so i completed my first-ever brick workout today, and now i truly understand why the workout is called that. i rode for 45 minutes, put the bike into the garage and immediately started running. and i mean immediately because i was already about 30 feet away from the house when i realized that i still had my helmet on! oops. so with a sheepish grin, i headed back to the house, dropped off my helmet and set out again. the first thought i had was, "oh holy crap, what's wrong with my legs and when did my shoes start weighing 20 lbs each?" an email from my coach said that my legs should start to feel light at some point in the run. i swear that point never came.
i did enjoy the moment a little bit today though when i was stretching... because this workout was soooo hard. it totally kicked my ass. but i finished, even though i was seriously considering quitting the run the entire time. testament to how much it kicked my ass: i had to take a nap afterward. i promised myself a 15 minute power nap. it turned into an hour and a half.
for the past couple days, i'll be going about my business, and i'll think, "don't forget to post today." and the day would go on, and the next day right about 10am, i'll remember - argh! i forgot! that's happened for the past couple days. i hate that, when you try to remind your self to do stuff, and you remember that you have to remember... and then you forget. makes me think i'm getting old. something that i really do not want to think about. although... i have heard that the new 21 is 30! try telling that to anyone that's about 24. they'll pretty much laugh in your face. trust me. i've already had it happen.
oh yeah! how do you like the new design? i'm happy for the chestnut!
we did hills during our run today. we had a choice - either do a 3 mile run or a 5 mile run. i was planning to do the short run because my legs have been so dead this week. unfortunately, i had no idea where the turnaround was. so i just kept running and ended up doing the entire 5 mile hill run. good lord! that is the farthest i have EVER run, and we did it in less than an hour which is WAY fast for me. so, let's see, it was far, and it was fast. strangely enough though, i'm not really that tired right now. good sign, i guess.
of course, i can never really just enjoy the accomplishment of running so far and so fast today. i was actually disappointed because i was at the back of the pack, and practically the last to come in. it's my competitive nature, rearing its ugly head again. you'd think i could just learn to enjoy the moment.
i work on the second floor of my building. and there is only one women's bathroom (read one toilet) on this floor at the other end of the building. i guess i could go in the men's room, which i do sometimes, but they were both occupado when i walked over 15 minutes ago. so, i had to go downstairs where there are 3 bathrooms. ANYWAY, the reason why i lament the fact that there is only one toilet on my floor is because of this:
yesterday's swim workout:
200 warm up
4 x 75 skate down, easy free, free build
4 x 75 fist swim, easy free, free build
4 x 75 skate down, easy free, free build
5 x 50 free - count strokes down, reduce # of strokes by 1-2 back
50 warm down
total yards: 1400
AND this morning before work...
bike: 60 minutes
distance: however far it is between playa del rey and hermosa beach...and back
one mental note i made as i reached the manhattan beach/hermosa beach boundary line, "hey, that's donna and kelly's house." - from beverly hills 90210 :)
ps: today's is chris carter's wife's birthday. why do i know this? because i read somewhere that mr. carter made crazy things happen at 11:21 on the x-files to give a shout out to his wife on the show.
here's something that pisses me off. if you ask a question, the logical thing that should follow is the answer to your question, right?
so, i'm taking this flash class, and my project is to create a virtual travel diary chronicling joel and my major league baseball park visits over the years. the main page is a map of the united states with baseballs marking where major league ballparks are located. when you roll over the ball, the name of the park, the city and team name are displayed. you click on a ball, and it goes to that park's page.
one of my buttons requires the use of dynamic text, and i can't get it to work right. the instructor comes over and asks me a bunch of questions, gives me a few suggestions to fix it (all of which didn't work), then launches into a tirade about how my site design is really confusing, and she has no idea how to navigate it. the home button in the nav bar is in the wrong place. and are you SURE that your target audience is going to know where thay should click to visit a certain page? um, yes, my target audience (mainly joel, my brother, & ali) know that clicking on a baseball located in the northern part of california marked "san francisco giants, pacific bell park" will bring them to the san francisco giants, pacific bell park page. it's not rocket science, lady. besides, it's not my fault you're not familiar with the geography of the united states (i'm guessing she's originally from an eastern european nation based on her accent).
the question was: how do i fix my dynamic text?
the answer i received: your site design is absolutely dismal, and i have no idea where cities are in the united states.
so elizabeth asks me, "if you're bringing dessert for a hawaiian-themed party, what would your dessert be?" my answer, "a volcano cake." i thought i was making it up. turns out, i wasn't.
today's swim workout:
200 warm up
3 x 100 drills
8 x 50 swim
200 warm down
50 minutes!
1100 yards!
it's wrong when i'm running at night, and i can see my breath. good thing the run was only 20 minutes today.
so last night we went to sushi at this place joel and i go to regularly. it's called "california roll factory." it's tasty. there were 7 of us, and we ate a lot of sushi - and yet we had a couple of rolls left. one of which was two pieces of this roll called a "bread monster." this thing was a serious monster. the end piece was bigger than my hand. check it out. you have to see a picture of it.
after dinner we all went back to the house and played trivial pursuit. my team won despite not having the mensa member on our team! and the winning team got to designate who had to eat the end piece of the bread monster all at once. joel had to eat it! (look out mike. there's a new kid in town!) and hal decided that he would eat the other piece. there was laughter and good times all around.
the game ended a little after 1a, and this morning ruby and i went for a run in santa monica. we ran for 35 minutes. the run was really hard, but i was totally fine afterwards. but now, about an hour after the run, i am feeling it. my legs are SORE! i need to some rest, man. at least tomorrow is swimming - screw the kicking. tomorrow is all arms. :)
530p
so i just woke up from a three hour nap. it felt so good, but i think i slept for too long. you know that ooh-i-feel-like-crap-because-i-think-i-slept-for-too-long feeling? yeah, well, i have it.
so this week is dubbed a "build" week. we're just supposed to put in a slightly higher level of effort in our workouts. here's the "slightly higher" effort that we exerted during the coached swim thursday night:
200 warm up
4 x 50 drill down, freestyle back
4 x 75 skate, fingertip, easy free
4 x 100 skate, fingertip, easy free, build
2 x 75 skate, build x 2
100 warm down
total yds: 1350
so, here's how the practice went.
koach konrad: ok, everybody, do four 50's (that's two times across the pool).
kathy: (swim back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth)... hm, not really so bad.
koach konrad: great job! ok. now do four 75's.
kathy: (swim back and forth and back, back and forth and back, back and forth and back, back and forth and back)... gasping for air.
koach konrad: alright, really great job, guys. ok. now do four 100's. but on the last leg, i want you to do a gradual build so you are going at 75% of your race pace.
kathy: uh, what? so, you want us to swim across the pool 4 times with no rest in between and on the last leg, you want us to go faster. o...k... (swim back and forth and back and forth, back and forth and back and forth, back and forth and back and forth, back and forth and back and forth)... what was that about nausea?
koach konrad: wow, you guys are doing great. we're just adding on a little bit of yardage, so we're going to take it back down now. ok. do four 75's.
kathy: oh, holy crap. (swim back and forth and back, back and forth and back...)
koach konrad: actually you guys, let's just warm down now, we've tacked on a lot of yardage tonight, and i don't want to overdo it. just do an easy 100 warm down.
kathy: sure, that's easy after this. (swim back and forth and back and forth)
actually - i got to the swim a little late, and i missed the warm up, so take out that front 200, but still that's almost 3/4 of a mile. dude, that's far. i was super tired that night - probably also because i played a softball game earlier that day. (1 for 1!)
and that was thursday.
friday: i ran for 25 minutes in the morning. i was sleepy.
today: coached bike. so i show up all ready for nice bike workout. something that won't totally kill my legs because they are really sore from the softball, swimming and running. we were breaking up into 3 distinct groups - beginner, intermediate and advanced. so i join the intermediate group because, you know, it's intermediate, and they tell us that we are going to do the amalfi loop. good lord. that's what we ran last week. dude, there were hills. OH NO. we are doing hills. that's going to be easy on my legs. so about 5 minutes into the ride, my legs are BURNING. i couldn't believe i actually made it to the end. our total ride was only about 7 miles, but there were some crazy hills there. here's the route we took: down ocean around rustic canyon on amalfi, somehow we got to sunset blvd, then to 26th and back down san vicente. it was hard. those hills were crazy. and my quads are so sore. and tomorrow, we run.
so we did hills on our run saturday. as i ran by coach ian, he said, "good, you want to feel like there's a puppeteer pulling you up the hill with strings." i was huffing. sure could have used a puppeteer at that point. when we got to the top of the hills where we were running, we did a couple of sprints. THAT'S RIGHT. sprints. you know, run as fast as you can from here to there - BUT in perfect form.
then sunday, i had a 40 minute bike ride. not really sure how far i rode, but i rode from home to the beach along the beach and back. i'd say it was at least 8 miles...maybe.
and yesterday, swimming. for some reason, i can't seem to get the number of strokes it takes me to get from one end to the other end lower than 22. last thursday, i had it at 18!
today, i have a short run. i'll let you know how that goes tomorrow.
one parting shot - i need more sleep.
this was my work out for the week. ready?
monday: swim 25 minutes - easy!
tuesday: run/walk 1 mile - easy peasy!
wednesday: day off
thursday: swim 1000 yards - uh, what the...?
yeah, i swam more than 1/2 mile last night. in an outdoor pool. it was about 62 degrees outside. dude. no wonder i was so tired last night. needless to say, i had a good night's sleep.
luckily, today is another day off. this was a rest week. :)
next week... is not a rest week.