Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks...

I went to my first swimming lesson today... ay caray. That was interesting. Well, the best way to describe it is humbling. I consider myself an athlete. I excel at a lot of different sports. I picked up cycling and racquetball recently pretty easily and love them both immensely. (I had a dream last night that I was going to be a new cycling instructor at the Y.)I have never had a swimming lesson in my life. I know how to not drown and I could pass a test to swim in the deep end when I was a kid. In fact, and I don't admit this to very many people, but I can't even open my eyes under water. I couldn't even stick my face in the water without plugging my nose or wearing snorkeling goggles until I was about 14 or 15 maybe.
So that brings me to last night. Our YMCA has a Master's Swim Team/Class. I will be going every Tuesday and Thursday night. Last night was my first night and it was a doosy. I actually did pretty well I think considering I've learned everything I know from YouTube! The coach said my arms look great, unfortunately that was all he had to say :) Because I think so much about my arms and breathing... or gasping, whatever you want to call it. I sometimes forget to kick... minor detail. As a result my form get's pretty messed up by the end. I'm excited for next Tuesday, we don't have mutual so I'll be able to go for the entire lesson (usually I can just go the whole hour on Thursday and half an hour on Tuesday). He said that he will teach me how to flip turn to do laps.
I wanted to do a triathlon last year. I checked out a million books from the library last spring. Triathlete's Training Bible, Triathlons for Dummies... literally probably five or six books. Obviously I didn't do it though. I feel like swimming was holding me back. I am determined to learn how to swim properly and do my triathlon this summer!!! I'm excited, but it sure makes me feel like and old dog.

As for my running. I'm very excited to report that I ran a 5K TWICE last week in under 30 minutes!!! Woo hoo! I am going to keep working on my pace. I've just been running 5Ks but haven't tried out some of the workouts I found yet. My best time in 30 minutes right now is 3.29 miles. Trust me, that is great for me. I'm a sprinter, not a long distance girl. Now I just need to find some new running tunes, my list is starting to get repetative.

Yummy

sort of... for healthy. I made these muffins using a recipe for bread and tweaking it a bit. I bet it would taste good with nuts too, I'm not a huge nut fan though... so I left them out. I am considering doing them with a smidgen of dark chocolate chips too. That would make a yummy desert I think.


High Protein Banana Muffins

Category: snack
Servings: 8

Ingredients

1/2 cup + 1 tbs Whey Protein Powder
1 1/2 Cup 100% Stone Ground Whole Wheat Flour
3 Tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp. Baking Soda
1 Tsp. Cinnamon
3 Medium Banana (starting to turn brown), mashed
3 Egg White or 2 egg substitutes
3/4 Cup Unsweetened Apple Sauce
3 tbs olive oil

Instructions

In Medium Bowl Combine:
1/2 cup + 1 tbs Whey Protein Isolate
1 1/2 Cup 100% Stone Ground Whole Wheat Flour
3 Tsp Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp Baking Soda
1 Tsp Cinnamon

In Small Bowl Combine:
3 Medium Banana (Starting to turn brown), mashed
3 Egg White
3/4 Cup Unsweetened Apple Sauce
3 tbs olive oil

Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until it's moistened. Divide batter into 2 mini loaf pans and bake in toaster oven at 350 for 20 minutes. Or you can put the batter in 16 sprayed muffin cups and bake at 325 for 20 minutes (2 muffins = meal)
*tip - fill the extra muffin tin spots about halfway full with water

As soon as they are done take them out of the oven and flip them to their sides or they will stick to the muffin tin more... makes it a lot easier to clean.

As soon as these came out of the oven and Isaac saw them he excitedly said, "pan! pan! pan!" it was soooo cute. I let him try one and he loved it. I had to hide them so he wouldn't eat them all.

8 minute mile???

So I've been looking into increasing my pace for a 5k. Here is my problem, I don't particularly like the long run days. But it's inevitable right? If you're going to train properly and actually improve I guess it is.
I found this training schedule online (amongst others) and I really like it. Challenging, but could it be possible? It's worth a try. Worst case scenario I still decrease my time.

12 x .25 miles resting 30 seconds between dropping to 15 seconds
6 x .50 miles resting 1 minute between each gradually decreasing recovery time
3 x 1 mile repeats resting 1 minute and gradually decreasing
.25 mile repeats with a float – run 2 to 4 miles alternating between .25 pace and 200 meter threshold pace. this one confuses me...
Lactate builders – alternate sprinting 30 seconds and 30 seconds at easy pace
3 x .24/.5/.25 run at sprint .25 then slow to 5k pace for .5 then speeding up for another .25 no recovery between distances but 5 mins recovery between each set
5k long run
4 miles at easy pace, then .5 mile at 5k pace then easy for 4 more miles, then .5 mile at 5k, then slow to easy for 2 miles. Finish 12 mile run with 1 mile at 5k goal pace.

Crazy?

*7.5 for 8 minute mile pace... hmmm. almost anyone at the gym can run a 30 minute 5k... but wouldn't it be cool to get it down to 25 minutes!? yeeeah!

Yeeeeah!

Okay, so I did run yesterday, after swim lessons. I was a bit tired, but I did it anyway... Those aren't always my best workouts. I only ran about... shoot, I don't know, but not my usual and it was more dificult than usual. The good news is. I ran again today and did sooooo much better. I only did about a 2 and a quarter mile run before I had to run to the Kids Zone to get Isaac before they closed. It felt great though. I didn't feel the discomfort I felt yesterday so that's encouraging. So now I'm sitting here sipping my gatorade and eating my Cliff Builder's bar (one of my fav protein bars) and planning for next week. I need to get back to the bike and pool and I need to hit the pool hard. I'm thinking about this week doing it on my own and then when we get back from Spring break I'm going to sign up for the Master's Class. Don't worry! You don't have to be a master swimmer to be in the class. They like people like me.

I also thought it'd be good for me to chart out my goal events... and figure out a way to come up with the money to do them!!! Yikes!

Saturday April 09 there is an indoor triathlon in Romeoville at Lifetime Fitness.. The key word is indoor. I think people who are swimmers have a huge advantage in triathlons because that is the most difficult part to learn I think. I can breath whenever I want running and biking, but swimming... that's tricky for me. Starting with a triathlon indoors sounds soooo much less intimidating than swimming in open water. I mean, what if the Lockness monster... or a big ol catfish or something get me... creepy. Yeah, so I want to start with an indoor one for sure first. I'm pretty much a pro on the spin bike (okay slight exaggeration), I'm a little obsessed with spinning though, I think it is so fun. I've even made myself some workout playlists with songs in order with sprints, climbing, endurance, jumps etc.

Okay on with it!

Saturday April 16 I'm running in the River to River Relay with 7 other women from the YMCA here. Don't you just love the YMCA? I do! I've been able to do some networking and met some pretty cool people through my volunteering there. Well, the River to River is an 80 mile course between two major rivers... Missouri and Ohio? in southern Illinois. I'll be running 3 3.something legs. Pretty exciting and challenging. I'm much more of a sprinter, that was always how I conditioned as an athlete back in the day, so I'm excited for this long-distance challenge.

Saturday May 21 there is a Triathlon/Duathlon in Galena, Il. I've never been there, heard it's pretty. I'm not sure if I'm going to do the Duathlon or Triathlon. It is in a lake... Lockness.. catfish... we'll see.

Saturday June 18 is the 12 Annual Quad Cities Triathlon. This is the one I'm more excited for because I will have done hopefully two already, or at least one indoor and one duathlon and hopefully I'll feel more comfortable and my dad will even let me borrow his old road bike... That would make things easier too. I've been to West Lake many a times and feel very comfortable there so that's another bonus. Plus we can sleep at my parents house and not get up so crazy early or have to get a hotel to do it! :) And maybe Katie's kids could hold up some signs for me or something to give me an extra push...

Saturday August 27 there is a Chicago Triathlon Sprint course. The bigger coarse is on Sunday and it's pretty expensive and sells out by April! So that's a lot of factors that are making me lean towards the sprint course even though it's not as much of a challenge. I think I'll try the sprint and then if I like it then I'll do the full coarse next year. I imagine it's pretty crazy and crowded and I'd like to be more of a Triathlon veteran before I do the big dance.

Ready. Set. Go!

What the heck

okay, so I know we haven't written in this blog in forever, but I have to tell someone (other than Jason and my mom). I'm competitive, I like sports, I like a challenge. I want to do a Triathlon! I want to do multiple triathlons this year. I'm hoping to do an indoor one in the spring, a dualathlon in late spring and a Triathlon June 18th I think it is. Sometimes I feel like I need motivation, but with a serious lack of funds that can be difficult (I'm motivated by new running shoes, sports bras, workout clothes, nice socks, etc.) but for the most part I'm doing well. I trained for three weeks straight before I got a little sick this week. So I've got to get back to it! Starting today right?! Don't people always say, starting tomorrow? I have a lot of reasons for wanting to do this, but the three I listed above - competition, sports (something athletic), and challenging pretty much sum it up. I like the way I feel after I work out hard. I need to push myself, this can do it.
My biggest weakness is swimming. I have always been slightly afraid I think, of the water. I never learned to swim properly and I always used goggles that covered my eyes and nose when I was a kid. I have no intention of learning to open my eyes under water now, that's what goggles are for, but I do want to be stronger in the water. Heck, I'll be swimming when I'm 80 or pregnant, not running 10Ks right?
So here I go. I'll let you (whoever that is)know how this is going as often as I can. My first goal for today, go running before Isaac's swim lessons today at the Y, around 4pm.

iron gym

I bought this thing called the iron gym. It's not really a gym but it is cool. It's this thing you put in the door frame and do pull up with. It's not installed, you just put it there, do the pull ups and take it down. It's also good for doing push ups and sit ups. Anyway I just bought it a couple days ago but I am so glad I did, I am realizing how weak my arms have gotten.
If you want to see what it looks like go here
IRON GYM

So my goals are to be able to -
do 10 pull ups in a row, in all three ways
50 push ups straight through
7:45 mile.
Get a six pack- Not entirely sure how to do this but hey, it's a good goal.


Until I had to move I was using the tread mill in Alpine and I got my mile down to 7:55. It may have a been a lucky day as I am not usually that fast but hey. Of course that was more than a month ago so I need to get back to that.

Progress after first week

This week went all right. We hit some bumps while trying to figure out how to make the best of the weight set we have. Dumbbells would be nice... maybe we'll find a good deal on craigslist. One things for sure, our legs were VERY sore this week. We just hope it pays off! We'll try to be even better this coming week. We need to track our progress on paper and plan a little better.