Progress?

So last week was my rest/test week again. I'm pretty pleased with my progress in the swim and run, but the bike fell apart. My coach thinks something may have been amiss with the equipment or testing set up.
Here are results from the last two time trials.
Swim (1000 yards):

Date	Time	T-pace	Difference
3/29/2007	18:37.5	01:51.8	00:02.7
3/1/2007	19:04.8	01:54.5	00:04.8

Bike (computrainer):

Date	Minutes	Max Exertion	Max Power	Max HR
3/30/2007	8	18	210	175
3/2/2007	10	19	250	173

Run (2 miles):

Date	Distance	Total Time	Pace	Avg HR	Max HR
4/1/2007	2 mi	17:46	8:52	173	181
3/4/2007	2.01 mi	18:41	9:18	159	179

So...what the f*&! happened in my bike test? I have a hard time believing that I totally bombed the bike test and showed reasonable improvement in the other to.
Good news is the weather has decide to think about warming up. It's still cold, but actually saw some temps in the 40's last week, so maybe there is hope.
The biggest problem these days is overcoming some inner demons. But, what doesn't kill us only makes us stronger, right?
Making it happen....
Bree

ENOUGH ALREADY!!

Almost April? Really? Are you sure? I am having trouble with this fact because the weather gods seem not to agree that spring should be here...or at least hint at coming. It's bloody freezing. Let's take a brief look at the weather for the past three days....you know, just for kicks.
Sunday: Average temp 21 degrees; max wind gust 24 mph
Monday: Average temp 25 degrees (ooooh, so hot. should have left my gloves home on this day); max wind gust 37 mph
Today: Currently 24 degrees with a wind chill of 11. So far we have seen a gust of only 36 mph, but the day is young, my friends.
Oh dear, I failed to mention the 4 inches of new snow on the ground.
Bitter? Nah. What would give you that impression?

Part II -

For the second half of my adventure, I traveled to San Diego. I had to go to the National Marine Fisheries Laboratory in La Jolla for work/school, but that doesn't really matter.
What matters is that I was able to soak up just a bit of sun before heading back to the snow and 20 degree weather here in Kodiak.
The view from the La Jolla lab is outstanding. And if that wasn't enough, they play ultimate Frisbee during lunch and have chili cook offs!


One afternoon I bought a sandwich and enjoyed it at the beach. My lunch hour even included a bit of entertainment as I watched some guy try to do handstands on the beach....by himself. I will give him one thing...he was definitely persistent.
















The good news for me was I finished up with business early and had one day to play along the coast. I rented a bike and went for a 22 mile ride along highway 101.
This area is so beautiful and had some great hills to climb. Granted I was on a mountain bike, but one hill I tackled took me 18 minutes to reach the top. Wicked. I treated myself that night to cake batter ice cream.




So, San Diego folks are lucky, but I don't think I could take the traffic and high prices. I think for now I will stick with just the high prices. Not to say that I wouldn't mind a bit of warm weather, as this is the image representing this weekend's forecast.




Making it happen,
akbreezo

Part I...Drowned Rat

I've been gone for two weeks. That's a long time. Too long. I'm back now and happy.
I will just touch on the highlights of my travels.
First stop was Seattle, where I was a bridesmaid in the wedding of one of my closest friends from high school.


















My parents still live in Seattle and my sister flew over from New York City. I think it was the first time that just the four of us (mom, dad, sis, and me) were together since the two of us married off.
The famdamnly at the wedding. Hey...I'm sporting cleavage, who would have thought.








We enjoyed a nice dinner at Lola, which apparently is a well know and well loved Seattle restaurant.








Next to the wedding, the highlight of the Seattle trip was participating in the St. Paddy's Day Dash through the streets of downtown Seattle in the pouring rain. It was a blast and I was so proud of my family for joining in on the fun.


















By far the best part of race day (next to the euphoria of racing, that is) was the antics of my mom. She is going to kill me for sharing this, but it's a true gem (sorry Mom, you know I love you...please keep me in the will).
First, you must know that my mom woke up extra early on this day to do her hair and makeup. During the course of the 3.5 mile walk, the heaven's opened up and it rained sideways. My mom refused to give up the fight, despite the fact that her umbrella was collapsing all around her.










Sadly, there was but one casualty of this epic battle: my mom.














Alright, this concludes part one of my journey away from home. Stay tuned for part two.
Oh, by the way, how the devil do you get your text and picture to line up and look pretty?

MIA

Hey Gang,
Sorry...I've been traveling. I've been away from home for two weeks and am just settling back in. I will update with a new, fabulous post complete with pictures very, very soon.
Thanks to all of you who keep checking in and for all of the great comments.

Making it happen,
Bree

Resting and Testing

This week has been a rest week in my training, which means decreased volume but time trials in each sport. I always enjoy these weeks and look forward to each test with nervous anticipation. Is that totally geeky or what? How much have I improved? What if I have an off day and the test doesn't truly reflect my gains?
Today is Friday and I've completed the tests in the swim and the bike. So far, I am surprised and a bit suspicious of my results.
The last time I did a time trial in the pool was on January 29th. I clocked 19:53:30 for 1,000 yards for a T-Time of 1:59/100 yards. Yeah, I know. Try not to be too impressed. When I repeated this test on Thursday I clocked 19:04 for the same distance. Do you know what that means? It means that my T-Time went to 1:54/100 yards. I dropped 5 freakin' seconds. IS THAT POSSIBLE? Of course, my first thought was that I must have missed a lap, but that would mean that I acutally got slower than my last test and I didn't think that was possible. So, here I am, stuck between refusing to believe I could have gotten that much faster and refusing to believe I could have gotten that much slower. What's a girl to do? Seriously, I need to know if this is a reality and not some funky glitch.
This morning I did an LT test on the computrainer of a friend of mine. The closest comparison to this that I have is a test I took in Seattle in December that also used a computrainer, but different testing methods. Results from that were:
5 mile time trial-
Finish time: 16:16:49
Avg Power: 143 watts
Max Power: 192 watts
Cadence: 92
Max power test (30 seconds ALL OUT)-
Avg Power: 263
Max Power: 350
Avg. Cadence: 100
Max Cadence: 125
So, from these tests they determined my LT was about 169 and my threshold power was 140 watts.
Today's test was a simply LT test in which I started at a given watts and the increased by 20 watts every minute until I could not longer sustain the effort.
LT Test -
Minute;Exertion (Borg Scale);HeartRate;Power
1;7;106;70
2 ;8;110;90
3;10 ;119;110
4;11 ;128;130
5;13;136;150
6;14 ;146;170
7;16 ;158;190
8;17 ;164;210
9;18;170;230
10;19;173;250
Apparently, this means my LT is 173 on the bike. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure how the power fits into the picture. I mean, I understand what power means, but not quite in this context. If anyone has any insights, please let me know.
So far, so good I think.
Making it happen...