. I would be really nice to just train this year without injury issues.

[MaryStella]

did the mon-tour cycling road race yesterday. it was a tough ride for me but overall a great experience. i'll be looking forward to doing it next year! the race is well organized and attended. i can only say one bad thing about the race and that was the water situation. Only at one place on the course did they have someone on the course handing you water and it was actually cups of water not bottles you can put on your bike. i took one and pretty much downed it. An actual bottle exchange would have been much better for the racers. There were actually water stops on the course but that is literally what you had to do get off your bike and stop at a station and get a cup of water. when i am racing even though i am not really in it to win it I won't take the time to do that. perhaps i should have but more about that later. They may have done this because teams were allowed to register team cars to support them on the course with bikes, wheels, food, etc. however, our team didn't do this and even if we did it wouldn't help the riders that are dropping off from the leaders anyway. Although I do have to admit that when your riding it feels kinda kool to see the team cars driving around you, feels like a real serious race! i had some issues from the start we got there on time but i guess we were screwing around too much instead of getting ready because i was getting myself ready during the race meeting and then when they started i was still at my car not on my bike in race. so i had to book it out of the parking lot and into the peloton! They asked the peloton to stay together for the first 3 miles and not "race" as we had a rolling escort out of the city by the police and to let people watch the race before we got out in the country. That being said we were clipping along at 3 minute miles so much for a warmup. 3 miles deep you hit your first category 4 climb and start to understand exactly what your in for the rest of the day. it was my first time trying to climb a hill with that many people around. it is a little different you can't necessarily take the path you want because there isn't the space to do so. this hill lasted for 3 miles so the group started to splinter in smaller sects of riders from there. I stayed with most of the race for the first 10 -15 miles then after that i pretty much only saw the riders around me. good news is i was passing other riders and not getting passed. It was a rough day on the bike for me. i am not good at nor used to that kind of climbing and my lower back was killing me for probably the last 15- 20 miles. the way i started the race i expected to be done in about 3 hours. ended up taking me 3:16. most of my passes initially came either on the descents or what flat sections there were. But by the end of the course even i was passing people on the climbs! I did feel good on the descents. there were probably a couple of sections i took a little too fast as the roads were wet. it rained before the race started, we started in a fog but that burned off to a sunny warm day. also not knowing the course there were turned off the descents that i was really ready for and i had to hit my brakes to make them kinda killing my momentum. One section of the course i was just hoping not to flat we had to ride through a loose stone road over a wooden plank covered bridge. I actually saw a few flats on the course but not many crashes. i hung on through the race as i was determined to take every climb. my knee was hurting when I was trying to stay in my saddle and pull up on my pedals when climbing. It was 3785 ft of climbing. Most of the climbs were long 2+ miles. There were also shorter hills in the course but those were a steep grade. i averaged 13.8 mph max speed was 42. I don't have HR data because my chest still has a friction burn on it and i can't wear my HR monitor yet. I am wishing it to heal up soon! the bad news of the ride is I ran out of water in about 2 hours. i only took 2 bottle with me. i considered taking a 3rd in my jersey but since i heard there was water on the course i thought i would just grab it on the course. As I mentioned above i made the decision not to stop. Probably not the best idea as i had a decent glaze going on from the heat and the climbing. I know i wasn't in my right head by the end of the race. I was light headed after it for a bit. I did take salt tablets and also some clif shot blocks. I didn't finish the 3 packets of shot blocks even though i was out there over there 3 hours and probably should have finished all 3 packets. I took in about 500 calories and burned 3415. My reason being they are gross and i probably wont use them again. Why? you had to chew them and they taste like candy. I am much happier with gel packets you can just swallow and be done with. i understand i have to fuel on to the go but i want it to be the least amount of time and effort as possible. I ordered myself more hammer gels last week and will be happy to be back to using them. so did I feel so wasted at the end because of my effort? not enough water? not enough food? or was it just that kinda day for me. The signage on the road was also really fun to read during the race. My favorite - as we finally hit out first flat the road read "Get some!" a lot of them were cute though, one of the climbs later in the race it read - riding bikes isn't so fun now! Or keep dancing on those pedals! A guy riding next to me said i am happy to still be clipped into my pedals. the crest of one of the biggest climbs read "oh the humanity!" the shirts for the race are cute too they read "the mon-tour - proof that nature can be cruel!" i finished the race and even sprinted to the finish, just for fun. i took a long cooldown coast afterwards because i felt like i didn't have the ability to dismount and not fall off my bike. post race my knee is bothering me. didn't have time to ice yesterday so I need to get back on that today.