Week of 7/12-7/18

Monday Climbing with Sarah and Matt. I only went up the wall 4 times and couldn't even do my easy blue route. Significant loss of strength has occurred. Also, I've been feeling lazy lately.

Tuesday Quick run before dinner with emphasis on sprinting. 1.29 miles at 9'29" min/mile and 0.49 miles at 8'51" min/mile. A nice feature on the Nike+ app on for the iPhone is ability to calibrate runs after completion, so I don't have to decide on a calibration distance before starting the run.

Wednesday Set my alarm clock for the first time in ages and woke up early so I could go for a run before work (1.39 miles at 9'14" min/mile, 0.49 miles at 9'09" min/mile). I was inspired by Rule #11 of the Runner's Commandments which is "Keep in mind that the later in the day it gets, the more likely it is that you won’t run." After work, I went climbing with Ben and Mike. It was significantly better than Monday and put me in a really good mood.

Thursday Lake swim with the tri club. 1.2 miles in 47 minutes. I drank 3+ liters of water that day, have been having 1-3 bananas a day, and made sure to flex my legs regularly while swimming. Result: no leg cramps! We swam in two waves, fast and slow. I was at the head of the slow group and didn't feel very challenged so next time I'll go with the fast group (!!).

Friday I did something crazy yesterday and bought a bike on a whim. It's an older mountain bike that's never been ridden and was only $50. I bought it as a beater bike for getting to and from work. Naturally, I took it for a spin today. I rode to work, picked up some papers, and then headed down to Gimme Coffee to do some reading. After riding back up to campus, I really began to appreciate my light, comfortable road bike. I'm surprisingly sore from all those hills.

Saturday & Sunday Relaxing in Cape Cod. I did do some swimming but not enough to count as a workout.

Week of 7/5-7/11

Monday Rest.

Tuesday Swimming with Lauren at Six Mile Creek. Given the heat wave, swimming is the sport of choice.

Wednesday Practice triathlon at Taughannock during an epic heat wave. I did the 25 mile bike course in 1 hr 40 min which put me at second to last to finish. As if that weren't embarrassing enough, I couldn't get my bike shoe unclasped so I spent 5 minutes stuck in my shoe (so glad this happened during the practice instead of the real thing). Instead of doing the 5k at Taughannock, I went home and did a quick run around my neighborhood (2.39 miles at 10'57" min/mile).

Thursday Swimming with Rick at Six Mile Creek. We did two laps across the opening at second dam and then spent some time jumping off stuff. Seaweed + goggles = gross. I would rather not know what I was swimming through.

Friday Rest.

Saturday First group bike ride! Sarah, Lauren, Cresten, Michelle, and I met at 9:30 in the AM at Gimme Coffee and biked up to Taughannock. From there, some of us continued up to the falls overlook and then through the back roads of Trumansburg. The return trip was quite pleasant. Because we got the uphill done with at the falls, we got to coast 3 or 4 miles down the freshly paved Rt 79 back into town. Afterward, we enjoyed some delicious coffee. I took my brand new iPhone along for the ride. Although I was too lazy to try out any biking apps this time, I did get to use the GPS feature go get us back home safely and the camera to snap a quick picture of Michelle and Cresten under the falls.


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Sunday Rest.

Week of 6/28-7/4

Monday Climbing with Matt, Lauren, Sarah (States), and Arend. I was *really* sore from tubing but it was fun to climb with a different crowd.

Tuesday REST.

Wednesday 5 mile solo run at a 10 min/mile pace. I love how I go from stressed out because of work to completely carefree after couple of minutes. It helps that everyone is so nice... there were crews of workers in the Plantations and everyone kept looking up from what they were doing and waving. It was really sweet.

Thursday Lake swim with the Ithaca Tri Club. I started with a Thursday swim because they go parallel to the shore, which seemed wise for my first open water swim. The current was moving north to south, so the strong swimmers swam north while the rest of us canoed. Once we reached a point 1.2 miles north of where we started, we switched places and swam back. Many of us were new to open water swimming, so there was some momentary panic as we oriented ourselves to each other and the boats. I'm mildly uneasy in open water ever since a bad riptide experience, so I stayed very close to my canoe. It was a good thing because I developed calf cramps after about 15 minutes of swimming. I managed to make it 1 mile, but at that point my calves were cramping so badly that I had to get into the canoe. I used to get leg cramps as an undergrad, but they haven't been a problem since my diet has become more well rounded (i.e. includes fruits and vegetables).

For next time: I will be better hydrated since dehydration always makes my muscle cramps worse. I will also be better about periodically flexing my legs to prevent this from happening again. Another suggestion I got was to kick less frequently, which will reduce the effort on my legs and is generally good triathlon technique since leg strength should be saved for biking and running.

Friday Bike ride with Sarah (States) for about an hour after work.


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Saturday Calves are still really tight so much so that I'm limping. I had forgotten how much leg cramps suck. Forced day of rest.

Sunday Tri-sport day! Michelle and I ran to Six Mile Creek, met up with folks at the third dam, swam, and then ran back. It wasn't real running or swimming, but I think it still counts. We spent the rest of the day celebrating our country's independence by binge eating. I was in a bit of a funk afterward so I hopped on my bike and went for a sunset bike ride (Honness>Rt 79>Snyder Hill>Honness). Biking cheers me up every single time.

Week of 6/21-6/27

Monday Climbing with Ben L, Cloe, Matt and Sarah, 2 hours. Definitely pushed myself to my limit.

Tuesday Swimming with Rick, 1 mile.

Wednesday Biking with Michelle, 14.9 miles, ~1 hour.


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Thursday Swimming with Rick, 35 laps, 1'05" split times so ~34 min/miles. It felt easy. Apparently all the practice is helping. I feel ready for the tri club lake swims. The cutoff is 45 minutes to swim 1.2 miles across the lake.

Friday Running with Michelle. 2.2 miles at 9'52" min/mile pace.

Saturday Solo bike ride. 20 miles in ~1 hr 45 min. Feeling a little more confident about the tri and even forced myself to clip into the bike.


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Sunday Morning run at Six Mile Creek with Gretchen and Maddy the dog. 3.3 miles at ~10 min/mile pace. That evening I went inner tubing down Fall Creek. Little did I know that it would be the best workout I've had in months. My abdominal muscles are sore from the effort of staying upright in my kiddie sized inner tube. My shoulders are sore from swimming and scrambling over rocks in the many places where the water was only 6 inches deep. But the real highlight came when dusk approached and we decided to abandon the creek, hiked barefoot through the woods, and ended up standing in the dark on the side of the road wearing swimsuits and inner tubes. Sarah S, Matt, Sarah J, Maddie and I were all good sports and didn't kill our event coordinator (Rick), although it is generally agreed that he is no longer allowed to plan trips into the woods.

Week of 6/14-6/20

Monday Morning abs. Went swimming at lunch with Maddie and Rick (1 mile) and climbing after work with Matt and Cloe. Climbing was spectacularly fun. I love watching experienced people climb. Everyone has their own strengths and it was great to see how Cloe handled the routes since she's the same size that I am. However, I was a pile of jelly... no more swimming and climbing on the same day.

Tuesday Ran with Michelle after work. 3.51 miles, 9'55" min/mile pace. Really tired.

Wednesday Rest. Feeling funky this week so I decided a dose of meat was in order. Dinner was a tofu and ground beef burrito.

Thursday Canoe clinic with the Ithaca Triathlon Club. We learned how to canoe while guiding swimmers so that we can do lake swims this summer. So much fun to canoe and splash around in the lake. Can't wait to try swimming across Cayuga.

Friday Running with Michelle around Beebe Lake. 2.5ish miles. Much too hot. Cooled down with dollar beers at the Big Red Barn.

Saturday Swimming at Six Mile Creek. Lots of splashing around. I took the opportunity to swim across the pond at the second dam. I have no idea what the distance was but it was amazingly tiring.

Sunday Rest.


I have no idea how I do it but knees are pretty much always black and blue these days from climbing.


Six Mile Creek

Week of 6/7-6/13

Monday I ran home to grab my car: 0.98 miles at 9'19" min/mile, 0.43 miles at 10'05" min/mile. Then 2.5 hours of awesome climbing with Ben, Sarah, and Matt. Really sore the next day.

Tuesday Swimming with Rick (1 mile). He made me do sprints with him, which meant I got to swim in his wake and swallow lots of water. Really good workout, though.

Wednesday Feeling extremely exhausted. Rest.

Thursday Running with Michelle (Vet School>Game Farm Rd>Rec Trail>campus), 4.17 miles , 9'19" min/mile. She remarked multiple times that we were keeping a brisk pace. The day of rest really helped.

Friday Swimming with Rick, 1 mile.

Saturday Rest.

Sunday 13.6 mile bike ride (Honness>Ellis Hollow Rd>Rt 79>Honness) in 1 hour 1 min (13.4 mph)

Week of 5/31-6/6

Monday Rest. I bailed on a bike ride with Annie.

Tuesday 11.6 mile bike ride in 52 minutes (13.4 mph) (Ellis Hollow>Genung Rd>Ellis Hollow Creek>home) then 1.73 mile run (9'38" min/mile). First back to back training event. Running was really hard after biking, but surprisingly I still had a fairly decent pace.

Wednesday Quick before work 2.6 mile run (9'27" min/mile) since the rest of the week will be busy with a conference.

Thursday, Friday Rest.

Saturday Tortoise and the Hare 10+K run at Buttermilk Falls with Gretchen, Michelle, and Miguel. 6.7 miles and 1 hour 23 minutes of fun. This was my first real trail run and it was significantly harder than road running. It felt a bit like an obstacle course with all the tree roots and puddles, and the up and down hills made for lots of walking alternating with rapid wild descents. I dropped my keys early in the run. Oops.

Sunday Strength training. I must be slacking off on abs because I was really sore after this.