stretching out

My swim today felt like one long stretching session.   I was conscious of my body’s alignment as I moved through the water and concentrated on enjoying each movement.  It felt like a meditation and I used the trick I figured out last time to keep track of laps.  My goal was to swim an easy mile.   As I am less than a month away from Wildflower, my training plan for the next month is to simply “go long”.   None of my distances will actually be incredibly long, but I will not be doing any more speed workouts since at this point they won’t help me.

The workout:

1600 yards

75 yds free, 25 yd breast stroke

75 yds free, 25 yd back stroke

alternate between the two for the entire workout

back on track

Whew!   It’s good to be almost home.  The past few weeks were alternately exhausting and restful and I came back to the states with a horrible allergic reaction rash.  I didn’t want to move yesterday but by today, it had almost disappeared so I felt a workout would be fine.   We went to my favorite YMCA- the NYC Westside YMCA just above Columbus Circle.  I was a member of this Y when I was in school and though the workout equipment has been upgraded, the gym has maintained its classic city vibe.   There are even still some of the same trainers and guys in the weight room.

I parked myself first on a star trac spinning bike and punched some buttons to find a preprogrammed workout.  This is the first time I’d seen one on this type of bike and I was curious.   Five minutes later I found myself spinning to terrible music, staring at a buff blond guy sitting on a spinning bike in the middle of a big blue void, looking like he was having the time of his life.  He continually instructed me to check my posture and crank up the resistance.  The screen also registered my RPM, asking me to maintain enough resistance to stay between 60 & 70 RPM.  Bored after some time of this workout, I hopped on the treadmill and decided to do a mini-brick.   Wildflower is just around the corner and I have never been more unprepared.  The goal of this next month will be to get myself to a high enough fitness level so as to finish the race not feeling miserable.  This means I need to work up from my current state of no biking all month to 25 miles, no swimming all month to a mile and running at the end of it all.  I am feeling most confident about the running and least about the biking but much can happen in a month and I’ll be extra careful to listen to my body so I don’t overdue it.

I am also adding in strength training.   This is not usually encouraged in the last month before a race, but as my focus is more long term at this point (my August wedding), I will add a bit each day.  Today I did arms a chest.

The workout:

20 minutes biking or spin bike,  rolling hills outside or medium-high resistance, RPM 60-70, HR zone 3, 6.1 miles

10 minutes easy run, 10 min/mile pace, 1 mile

strength training- arms and chest

3 X 10 reps each

pull-ups, dips, pushups…   I use the assisted pull up machine with three different arm positions for pull-ups, the same machine for dips and three varieties of pushups (on my knees, not full yet).  I do wide arm, chaturanga, and off-set pushups.  I just read about this one in Shape’s new Bride magazine (airplane reading!)

core exercises

Nikken Wellness:

jade greenzymes to begin every morning on the road or at home!

magnetic insoles to keep me awake and energized while I get over jetlag

triple brick

According to my Wildflower schedule, Mondays are supposed to be recovery days. Today I felt good and I knew that later in the week there would be less time for training, so I decided to go ahead and do something.  I left the house on my bike with clouds promising rain and returned from the pool, still on my bike, which shopping attached to the back, with clouds producing.  Now that I’m back home, the sun is trying to come out.  My triple brick was bike/shop (at Sportsbasement, of course)/swim.  I managed to get the speed limit sign flashing on my descent into the Presidio and push my bike through the mud on my way home, due to construction and lack of signs.  The swim in the middle was good, but the pool crowded because I was there during Masters.

The workout:

morning yoga

bike to and from pool and sportsbasement, average speed 9.5 mph, (max 34 mph), 8 miles

swim 1600 yds

100  warm up

6 x 25 swim, level 7

6 x 25 kick

600 swim, level 5

100 drills

300 swim, level 7

100 drills

100 warm down, mixed strokes

Nikken wellness:

greenzymes and pimag water to start the day

magsteps in my slippers for quicker recovery and warmer feet

kenkotherm knee and elbow wraps post workout