It's 3:30 and I can't go to sleep. Which is most irksome - I know I shouldn't be on the computer, either, but I realized that at this point I am not going to be able to go to boot camp and I wanted to email the instructor in advance to apologize.
Sleepless nights are the main bane of my existence! It was too tiring a week, that's the trouble - it stirs me up rather than helping me to go to sleep in any sensible fashion.
There are 2 alternatives in terms of classes at Chelsea Piers that I can do to 'make up the work' I'll miss - will see when I do finally get some sleep and what order I need to fit work obligations in, then decide which to go to. Will hope to get there for the noon sequence, if I can get a couple things done first uptown...
Friday, January 21, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Wednesday swim
A nice one, too - I am certainly swimming pretty slowly, but it is good to be back in the pool.
(Really it was a great morning - I had breakfast and coffee in the cafe at Chelsea Piers and wrote the day's quota on the novel draft, then swam, then stopped at Chelsea Market for a bit of sushi and took the subway back uptown. Gotta get my act together for my 2:40 lecture now - it's the opening class, better start with a bang! It is one of my few regrets about my New York life that I live so far uptown; I live in faculty housing that is considerably cheaper and more spacious than anything I could find on the open market in Manhattan or large swatches of Brooklyn, but if I could choose any neighborhood to live in and money were no object, I would be living in the west 20s, so Chelsea Piers is a particularly good home away from home.)
Warmup: 200 free, 100 IM kick, 200 free, 100 IM drill, 200 free, 100 IM swim
6 x 150, odds IM no free and evens free
(This was strenuous!)
100 drill-swim by 25 (finger-drag)
100 easy back
2000 yards total
(Really it was a great morning - I had breakfast and coffee in the cafe at Chelsea Piers and wrote the day's quota on the novel draft, then swam, then stopped at Chelsea Market for a bit of sushi and took the subway back uptown. Gotta get my act together for my 2:40 lecture now - it's the opening class, better start with a bang! It is one of my few regrets about my New York life that I live so far uptown; I live in faculty housing that is considerably cheaper and more spacious than anything I could find on the open market in Manhattan or large swatches of Brooklyn, but if I could choose any neighborhood to live in and money were no object, I would be living in the west 20s, so Chelsea Piers is a particularly good home away from home.)
Warmup: 200 free, 100 IM kick, 200 free, 100 IM drill, 200 free, 100 IM swim
6 x 150, odds IM no free and evens free
(This was strenuous!)
100 drill-swim by 25 (finger-drag)
100 easy back
2000 yards total
BEAST week 1 (Wednesday)
Yesterday turned out to be a hole-up-at-the-computer-and-finish-syllabus day; I was running slightly late and just didn't quite make it out the door for swim practice, alas.
Boot camp this morning was very good; it is perhaps slightly too big a group, you end up with a bit of standing around when there are things you have to take turns to do, but it is more economical than hiring a trainer and yet offers some of the same kinds of accountability. There is an extra session on Saturday morning for testing of various kinds, including a timed 1.5 mile run - this is good, as I'm seeing a play in Brooklyn in the afternoon and wasn't going to be able to go to the Saturday morning TNYA practice anyway.
1hr. boot camp
Boot camp this morning was very good; it is perhaps slightly too big a group, you end up with a bit of standing around when there are things you have to take turns to do, but it is more economical than hiring a trainer and yet offers some of the same kinds of accountability. There is an extra session on Saturday morning for testing of various kinds, including a timed 1.5 mile run - this is good, as I'm seeing a play in Brooklyn in the afternoon and wasn't going to be able to go to the Saturday morning TNYA practice anyway.
1hr. boot camp
Monday, January 17, 2011
Monday spin
Only a single, not a double - I invited guests, and it would have been antisocial! Lauren, Liz, Craig and I went afterwards for Thai food at Chelsea Market; it was very pleasant.
50min. spin
50min. spin
BEAST week 1 (Monday)
It is going to be very good - some of the things are horrible and I am terrible at them, others don't seem too bad (obviously I am better at things that require strength than agility - like, hitting a tire with a sledgehammer is much preferable to doing burpees or other suchlike exercises for time...).
Much of the class was spent in bare feet on the sand of the volleyball courts, which gives a playful albeit strenuous air to the proceedings!
1hr. strength (which is not what it is exactly, but Buckeye Outdoors does not have a 'boot camp' alternative)
Much of the class was spent in bare feet on the sand of the volleyball courts, which gives a playful albeit strenuous air to the proceedings!
1hr. strength (which is not what it is exactly, but Buckeye Outdoors does not have a 'boot camp' alternative)
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Sunday double spin
It is good - I am just going to do this 3x a week for the next 7-8 weeks and it will be the best possible way of getting ready for Ironman training. I had my Garmin with me today - it doesn't talk to the spin bike, but as long as it talks to itself, that's fine...
Total 2:02 (avg HR 133, max HR 155)
broken down as follows:
warmup (7:31, avg HR 109)
class #1 (42:24, avg HR 135)
interclass (20:41, avg HR 125)
warmup (6:05, avg HR 123)
class #2 (44:40, avg HR 140)
HR zones: zone 1 (40:01), zone 2 (47:20), zone 3 (22:46), zone 4 (5:24)
Imaginary Distance Units: 50.5
Total 2:02 (avg HR 133, max HR 155)
broken down as follows:
warmup (7:31, avg HR 109)
class #1 (42:24, avg HR 135)
interclass (20:41, avg HR 125)
warmup (6:05, avg HR 123)
class #2 (44:40, avg HR 140)
HR zones: zone 1 (40:01), zone 2 (47:20), zone 3 (22:46), zone 4 (5:24)
Imaginary Distance Units: 50.5
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Wednesday double spin
OK, this is good. You set yourself up for failure if you make goals that require too much willpower, but doing the double spin class requires roughly the right amount, i.e. I have to make myself get out of the house and get on the subway, and I have to resist the moderately strong temptation to leave after the first class finishes and go for a swim instead of doing the second hour of spin, but both temptations can be fairly readily overcome...
In terms of getting ready to train for Ironman, I think that doing the 2-hour spin three times a week is probably almost the single best thing I can do - boot camp starts next week, so if I put boot camp (3 mornings a week) plus three double spin classes as my absolute basic obligation, with running and swimming as extras on top, I think that will be about right. I am guessing I will have to miss a boot camp now and again if I have had a very sleepless night (if I am not asleep by 2am, it is simply not sensible to get up at 5:45, the time is better spent in bed), but I can make a missed one up by going to some other class instead.
2hr. spin
In terms of getting ready to train for Ironman, I think that doing the 2-hour spin three times a week is probably almost the single best thing I can do - boot camp starts next week, so if I put boot camp (3 mornings a week) plus three double spin classes as my absolute basic obligation, with running and swimming as extras on top, I think that will be about right. I am guessing I will have to miss a boot camp now and again if I have had a very sleepless night (if I am not asleep by 2am, it is simply not sensible to get up at 5:45, the time is better spent in bed), but I can make a missed one up by going to some other class instead.
2hr. spin
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
TNYA workout!
I was feeling very chilly and sleepy just beforehand, and also aware of how horrible it would be to swim a real workout after how little I've swum in the last six months - but the atmosphere at the One-Hour Swim the other day was so morale-boosting, and it was so good to see teammate Kent, that I concentrated on how much I like swimming with him and how annoyed I would be with myself if I copped out of the very first workout I had planned to attend! And I was very glad I went - it wasn't at all bad, I was slow but my aerobic fitness is certainly up to swimming a reasonably hard workout, and we had a nice mix in the lane.
Now let us just see if I can remember what we did, I am out of the habit...
Warmup (slightly curtailed): 200 free, 200 IM easy (fly drill)
8 x 50 as free down, stroke back on 1:05 (I had to take an extra few seconds' breather after the second fly one, though!), 2 of each stroke in IM order
Main set:
200 free on 4:10
4 x 25 stroke IM order on :45
2 x 200 free on 4:10
4 x 25 stroke IM order on :45
3 x 200 free on 4:10
(I had to skip a couple of 50s in that last set, the fastest 2 swimmers were lapping me and then once you pause to let them pass it is fatal trying to catch back up! But after I skipped a 50 on #1 and #2 of that third set, I was fine to finish the last one on the interval - I think with a more evenly paced group I would probably have been just about OK for it, though certainly don't mind having slightly more rest...)
4 x 25 choice on :45 (I did fly, back, fly, back)
8 x 50 free as 25 free sprint on :20, 25 free easy on :40 - honestly for me this was more like 400 as hard-easy, I did not get much of a breather at all! I did the last two fly-breast as we had fallen off the interval and were just finishing up a last little bit of leftover time.
I think this is about right, anyway - let us call it 2550, that is a highly respectable start to what I hope will be a great year of swimming!
Now let us just see if I can remember what we did, I am out of the habit...
Warmup (slightly curtailed): 200 free, 200 IM easy (fly drill)
8 x 50 as free down, stroke back on 1:05 (I had to take an extra few seconds' breather after the second fly one, though!), 2 of each stroke in IM order
Main set:
200 free on 4:10
4 x 25 stroke IM order on :45
2 x 200 free on 4:10
4 x 25 stroke IM order on :45
3 x 200 free on 4:10
(I had to skip a couple of 50s in that last set, the fastest 2 swimmers were lapping me and then once you pause to let them pass it is fatal trying to catch back up! But after I skipped a 50 on #1 and #2 of that third set, I was fine to finish the last one on the interval - I think with a more evenly paced group I would probably have been just about OK for it, though certainly don't mind having slightly more rest...)
4 x 25 choice on :45 (I did fly, back, fly, back)
8 x 50 free as 25 free sprint on :20, 25 free easy on :40 - honestly for me this was more like 400 as hard-easy, I did not get much of a breather at all! I did the last two fly-breast as we had fallen off the interval and were just finishing up a last little bit of leftover time.
I think this is about right, anyway - let us call it 2550, that is a highly respectable start to what I hope will be a great year of swimming!
Monday, January 10, 2011
Spun out to dry!
It would not be an exaggeration to say that I was thrilled earlier today when I really pondered the implications of the class schedule at the new cycle studio at Chelsea Piers. It's now the case that on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings as well as on Saturday (this was always the case, but it was the only one) and Sunday mornings you can get a two-hour block of spinning by taking back-to-back classes.
THIS IS GOOD.
I was talking with Liz yesterday about my continued uncertainty about whether I can really pull off IMCd'A this year (today I am thinking that yes, I can and I must, even if it is a down-to-the-wire last-minute finish - I don't want to pull out of another Ironman race, even if I am really looking at a bare finish rather than, say, a more ambitious sub-15:00 or sub-14:00 goal), and she was strongly recommending that I enroll for the NYCC's SIG cycling course, the one I flaked out of two years ago due to excessive anxiety. I think I am now past having that level of anxiety, though riding over the GWB still seems like a trouble spot; but much more problematic is the HORRIBLE ALL-DAY NATURE of that style of riding, and the enforced socialization in the intervals where one stops for meals! I thought about it, and I thought that truly the sort of jolly lunch or jolly snack that one has to have when riding with a group of 15 people one doesn't know well is so horrible to me (I can do that sort of conversation quite well, but it takes a lot of out me!) that I absolutely cannot do it - I thought that there must be some other way...
So I am now committed to finding a way to do adequate long rides outdoors on my own (or with Liz or Lauren if I can rope 'em in!); but this thing of the 2-hour spin session is going to be fantastic in the meantime, and for midweek riding even once I'm training properly. Another snowstorm is forecast for tomorrow, clearly I am not going to be doing any outdoor riding in the immediate future, but this sort of session is going to be a very good way to build some basic bike fitness and get back into shape...
2hrs. spin
THIS IS GOOD.
I was talking with Liz yesterday about my continued uncertainty about whether I can really pull off IMCd'A this year (today I am thinking that yes, I can and I must, even if it is a down-to-the-wire last-minute finish - I don't want to pull out of another Ironman race, even if I am really looking at a bare finish rather than, say, a more ambitious sub-15:00 or sub-14:00 goal), and she was strongly recommending that I enroll for the NYCC's SIG cycling course, the one I flaked out of two years ago due to excessive anxiety. I think I am now past having that level of anxiety, though riding over the GWB still seems like a trouble spot; but much more problematic is the HORRIBLE ALL-DAY NATURE of that style of riding, and the enforced socialization in the intervals where one stops for meals! I thought about it, and I thought that truly the sort of jolly lunch or jolly snack that one has to have when riding with a group of 15 people one doesn't know well is so horrible to me (I can do that sort of conversation quite well, but it takes a lot of out me!) that I absolutely cannot do it - I thought that there must be some other way...
So I am now committed to finding a way to do adequate long rides outdoors on my own (or with Liz or Lauren if I can rope 'em in!); but this thing of the 2-hour spin session is going to be fantastic in the meantime, and for midweek riding even once I'm training properly. Another snowstorm is forecast for tomorrow, clearly I am not going to be doing any outdoor riding in the immediate future, but this sort of session is going to be a very good way to build some basic bike fitness and get back into shape...
2hrs. spin
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Not an actual swim
but I had a good experience earlier on today: I went and counted laps for some swimmers in Team New York Aquatics' One-Hour Swim. I've signed up for a slot on Jan. 30, a good prompt to get back in the pool - but the prospect of going to Chelsea Piers this evening for a swim has been closed off by printer error - tried to print out my new masters swim membership card, after renewing that membership, only to realize that one of the many casualties of six months away is that my computer no longer seems to want to talk to my printer, and now I have wasted more than an hour wrestling with it! Arghhhh, I have tried everything I can, I am at my wit's end - it has put me thoroughly out of the frame of mind to write my daily quota of novel words, though the only thing that will now relieve the feeling of being irked is to reach the 1000-word total! Have written about 150, that is a start - back to that now, I think...
Short Sunday run
It was impossible to drag myself out of bed! I have been ridiculously tired these last few days, to the point of it seeming not just unlikely but actively unwise to try and do anything strenuous; but I was determined to run this morning.
I talked myself out the door with the promise that it could be as short a run as I wanted, so long as I ran in the first place; and in fact I was woefully underdressed, I forgot what it's like running in the 20s, the newness of my transition from tropical climes meant that I had much too much water and much too little clothing!
But running in cool weather is so lovely - I ran down to the 79th St. boat basin (the new path along the river makes this a shorter run than it used to be, now that one no longer has to detour) - it is beautiful out there, and frigid, which gives me a much better proportion of cardiovascular to leg effort than I get in warm humid weather!
c. 3.53 miles, 37:23, avg. pace 10:35, avg HR 150
I talked myself out the door with the promise that it could be as short a run as I wanted, so long as I ran in the first place; and in fact I was woefully underdressed, I forgot what it's like running in the 20s, the newness of my transition from tropical climes meant that I had much too much water and much too little clothing!
But running in cool weather is so lovely - I ran down to the 79th St. boat basin (the new path along the river makes this a shorter run than it used to be, now that one no longer has to detour) - it is beautiful out there, and frigid, which gives me a much better proportion of cardiovascular to leg effort than I get in warm humid weather!
c. 3.53 miles, 37:23, avg. pace 10:35, avg HR 150
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Session #20
My last session with Carla.
It has been very good working with her - I still need to crack down on unhealthy eating (November and December were pretty terrible that way, given a lot of travel and a lot of visitors - restaurant meals galore...), but I feel like I've made a good start on rebuilding lost fitness.
We started out with some fairly demanding boot-camp-style stuff, since I had sent her the link for the 8-week boot camp class ("The Beast") I am going to do at Chelsea Piers starting on Jan. 17. (More description here.) I'm signed up for the 7am class MFW, which will be a bit of a strain on the system but which is the best way to make it happen. I am ready to work very hard!
It has been very good working with her - I still need to crack down on unhealthy eating (November and December were pretty terrible that way, given a lot of travel and a lot of visitors - restaurant meals galore...), but I feel like I've made a good start on rebuilding lost fitness.
We started out with some fairly demanding boot-camp-style stuff, since I had sent her the link for the 8-week boot camp class ("The Beast") I am going to do at Chelsea Piers starting on Jan. 17. (More description here.) I'm signed up for the 7am class MFW, which will be a bit of a strain on the system but which is the best way to make it happen. I am ready to work very hard!
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Session #19
An excellent (and extremely strenuous!) session with Carla. There is a slight Monday-morning feel here today in Cayman, due to yesterday's holiday, and I too felt like I was coming back after a bit too much of a break; we did some leg press and lunges at the end that left my legs trembling with fatigue as I walked down the stairs from the gym!
1hr. strength
1hr. strength
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Saturday bike!
On the principle of starting the year as I mean to go on, and due to the blessed fact that traffic is much, much lighter than usual due to the holiday, I went out this afternoon for an honest-to-god real bike ride! I have done this ride before with others, but never by myself, so it is a nice little (very minor) milestone to mark the beginning of the riding year. I have to ride a lot this year...
I rode out to Bodden Town (turned around at the Texaco station there, at the 1-hour mark); it was somewhat arduous, due to heat and headwind, but not unpleasantly so, and the ride back was much quicker, with the wind at my tail and a slightly faster alternate route for the last bit of the ride when I missed the usual turnoff.
It was a genuinely enjoyable ride!...
1:44:24, 25.73 miles, avg. speed 14.8mph, avg. HR 139, max. HR 149
I rode out to Bodden Town (turned around at the Texaco station there, at the 1-hour mark); it was somewhat arduous, due to heat and headwind, but not unpleasantly so, and the ride back was much quicker, with the wind at my tail and a slightly faster alternate route for the last bit of the ride when I missed the usual turnoff.
It was a genuinely enjoyable ride!...
1:44:24, 25.73 miles, avg. speed 14.8mph, avg. HR 139, max. HR 149
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