try a tri

daily blog on the road to my first triathlon 1500m                  25 mi                   6.2 mi >>>The AVIA Austin Triathlon | September 5, 2011<<<

[try-a-tri]

Day 68

March 12

Finally got around to riding with Mellow Johnny's bike shop again on their Saturday morning rides!

Went on the MOTR (Middle of the Road) ride led by the UT Cycling team. The original plan on the website was to go southeast to Elroy. East Austin generally has flatter terrain and more rolling hills. But this weekend is SXSW and there were some out-of-towners on the ride for SXSW too, so they picked a more scenic "Austin" type of ride.

Turns out, they took us out to Bee Caves, which is the same route I rode the last time I went out with MOTR (several months ago...). I clearly remember that was a HARD ride. And it still is! I'm just glad I have clipless pedals/shoes and STI shifters now. Made everything a lot more efficient.

In the end of the day, it was 32 miles for me including the 1mi round trip from home to MJ's. Oh, and 2309 ft. of climbing according to ridewithgps.com!

[try-a-tri]

Day 67

March 11

Started my Spring Break early and skipped my 3pm biochemistry class. Headed out to Town Lake to run on the Lady Bird Lake trail! It's much more enjoyable running outdoors by the lake than it is running laps around the basketball gym haha.

I rode there on my bike, which is a 6mi round trip from home. I decided to run the 4.2mi loop from Mopac to South 1st.

Let's just say I am out of running shape. Or...I shouldn't have eaten McDonald's for lunch! I started getting stomach cramps like....literally 50 yards into the run. SAD DAY. Eventually had a couple really good burps...which tasted like McDonald's.

I walked a lot (at least half to 3/4 a mile) and stopped a couple times. The last mile and half or so was really good though! In the end, I still got the mileage on my legs.

10 miles on day. Bike+run. Just gotta get my swim on sometime now...

[try-a-tri]

Day 61

March 5

Retroactive posting! Rode ~27.5 mi with Allie and Stephie out in east Austin. It was a cold, wet, and windy morning!

We were setting out to ride at 8:30a, but the forecast showed 60% rain for a little bit. When I met up with them two at Allie's apartment, it just started raining/thundering pretty heavily, so we stayed inside for at least 30 minutes for the rain to subside before heading out. I did not enjoy cleaning my bike of all the muck from the roads. I hate rain!

Climbing on this route is pretty light. Not so light for Allie haha. 

[try-a-tri]

Day 54

February 26

So I guess it's safe to say that initial fire to train often has simmered down!

With the 10K run coming up though, I will do my best to run 2-3 times a week still. That along with Saturday morning rides.

This weekend was the 2011 North American Handmade Bicycle Show! I volunteered these past two days and got to see a plethora of awesome and unique bikes. Check out my photos here and see for yourself: http://www.flickr.com/photos/photokuo/sets/72157626020024139/

On the note of bikes, I went on a ride with the guys over on the Classic & Vintage forum of BikeForums.net! I was very eager to meet some of these guys who have a vast knowledge of vintage bikes and it was great to make connections with cyclists across the country, and even some local here in Austin!

The route took us through the essentials for out-of-towners: - Lance Armstrong's house - West Austin hillcountry - Congress bridge straight through the Capitol Building - UT campus

In the end, it was a 26mi ride. Commuting to-and-fro the meeting point added a couple miles for me, so about 28 miles on the morning.

[try-a-tri]

Day 47

February 19

WOW it's been a long time. I got really busy the week after my last workout, and then I've been sick with a cold from last Thursday until Friday. Hard to workout when snot and mucous was clogging up my airways!

Thursday night was a Full Moon ride that happens every month in Austin. It's a social ride, so it's a bit slower, but it was nice to get at least some amount of distance under my legs. About 10-12 miles.

Today a couple friends (Sharon and Val) and I biked downtown to Town Lake to run on the trail. They're signed up for the Capitol 10K run next month (in 35 days) too! The trail was just over 3 miles and I felt great the entire way, although I didn't push too hard at all. It was nice to get my legs moving again though!

[try-a-tri]

Day 29

February 1

SHATTERED my PR for 1 mile by 33 seconds, but more on that in a sec!

Ran 10 minutes at a 6:32ish pace for 11 laps. 1 lap walk break. Ran 10 minutes at a slower 7:35ish pace for 10 laps. So that equaled 21 laps around the track, coming out to 3 miles.

Took a few minutes of break to walk, stretch, drink water. Then the timed mile was ON.

It was hard, but I just kept pushing. During parts of the last quarter lap when I was really pushing it, I felt like my stomach wanted to leap out! Luckily it didn’t. So my new 1 mile PR is 5:53!

Total distance: 4 miles

[try-a-tri]

Day 27

January 30

Been busy and playing a lot of racquetball recently, so I haven't been running as much.

Played a few minutes of coed IM basketball then ran on the track for 25 minutes during the men's basketball games.

The first 20 minutes were a jog at an estimated 7:45/mi. Took a few minutes to rest and ran a hard 5 minutes. I lost track of time and went a little longer. I was really pushing it and was really tired in the end. It was definitely a sub-6:20 pace, I believe.

After that, I played 2.5 hours of racquetball with a couple friends. I get much more sore from that than running and totally feel it today.

[try-a-tri]

Day 23

January 26

Little bit of running on the track right before gym closed.

20 minutes of straight running. ~7:27 pace for the first 19 minutes, then a hard run for the last minute at about a 6:09 pace.

19 laps for 2.71 miles. (7 laps per mile)

Overall 7:22 pace. 

[try-a-tri]

Day 21

January 24

3x1 mile timed. Original goal was to run 2x2 miles...but I started my pace off way too fast and decided to aim for three sub-7min miles.

1 - 6:26 (PR) 2 - 6:34 3 - 6:58

I was satisfied after the first 2 miles (average 6:30! including a new PR!) until a friend came along. I started off pretty slow since I was done already in my mind...but we started to speed up the pace, until she took off running haha. Seeing that I could still push this mile under 7, I went for it on the last (7th) lap and got 6:58.

I also did some commuting on my bike today to the post office. Just a 5-mile round trip, but it was nice to bike away from campus a bit.

[try-a-tri]

Day 19

January 22

Was going to go on a 20-somethin mile ride with Mellow Johnnys this morning with a couple friends, but they didn't have the cold weather gear to ride in 40deg temps. I told one of them that my New Years resolution was to make her ride her bike to prepare for the MS150, and so she asked if I could take her on a ride in the afternoon.

This was really her first ride out among urban city roads and a good amount of rolling hills. Just a ~12.75mi ride to start her off and let her get a grasp of how much she'll need to train in the next 3 months.

Note: Had a small accident (my first ever! =[ ) as we were getting into West Campus. It was slow, I was almost at a stop, but I didn't communicate to her well and she ran into me, causing both of us to tumble. Thankfully no cars were involved, and no blood showed!

[try-a-tri]

Day 17

January 20

Did 60 minutes of running on a track tonight! I'll peg this one at 7 miles. Bring on the Capitol 10K!

So I find that I'm really bad at sticking to my original plans and push myself further each time. This time, I wanted to do maybe 3 sets of 15 min runs. I had music for the first 8 minutes before it just got annoying and kept falling out. Those 8 minutes went by pretty fast. When I reached 15 minutes, my legs just wanted to keep going. I ended up running 30 minutes straight.

Took a 5 minute break, then ran 20 minutes. Few more minutes, then sped up the pace (~7:30/mi) for another 10 minutes.

I felt good the entire time, except for the last 2 minutes or so. Because I remembered to bring my watch this time, I wouldn't have to keep checking the track's clock every lap. When I'm not thinking about how much time is left, I run a lot better and more relaxed.

P.S. I'll probably just write on days I work out now.

[try-a-tri]

Day 15

January 18

Ran for 40 total minutes, divided into 10 minute segments of continual running.

My original plan was to run maybe 3 sets of 10 minutes, because I just wasn't feelin it during the first 2, or even the 3rd set. I took a few minutes of break in between for however long my body was asking.

On the 3rd set, I was thankful to have this girl in front of me set a good steady pace for the last 5 minutes. NO, I was not checking her out. Thanks anonymous running buddy/pacesetter: I would not have finished a full 10 minutes without you.

My 4th set started off as a slow cooldown lap...then it became a slightly faster 2nd cooldown lap. Before I knew it, I was pushing myself at a steady pace again, getting a little faster after every minute. I had these constant thoughts of giving up at a shorter time like "Maybe I'll just stop at 8 minutes" (which I kept thinkin in the 3rd set as well) but as I got nearer to those times I just told myself "I can do 2 more minutes."

It helps sometimes to watch people play basketball, it's a good distraction. I don't run with music because I don't like the floppy noise of the cord and I'm afraid they'll just slip out of my ears from sweat -- and I don't have an arm band or anything to carry an iPod/iPhone. Prefer not to carry one in my hands. They get sweaty and my arms get tired enough.

Inner motivation is amazing. It must be something deep down in my heart that gives me the extra push. I know I didn't have it during track in middle school! Someone must've performed inception on me over break...

[try-a-tri]

Day 14

January 17

Day of rest. Was gonna ride up to Mt. Bonnell with a social cycling group, but didn't think my legs would be up for the climb and I was still sorta feelin lunch at the time.

School starts tomorrow, so won't be riding much during weekdays.

[try-a-tri]

Day 13

January 16

Ran indoors on the track of Gregory Gym.

3 sets of 12 minute running intervals today to build endurance. No idea how much I ran in total, but I'd put it at around 5 miles given the amount of time I spent running.

1st set: 12 minutes, pretty fast paced (prob about a 7:30-45 mile) with what I'll call a "Power Run" in the last minute. Pretty much running as hard as I could for the last full minute, but not quite sprinting. - 3 minute walk 2nd set: 12 minutes, slower than 1st set but still decently paced. Finished with 1 minute Power Run. - 4 minute walk 3rd set: 12 minutes, much slower overall but with mixed speeds. No power run.

I said in the previous post that this workout would not be about speed at all...but the competitive side in me wanted a good number I could spit out.

So after the 3 sets of running, I take a 10 minute rest/water/restroom break and come back to see how fast I could run a mile after 43 minutes on the track already.

Turns out I ran a personal best of 6:30, beating my previous best by 7 seconds! Running 5 miles in one session is also a personal record, so do PRs in one night!

[try-a-tri]

Day 12

January 15

Day of rest. Woke up late and was kinda tired all day. This rain needs to freaking go away, but it's here tomorrow too. The gloominess just adds to the tiredness.

Roommate plans to go to gym with a couple guys to work out tomorrow. Might see if I can stay on the indoor track as long as they're working out.

[try-a-tri]

Day 11 - Part 2

January 14

I wasn't able to get to the gym earlier to run, I called off doing a group ride with Mellow Johnny's tomorrow morning due to the wet roads and weather, AND I really wanted to run in my new kicks.

Ran ~3.1 miles in cold, slightly drizzly 46 degree weather. Busted out the arm warmers, headband with ear flaps, wicking baselayer with Windstopper in front (meant for cycling), and running gloves.

Ran first 1.69mi in 12:52 (7:37/mi). Walked across Honors Quad in ~3 min. Ran last 1.25mi in 9:56 (7:57/mi).

Total running average was 7:45/mi.

The last leg of each running portion ended with a long incline (up Dean Keeton, then up Jester Circle and 21st St).

Definitely one of my best runs time-wise for that length in my opinion. I'm satisfied with the way my cardio is building.

I'm thinking my next run will be focused on length of time and endurance, rather than any kind of speed. It'll probably be a decent jog, maybe somewhere between 45 min to 1 hour.

[try-a-tri]

Day 11

January 14

Went to the Nike outlet store today and got me a pair of Nike Vomero+ 5 running shoes! I was about to purchase one of the Lunar shoes, but the sales associate (who was very very informative and nice) suggested I just try on the Vomeros, although they were $20 more. In his opinion, he said they were the best pair of running shoes Nike makes right now and I could definitely feel it. I dropped the Lunars and spent my entire $100 giftcard + $8 tax to go with these.

I may take them for a run on the indoor track at Gregory Gym tonight after dinner if they're still open. Weather outside is too cold and wet right now.

In other news, I got a new set of wheels for my bike. I'm excited. Can't wait til I can put the rear one on.