Free Time...

...It's a rare thing here at the training center! I haven't given you any updates lately...been busy training, planning my race schedule, sleeping, etc.
Lets start a few days ago with my Birthday! I'm 22 years old now! It was a fun day...it started with a big swim practice...11,000meters! (and I did it voluntarily!) My set in the pool was 5 x 2000m with 1 minute rest inbetween them. I started off at 26:30 for warm up...then descended to 25:30...#3 & #4 were 25:15...and on #5 I worked really hard to go a 25:00 (that is 1:15 pace for 100s!). After the 2000s, I did one set of 10 x 100s @ 1:15 to practice the finishing sprint that always happens in open water races...I held 1:10s on all of them so I was really happy with how the whole 11,000m turned out!
After that exciting morning...we had the rest of the day off so I treated my self to a massage (by Megan Quann's mother who was at the OTC giving massages...no wonder she swam so fast...her mom is a massage therapist!).
At 4pm...we all started getting ready for my B-day party that I set up at Buca Di Beppos! I had reserved seating and planned a menu for the big group of triathletes! We headed out at 5pm...it was a bit of a drive...but fun the whole way. Dinner was AMAZING...we had garlic bread, brushettia, Caesar salad, DiBeppo salad, spaghetti with meat sauce, cheese ravioli, chicken Parmesan, chicken marsalia, chocolate cake and cheese cake! It was all delicious and we all had a great time getting out of the training center for a bit!
Since the big B-day...the focus has been on training. Saturday morning I did a short run before swim practice in the AM...then we rode a long 3 hour 20 min ride in the mid-day...it had some killer hills but we maintained a steady, relaxed pace.
Sunday is always just a long run with 10 minutes at tempo pace...I was up to 1hour 10minutes the week...the run was steady and uneventful except for when I hit some slippery mud and went down on my knee into the concrete walkway! Other than a few scrapes on my knee...I'm all good and I finished the run just fine!
Monday morning we were back in the pool...and I definitely had some problems...it could have been from the day off from swimming, maybe I didn't have enough fluids, it could be that I didn't stretch before getting in the pool...but the problem started around 2000 into practice. My hands started cramping up really painfully! I was loosing control of my fingers and they were starting to wiggle through the water when I was trying to pull! I was the weirdest thing...I've never had anything like that happen before! But like always...I put the pain in the back of my mind and swam a great main set. We did 2x400, 4x200, 8x100s @ 1:15 base. The goal was to start at your pace from the 5x400s we did last week and then descend your pace. I was able to start out at 1:09s and descend a bit from there!
After practice and breakfast...I headed over to sports massage to get the hands fixed...felt amazing after getting them massaged...and was able to have a great bike ride later in the day!
The ride was a tough one...we rode out to Honey Springs Road (which took me 45 minutes to climb the last time we did it)...but this time we did 6x5minute climbs with 5 minutes recovery inbetween. We did some climbs in a EXTRA hard gear so that our cadence was 50...we did some in a EXTRA spinny gear (my lowest) and we did the last 5 minutes as a race up the hill. (I, of course, was dead last...except for Kelsey who was having a really bad day).
Today we started out with a run work out on the track...5 x 1K with 2:30 rest inbetween each. I don't know how the hill work out yesterday, the track workout today, the 2000m TT we have in the pool tomorrow and other workouts this week are supposed to be a RECOVERY WEEK...but I'm still working hard no matter what...feeling a little tired sometimes...but that is supposed to happen in this sport!
Other than the training side of life...things are good! Hope all is great with everyone out there who is keeping up with my life in CA...Have fun and keep smiling:)