Vo2 Max and Vo2 Low

I will start with my "Vo2 Low." This low occured while I was at home for the holidays in New Jersey. As if I didn't already know that I HATE the cold weather, this trip confirmed it. Luckily for me, Lipe gave me some light workouts for the break, but even getting out of the house was a hassle. Never before has a 60 minute Z2 run on the treadmil seem like the hardest thing in the world. It also didn't help that I had Guidos to my left and right trying to treadmil race me. It was actually entertaining and gave me something to do rather than watch the seconds tick by. As The Situation (from the TV show Jersey Shore) says, "if you're not in the gym for at least an hour, you're not doing anything. Me, I'm in there an hour, even an hour and a half." Ahhh, gotta love the Guid's.

Seeing how going to New York Sports Club was the only time I would leave my house, I would definitely call this break a legit off-season and low. I think I did less physically activity and more eating than I have in a long, long time. Doing nothing made swimming a BLAST when I finally got back to SD. I don't know if any of you are familiar with this saying, but all of my coaches growing up would always say, "one week without swimming makes one weak." I typically ignored that and would continue to beg my parents let me skip practice so I could watch Blossom or some other great show, but after not swimming for 7 days this past break I definitely felt like ca ca in the water. It took about 2-3 workouts to get back to where I was before I left, and getting back into swimming shape BLOWS. Anyways, that was my Vo2 Low. Thankfully, that is over and done with and baby, I'm back! St. George training has officially started, and I'm loving it! Bye-Bye off season!

Speaking of off season, Felipe and Luke thought they would be nice and not give us Thursday's track workout on New Year's Eve. Considering I have no life and still wanted to do track, Liz and I were lucky enough to have C. Berg coach us through a workout. (Just kidding about having no life.....kind of...). I was a little frightened to have Chris coach me because he is obviously super fast and I didn't want to embarass myself by not be able to hold a good split. We actually ended up working on pacing and consistency, two things that I really need to work out. Berg had us do 5 sets of 4x400 With 100 m cool down in between each 400 and an extra 400 recovery after each set. Confusing? Yes, it was for me, too. He had to explain it about 10 times before I got it. The set looked like this:

1x400 low z2
100 recovery
1x400 high z2
100 recovery
1x400 low z3
100 recovery
1x400 high z3
400 recovery

(x5)

This wasn't a normal track session where we are constantly go, go, go - but it was good because it taught me discipline and how to control my pace. The goal was to set the pace the first set and then hit those exact paces the other 4 times. Berg was really patient with my lack of ability to do it the first set, and after that I got the hang of it... until the 3rd set. Then I got excited and wanted to run fast so I got a couple of "WTF's?!" I never thought someone would tell me to slow down, especially at track!

So that was track on NYE, later that night Jersey Shore was watched and loved.

I did my first Vo2 Max test with Ken Nicodermus from Fit Stop. I was really nervous, but it was really fun and it showed me a lot about myself and my areas of need. Breathing through that mask was difficult and the drool coming down my face wasn't cute, but it was worth it to know EXACTLY what I need to work out this season.

----

Some upcoming events:

My first century ride - Stagecoach
San Dieguito