I messed up the math on the total set AGAIN in the pool this morning, telling Lori I had us doing 3200 when really we did 3600. I guess this makes up for the mistake on Wednesday, ha.
Anyway, I don't have much to say today. I felt like crap Wednesday and part of yesterday, then I had a bad allergic reaction to my friend's cats last night and felt even crappier this morning. I still went swimming, and took some Albuterol before I got in the pool and did okay. I did hack up a ton of phlegm (I'm glad Cesspool has a proper gutter), but I feel a lot better now, so it was probably a good thing.
My weekend is suddenly much busier than I'd originally planned. I have a tri early Sunday morning, so I might skip swimming Saturday, even though I hate doing that. I'm exhausted lately, and I think my body is trying to tell me something via all the headaches I've been getting recently. If I could have anything I wanted today, it would be to go home and sleep for about twelve hours straight.
300 swim (warmup)
200 drill (warmup)
10 x 50 drill, 6 strokes right arm, 6 strokes left arm, with fins
5 x 100 free, 75 swim, 25 kick
2 x 200 free
600 free, with fins
2 x 200 free
2 x 300 pull
100 back (warmdown)
Total: 3600 SCY
Friday, August 28, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Swim Workout: 2700 (42950/343050)
Wow, workout fail today. I totally read the page wrong and managed to cut me and Lori to 2700 when I meant to do 3200. That said, we still didn't get out of the pool until 7:10, so...
I think the big problem was trying to do the six 50s in the buildup. Those were on a golf score sort of thing where you'd add how long it took to do the 50 plus all your strokes, then get a "score". The point was to get a lower score each time. Well, 6:00AM + math = about 1:15 rest between 50s (we wanted to go on the top to make the math less ridiculous). So there was a lot of lost time there.
Additionally, for the first time since Lori and I started swimming at Cesspool, all the lanes were full at 5:45. One lane had what we thought might be one of our teammates - Tim - in it, but we had to wait for him to stop so we could be sure. It was him, so we got in with him and he finished his workout by doing our warmup with us. But there was some chatting, and the initial waiting around, so we probably lost ten minutes or so there as well.
The slightly shorter distance probably isn't a bad thing anyway, considering I gave blood yesterday afternoon, and I'm still feeling a little drained. The laps with the fins about killed me for some reason, and I spent a lot of the time I was swimming them trying to avoid cramps in my calves and hamstrings. I played softball last night, but I didn't run a whole bunch or anything, so I don't know why my legs are so cranky. Stupid legs.
300 swim (warmup)
200 kick (warmup)
2 x 100 free, 75 swim / 25 kick
6 x 50 free, DPS, descending
2 x 200 free
2 x 200 free with fins
2 x 200 pull
2 x 200 free with fins
50 free, easy (warmdown)
50 breast (warmdown)
Total: 2700 SCY
I think the big problem was trying to do the six 50s in the buildup. Those were on a golf score sort of thing where you'd add how long it took to do the 50 plus all your strokes, then get a "score". The point was to get a lower score each time. Well, 6:00AM + math = about 1:15 rest between 50s (we wanted to go on the top to make the math less ridiculous). So there was a lot of lost time there.
Additionally, for the first time since Lori and I started swimming at Cesspool, all the lanes were full at 5:45. One lane had what we thought might be one of our teammates - Tim - in it, but we had to wait for him to stop so we could be sure. It was him, so we got in with him and he finished his workout by doing our warmup with us. But there was some chatting, and the initial waiting around, so we probably lost ten minutes or so there as well.
The slightly shorter distance probably isn't a bad thing anyway, considering I gave blood yesterday afternoon, and I'm still feeling a little drained. The laps with the fins about killed me for some reason, and I spent a lot of the time I was swimming them trying to avoid cramps in my calves and hamstrings. I played softball last night, but I didn't run a whole bunch or anything, so I don't know why my legs are so cranky. Stupid legs.
300 swim (warmup)
200 kick (warmup)
2 x 100 free, 75 swim / 25 kick
6 x 50 free, DPS, descending
2 x 200 free
2 x 200 free with fins
2 x 200 pull
2 x 200 free with fins
50 free, easy (warmdown)
50 breast (warmdown)
Total: 2700 SCY
Monday, August 24, 2009
Lost Month Roundup (July 50800 / August 40250 / YTD 340350)
So apparently I got behind somewhere in July (when I spent all non-working/swimming hours immersed in the FINA World Championships), and still haven't been able to catch up.
Because posting a month's worth of swim workouts with minimal comments is probably lame (and really annoying to the nice people who follow me on RSS - hi Rob!), I'm just going to post a big highlights post. Mostly it will cover my most recent triathlon, first distance open water swim, and some brief comments about other stuff that has happened swimming-wise in the last four weeks or so.
Also, a list of my total yards/day, because I like to track that sort of thing. ;)
Exciting, right? Right. :p
Acupuncture:
First off, the first day I didn't manage to post anything (July 22), I got acupuncture for the first time. I'd written a bunch about it before I got sidetracked, so I'm going to repost a section of that here.
This was right after I'd injured my knee via creative baserunning in softball, and it was still bothering me quite a bit. My kick was still a disaster, and longer kick sets were killing me, as well as whipkick all together. I'd had my friend (and softball teammate) Ann check the knee out and it was fine, generally, though I still had an effusion under the patella. Kimberley, my friend and tri partner, suggested (for probably the ninetieth time) that I try acupuncture, so I finally took her up on it. :)
I'd never had acupuncture before, and while I wasn't really scared about getting it, I was a little skeptical about it. Now that I've done it, I can say it was definitely a cool experience.
The first pin Kimberley put in was on the outside of my right shin, and when she tapped it, it felt like there was a little burst of sensation beneath my skin. When I told her about it, she said that was the pin hitting my chi. Apparently that doesn't actually happen that often, so it was neat that I felt it. She stuck some more pins in my knee, the other side of my shin, a couple in my lower left leg, one in each hand (in the skin between my thumb and forefingers), and one in my forehead (to mellow me out). Then she ran a current between a couple of the ones on my right leg, put some heat on me, and left me alone for about thirty minutes.
It was nice, but only relaxing for about ten minutes. It was hot, and my muscles were all jumpy from my swim workout, so I started to get anxious and uncomfortable. That said, I don't recall having much in the way of pain in my knee afterward. It continued to be stiff for a few days, and is still not completely healed (I can bend it and straighten it, but I can't kneel and put any weight on it, and misjudging my distance from the walls on flipturns is rewarded with some fun discomfort), but I do think the acupuncture helped. I'm definitely going to have to try it again sometime.
FAST:
The last week of coached workouts with FAST was the first week of August. Evan was in Hawaii for an age group meet, so Reu coached all three of those workouts. They ended up being right around 2500 meters each (if we were lucky), followed by getting out of the pool fifteen minutes early to eat donuts. Yes, all three days. There are photos on Facebook to prove it. ;)
The Friday practice was pretty fun, though, in that it included a snake swim relay where my team was massively handicapped by having both me and the brand new guy, Nick, on it, plus Walter's 12 or so year old son, Little Walter. We lost both relays, but the last one was fun because Little Walter tried to cheat by using fins, Big Walter caught him and threw him over one of the lane lines, only to have Little Walter steal his goggles. :)
So now FAST is on forced hiatus until the second week of September (because our pool is unavailable due to construction). When we get back, though, we start six day a week practices, and I couldn't be more geeked. I've been swimming four days a week (once on my own) for the last month or so, and I can't wait to add the two lunchtime swims as well. I still don't know all the details (what time the Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday swims are starting, or how long they'll be), but my big plan is to make MWFS and do as many TR swims as humanly possible.
Eyeballs:
I did want to mention something I discovered by accident, but had never heard of before in my life. The last day EPIC (the pool I normally swim in) was open, I went and swam three miles. I mostly did it because I'd said I was going to (as a joke) to make up for eating all those donuts the week before. And I felt great after two miles, so I decided to go for it.
And it wasn't bad. In fact, I was feeling pretty awesome at the end, great that I'd swam that much in one workout, a little sore and tired, but in that totally accomplished way. Except my eyes felt really funny.
After a quick shower, I went back to my locker and checked out my eyes in the mirror. And they were misshapen. Like, the part of my eyeball that was exposed by my open eyelid was pushed out. Or, rather, sucked out. By my goggles. I was horrified (and launched into a two or so hour panic attack), because I had this bad feeling I'd done something terrible to myself. Of course my eyes went back to normal in about 45 minutes, but holy crap, it was freaky.
Since then, I've done something similar (ish) twice, all three times with my women's Tyr goggles. The suction on those things must be pretty massive, because since the first time, I've tried really hard not to press on them too much when I'm swimming, and pop them off between sets to give my eyes a break. I do love the goggles (they don't leak, obviously) and my Speedo women's Vanquishers are pretty tinted, so I don't like wearing them for regular, indoor workouts. Still, gah. Has anyone else ever had this happen to them?
Cesspool:
My teammate/pal Lori and I waffled a bit about where we wanted to swim while EPIC is closed. We were thinking about swimming with the Vortex Masters, but the pool was an annoying drive for both of us, and the lack of showers AT the pool would have made my commute really long three days a week. So we settled on just swimming MWF at 5:45AM at Mulberry Pool.
I think I've complained about this pool before, but let me just reiterate why I dislike swimming there. The water is kept pretty warm, firstly. I'm not sure what the temp is, but Lori describes it as "swimming in your bathtub". Besides that, it's a very kid friendly indoor pool, with only 6 lap lanes, and a whole section dedicated to kid play that has a waterpark type jungle gym in it. Because of the kids, they really crank up the chemicals, so the water is cloudy, and gross, and turns my sinuses into snot factories. Plus there's all the fun 'debris' that comes from letting kids play in the water. For all these reasons, I've started referring to the place as Cesspool. I literally only swim there when EPIC isn't available (usually because of swim meets).
All that said, there are a few pluses to swimming at Cesspool. For one, the guy that works the front desk in the morning most of the time is really, tragically attractive. I love that he gets to see me looking like crap first thing in the morning with terrifying bedhead. :p But my brain doesn't complain about the wake-me-up. ;) Two, it's not very populated in the morning, so Lori and I never have to fight for a lane. We have my little binder full of workouts (some were via Evan from previous breaks, and a few I printed from Swim Plan), and all our gear, and get a pretty decent workout three days a week.
Of course Lori and I are pretty bad about sticking to intervals on our own, but eh. We don't slack. For instance, today we swam five 100 IMs in a row, which felt pretty awesome. My arms are not pleased NOW, but that's fairly usual for me.
Anyway, we've got the rest of this week and next week, then Mulberry closes for maintenance. All the muni pools are closed for Labor Day, and then FAST should start up again the Tuesday afterward with Reu's first Tuesday workout.
Tri for the Cure:
This post is hella long already, so I'm going to give the reader's digest version of this tri. This was my third sprint this summer, and it's starting to kinda get old hat by now. The swim was 750 meters, which is a piece of cake, except this was my first without a wetsuit. The water was about 72º, so two seconds into the swim I was rockin', not cold, not freaked, totally on top of it. My time kinda sucked at the end (18:30-ish), which I've decided to blame on the fact that I got beat to death by breaststrokers for a long time and couldn't pass them (one on each side, man), and then the timing pad was waaaaaay up the shore. I thought I'd crossed it, but turns out I didn't, so I lost a handful of seconds walking when I could have been, you know, moving faster. :p
Neither of my transitions are worth mentioning, because I was racing in the Buddies category, so the transitions were really mellow as we all regrouped between legs of the race. :) Kimberley, Ann, and I started the bike together, but I broke off about halfway through and gunned it, just for the hell of it. I have absolutely no idea what my bike time was. But! No flat tires! I consider that a win.
Blah blah T2 (where I got on my iPhone and found out David Walters was anchoring the medley relay in Rome and about ran around in circles with glee), then Ann, Kimberley, and I started the run together. I think we ended up going 40 minutes on the 5K, and all crossed the finish line hand-in-hand. At the end, we all got medals, and food, of course. The weather was great, I felt fantastic the whole way, and I had a wonderful time.
Next Tri is, well, Sunday. This one is a mountain bike tri, and my mountain bike is about thirteen years old and purchased from the Target, so I'm not expecting much out of that part, but it will be fun as heck to try! The swim is in Horsetooth Reservoir, which I swam a mile in the weekend before last (see below), so I geeked about that, since it was a breeze the first time, and is only a half mile this time. The run's four miles, I think, and a trail run, so that should probably kick my ass. But what doesn't kill us makes us stronger, right? Or at least more sore.
Horsetooth Open Water Swim:
This was another last minute signup type thing. My coaches, before we went on hiatus, said they were doing this swim (liars, both of them), so I signed up to do it. There were a handful of options as far as length: 1 mile, 2.4 mile, and 10K. Since I'd never done more than 800 meters in open water, I decided to play it safe and signup for the 1 mile. Evan and Reu were supposed to do the 2.4, along with Walter and Nate, two of my teammates.
I ran into Walter at the parking lot and hung with him and Nate until it was time to get in and swim. The 1 mile did not allow wetsuits, so I got to stand on the shore of the water for probably about five minutes in my little swimsuit freezing my tuckus off in 50º windy weather before I got in the water.
The water, however, was a pleasant 74º. All the 1 and 2.4 milers started at the same time, so I hung way at the back of the pack and just swam steady the whole way, probably slower than I could have, but playing it safe. I had zero problems in the water, didn't mind the waves that the wind was kicking up too much, and only had one collision after the turn around with someone else in my group. They were kinda bad about communicating which direction we were supposed to turn around our buoy, so someone coming the other way clocked me in the head pretty good.
Luckily, I have a really hard skull, so I just kept on swimming. I ended up finishing in 27:34, which was five and a half minutes faster than my last pool mile, and probably about 6th out of nine women who swam the mile. All but one of the ladies who came in ahead of me were high school kids, so I didn't feel too bad about it, hehe. The swim went so well that I think I'll try the 2.4 next year. :)
Asthma Meds:
Only partially swimming related, I've had some problems with my voice over the last two months. I've been hoarse constantly, and have had issues with my voice breaking whenever I raise it at all. Finally I went in to see my doctor and it turns out that my asthma medication has caused some cobbling in the back of my throat which is what is affecting my voice.
Originally, when I started swimming, I was having a ton of problems with my lungs hurting and being short of breath. It was making getting any endurance practically impossible, so I went and got on some asthma maintenance medication. The first thing I was on was Advair, which was two medicines in one: a steroid (to reduce the inflammation) and a bronchial diolater (to open the swollen passages). When I changed insurance, I found that Advair was MASSIVELY expensive, so I changed to Pulmicort, which was just a steroid. Apparently the steroid is what is messing with my throat.
My choices at this juncture are to continue on the Pulmicort and have no voice, try a different steroid, try a medication that is just a bronchial diolater, or go off all together. At the moment I'm trying going without, but I have a prescription for the bronchial diolater, in case I have issues.
Today is day seven of being off the meds. So far I've only had about three instances where my lungs have caused trouble, and none of them have really affected my ability to swim. I have had some pain while swimming, but it's not something that I think is bad enough to need medication for. So far my voice hasn't had any improvement, but my doctor says it could take as long as a month for it to heal. I have yet to use a rescue inhaler for anything, which I'm taking as a good sign. I'm thinking (hoping) that the swimming has actually helped me build lung capacity, so I don't have to take the maintenance drugs again in the future.
Lastly, some swimming stuff of note:
Timed swims:
100 yard IM - 1:57 (July 26)
100 meter IM - 2:04 (July 27)
50 meter breast - 1:04 (Aug. 7)
50 meter fly - :54 (Aug. 9)
50 meter back - :57 (Aug. 9)
50 meter breast - 1:04 (Aug. 9)
50 meter free - :46, :43 (Aug. 9)
1600 meter free - 33:09 (Aug. 9)
Swim Workout Distances:
July 22 - 3800 yards
July 26 - 3000 yards
July 27 - 3000 yards
July 29 - 3200 yards
July 31 - 3100 yards
Aug. 2 - 800 yards (Tri for the Cure)
Aug. 3 - 2250 yards*
Aug. 5 - 2500 yards*
Aug. 7 - 1850 yards*
Aug. 8 - 5250 yards
Aug. 10 - 3200 yards†
Aug. 12 - 3400 yards†
Aug. 14 - 3200 yards† + 1000 yardsˆ
Aug. 16 - 1750 yards (Hoursetooth Swim)
Aug. 17 - 3000 yards†
Aug. 19 - 3150 yards†
Aug. 21 - 3000 yards†
Aug. 22 - 2800 yardsˆ
Aug. 24 - 3100 yards†
* - "Donut" swims
† - swimming at Cesspool
ˆ - random gym swims
Because posting a month's worth of swim workouts with minimal comments is probably lame (and really annoying to the nice people who follow me on RSS - hi Rob!), I'm just going to post a big highlights post. Mostly it will cover my most recent triathlon, first distance open water swim, and some brief comments about other stuff that has happened swimming-wise in the last four weeks or so.
Also, a list of my total yards/day, because I like to track that sort of thing. ;)
Exciting, right? Right. :p
Acupuncture:
First off, the first day I didn't manage to post anything (July 22), I got acupuncture for the first time. I'd written a bunch about it before I got sidetracked, so I'm going to repost a section of that here.
This was right after I'd injured my knee via creative baserunning in softball, and it was still bothering me quite a bit. My kick was still a disaster, and longer kick sets were killing me, as well as whipkick all together. I'd had my friend (and softball teammate) Ann check the knee out and it was fine, generally, though I still had an effusion under the patella. Kimberley, my friend and tri partner, suggested (for probably the ninetieth time) that I try acupuncture, so I finally took her up on it. :)
I'd never had acupuncture before, and while I wasn't really scared about getting it, I was a little skeptical about it. Now that I've done it, I can say it was definitely a cool experience.
The first pin Kimberley put in was on the outside of my right shin, and when she tapped it, it felt like there was a little burst of sensation beneath my skin. When I told her about it, she said that was the pin hitting my chi. Apparently that doesn't actually happen that often, so it was neat that I felt it. She stuck some more pins in my knee, the other side of my shin, a couple in my lower left leg, one in each hand (in the skin between my thumb and forefingers), and one in my forehead (to mellow me out). Then she ran a current between a couple of the ones on my right leg, put some heat on me, and left me alone for about thirty minutes.
It was nice, but only relaxing for about ten minutes. It was hot, and my muscles were all jumpy from my swim workout, so I started to get anxious and uncomfortable. That said, I don't recall having much in the way of pain in my knee afterward. It continued to be stiff for a few days, and is still not completely healed (I can bend it and straighten it, but I can't kneel and put any weight on it, and misjudging my distance from the walls on flipturns is rewarded with some fun discomfort), but I do think the acupuncture helped. I'm definitely going to have to try it again sometime.
FAST:
The last week of coached workouts with FAST was the first week of August. Evan was in Hawaii for an age group meet, so Reu coached all three of those workouts. They ended up being right around 2500 meters each (if we were lucky), followed by getting out of the pool fifteen minutes early to eat donuts. Yes, all three days. There are photos on Facebook to prove it. ;)
The Friday practice was pretty fun, though, in that it included a snake swim relay where my team was massively handicapped by having both me and the brand new guy, Nick, on it, plus Walter's 12 or so year old son, Little Walter. We lost both relays, but the last one was fun because Little Walter tried to cheat by using fins, Big Walter caught him and threw him over one of the lane lines, only to have Little Walter steal his goggles. :)
So now FAST is on forced hiatus until the second week of September (because our pool is unavailable due to construction). When we get back, though, we start six day a week practices, and I couldn't be more geeked. I've been swimming four days a week (once on my own) for the last month or so, and I can't wait to add the two lunchtime swims as well. I still don't know all the details (what time the Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday swims are starting, or how long they'll be), but my big plan is to make MWFS and do as many TR swims as humanly possible.
Eyeballs:
I did want to mention something I discovered by accident, but had never heard of before in my life. The last day EPIC (the pool I normally swim in) was open, I went and swam three miles. I mostly did it because I'd said I was going to (as a joke) to make up for eating all those donuts the week before. And I felt great after two miles, so I decided to go for it.
And it wasn't bad. In fact, I was feeling pretty awesome at the end, great that I'd swam that much in one workout, a little sore and tired, but in that totally accomplished way. Except my eyes felt really funny.
After a quick shower, I went back to my locker and checked out my eyes in the mirror. And they were misshapen. Like, the part of my eyeball that was exposed by my open eyelid was pushed out. Or, rather, sucked out. By my goggles. I was horrified (and launched into a two or so hour panic attack), because I had this bad feeling I'd done something terrible to myself. Of course my eyes went back to normal in about 45 minutes, but holy crap, it was freaky.
Since then, I've done something similar (ish) twice, all three times with my women's Tyr goggles. The suction on those things must be pretty massive, because since the first time, I've tried really hard not to press on them too much when I'm swimming, and pop them off between sets to give my eyes a break. I do love the goggles (they don't leak, obviously) and my Speedo women's Vanquishers are pretty tinted, so I don't like wearing them for regular, indoor workouts. Still, gah. Has anyone else ever had this happen to them?
Cesspool:
My teammate/pal Lori and I waffled a bit about where we wanted to swim while EPIC is closed. We were thinking about swimming with the Vortex Masters, but the pool was an annoying drive for both of us, and the lack of showers AT the pool would have made my commute really long three days a week. So we settled on just swimming MWF at 5:45AM at Mulberry Pool.
I think I've complained about this pool before, but let me just reiterate why I dislike swimming there. The water is kept pretty warm, firstly. I'm not sure what the temp is, but Lori describes it as "swimming in your bathtub". Besides that, it's a very kid friendly indoor pool, with only 6 lap lanes, and a whole section dedicated to kid play that has a waterpark type jungle gym in it. Because of the kids, they really crank up the chemicals, so the water is cloudy, and gross, and turns my sinuses into snot factories. Plus there's all the fun 'debris' that comes from letting kids play in the water. For all these reasons, I've started referring to the place as Cesspool. I literally only swim there when EPIC isn't available (usually because of swim meets).
All that said, there are a few pluses to swimming at Cesspool. For one, the guy that works the front desk in the morning most of the time is really, tragically attractive. I love that he gets to see me looking like crap first thing in the morning with terrifying bedhead. :p But my brain doesn't complain about the wake-me-up. ;) Two, it's not very populated in the morning, so Lori and I never have to fight for a lane. We have my little binder full of workouts (some were via Evan from previous breaks, and a few I printed from Swim Plan), and all our gear, and get a pretty decent workout three days a week.
Of course Lori and I are pretty bad about sticking to intervals on our own, but eh. We don't slack. For instance, today we swam five 100 IMs in a row, which felt pretty awesome. My arms are not pleased NOW, but that's fairly usual for me.
Anyway, we've got the rest of this week and next week, then Mulberry closes for maintenance. All the muni pools are closed for Labor Day, and then FAST should start up again the Tuesday afterward with Reu's first Tuesday workout.
Tri for the Cure:
This post is hella long already, so I'm going to give the reader's digest version of this tri. This was my third sprint this summer, and it's starting to kinda get old hat by now. The swim was 750 meters, which is a piece of cake, except this was my first without a wetsuit. The water was about 72º, so two seconds into the swim I was rockin', not cold, not freaked, totally on top of it. My time kinda sucked at the end (18:30-ish), which I've decided to blame on the fact that I got beat to death by breaststrokers for a long time and couldn't pass them (one on each side, man), and then the timing pad was waaaaaay up the shore. I thought I'd crossed it, but turns out I didn't, so I lost a handful of seconds walking when I could have been, you know, moving faster. :p
Neither of my transitions are worth mentioning, because I was racing in the Buddies category, so the transitions were really mellow as we all regrouped between legs of the race. :) Kimberley, Ann, and I started the bike together, but I broke off about halfway through and gunned it, just for the hell of it. I have absolutely no idea what my bike time was. But! No flat tires! I consider that a win.
Blah blah T2 (where I got on my iPhone and found out David Walters was anchoring the medley relay in Rome and about ran around in circles with glee), then Ann, Kimberley, and I started the run together. I think we ended up going 40 minutes on the 5K, and all crossed the finish line hand-in-hand. At the end, we all got medals, and food, of course. The weather was great, I felt fantastic the whole way, and I had a wonderful time.
Next Tri is, well, Sunday. This one is a mountain bike tri, and my mountain bike is about thirteen years old and purchased from the Target, so I'm not expecting much out of that part, but it will be fun as heck to try! The swim is in Horsetooth Reservoir, which I swam a mile in the weekend before last (see below), so I geeked about that, since it was a breeze the first time, and is only a half mile this time. The run's four miles, I think, and a trail run, so that should probably kick my ass. But what doesn't kill us makes us stronger, right? Or at least more sore.
Horsetooth Open Water Swim:
This was another last minute signup type thing. My coaches, before we went on hiatus, said they were doing this swim (liars, both of them), so I signed up to do it. There were a handful of options as far as length: 1 mile, 2.4 mile, and 10K. Since I'd never done more than 800 meters in open water, I decided to play it safe and signup for the 1 mile. Evan and Reu were supposed to do the 2.4, along with Walter and Nate, two of my teammates.
I ran into Walter at the parking lot and hung with him and Nate until it was time to get in and swim. The 1 mile did not allow wetsuits, so I got to stand on the shore of the water for probably about five minutes in my little swimsuit freezing my tuckus off in 50º windy weather before I got in the water.
The water, however, was a pleasant 74º. All the 1 and 2.4 milers started at the same time, so I hung way at the back of the pack and just swam steady the whole way, probably slower than I could have, but playing it safe. I had zero problems in the water, didn't mind the waves that the wind was kicking up too much, and only had one collision after the turn around with someone else in my group. They were kinda bad about communicating which direction we were supposed to turn around our buoy, so someone coming the other way clocked me in the head pretty good.
Luckily, I have a really hard skull, so I just kept on swimming. I ended up finishing in 27:34, which was five and a half minutes faster than my last pool mile, and probably about 6th out of nine women who swam the mile. All but one of the ladies who came in ahead of me were high school kids, so I didn't feel too bad about it, hehe. The swim went so well that I think I'll try the 2.4 next year. :)
Asthma Meds:
Only partially swimming related, I've had some problems with my voice over the last two months. I've been hoarse constantly, and have had issues with my voice breaking whenever I raise it at all. Finally I went in to see my doctor and it turns out that my asthma medication has caused some cobbling in the back of my throat which is what is affecting my voice.
Originally, when I started swimming, I was having a ton of problems with my lungs hurting and being short of breath. It was making getting any endurance practically impossible, so I went and got on some asthma maintenance medication. The first thing I was on was Advair, which was two medicines in one: a steroid (to reduce the inflammation) and a bronchial diolater (to open the swollen passages). When I changed insurance, I found that Advair was MASSIVELY expensive, so I changed to Pulmicort, which was just a steroid. Apparently the steroid is what is messing with my throat.
My choices at this juncture are to continue on the Pulmicort and have no voice, try a different steroid, try a medication that is just a bronchial diolater, or go off all together. At the moment I'm trying going without, but I have a prescription for the bronchial diolater, in case I have issues.
Today is day seven of being off the meds. So far I've only had about three instances where my lungs have caused trouble, and none of them have really affected my ability to swim. I have had some pain while swimming, but it's not something that I think is bad enough to need medication for. So far my voice hasn't had any improvement, but my doctor says it could take as long as a month for it to heal. I have yet to use a rescue inhaler for anything, which I'm taking as a good sign. I'm thinking (hoping) that the swimming has actually helped me build lung capacity, so I don't have to take the maintenance drugs again in the future.
Lastly, some swimming stuff of note:
Timed swims:
100 yard IM - 1:57 (July 26)
100 meter IM - 2:04 (July 27)
50 meter breast - 1:04 (Aug. 7)
50 meter fly - :54 (Aug. 9)
50 meter back - :57 (Aug. 9)
50 meter breast - 1:04 (Aug. 9)
50 meter free - :46, :43 (Aug. 9)
1600 meter free - 33:09 (Aug. 9)
Swim Workout Distances:
July 22 - 3800 yards
July 26 - 3000 yards
July 27 - 3000 yards
July 29 - 3200 yards
July 31 - 3100 yards
Aug. 2 - 800 yards (Tri for the Cure)
Aug. 3 - 2250 yards*
Aug. 5 - 2500 yards*
Aug. 7 - 1850 yards*
Aug. 8 - 5250 yards
Aug. 10 - 3200 yards†
Aug. 12 - 3400 yards†
Aug. 14 - 3200 yards† + 1000 yardsˆ
Aug. 16 - 1750 yards (Hoursetooth Swim)
Aug. 17 - 3000 yards†
Aug. 19 - 3150 yards†
Aug. 21 - 3000 yards†
Aug. 22 - 2800 yardsˆ
Aug. 24 - 3100 yards†
* - "Donut" swims
† - swimming at Cesspool
ˆ - random gym swims
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Swim Blogger = Swimsuit Rant
The swimsuit thing? Starting to piss me off.
Yesterday I was so worked up about this that I was ready to rant my brains out. I've calmed down considerably (not to mention have been mellowed by a night of crappy sleep and hard swimming this morning), so I'm going to tone down what I wrote yesterday a little bit.
At any rate, here are the facts: FINA approved the polyurethane suits for use in Rome. The Arena and Jaked suits are legal. Anyone can wear them. Wearing these suits is not cheating, and it's not the same as using performance enhancing drugs.
There are a lot of swimmers wearing these suits in Italy. And why wouldn't they? They have a legitimate, legal way to get an edge in a competitive sport. I can honestly say that, if it were me, I wouldn't turn it down. Especially if there were potential sponsorship dollars to be made depending on the outcome.
The issue, really, is that there are a couple of big name swimmers that aren't wearing the new suits. Those swimmers are (occasionally) getting beat out by the guys in the Jakeds and the Arenas, and everyone is now finger pointing, calling these swimmers out as cheaters, comparing the suits they're wearing to steroids. It's ridiculous, to say the least. The suits are LEGAL. I can't say that enough times. FINA had the chance to ban them - even DID put a ban on them, which they later revoked - and then backed down. I don't really know the reason why, but I'm fairly certain it has something to do with money and politics.
Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte aren't wearing these new tech suits for one reason: they have high paying sponsorship deals with Speedo. It worked out really well for them in Beijing when the LZRs were the fastest suits in the water, but not so much now, when European companies finally have a competitive suit. Maybe the polyurethane suits give the swimmer an advantage, but the LZRs do too, just like the Fastskin suits did before them. Swimsuit technology has been heading this direction since Athens. Saying that the swimmers in the Arenas and Jakeds don't deserve their world records but not saying the same thing about the swimmers wearing LZRs in the Olympics is a double-standard. Twenty-five world records were set in Beijing. Sixteen have been set so far in Rome. There were seventeen set two years ago at the World Championships in Melbourne. It's not like it's a new trend.
I have two reigning thoughts as far as this whole debacle: 1. If the people swimming in these suits predominantly don't like the way the technology is changing the sport, then FINA is right in (at least attempting to) roll back to something more old school, and 2. If people don't like the way the suits are being handled currently, they should place their blame on FINA, not on the swimmers, who aren't doing anything they aren't allowed to do. I'm sure all of this is touching a nerve with me because a couple of my favorite swimmers are being called cheaters by fans of Phelps and Lochte, and I realize that I'm probably being too sensitive, but the definition of cheating is 'violating accepted standards or rules'. No rules are being broken here. Speedo is being out done by other suit manufacturers, and their swimmers are suffering for it, one way or another. Nike went through the same thing in China, and they had to pull out of the speed suit game because they couldn't keep up, to the detriment of their sponsored swimmers (guys like Jason Lezak, Aaron Peirsol, and Brendan Hansen).
Is all this speed suit nonsense unfair? Sure it is, because people in the new suits are swimming faster than they have before, and the guys not wearing them aren't getting that advantage. But, honestly, the only way to resolve that would be to force every swimmer to wear the exact same suit. Take away the swimsuit choices and you end up with something more like what other sports do as far as awarding contracts to a single company (Reebok making all NHL jerseys, for instance), which changes the game dramatically. If the swimsuit companies can't outfit specific swimmers, there wouldn't be sponsorship opportunities (no one cares what kind of goggles a swimmer is wearing). The sponsorship money these swimmers get is literally the biggest part of their paycheck (the money they get from USA swimming isn't enough to cover cost of living), so unless they were getting sponsored by non-swimsuit related companies (like Phelps is), they're going to have to get a day job to make ends meet.
Long story short here is that, yes, some suits are faster. Anyone can wear them (so long as they're legal, like they are right now), but some people don't, because of contractual obligations. That's how sponsorship works. You're betting on one company to make the best gear available for you to compete in, and if they don't, you unfortunately have to deal with that.
Phelps made a comment in an interview yesterday that initially pissed me off, but upon further reflection, I like the sentiment that was underlying. He wants to competition to be about talent, training, and ability, and not what suit you get your hands on. I agree with that wholeheartedly. I agree with FINA trying to cut off the tech suit trend before it gets too much more out of hand. They need to man up in a big way and put down some concrete rules that aren't governed by how much money or pressure they're getting from the swimsuit companies. If they can put together some real guidelines for the swimsuit companies to follow (rather than all this cryptic air trapping crap that they can't even really test for), I think we could finally get back to the healthy competition there used to be out there between Nike, Speedo, and TYR. The Arena and Jaked suits were almost undeniably a response from the European countries that weren't easily able to get their hands on the LZR before Beijing. I have a feeling they're not just going to go away when/if the polyurethane suits are banned.
I really think all of this should be up to the athletes. They're the ones swimming in these things, after all. I don't honestly think changing the length of the legs, or how much of torso coverage there is on the swimsuits is going to make a hell of a lot of a difference now. The world records that have been set in the last two years are never going to get broken if the suits get reset, which I think is a bit of a shame. I don't think records necessarily need to be set every race, but I do think that once everyone is at the same starting point, these things will hold up a bit longer without being set in stone for years and years. A balance needs to be found, and it's not going to be easy, but the sooner things get smoothed over and people get back to the swimming, the better.
I'm going to finish up by posting a link to a video made by (my consummate hero) Mel Stewart of Phelps' press conference from yesterday. I have a bit of a love/dislike relationship with Michael, but what he said here reminded me of why I liked him in the first place, and definitely renewed my respect for him:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1173335128487&ref=nf
Edited to add this: To paraphrase Brendan Hansen, don't hate the player (the swimmers), hate the game (FINA).
Yesterday I was so worked up about this that I was ready to rant my brains out. I've calmed down considerably (not to mention have been mellowed by a night of crappy sleep and hard swimming this morning), so I'm going to tone down what I wrote yesterday a little bit.
At any rate, here are the facts: FINA approved the polyurethane suits for use in Rome. The Arena and Jaked suits are legal. Anyone can wear them. Wearing these suits is not cheating, and it's not the same as using performance enhancing drugs.
There are a lot of swimmers wearing these suits in Italy. And why wouldn't they? They have a legitimate, legal way to get an edge in a competitive sport. I can honestly say that, if it were me, I wouldn't turn it down. Especially if there were potential sponsorship dollars to be made depending on the outcome.
The issue, really, is that there are a couple of big name swimmers that aren't wearing the new suits. Those swimmers are (occasionally) getting beat out by the guys in the Jakeds and the Arenas, and everyone is now finger pointing, calling these swimmers out as cheaters, comparing the suits they're wearing to steroids. It's ridiculous, to say the least. The suits are LEGAL. I can't say that enough times. FINA had the chance to ban them - even DID put a ban on them, which they later revoked - and then backed down. I don't really know the reason why, but I'm fairly certain it has something to do with money and politics.
Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte aren't wearing these new tech suits for one reason: they have high paying sponsorship deals with Speedo. It worked out really well for them in Beijing when the LZRs were the fastest suits in the water, but not so much now, when European companies finally have a competitive suit. Maybe the polyurethane suits give the swimmer an advantage, but the LZRs do too, just like the Fastskin suits did before them. Swimsuit technology has been heading this direction since Athens. Saying that the swimmers in the Arenas and Jakeds don't deserve their world records but not saying the same thing about the swimmers wearing LZRs in the Olympics is a double-standard. Twenty-five world records were set in Beijing. Sixteen have been set so far in Rome. There were seventeen set two years ago at the World Championships in Melbourne. It's not like it's a new trend.
I have two reigning thoughts as far as this whole debacle: 1. If the people swimming in these suits predominantly don't like the way the technology is changing the sport, then FINA is right in (at least attempting to) roll back to something more old school, and 2. If people don't like the way the suits are being handled currently, they should place their blame on FINA, not on the swimmers, who aren't doing anything they aren't allowed to do. I'm sure all of this is touching a nerve with me because a couple of my favorite swimmers are being called cheaters by fans of Phelps and Lochte, and I realize that I'm probably being too sensitive, but the definition of cheating is 'violating accepted standards or rules'. No rules are being broken here. Speedo is being out done by other suit manufacturers, and their swimmers are suffering for it, one way or another. Nike went through the same thing in China, and they had to pull out of the speed suit game because they couldn't keep up, to the detriment of their sponsored swimmers (guys like Jason Lezak, Aaron Peirsol, and Brendan Hansen).
Is all this speed suit nonsense unfair? Sure it is, because people in the new suits are swimming faster than they have before, and the guys not wearing them aren't getting that advantage. But, honestly, the only way to resolve that would be to force every swimmer to wear the exact same suit. Take away the swimsuit choices and you end up with something more like what other sports do as far as awarding contracts to a single company (Reebok making all NHL jerseys, for instance), which changes the game dramatically. If the swimsuit companies can't outfit specific swimmers, there wouldn't be sponsorship opportunities (no one cares what kind of goggles a swimmer is wearing). The sponsorship money these swimmers get is literally the biggest part of their paycheck (the money they get from USA swimming isn't enough to cover cost of living), so unless they were getting sponsored by non-swimsuit related companies (like Phelps is), they're going to have to get a day job to make ends meet.
Long story short here is that, yes, some suits are faster. Anyone can wear them (so long as they're legal, like they are right now), but some people don't, because of contractual obligations. That's how sponsorship works. You're betting on one company to make the best gear available for you to compete in, and if they don't, you unfortunately have to deal with that.
Phelps made a comment in an interview yesterday that initially pissed me off, but upon further reflection, I like the sentiment that was underlying. He wants to competition to be about talent, training, and ability, and not what suit you get your hands on. I agree with that wholeheartedly. I agree with FINA trying to cut off the tech suit trend before it gets too much more out of hand. They need to man up in a big way and put down some concrete rules that aren't governed by how much money or pressure they're getting from the swimsuit companies. If they can put together some real guidelines for the swimsuit companies to follow (rather than all this cryptic air trapping crap that they can't even really test for), I think we could finally get back to the healthy competition there used to be out there between Nike, Speedo, and TYR. The Arena and Jaked suits were almost undeniably a response from the European countries that weren't easily able to get their hands on the LZR before Beijing. I have a feeling they're not just going to go away when/if the polyurethane suits are banned.
I really think all of this should be up to the athletes. They're the ones swimming in these things, after all. I don't honestly think changing the length of the legs, or how much of torso coverage there is on the swimsuits is going to make a hell of a lot of a difference now. The world records that have been set in the last two years are never going to get broken if the suits get reset, which I think is a bit of a shame. I don't think records necessarily need to be set every race, but I do think that once everyone is at the same starting point, these things will hold up a bit longer without being set in stone for years and years. A balance needs to be found, and it's not going to be easy, but the sooner things get smoothed over and people get back to the swimming, the better.
I'm going to finish up by posting a link to a video made by (my consummate hero) Mel Stewart of Phelps' press conference from yesterday. I have a bit of a love/dislike relationship with Michael, but what he said here reminded me of why I liked him in the first place, and definitely renewed my respect for him:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1173335128487&ref=nf
Edited to add this: To paraphrase Brendan Hansen, don't hate the player (the swimmers), hate the game (FINA).
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Typing Outloud
I wanted somewhere to splah about this, and this blog is as good a place as any, so...
The pool I swim in for Masters (and on the weekends) is closed August 8 - September 7 for some kind of maintenance or other (I've heard two stories, one about the roof and one about the pool drains), so my team isn't practicing for a month. I contacted another Masters team in the area whom I plan to swim that month with, and they have an interesting schedule that includes three morning practices (M/W/F), two evening practices (T/R) and a weekend practice (Saturday).
The morning practices are pretty much the same time as the ones I'm currently doing (fifteen minutes earlier), so I was thinking I'd just do those. The only issue there is that it's pretty far from home (doubling my driving time, really), and they don't have a place to shower, so I'd either have to drive all the way back home to shower, and then back across town to work, or brave the scary, uncleaned work shower.
The evening practices are a bit late (7:00 - 8:30), but I could go to them and then back home to shower and not have to drive around as much. Plus there's the added bonus of not having to wake up at 4:30 in the morning. Though I'm not sure if Lori can make the night practices. Plus they're late enough that I'd probably rather be at home on my couch in my PJs than going out to swim at seven at night.
I think going to the Saturday morning practice is a given, though. If I do M/W/F morning and then add Saturday (which isn't early, 8:00AM - 9:30AM), that would be a pretty good setup, assuming the getting up thirty minutes earlier doesn't kill me.
Blah blah blah. Anyway, when I go back to my regular team in September, they're opening up practice to be six days a week, Monday through Saturday. I don't know yet what time of day the T/R/S practices are going to be, but... It's a very real possibility that I might try and swim all six days a week. Which will probably be insane, but I think a good thing as well. I like swimming, the cost (assuming they don't change it and they let us swim as many days a week as we want) is awesome, and the health benefits are already very apparent.
What does this mean for me? Well, for one, it means I need to learn how to go to bed before midnight, because if I'm getting up at 5:00AM all five working days and not sleeping, I will crash really hard in the middle of the week. And be miserable. Another thing, it means I will need to reevaluate my winter sports participation.
Usually I play in two hockey leagues, and adult recreational league and on an all women's travel team. The women's team has once a week practices, which are great, but they're also at 9:30PM. Last season they went 90 minutes, so I didn't get home until after 11:30, then had to get up at 5:00 the next morning. I suppose I'll wait and see what comes out as far as practice and such, but I might just sign up as a practice only player (and a sub) and not do all the travel games, or I might not play with the women's team at all. I will probably still play in the adult rec league because it's only one day a week - usually Sunday - and I DO still want to play hockey. I love hockey.
What I really need is just more hours in the day. Who do I talk to about that? ;)
But honestly, back when I was lazy and kinda overweight and such, people would say, "oh, you can get addicted to exercise", to which I responded, "yeah right." Well. Yeah. Guess who's a believer? And I'm really excited about all this extra practice. This guy on my team, Reu, is going to be coaching the extra three days and I'm geeked because he's a GREAT coach. And a pretty super guy, too.
The pool I swim in for Masters (and on the weekends) is closed August 8 - September 7 for some kind of maintenance or other (I've heard two stories, one about the roof and one about the pool drains), so my team isn't practicing for a month. I contacted another Masters team in the area whom I plan to swim that month with, and they have an interesting schedule that includes three morning practices (M/W/F), two evening practices (T/R) and a weekend practice (Saturday).
The morning practices are pretty much the same time as the ones I'm currently doing (fifteen minutes earlier), so I was thinking I'd just do those. The only issue there is that it's pretty far from home (doubling my driving time, really), and they don't have a place to shower, so I'd either have to drive all the way back home to shower, and then back across town to work, or brave the scary, uncleaned work shower.
The evening practices are a bit late (7:00 - 8:30), but I could go to them and then back home to shower and not have to drive around as much. Plus there's the added bonus of not having to wake up at 4:30 in the morning. Though I'm not sure if Lori can make the night practices. Plus they're late enough that I'd probably rather be at home on my couch in my PJs than going out to swim at seven at night.
I think going to the Saturday morning practice is a given, though. If I do M/W/F morning and then add Saturday (which isn't early, 8:00AM - 9:30AM), that would be a pretty good setup, assuming the getting up thirty minutes earlier doesn't kill me.
Blah blah blah. Anyway, when I go back to my regular team in September, they're opening up practice to be six days a week, Monday through Saturday. I don't know yet what time of day the T/R/S practices are going to be, but... It's a very real possibility that I might try and swim all six days a week. Which will probably be insane, but I think a good thing as well. I like swimming, the cost (assuming they don't change it and they let us swim as many days a week as we want) is awesome, and the health benefits are already very apparent.
What does this mean for me? Well, for one, it means I need to learn how to go to bed before midnight, because if I'm getting up at 5:00AM all five working days and not sleeping, I will crash really hard in the middle of the week. And be miserable. Another thing, it means I will need to reevaluate my winter sports participation.
Usually I play in two hockey leagues, and adult recreational league and on an all women's travel team. The women's team has once a week practices, which are great, but they're also at 9:30PM. Last season they went 90 minutes, so I didn't get home until after 11:30, then had to get up at 5:00 the next morning. I suppose I'll wait and see what comes out as far as practice and such, but I might just sign up as a practice only player (and a sub) and not do all the travel games, or I might not play with the women's team at all. I will probably still play in the adult rec league because it's only one day a week - usually Sunday - and I DO still want to play hockey. I love hockey.
What I really need is just more hours in the day. Who do I talk to about that? ;)
But honestly, back when I was lazy and kinda overweight and such, people would say, "oh, you can get addicted to exercise", to which I responded, "yeah right." Well. Yeah. Guess who's a believer? And I'm really excited about all this extra practice. This guy on my team, Reu, is going to be coaching the extra three days and I'm geeked because he's a GREAT coach. And a pretty super guy, too.
Monday, July 20, 2009
3400 (34700/284000)
It's always fascinating to me when I start to realize just what muscles are needed to do certain things. I spent a bunch of time on Sunday throwing and pitching at softball practice and ow, my lats on my right side are killing me today. I also did some weights last night, but the pain from that is pretty minimal in comparison.
After swimming on Saturday I thought maybe I'd be up for swimming normally without resulting to a buoy or fins, but after getting smoked SO HARD in a 200 IM, I gave in. My whip kick is still broken, because a) I can't turn my knee out the way I need to in order to do the beginning of the kick, and b) bringing my legs together hurts like an SOB. So I limped my way through those two 200 IMs and then didn't do any more breaststroke.
Anyway, anything in parentheses as far as fins or pulling is my addition so I could make it through this thing without getting my ass run down. I am still having mobility issues with my knee, which is probably why I'm still so gimpy, even in the pool.
I did try to throw in as many flipturns as I could today, which went pretty well, I think. Especially when I was pulling. Maybe one day I'll actually get better at them, ha.
300 swim (warmup)
200 kick (warmup)
200 IM (warmup)
100 swim (warmup)
100 pull
200 IM
300 pull
200 back
100 pull
8 x 25 kick, odds free / evens non (fins)
100 free easy
200 free fast (pull)
200 free easy
100 free fast (pull)
8 x 25 kick, odds free / evens non (fins)
100 fly (fins)
200 free (fins)
100 back (fins)
Total: 3100 SCM (~3400 SCY)
After swimming on Saturday I thought maybe I'd be up for swimming normally without resulting to a buoy or fins, but after getting smoked SO HARD in a 200 IM, I gave in. My whip kick is still broken, because a) I can't turn my knee out the way I need to in order to do the beginning of the kick, and b) bringing my legs together hurts like an SOB. So I limped my way through those two 200 IMs and then didn't do any more breaststroke.
Anyway, anything in parentheses as far as fins or pulling is my addition so I could make it through this thing without getting my ass run down. I am still having mobility issues with my knee, which is probably why I'm still so gimpy, even in the pool.
I did try to throw in as many flipturns as I could today, which went pretty well, I think. Especially when I was pulling. Maybe one day I'll actually get better at them, ha.
300 swim (warmup)
200 kick (warmup)
200 IM (warmup)
100 swim (warmup)
100 pull
200 IM
300 pull
200 back
100 pull
8 x 25 kick, odds free / evens non (fins)
100 free easy
200 free fast (pull)
200 free easy
100 free fast (pull)
8 x 25 kick, odds free / evens non (fins)
100 fly (fins)
200 free (fins)
100 back (fins)
Total: 3100 SCM (~3400 SCY)
Saturday, July 18, 2009
3800 (31300/280600)
I woke up this morning with a super stiff neck, something that's been happening to me a lot lately. Today I'm in search of a new pillow, but my neck was so sore when I got up that I wasn't sure I'd be able to swim today, the range of motion was so pathetic.
After I had some breakfast, I put some heat on my neck and the muscles loosened up enough that I went to the pool. I didn't really have any plans, other than trying to swim a mile again, so I just sorta did what came to me. My one goal, though, was to do more flipturns.
At this point I decided to go back to my arm assisted flipturns, because I can not do them consistently without. Mostly I end up sorta flailing a little with my right arm to complete the turn, but it's better than inhaling pool, which is what I end up doing without. Even with that, I was pretty tired of doing them by the time I got to my mile, so I made myself a deal that I would do 50% of my turns as flipturns, and it worked out pretty well.
The 12 minute swim test is something my friend Alix does with her Masters team, so I wanted to see how far I could swim in 12 minutes. I did almost 575 meters, which is 50s on just about 1:03, which is pretty normal for me.
As far as the knee, most of the swimming wasn't bad, and I'm probably pretty close to 100% again on my kick, though I still can't push off hard on that side, so I babied it on the turns. Also, whipkick was miserable, both in pain and execution. I think I'll lay off the breaststroke until things are feeling back to normal. Fly hurt a little, but not bad enough to discourage me from swimming it a little.
400 pull with paddles (flipturns)
100 IM
50 free, easy
50 back
12 minute swim test (575 meters)
25 free
1600 free (alternate flip and open turns, 1000m on 21:40, 1600m on 34:22)
500 pull with paddles (warmdown, flipturns)
Total: 3500 SCM (~3800 SCY)
Friday, July 17, 2009
3450 (27500/276800)
My knee is actually feeling remarkably better than it was on Wednesday, but I'm still having mobility issues (can't bend or straighten it fully), so I played it safe and did all those long sets with a buoy. When I was swimming/kicking without fins, it felt like my right leg was at about 75% normal power, but wow with the slow. Lori was handily kicking my butt in the warmup kick set, as well as the six kick hesitation 50s.
My turns are still a mess too, but I can tuck up more now than before, so they're improving. It still hurts to push off with my right leg, so I avoided that, but could at least get my gimp leg out of the way so I could push better with the good one.
Blah blah blah. I honestly don't have much to say today. I wish I could have done the distance sets without pulling, but what are you gonna do?
200 swim (warmup)
200 kick (warmup)
6 x 50 kick, odds fast, evens easy on 1:10 (with fins)
3 x 100 build, descend 1-3 (pull)
700 swim, every fourth 25 fast (pull)
2 x 200, six kick hesitation / swim by 50
500 swim, every third 50 fast (pull)
100 free
100 back
300 swim, every fourth 25 fast (pull)
50 easy (warmdown)
Total: 3150 SCM (~3450 SCY)
My turns are still a mess too, but I can tuck up more now than before, so they're improving. It still hurts to push off with my right leg, so I avoided that, but could at least get my gimp leg out of the way so I could push better with the good one.
Blah blah blah. I honestly don't have much to say today. I wish I could have done the distance sets without pulling, but what are you gonna do?
200 swim (warmup)
200 kick (warmup)
6 x 50 kick, odds fast, evens easy on 1:10 (with fins)
3 x 100 build, descend 1-3 (pull)
700 swim, every fourth 25 fast (pull)
2 x 200, six kick hesitation / swim by 50
500 swim, every third 50 fast (pull)
100 free
100 back
300 swim, every fourth 25 fast (pull)
50 easy (warmdown)
Total: 3150 SCM (~3450 SCY)
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
2900 (24050/273350) or How I Ended Up at the Hospital Three Times in One Day
So yesterday, Jeff (my boyfriend) became an uncle. Jeff's brother's wife had a Cesarean Section yesterday afternoon, so when I left work on my bike, I just rode straight to the hospital. Except apparently they hadn't been moved to their room yet, and Jeff was still at home, so I rode the rest of the way home.
Then, around 8:00, we went by and actually got to see the twins (which were cute, a boy and a girl). So, hospital visit number two.
From there, we went to our softball game. We were up to bat first, and I'm third in the order, so I got up and ended up getting walked. We had one out, so I was running if the ball was hit on the ground by the guy behind me, and it was, so I took off to second. His hit went past the third baseman and into shallow left field, so I decided to go for third, since no one was telling me to go or stop. They were close to getting the ball to their third baseman, and they told him to tag me, since it wasn't a force out. Except instead of turning to tag me, he planted his foot in the middle of the bag right before I stepped on it, so I landed on his foot instead. My entire leg buckled and my right knee popped, sending me to the dirt in pain.
Apparently I skinned both of my knees and ripped a large hole in the back of my right thigh when I fell, but the knee hurt so badly that I didn't notice those until quite a bit later. After laying on my face in the infield dirt for a few minutes, two of my teammates (both doctors, incidentally) helped me to the dugout and I sat on the bench next to one of them (Anna). The field manager came and brought a bag of ice, which Anna held to my knee. I was definitely in shock, both when I was down in the field and sitting there on the bench, my ears ringing and my vision all blocky. I felt massively lightheaded and kept trying to shake myself out of it, tried leaning forward to get my balance but couldn't, and reached back to grab the back of the bench.
The next thing I knew I was on the ground, looking up at my teammates. I'd passed out and fallen forward off the bench, hitting my head on the cement. Anna caught me right at the end, so I didn't hit my head too hard, but I was totally confused about where I was and what was happening for a couple of minutes. The field manager called 911, and I ended up having at least one ambulance and a firetruck show up, a cadre of firefighters and EMTs crowding around and checking my vitals (which were fine) and asking me a million questions.
At that point, I mostly felt fine, except I was insanely dehydrated. I asked for some water and then started feeling lightheaded again, so I got laid back and the EMTs tried to convince me to let them take me in to get checked out. Now I know this is nuts, but I kept saying there was no way I'd go in the ambulance, because of the cost. I finally convinced them to radio in and get permission to let me go in one of our own vehicles, signed a form saying that I refused the ambulance, and then Jeff drove me to the ER.
I was not excited to go in, after everything that's happened this week, but I went. They checked me in but refused to give me water (something about not wanting to give me anything before a doctor saw me), and I waited a bit, but not too long. The whole thing took about 90 minutes, and I basically just got my vitals taken a billion times. But my BP is great, my O2 sats are always at 100%, and my resting heart rate is at about 50. Exciting.
So I was released with a diagnosis that my knee was probably just strained (which is not new for me) and that I fainted because of vasovagal syncope due to the pain (also not new - it's happened to me before). And all that for the low, low price of $190 (plus what ever UHC decides to charge me later).
My knee last night felt okay, but tender. During the night, it got worse, woke me up at 4:15. But I said screw it and went to practice anyway. I knew I was going to take it easy, and was really careful when I first started kicking. Right now I can't fully straighten my knee, and I can't bend it past 90º, so my kick on that side might have been at about 30%. Halfway through that first set of 75s I came up with the idea to wear a fin on my good side to try and make up for the lack of power and it worked pretty well (though doing one legged dolphin kick was really hard - I did manage the butterfly, however, somehow).
I spent the rest of the workout either pulling (when it was swimming only) or using the one fin method. Doing that, I was able to do the entire workout without cutting anything, and with very minimal pain. My turns were a little ridiculous (not only could I not push off with my right leg, but I couldn't even tuck it out of the way, so it made the push really pathetic) and I had a little trouble getting out of the pool, having to pull myself out backwards at the gutter and then couldn't get up from the pool deck. I made Evan come help me, heh. :)
Also, and this is mostly for Rob, I used my H20 Audio Interval system during my warmup today and I LOVED IT. The ear pieces I picked fit really snugly and didn't slip or move at all, and made a tight seal in my ear. The sound quality was great, about what I'd expect from any headphones. I obviously wasn't doing anything crazy, stroke wise, but the device didn't move around or bother me on my goggle straps, and it was easy enough to skip songs or change the volume while I was wearing it. Also, it made the 500 meters I swam go by SO fast. I can definitely see myself going to swim on the weekends more now that I have this thing, to keep me from getting bored and lost in my own head. Music is definitely motivating to me when I exercise, and I love being able to have it in the pool now as well. :)
300 swim, free/back by 50 (warmup)
200 kick, free/back by 50 (warmup)
4 x 75, kick/swim/kick, odd choice, even fly
6 x 50 free, odds on :50, evens on 1:00 (pull)
400 pull (with paddles)
3 x 100, 25 kick / 25 right arm / 25 left arm / 25 swim
200 free, negative split (pull)
3 x 100, 25 swim / 25 kick / 25 fingertip drag / 25 swim
3 x 100 free on 1:50 (pull)
50 pull (warmdown)
Total: 2650 SCM (~2900 SCY)
Then, around 8:00, we went by and actually got to see the twins (which were cute, a boy and a girl). So, hospital visit number two.
From there, we went to our softball game. We were up to bat first, and I'm third in the order, so I got up and ended up getting walked. We had one out, so I was running if the ball was hit on the ground by the guy behind me, and it was, so I took off to second. His hit went past the third baseman and into shallow left field, so I decided to go for third, since no one was telling me to go or stop. They were close to getting the ball to their third baseman, and they told him to tag me, since it wasn't a force out. Except instead of turning to tag me, he planted his foot in the middle of the bag right before I stepped on it, so I landed on his foot instead. My entire leg buckled and my right knee popped, sending me to the dirt in pain.
Apparently I skinned both of my knees and ripped a large hole in the back of my right thigh when I fell, but the knee hurt so badly that I didn't notice those until quite a bit later. After laying on my face in the infield dirt for a few minutes, two of my teammates (both doctors, incidentally) helped me to the dugout and I sat on the bench next to one of them (Anna). The field manager came and brought a bag of ice, which Anna held to my knee. I was definitely in shock, both when I was down in the field and sitting there on the bench, my ears ringing and my vision all blocky. I felt massively lightheaded and kept trying to shake myself out of it, tried leaning forward to get my balance but couldn't, and reached back to grab the back of the bench.
The next thing I knew I was on the ground, looking up at my teammates. I'd passed out and fallen forward off the bench, hitting my head on the cement. Anna caught me right at the end, so I didn't hit my head too hard, but I was totally confused about where I was and what was happening for a couple of minutes. The field manager called 911, and I ended up having at least one ambulance and a firetruck show up, a cadre of firefighters and EMTs crowding around and checking my vitals (which were fine) and asking me a million questions.
At that point, I mostly felt fine, except I was insanely dehydrated. I asked for some water and then started feeling lightheaded again, so I got laid back and the EMTs tried to convince me to let them take me in to get checked out. Now I know this is nuts, but I kept saying there was no way I'd go in the ambulance, because of the cost. I finally convinced them to radio in and get permission to let me go in one of our own vehicles, signed a form saying that I refused the ambulance, and then Jeff drove me to the ER.
I was not excited to go in, after everything that's happened this week, but I went. They checked me in but refused to give me water (something about not wanting to give me anything before a doctor saw me), and I waited a bit, but not too long. The whole thing took about 90 minutes, and I basically just got my vitals taken a billion times. But my BP is great, my O2 sats are always at 100%, and my resting heart rate is at about 50. Exciting.
So I was released with a diagnosis that my knee was probably just strained (which is not new for me) and that I fainted because of vasovagal syncope due to the pain (also not new - it's happened to me before). And all that for the low, low price of $190 (plus what ever UHC decides to charge me later).
My knee last night felt okay, but tender. During the night, it got worse, woke me up at 4:15. But I said screw it and went to practice anyway. I knew I was going to take it easy, and was really careful when I first started kicking. Right now I can't fully straighten my knee, and I can't bend it past 90º, so my kick on that side might have been at about 30%. Halfway through that first set of 75s I came up with the idea to wear a fin on my good side to try and make up for the lack of power and it worked pretty well (though doing one legged dolphin kick was really hard - I did manage the butterfly, however, somehow).
I spent the rest of the workout either pulling (when it was swimming only) or using the one fin method. Doing that, I was able to do the entire workout without cutting anything, and with very minimal pain. My turns were a little ridiculous (not only could I not push off with my right leg, but I couldn't even tuck it out of the way, so it made the push really pathetic) and I had a little trouble getting out of the pool, having to pull myself out backwards at the gutter and then couldn't get up from the pool deck. I made Evan come help me, heh. :)
Also, and this is mostly for Rob, I used my H20 Audio Interval system during my warmup today and I LOVED IT. The ear pieces I picked fit really snugly and didn't slip or move at all, and made a tight seal in my ear. The sound quality was great, about what I'd expect from any headphones. I obviously wasn't doing anything crazy, stroke wise, but the device didn't move around or bother me on my goggle straps, and it was easy enough to skip songs or change the volume while I was wearing it. Also, it made the 500 meters I swam go by SO fast. I can definitely see myself going to swim on the weekends more now that I have this thing, to keep me from getting bored and lost in my own head. Music is definitely motivating to me when I exercise, and I love being able to have it in the pool now as well. :)
300 swim, free/back by 50 (warmup)
200 kick, free/back by 50 (warmup)
4 x 75, kick/swim/kick, odd choice, even fly
6 x 50 free, odds on :50, evens on 1:00 (pull)
400 pull (with paddles)
3 x 100, 25 kick / 25 right arm / 25 left arm / 25 swim
200 free, negative split (pull)
3 x 100, 25 swim / 25 kick / 25 fingertip drag / 25 swim
3 x 100 free on 1:50 (pull)
50 pull (warmdown)
Total: 2650 SCM (~2900 SCY)
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Boulder Sunset Tri
I had such a great time in the Boulder Sunrise Triathlon last month that I decided to sign up for the Boulder Sunset Tri in September. It's another Tri for Your Cause event, so I'm fundraising again, this time for the Colorado Dachshund Rescue. I picked that organization because it's where my sister adopted her dog, and I've been involved with some of their fundraisers before. They're a great organization, and they've been overwhelmed lately because of the economy and having even more dogs to rescue than normal.
Anyway, here's the donation link, if any of my readers are so inclined:
http://www.active.com/donate/TFYCSep122009/LFuller72
The tri this time is a 750 meter swim, a 23 mile bike ride, and a 5K run. The best part, though, is that it starts at 3:30PM. Which means I don't have to get up at four in the morning. :)
Anyway, here's the donation link, if any of my readers are so inclined:
http://www.active.com/donate/TFYCSep122009/LFuller72
The tri this time is a 750 meter swim, a 23 mile bike ride, and a 5K run. The best part, though, is that it starts at 3:30PM. Which means I don't have to get up at four in the morning. :)
2200 (21150/270450)
So I don't really want to get into it too much, but Sunday night a friend that Jeff and I play hockey with died (they think it was an undiagnosed heart condition, but we're not sure yet) and we were up pretty late staying with his roommate/cousin, so I didn't get to practice Monday morning. I attempted to go swim later in the afternoon, and got a little in, but my heart wasn't really into it. Here's what I did do, though.
200 swim (flipturns)
200 drill (IM order by 50)
200 kick (IM order by 50)
250, 25 fly / 50 back / 75 breast / 100 free
250, 50 fly / 75 back / 100 breast / 25 free
400 pull (with paddles, flipturns)
100 flutter kick (with fins)
100 dolphin kick (with fins and snorkel)
300 free (100 catchup / 100 fingertip drag / 100 swim, with snorkel)
Total: 2000 SCM (~2200 SCY)
200 swim (flipturns)
200 drill (IM order by 50)
200 kick (IM order by 50)
250, 25 fly / 50 back / 75 breast / 100 free
250, 50 fly / 75 back / 100 breast / 25 free
400 pull (with paddles, flipturns)
100 flutter kick (with fins)
100 dolphin kick (with fins and snorkel)
300 free (100 catchup / 100 fingertip drag / 100 swim, with snorkel)
Total: 2000 SCM (~2200 SCY)
Saturday, July 11, 2009
3300 (18950/268250)
So my regular pool (EPIC) is closed this weekend, so I had to go over to the other muni pool to swim this morning. At first I didn't really mind swimming at Mulberry, but now that I'm swimming more in a set, I'd really prefer to go to EPIC. The lighting inside Mulberry isn't very good, for one, and there are only six lap lanes. There's a tiny diving well with one low diving board, then the a section of shallow pool that has this large piece of what is basically playground equipment in it. Because there are so many kids playing in there, the pool is filthy, and has WAY more chemicals in it, so the water is gross and cloudy.
But I did it anyway. Mulberry is in yards, so to swim a mile I had to do 1800. My time was about a minute slower than my last 1600 meters, but I'm going to attribute that to a) 1600 meters being about 1750 yards, so I swam an additional 50 yards today, and b) my turns are pretty bad, so more turns generally means more lag for me. Swimming that far is still boring, but I do have to say that it makes me happy that I can do that much distance. When I first started Masters last December, I could barely swim a 400 consecutively, and now I could probably do a 2k if I felt like it. Also, my BFF Cheryl bought me one of those H2O Audio setups for my birthday that just arrived today, so as soon as I get myself a new iPod shuffle, I can start listening to music during these workouts. I can't wait!
I enjoyed the IMs today, since I got to do them on my own pace, and focus on my form instead of trying to keep up with my teammates.
Okay, off to watch some US National Championship trials. Wee. :)
4 x 100, 50 drill / 50 kick, IM order
2 x 100 IM (second 1:56)
400 pull (with paddles, flipturns)
1800 free (35 flat)
150 kick, 50 back / 25 free / 25 breast / 25 back / 25 fly
100 IM
50 free
Total: 3300 SCY
Friday, July 10, 2009
3100 (15650/264950)
OMG breathing fail today. I woke up feeling heavy in my chest and I knew I was in for some fun at the pool this morning. I had pretty much nothing going into this practice, and I have literally no idea how I managed to do all that fly without puking or passing out.
That said, on the second round of those broken 25s, Evan made a point to tell me that my butterfly technique is really good, I just need a little more kick. Which sounds about right to me. I was very pleased to receive the compliment, though. It definitely made me feel better about today's fail!swim.
So everyone but me and Lori were doing 100 IM fast followed by 100 IM easy. Evan was having us do just a 50 easy afterward, but at the end, Lori said, "let's do another one." Evan said of course SHE wanted to do another one, she wasn't swimming fly. ;) But I did it anyway.
I've mentioned this here before (probably a million times), but I LOVE butterfly. It's hard and I can't do much of it at a time, but it's my favorite stroke. So I really liked getting to do so much of it today, despite the pain and suffering. And wow, was there pain. When I'm having asthma problems, it usually starts with pain in my chest that just spreads out through my limbs. By the freestyle of all of those IMs, everything was burning, and my arms felt like they weighed 100 pounds each. Ugh.
I still love swimming. Even when it's killing me. Maybe even more when it does. ;)
400, free/back by 50 (warmup)
4 x 75, 50 drill / 25 swim (IM order) on 2:10
8 x 25 swim, IM order (supposed to be on :30, was more like :40)
250 free
100 IM fast
50 free easy
6 x 25 swim, IM order (minus free) on :40 - adjusted by Evan so I wouldn't die, heh
350 pull
100 IM fast
50 free easy
6 x 25 swim, IM order (minus free) on :40
350 pull
100 IM fast
100 IM smooth
200 kick (with fins - warmdown)
Total: 2850 SCM (~3100 SCY)
That said, on the second round of those broken 25s, Evan made a point to tell me that my butterfly technique is really good, I just need a little more kick. Which sounds about right to me. I was very pleased to receive the compliment, though. It definitely made me feel better about today's fail!swim.
So everyone but me and Lori were doing 100 IM fast followed by 100 IM easy. Evan was having us do just a 50 easy afterward, but at the end, Lori said, "let's do another one." Evan said of course SHE wanted to do another one, she wasn't swimming fly. ;) But I did it anyway.
I've mentioned this here before (probably a million times), but I LOVE butterfly. It's hard and I can't do much of it at a time, but it's my favorite stroke. So I really liked getting to do so much of it today, despite the pain and suffering. And wow, was there pain. When I'm having asthma problems, it usually starts with pain in my chest that just spreads out through my limbs. By the freestyle of all of those IMs, everything was burning, and my arms felt like they weighed 100 pounds each. Ugh.
I still love swimming. Even when it's killing me. Maybe even more when it does. ;)
400, free/back by 50 (warmup)
4 x 75, 50 drill / 25 swim (IM order) on 2:10
8 x 25 swim, IM order (supposed to be on :30, was more like :40)
250 free
100 IM fast
50 free easy
6 x 25 swim, IM order (minus free) on :40 - adjusted by Evan so I wouldn't die, heh
350 pull
100 IM fast
50 free easy
6 x 25 swim, IM order (minus free) on :40
350 pull
100 IM fast
100 IM smooth
200 kick (with fins - warmdown)
Total: 2850 SCM (~3100 SCY)
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
3700 (12550/261850)
Since this is posting to my Facebook now, I should probably put the writeup at the top, rather than below the workout. I'm sure most people don't care about my swimming sets. :)
This felt like a lot of yardage when I was doing it, but I didn't realize it was THAT much. Nice. And we cut a 100 at the end because, the age group swimmers needed to get into the pool. It was really tiring, but it felt good to do that much swimming, and try to hit those intervals (even if I wasn't completely successful). Man, I love to swim.
My legs are totally feeling it right now, though. Also, I did a lot of biking and running yesterday, so my quads are shot. I'm taking my road bike in for a tuneup today, and if I have to leave it overnight I'll be riding the mountain bike to work tomorrow, which should be... entertaining, heh. Probably good for me, though. Builds character.
I just ate my body weight in food. I was starving when I got out of the pool. Mmm, giant breakfast.
300 swim (warmup)
200 pull (warmup)
100 IM (warmup)
3 x 200 free, descend 1-3 on 3:50
2 x 200 pull, breathe 3/5/7/choice by 50
300 free with fins, every 4th 25 fast kick only
2 x 300 free on 5:30
3 x 200 free on 3:50
2 x 100 free on 1:50
100 free (warmdown)
Total: 3400 SCM (~3700 SCY)
This felt like a lot of yardage when I was doing it, but I didn't realize it was THAT much. Nice. And we cut a 100 at the end because, the age group swimmers needed to get into the pool. It was really tiring, but it felt good to do that much swimming, and try to hit those intervals (even if I wasn't completely successful). Man, I love to swim.
My legs are totally feeling it right now, though. Also, I did a lot of biking and running yesterday, so my quads are shot. I'm taking my road bike in for a tuneup today, and if I have to leave it overnight I'll be riding the mountain bike to work tomorrow, which should be... entertaining, heh. Probably good for me, though. Builds character.
I just ate my body weight in food. I was starving when I got out of the pool. Mmm, giant breakfast.
300 swim (warmup)
200 pull (warmup)
100 IM (warmup)
3 x 200 free, descend 1-3 on 3:50
2 x 200 pull, breathe 3/5/7/choice by 50
300 free with fins, every 4th 25 fast kick only
2 x 300 free on 5:30
3 x 200 free on 3:50
2 x 100 free on 1:50
100 free (warmdown)
Total: 3400 SCM (~3700 SCY)
Monday, July 6, 2009
3000 (8850/258150)
Well, with this post I am FINALLY caught up. Whew. Again, sorry for the massive spam.
100 swim (warmup)
300 pull (warmup)
4 x 75, kick/swim/kick, odds breast, evens free
4 x 150, 50 9-kick hesitation / 50 6-kick hesitation / 50 swim, 3&4 with fins
300, 100 free / 100 breast / 100 free
300, 100 free / 100 back / 100 free
4 x 100, odds 50 catchup / 50 free, evens 50 breast drill / 50 breast
12 x 25 { 4 x 25 drill, 25 swim, 25 fast } (1-3 fly, 4-6 back, 7-9 breast, 10-12 free)
100 pull (warmdown)
Total: 2800 SCM (~3000 SCY)
I really liked this workout, though I did abuse myself with a ton of breaststroke. Evan had a bunch written into it, but then I added my own when we were supposed to swim choice sets.
The 25s drill/swim/fast were fun, because the breaks made me feel like I could sprint a little fly. I love it, but it still dislikes me quite a bit, heh. The last 25 was my free sprint, and Evan commented that it looked "really fast". And it was, something like :20, which isn't bad for 25 meters. If only I could keep up that pace for a 50 or 100, heh.
The bummer is that we found out this morning that EPIC (the pool where we swim) is closed ALL of August for cleaning and ceiling renovation, so we won't have any practice. If I go that long without swimming, I WILL turn into a giant blob, no lie. So I'm in the process of enacting a backup plan.
Option one is to swim at the other, smaller muni pool. They do open at 5:30AM, but I have no idea if they have swim teams practicing at that time or not. The cost for drop in is $4 a session, or $3.20 if you get a Super Pass multi-use card. That brings the total for three swims a week for four weeks to either $48 or $38.40. I'm paying $35 a month to FAST for dues, which Tasha said shouldn't be charged the month we're not practicing. So the cost isn't much worse. The only drawbacks are a) not knowing if we'll have the space to do it, and b) the workouts aren't coached.
Option two is to swim with another Masters team for a month. T2 Coaching (triathlon group) has a Masters team, but they apparently also practice at EPIC, so thye're likely SOL as well. There's one at a local health club, but I'm pretty sure you have to be a member of the club to participate, and their pool is TEENY. Then there's Vortex, who I was considering joining when I was trying to find a team to swim with. They are currently swimming at a private outdoor pool, which is very appealing to me. The drawback here is that their dues are $60 for the month, but they do have a more open practice schedule, so I could swim even more than three times a week, if I wanted. I sent them an email today to see about joining for August only, just to see if they'd even let me do it.
So, yeah. I WILL swim in August, even it I have to take two hour lunch breaks and work until six everyday to make it work. I'm hoping the Vortex thing works out, even though it's more expensive, because I'd like to keep up with coached workouts.
100 swim (warmup)
300 pull (warmup)
4 x 75, kick/swim/kick, odds breast, evens free
4 x 150, 50 9-kick hesitation / 50 6-kick hesitation / 50 swim, 3&4 with fins
300, 100 free / 100 breast / 100 free
300, 100 free / 100 back / 100 free
4 x 100, odds 50 catchup / 50 free, evens 50 breast drill / 50 breast
12 x 25 { 4 x 25 drill, 25 swim, 25 fast } (1-3 fly, 4-6 back, 7-9 breast, 10-12 free)
100 pull (warmdown)
Total: 2800 SCM (~3000 SCY)
I really liked this workout, though I did abuse myself with a ton of breaststroke. Evan had a bunch written into it, but then I added my own when we were supposed to swim choice sets.
The 25s drill/swim/fast were fun, because the breaks made me feel like I could sprint a little fly. I love it, but it still dislikes me quite a bit, heh. The last 25 was my free sprint, and Evan commented that it looked "really fast". And it was, something like :20, which isn't bad for 25 meters. If only I could keep up that pace for a 50 or 100, heh.
The bummer is that we found out this morning that EPIC (the pool where we swim) is closed ALL of August for cleaning and ceiling renovation, so we won't have any practice. If I go that long without swimming, I WILL turn into a giant blob, no lie. So I'm in the process of enacting a backup plan.
Option one is to swim at the other, smaller muni pool. They do open at 5:30AM, but I have no idea if they have swim teams practicing at that time or not. The cost for drop in is $4 a session, or $3.20 if you get a Super Pass multi-use card. That brings the total for three swims a week for four weeks to either $48 or $38.40. I'm paying $35 a month to FAST for dues, which Tasha said shouldn't be charged the month we're not practicing. So the cost isn't much worse. The only drawbacks are a) not knowing if we'll have the space to do it, and b) the workouts aren't coached.
Option two is to swim with another Masters team for a month. T2 Coaching (triathlon group) has a Masters team, but they apparently also practice at EPIC, so thye're likely SOL as well. There's one at a local health club, but I'm pretty sure you have to be a member of the club to participate, and their pool is TEENY. Then there's Vortex, who I was considering joining when I was trying to find a team to swim with. They are currently swimming at a private outdoor pool, which is very appealing to me. The drawback here is that their dues are $60 for the month, but they do have a more open practice schedule, so I could swim even more than three times a week, if I wanted. I sent them an email today to see about joining for August only, just to see if they'd even let me do it.
So, yeah. I WILL swim in August, even it I have to take two hour lunch breaks and work until six everyday to make it work. I'm hoping the Vortex thing works out, even though it's more expensive, because I'd like to keep up with coached workouts.
Friday, July 3, 2009
2850 (5850/255150)
500, 100 free / 75 free, 25 back / 50 free, 50 back / 25 free, 75 back / 100 back (warmup)
10 x 50, 25 kick / 25 drill (IM order)
12 x 25 kick with fins, 2 free, 2 choice x 3
700 pull, 500 Fartlek (25 smooth / 25 strong, 50 smooth / 50 strong, 75 smooth / 75 strong, 100 smooth / 100 strong), 200 build
100 free fast, 25 - 10 seconds rest - 25 - 10 seconds rest - 50
100 free fast, 25 - 10 seconds rest - 50 - 10 seconds rest - 25
100 free fast, 50 - 10 seconds rest - 25 - 10 seconds rest - 25
100 free fast, 25 - 10 seconds rest - 25 - 10 seconds rest - 25 - ten seconds rest - 25
100 free fast, for time (1:38)
100 free (warmdown)
Total: 2600 SCM (~2850 SCY)
So this was actually an off day from work, so I got up feeling relaxed knowing that I could come home and go back to bed whenever I wanted. Which was 12:00 in the afternoon, after breakfast and a snack and a bunch of Heroes season 1. Heh.
Anyway, Tasha coached us this morning and I LOVED the little broken 100s at the end. I can haul a ton of ass when I do 25s, and I always feel really fast when I get to do them. The 1:38 at the end seems appropriate considering the other 100m times I've been getting, so yay!
So this was actually an off day from work, so I got up feeling relaxed knowing that I could come home and go back to bed whenever I wanted. Which was 12:00 in the afternoon, after breakfast and a snack and a bunch of Heroes season 1. Heh.
Anyway, Tasha coached us this morning and I LOVED the little broken 100s at the end. I can haul a ton of ass when I do 25s, and I always feel really fast when I get to do them. The 1:38 at the end seems appropriate considering the other 100m times I've been getting, so yay!
Thursday, July 2, 2009
3000 (3000/252300)
So the Wednesday before this I rode my bike to work, then came home and proceeded to run for 45 minutes on my elliptical runner. At a fairly high setting. And then lifted weights.
I think I killed myself a little, because I not only managed to forget to reset my alarm to 5:00AM for Masters practice, I turned off my backup alarm. In my sleep. I guess my body wanted rest. :p
So I went over my lunch break and swam about 70 minutes, doing another distance test.
200 swim (flipturns, warmup)
200 drill (flipturns, warmup)
200 kick (IM order, warmup)
600 pull with paddles
1600 swim (34:06)
200 pull (warmdown)
Total: 3000 SCM (~3300 SCY)
Where I got slower. What the? I'm not sure how that happened, unless it was the aforementioned body killage from the night before. Ah well. I do really like doing the mile, so I think I'll keep trying that here and there when I swim on my own.
Sadly, it turns out that by missing the morning practice, I missed my last LC workout. Wah. :(
A side note: I can now bench press 50 pounds, which is probably not even remotely impressive, but back in high school I could BARELY press ten pounds. Yes really. I was a 125 pound dancer weakling that only had muscle in my legs. I think this goes to show what swimming has done for me. I do weigh ten pounds more than that seventeen year old dancer, but I can guarantee that those ten pounds and more is from muscle. And I really like that I can say that. I'm in the best shape of my life at the ripe young age of thirty. I might be a slower learner, but at least it's better late than never. :)
I think I killed myself a little, because I not only managed to forget to reset my alarm to 5:00AM for Masters practice, I turned off my backup alarm. In my sleep. I guess my body wanted rest. :p
So I went over my lunch break and swam about 70 minutes, doing another distance test.
200 swim (flipturns, warmup)
200 drill (flipturns, warmup)
200 kick (IM order, warmup)
600 pull with paddles
1600 swim (34:06)
200 pull (warmdown)
Total: 3000 SCM (~3300 SCY)
Where I got slower. What the? I'm not sure how that happened, unless it was the aforementioned body killage from the night before. Ah well. I do really like doing the mile, so I think I'll keep trying that here and there when I swim on my own.
Sadly, it turns out that by missing the morning practice, I missed my last LC workout. Wah. :(
A side note: I can now bench press 50 pounds, which is probably not even remotely impressive, but back in high school I could BARELY press ten pounds. Yes really. I was a 125 pound dancer weakling that only had muscle in my legs. I think this goes to show what swimming has done for me. I do weigh ten pounds more than that seventeen year old dancer, but I can guarantee that those ten pounds and more is from muscle. And I really like that I can say that. I'm in the best shape of my life at the ripe young age of thirty. I might be a slower learner, but at least it's better late than never. :)
Monday, June 29, 2009
3200 (40450/249300)
200 swim (warmup)
200 kick/drill by 50 (warmup)
400 pull, negative split
8 x 25 choice on :45, 3rd and 6th fast (1-4 free, 5-8 back)
800 swim (15:18)
200 pull smooth
400 swim
4 x 50 kick/drill (reverse IM)
200 swim fast
100 easy (warmdown)
Total: 2900 SCM (~3200 SCY)
We randomly ended up doing an 800 at this practice, so I got to compare it to the time I got the day before. Happily, I was faster the second time. :) I still think I can probably up my pace at the beginning of these distance sets. I'm not getting as tired as I expect, and I could probably improve my time a lot by being less cautious.
I've also been trying lately to do more different kinds of kicking in kick sets, hence the reverse IM in that kick/drill set. I am not so good at the fly kick, and I really need to practice, as much as it kills me. My biggest problem is breathing, since I need to do it, but my fly kick sucks on the surface of the water. It's a lot better if I get my whole head under the water, but then I have a lot harder time keeping up the kick for any real distance.
200 kick/drill by 50 (warmup)
400 pull, negative split
8 x 25 choice on :45, 3rd and 6th fast (1-4 free, 5-8 back)
800 swim (15:18)
200 pull smooth
400 swim
4 x 50 kick/drill (reverse IM)
200 swim fast
100 easy (warmdown)
Total: 2900 SCM (~3200 SCY)
We randomly ended up doing an 800 at this practice, so I got to compare it to the time I got the day before. Happily, I was faster the second time. :) I still think I can probably up my pace at the beginning of these distance sets. I'm not getting as tired as I expect, and I could probably improve my time a lot by being less cautious.
I've also been trying lately to do more different kinds of kicking in kick sets, hence the reverse IM in that kick/drill set. I am not so good at the fly kick, and I really need to practice, as much as it kills me. My biggest problem is breathing, since I need to do it, but my fly kick sucks on the surface of the water. It's a lot better if I get my whole head under the water, but then I have a lot harder time keeping up the kick for any real distance.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
3000 (37250/246100)
500 pull with paddles (flip turns)
2 x 50 free (flip turns)
100 free (flip turns)
1600 free (800m 16:50 / 1000m 22:05 / 1600m 33:39)
200 kick, reverse IM
2 x 100 IM (second timed at 2:08)
50 fly (1:03)
250 pull (flip turns)
Total: 3000 SCM (3300 SCY)
This was a random weekend swim I decided to do so I could see what my distance times are looking like. I just signed up to do the Race for the Oceans and that's a 1K, but I wasn't sure I've ever swam a 1K without pulling before.
My 1K time wasn't too bad. I ended up gaining about :30 per 500 on top of my normal 100 meter splits (right around 2:00). The time I got on the 1K would make my 50s average at about 1:05, which isn't too terrible, considering I was really holding back at the beginning because I don't know how tired I'll get.
The 1:03 on the 50m fly was shocking. My second 25 was dragging HARD, so I must have been quick on the first half. My two handed open turn is a train wreck, too.
Also, I've been trying to work on my flipturns when I swim on my own. I'm still really bad at them, and I get a lot of water up my nose, but maybe someday I'll actually get to a point where I can do those by default, instead of open turns. Here's hoping, anyway.
2 x 50 free (flip turns)
100 free (flip turns)
1600 free (800m 16:50 / 1000m 22:05 / 1600m 33:39)
200 kick, reverse IM
2 x 100 IM (second timed at 2:08)
50 fly (1:03)
250 pull (flip turns)
Total: 3000 SCM (3300 SCY)
This was a random weekend swim I decided to do so I could see what my distance times are looking like. I just signed up to do the Race for the Oceans and that's a 1K, but I wasn't sure I've ever swam a 1K without pulling before.
My 1K time wasn't too bad. I ended up gaining about :30 per 500 on top of my normal 100 meter splits (right around 2:00). The time I got on the 1K would make my 50s average at about 1:05, which isn't too terrible, considering I was really holding back at the beginning because I don't know how tired I'll get.
The 1:03 on the 50m fly was shocking. My second 25 was dragging HARD, so I must have been quick on the first half. My two handed open turn is a train wreck, too.
Also, I've been trying to work on my flipturns when I swim on my own. I'm still really bad at them, and I get a lot of water up my nose, but maybe someday I'll actually get to a point where I can do those by default, instead of open turns. Here's hoping, anyway.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
3000 / 3500 (34250/243100)
Thursday, June 25 - Masters Practice
200 swim (warmup)
200 drill (warmup)
4 x 100, odds kick/swim, evens swim/kick (with fins)
4 x 50, build 1-3, 4 easy on 1:10
6 x 100 fast for time (1:36, 1:46, 1:48, 1:49, 1:52, 1:48)
4 x 150 pull, breathe every 9 on the last 50
100, 50 breast / 50 back
6 x 50 fast for time (:56, :56, :51, :52, :55, :54)
4 x 50 pull on 1:30 (warmdown)
Total: 2800 LCM (~3000 SCY)
My times on my 100s and 50s seem really slow, even for meters. I must have been tired that day, or something. I can usually sprint a 50 a lot quicker LC than SC because my turns are so bad. My SCY times are usually around :45 on a sprint, so maybe it's not TOO bad, but who knows.
One thing I'm really going to miss without LC is being pushed by people who are usually in lane 2. We weren't having as much distance cut as usual because of the different skill levels in the lane, and it felt nice to try and keep up and sometimes succeed.
--
Friday, June 26 - Masters Practice
300 swim (warmup)
200 drill (warmup)
100 kick (warmup)
4 x 50, 25 kick / 25 swim
500 pull
4 x 100, 25 fingertip drag / 25 head up / 25 fingertip drag / 25 swim
4 x 75 IM (removing least favorite stroke, so fly/back/free)
50 easy/fast
50 fast/easy
50 build
50 fast
400 pull, breathe every 5, choice by 50 (with paddles)
4 x 100, 25 right arm / 25 left arm / 25 head up / 25 swim
8 x 25 (2 x V sprints)
Total: 3200 SCM (3500 SCY)
I loved these 75 IMs. I'm so bad at breaststroke, and I love fly so much, I was thrilled to get to skip the breast part of the IM. The funny part about my lane is that we all skipped different strokes, and the only person who skipped fly was Lori, and that's because she's never learned to do it. :) Amanda doesn't like her freestyle at the moment (she's about seven months pregnant) and Vicki hates backstroke.
Then there's the head up drill. I HATE that drill. At one point Evan shouted at me to kick hard during it, and I announced my hatred of it. The bonus of having your head out of the water. :p Then Reu shouted at me, "Come on, little triathlete!" Yeah, I know, I need the practice. Stupid drill.
200 swim (warmup)
200 drill (warmup)
4 x 100, odds kick/swim, evens swim/kick (with fins)
4 x 50, build 1-3, 4 easy on 1:10
6 x 100 fast for time (1:36, 1:46, 1:48, 1:49, 1:52, 1:48)
4 x 150 pull, breathe every 9 on the last 50
100, 50 breast / 50 back
6 x 50 fast for time (:56, :56, :51, :52, :55, :54)
4 x 50 pull on 1:30 (warmdown)
Total: 2800 LCM (~3000 SCY)
My times on my 100s and 50s seem really slow, even for meters. I must have been tired that day, or something. I can usually sprint a 50 a lot quicker LC than SC because my turns are so bad. My SCY times are usually around :45 on a sprint, so maybe it's not TOO bad, but who knows.
One thing I'm really going to miss without LC is being pushed by people who are usually in lane 2. We weren't having as much distance cut as usual because of the different skill levels in the lane, and it felt nice to try and keep up and sometimes succeed.
--
Friday, June 26 - Masters Practice
300 swim (warmup)
200 drill (warmup)
100 kick (warmup)
4 x 50, 25 kick / 25 swim
500 pull
4 x 100, 25 fingertip drag / 25 head up / 25 fingertip drag / 25 swim
4 x 75 IM (removing least favorite stroke, so fly/back/free)
50 easy/fast
50 fast/easy
50 build
50 fast
400 pull, breathe every 5, choice by 50 (with paddles)
4 x 100, 25 right arm / 25 left arm / 25 head up / 25 swim
8 x 25 (2 x V sprints)
Total: 3200 SCM (3500 SCY)
I loved these 75 IMs. I'm so bad at breaststroke, and I love fly so much, I was thrilled to get to skip the breast part of the IM. The funny part about my lane is that we all skipped different strokes, and the only person who skipped fly was Lori, and that's because she's never learned to do it. :) Amanda doesn't like her freestyle at the moment (she's about seven months pregnant) and Vicki hates backstroke.
Then there's the head up drill. I HATE that drill. At one point Evan shouted at me to kick hard during it, and I announced my hatred of it. The bonus of having your head out of the water. :p Then Reu shouted at me, "Come on, little triathlete!" Yeah, I know, I need the practice. Stupid drill.
Monday, June 22, 2009
3000 (27750/236600)
This workout kicked my butt. So much IM. And I refused to stop doing fly in mine, even though everyone else in my lane started subbing in some freestyle instead. I want to be a butterflyer, dammit. Even as unreasonable as it probably is. I love that stupid stroke. It just doesn't love me very much, heh.
200 swim (warmup)
200 drill (warmup)
25 fly
50 back
75 breast
100 free
100 fly kick
75 back kick
50 breast kick
25 free kick
100 IM
200, 100 free, 100 breast
300, 200 free, 100 IM
400, 300 free, 100 back
300, 200 free, 100 IM
200, 100 free, 100 breast
100 IM
2 x { 25 free / 25 free drill / 25 stroke / 25 stroke drill }
50 free (warmdown)
Total: 2750 SCM (~3000 SCY)
200 swim (warmup)
200 drill (warmup)
25 fly
50 back
75 breast
100 free
100 fly kick
75 back kick
50 breast kick
25 free kick
100 IM
200, 100 free, 100 breast
300, 200 free, 100 IM
400, 300 free, 100 back
300, 200 free, 100 IM
200, 100 free, 100 breast
100 IM
2 x { 25 free / 25 free drill / 25 stroke / 25 stroke drill }
50 free (warmdown)
Total: 2750 SCM (~3000 SCY)
Friday, June 19, 2009
3300 (24750/233600)
We ended up getting long course this Friday as well because there was a long course meet over the weekend, which made me pretty happy. Have I mentioned that I love long course? Because BOY, do I.
I've recently taken to doing almost all of my pulling with paddles. I like what it does to my stroke, and the extra work it makes my sad little triceps do. However this particular day I was getting my ass kicked by everyone in the lane, so maybe I should have gone without, ha.
200 swim (warmup)
200 kick (warmup)
8 x 50 kick, odds free, evens fly on 1:10
2 x 400 pull (with paddles) on 7:30-ish
3 x 100 free on 2:00, 1:55, 1:00
4 x 50 free on 1:10, 1:05, 1:00, :55
300 pull (with paddles)
3 x 100 free on 2:00, 1:55, 1:00
4 x 50 free on 1:10, 1:05, 1:00, :55
100, 50 breast, 50 back (warmdown)
Total: 3000 LCM (~3300 LCY)
I've recently taken to doing almost all of my pulling with paddles. I like what it does to my stroke, and the extra work it makes my sad little triceps do. However this particular day I was getting my ass kicked by everyone in the lane, so maybe I should have gone without, ha.
200 swim (warmup)
200 kick (warmup)
8 x 50 kick, odds free, evens fly on 1:10
2 x 400 pull (with paddles) on 7:30-ish
3 x 100 free on 2:00, 1:55, 1:00
4 x 50 free on 1:10, 1:05, 1:00, :55
300 pull (with paddles)
3 x 100 free on 2:00, 1:55, 1:00
4 x 50 free on 1:10, 1:05, 1:00, :55
100, 50 breast, 50 back (warmdown)
Total: 3000 LCM (~3300 LCY)
Thursday, June 18, 2009
1500 / 3300 (21450/230300)
So the first workout here was from Wednesday, June 17. I hadn't swam since the previous Friday, and after watching a TON of live swimming at the Grand Prix, I was starting to go crazy, I wanted to swim so badly. So I took 45 minutes and went to the smaller of the two muni pools in my area. There are so few lanes in that pool to begin with, and the Vortex age group swim team was having practice, so I had to share a lane the whole way, half of the time with a guy who was just doing distance freestyle (who had one half of the lane), and half of the time with three people (another guy came along and I offered to share my half of the lane with him in a screwed up circle swim because the other guy didn't stop for us to get his attention and have him circle swim as well).
It made swimming fly interesting, but I had been wanting to swim some butterfly for so long that I made it work by doing some one-arm fly when needed.
The second workout was from Thursday's long course Masters practice. I don't have much comments about that, except that I LOVE long course, and I'm sad we don't get to do it again until next summer. *cries*
500 free (open turns)
200 free (flip turns)
300 pull with paddles (drill)
2 x 100 breast
50 fly
100 IM
50 free
100 pull
Total: 1500 yards
--
300 swim (warmup)
100 drill (warmup)
200 pull
200 fast
150 drill (6 kick hesitation/catchup/zipper)
100 stroke (breast)
50 fast
200 pull
150 drill (6 kick hesitation/catchup/zipper)
150 fast
100 stroke (back)
50 fast
50 streamline kick
200 pull
150 drill (6 kick hesitation/catchup/zipper)
100 stroke (free)
100 fast
50 fast
200 pull
150 drill (6 kick hesitation/catchup/zipper)
100 stroke (breast)
50 fast
50 fast
50 streamline kick
Total: 3000 LCM (~3300 LCY)
It made swimming fly interesting, but I had been wanting to swim some butterfly for so long that I made it work by doing some one-arm fly when needed.
The second workout was from Thursday's long course Masters practice. I don't have much comments about that, except that I LOVE long course, and I'm sad we don't get to do it again until next summer. *cries*
500 free (open turns)
200 free (flip turns)
300 pull with paddles (drill)
2 x 100 breast
50 fly
100 IM
50 free
100 pull
Total: 1500 yards
--
300 swim (warmup)
100 drill (warmup)
200 pull
200 fast
150 drill (6 kick hesitation/catchup/zipper)
100 stroke (breast)
50 fast
200 pull
150 drill (6 kick hesitation/catchup/zipper)
150 fast
100 stroke (back)
50 fast
50 streamline kick
200 pull
150 drill (6 kick hesitation/catchup/zipper)
100 stroke (free)
100 fast
50 fast
200 pull
150 drill (6 kick hesitation/catchup/zipper)
100 stroke (breast)
50 fast
50 fast
50 streamline kick
Total: 3000 LCM (~3300 LCY)
Friday, June 12, 2009
2250 (16950/225800)
This is the second workout I had with the SCSC in NorCal. This one was at a local high school called Harker, I believe, same coach as Thursday morning. I'd originally planned to swim with them a third time on Monday morning before I left to come home, but Alix and I decided that staying up late and drinking rum the night before sounded more fun, hee.
100 free (warmup)
100 free (warmup)
3 x 100 pull, drill/swim by 25
3 x 100 pull, DPS/swim by 25
2 x { 25 underwater dolphin kick /25 free / 25 back kick }
3 x 100, 25 back kick / 25 back / 25 breast kick / 25 breast
250, 50 free / 50 fly / 100 free / 50 breast
250, 50 free / 50 back / 100 free / 50 back
150 free
2 x 50 free, sprint
50 breast sprint
100 free (warmdown)
Total: 2050 SCM (2250 SCY)
Honestly, I really loved the sprints at the end of this workout, because they were relay races. I had one guy in my lane with me, and the coach separated out everyone so there were two people per lane. The first relay was 200 free, so we each had to alternate fifties. He asked me to start, so I swam the first and third 50s. I'm proud to say that, despite my partner being quite a bit slower than most of the people in the group, my lane got first. :) I swam my brains out, so I was glad to bring us out on top.
The second sprint was 50 back, then 50 breast. My lanemate said he was awful at breaststroke, and even though I am as well (seriously), I offered to swim it. Needless to say we got our rearends kicked, but it was a heck of a lot of fun attempting to sprint breaststroke. Let's just say I don't think I'll ever be doing that in competition, heh.
Honestly, I really loved the sprints at the end of this workout, because they were relay races. I had one guy in my lane with me, and the coach separated out everyone so there were two people per lane. The first relay was 200 free, so we each had to alternate fifties. He asked me to start, so I swam the first and third 50s. I'm proud to say that, despite my partner being quite a bit slower than most of the people in the group, my lane got first. :) I swam my brains out, so I was glad to bring us out on top.
The second sprint was 50 back, then 50 breast. My lanemate said he was awful at breaststroke, and even though I am as well (seriously), I offered to swim it. Needless to say we got our rearends kicked, but it was a heck of a lot of fun attempting to sprint breaststroke. Let's just say I don't think I'll ever be doing that in competition, heh.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
2100 (14700/223550)
Masters Practice, Santa Clara Edition
Anyway, Alix swims Masters with the Santa Clara Swim Club, and they happen to practice part of the season at the pool where the meet was taking place. It worked out that the first day I was in town was the last day at the International pool, so despite having VERY little sleep (my flight out of Denver was massively delayed and I didn't get into SJC until 12:30, and not into bed until almost two AM), we got up and went to practice, where I got to swim with their Group 2 Masters in the competition pool (pictured above; photo taken right after I'd finished practice).
I'm probably just a spaz, but it was cool getting to swim in the same water that the people I mentioned up there would be swimming in the next day. Hee.
Anyway, the Group 2 coach was AWESOME and pointed out two things that were wrong with my freestyle stroke that I had NO idea I was doing wrong. Let's just say that now all the high elbow drills and the catchup drill make WAY more sense now. Hah. The workout was only 60 minutes, and shorter than I'm used to, but it was so fun swimming outside (we don't do that much in Colorado) and I was spending so much time fixing my stroke that it didn't matter ultimately. :) The set is below.
100 free (warmup)
100 breast (warmup)
2 x { 2 x 100 pull with paddles, 25 catchup / 25 swim / 25 catchup / 25 swim // 100 build by 25 }
3 x 100 pull, 50 back / 50 free
50 fly / 50 free
50 breast / 100 free
50 back / 150 free
50 back / 50 free
50 breast / 100 free
50 back / 150 free
100 free (warmdown)
Total: 1900 LCM (~2100 LCY)
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
2750 (12600/221450)
And now I post a billion swim workouts. I felt weird about posting them when I hadn't finished my triathlon post, so I typed them all up and then didn't post them. Heh. Anyway, please excuse the clutter as I go back and enter all of these things. At least I don't remember much about them, so there will be very little commentary!
--
300 swim (warmup)
10 x 50, odds kick, evens swim, build 1-5 on 1:30
4 x 100, 25 12 kick hesitation / 25 10 kick hesitation / 25 8 kick hesitation / 25 6 kick hesitation on 3:00
3 x 100, 25 left arm / 25 right arm / 25 fist / 25 swim on 3:00
4 x 100, 2 x 25 zipper / 25 fingertip drag on 2:15
4 x 100 Victory sprints on 2:15
200 pull (warmdown)
Total: 2500 SCM (~2750 SCY)
--
300 swim (warmup)
10 x 50, odds kick, evens swim, build 1-5 on 1:30
4 x 100, 25 12 kick hesitation / 25 10 kick hesitation / 25 8 kick hesitation / 25 6 kick hesitation on 3:00
3 x 100, 25 left arm / 25 right arm / 25 fist / 25 swim on 3:00
4 x 100, 2 x 25 zipper / 25 fingertip drag on 2:15
4 x 100 Victory sprints on 2:15
200 pull (warmdown)
Total: 2500 SCM (~2750 SCY)
Saturday, June 6, 2009
550 (9850/218700) aka Tri Take Two
Pre-race thumbs up. Click the picture to see my Facebook gallery. :)
Okay, so this is very, VERY late, but life has been interesting and I haven't been able to type this up until now.I have to say, I was MUCH more relaxed before this tri than I was the first one, even though the swimming part still scared me a little. I figured there was no way it could be worse than the first time I did it, especially since the swim part was 300 less meters, and the bike (which I was massively confident about) was longer. My goal for this tri was to be faster than 18 MPH average on the bike part.
The day before the tri, Kimberley got a hold of me and invited me to carpool to Boulder with some girls from her Tri group, and I agreed. This pushed my wake up time back to 4:15 AM. I forewent the prerace shower and just had some breakfast (yogurt with raspberries and cereal) and ran out the door to drive to the home of a gal named Shaudin. She and her husband are the owner of a giantic van and a four-bike trailer hitch bikerack, so she volunteered to drive herself, her nextdoor neighbor Margaret, Kimberley and myself to Boulder. We stopped on the way to meet up with another carful of triathletes (and have some Starbucks), and then we were off.
We got to the reservoir a little early, but that gave us ample time to unpack the van, get setup in the transition area, get marked, and empty our bladders before getting into our wetsuits. I got a different suit this time by Blueseventy, but I'm not sure I liked it. The neck was pretty tight, and it made my arteries bulge out all scary-like. One of these days (hopefully soon) I'd like to just own a wetsuit. In the long run it's going to save me money, make it easier to do training swims, and keep me from having to run across town to reserver/pickup/dropoff a wetsuit.
I was in the second swimwave (pink caps this time), which ended up with a ten minute delayed start (they sent men under thirty, then men over thirty before us). It was really sunny at the reservoir, which excited and worried me at the same time. I was glad that the sun made it all feel way less ominous to me than the Windsor swim, but the reflection off the water was pretty bad, even with my tinted goggles. Once we were swimming, though, spotting the buoys wasn't too hard.
This swim cource was basically just two 90º right hand turns, like a big square out into the reservoir. I got all the way past the last buoy before I needed a break and took a few seconds on my back to calm my breathing down. I was a little nervous going in, but not scared at all once I was out in the middle of the water. I think my problem at this point is that I'm still swimming too hard. Someone told me (belatedly) that they hardly ever kick until the end, whereas I kick pretty strong the whole way.
Climbing out of the water was way easier this time around too, beacuse the beach is sand and just a gentle slope, rather than the hard shore at Windsor Lake. As I was running to the swim exit arch, I heard them announcing the names of everyone crossing the line as the top ten swimmers in our heat. I was literally in shock when I heard them say my name, the tenth person to finish! Turns out I did the 500 meters in 8:23, which puts my 100 meter pace at around 1:40. I'm still surprised I could go that fast! Goes to show what adrenaline can do for you. :)
However all that kicking bit me in the ass when I got back to the transition area and I got a massive Charlie horse in my left calf, which made getting my wetsuit off and bike shoes on interesting. It also made my T1 time longer than I wanted at 4:36.
But then I was off on my bike, the part of the race I was most excited about. I felt great about my swim, and started flying on my bike, until I started hearing a strange noise, and noticed that my front tire had gone completely flat. At this point I hadn't even made it five of the 17 miles. I found a safe-ish place to pull off and started getting my front tire off, which proved to be a pain as I hadn't done it before on that tire. I pulled out my spare tube and got it installed and aired up, then finally I was back on my way after losing probably between 10 and 15 minutes replacing the tube.
Then things started getting strange again, and a survey of my tires showed that my REAR tire was now losing air. I had no more tubes, so I jumped off and aired it up, glad to see it was at least holding air. The air in the back tire lasted about 2-3 miles tops, so I kept having to get off and repump my tire with my hand pump. One nice lady stopped along the way and gave me a CO2 cartidge filler that made the refilling easier, but it only lasted that one refill and it was back to the hand pump after that. I tried to pull off every time I passed a checkpoint with police or volunteers posted, so I could avoid getting killed by the highway traffic.
Finally, one hour, twenty-four minutes, and thirty-six seconds after I'd started the bike ride I made it back to the transition area. At that point I was just proud that I'd managed to finish, though I was disappointed in the time it took, as I'd been hoping for something closer to fifty minutes.
But there is a lesson learned here. Back when I first planned to do triathlons, my friend Shirley said that I shouldn't even necessarily bet on finishing my first race, because something could happen and I could get two flat tires on my bike. At the time, I thought there was no way that someone could be that unlucky. Obviously I know better. Next time I'll have at least two spare tubes with me, and different expectations.
By the way, I wasn't even the only person in the race that had this happen. The gal who actually won as highest fundraiser had two flat tires as well, and she had to finish with one or both completely FLAT. Also, I'd originally thought that my back tire problems were due to the patch I already had on that tube leaking, but it turned out to be a completely separate puncture. I'm just lucky that way, I guess. :)
At that point I was exhauasted, hot, filthy from bike grease and road dirt, and the last thing I wanted was to run 3.2 miles. But after my second transition (1:21, not bad!), I was off on the 5K run. For some reason, this 5K was WAY harder than the last three I'd done. I'm not sure if it was beacuse of the heat (every other 5K I'd done before this had been in overcast, cool weather) or because, as I discovered later, I'd completely forgotten to take my maintenance asthma medication AND my allergy pill in my hurry to get out of the house on time. I felt like I was sucking wind the entire run, and even had to fast-walk some parts of it, because my lungs were aching. Even with the walking, I managed to finish the run in 31:53, which was only 90 seconds slower than my last tri with my pace only being 43 seconds slower at 10:31. My final time for the race was 2:10:48.
I keep thinking that, if I'd been able to keep my bike pace up like I'd wanted, my final would have been closer to 1:35, but really, the bike problems were part of it. Sometimes things don't cooperate, and getting through them and finishing was a success for me, even if I didn't get the time I wanted. I really enjoyed the race despite the issues, and I can't wait to do another one. In fact, there is a similar sprint in September on the same course and I'm about 99% I'm going to do it, just because I loved the first one so much.
I wasn't even the last person on the team to cross the finish line, which made me feel a little better. Though later on I found out that Margaret had been in a bike accident and hurt her leg a little (she managed to accidentally hit a dead deer on the course, trying to avoid some other cyclists - scary!). But there was lunch and beer awaiting us, and I partook in both. The beer was really good, and I had one of the best brownies ever in my sack lunch. :)
Kimberley and I tried to get well deserved massages as well, but the line was long enough that we never managed to get them before we had to leave. We headed back to Fort Collins in Shaudin's awesome van where we parted ways with hugs.
Like I said, this triathlon was so fun that it didn't matter how many things went wrong. I enjoyed it so much that I wish I could have the chance to do it over again without the bike failure. Maybe in September I'll have a different story.
Thank you to Rob, by the way, who asked about how things went WEEKS ago. Sorry for the delay in posting this. :)
Friday, June 5, 2009
3000 (9300/218150)
200 swim (warmup)
200 kick (warmup)
4 x { 3 x 50 free, first easy, second moderate, third sprint, all on 1:00 }
24 x 25 spins (freestyle sprint with fins) on :35
200 free easy
3 x 100 free, 1 and 2 sprint, 3 easy on 2:00
6 x 50 free, sprint down, easy back on 1:10
10 x 25 free, all sprint except 4 and 8, :05 rest
150 pull (warmdown)
Total: 2800 SCM (~3000 SCY)
Lately I haven't been having time to write these until right before I leave work for the night, and I just want to go home now, so I'm going to keep it short.
Evan was gone for a swim meet (coaching), so Reu coached today. I like it when he coaches, because he spends extra time with us slow kids to teach us technique. Today he pointed out that I'm not finishing my pull all the way before I pull my arm up for a stroke on freestyle, so I fixed it and wow, what a difference. It definitely helped my speed and strength, though it did make my triceps hurt a little. My wrists are sore now too, which might be part of it as well.
Lots of sprinting. Reu said he felt bad about it when I told him I was doing a tri tomorrow, heh.
We were really short today, possibly because a lot of masters are swim parents and the kids' meet is out of town this weekend, but also maybe because of practice yesterday morning. Either way, there were so few people that the slow lane got two lanes for four of us, so we each got to split and run to sets together, which was a lot of fun. All of us (me, Vicki, Lori, and Amanda) pace really close to each other that way. It's kinda neat. :)
Okay, I'm outta here. Gotta go get my wetsuit and then probably a beer. I have to try and go to bed early-ish tonight because I'm carpooling to Boulder and we're meeting at 5:00AM, which means I need to get up around 4:15. Good times.
Happy weekend, all.
200 kick (warmup)
4 x { 3 x 50 free, first easy, second moderate, third sprint, all on 1:00 }
24 x 25 spins (freestyle sprint with fins) on :35
200 free easy
3 x 100 free, 1 and 2 sprint, 3 easy on 2:00
6 x 50 free, sprint down, easy back on 1:10
10 x 25 free, all sprint except 4 and 8, :05 rest
150 pull (warmdown)
Total: 2800 SCM (~3000 SCY)
Lately I haven't been having time to write these until right before I leave work for the night, and I just want to go home now, so I'm going to keep it short.
Evan was gone for a swim meet (coaching), so Reu coached today. I like it when he coaches, because he spends extra time with us slow kids to teach us technique. Today he pointed out that I'm not finishing my pull all the way before I pull my arm up for a stroke on freestyle, so I fixed it and wow, what a difference. It definitely helped my speed and strength, though it did make my triceps hurt a little. My wrists are sore now too, which might be part of it as well.
Lots of sprinting. Reu said he felt bad about it when I told him I was doing a tri tomorrow, heh.
We were really short today, possibly because a lot of masters are swim parents and the kids' meet is out of town this weekend, but also maybe because of practice yesterday morning. Either way, there were so few people that the slow lane got two lanes for four of us, so we each got to split and run to sets together, which was a lot of fun. All of us (me, Vicki, Lori, and Amanda) pace really close to each other that way. It's kinda neat. :)
Okay, I'm outta here. Gotta go get my wetsuit and then probably a beer. I have to try and go to bed early-ish tonight because I'm carpooling to Boulder and we're meeting at 5:00AM, which means I need to get up around 4:15. Good times.
Happy weekend, all.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
3200 (6300/215150)
200 swim (warmup)
6 x 50 free
600, 150 free / 50 back
2 x 300 pull
50 fly
50 free
50 back
50 free
50 breast
50 free
6 x 50, odds kick, evens swim
6 x 100 free
Total: 2900 LCM (~3200 LCY)
Long Course Pool is Long
First day of long course meters. So far, I like it. At least for freestyle, anyway. Stroke at 50m per length is a little rough. My 50 fly was more like 35 fly, 15 free, heh. Still, it was fun to try it, and having ten or so people per lane wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. Our lane was the slow-medium lane, and while I went second or third to last most of the morning, I only got lapped once (and that's because I got hung up a bit by the girl in front of me and ended up farther back than I'd started). The only issue was that we made the rather uninformed decision to start on the diving well end of the pool, all ten of us spent most of our between sets time clinging to the walls and the lane lines, where if we'd started on the other end, we could have just stood on the bottom.
All that said, it was harder than I expected it to be. Plus I had some lung and sinus issues, the former which might have been stamina related, or caused by the latter. The weather the last few days has been yo-yoing between rain and sun, so the barometric pressure changes have been wrecking havoc with the pressure in my head. I had a hard time sleeping last night because of those problems, and then during my pull sets today so much had built up that I felt like my brain was going to explode out the sides of my head.
I'm excited to do it again, though. Next week I have to miss Thursday and Friday practices, as well as the following Monday because I'm going to be in California to see the Santa Clara Grand Prix and hang out with my good friend Alix, woohoo! There are some tentitive plans to swim with her Master's group while I'm there, though, which I'm very excited about. Yay swimming!
Swimming is a Contact Sport
In other news, I managed to damage myself again, this time by smashing hands over the lane line with someone in the fast lane. It hurt pretty bad at the time, and I now have a pretty purple bruise that covers about half of my right index finger. When it comes out better, I think I'll have to snap a picture. Bruises from swimming. I am awesome.
6 x 50 free
600, 150 free / 50 back
2 x 300 pull
50 fly
50 free
50 back
50 free
50 breast
50 free
6 x 50, odds kick, evens swim
6 x 100 free
Total: 2900 LCM (~3200 LCY)
Long Course Pool is Long
First day of long course meters. So far, I like it. At least for freestyle, anyway. Stroke at 50m per length is a little rough. My 50 fly was more like 35 fly, 15 free, heh. Still, it was fun to try it, and having ten or so people per lane wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. Our lane was the slow-medium lane, and while I went second or third to last most of the morning, I only got lapped once (and that's because I got hung up a bit by the girl in front of me and ended up farther back than I'd started). The only issue was that we made the rather uninformed decision to start on the diving well end of the pool, all ten of us spent most of our between sets time clinging to the walls and the lane lines, where if we'd started on the other end, we could have just stood on the bottom.
All that said, it was harder than I expected it to be. Plus I had some lung and sinus issues, the former which might have been stamina related, or caused by the latter. The weather the last few days has been yo-yoing between rain and sun, so the barometric pressure changes have been wrecking havoc with the pressure in my head. I had a hard time sleeping last night because of those problems, and then during my pull sets today so much had built up that I felt like my brain was going to explode out the sides of my head.
I'm excited to do it again, though. Next week I have to miss Thursday and Friday practices, as well as the following Monday because I'm going to be in California to see the Santa Clara Grand Prix and hang out with my good friend Alix, woohoo! There are some tentitive plans to swim with her Master's group while I'm there, though, which I'm very excited about. Yay swimming!
Swimming is a Contact Sport
In other news, I managed to damage myself again, this time by smashing hands over the lane line with someone in the fast lane. It hurt pretty bad at the time, and I now have a pretty purple bruise that covers about half of my right index finger. When it comes out better, I think I'll have to snap a picture. Bruises from swimming. I am awesome.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
3100 (3100/211950)
300 swim (warmup)
150 kick (warmup)
50 drill (warmup)
4 x 50, 25 kick / 25 swim
2 x 200 free on 4:15
2 x 200 free on 4:05
2 x 200 free on 3:55
3 x 50 free on :50
50 free on 1:30
3 x 50 free on 1:00
50 free on 1:30
3 x 50 back on 1:10
50 back on 1:30
8 x 25 kick, odds fast, evens easy
100 swim (warmdown)
Total: 2800 SCM (~3100 SCY)
This was the swim from yesterday morning, which was my 30th birthday. I had the day off, but I got up to swim anyway. Which is good, because I'm a massive failure as far as getting anything else done.
Anyway, I really enjoyed the swim. Thursday is the first day of LCM, so we'll see how that goes. I'm partially looking forward to it (I've never swam LCM before, should be interesting), and partially not (two lanes for the entire masters team, um, wee?). Training for the tri this weekend is massive fail, but I'm going to do it anyway. Even if it sucks and the weather is going to be horrible again.
I'm in a great mood right now. I'm sure you can all tell. Bleh.
150 kick (warmup)
50 drill (warmup)
4 x 50, 25 kick / 25 swim
2 x 200 free on 4:15
2 x 200 free on 4:05
2 x 200 free on 3:55
3 x 50 free on :50
50 free on 1:30
3 x 50 free on 1:00
50 free on 1:30
3 x 50 back on 1:10
50 back on 1:30
8 x 25 kick, odds fast, evens easy
100 swim (warmdown)
Total: 2800 SCM (~3100 SCY)
This was the swim from yesterday morning, which was my 30th birthday. I had the day off, but I got up to swim anyway. Which is good, because I'm a massive failure as far as getting anything else done.
Anyway, I really enjoyed the swim. Thursday is the first day of LCM, so we'll see how that goes. I'm partially looking forward to it (I've never swam LCM before, should be interesting), and partially not (two lanes for the entire masters team, um, wee?). Training for the tri this weekend is massive fail, but I'm going to do it anyway. Even if it sucks and the weather is going to be horrible again.
I'm in a great mood right now. I'm sure you can all tell. Bleh.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
3200 / 950 (37150/208850)
Masters Practice
100 swim (warmup)
200 drill (warmup)
300 pull (warmup)
100 kick (warmup)
4 x 100, stroke/free by 25
4 x 75, 50 drill, 25 free
4 x 50, odds fast
4 x 25, fast (3rd 25 easy)
100 free on 1:55
50 easy on 1:20
3 x 100 free on 2:00
50 easy on 1:20
2 x 100 free on 2:05
50 easy on 1:20
100 free on 2:10
50 easy on 1:20
6 x 25 fast kick on :50
150 pull (warmdown)
Total: 2900 SCM (~3200 SCY)
--
Afternoon Swim
100 swim (warmup)
3 x 50 swim (warmup)
500 free, no walls
50 drill
50, 25 sprint / 25 back kick
Total: 850 SCM (~950 SCY)
--
The morning swim was pretty fun. I like short sets on 100s, even if there isn't a lot of rest between them. I think my lane did a pretty good job with the intervals Evan gave us, and it felt like a good, strong workout to me.
The afternoon swim was just kind of a lark. I played softball on Tuesday night with Kimberley and Ann and we all decided to swim at lunch today. I messed around, mostly, but then Kimberley and I figured out a way to sort of mimic open water by not touching the walls and making wide turns at each end of the pool without touching the bottom. I did pretty good - 500 meters in about ten minutes (which is pretty much right on for me). We'll see if I can do similarly in the Boulder Reservoir in a week and a half.
Yup, I'm doing another triathlon already. Kimberley asked if I wanted to do it, and with a 500 meter swim, I couldn't say no, heh. Also, the fund raising for this one is done where you can pick a charity, so I'm doing mine for the Western Border Collie Rescue. My donation page is here, if anyone is interested:
http://www.active.com/donate/TFYCJune62009/LFuller71
So yeah, the tri is on Saturday, June 6 in Boulder. The swim is 500m in a clockwise square into the reservoir and the buoys are on the right, which means I should have a better time spotting them in this case. Then there is a 17 mile bike ride (I should be able to do this in just under an hour if I can keep myself at my 18 MPH pace that I did last time) and another 5K run. Not bad. I don't mind the longer bike ride for the shorter swim. :)
100 swim (warmup)
200 drill (warmup)
300 pull (warmup)
100 kick (warmup)
4 x 100, stroke/free by 25
4 x 75, 50 drill, 25 free
4 x 50, odds fast
4 x 25, fast (3rd 25 easy)
100 free on 1:55
50 easy on 1:20
3 x 100 free on 2:00
50 easy on 1:20
2 x 100 free on 2:05
50 easy on 1:20
100 free on 2:10
50 easy on 1:20
6 x 25 fast kick on :50
150 pull (warmdown)
Total: 2900 SCM (~3200 SCY)
--
Afternoon Swim
100 swim (warmup)
3 x 50 swim (warmup)
500 free, no walls
50 drill
50, 25 sprint / 25 back kick
Total: 850 SCM (~950 SCY)
--
The morning swim was pretty fun. I like short sets on 100s, even if there isn't a lot of rest between them. I think my lane did a pretty good job with the intervals Evan gave us, and it felt like a good, strong workout to me.
The afternoon swim was just kind of a lark. I played softball on Tuesday night with Kimberley and Ann and we all decided to swim at lunch today. I messed around, mostly, but then Kimberley and I figured out a way to sort of mimic open water by not touching the walls and making wide turns at each end of the pool without touching the bottom. I did pretty good - 500 meters in about ten minutes (which is pretty much right on for me). We'll see if I can do similarly in the Boulder Reservoir in a week and a half.
Yup, I'm doing another triathlon already. Kimberley asked if I wanted to do it, and with a 500 meter swim, I couldn't say no, heh. Also, the fund raising for this one is done where you can pick a charity, so I'm doing mine for the Western Border Collie Rescue. My donation page is here, if anyone is interested:
http://www.active.com/donate/TFYCJune620
So yeah, the tri is on Saturday, June 6 in Boulder. The swim is 500m in a clockwise square into the reservoir and the buoys are on the right, which means I should have a better time spotting them in this case. Then there is a 17 mile bike ride (I should be able to do this in just under an hour if I can keep myself at my 18 MPH pace that I did last time) and another 5K run. Not bad. I don't mind the longer bike ride for the shorter swim. :)
Sunday, May 24, 2009
900 (33000/204700) aka The Triathlon Post
So yesterday was my very first triathlon. And this is my race report, as suggested by my very supportive friend/hockey teammate, Shirley. :)
Start with Friday night. Or Friday all day, really. Work was a little slow for a change, so I had a lot of time to think about the impending race. And I was really, really nervous.
I tried to work through that, mostly by getting things ready. When work was over, I headed over to Super Target to get a waterbottle cage for my bike, a bike bag for my tire tools and a replacement tube (which I went to get at Peloton Cycles a little later), some Gatorade, and some stickers to label my bike with its name (Hikaru, for the interested). I then went and got my wetsuit, and my replacement tube.
Back home I installed my waterbottle cage and my bag, put the stickers on, and loaded my bike into my car. Then I packed my bag, used Shirley's check list to make sure I had everything, and attempted to sleep at about 11:00PM.
Sleep didn't come easily, but I wasn't up much longer than half an hour. I'm going to attribute that to being up at 5:00 that morning for Masters practice. My alarm went off at 5:00 and I got out of bed to have a shower, which was almost too nice. I never shower in the morning, and it felt good yesterday, especially since it had a nice calming effect. After the shower I got dressed in my tri clothes, put some long pants and jacket over the top, and had some breakfast (cereal and vanilla yogurt) before heading out.
I parked in a lot at the Windsor Middle School, which was about a quarter mile from sign-in/the transition area. I ran into Kimberley (I'm not sure if I've mentioned her here before, but I met her at stroke clinic and she plays softball with us now - she invited me to do this tri with her) as soon as I got there, and also into Jenny (who swims with my Masters team). Kimberley found a friend from her tri group - Molly - who we hung out with all day as well.
After getting my race packet and going to body marking (which was interesting, having someone writing on my arms and legs with a huge marker - I was number 80, which went on both upper arms, and had my age - 29 - on my right calf), Jenny, Kimberley, and I went and racked our bikes together. The racks at this race were awesome - little short ones that only held two bikes per side. That meant everyone got some space to the side to lay out their towels and stuff.
So I started getting ready. I had no idea how I wanted to do things, so I just made it up, mostly. Laid out my bike and running shoes and socks together, as well as my ballcap (for the run) and some towels. We decided to get part way into our wetsuits in the transition area before walking over to the swim start, which was about half a mile away. Wetsuits on to the waist, we put our pants into the drop bags they gave us and headed over. Once we got to the swim start, we put our jackets/sweatshirts into the drop bags (it was about 55º out at 7:30AM) and got our wetsuits, swim caps, and goggles on then got some photos (on Molly's camera, so I don't have them back yet) before we waded out into the lake to get acclimated.
At this point I was feeling nervous but not scared. All of us were in the second wave (women 39 and younger) but Molly, who was in the first wave (29 and younger). Our caps were baby blue (wave one were red, and wave three were yellow). Kimberley and I, plus another gal from the tri group named Liz, went over to the far right toward the back of the wave two swimmers once wave one went into the water (7:55AM). That's when I started feeling a little afraid of what was about to happen. I thought maybe it was just me being anxious to get things started, and was babbling a little, trying to calm myself down.
At 7:58, the buzzer went off, signaling our wave to start. I ran into the lake (which was reportedly 63º) and didn't feel cold at all. I kept walking until the water was up to my chest, then dove into start swimming.
And immediately started having a panic attack. The farther out I got, the more I panicked, and probably made it about 100 meters before I had to roll onto my back and just float because I was hyperventilating. A couple other swimmers from my wave came to ask if I was okay, and I told them I was having a panic attack. They asked if I wanted one of the boats to come get me, but I said no. If you get rescued by a boat, none of your times for the rest of the race count. The older guy who was asking if I was okay stayed with me for a long while, telling me to swim slowly, put my face in and swim just like I was in the pool. He really helped me by assuring me that I was okay, that he was a strong swimmer and that he'd be there to help me if I got into trouble.
I was doing a lot better about halfway there, but I'd still freak out every 50 meters or so and have to flip onto my back to catch my breath. I veered off course a lot, and would get scared every time I got too far from the buoys, but I kept at it, and just tried to power through once I spotted the red flags at the swim exit. I just kept thinking how bad I wanted out of the lake, back where my feet could touch the bottom. Finally I found the shore, got my feet under me, and stumbled my way back up to land. A pair of volunteers helped me out, and I swear, I felt like I was going to pass out, there was so much adrenaline coursing through me. I don't remember how the ground felt on the shore under my feet, or the pavement on the way to the transition area over to my bike. All I can remember was how hard I was breathing, and how lightheaded I felt. I was literally shocked when I got to my bike and saw that I'd beat Kimberley over there. I was sure I'd been in that lake forever. In reality, it was just over twenty minutes.
The T1 transition was a blur. I was shaking really hard and almost fell getting my wetsuit off. I got my helmet and my jacket on, then tried to leave with my bike without my shoes. I re-racked my bike, got my shoes on, and jogged to the bike mount line. That transition was just about three minutes.
The beginning of the bike ride was all about me slowing down my breathing and getting my focus back. It really didn't take long, and the whole ride went by so fast it was shocking. It turns out the bike portion was actually 11 miles, and I did it in under 35 minutes. I felt awesome on the bike, fast and strong and powerful. I passed a lot of people, didn't have any trouble at all with any of the hills, even with the fairly substantial headwind. The best part was, and I don't even know how this is possible, that my butt didn't hurt at ALL. Riding my bike the 6.75 miles to work, I always feel sore about halfway through. I'm not sure if it's because of the adrenaline/endorphins, that I wasn't wearing anything under my shorts, or that they were wet from the swim, but it was the most comfortable ride I've ever had on that bike since I got it. I loved every second, and wish I could have just kept going on my bike.
T2 was way smoother, and a lot quicker than T1. I think it was around two minutes (I looked at my results yesterday, but there were a lot of people crowded around a tiny printout, and they haven't posted the results online yet). At the start of the run I spotted on of my FAST teammates - Reubin - and he told me I was doing great.
The run was about as hard as every other 5K I've done. Running is definitely not my favorite part of the triathlon. My race number was damp because I'd had to pin it on before the swim, and it got kinda messed up in the process. But Jenny has an extra race belt (ah HA, that's what those are for), and she said she'd bring it to Masters practice next week for me. Yay!
Anyway, the run went down a little over a mile on a bike path and then turned around to come back past the transition area, along the same path we used to get to the swim start, and across the grass a bit to end near the main stage. The first third felt okay, then I started sprinting too early because I didn't know exactly where the end was, so I had to slow down a little. I passed Kimberley going the other way just after the turn around, then saw Reubin again at the end of the transition area when I had just under a mile to go. The closer to the end, the more volunteers they had to cheer you along. I felt like I was never going to see the end of the thing, but finally someone told me I had 100 yards to go, and I picked the pace up again. Then, finally, the finish. The clock at the end was almost exactly 33:00:00, which meant I ran the race in ninety minutes, with my three minute delayed swim start.
I was elated! I didn't think there was any way I'd hit an hour and a half on my first sprint tri. My run was just over thirty minutes, which is my fastest 5K to date!
After I crossed the line, I found Molly, Liz, and Allana, who is the coach of the tri group. They all cheered for me when I finished. :) We waited a bit for Kimberley, then we all headed over to get some food. I went and changed into my dry pants and sweatshirt, then had a couple of de-meated sandwiches and some lemonade.
Unfortunately, that's when it started to rain. I decided I wanted to head home, so I waked back to the transition area and gathered up my stuff, then started the .25 mile walk back to my car, where I proceeded to get soaked. It was really, really unpleasant, and I was more than ready to stop being wet.
The drive home took about 15 minutes, and then I threw myself immediately into the shower. It was heaven, even better than the one I'd had about 6.5 hours earlier. And then, finally, DRY CLOTHES. Aaaah. I relaxed a bit before rinsing my wetsuit and taking it back to Runner's Roost, then home for a snack and a long nap.
And thus concludes my write up for my first triathlon. It didn't go like thought it would, in some cases worse (the swim went horribly) and in others better (finished 15 minutes faster than I'd predicted, even with the swim fail). I'm hoping I can do at least one open water practice before the Tri for the Cure in early August, because I think that if I can keep myself from freaking the hell out, I could probably really do well with these things. :)
But now, I can finally say it: I'm a triathlete!
Edit: I found my results!
Swim: 20:29
T1: 3:31
Bike: 33:23 (avg. MPH 18)
T2: 2:22
Run: 30:23 (run pace 9:48)
Total: 1:30:06
Gender Rank: 69th (out 0f 109)
Division (30-34 year-old women): 12th (out of 20)
Overall Place: 192nd (out of 258)
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