Comparison and Qualification

” It’s just a sprint tri...”

” I run but I’m reeeeeeeally slow...”

” I know 1000 meters is a short swim for most people but it’s long for me…“

That last one is from this morning.

As a new athlete, I find myself qualifying nearly every accomplishment.  Including the term “athlete” which I squirm at typing.  Every statement ends with an ellipsis, sheepishly trailing off.  Not doing anything impressive! Nothing to see here, folks!

I believe this is the plight of the ambitious newbie with internet access.  There are so many blogs of fantastically accomplished and talented people.  I find these blogs incredibly inspiring and informative but they can certainly skew your perspective.

I was less affected by them when I first started running.  I was at square one and devoured stories of people who started where I currently was but had gotten to square three!  They were marathoners and Ironmen whose early race times looked not unlike mine!  Rad!  As I’ve trained beyond square one, I’m guilty of comparison more and more.  And the more I compare myself to people who are clearly more experienced than I, the more inclined I am to qualify my workouts and accomplishments.

Let’s take this morning as an example:  I swam 1000 meters in 26 minutes and then cycled on the stationary bike for 50 minutes.  Yesterday, I had a 45min cycling/25min running brick workout.   They were both tiring but totally manageable.  Great success, right? [Borat voice, natch.]  It takes a lot of effort for me to push the training tweets of awesome future Ironmen out of my mind and recognize that for me, right now, those workouts show tremendous growth and should be celebrated, not mumbled.

Oh, and also, “most people” can’t and don’t swim 1000 meters.  That’s just silly.  And yes, for most trained swimmers, 1000 meters is a short workout.  I am in that sweet spot between “most people” and “experienced mega athlete” and that’s a great place to be.  No ellipsis!

Do you compare and qualify or are you one of those fabulously grounded people who are “on their own path” “running their own race”?  :D

CA Sprint Tri Training – Week Five

Late again.  I know.  I bet smart bloggers who write weekly workout posts actually work on them every couple days and just keep a draft going.  Maybe they don’t and I should do that and be the most organized blogger of them all!

Monday 5/7 – Rest.  Successful.

Tuesday 5/8 – Run, Swim, TDM

Very short run because I’d had a bit of discomfort in my tendon a couple days before.  My foot is pretty reliable but it’s directly connected to tightness in my calf.  If I stretch and roll my right calf adequately, my foot seems to be fine.

700 meters in the pool.  After making the decision to race the Mermaid Tri in less than a month, I’m upping the distance in the pool.  I was never truly comfortable with the incredibly short workouts on my training plan.  I’ve switched over to the Ruth Kazez 0-1650 swimming plan.  I did it at the end of last year and gained comfort and fitness in the pool pretty quickly.  Maybe should have built on that instead of losing it all and starting from scratch.  I’ll file that away as yet another triathlon lesson learned.  In any case, swimming sucks and is also going better.

TDM with Kim.  She kicked my ass.  Love that girl.

Wednesday 5/9 – BRICK

Exact same brick as last week (30 min ride, 20 min run) on the same route.  My pace was almost identical.  It felt about a thousand times easier because it wasn’t 90 degrees and I drank water before the run.  Look at me, learning!  Also wore my tri suit for the first time.  It was comfy.

Nothing sexier than an unzipped pink onesie and a matching salty pink  face.

Thursday 5/10 – TDM Intervals, Cycle

TDM has a brand new class!  It’s a 45 minute cardio intervals class.  I want to attend it a couple more times before I write a full review.  It was hard but super fun.  If I wasn’t doing so many hours a week of cardio, I would take it regularly.  Also, I was really sore the next day in strange places.  It was a winner.

TOUGH 45 minute cycling workout at the gym.

Friday 5/11 – Rest

So. F*cking. Sore.

Saturday 5/12 – Run, Swim

BROKE THE THREE MILE WALL!  I woke up on Friday morning and thought “I want to run four miles today!”  My foot felt good, I took it pretty slowly and it was awesome.  With marathon training on the horizon, I really want to put this injury behind me.  It was a huge confidence boost to comfortably run four miles.  I could have done more without a problem.  WOOOOOOT!

Also, there were ducklings!

Hella cute!

Another half mile in the pool.  Still working on fundamental aspects of my form: rotation, keeping hips high, and not pulling my head up when I breathe.  I’m breathing much less frequently.  Huge improvement.  Great success.

Sunday 5/12 – Cycle

Another huge breakthrough: I rode my bike in Oakland for the first time.  Between the drivers, the hills, and the potential for sketchy encounters, I’ve avoided riding in my hometown.  Near to my house, there’s a long street with a bike line.  I got up at around 6 to avoid cars and sketchmos.  I had a bit of anxiety but I decided in advance that I wouldn’t worry at all about pace and if I was struggling on a hill or felt freaked out, I would just walk my bike.  It went well!  I had to shift a lot, which is good.  I still shift the wrong way a lot (I’m not kidding) and shifting to the small ring makes me nervous that I’ll spin out.  I nearly did once but I just let the pedals spin until I could regain my balance and put my feet back on the pedals.  Great success, again!

Another fantastic week of training!

How was your week, friends?

The One Where She Buys a Wetsuit

Oh triathlon.  Oh 2012-2013.  SO MANY FIRSTS.

ALL THE FIRSTS.

In the most recent edition of Way The Fuck Outside My Comfort Zone Quarterly, I bought a wetsuit!

It started with some casual browsing on Craigslist.  I’d looked a couple times but didn’t feel motivated to contact anyone.  Then I saw an ad for someone literally five minutes from my house with several new suits for $50/each.  I contacted her and she had a couple in my size.  For $50.  Seriously!

I enlisted one of my besties, Tonia, to come with me for the dual purpose of protecting me from some kind of CraigslistKiller and photographing my first attempt at encasing my body in neoprene.  Truly, I wasn’t that concerned.  One of the Craigslister’s replies came from an iPad so I trusted her.  I probably deserve to be mutilated by a stranger for that level of stupidity.

We arrived at the house and were greeted by Virginia and her husband (didn’t catch his name.)  They were super friendly and most definitely not killers of any sort. I had sent my measurements and they had looked at the suit manufacturer’s size charts to pre-select ones that would fit me.  Off to the bathroom I went to slip it on.

BWAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH

Just. Get. Up. My. F*cking. Leg!!!!!!!

Oh my GAWD.  Why did Twitter not warn me how difficult this was?!?!?!  I had to stop to breathe and calm myself several times.  My legs are super thick so the appropriate size does NOT go on easily on my bottom half.  Since it wasn’t my suit yet, I couldn’t use baby powder, body glide, or an entire can of Pam.

I finally got it on after about twenty minutes, no joke.  The crotch was at my knees.  Couldn’t get it on my torso.  Crap.  Back to the drawing board.  This time with the ankles of the suit several inches above my actual ankle, even though I have short legs.  Weird.

After another twenty minutes and many encouraging words from Virginia, Nice Husband of Virginia, and Tonia, I was almost there!

Action shot. Note the sweat, er, GLOW.

IT FIT!  Thank god because there was no way I was trying another one on.  They assured me that it would be much easier in the future and that even though it was  difficult to put on, it was certainly the right size.  It felt pretty weird but I had full body mobility, especially in my shoulders where it really matters.  The crotch was nearer to my crotchal region, though I think I’ll hike it up a bit more next time.

HEY EVERYONE! COME SEE HOW GOOD I LOOK!

Kinda rocking the wetsuit look.  It’s like full body industrial spanx!

So, now I have a wetsuit and the world of ColdNorthernCalifornianWater triathlon is wide open.  So, I um registered for the Mermaid Tri in Alameda on June 9th.  20 days before my planned triathlon debut at the California Sprint Tri.

They forgot BRING IT!

[Source]

Holy shit.  I’mma be a triathlete in less than a month.  More to say on this decision but even though I have freakout moments, I am very excited and I feel ready.  It’s on my home training turf, the swim is short, and it’s a newbie friendly event.  I say, bring it!

Bring on the wetsuit tips!

I’m a JANE!

Happy Sunday, lovely people!

I have a pretty cool announcement to make:

I’m a 2013 See Jane Run Ambassador!

See Jane Run is my favorite local running store.  Located on College Ave in Oakland, it also happens to be next door to my favorite sweet potato fries so I’m in there a lot.  Other locations include, SF, Danville, and Boise.

SJR on College! Spend all the monies?

[Source]

It’s not a huge store but has a great selection of brands and a very thoughtful selection of shoes.  The women who work there are super friendly, knowledgeable and not at ALL intimidating to newbie athletes.  Here’s their manifesto:

[Source]

In my humble opinion, the best aspect of See Jane Run are their awesome RACES!  I might be a bit biased since last year’s SJR 5k was my first race and basically opened up this awesome life for me.

Clink Clink!

In addition to the 5k, there is a half marathon event which I will do in 2014, if it fits in my race schedule.  The See Jane Run races have incredible energy, wonderful camaraderie, and sweet swag.  Chocolate and champagne?  Come on!

So faaaaaancy!

It’s so rare to be able to pinpoint the exact moment when your life changes.  When that race began and I joined the sea of bobbing heads in front of me, my life changed forever.  Being part of that positive collective unlocked something inside me that I never would have known existed.  Looking back on the pictures from that day gets me a little verklempt, truth be told!

Crossing the line for the first time. #GameChanger

It’s a tremendous honor to represent this fantastic company and community.  You can look forward to more Jane-related posts and my recap of the 2013 SJR 5k taking place on June 8th in Alameda.  COME ON DOWN! I intend to PR and completely demolish that adorable first time of 32:24.  :D

Janes are strong.  Janes embrace challenges.  Janes have FUN!  What makes you a Jane?

CA Sprint Tri Training – Weeks 3 and 4

My punishment for not blogging is that I have to try to pretend I remember how these workouts went.  Lesson learned.

Here’s my training for the last two weeks with the few details I can remember.

[You can mail my BLOGGER OF THE CENTURY award directly to the Barney's on College Ave.]

Monday 4/22 – Run, Swim

Completed!  No idea how it went.  These workouts were the first day of ‘Battle Hymns’ tech week which feels about a million years ago.

Tuesday 4/23 – Cycle

Skillz practice in a parking lot.  I’m practicing grabbing my water bottle, which I can now do.  What I realized is that I have no idea what I would do once I got the the bottle into my hand.  I’ll figure that out later.  When I got home, I decided to try some hill repeats and practice shifting gears.  I chose the hill nearest to my house and was demoralized to discover that I couldn’t even make it halfway up.  Once.  Uhhhh….

Nice try.

Wednesday 4/24 – Run, Swim

3 easy miles and a short swim.  Uneventful workouts except that when I went into the locker room to change from running clothes to swimsuit, I looked down to notice that I had banged into the corner of a bench.  I barely felt it.  Which is weird because it turned into this:

Hrm. OWW.

Okay, bruise.  No biggie, right?  Except when I woke up on Wednesday morning, I literally couldn’t bend my leg from an extended position.  It was so stiff and so painful!  I had no problem walking but I couldn’t put any weight on my leg if it was bent.  NOOOOOOO.

I was incredibly stressed and anxious about my upcoming concerts and this injury gave me an opportunity to focus solely on my performance.  No workouts happened for the rest of the week.  Lots of icing and cursing.  I wasn’t happy about that but it was necessary as the show was physically demanding and my knee got worse before it got better.

Monday 4/29 – Swim, Cycle

Easy indoor ride to test my knee and a longer swim.  I’ve decided that the swim distances of my training plan aren’t long enough for me to feel confident doing a half mile swim on 6/29.  I’m going rogue and extending them.  On this particular day, I did 11 x 50 and felt good.  The ride was 40 minutes and while my knee felt weird, it wasn’t any weirder during or after the workout than before.  All systems (gently) go!

Tuesday 4/30 – TDM

I love Dailey Method.  Kimberly is the bomb.  She accommodated my knee weirdness but TDM is so anatomically thoughtful that none of the exercises bothered it in the slightest.  It’s awesome.

Wednesday 5/1 – BRICK

My first legit brick!  Finally got to feel like a badass and use the multisport mode of my Garmin.  What what?

So keeeewl!

 

This workout was haaaaaard.  So….I’ve ridden the stationary bike and run right after a few times.  You know, on TriFri!  I really didn’t see what the big deal was and figured I was just the beginning of a new species of athlete biologically designed for brick workouts.  Like a SuperLady!

NOT SO MUCH.  THIS WORKOUT WAS VERY HARD.

The ride was easy.  A comfortable loop of Bay Farm.  I made an effort not to ride too hard and save my legs for the run, especially since I hadn’t run in about a week.  I set up my little transition area (nerd alert!) in the car so as soon as I was done, I tossed the bike in the car, switched my helmet for a visor and took off.  Without drinking water.  At any point.  Also, it was 90 degrees which is obviously irrelevant.

I only had to run for 20 minutes but it was brutal.  I was running faster than I should have, completely dehydrated.  But I did it and didn’t walk!  Many lessons learned for today’s redemption brick!

Thursday 5/2 – Rest.

Believe it.

Also, #tbt

BabyShauna

 

Friday 5/3 – Run, TDM

Three easy miles and a not at all easy Dailey Method class with Susannah.  She asked me to DEMO which totally made my LIFE.  EGOSPLOSION!  I worked harder than I’d planned since I felt like people were watching me and expecting me to be strong!

Saturday 5/4 – Cycle

55 minute ride in Alameda.  On streets.  With cars.  It was AMAZING and a huge breakthrough.  This deserves its own post, if I can get my shit together to write one before it is eclipsed by newer amazing accomplishments.  Being a beginner is awesome.

Sunday 5/5 – Swim

Another easy, shortish swim 9 x 50.  Easy on paper, not easy in real life.  I’m such a shitty swimmer.  I know my body position is incredibly inefficient.  I’m doing my best but it’s really time for someone to fix me.  Gotta get on that.

PHEW CAUGHT UP.

There are some other major things that happened to this little introvert this week.  More info forthcoming but I’ll tease ya with THIS:

Oh Shiiiiiiiiiiiii….

 

 

 

Battle Hymns

Haaaaaaaaaaiiiiiii!

So many things to report.  Pardon the radio silence but a confluence of weight gain stress, complicated and high profile concert stress, minor injury stress, and general STRESS formed a brick blogging wall.  But I’m back!  With unreadable run-on sentences and many, many things to share!

I fully realize that the few people who read this blog don’t read it because they’re interested in my classical music career.  Ironic since *at my very best* I’m a mediocre “athlete”.  Singing is my jam and I’d like to share a bit about the major event that kept me from blogging the last couple weeks.

I recently completed the West Coast premiere of  ’Battle Hymns’ by Pulitzer Prize winner David Lang.  The performances were collaboration between nearly 200 professional, amateur, and child singers and the fantastic Leah Stein Dance Company from Philadelphia.   The piece depicts the civil war through texts by Abraham Lincoln, the famous “Sullivan Ballou” letter, and fragments of songs by Stephen Foster including “Beautiful Dreamer.”  It was an incredibly complex piece to put together but throughout the rehearsal process, we all believed we were creating something very unique and potentially moving.  To our humbling delight, full houses at each of the four performances agreed with us.  Many of my colleagues and friends were unable to articulate their emotional response to the piece but their swollen, tearful eyes said everything.  There were many incredibly emotional moments in the piece, including an extended section where the children’s choir repeats the text “I’ll be a soldier” and suddenly falls dead to the ground.  The dancers swiftly ran to them, helped the children to their feet and escaped the “battlefield.”  I’ll admit that I shed more than a few tears myself the first time I saw them fall.  It was an absolutely incredible experience.

“Tell Me”

“A Father’s Love”

Phenomenal dancers. I got to touch one!

To read more about this work:

San Francisco Chronicle Review

New Music Box Review (with a reeeeeeally awkward close-up shot of ME in profile.)

Executing my training plan during  a tech/performance week of long calls and  performance anxiety (I had a very high and lengthy solo – ACK) was a major challenge.  I’ll tell you more about THAT when I wrap up weeks 3 and 4 of California Sprint Tri training!

Any musicians out there?  Any of my amazing Battle Hymns colleagues reading this and want to come out of the shadows to comment on your experience, MissJessicaIam writingdirectlytoyouinbold!

CA Sprint Tri Training – Week Two

I think we can all agree that this week has been terrible. It sucked.

I had no desire to do my Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday workouts. Between my hormonal weight and the weight of the confusing world, I did not feel like an energetic, budding triathlete. Not a bit.

Did them anyway. And they were all great. Weird.

Week Two:
Monday 4/15 – Rest.
Nailed this.

Tuesday 4/16 – Cycle, TDM
11 miles in 30 minutes on the stationary bike. I’ve realized that if I’m feeling at all anxious, I have a major aversion to riding my bike. I should have pushed through that anxiety because cycling at the gym forced me to watch Boston coverage on 4 screens. I cried. It was gross.

This TDM class feels like ages ago. All I really remember is wearing my RnR San Jose Half shirt and sharing somber conversation with a couple other runners. I took a gamble on an instructor I hadn’t taken before. She wasn’t bad but her delivery was so scripted, it made her sound like a flight attendant. Not my fave. I worked hard but not super hard. Thigh work after cycling? Not really happening.

Wednesday 4/16 – Run, Swim
25 minutes of slow, easy treadmill running. Not much to report. Wait, that means no foot pain! There’s something to woot about!

500 meter ladder workout. I’m pretty much the slowest swimmer on earth but I’m doing 99% freestyle so that’s an improvement, right? I really don’t feel like I know what to do with my arms, LOL. Need swim lesson like yesterday.

Thursday 4/18 – Cycle
More stationary miles. It was gorgeous out but I just didn’t want to be in the gorgeous. 12.5 miles in 34:20. Wow I wish I could ride that pace outside. What is the difference, exactly?

Friday 4/19 – Run
This was supposed to be 20 minutes easy. Turned into 17:50 minutes of lung-busting tempo plus after a five minute walking warmup. I realize this was totally stupid. It served no training purpose and could have stressed my foot more than it could handle. I felt like running fast. I did. A 9:23 mile followed by an 8:28 mile. No foot pain. Proved to myself that I have some fitness and that my foot is doing well. Great. No more dumb workouts like that.

An old guy did encourage me and that was nice. Thanks, sir!

Saturday 4/20 – Rest
Eatathon. Date unrelated. Not a smoker and don’t need weed to eat like a burnout.

Sunday 4/21 – Swim, Cycle
Endurance swim. 300 meters continuous. Felt good and finished in just under 8 minutes. Slow but comfortable. Only had to breast stroke for about five strokes near the beginning. These shorty swims feel silly.

14 miles (race distance) in 48:42 on the stationary bike. Endurance ride in zone super easy. I’d be happy if this were my race time!

Overall it was a successful week of training despite a shitty week of living.

Hope everyone is healing and moving!

Tough Week

Boston Blue.

I think we can all agree that this has been a terrible week. Heartbreaking for those of us fortunate enough to be removed from this chaos. Unfathomable and terrifying for those directly impacted.

It’s been a difficult week for me personally due to overwhelming hormones (read: overwhelming emotional response to everything.) I’ve had little motivation or interest in any of my workouts. I feel enormous and sad. Yesterday I changed my workout clothes three times before going to the gym. Even the simplest decisions feel embarrassingly fraught.

One thing I’ve learned in my very short time as a participant in endurance activities is that the workouts you don’t want to do are the most important ones to complete. It’s an opportunity to practice relentlessness. Whenever I don’t want to get up, get dressed, get out, I think about Mile 21. 5.2 miles of uncharted pain left. My parents, my best friend Lauren, and Tim at the finish line in Portland.

I think about being 30 miles into the bike ride with another 26 and a half marathon left.

Yeah, I went there. I probably won’t *actually* go there for almost two years but the 70.3 seedling has taken root…

This week’s workouts have been fine and just getting them done provides a little kernel of success and control in an otherwise helpless, shitty week.

Keep it moving. You are loved.

Heartbreak

I woke up earlier than expected, pleased to get to watch the marathon. I was inspired. I screamed for Shalane to make a last push.

Watching the elites in the home stretch, I found myself looking at the storefronts on Boylston. I was trying to remember if they were the same ones I frequented for four years as an undergraduate at the New England Conservatory of Music, one mile away. I don’t think we had that Trader Joe’s.

I cried when the pushrim winner blazed over the finish line. I cried again when Rita Jeptoo’s stoic expression relaxed into proud tears as her national anthem played.

I began to imagine what it will feel like to cross the finish line of my first marathon and spent the next couple hours with a goofy grin.

The news broke on Twitter and then more tears.

Love to everyone who was harmed.
Love to everyone whose phenomenal accomplishment was stolen.
Love to everyone who helped.

CA Sprint Tri Training – Week One

Week One DONE!

I am so happy to be following a training plan again! The training feels conservative compared to building my cycling and swimming base while training for the Oakland Half. Maybe that was a sneak preview to next season and training for longer tris….?

I have different challenges and goals in each of the three sports. After a few months off swimming (and only like two months on swimming), my single goal is to increase my endurance. Improving my technique through regular practice is the only way to get there. I’m quite comfortable in the water and I know that (worst case scenario) I can always switch to breast stroke and survive the swim. The flip side of the coin is cycling. I’m relatively strong (for a total n00b) but still not completely comfortable. In the next eleven weeks, I need to branch out: ride new routes with new folks and learn some new skills. I would rather not have to pull over and stop to take a drink.

The run was supposed to be my back pocket sport. My foot hasn’t given me any grief this week. YAY! I’m not nearly as strong as I was before the injury interruption but I’m thrilled to be running again. My goal is to stay injury-free and hopefully regain some speed but that is not a priority.

Week One:
Saturday 4/6 – Run
My return to the Alameda shoreline. I started with a half-mile walk and kept the run short and slow (about a 10 minute mile). Pain-free, WAY TO BE!

Monday 4/8 – TDM
This class sucked balls. I DIED. No idea why I was so weak but I was and it was brutal. Must have been doing something however, because I was quite sore the next day!

Tuesday 4/9 – Bike and Swim
Back in the pool! I was soooo happy to be back in the water. The scheduled swim workout was 200meters which is, um, silly. I’m also silly and like to follow plans to the letter. I added 50 meters but was still out in 5 minutes. COME ON! Then I had to get my wet body into cycling clothes and onto the stationary bike for a 20 minute ride. The dressing process took about three times as long as the swim itself. Ride first, doofus!

Wednesday 4/10 – TDM and Bike
This was supposed to be a rest day but it was absolutely gorgeous out. I shuffled things around to get out in the sun. Had a lovely loop around Bay Farm Island. No crashing. Some alarming whining at the end of the ride. I thought I’d broken my bike somehow but I think it had to do with the placement of my new and huge saddle bag. I pulled over, freaked out a little, and the sound went away!

This class was muuuuuch better than Monday’s humiliation. I went to class with my friend Tonia who always inspires me to work harder! I realize I could suspend classes during tri training but I love it way to much to ever give it up.

Thursday 4/11 – Rest

Friday 4/12 – Swim and Run
Another shorty swim but this one suuuuuucked. I didn’t know it was possible to have a terrible 6 minute swim but when you eat 400,000,000 calories the day before and don’t rotate your body in the water, swimming is bad. Not good.

I thought the run would be awful too but it wasn’t!

Not bad!

That run felt a lot harder than that pace would have a couple months ago but who cares? At least I’m able to push myself a bit! I made a promise to myself that I’d only push myself like that once a week. And no real speedwork for quite awhile still.

Saturday 4/13 – Swim and Bike

This time, I rode first! 11 miles in 30 minutes. I so wish I could ride my real bike as fast as I can ride one that doesn’t go anywhere…

Bad girl. Broke rank and swam 500 meters instead of 250. I had the lane to myself! What do you want from meeee? It was nice.

Sunday 4/14 – Run
Bad girl again. Again, it felt so good. 3 miles in 29 minutes. I was baking in the sun and felt like I was going to die but my foot didn’t make a peep! Still gotta make sure I keep it slow when I’m supposed to.

All in all a great first week! Onward!

Whatcha training for?