It has been an amazing week in Calgary! With tons of sun and spring like temperatures it hasn’t been too hard to get out and enjoy it. While I didn’t get off to the best start with my workouts this week I managed to pull up my socks throughout the week.
Wednesday I met up with Kelly for a 30 minute run over lunch. My legs were pretty tired from my Tuesday night spin class. I hung with Kelly and we ran a nicely paced loop around the Bow River. While it wasn’t all that sunny out it really was warm and it felt good to just run and chat. In the evening I made it out to Cochrane for the first time in a few weeks to swim. The swim went alright…but boy oh boy am I lacking a serious amount of efficiency in the water! I did swim golf for the first time and this was a serious eye opener as to just how many strokes I’m taking to get from one end of the pool to the other. One of my big goals will be to work on that! I try to not get discouraged in swimming, but it just feels like I have so much to work on. I think I feel the same way about swimming that I feel about skiing. Shouldn’t I be picking this up faster? Why is it so technical? I know I have slacked off with going to my Wednesday night lessons so I really only have myself to blame for that. While I know I can do the distance in swimming it would be nice to do it better, ya know?
On Thursday it was time to get reacquainted with hill repeats! This was my first shot at hills all year. Kelly also had hill repeats on her schedule, although her workout was slightly different. We ran our warm up together, arrived at McHugh Bluff for our repeats and got to work. The hill was crazy busy with bootcamp classes, walkers, lungers, and other runners. People were really taking advantage of the sun and 12C weather. I ran 4 x 2 min repeats, and while 2 minutes may not seem like a lot it goes by ever so slowly when you are running up a hill! I did a great job on running each repeat consistently. There is something about running hill repeats that really gives you a feeling of accomplishment. Maybe it is the blood pounding in your head, the burning lungs, or revisiting your maximum heart rate, again and again. Whatever it was, it was a great workout!! Kelly and I tried to encourage each other along the way, then we wound up running our cool down run together. A few tricep dips and push ups later, we were done! It was great having my friend on the hill for motivation and support. As our run paces do differ this is one workout that we can accomplish together.
On Friday it was time to make up the swim that I missed on Monday thanks to a massive headache. I walked over to the YMCA after I finished work…soaking up the sun. I ran through a great workout with plenty of drills in it to help me improve my efficiency in the water. Keep your fingers crossed for me that it comes together.
Saturday was long run day! I wasn’t able to get out until after lunch for my run, so by then it had warmed up to a lovely 11C. I decided to go out on a limb and run in capris and a tank top. Initially the wind made it feel a bit brisk, but as I ran on it just felt amazing. The pathways along the Bow River were quite busy with families on bikes, roller bladers, people out walking their dogs and other runners. I started at Edworthy Park and ran towards Eau Claire and back for 9 miles. The run went really well and it was terrific to be out and enjoying this amazing weather that Calgary had.
14 comments:
Way to go - hill repeats are TOUGH. And 2:00 is LONG no matter what :) Keep it up - you're doing great!
I had my first hill repeats of the season on Tuesday and I was doing 1:30 (x5) and even that felt long...
It was a few degrees cooler in Ottawa this week/weekend and as I was running in short sleeves and arm warmers (the wind was chilly) I did see someone in a tank top- I was impressed with her optimism :)
Sounds like we are having similar weather - isn't it fantastic?
Great job on all the workouts. Keep working on the swim... you can only improve!
We had an Ironman speaker at our clinic last week and he compared learning to swim with learning to golf with how technical it is.
Yay for global warning! Who cares about the ice caps, we love this stuff.
Don't you love how ANY remotely warm temperature combined with sunshine feels like spring after a cold winter? :) Glad you had such a rockin weekend of hard workouts!!!
You are going to have that efficiency with swimming in NO time! Looks like a lot of great workouts!
Stick with the swimming -- remember us lot compare ourselves to people who were swim club kids -- they have had YEARS of experience. It only makes sense that they should be kicking our butts and making it look easy.
It is technical, but the good news is, is the more time you put in the pool, the better you will become. Time is all you need. Hang in there girl -- you are doing so well getting your workouts in when you can. :) :)
Stick with the swimming -- remember us lot compare ourselves to people who were swim club kids -- they have had YEARS of experience. It only makes sense that they should be kicking our butts and making it look easy.
It is technical, but the good news is, is the more time you put in the pool, the better you will become. Time is all you need. Hang in there girl -- you are doing so well getting your workouts in when you can. :) :)
Stick with the swimming -- remember us lot compare ourselves to people who were swim club kids -- they have had YEARS of experience. It only makes sense that they should be kicking our butts and making it look easy.
It is technical, but the good news is, is the more time you put in the pool, the better you will become. Time is all you need. Hang in there girl -- you are doing so well getting your workouts in when you can. :) :)
Wow, I just read the rules on swim golf. Holy cow, I need a calculator!
LOL! We had to do swim golf at our last coached swim, & I was SUCH a failure just because I kept losing count of everything.
I was glad that my stroke count for 25m was down to 24 though. Still plenty of room for improvement, but I'll take what I can get.
I think 2min hill repeats would seriously make me yak.
I've never done hill repeats but would really like to try them. I hve a BUNCH Of great hills nearby that would work perfect. 2:00 seems like forever! Hope you had good tunes.
Swimming technique sucks to learn but a few simple things can improve your swim times soooooo MUCH. I do a test of DPS (distance per stroke) about once every two weeks. I think it really helps me remember technique. I have a great book with swim workouts it's called "swim workouts in a binder: swimming for triathletes" it's good a great balance of difference workouts working on endurance, force and technique---plus it's waterproof so you can take it to the pool with you!
swim golf! that sounds like something i should do if/when i ever do laps again... it takes me foreverrrr to get to the other side :)
glad you had some nice weather and were able to take advantage of it! hopefully we'll be seeing much more of it now.
I used to feel the same way about swimming. Why does it seem to come so easy for some folks? What am I missing? I don't know the answers yet but it seems there are many things that swimming and golf do have in common (fewer strokes the better, very technique-oriented but different ways to do it well, etc). Too bad I'm not any good at golf either!
Post a Comment