Spin/swim!

I was really discouraged on Wednesday and Thursday; I got up early both days in order to exercise and then just couldn't get myself out of the house, and was too tired (and hot!) by later in the day to make it happen then either. Really this means that I am too tired and should take the day off, but I felt very glum, both due to lacking beneficial effects of exercise and to thinking that I am an idiot to think I should train for an Ironman when I don't even want to get out of the house for a short run!

However I had a Long Sleep last night, didn't set the alarm and let myself sleep as long as I needed (11 hours), and I felt glorious when I got up - full of energy and keen on the idea of triathlon again. Rode my bike down to Chelsea Piers for Joanna's midday spin - super-glad to be back in there, I love that class - and then had a very nice swim afterwards too.

Dropping my bike near Penn Station for tomorrow's ride was a pain in the ass, partly because they were disorganized (tell cyclists they can drop off their bikes from 3 to 7, then don't even set up the registration table until 3:30, and you will have many very grumpy riders) but also because it was SO BLOODY HOT! Standing in blazing sun on an exposed midtown sidewalk with the heat radiating up off of it is not enjoyable - I downed a 20-oz. bottle of water once I'd finally got to the front of the line (it was more than an hour's wait) and another 20-oz. bottle of Gatorade before I got on the subway, now on my second can of seltzer.

Tomorrow's ride is going to be warm but very flat, I will bail if I really and truly overheat or have mental cycling breakdown but I'm optimistic that it will be OK. Early start tomorrow - 4:30am rendezvous at Penn Station....

My swim set was lovely - in this weather swimming is the best, the feeling of cool water on skin is very calming. I did a little set that I saw here (I am keen to do the 4 x 600 main set also, but today was not the day).

Warmup: 100 swim, 100 pull, 100 kick

5 x 100 (1) 100 free (2) 25 fly 75 free (3) 50 back 50 free (4) 75 breast 25 free (5) 100 free
5 x 100 (1) 100 free (2) 25 breast 75 free (3) 50 back 50 free (4) 75 fly (!) 25 free (5) 100 free
200 flutter kick with every fourth length whip

Lovely!

:55 spin (2 x 10min climb)
1500 yards swim

Home run

Very happy to be back at home. Keen to be TRAINING properly, but my lungs are not quite right, I think they never quite got 100% after that thing early in the month & then travel, missed sleep, allergies, etc. kept 'em vulnerable. Weather forecast for this week is truly dreadful - it is supposed to be 90 and humid for entire second half of the week. I will consider this week 0 of triathlon training....

1hr, 6mi

Belated brief run report

Rewarding but tiring day attending wedding things. Did get out for brief run in the morning, and the weather has totally turned (more imp for wedding than for running!): brisk but sunny earlier, and then turned into absolutely lovely day. Just did 30 min. out and back, I would say 3mi. (I was running with B., which makes me keep my pace and cadence up - my huffing and puffing system is clearly not quite as it should be, need to make it a priority to see that lung doctor when I am back in NYC).

.5hr, c. 3mi.

Run!

Just a short one - the weather is dreadful, freezing cold and pouring rain (hands and arms so cold as I write this that I can hardly type properly). We didn't get out this morning (stayed out too late last night having drinks with friends and family!) but it seemed to me worthwhile at least to have a short slow one - pavement very slippery and covered with huge puddles...

35 min., c. 3+mi.

Spin/swim!

That was lovely: exercise v. beneficial. We are staying at a nice but no-frills hotel, no fitness center, but there is an expensive but absolutely beautiful one next door. Not cheap for a day pass, but worth every penny!

1hr spin
1000m swim (a beautiful 25m lane pool that I had entirely to myself - not quite as elegant as the one at the Hyatt in Buenos Aires, which really was the pinnacle of hotel pools, but absolutely fully 100% amazing for a workout (300 warmup with free every third length back, 100 fly drill, 100 breast drill-swim by 25; 5 x 100 as odds free evens IM)

Short run

Nice but scant - we were shooting for an hour, found a good path along the south side of the Thames from our hotel at London County Hall - but I had mild digestive woes and had to find a bathroom around the half-hour mark, and by the time I had located one and used it, it seemed counterintuitive to fire things back up again. Jet lag and general discombobulation has made it difficult to exercise, but it is a priority to get in at least some short bits over the next couple days....

.5hr, c. 3mi

The puddle club

Spinervals 42.0: Quads on Fire. I like this one, though I really have to do it at lower effort levels than Coach Troy recommends. I did the first long intervals at top of zone 3/zone 4 and found myself questioning my motivation to stay on the bike, so I eased off for the next set!

2 x 12min z3/4, 2:00 recovery

2 x 8min z3, 1:30 recovery

2 x 6min z3/4, 1:00 recovery

3 x 1:00 all out, 1:00 recovery

1.5hr

Total volume for the week (really five days, as I skipped Thursday altogether and probably won't do anything tomorrow after I get to London, barring perhaps a bit of a walk or an easy run), just over 7.5hr - not great, but acceptable. I had imagined having a large-volume week, but the combination of coming off the respiratory ailment plus need to finish book manuscript limited my ability to get it done; I think the transition from NYC to Cayman also takes a while to get used to (really there are great opportunities here for fitness, but my New York routine is a little easier and more comfortable). I rather wish I was just flying HOME now, but since I am going to another country, it is very nice that B. is coming with me!

Swim!

Very nice masters swim this morning. Really masters swim is probably my favorite thing other than running - it is good. Got some useful stroke advice from the coach - the sight of my flat left arm smacking down into the water was enough to prompt him to get me out of the pool and give me some coaching on deck! It is the fault of the flat freestyle I learned in the 1970s, plus the fact that I'm so much a rightie - if I really concentrate, I can get it right, but in general my pull on that side is much worse than on the right.

Can't say exactly what we did to start, it was bits and bobs (I was a little late getting over there - it seemed more trouble than it was worth to dig my bike out from behind things, but it's a longer walk than I quite remember), let's say 1600m total. I didn't exercise this week nearly as much as I'd hoped, but it was for the good reason that I have been working very hard on book revisions - hoping to get new version to my editor before I leave tomorrow evening for London.

Misc. drill, including some kick and some 75s as one-arm, catch-up, technique swim

Main set: 6 x 150 descending in pairs (3:16, 3:13; no time, 3:08; 3:03, 3:00)

c. 1600m

Hot yoga

That was good. Not surprisingly, the 75-minute class gives a much better approximation of the 90-minute than the 60-minute one can do.

1.25hr hot yoga

Swim!

Very happy to have finally had what I call a really good day of exercise! 1hr evening masters swim at Camana Bay.

Warmup: 400m

Preliminary set: 3 x (4 x 25 free) (1) catch-up (2) fast breakout (3) fast finish (4) sprint second half

Main set: 12 x 50 on 1:15 as 2 fast, 1 slow; 12 x 50 on 1:15 as 1 fast, 2 slow

100 cooldown

2000 meters

Hot yoga!

Just the 1hr class - it is awkwardly truncated, but really it was quite enough, I haven't been doing enough hot yoga to retain heat acclimation! Obviously there is such a thing as Bikram yoga in London, but I think that I will be better off concentrating my resources there on getting some triathlon sessions in. I'll hope to hit some more hot classes here this week before we travel on Saturday.

1hr hot yoga

Warm little run!

I should really have done an hour, but I don't have good heat acclimation! Now, at 7:30, it's 81F and 83% relative humidity - really if I want to do the full hour, I need to get out the door earlier than 6:30 (ugh) and also with more than just one small bottle of water. Live and learn - very good to be running again, nevertheless, after more than a week's layoff. My Garmin isn't working properly - yesterday it had low battery, so I thought I'd recharged overnight, but it was still giving the low battery message this morning, and then it froze on the screen where you change sports - need to look online to see if there is an obvious way to reset.

44:45, c. 4+mi., zone 2 (on feel)

Back in the saddle

Huge relief to be able to exercise again! Lungs still weren't quite right yesterday, though much better, but today I figured it was time to give it a go. Ugh, that was not the week I'd imagined having - though it must be said that it was a very good week in all sorts of other respects, so I shouldn't complain.

Tomorrow I'll run first thing in the morning (it will be somewhat horrible as I have little heat acclimation), midday yoga, evening masters swim as B. has a triathlon committee meeting. (Usually Tuesday evening is sacrosanct - steak night at Fidel Murphy's!)

1hr spin (3 x :15 sprint, 1:45 recovery, with 5:00 set rest)

Frustration!

It was premature to return to hot yoga - after 10 minutes, as we reached the so-called "awkward series," I realized I should call it a day and go home! Frustration - I think I will need tomorrow 'properly' off too (unless there is a gentle yoga class of some sort), what a waste of a week...

Update

Made it to Cayman safely, but the inevitable consequence of Sunday's anxiety/wheezing situation is that I now have a minor lung ailment. Don't think I should swim tomorrow morning, alas, but if I feel the same or slightly better, I think I'll go to 10:30am hot yoga. This is frustrating, but all part of the learning process I suppose. Interesting to have such an incredibly clear demonstration of how the kind of respiratory strain that comes with anxiety-triggered asthma on top of strenuous physical exertion produces inflammation and then infection.