Soreness, my old friend

Its a new month and I am finally starting off on the correct foot.

You can see where I am so far on my goals at the bottom of the site. I am considerably further thus far as compared to this time in previous months. I have taken off almost as many days as I have trained, but I am finally starting to put in more honest and complete training sessions.

Yesterday was my long run day. I was aiming for 9+ miles on the treadmill since it was so so so windy outside, I only managed 6.4 miles. I learned that those technical "dri-fit" shirts that sell for way too much money or you get from races are actually very important.

I ran in an old softball shirt yesterday and I could tell a difference by mile 2. The shirt was so heavy and compressive due to the sweat. I felt as though I was wearing a weight vest. Also, wet cotton does not perform heat transfer efficiently... aka. I was hotter than hell. I definately ws overheated by mile 5 and by the end of my 60min on the treadmill I thought I was actually going to hurl. I was lightheaded, felt major pressure in my head and couldn't walk very well.

Lesson learned.

Thankfully I was fine. Im sure if I would have tried to restart the treadmill for another 3-4 miles I would've been sick or passed out. I probably need to pay more attention to my clothing choices when I run at the Y. There are only a couple fans for the entire gym there and it gets very hot. I should also try and focus on eating something full of carbs an hour before I leave work now that I am pushing my distance up.

I cooled myself down in the pool with 750yds before they shut down for a safety break at 6pm. I could feel the soreness as soon as I got off the treadmill in my lower calves. This pain has only become worse as the day went on. Im currently wearing my CEP compression sleeves to work for the day. It is truly amazing what these sleeves will do for my legs, I love science!

Today I am going to work on making some adjustements to my bike trainer and re-aligning my aero bars on my bike, then its a bike session since it is so nasty cold and rainy outside. I found a good interval workout for the trainer that I downloaded into my Garmin watch last week that I will try out. I'm sure Gracie will be glad that I am coming home instead of going to the gym today as well.

Heres my bike set up on the new trainer. I still need to finish adding shelves and setting up the workout room but it is finally getting there. Just added some OSU orange curtains that really spice up the room.

OH the weather outside is... weather

Welp, I didn't make my enhanced goals for February, (50 mile run, 6 hour bike, 8 mile swim). I could have gotten there if I did not take a week off when we adopted our new dog/hopeful-training partner Gracie.

 

She says hi.

I am going to try and meet the same goals again. The weather is finally starting to get nice outside and the days are getting longer. I am finding myself running out of excuses not to go outside and run or bike. I was actually able to get the bike outside and ride around Lake Draper last week. It felt great and reminded me how much I hate the Oklahoma wind.

Just in time for all this nice weather I have finally purchased a bike trainer. I know, Im dumb, but it was on sale... and I am a sucker for sale ads that list anything over 60% off in my email. It will be nice going into next fall, and for the days when its too windy or I just do not want to try and fight traffic to get to a lake. I can tell a huge difference though in my percieved efforts though, it feels like I am biking through wet sand.

As for my runs, I have increased my long run day to 9 miles. I am a little shocked to see how well my legs are coping with the longer distance, but I am not upset at all. I can tell a large difference though in how my feet feel in my new race shoes compared to my older sets of shoes. It seems like upgrading in January was the right time.

Lastly, I have finally increased my swimming days to over 1 mile in the pool. I have found that when I focus on intervals of 250m or more, I can find a balance between boredom and soreness and spend more time in the pool. I have been trying to focus on my form alot more in the recent weeks, instead of my speed. I know its all in my head at this point, but I feel like I can lay down some speed in the pool already, I just need to be more efficient at doing so.

Just a couple more weeks before my season begins with the March in Okarche Duathlon. I am extremely nervous as this is my first race with the TriOKC group, and my first Du. I just need to keep my head down, focus on expanding my workouts on the bike and getting outside more, and I will be fine. Hopefully I can train some confidence into myself over the next couple weeks.

I will get the graphs updated at the bottom to March's tomorrow, and  be sure to watch the sidebar for my current races that I am signed up for. I will be posting more often now, and plan to start writing about some of the equipment that I use and have used, as well as posting more pictures from training and races. 

Its going to be a fun ride this year.