Wednesday, January 25, 2006

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Went to masters on Monday (2200 yards) and my knee was still bothering me so decided to rest until my doctor's appt. today. Turns out I likely have a meniscus tear/inflamation which is just what I suspected I had. No cross country skiing or running for 2 weeks, 6 weeks of physical therapy and I can bike and hike on hills. I didn't ask about swimming but I assume that's o.k. I love biking and the weather's been pretty cooperative but it's hard to find time with my new dog situation. I pretty much need to take a dog to work with me every day and exercise them on my lunch hour which leaves spinning on the trainer at night as my weekday option. Even so it's still hard to find time with Strummer running around crazy all night. I think for the next few months I need to focus on his training and lay off the tri stuff a bit, at least until my knee heals up. I'm going to try for 2-3 nights of swimming, cycling on Sat. & Sun. and some walking thrown in on my lunch hours and before work to exercise the dogs.

I've decided not to go to Kansas for the USDAA trial but to go to Albuquerque in April for a different USDAA trial. I'm just too nervous about blowing too much money on entry fees and getting blasted with a blizzard. Of course, there's probably more chance of a snow storm in Colorado in April but I'll risk it.

I have a deadline at work that's been keeping me busy so I'll have to post more later once I finish this project up.

Monday, January 16, 2006

Training Week 1/16/2006

Monday:
Walk 40 mins./1 1/2 miles w/ Lola
Swim 2650 yards/1 1/4 hours (masters w/ Roger, N. Bldr. Rec.)

Roger gave me some tips for the butterfly. I have a 'pause' in my arm stroke and need to take 2 kicks per stroke. I worked on making the arm stroke more fluid w/ no pause and keeping the kicks in rythm w/ the arm stroke. My breathing is off too, I need to breathe earlier in the stroke. That's the hardest thing to adjust, somehow I can't time it all quite right.

Agility:
Took Lola to Biscuit Eaters after work. I intended to work her contacts a few times then leave but it was so cold that she was really keen to run so we worked on some jumping drills as well. I'm trying to teach her some 'precues' for turning and front crosses as well as reinforcing her 'go on' verbal cue for gamblers so she doesn't always interpret me hanging back at a jump as a cue to turn.

The contact training isn't going very well. The first few repetitions on the dog walk were o.k. but not as fast as I wanted. Then she started stopping/creeping on the down ramp. I just can't seem to get her to drive down quickly to the target so I think it's back to some target work away from the equipment so she's running enthusiastically to the target. Same with the A-frame, first rep. was o.k. then she was sightseeing on subsequent reps.

I worked on her recall during a lunch time walk as well. I was trying to use her tennis ball as a distraction but that's too big a distraction for now, we'll have to work up to that. I've also been working on her leash pulling by turning around and walking the other way as soon as she pulls. I managed to get her past a squirrel's nest and 3 loose squirrels with her just on her flat collar so that was progress. Hopefully working on these issues will help with her focus on the agility field.

Wednesday:
2 mile walk w/ Strummer/Cody around Wonderland Lake.

Thursday:
Master swim workout (Jane, S. Boulder Rec.) around 2200 yards

Friday:
Nada, knee is bothering me, can barely straighten leg, feels unstable like it's popping out of place

Sat./Sun.:
Knee still bothering me so I decide to cancel planned skiing trip. Went to see the Border Collie herding competition at the National Western Stock Show in Denver. Very cool, though it looks pretty difficult. Strummer may have the natural talent for it but I'm not sure I do. It was a cultural experience, to say the least.

I did around 2 miles total casual walking/ambling down at the Rez w/ the dogs.

Weekly Totals:
Swim: 4850 yards/2 1/2 hours
Bike: zip
Run: zip
Walk: 5 1/2 miles/ 2 hours

I actually did more walking with one dog or the other on my lunch hours but I'm not going to track it 'cause I'm lazy and don't remember it all.

Sunday, January 15, 2006

Training for week of 1/9/2006

Monday: 2450 yards swimming/1 1/4 hours (masters w/ Roger, N. Bldr. Rec.), 3/4 hour walk/2 miles (Cody, Teller Farm trail)

Tuesday: 3.8 miles/44 mins. running (Lola, Teller Farm trail)

Wednesday: 1/2 hour walk (1 1/2 miles?) w/ Cody on Bobolink trail

Thursday: 1 3/4 miles/1/2 hour running w/ Lola, agility practice (Lola)

Friday: agility practice (Cody)

Saturday: 26 miles/2:40 hrs. trail & dirt roads (Wonderland, Foothills, Eagle, Lefthand, dirt roads), agility practice (Cody & Lola)

Sunday: 4 miles/56 mins. trail running w/ Lola (Enchanted Mesa, Skunk Canyon, Mesa, Enchanted Mesa), 3 miles/1 hour walking w/ Cody & Strummer (Boulder Rez), 2 miles/50 mins. walking w/ Strummer (Wonderland Lake)

Swim: 2450 yards/1 1/4 hours
Bike: 26 miles (trails)/2:40 hours (ytd. 46 miles (trails)/4:50 hours)
Run: 9.55 miles/2:10 hours
Walk: 8.5 miles/3:05 hours
Today was my longest/toughest run since my accident, around 4 miles on some pretty steep, rocky trails. Maybe next week I’ll make it into the double digits with running. Missed a masters workout due to a cancellation and couldn’t schedule a different practice in this week, mainly due to the dogs and work stuff.
I was sick (fever, nausea, dizziness, please don’t make me eat anything) last Monday through Wednesday and didn’t want to risk feeling crappy for my agility trial last weekend so I took it easy Thurs. & Friday. I did some walking but that was about it.

Saturday, January 14, 2006

First Post of the New Year

It's already 2 weeks into the new year and this is the first chance I've had to post anything. I signed the adoption papers for Strummer so now he's officially mine and he's been running us ragged. He does not settle down. Ever. Now I know this about Border Collies, it's not like this very hard to miss fact has slipped my mind and I like hyper dogs but with the other two it's a bit much. But he's a lot of fun and we're settling into a schedule. I don't think I'm going to make any grand triathlon plans this year, probably a good idea anyway since running is coming back so SLOWLY. Right now I'm battling some problems with my right knee popping/giving out every so often. Running makes it way worse so I've backed off of what little running I was doing. Swimming is coming along o.k. and I'm even getting some mountain biking in with the nice balmy weather we've been having. I'm going to try to be better at posting weekly mileage counts, really I am.

Had a wonderful ride on my mountain bike today, 2 3/4 hours, 26 miles of sweet singletrack and dirt roads. I've been taking to doing a mixture of trails/dirt roads on my mountain bike rather than going for a long, boring road ride on the pavement. For some reason the traffic's been freaking me out and I can't motivate myself to leave the house due the thought of it so the trails it is. More fun, I can wear my mp3 player and it's all biking, right?

AGILITY
I had a USDAA trial last weekend that did not go as well as I'd hoped. The dogs had been doing so well in practice I was sure we'd have a great trial, pick up some titles, qualify for regionals, none of which happened. The dogs didn't seem all that stressed out but Cody did some things he does when he's stressed. Both dogs had trouble going down on the table and this cost Cody a Q in his standard run (we were clean but 2 seconds over time) and his advanced level title. Lola had a nice table on Sat. (but we had some other problems) and laid down right away on Sunday but popped up and wouldn't lay back down at all. Most of the rest of the issues were mine, poor handling caused missed Q's in both snooker and jumpers runs.

Ironically the highlights of the trial were in the 2 masters (highest level) classes that we're in. Cody pulled of an amazing performance in master gamblers TWICE (we had to rerun it because there was a problem with the timer). He got a Q and first place on a course that most of the really good people were shaking their heads and laughing at. One of these days I'll scan in the courses, noting my mistakes for future reference and so I can keep track of what I need to work on. Lola's first time in the master jumpers ring went well too, we got all the difficult parts but I celebrated too early in my brain and ran past a tunnel before she was really committed to it, causing her to run past it and go off course.

Now I have to decide if I want to go to Lawrence, Kansas in Feb. for a 3 day USDAA trial. Well, I WANT to go but it's a 9 hour drive and a lot of money to enter so it's a big risk if there's a snowstorm and I can't go. Somebody slap me upside the head and tell me it's a stupid idea.