Boot Camp Day 2

Date: 2/21/2010
Time: 8 AM
Location: San Jose
Weather: Cold and Raining
Workout: 60 min swim, 60 min run, 17 mi bike, 30 min spin, 30 min run/strength, 30 min spin, 30 min run/strength

Notes: Probably my biggest headache about IronTeam is how much we have to drive when we live in San Francisco. Luckily, Arlene was nice enough to give me a ride to Boot Camp today. We left my house at 6:45 and arrived at 7:45 to start working out at 8.

I have realized that I'm not swimming enough. My flip turns were really sad, and I got a little more tired than I should have for the workout. I have a lot of catching up to do in the pool! We transitioned to the bike and rode for 17 miles with a couple of hills in the middle. The rain really started coming down a little over half way through the ride, and we all ended up riding with puddles in our shoes - not the most comfortable feeling. I am grateful for group workouts cuz I am not disciplined enough to get out and ride by myself in the rain. We then transitioned again into running shoes and started on a one hour total out-and-back run. We were instructed to do burpies and crunches every 10 minutes during the run. Since the reasoning behind this wasn't explained, I decided it wasn't necessary for me to spend time on the wet pavement and just ran. :) We then did some hill climbing and one-foot spin training followed by a track and strength workout....then repeat. It was around 3:30 pm by the time we got done with the last track workout, and I needed to head back so I decided to skip the "stretch and cool down" in the pool.



Another thing to note is I had my first experience at In-N-Out Burger on the ride home. I have to admit the burger was pretty great for fast food and definitely hit the spot! We got back to San Francisco around 5:00 PM. Long day and time for some work and R&R. Time to Iron Up for the week ahead.

My Hubby's First Time on a Road Bike

Date: 2/20/10
Time: 11:45 AM
Workout: ~25 mile ride
Location: Paradise Loop
Weather: Cloudy and Cold

Notes: I really wish I would have taken a camera with me so I could get some pictures of David on his first ride ...EVER...on a road bike. After we bought him some bike shorts and jacket at the Presidio Sports Basement and rented a bike, he was looking pretty spiffy. After settling on a Fuji Roubaix Pro aluminum bike - a bike that will make him appreciate a nicer one, and we started off to ride the Paradise Loop - not bad scenery for a first cycling experience! The terrain included a couple of steep hills, and I'm embarrassed to admit that David beat me up all of the hills. I am going to blame my tri bike for this (I am told they are much more difficult to ride uphill). Therefore, this is always going to be my excuse when I'm slow making it up the incline :)


The course included riding across the Golden Gate Bridge, through the town of Sausalito and made it back down to Tiburon. I do have to say that tourists are pretty annoying on the bridge. They take their sweet time, ride side by side, and stop to take pictures. Other than that and a couple of wrong turns we had a great time! We saw a couple of deer in the middle of the road that didn't seem to care that we were there. Once we got to Tiburon, we had lunch and started to head out to finish the loop. However, as any cyclist will know, the first time on the bike will be a little painful on your bum. Instead of finishing the loop we ended up taking the ferry back to San Francisco and riding from Fisherman's Wharf back to Sports Basement.

While I was a little bummed I missed Day 1 of Boot Camp with the IronTeam, I was thrilled to spend the day with David and had a wonderful time! We're currently looking to buy him his own road bike, so keep posted for future rides with my new cycling buddy. We really do live in such a beautiful place for running and cycling, and I love my husband for making the effort to enjoy it with me!

February = Hill Month!!!

Hey everyone,

I've been slacking on my blog posting the last couple of weeks, so here's an update on the last 3 coaches/captains workouts. I'll make sure I do a better job of posting on a daily basis! Please keep checking back and donate to help fight blood cancer if you're able! http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/louisir10/kpham5

Superbowl Sunday!!
Day: 2/7/10
Time: 8 am
Workout: 31 mile Captain's Ride http://www.mapmyride.com/route/us/CA/Oakland/992126515234220155
Location: Rockridge BART - Oakland, CA
Weather: PERFECT!!
Comments: First of all, I want to say thank you to my wonderful husband, David, for waking up early to come sag for us on his day off! This wasn't my day, but I had a fun and beautiful ride none-the-less. I fell a couple of times since my shoe decided it didn't want to unclip (first time that's happened since I first got the bike). After that, I guess I must have messed something up, because I fell a 3rd time when my chain jumped off the gears. Finally, my gears decided they would just start shifting on their own - not something I'm too comfortable with on hill climbing. The ride took a little over 3 hours total. While I had some bumps, it was a gorgeous day. I didn't know parts of Oakland were so scenic! We had an amazing view at the top of the hill of San Francisco and both bridges. It was a crystal clear day, and the views really made me appreciate where I live. Part of the ride was also in the shadows of some beautiful coastal redwood trees.

I'm not going to lie, the first hill at the beginning of the ride seemed to never end, and I ended up walking my bike for part of the incline. I also walked the very top of Pinehurst hill since I was nervous about my gears jumping around. Overall, I had a great time. Tony, the master mind behind the day's bike route, led a group of us through the ride. I enjoyed some great company and a great workout prior to going home and vegging in front of the football game. Such a great day!!



Day: 2/6/10
Time: 8 am
Location: Novato High School
Workout: Team workout! Swim drills with wetsuits, plyos and Indian run, and core workout!
Weather: Cold and raining

Comments: Go GROUP D!
The swim was good practice. It was the first time the team practiced swimming in our wetsuits, so they eased us into it with an open-water swim. We practiced the swim start as well - which feels a bit like the Clif Bar Triathlon Start commercial. We also used it as a chance to practice sighting and surging in the water. Despite some people getting kicked in the face, we had a good time.

The track workout wore us out a little. We started with plyometrics before being split into groups and doing the Indian run, which was basically running in a pace group and the person in the back of the group has to sprint every 20 seconds to get to the front of the pack. We did this in 5 x 1200m intervals. Good times! We kept a sub-8 min/mile pace during each interval.

Core: Dave learned some funny tricks from his coaching training with Dave Scott. Something yesterday must have done something though, cuz I was feeling my calves when I woke up Sunday morning!


MARKER RIDE!
Day: Jan 31st
Time: 9 am
Location: Orinda BART
Comments: This ride was actually 2 min slower than my last marker. However, I'm not going to count this as too big of a disappointment since I'm a genius and had my brakes rubbing up against my wheel during the entire ride. I was wondering why the initial hill seemed so much harder than last time! I guess that's my blonde moment for the week- or I could just pretend that I did it on purpose to make the ride more challenging (Yeah right!).