Category Archives: Swimming

Pretending to Train for a Marathon Week 2

By Posted in NYC training cycle, Running, Swimming Tagged , , , , , , , 31 Comments

Look I can change the title of my blog training every week and still be training for a marathon…or at least pretending too. Right then. It should be Week two: Still not injured (knock on wood). I added some pictures from last race so you can not be bored if you don’t care about actual training…

I will look serious so I have one good race photo...

I will look serious so I have one good race photo…

Monday: Full body Strength class 55 minutes
Tuesday: 11 mile run untimed
Wednesday: 12 mile run untimed
Thursday: 10.65 mile run untimed
3000 meter swim (yes that is real life)
Friday: 10.65 miles in the pouring rain
Saturday: OK Cross Country 5k 19:27 and (13.1 miles overall)
Sunday: 15 easy and untimed
Total: 73

What are my thoughts?

Well let’s see here.  My legs have been on the sore train all week.  I’m not sure if it was the heat or the hills from the half marathon last weekend that knocked them cold.  Either way they have felt like crap the entire week.   Untimed/approximating runs were all I really needed this week and so that was that.  I nixed my normal tempo run this week because quite honestly my body wasn’t fully recovered from the race by Wednesday.  I was “listening to my body” which really means listening to my brain saying Hollie don’t be an idiot and injure yourself.  So really listening to your body is listening to your brain and using common sense…moving on.

We had the tropical storm hit on Friday so it rained off and on all day.  I actually ran in the complete downpour, only to have beautiful weather the hour after…followed by complete downpour.   All the rain though made the cross country 5k I did a complete muddy mess (which was fine for me…it’s cross country…it isn’t the pavement).  I do, however, wish I had worn my spikes.   I’ll recap soon, but it was a good race and certainly made for a hard course in hot/humid conditions.

I will now break this tape.

I will now break this tape.

Those other workouts:

I did one full body strength class at my gym.  It felt good to actually lift some weights…well no I felt awful for neglecting it but it did feel good to actually pretend to start that again.

And swimming:

I swam 1000 freestyle-400 im twice through then did 200 butterfly kick on my back.  I am signed up for a bunch of open water swims this summer so I should probably get my butt back into the pool.  I do enjoy swimming once I physically get into the pool, it’s just getting there is the challenge for me.  I don’t hate swimming, I hate the showering, getting to the pool and all the rest of the time it takes that comes with swimming.  Swimming the mile and loving it has never felt more in a past life.

And next weeks training:

I hope to do more injury free miles.  I’m running an 8k on Saturday (lots of fast ladies going to be there!) and hope to get a tempo run somewhere in there as well.  Oh I’d also like to get a swim or two in and get some weights in.  (my am I greedy?)  We will see where time takes me though.

I will now cluelessly fumble around with this tape and not know what to do because I'm awkward.

I will now cluelessly fumble around with this tape and not know what to do because I’m awkward.

Questions for you:

What is the hardest workout for you to get motivated for?

Did the tropical storm affect you at all?

We got some flooding.

Last of My Summer Musings

By Posted in Running, Swimming Tagged , , 17 Comments

I honestly don’t even know where this summer went.  I feel like I was just talking about my goals of not getting injured and staying off the treadmill.  (That is because I probably was).

I feel like this was yesterday:   (I’m not going back to school in the fall??)

on a side note…I typed in graduation and here I am at my HIGH SCHOOL graduation party…can you spot me? LOLZ

Running wise, I ran some pretty great races.  I was unsure how the summer would go when the Elizabeth River Run 10k set the stage but then I starting chopping time off my 5k and for the first time in nearly 2 years I ran a 19:30.  Then I ran another one.  Then I ran a 20:20 on a cross country course.  Then after all of that, I broke 19 minutes in a 5k at the Allen Stone.  (I never really had a terrible race this summer for running).  Woah link spazzes there.

Swimming wise, I swam a 1 mile and met Courtney and Justin (congrats on recently getting married!), as well as a 3k, 2 mile and 5k.  So swimming was productive as well.

No re

I also spent lots of hours working at my pool, though there were no real problems this year.  We actually had quite an enjoyable time (that might be because my bffer aDuBs worked there).   I also got about ten shades darker but always wore sun screen.

rainy days

existing outside of work

 

Then of course lots of fun family time too.  Basically, I had a very productive summer from a workout and work standpoint (I can afford to eat while interning now LOLZ).  A very fun summer via work, family and friends standpoint.

So in short (oh wait…all my blogs are short) summer was really good and that is a lot better then I can say of last year. 

I am very excited and nervous to start my big girl internship.  I can’t wait to see what lies in the next chapter of my life..today…so probably as you are reading this I am hard at work. 

Question for you: 

Did summer fly by?  What your most highlightable moment? 

VB 5k Swim (1:10.55)

By Posted in Swimming Tagged , 17 Comments

So after racing a two mile open water swim in Greenwich Ct on Saturday, I drove home with dad.  Rather quickly…why?

Because he wanted (and we both qualified) to swim the open water 5k in VA Beach.  I had said I was doing both a 2 mile and 5k swim that weekend, but a lot of people took that (I would have too) as a 2 mile swim and a 5k run.

Oh no.  5k swim for me!

————–

I apologize I have very few photos from this one.  I’d say I kept it short for that purpose, but I like to keep all my blogs on the shorter side anyways. 

So after getting home from NY at 10pm, I headed straight to bed so I could wake up to get to the 5k in the morning.  Dad and I got to the beach really early (an hour before the race) and got our caps, checked in…all the normal jazz.  I napped on the beach while he warmed up.   

At 9:30, it was time to begin the race and we all ran into the water.  Getting out to the first buoy was a struggle, and I got kicked in the face several times.  It was actually really painful and I thought I might have gotten a bloody lip. 

The first half of the race was pretty simple.  Just swim in a straight line for 1.55 miles until you see the buoy, round the buoy, check in at the station to make sure you aren’t dead (grab water) and go back in.  Similar to a water stop in road races, they have this set up in longer swims.  Also to make sure you aren’t swept to sea I guess.

I got to the half way point in 36 minutes exactly grabbed some water and went back in. It was a bit of a rip current going back in and rounding the buoy…but it happens.

The second half was a similar as the first.  Though for the second half, I was all by myself and no swimmers around.  (Why!?) Because I was at the slower end of this race and most of them were far ahead.  This was a champion style race and so most people had tapered and trained for this all summer.   Me?  I qualified in June then did a few swims but obviously didn’t swim everyday or anything.

I ended up going right by the ending buoy and the lifeguard on a paddleboard had to tell me to go straight in.  I had gotten close to 300 yards out so I didn’t see the buoy which was 50 yards out.  (I don’t know how that happened!).

I swam to the end and finished in a time of 1:10.55.  (Which is roughly high 22 minute miles).  It was actually a PR for me, even getting off course a bit. 

**Also, I apologize for not reading your blogs.  I use bloglovin.com and it has said I have no new posts in the last 2 days.  I guess I’ll have to go manually look until they fix that bug.  :-)

Questions for you: 

Have you ever gotten off course in a race?

Have you ever done back to back races?  (ie: a road race Sat and Sun…swim races…)   

Island Beach 2 Mile Swim (1:20)

By Posted in Swimming Tagged , , , 26 Comments

Every year, my family and I do this open water swim.  In fact, I’ve been doing this race since I turned 18 (therefore have completed 5 of them).  This was my slowest…by 20 minutes.  It was also about 2.5 miles (so the race official publically announced).  But I still think it was 2.25 and had really bad currents…Which was sad because the water looked so calm from the boat.

My dad’s side of the family

My dad, brother and I instagrammed

Rewind.  Why on Earth do I travel to NY to do a swim (run…maybe…but swim?!). 

The course!  That buoy is about 1/4 of the way out. 

Well my dad’s two brothers who fly/drive from out of town also do it.  Now it’s quite close to my brother’s school on Long Island so that is obviously a factor.  So yes, I drive that far and there is a swim involved but there are many other motives and I just generally tell people it’s a family reunion. 

We woke up at a nice 6:00 am and casually moseyed over to the ferry by 7:00 to check in.  You see the swim leaves from an island so missing the ferry, means no swimming.  That and check in is right there.

View from the ferry

Got to the swim and was ready for the 8:30am start.  In my typical Hollie swim race fashion, I did absolutely no warmup (minus chatting).  I also almost missed the start because I was busy desanding my goggles.  I realized “oh wait all the swimmers are in the water”.  So needless to say I started near the back.

The race course is set up 1 mile out and 1 mile back.  You get both currents.  Today, the current was coming in from the side.  Anyways-the first mile went by pretty fast and I hit that in about 30 minutes.  I somewhat figured it was long because I have been consistently holding miles in these conditions in low 20s.  I wasn’t too worried.

Then rounded the buoy, the sun went straight into my eyes.  This mile felt like it took forever.  I had lost barings, it was chilly, I got stung by a jelly and the water was choppy.  It seems to be like that every year though.   You have to remember, at the half way point of this race, you are a mile from shore so it’s pretty scary. 

Anyways, I finished the second half in 50 minutes, meaning I swam this 2 mile race in 80 minutes.  Even with wavy conditions I was still 20+ minutes longer then I had done.  The race director announced that it was 2.5 miles during awards because of tides changing and currents and the buoys were too far out.  I’m not too concerned either way.

I was proud of my brother for finishing his longest (and second) open water swim. 

Matt finishing

 

Questions for you: 

Have you had a scary race moment? 

Do you have family reunions? 

Training Week Joys

By Posted in Running, Swimming Tagged , , 10 Comments

Ah yes the weekly training blog.  This was an interesting week for me because I raced more this week than any other week.  Though I guess race is loosely coined since swimming races are not really something I train much for.  (if you count my twice in the pool a week then I’m hardcore…)So with that being said, I did a lot of basebuilding miles again.  I feel kind of boring repetitive saying that every week (much like when I post my eats) but most of my runs are not too exciting.

I did a lot of ten milers and then about ½ mile of striders at the end.

Striders are basically sprinting the end to teach your body that it can indeed run on tired legs.  In cross country races (for my collegiate section) the matter of getting the top 15 in a race versus top 50 normally takes place in about 20 seconds.  So you need to be able to move it.

As to what I’m focusing on.

I find it easier this week to just type out what I did rather then explain it in paragraph form.  Plus it’s my blog so I do what I feel.

Monday: 

AM: 10.5 mile run

PM: 3000 meter swim

Back and Bicep p90X

Tuesday:

AM Easy shakeout 8.1 mile run

PM: Scholarship Memorial 5k 19:03 (I’ll recap tomorrow…I know you are dying to read it)

Wednesday: 12.7 mile run

Thursday:  10.5 mile run (followed by travling to New York)

Friday: 15.2 long run on trails and on hills.  The elevation was rather pretty intense, changing in elevation by 150+ feet in short bursts.  I like hills though and I know this was the sort of run I needed toi do because that is how cross country is.  Not on pavement and not on flat ground.  So thus I must pound it into my head to try and take hilly trail running when I can.  I enjoy it though, the opportunities are just far and few in between.

Saturday: 2 mile open water swim.  The course was long and full of current.  I’m way behind race recaps and I’ll put that out sometime next week.  (I know-don’t cry…)

*No running, I told myself I would not run on a treadmill this summer and that was my only option.  So I didn’t run.

Sunday: 5k Open Water swim (yes, you are reading that correctly)

10.5 mile run (more of a shakeout then anything)

Total: 72 miles of running and too much swimming.  LOL, kidding of course-I enjoyed my workouts.  I don’t do anything I don’t enjoy. 

I was obviously hoping for 80, but sometimes life doesn’t work that way.  I took Saturday off from running and don’t regret it.

———–

Where am I going now?

This is a pivotal week of training for me.  I am done with open water swims.  I will (maybe?) swim once a week (or for cross training) but there is no need for me to swim consistently.  So I won’t.  I’m not going to burn more calories and energy when I don’t need too.

My once or twice a week swims are being replaced with running specific weight training to reduce injury likelyness and also rest.

Question for you:

Do you run on the treadmill? 

What was best/favorite workout this week?