Good run

Felt rather tired (more insomnia last night - I think it was 2:30 before I could fall asleep, not dreadful but not great), and it was warmer than last week, but a pretty good run regardless.  Certainly I felt great once it was over!

7.75mi. (full loop plus lower loop), 1:22:00 total, 1:03:20 for loop (vs. slightly faster 1:02:57 last week, but it was cooler and we didn't go so far, so that's very similar); 10:34/mi.

Very keen to reestablish baseline of 20-mile run week.  After my final two races of the season, I'll simplify things in November by really just going down to running and yoga and a bit of spinning, then start triathlon proper in December once my semester finishes and the schedule opens up a bit.

Blissful morning of exercise

(Barring an overly crowded bike path home - waiting for weather to get colder so that path is less crowded on weekends!)

Hmmm, it is slightly comical, others are fitter but I am a teacher - I led our boot camp class today as G. was detained by another commitment!  Breakfast in the cafe, then an hour's spin (we did two 21-minute climbs, it was evilly good) and an hour of restorative yoga, which I love.

1hr boot camp
:55 spin (2 x 21min as [3 x 7min, first set seated-standing-seated, second set standing-seated-standing])
1hr restorative yoga
10 miles bike

Insomnia!

At 4:45, still completely awake, I got up and emailed boot camp leader to let him know that I wouldn't be in 7am class - really I napped too much yesterday morning, I was so tired I couldn't stop myself, and the anxiety about waking up for a very early alarm exacerbates existing tension.  Got about 4 hours of sleep in the end, felt awful when I first got up but better after I ate breakfast.  It was torrentially raining at mid-morning, and I wondered whether I was even going to make it downtown for my beloved spin class, but the rain cleared and I had a good session at Chelsea Piers.  Legs very fatigued from previous three days of working out, and subjectively felt a bit tired, but though I couldn't get HR up on seated intervals, it was normal on the standing intervals and recovery times didn't seem much different from usual.  Two more days of hard training and then I have a recovery week - I don't really like those, but in this case I am clearly ready for one!

(I then got absolutely drenched riding home - about to strip and put everything in the washing machine!  It is a huge luxury of my NYC apartment that I actually have my own rather than needing to use basement or laundromat - will never go back to that option...)

:50 spin
500 yards swim (3 x 100 breathing every 3, 5, 7; 2 x 100 IM, first one fly drill)
10 miles RT bike

Spin!

I was so sleepy this morning that I not only didn't get up in time to go to yoga, I also went back to bed for more dozing. Belatedly realized around 1 that I was feeling awful because I forgot to consume any caffeine! Skype workout with Lauren was excellent - just what I needed, feel fully awake for the first time all day.

1hr spin (10 x :15 sprint, alternating seated and standing, 4:45 rest)

Run/Beast/yoga

Ran down to Chelsea Piers (experimental - there are pros and cons, one con being that it uses up a lot of the vim that I really should save for boot camp! - I think my schedule is not so compressed that I need to make a habit of this, though the Golite backpack really is excellent, it fits a lot of stuff while being much smaller than my regular cycling one, which is fine for running short distances but which tends to seem a bit heavy on a longer one).  Boot camp class.  Shower and breakfast, then gentle yoga.  Now need to switch gears for the campusy part of the day!

55:32 run (c. 5.2mi.)
1hr boot camp
1hr gentle yoga

Hills!

I could not get the Wordsworth line out of my head - "BLISS was it in that dawn to be alive!" - perfect running weather!

1:09:03 (6.5mi, 10:37/mi.)

Loop times (1.41mi.):

14:29:78
14:47:91
14:16:14
(I didn't really get faster since last week, it's just that the weather was so much better!)

Best run ever!

Most glorious weather: I met Liz at Columbus Circle and we did the Central Park loop.

6.02mi, 1:02:53, 10:26/mi. pace (zone 2)

BMOE!

Blissful morning of exercise: boot camp, breakfast, spin and restorative yoga.  Now I am on the train to Philadelphia for my niece's third birthday party.  There will be cake...

Blissful day of exercise!

It's pretty much the perfect weather, too, though ironically all of my exercise was indoors - really I am one of life's natural-born inside people!  Took the subway early down to Chelsea Piers for 7am boot camp.  Got some reading done in the cafe during intervals.  9:30 yoga, 12:30 spin.  Spin and yoga both very good.  Beast class also good, only I really do not do a good job with this awful exercise of bear crawl pushing 25lb plates along the ground - today we had wrists and ankles shackled with bands which did not help!

1hr boot camp
1hr yoga
1hr spin

Spin!

I was feeling monumentally exhausted - fell asleep trying to get a head start on Monday's reading, though in retrospect getting into bed with the book was probably not such a good idea in the first place - and tempted to cancel the notional Skype spin date, but I was very glad Lauren talked me back into it!

work intervals as 8min, 12min, 12min with alternating splits of seated and standing at different work levels

1hr total (zones 1-3)

Yoga!

Highly beneficial 9am local yoga.  I think I am making it a regular feature of my Thursday mornings this semester, it seems a worthwhile indulgence.  I had an unrealistic and ambitious plan to get up really early and run first, but it took forever to fall asleep last night, and there was no way I was dragging myself out of bed in time - also, lots of lunges yesterday left muscles very sore.  Stretchy yoga is good for that!

1.5hr yoga

Beast!

Good exercise morning (now I need to refocus for afternoon teaching). 1hr Beast boot camp (much of it is the kind of thing I like and do regularly enough that it's fine, but there are a few things that are horrible when I go back for the first time - in particular, today, a low bear crawl on the track where we were also supposed to be pushing/pulling along 25lb plates with each hand, alternating going backwards and forwards - horrible!). A bit later, gentle yoga.

1hr boot camp
1hr gentle yoga

Benchmark hills!

DISGUSTINGLY humid. However, a very high-quality workout, all zone 2/3 and felt strong.

3 x upper loop (1.41mi) + 1.13mi. each way to park = c. 6.5mi.

Just using Timex Ironman watch and Suunto HR monitor - I need to get a new Garmin...

12:29 (to park)
27:20 (#1 14:51)
42:36 (#2 15:16)
57:24 (#3 14:48)
1:10:49 (13:25 home)

Spin!

The weather continues to be ridiculously beautiful, though that also means that the bike path on the way home from the gym is unpleasantly congested.  My legs felt tired in spin class, and I will take a rest day either tomorrow or Monday, haven't  yet decided (partly depends how I feel when I wake up tomorrow).

1hr spin
1hr restorative yoga
10 miles bike

Run!

Very lovely one too, though it was warmer than I imagined (pretty much 80, but low humidity, so not too bad). I decided that I am going to please myself today and do whatever exercise I want, i.e. run AND spin! I do need to get quite a bit of work done, as I'm going to a long opera in Brooklyn on Sunday afternoon that will knock that out as a work session...

Ran over to Central Park and did 2 x the little hilly upper loop - I am resolved to get over there more regularly, it's a good workout.

c. 5 miles

Yoga!

Extremely beneficial local yoga. Thursday morning at 9am is a good time for me to do a class - my teaching week always feels rather intense and is largely compressed into the Monday-to-Wednesday span, so this morning has slightly the feel of weekend, though of course I still have various campus things to do.

1.5hr yoga

Run!

Just a little one - first two miles easy, last mile harder

c. 3 miles (32:00)

9/11

It is always uncanny to have these beautiful clear blue skies on September 11.  I had a gorgeous run down to the Boat Basin and back, just very easy - benefit of doing a very long slow triathlon is that your legs aren't nearly as sore as they would be after racing a marathon...

c. 4 miles easy (46:00)

Best race day ever!

It is a remarkable race.  More beautiful scenery than you can possibly imagine; devastatingly gorgeous lake swims, trail runs often with nobody in sight and panoramic views across the Shawangunks.  ONE THOUSAND FEET OF CLIMBING in the last five miles of the bike course.  (That, I could do without!)  Then the bike's done and it's all running and swimming all the time, just how I like it.  Best of all, I made a new friend on the course - we raced together almost all day, as we were evenly paced on everything, and I hope we'll be able to find an endurance event next year that we can race together again.  Altogether glorious!

30mi bike, 4.5mi run, 1.1mi swim, 6.5mi (?) run, .6mi swim, 8.5mi run, .5mi swim, final precipitously steep CLIMB up to the Skytop Tower Shawangunk Ridge. c. 8:20?

Tiny run!

c. 2 miles easy

BDOE

Another blissful day of exercise! For various reasons that have to do with the different stages assorted work things are at, I am much more relaxed than usual about having true down-time; it is good. Didn't want to do too much, so rode my bike to Chelsea Piers and went to lovely "gentle yoga" class at 9:30 (I like this teacher a lot, haven't been to her class for a while - when I'm very busy, I prefer more bang-of-the-buck intense exercise classes! - but it's really a good one, and more in the spirit of mindful yoga than some of the very strenuous yoga classes will be), then had a short swim.

Walked over to the bike store and picked up some CO2 cartridges for myself and L. (she's flying, can't take 'em on the plane), a couple other bicycle-related sundries, then walked back over to the west side highway and rode my bike home. Lazy day!

I'll run 30 minutes easy tomorrow morning; L. and G. will pick me up in the car tomorrow afternoon around 2:30 and we'll drive to New Paltz. Hopefully it will be a great day - if course limits are strictly enforced, there is a chance I will get pulled, but I am resigned to that if it happens, and have promised myself I will take it with a good grace. I think they will be able to give us a bit of leeway, certainly that was how it worked last year...

10 miles bike
1hr gentle yoga
1000 yards swim (3 x 100 breathing every 3, 5, 7; 100 RaLaCuBa, 100 free; 4 x 100 drill-swim by 25 [thumbs-and-salute, front scull, fists, finger-drag]; 100 IM)

Run!

Nice little run, but I am SO ready for humidity and temperature to drop. It's disgusting out there, as if you could grab fists full of air and squeeze the water out of them with your bare hands!

c. 4 miles (some short pickups at the end), 43:00

Swim!

Very happy the pool is open again. Exercise volume sharply down now for race week - will try and have a couple more small technique-oriented swims before Sunday.

1200 yards

3 x 100 breathing every 3, 5, 7
4 x 100 odds drill evens free (RaLaCuBa)
3 x 100 drill-swim by 25 (front scull, fists, finger-drag)
200 IM (one-arm fly)

Blissful day of exercise!

Yesterday I was for some reason just phenomenally lazy (it was a bit muggy, and I couldn't persuade myself to get out the door for a run), but today I've had a blissful day of exercise again. Excellent Beast class, excellent spin.

10mi round trip bike
1hr Beast boot camp
.75hr spin

Blissful day of exercise!

Can't explain why I am so guiltlessly doing what I like all day, except as to say that I'm in state of suspension before school starts, hard to concentrate on other work and yet not a good deal to do for my classes, given they're both things I've taught before.  On list of things to be grateful for, let's put high up (1) the fact that I can chew on the right side of my mouth again for the first time since dental woes began in late July and (2) the copy shop has handed over to me the originals of the two course readers I had begun to fear I would have to reproduce from scratch! 

Rode my bike down to Chelsea Piers at 7:30 for notional 8am Beast, but G. was nowhere in sight, so I did a very good workout on the sand volleyball court with another "cadet" (the sort of hard workout I can't really force myself to do on my own but that is easy if there is someone else for me to boss around as well as myself!).  Had some breakfast in the cafe, then 10 am spin; left as stretching commenced, had super-swift shower and change into dry gear for 11am restorative yoga, which is more like a meditation class than an exercise class & which is freezingly cold if you're in sweat-soaked spin gear.  Then went for lunch at cheap lunch place and read an old Lee Child novel for a while back at the Chelsea Piers cafe (was leaving coast clear at home for the woman who cleans my apartment - she usually comes on a Tuesday, but had to do Saturday for some reason this week).

10 miles round-trip bike
1hr boot camp
1hr spin
1hr restorative yoga