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Reason #532 I love my coach June 26, 2008

Posted by Kylie in : swiming, marky , add a comment

You know that little voice in your head? That isn’t negative, but doesn’t always push you as much as it could? That believes in you, but keeps you a bit safe from that edge of failure?

Well, sometimes it has to shut up. Marky recently had me doing 15×100 on 2 min. That is good for me — I had often done on 2:05 or occasionally on 2 min. But never for that many repeats. But I trust him (a requirement for success with a coach) and so I didn’t mention any fear, climbed in the pool, and got it done.

Well this time it was 15×100 on 1:55. I saw that and part of me doubted. But Marky said it, so I got in the pool and that was the goal. So what did i do? Well, came in on 1:47-1:51 for all of them and hit each one. Because that faith in me helped me try pushing that envelop, and it was something I could do. And it felt DAMN GOOD.

Marky said…. June 25, 2008

Posted by Kylie in : running, marky , 3 comments

… try to find some hills (for my long run this week). So I said

Happy? I am :)

definitely a memoriable memorial weekend May 27, 2008

Posted by Kylie in : running, biking, mountain biking, mike, marky , add a comment

I took full advantage of the 3 day weekend — the first one I’ve had since classes started in January.

Saturday Mike, the mountain bikes and I all climbed our way up the same basic route we did back in December. It was still beautiful and fun. We went a bit farther this time, and made it all the way to the summit of the fire road. And again froze our asses off on the way down. It took forever in warm water in the shower to get my toenails not blue. And I might never listen to Mike about when to bring my cold-weather gloves again. But about 22 miles and 6000 ft of climbing kicked off the weekend right.

Sunday started with a pretty relaxed 30 mile loop on bike paths, basically flat (just under 1000ft of climbing). Then some shopping for a dress for one of my sister’s wedding in a couple weeks. A fun dinner, and then a nice evening 4.5 mi run.

Monday no alarm clocks were allowed. And we relaxed in the morning. But got out the door barely before noon for a great climby loop chasing Mike or sometimes riding with him — 71 miles and a bit under 10,000ft of climbing. Knowing it was going to be a long day of climbing, I just spun up pretty much everything, relaxing and enjoying the gorgeous views from the ridge road and seeing down the valleys. I loved the miles and miles with no cars, since about 20 of the miles each way were on roads that are currently closed to cars (ok currently closed — but lots of bikers still play up there). And the french dip sandwich at the turn around, complete with a fire to dry off and thaw a bit from that last cloud, also rocked. Oh yeah, and on the final stretch, I got a bit playful and I think Mike got tired of me finding sprint points ;) I just knew I could make it home from there!

And thanks to Marky, a nice little run followed the ride. Just 20 minutes, 2.2 miles, but there weren’t really any completely flat parts.

So I earned my spaghetti! :)

Oh and the “song” stuck in my head lately? “It’s too cold for holes in my arse… it’s too cold for holes!!” (inspired by a pair of bike shorts that were torn on a fence).

sorry… May 22, 2008

Posted by Kylie in : Life Outside of Tris, marky , add a comment

So Marky told me to zip it about the rain. But it didn’t end there. It poured and then was nice and sunny and warm at lunch and then pooooured this evening. With lightning and thunder! So I ran to the car to leave, of course during one of the strongest downpours of the day, and it wouldn’t unlock. And so I used the key. And it opened and I climbed in. Even the door unlock wouldn’t open the other locks, and I tried to turn on the car. No luck. Well shit. Looks like I left the lights on all day. I blame it on the rain. If it wasn’t raining I wouldn’t have gotten out of the car through the back seat in the morning, and the car would have beeped at me and I would have turned the lights off (I was hunting for my umbrella and crawled through to the back…).

So thanks to the guy in the common area at work who opened the door for me since my badge was in the car, and then had jumper cables and helped me in the rain. Wooo for helpful people!

And then I heard that we had a couple tornados today! Yes, in Southern CA! Craziness! So there, Marky — it was crazy here, too.

But it did mean the pool was closed, so no swim this evening. Just a crazy rainy drive home.

learning the Marky Way May 21, 2008

Posted by Kylie in : running, biking, marky , 1 comment so far

More focus this year. Not on just doing, but on improving. On building speed, so that instead of having a long run I have a strong long run. Sometimes it hurts. As I started my run this morning, I really thought just stopping and stretching for the hour would feel so much better. But while visions of coachy-pants danced in my head I kept going. And of course the warm up loosened up my legs, and things fell into place.

After the ultra to kick of the year, it feels odd to have my “long run” day be 8 miles. But the focus this year is on shorter races, so even the long run is shorter, and at a better pace. Today I threw in some intervals, doing a mile hard, 1/2 mile easy, and repeating that 4 times. Then (because Mike was about to catch me and because a certain hill and I fight over who gets to make me hurt more) I added a HARD 1/4 mile on a bit of an uphill to finish off the mainset.

And about that spinny bike ride I did last night? Well it felt awesome — my focus was on a higher cadence to let the legs spin a bit more, but even with keeping the highest cadence I have in a while, the winds made for a bit harder of a ride than I had pictured. Oh and I’m bad at the high cadence game — you’d think that means I’d go into easier gears even for slight hills, but often for me it really means I just push a bazilliondy watts up the hills to keep the cadence up. I can be soooo lazy about shifting.

So my legs are a bit sore, and I can feel it walking today. Man I love that feeling. I wasn’t really getting it the same with the ultra format of training. And it means time to see if my massage girl Brianne has time for me on Friday! Because only this kind of leg feeling makes a massage reward even sweeter.

guess it is time to move May 6, 2008

Posted by Kylie in : biking, R3, marky , add a comment

With the rides I do all the time, I love that my Trifuel training log lets me compare my times over each course. I often have goal times for “someday”. Recently, my 20.5 mile mostly flat ride had a goal of 1:10, and my rolly 30.5 mile route had a goal of 2:00.

Well Saturday I climbed on my R3 and headed out on the 20.5 mile course. Nothing too exciting at first, but I was feeling pretty good so starting going a bit harder. I returned home in 1:09:29. That’s 4:22 faster than ever before, and 8:15 faster than my average. Wooo! I’ll take it.

Today I went out on my 30.5 mile route, feeling a bit stiff. My legs were not warming up too well, and seeing my power numbers in the first interval put me in a “get it done” frame of mind (not a “grab that PR” one). But I figured I’d still sticking to my coach’s prescribed 5 min on, 3 min off intervals. At the turn around, I though I might be a couple minutes ahead of whenever I’ve done it before, but I wrote it off to remembering the time wrong, and just kept doing. About 7 miles from the end I could tell another PR was coming, and it was good motivation to hold where I was through the set after the intervals were done. Got home… in 1:53:13!! Yup, a good 7:58 faster than ever before, and 11:16 faster than my average!

I’m pleased, and gave the legs healthy food and the rest of the day off. Time to move and find new routes to set goals for… or to just up those. Did I hear 1:05 and 1:50? :)

good motivation to get in the pool March 14, 2008

Posted by Kylie in : swiming, mike, marky , 1 comment so far

I was sleepy this morning, but Mike was getting up to go swim so I dragged myself out of bed. It’s just easier when he’s getting up, too, since bed is less cosy when only I’m in it. I tried to come up with a way to get myself in the pool and getting in a full workout. I know if I have a set plan (especially one someone else knows about) it is a lot easier.

Well my coach (Marky) was asleep on the couch, in town for a power conference. And he woke up to the sprinklers and then gave me a workout of 2100 yds. So that’s one way to get a plan ;)

So I got to the pool, and I got it all done. Oh, and held near my goal pace of 1:50 for the 100s at the end of it. I want it to be my crusing pace, and that was definitely a bit higher effort than that, but it just showed me another step in the right direction.

believing in Coachypants more and more!

Posted by Kylie in : running, marky , 1 comment so far

You know those days when you just feel things falling in place? Well, last night’s run was one of those runs. Plan was 8 miles, with 2 easy, 4 faster (going by feel, but had thoughts of sub-8:30pace in mind), and then 2 easy to get back home. I was feeling tired, and not really in the mood to run, so I put on some music to distract me til I found my zone. And I found it –

My easy warm up was a comfy 9 pace, and then I managed sub-8 for the first hard mile! Good motivation came first when I spotted a guy ahead who looked like he shouldn’t be able to run a 10 min mile but that I wasn’t catching — I had to catch up just to see when I was by him what speed he was at (7:20ish)! Wow that was a hard mile, I thought. Huh, wonder if I can do sub-8 for another. So I did. Then came the thoughts of doing all 4 at that pace! I knew the outbound direction was a bit tougher, so I thought I could, but I was feeling the pace! My legs were starting to burn a bit. Made it though :) My 4 fast miles were 7:52, 7:56, 7:36, and 7:29!

Feeling a bit tired, I looked down and saw my total time. My 10k PR in a race is 53:07, and while I have come close to it in training, I was way under it! So I kept up a good pace for another .2 miles, hitting 10k in 50:30!!

Content, I stopped checking my watch, and just let autopilot take over. Yet in an hour I was just over 7.3 miles!! That’s my farthest in an hour EVER! And parts were not at all pushing it.

So in the afternoon run I almost skipped and just played by ear, I stayed under 8 min pace for the main set, PRed 10k and hour. Yeah, I’ll have some more of those training theories now Marky!

my butt March 6, 2008

Posted by Kylie in : running, biking, Planet X, R3, marky , 1 comment so far

So far today has been all about my butt. It started with the stupidheads in the car yelling at me about it when I was riding. But I completely ignored them and didn’t even glance their direction, so they didn’t get to see that I even could hear.

Then I kept riding, and man it was a bit tight and sore. And then I stopped riding and drove to work. Walking to my office I could again tell it was tight and sore. So yes, my glutes needs some love and I will be trying to get an appointment with Brianne, massage therapist extraordinaire, to help with that.

But they are how they are ’cause it has been a good week. Wednesday had an 11 mile run at sub-8:54 pace! Coach Marky has me running a bit shorter than I am used to right now, but doing more fast stuff and bringing that in, and it is fun! Painful, but fun :)

I also had some nice rides Sunday and Tuesday on the R3 and on the PX this morning. Sunday felt great — I did a regular 30 mile loop with a good bit of climbing, and was over 5 minutes faster than other times! I really worked myself on parts of it. I <3 Marky’s 5on/3off intervals.

On Tuesday and Thursday I could still feel that ride and the Wednesday run. I was moving alright this morning, but sooo windy. And I felt like I just didn’t have power really either day during the week. I had some on Tuesday, but especially today my legs just weren’t there. Since I’ve felt exhausted this week, it means I am sleeping in a bit on Saturday since my guess is I’m just worn out right now.

My butt is now on my office balance ball, so time to write the code that will take over the world!

Redlands Tri Race Report February 10, 2008

Posted by Kylie in : Race Tales, pics, Planet X, mike, marky , add a comment

In February 2004 I did my first triathlon: a reverse order sprint (5k run, 10ish bike, 100yd swim). I was so proud to finish it in ~1:16.I did the same race, although on a new and similar course, again in 2007. A couple years of training under my belt and I pulled off a 1:03:06, winning my age group in the rain. And it was my first race with Mike, and he won it overall! Today it was that same race again, and so we went back for our first tri of this year.

Although my R3 and I have been having fun bonding, it is a fairly flat course and so my PX and my aero helmet got packet up. We had much better weather this year, although there was a bit of a chill at the start. The race wasn’t quite as well organized this year: our mail in registration didn’t actually get processed. So they just had us fill out the day of form and race that way. And only one part of the course was different this year, which was that they had the start line set up in the chute that led in and out of transition. Mike was a bit concerned about the sharp right turn less than 100 yards from the start, but then it turned out to be even a bit more of a mess — it was really just a lining up point before they walked us out to the actual start just past that turn. Where by walk I mean someone said hey go out to the road, and the pack kinda took off. Luckily they somehow stopped it at the planned start. But it was really odd.

But it was time, and we were off. In the first half mile I could already feel my legs were a bit heavy, and I just didn’t feel I had the same strength on the run. I’m sure it is still some recovering from the 50k still, as well as from the 10 days of being really sick after it. But I didn’t feel bad — just like I was having to work harder for the same results. So I kept trying to push it. Then Cheri (also an Inland Inferno Club member) came up. I’ve always admired her strength in tris and enthusiasm for the kids she brings into tris, so I felt honored to be running by her, and decided to try to stay with her as long as I could. And somehow I managed to stay with her through the run, even pulling away a bit at the end. So that was pretty cool.

I had a quick transition: not much to do but drop the Garmin and visor, pull on the helmet and get my sunglasses on with it, and then pull on the shoes, grab my bike, and go. To the mount line, quickly on, and I was off. It’s a gradual climb for the first two and a half miles, and they kinda hurt. Nearing the top of the climb I almost backed off a bit. But then I thought “Marky will be proud of me that it hurts” so I went harder. Thanks Marky… I put up with more burning in my legs each climb than I would usually think I could.

And the downhill — that was pretty fast and fun since it doesn’t look really really downhill! I felt like I was flying, and effortlessly. At the really sharp uturn at the bottom I watched a guy completely crash and flip, but not in a painful looking way, and with tons of race support right there, so I kept moving. Gotta be careful when it’s that sharp… I felt really connected with my bike and like I took most of the turns at a good clip - I think that’s where I improved over last year. I pounded back up the hill again (not very fast, but pretty smooth and strong). More burning and thoughts of Marky… and then as I came near the top a coworker of mine (an expert mtn biker new to tris, and in my age group) came by. It was a draft legal race, so I grabbed on. But then on the final very rough stretch of climb (woo potholes!) all of a sudden I heard a noise and something flew off my bike. Oh crap — my PowerTap computer! the base of the mount was still connected, but the craddle had popped off the base! I went so hard I exploded my PT ;) I sat up, losing Lisa’s wheel, and then said screw it and just kept going, remembering where I was so I could go back later and get the computer, which was almost completely off the left side of the road. Having dropped her wheel, I did my best to chase, but I didn’t catch all the way back up. I saw her just ahead going into T2, and so I knew it was time for a fast transition and to bust my butt to the pool since I had the edge for swimming and running.

As I pulled off my socks, I saw her run out of TA out of the corner of my eye. So I went, pulling my goggles on messily while I ran (as Mike yelled for me to do so, and I might have said “I know!” in true Kylie style). I passed her as we got to the pool, jumped in, and again listened to Marky telling me to pull hard, and keep my head down as I took a breath. So I did — push off the wall and grab the water — it will only hurt for a second! I thought that way too many times during this race. I guess that’s what makes it a sprint!

As I hit the end of the pool the finish line guy told me to hurry and I’d break an hour — I saw the 59:30 on the clock, and went for it, and made it! Final time ended up being 58:40ish (I guess the finish clock was a bit off). Good enough for 3rd in my AG since a couple fast girls showed up this year. But over 4 minute PR, and ~18 min since my first tri. So yeah, the hard work is helping. And I do like the fast stuff!

Then we biked an extra loop of the just over 4 mile course and picked up my PT. After hanging out for our awards, we grabbed lunch, and I kicked Mike out of the car to ride home as I headed to school to get some homework done. But I ran into a classmate and realized it was due much later than the tomorrow I had thought, so instead we had tea and chatted.

But I still beat Mike home. Although he did win overall again! It was a closer race for him this time though, so I think it was more satisfying. He had people right there on the bike, and they really worked each other taking turns pulling and trying to get away and all that good stuff allowed in a draft legal race :) It was a fun day.

Here is me getting my award:

And here is my super speedy wonderful boyfriend getting his: