Hard swim workout: 2700 meters

Last night's swim was pretty hard so I thought I'd share the love :) The hard part is the longer sets because they are done with a bit of intensity. Allow some recovery time (30-60 sec) after the sets of 25.
Warm up: 300 swim, 50 kick, 150 pull
300 swim, 100 kick, 100 stroke (non-free), 50 drill (total 1050 m)
Main: 400 free build (get a little faster each lap, ugh!)
2x25 (your worst stroke)
300 free as 50 fast/50 slow
4x25 free (:45)
200 IM
6x25 (your best stroke) :45
100 fast!!!!! (I managed 1:30)
8x25 kick: odds fast, evens easy (or all slow if you kick like me)
(Total: 1500)
Cool down: 150 easy choice

Stupid daydreaming

Pretty much the biggest distraction in my work day is when I start daydreaming about racing. For example, today I am thinking about the Age Group National Championships in Tuscaloosa. The Lake to Lake triathlon I'm doing is a regional qualifier. If I finish in the top third of my age group, I'm qualified. I did the race in 2005 and finished 9/40, and last year finished 12/38 (even though my time was faster!), so I would have qualified both years. But I expect there to be more competition this year since the race is a regional championship. But I also should be faster with all of this distance training! Regardless, I don't see how I could do an Olympic faster than 2:50, and the people who win these races on a national level do it about 30 minutes faster than that. So I wouldn't even be going to Nationals to compete for a win, but it would still be kind of exciting. Plus it is close to home (Georgia) and maybe I could convince some friends or family to come cheer me on. That would make it worth the trip. ...sigh... Back to work!

And we're off! The fundraising 411.

If you've been reading this you know my second big goal for this half ironman (other than completing it!) is to raise some money for Faith Alive clinic in Jos, Nigeria. It is an amazing place run by an amazing man. Today I am excited to officially kick off my fundraising. Global Strategies is the hosting/founding organization for Faith Alive and will be handling the money. You can donate at: http://www.globalstrategies.org/donate.html and mark "Anna Harper" or "Faith Alive" in the comments section.

Small donations can go a long way in preventing and treating HIV/AIDS in Africa. That is why I’ve set a goal of raising $30 for each mile I race – or about $2100! Just imagine the difference that could make in people’s lives. How can you help?
- sponsor a mile of my race for $30 at http://www.globalstrategies.org/donate.html. Mark “Anna Harper” or “Faith Alive” in the comments section.
- attend the bike rides and/or cookout listed on my blog and make a small donation (check back to the blog for more details)
- help me with running one of the bike rides or the cook out (leave a comment for more details)
- consider making a smaller donation if $30 seems like too much – every bit helps!

I hope you will consider helping!

Weeks 18 & 19: Back to work!

Well I am a bit behind in my updates. I have been pretty excited about training the past few weeks (mostly about riding my bike) and have logged a good amount of miles and hours. Even better, I've had several very difficult work outs which I think will be very helpful - but have had ample time to rest between workouts too so I'm not feeling burnt out. So here are my summaries from the past two weeks:

Week 18: 14:34 hours, 165.6 miles!! By far my biggest week. Almost did 200 miles if you count the week as Sun-Sat (I do Mon-Sun).
Swimming: 2:20, 6175 meters
Biking: 10:31, 152.4 miles (woohoo! Longest was 5:11/75 mile ride. Also if you do Sun-Sat I rode 188 miles in those 7 days which is by far my biggest week in a very long time!)
Running: 1:46, 9.4 miles

Week 19: 8:02 hours, 68.4 miles. I skipped an easy swim and run in order to take some time off leading up to the Iron Horse road race (not sure if it mattered because I got schooled by both the women I was racing and the two 10,000+ ft. passes we rode over).
Swimming: 1:50, 4900 meters
Biking: 4:06, 53.5 miles (RR was 47 miles in 3:36)
Running: 1:56, 11.85 miles (long was 7.1 miles. Hard run on Monday with some half-mile repeats at 7:30 pace)

Now that I have some bike racing out of my system, my goal is to be more balanced in my training and stick to the plan a little more! :)

Annoyed

What is up with Active.com? They are becoming like ticketmaster - if you want to register for an event you basically have no choice (and I will say it is extremely convenient). But then you always have to pay their fees which is one annoyance.
Now I am concerned because they hit me with a $9.95 charge for some upgraded membership I didn't ask for. So I asked if they could not do that, and they said, "Sure, sorry for the inconvenience!" But instead they canceled my entire membership and now I can't access my training plan or training logs from the last 5 months!!!! Argh, get it together active!!!

Wed. Lees Ride - ouch

I finally made it out for a group ride - the Lees (team?) ride that leaves from the south store on Wed's at 5:30 (info). I needed some practice riding next to people (instead of by myself like I've been doing) and figured the pace would be a little higher than I'm comfortable with. Well I was right! It was a good challenge, aided by winds that were sustained in the 20's and 30's and gusting to the high 30's.

A few miles into it I ran over a piece of wood and immediately heard a "thunk thunk thunk" on my front wheel. Worried about a flat, I stopped, but luckily it was just my computer magnet. So I readjusted it and set off. The only other woman on the ride, Tanya (I think), had stopped with me, which was really nice of her. She rides for Lipsmackers, a women's pro team. So now we had to catch a group of about 10 guys riding fast with a tailwind. It took about 10 minutes but we did it, although I wasn't much help. Tanya probably could have had a conversation but I was huffing and puffing the whole way.

Things slowed down a bit for a few miles as we wound through Loveland and then we turned into the wind. The pace picked up and I think people were attacking. As usual I found myself at the back - I don't feel like I can go fast enough to stick in the middle of an accelerating group of testosterone. Eventually we went up a little hill and I decided I'd had enough and popped off the back. I was immediately frustrated by this decision - why can't I push myself just a little harder?? So often when I lose a wheel I immediately let my mental game get in the way. Anyway, I was pooped and didn't want to go hard anymore - even though now I was riding into a headwind by myself.

At this point we were on Glade Road near Masonville. I tried to keep my pace up and kept an even distance between myself and two guys who had popped off the back too. But never caught them - too bad, some drafting would have been helpful!! Anyway, then came the hills around Horsetooth and I went as hard as I could (not to say that is very fast). There was a lot of cursing at myself as I did this. Good times. Finally made it to the last hill and my left calf was on the verge of a serious cramp. I told it to buck up and stay with me. I seem to talk to myself a lot when I'm suffering. Then I decided to go up Maniac - actually had to stop in a pseudo-track stand 2/3 of the way up to catch my breath - I was completely out of gas. But then pushed it the rest of the way up and then it was downhill from there!

SO it was a hard ride for me but definitely good too. It ended up being 38.4 miles and I averaged 17.8 mph. Hey not too shabby considering all the hills and wind!

Weeks 16 & 17: taper, rest, and fundraising

I think my taper was pretty effective for the half. Thanks to Gale Bernhardt for a great training plan! The week before the half marathon, I:
swam 1:00 and commuted on Tuesday;
commuted and did an easy 30 minute run Wed.;
rode an easy 15 miles on Saturday.

This week, I decided it was my last chance to be a bum until after the half ironman. So I did minimal training and tried to get a lot of sleep. Unfortunately the week was kind of busy but I still enjoyed the extra rest. The only training to speak of was today, I went for a 35 mile ride up Rist (not easy!).

Next week I get back into it! I am getting anxious about managing my time this summer. I have a few weeks planned with 13-14 hours of training, and they happen to fall around when I am thinking of taking my prelims. :( I guess I might need to rearrange some workouts if that is the case. Time management will be very important!

Also I have written a letter for fundraising to go along with the half ironman. My goal is to raise $30 per mile for Faith Alive AIDS clinic or Global Strategies for HIV/AIDS Prevention. Both are worthy causes but the latter might be easier to set something set up with. I've sent an email to some one at Global Strategies so hopefully I hear back soon! There will be more on this soon.

My first half marathon - the Colorado Half

Here are some stats from the half this morning. I'll write more later (we are having some friends over for breakfast soon), but thought it was cool that I could break down the miles like this (I borrowed my friend, Christine's, HRM and think it's pretty snazzy!). Overall the race went well!
average HR 157
9:42/ 161
9:51/166
9:37/155
9:47/150
8:41/148
9:35/148 (plus one minute pee break!)
8:20/151
8:45/155
8:52/157
8:44/158
8:57/159
8:28/163
8:28/165
Total: 158:45 (not including the pee break)
:) I am extremely happy with that. I figured I'd do 9-10 minute miles and breaking 2 hours was my "if only I could go faster" goal.

More useless numbers! April version

Well I did a few more long rides this month and finally got my running numbers up a bit :). On the flip side, I probably only swam about once a week. Oops ...

Biking: 263.75 miles, 18:27 hours (vs 182 miles, 13:37 hrs in March!) :)
Running: 56.5 miles, 10:40 hrs (vs 49 miles, 9:42) :)
Swimming: 8.44 miles (13,580m), 5:20 hrs (vs 12 miles, 7:45 in March) :(