Monday, March 5, 2012

Day 5: Fail x 2, Win x 3

Webb: Today's plan was to get to the gym early so we could do an easy Zone 2 run on the treadmill for 5 miles, then hit the pool for a 30-40:00 drill-focused swim.
Ffiona camps out in Webb's bag

FAIL #1: In my rush to get out the door, I forgot to throw a pair of running shorts into my bag. Okay. I wasn't rushing. I was distracted by Ffiona, who had the idea that she might join us at the gym. She's pretty damn cute when she is in gym mode.

WIN #1: While waiting for Elle to emerge from the women's locker room all fancied up in her run gear, I decided I would do a longer swim set. Elle had a surprisingly different idea.

     Me:  Um, I forgot my run shorts.
     Elle: Can't you just wear your swim shorts?
     Me:  You mean my speedos?
     Elle: Yeah
     Me: On the treadmill?
     Elle: Sure
     Me: You've lost your mind.
     Elle: Whaddya mean? Lots of people do it.
     Me: No, you've lost your mind. There is no way I'm going to get on the treadmill in        
            my speedos.
     Elle: C'mon. People run in speedos.
     Me: You're crazy.
     Elle: Fine, we're going to need to break up then.

WEBB'S WORKOUT:
w/u: 200 swim, 2x {100 swim, 100 pull-buoy, 100 kick with fins, 100 swim}
Drill: 200 single-arm drill as 4x50 2x {R-arm, swim; L-arm, swim}
Main 1: 200 TPace +:03
Main 2: 500 swim; 500 pull-buoy; 500 pull-buoy with paddles
c/d: 100
total: 3000m

It was kind of nice to just swim. During the warm-up I focused quite a bit on exhaling in the water - something at which I'm particularly bad. I think it slowed me down. However, I'm going to keep working at it in case it is a situation of one-step backwards, two-steps forward. I get it is important, regardless of discipline, to exhale the CO2. The smoother and more efficiently you can do it, the more efficiently your body can uptake and use O2.

Even though I was cruising along, I kept reminding myself that I needed to push the pace - not necessarily all out, just pressing. I think I was successful. I finished the workout a bit tired, but with plenty left in the tank to tackle Day 6's workouts.

Elle: So I headed to the treadmill alone. Armed with my ipod and Webb's instructions to stay below 160bpm, or 150bpm, if I could. I've been bad about wearing my heart rate monitor, but after going through all the work of taking the VO2 Max test, I figured it was time to start training smart. 

ELLE'S RUN WORKOUT:
Treadmill Run: 5 miles (41:27) @ 1% incline

Fail #2: My trusty Garmin 110 is at it again - it just would NOT pick up my heart rate belt. I don't know why the watch and the belt weren't communicating, but it just wasn't going to happen today. I finally gave up trying, and just went ahead with my run.

Win #2: I didn't let the Garmin fail get me down, I did the 5 miles in about 41 minutes using RPE (rate of perceived effort), and kept my eye on the mirror to make sure I was maintaining good form.

ELLE'S SWIM WORKOUT:
w/u: 200 swim, 100 pull-buoy, 100 kick, 100 pull-buoy, 100 kick, 200 swim
Drill: 200 single-arm drill as 4x50 drill/swim
Main: 200 TPace +:03
total: 1200M

Elle: I did the swim workout in almost exactly 30 minutes. I felt good, the swim went well. And no headache, yay!

Webb: We left the gym and it was significantly colder than when we entered. It was downright frigid. While we were making our way to the bus stop we saw a bus cruise by. That. Sucked. But then ...

WIN #3: Elle caught sight of another bus a half-block behind the first. We picked up the pace and made it just in time to catch a warm, frightening ride home. Seriously, do Boston bus drivers get paid for the number of laps they complete? She was driving that thing like she was on the NASCAR circuit.

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