krisalis

It's Been A Year!

2007-08-04T18:29:00.000-07:00

My last post was on August 16 2006....when I was about 7 or 8 weeks pregnant. My training slacked off during the pregnancy - I did some prenatal yoga, and continued walking all the way through to the end of my third trimester, but eased off on the biking and running. I intended to keep swimming, but frankly, once the weather turned cold, I lacked motivation to get into the pool, so that drifted off somewhere around mid-October.

So here I am, back again trying to work on my running and general fitness. My boy is now 21 weeks old, and I've been gradually getting back into the swing of things since giving birth. For the first 6 weeks, I didn't do anything much more strenuous than pushing the stroller around the neighbourhood, which was quite tiring enough.

At around 8 weeks postpartum, my Mum gave me a 6 week membership to her gym, where I attended a "boot camp" 3 times a week. At the beginning of the boot camp, I could barely manage a single push up, and I could only hold plank position for about 20s. Running felt ridiculously unnatural and very uncomfortable. By the end of the boot camp, I could do about 10 push ups and hold plank for almost 2 minutes! I could comfortably jog a couple of miles. Progress!

But then my maternity leave from work ended, and my temporary gym membership ran out, and the pursuit of fitness took a backseat while my efforts were concentrated on just getting through each week at work and keeping my family happy.

Things are starting to get back on a more even keel now I'm getting back into the swing of things at work and my family is more settled, and I've been able to get out running a couple of times each week for the past few weeks. I've got a new gym membership, and I've been going to yoga once or twice a week too, which I'm really enjoying.

I've still got about 11 lbl of pregnancy pudge to move, but it's coming off gradually, and overall I'm happy with my progress.

Upcoming events that I have committed to during moments of insane optimism and/or intense peer pressure:
Fila Relays (Aug 31) - 2.5miles. Should be OK, provided it's not disgustingly hot.
Silicon Labs Marathon Relay (Sept 30)- signed up to do a 10k leg. I must be mad.
Livestrong Bike Ride (Oct 13) - I'd like to do one of the longer routes, but I'll just have to see how my biking fitness is nearer the time before I pick a goal.

I'd like to do a tri, but I've barely done any biking at all....and although I love cycling, it takes up a lot of time....which I just don't have at the moment. Perhaps if I start doing some spin classes? Beh - real biking is so much more fun than spin class. Unfortunately, there's no way I'll be fit for the Austin Triathlon (Sept 3), which looks like an awesome Olympic distance course. But perhaps I could aim for the short course version of the Longhorn Tri (Oct 6-7)?

Long term running goal is to do the 3M Half Marathon.

Better hope that my boy learns to like the jogging stroller once he's old enough to start riding in it :o) !

Huh

2006-08-16T11:33:00.000-07:00

I seem to be losing my mind...I didn't login to blogger for what, a week? And I managed to totally forget my username and password. Wow.

Exercise-wise, things are staggering along....

I did the 4 mile loop down at Town Lake on Saturday morning with Mark and Rosalita, and swam 3200m on Sunday morning with the swimming group.

My right shoulder has been bothering me since Sunday's swim, so I took Monday off. Then, Tuesday night was Dad's birthday and tonight's there's another b-day dinner, this time for Kem.

I leave for a 2 week business trip to Asia tomorrow, so that'll put a dent in my training time. I've packed my running stuff and my swim gear though, and I'll try to get out and about when ever I get the opportunity. The hotel I'm staying at in Singapore has a nice pool, and a gym, and I can jog safely there. Not so sure how Bangkok will turn out. Ah, adventures.

Swimming. Again.

2006-08-08T20:05:00.000-07:00

Distance: 3200m

Feeling tired....bit of a lazy swim session today. Covered the distance, but not very speedy.

San Marcos Ride

2006-08-07T12:36:00.000-07:00

I rode the Old San Antonio Road ride on Sunday, from Kiker Elementary towards San Marcos and back.

Working on cadence - trying to consistently ride at >90rpm.

Distance: 52 miles
Average speed: 17.6 mph
Ride time: 2 hrs 57 min
Total time: 3 hrs 16 min

Weather: Windy - in our face on the way out, mostly at our backs on the return journey. Bloody hot.

Swimmy

2006-08-06T12:42:00.000-07:00

Distance: 3200m

Best bit - the 4x100m, decending, with fins. Wheeeee!
1.28
1.23
1.15
1.08

I love swimming with fins. Zoom, zoom, zoom.

Running with Rose

2006-08-03T20:53:00.000-07:00

I've been slack about posting on a daily basis, but I've actually been pretty good about getting up and going running in the morning this week - just not going very far each time.

For the past 3 mornings, the Rose-a-pose and I have jogged around the neighbourhood for ~25mins-30mins.

Something is better than nothing, right?

Marble Falls Race Report

2006-07-30T18:54:00.000-07:00

Is up over here: http://krisalis.org/weblog/?p=1779.

Sunday Swim

2006-07-30T17:06:00.000-07:00

8am swim at LC.

Distance: 3000m

Focusing on pulling. Still working on rotating my hips more, especially when I breathe.

Fitzhugh Road Ride

2006-07-30T17:03:00.000-07:00

Saturday bike ride - From Kiker Elementary to RR12 junction on Fitzhugh Road and back.

Distance: 40.5miles
Average speed: 15.5mph
Total ride time: 3hr05min
Weather: hot and windy and hot, and did I mention it was hot?

Took the ride pretty easy on the way back.

Quarry Lake Swim

2006-07-28T21:08:00.000-07:00

Friday after work - 1200m in open water up at Quarry Lake with Katie.

One loop around the outside and then an out-and-back.

Worked a bit on sighting and also tried to work on gliding more and rotating my hips more in the water.

Loosening the Legs

2006-07-25T20:55:00.000-07:00

Went for a run this morning with the Rose.

Jogged about 15 mins to warm up. My legs were sore and tight from Sunday's triathlon (I know, I know, I need to write up a race report).

Headed to the track and did a few drills - skipping, butt kicks, high knees and some strides.

Intended to run a timed 400m, but my left hip flexor started really hurting about 200m in, so I eased off and jogged the rest. I stretched out my hip flexor and tried a fast 200m. Felt ok, but decided not to push further, and jogged for home.

Realised on my way home that my legs had eased up a lot since I first started out, and I was actually starting to feel good for the last 10 mins or so. Of course, by then, I had reached home and it was time to stop. :)

Quarry Lake

2006-07-22T15:08:00.000-07:00

One loop of Quarry Lake at Pure Austin with Katie, followed by one out-and-back across the lake.

Total distance ~1200m.

Tried to work on rotating my hips more when I swim. Also worked on drafting with Katie and sighting. Sighting at Quarry Lake is a lot easier than at most triathlons, because the water is smooth and clear!

Paddle

2006-07-21T08:42:00.000-07:00

Not sure this morning's swim at Barton Springs really counts as a workout....

I only swam 12oom (6 lengths) before getting out. The water was cold and refreshing, and I was happy to be swimming, but my heart wasn't every really into working out. I was having a lot of trouble sighting into the sun and thus kept narrowly avoiding head-on collisions with other swimmers, plus there was something disgustingly smelly at the deep end of the pool - it made me gag - It smelled like something died and was rotting away in the sun. Yuck, yuk, yuck.

So I allowed myself to get out, headed back to the car. By the time I got to the car, I was a little bit mad with myself for not swimming more, so I pulled on my running shoes and jogged about a mile or so.

Pah.

At least I did something, I suppose, which is more than I managed on Tues, Wed or Thurs.

My legs were really sore on Wednesday from Monday night's sprinting.

Marble Falls tri is this weekend, so just a light workout tomorrow then the race on Sunday.

Benchmarking

2006-07-17T19:07:00.000-07:00

In case you didn't already know, I'm not a very good runner. Actually, I'm a very bad runner. So I am trying to improve. With that goal in mind, my sisters Katie and Lennie, and Ande (of swimfasterfaster.com) are in process of masterminding what they are calling 'my breakthrough'.

The beginning of this 'breakthrough' involves benchmarking my current abilities. So today, I did a warm-up and some drills and then I ran a timed 100m, a timed 200m and a timed 400m, with plenty of rest in between timed distances to bring my heartrate back down, then a cool down.

Results:
100m: 0:19.74
200m: 0:44.37
400m: 1:51.62

So. There you go. Just don't ask me what it all means, 'cause I have no idea.

Swim With The Fishes In The Shallow Blue Pool

2006-07-16T20:34:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning swimworkout at LC pool.
8am - 9.20am ish
3300m total distance.
Sore legs during kick only drills, result of long Saturday bike ride, but felt pretty good overall.

Working on getting more rotation in my hips when I swim fast(er) crawl. Currently getting very wiggly results. It's OK when I go slow, but as soon as I try to pick up the pace, the synchonisation between my arms and legs falls apart. Hmm.

Saturday Bike

2006-07-15T20:32:00.000-07:00

Distance: 51 miles
Route: Kiker to San Marcos
Terrain: Pretty flat, some small rolling hills
Weather: hot, sunny, some wind
Average speed: 17.7mph
Total time (including stops): 3hrs 20min

Ran 12 mins off the bike afterwards. Hot.

Exercises, exercise, I will blog my exercises

2006-07-13T16:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday 7/12/06: 4.5 miles, route

- 10 mins jog warm-up.
- 5 mins 'tempo', 1 min easy/walk, 4 mins 'tempo', 1 min easy/walk, 3 mins 'tempo', 1 min easy/walk, 2 mins 'tempo', 1 min easy/walk, 1 min 'tempo', 1 min easy/walk, and then back up the pyramid.
- cool down

Total time: 55 mins

Today 7/13/06: 3 miles, route

- 11 mins jog warm-up
- 1 min hard, 1 min easy x 10
- cool down

Total time: 35 mins

Oi!

2005-09-13T10:47:00.000-07:00

Stop trying to change my password

Hey!

2005-07-04T14:36:00.000-07:00

Whatcha doin' tryin' to break into my Blogger account? That's not nice.

And why would you even want to do something like that? You can have your very own account for free.

Just go sign up over here.

g-mail

2004-06-10T15:02:00.000-07:00

I got me an account. Yay.

Wondering...

2004-05-24T14:42:00.000-07:00

What are the chances of scoring a G-mail account via my (fairly minimal) use of Blogger?

krisalis

2004-05-12T21:37:00.000-07:00

really my weblog is over here these days....but i wanted to be able to post comments to blogger weblogs w/out being anonymous...hence this creation. once upon a time, many moons ago, back in the distant dawn of weblog phenomenon, my weblog did reside here at this address, but i let it go when i moved to a different content management system. yet here i am, back again. tea and biscuits, anyone?