Mission Impossible: 20/30 in September (Page 2)

8/20 - Walk - 1h 22m 48s - 4.50 miles - 18m 23s /Mi

It started to rain, quite literally, the second I stepped out the front door. I walked anyway. It stopped raining sometime in my 3rd mile. That's about the time I noticed my MMF app was not logging the gps route. I had planned to do a long, slow walk around the River Rd today. It was VERY difficult to keep myself from launching into racewalking mode. But I held to a steady walk pace and just persevered. The other really hard part was to stop at my house after the 4.5 and not just add the Hillside Dr loop to bring it up to a 10k. It's probably just as well. I should have eaten breakfast before I left. I could feel my energy dissipate and bonk around 3.5-4 miles. That last half mile was a real struggle. Also, one bike bottle is not enough to walk that route. It was weird, not one single car passed by on the entire walk.

Thanks Mike!

13/20:

2 hour LSD run yesterday and wanted to spin easy on the bike trainer this morning but had some stuff to do so it's a welcome day off for me. Not sure if the strength training I'm planning on later counts.

Way to persevere through the low energy levels!

When I designed this challenge I made strength training "optional" because I know many triathletes don't do any. But they definitely count as days on this challenge.

9/2 - Bike - 20m - 4.25 miles - 12.75 Mi/hr
Took all I had to go to the Y after school today. Wish I knew what I have done to my lower back. Could barely bend over to tie my sneakers. Went upstairs and attempted to use a recumbent bike, figuring it would be easier on my back. It might have been too, if the darned thing didn't keep re-setting itself to use Level 25 effort. Killer! Switched to one of the Expresso bikes and managed to ride two trails for a total of 4.25 miles in 20m. Better than nothing. Then went and soaked my back in the hot tub for 10 minutes, followed by the sauna for 15 minutes, and a gentle walk into the pool. Was too sore to even contemplate taking a shower, just dried off and rode the motorcycle home.

I felt icky yesterday so I took a day off (my body was aching for some good rest).

14/20 today:

60 minute Z2 focused spin on the bike trainer this morning and a Z1-Z2 focused run on the treadmill after work. I put in some new Archmold Max insoles in my running shoes. Tested them and they felt pretty good on the treadmill. Let's see how they feel during tomorrow's 1 hour tempo run.

10/20 - Walk - 40m 48s - 2.01 miles - 20m 17s /Mi
Halfway through my September Challenge!

I knew I went out slow, but didn't realize how slow until I logged on afterward. 22:17 for the outbound mile, 18:31 for the return mile. Considering how my back feels, I will take the fact that I even went as a victory. Besides, as Robin says, not every workout is better than the last one. Sure wish I knew what I have done to my back.

11/20 - Bike - 29m 56s - 9.91 miles - 19.86 Mi/hr
I couldn't see any way that a stationary bike could hurt my back, so I went to the Y. Since I pedaled between courses, while I was selecting the next one, it was actually over 30 minutes but I can only claim the times from the computer. Also, we all know that out on the real road I have all I can do to manage 13.5-14mph, so that 19.8 is a euphemistic figure at best. Followed up with 10 minutes in front of the jets in the hot tub and then 10 minutes in the sauna.

12/20 - Walk - 1h 08m 57s - 3.75 miles - 18m 23s /Mi

Woke up with no back pain this morning. That was nice. Decided to do a longer walk today. This was my first time this year to go UP Hillside Drive. I HATE THAT HILL! It's too short to show up as a rated climb in MapMyFitness but it climbs 150' in .3 miles. That's a 9.5% grade! Hmmm, now I have to go see how that compares.

Are you ready for this? There are only two climbs steeper than that in the Tour de France, and only one other that is 9%. All the other climbs in the TdF are between 4.2% and 8.2%. If you average all 27 of the rated climbs for the TdF they only average 6.9% slope. It's the km that tear riders down.

I suppose I feel better about Hillside Drive beating me down and destroying my pace average every time I ascend it.

Crazy hills! O_O

17/20: AM short spin & short medium run mini brick/PM 1 hr swim

20 minute easy spin on the trainer followed by a 40 minute run on the treadmill in Z2 this morning then swimming for about an hour after work focusing on 400s @ CSS with some drills mixed in.

13/20 - Bike - 48m 33s - 11.63 miles - 14.37 Mi/hr
Went to the Y this morning for my ride. Finished four courses on the Expresso bike. Man, the sweat was POURING off of me. Followed that up with 10 minutes in the hot tub, cool down in the pool, and then 15 minutes in the sauna. I can see this becoming a nightly event, after a day of teaching school kids. Very relaxing.

BONUS ROUND - Walk - 21m 15s - 1.07 miles - 19m 51s /Mi
Got tired of sitting at Y waiting for Cindy so I decided to walk down to the bank meet her. Figured it for less than a mile, and I wasn't interested in walking fast at all. Just a pleasant walk through the city.

14/20 - Bike - 1h 03m 13s - 12.96 miles - 12.30 Mi/hr
Needed the endorphins from a good workout today. First time in a LONG time that I've had THAT thought! I went straight from school to the Y. It started to sprinkle as I was walking inside. I did three rides of 4-4.5 miles each. BUT, I did them in the wrong order. I have just been going through the rides in order, but the first one in the second group was WAY harder. It was called City Express and I didn't like the profile just looking at it on the screen. I REALLY didn't like it when I started hitting 20% - 34% grades. And what SICK individual puts a 34% grade for the last 4/10ths of a mile?

Next time I have to do them in the order of City Express, then the slightly easier Bent Spoke, and finish with the relatively flat Fruitdale. Although I did finish 8 seconds behind "The Ghost". Another neat feature of these Expresso bikes is that they keep your PR for each course and the next time you ride it your PR also rides as a "Ghost Rider". I think I could have beaten my Ghost, if I had ridden Fruitdale first instead of second.

15/20 - Swim - 22m 23s - 1000.00 yards - 02m 14s /100 yards
Oh man, I am really psyched with this week! Went in today and swam 1000 yards. That's a 300 yd jump in one week. Hadn't planned it. Was just sitting at the dealer waiting for my truck and running some numbers in my head. I was thinking about working it so I'd have a 500 yd w/u, a distance set, and then a 500 yd c/d and I came up with this. (3x50, 2x100, 1x150, DS, 1x150, 2x100, 3x50)

It doesn't hurt that this month's challenge is nearly in the bag.

I did it!!! YAY!!!

22/20: AM spin on trainer/PM swim and run after work

Posted a few days late, hehe. Did an LSD run yesterday since it was over 100°F last Sunday afternoon.

This morning I did about an hour easy spin on the trainer (90-100rpm @ Z1) with some ST after. Gonna go for an hour swim doing drills and easy build to 100s then a short active recovery run both after work. :)

Edited by kloofyroland 2015-09-23 12:31 PM

WOW! Only one rest day so far this month. You, sir, are a beast!

Thanks man!

16/20 - Dreadmill - 1h 00m - 3.50 miles - 17m 08s /Mi

Anybody remember the old Hee-Haw tv show skit that Archie Campbell and Roy Clark did about "Well that's good. No, that's bad"? Very funny stuff (even without any profanity) That's sort of how my day's been going. I suspect that a great many triathletes would welcome a day off from work so they could train. I probably would too, if it weren't for the fact that I am only working 2 or 3 days a week now. But this one was not "planned". I'm sitting at the desk this morning wondering how I'm supposed to substitute teach without any lesson plans or notes when the teacher walks in the room. First of all, she's so young and petite that I thought she was a student. Secondly, she was smokin' hot so I was mentally chastising myself for being such a dirty old man. And then she realizes she must have put the wrong date in the subfinder program. She's distraught, but I'm not sure whether it is over wasting my time this morning or that she might not have a sub for tomorrow. I told her to relax, I would simply go to the Y early today and yes I would cover for her tomorrow. And so started my day.

A quick stop at K-Mart to buy a new set of ear buds so I can listen to my phone while I'm on the dreadmill. Parked two spaces from the door, then had to walk to the FARTHEST corner of the store to get them. Okay, no biggie, I'm supposed to be exercising anyway, right?

Get to the Y, change out, and head upstairs to the machine room. When they opened this brand new facility back in January they opened with ALL NEW machines. Have to spend five minutes figuring out how to get it to just run. I don't want courses, hills, or intervals. All I want is a never-ending track and speeds I set manually. Finally get it going. the plan is a one hour walk at a steady 3.5mph. As I am approaching the 30m mark that darned young Marine in my head says, "HEY, let's try something different." So at 30m I jump it up to 4mph for 60s, then 3.8mph for 60s, then 3.6mph for 60s, then 3.4mph for 60s, and finally drop to 3.2mph for 5m to recover. Repeated this at 20m and again at 10m. HR zoomed to 145 or so at the 4mph.

Completed my 1 hour walk and even felt that I could trust my legs to go downstairs, unlike the other day when I rode the bike in there. I wimped out and took the elevator that day. Anyway, I set a new PR for the 5k with 54m even. It felt fantastic! However, by the time I got to the locker room I had such a terrible pain in the ball of my left foot that I could barely walk. Now, 3h later I understand why. I wouldn't call it a "blister" per se, because it didn't burst. But I raised a big bloody bruise right at the end of my first metatarsal. And when I say big, I mean the size of an egg! I have a feeling I won't be walking anymore this weekend. Thankfully, next week is a recovery week.

yes, SIR! Will Do!

Edited by ceilidh 2015-09-24 3:52 PM

Hey, we be jammin' now! I have a few refinements to add for October's challenge.

17/20 - Swim - 22m 54s - 1000.00 yards - 02m 17s /100 yards
Racked up another pleasant swim. The hot tub was surprisingly congested when I got there so I skipped it and went directly to the empty swim lanes. I can sure feel the difference in my back muscles. Won't make that mistake again.

Yesterday's blood blister from the dreadmill is about half it's size but painful as all get-out to walk on. Going to try to avoid walking, at least until the blister deflates and goes away.