Swimming..... Aaaarrrgh!

Today I had an Easy swim... just working on form and breathing for 45 min (no breaks). I did a few calculations for today's swim and I figured out that at an Easy pace, I swim 2 feet per second (100 ft in 50 seconds). I also know that in an All Out Sprint I do about 4 feet per second (but that's not sustainable for more than a couple of lengths).

With these numbers, I calculated that in my Easy 45 minute swim, I swam a mile (remember my pool is 100 ft/length). Now I know today was an Easy swim, but numbers like that Piss me off! It's SO SLOW!

If I put that in terms of my first race (Sacramento International) which is 3/4 mile swim and I go at 3/4 speed (3 ft/sec), it means that I'll finish the swim in 22 minutes (or so) which lands me in 19th - 24th (swim) in my age group based on last years results. This is fairly respectable if I keep up a good pace and can make up time on the bike and run.

I think I'm just looking at things overall and thinking that I need to be FASTER! I want to do well in the race and just landing in the middle of the pack isn't my way. Now don't get me wrong, I'll have a good time and we're mostly just weekend warriors out there... But Dam it, I'm competitive and I want to kick some ass!

I guess I need realizations like this now and then because it motivates me and this is a good time to be motivated, I'm coming into March and I have to decrease my times.

Here's couple of swim technique improvement videos I thought were interesting; hopefully they work ;-)

Good Friends... A Long Ride.

Last night we got together with about 10 of our friends; hosted by Marc & Chelsea. They do such a great job of gathering everyone up and making it look effortless. We had a really good dinner of stuffed shells, Kona Kampachi (a new breed of fish being farmed that is high in Omega-3's and NO detectable Mercury), salad and an apple tart w/ vanilla ice cream. Prognosis... DELICIOUS!

Thanks Marc & Chelsea... you are amazing friends!

This morning when I woke up... there was an Spectacular Sunrise. This is the view from our bedroom.


After the sunrise, I started to prepare for my ride. I originally thought I was going to ride to Nicasio... that was until I looked at it closer and realized that it was a 90 mile ride there and back; Maybe some other day.

I ended up looking on MapMyTri.com and found a ride to Tiburon and back that was 42 miles... much better!

It was a really good ride... not to many hills, which has been my Saturday M.O. Overall I felt good at the end, however my hip flexors where in some pain in the last 4 miles. I was stoked that I did the ride... it was my longest on the bike. And my pace was pretty good considering that I have the city to deal with on both ends of the ride.



Tonight is the Chinese New Year parade with Jaa & Tom (if he makes it, all nighter bringing a data center online).

Tomorrow... a long run.

Good Swim Instruction Video

Tentative Schedule

April: Sacramento Int. (sprint)

May: UVAS Southbay (long sprint)

June: San Jose International (Olympic)

July: Shot! between the 4th, a fishing weekend, a trip to Chicago & a birthday (it's Toast)

August: Folsom International (Olympic) or Chicago International (sprint)

Sept: Los Angeles (Olympic)

Oct: His Tri ~ Napa (sprint)

Coyote Encounter... Brick (Bike/Run)

On Saturday morning I woke up early and started to hydrate, get some oatmeal into my body and stetch... It was going to be a hard workout for me. I was doing my normal Marin Headlands ride but I addeding some hill repeats today (Total ride: 26 miles).

Anyway... My day started out pretty normal, I left the house at 7am and headed up Polk St. where people hadn't really arrived yet (still sleeping), through the Marina / Crissy field (lots of runners) and then over the Golden Gate Bridge to my final destination the Marin Headlands.

Once here, I begin climbing!


You can see where the headlands start pretty easily. It's up that climb, down a pretty steep, fast road and the climb again! And then hill repeats. The section I for the repeats is the first hill the area above the top horizontal line; I did a few of these.

And this is where my day got a little sketchy! My second time up the hill I saw, what I initially thought was a dog and quickly realized that it was a Coyote. It was pretty cool. I'm use to seeing wildlife in it's full glory, as I fly fish in some pretty remote areas. So this wasn't really a big deal, it was actually pretty cool At First.

Coyote:


The coyote was off on the side of the road but as I road closer, it basically shoulder faked me and took a few steps toward me. I put it in gear and road past with no problems.... Ride back down and do it again.

This time (my last time) as I'm riding up I see the coyote again having his picture taken by some tourists who were about 10 feet from it... it seemed fairly calm at this point. And the photographers weren't having any trouble w/ it.

I decided to take a few moments to enjoy the scenery this time... mainly because I needed the rest; my heart was Pounding out of my chest from the climb.

View:


Ok... so now I'm rested and I start heading down the hill and then back to the city. I don't see the coyote at the top anymore, so I figured he'd gone on his way. And then about 50 yards down the hill, I see the Coyote again. And he spots me!

We're about 75 feet from each other at this point and he's on the far side of the road. I shift into gear and get up some speed so there will be no problems And I take as wide a berth as I can.

He takes a few steps. I get closer, he gets closer, I get closer, he gets closer... I'm peddling as fast as I can, He's running as fast as he can! We get right next to each other and I bend down slightly and yell as loud as I can hoping to make it back off just slightly so I can fly by.

Luckily my plan worked! I ended up about 1 foot away from the coyote and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous about what could have happened. I gain my composure and proceed to tell most of the riders coming up the hill to watch out for the coyote at the top.

The rest of the ride home was fairly uneventful, although I get really pissed when rider on the bridge (GG) don't go single file! More on that some other time.

After the bike I did a 5 mile run at a pretty slow pace; 9 min miles. And I actually found a run that was flat almost the entire way!!!! I really needed one of these for brick workouts (note for my dad: a brick workout is when you do 2 exercises back to back). The run was evenly paced and my lungs felt great.

Oh... side note for the sneakers (previous post). They were great! I really like them a lot... Asics has lost a customer if the Brooks keep me satisfied.

As for the rest of the day: Dentist, Lunch at the crepe place w/ Julie, Beach w/ Marc, Chelsea and Madeira, home, out to a nice Italian dinner w/ Julie, home, watched 1/2 a movie before falling asleep.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Swimming Mental Challenge

Well today I learned a valuable lesson... Swimming with a lot of people can be mentally taxing and throw you off your game a bit.

I showed up at the pool this morning (6am) for my normal swim (warm up 4 laps, swim 45 minutes continuously, cool down 4 laps) and unbeknownst to me, a local swim team was there doing their workout. What this means is that they put 4 lanes in the pool instead of the normal 3 and the swim team gets 2 of them. And all of the other swimmers share the remaining 2 lanes. This poses an interesting problem beyond congestion, its that the slower swimmers think they are faster and therefore swim in the faster lane. When in fact the reality is that if your 70 years old and doing the backstroke; You are Not fast.

Anyway... the bottom line is that I not only had to contend with the slow swimmers I had to work in with the faster swimmers trying to do their workouts. This essentially equated to 10 people per lane all at different paces and strokes.

So what was the lesson you ask? For me is it was the realization that as congested as I thought this was... it was going to be Nothing compared to what I'll face on race day. I imagine the kicking, arm slapping, etc... that comes with race day will be a rude awakening, so dealing with 10 people in the lane (although initially stressful) was good for me to begin working on my focus.

I do have to admit that I didn't do so well with it. So once I came to this realization, I did more of a speed workout to focus on my lung capacity and burst speed (as I passed people); 66 meter and 132 meter sprints (my pool is 100 ft).

There was one really cool thing about the day; I finally got the sensation of drafting. There's a guy who swims pretty fast (and makes it look effortless) and I hung right on his feet for 6 laps. It was interesting to have read a ton about it and then be able to practice it a few times.

I wouldn't say lesson learned just yet... but I would say lesson recognized and I have some work to do.

New Running Sneakers!

Ok... So, I was reading one of my Tri Mags and came across an ad for Road Runner Sports and it had a 15% off discount which was cool because I needed some new sneakers (mine had about 300 miles on them).

One of the cooler things about Road Runner is that they do a running analysis to make sure they put you in the correct pair of running sneakers. You can do it online, but if you can go in-store like I did they do the strike pad analysis and put you on the treadmill and video tape you (Very Cool).

Oh... I should mention that they really know their stuff! The girl who did my analysis said that everyone who works the floor has to go through 80 hours of training before they can even talk to a customer.

Next came working with one of the guys on the floor to find the shoes that work best for me. My analysis put me in a "stability +" category. Normally I wear Asics and they've worked just fine, but I wanted to see what else was out there. I also went in looking at the Brooks ST 3's for my races (but you can't train in these unless you want to buy several pairs of them).

I looked at Asics, Brooks, Saucony and Mizuno. And when it was all said and done I went with Brooks Trance 7. I was very surprised by this... I've been a pretty loyal Asics users but the Brooks just felt right.

-------
Day 1 w/ the sneakers: I went out on a run today. It was a light intensity run w/ a distance of 4.29 miles. The run was ok... nothing really to write home about. I did notice right away that the shoe was much stiffer and had less cushion in the heel. I think that's going to take some getting use to, but I'm confident that it's the right sneaker for me based on the analysis and the fit. The down side of today's run is that the tendon behind my right knee is bothering me... it may be because I'm not use to the stiffer sneaker and there was more pressure / tension on my legs during the run. Or I was just a little tight from yesterdays' Brick (bike / run) workout.

We'll see how it goes... I'm sure there's another post or two on the topic.

Good Ride... Crappy Run... Crappy Run

So... On Saturday I set out to do a fairly standard ride for me. I head from my house to the tip of the Marin Headlands and back through the Presidio. It's a really scenic ride and has some tough climbs. Sounds sick in the head... but I'm really starting to like the climbs.

You can see the ride here (make sure to check the elevation tab).

After the bike, I set out for a 5.5 mile run around the city. Pretty basic run that I've done before. It can be challenging but not as challenging as it seemed to me on Saturday. Mainly I think it's because I haven't done much outdoor running lately; the weather has been shitty. I know, that's no excuse, get my ass out there and run.

Well... after Saturday's performance, I'm going to try and run outside almost exclusively.

FYI... Sunday's run wasn't that great either. Lesson Learned!

Awesome Swim!

I just had to get something down today... The last few days I've felt like I was slacking, but looking back, I only took one day off.

I had an Awesome swim today. I just felt great... good speed, breathing felt right, stroke was relaxed; I was non-stop for 45 minutes. And had a 5 min worm up and cool down.

I recently watched a swimming analysis video on youtube and something about it just clicked for me. It just really made sense with the elbow position. Check it out.

I'm going to try and get out later today for a run or hopefully a ride to the headlands... we'll see (I'm in a full court press to find a new job).

Week Ending: 2/3/08

So... I'm sitting here on a Saturday night while my wife Julie cooks dinner and I figured I'd get my weekly blog writing out of the way.

I had kind of a shitty week, so I figured that I deserved a nice wine tonight. I'm drinking a Very Nice 2003 Reserve Syrah from Justin Vineyards in Paso Robles.

Training was good, but fairly light. I followed the same schedule but I went a little bit lighter. My swims for the last couple of weeks, now that I have my stamina back, haven't been quite as good as I thought they would be. My first 10 lengths are pretty crappy and I'm a little winded.

(TANGENT)... I should note that the pool I swim in (Rossi Pool, San Francisco) is 100 ft long, all of the city pools are that way. I know... what an odd size for a pool. I was recently talking to my accountant who is a masters swimmer and he said that when the pools were built (during the war), that size was optimal for holding airplane fuel. Really strange.

Anyway back to my swim... the first 10 suck and then I get into a groove and feel like I could swim for days. I'm doing on average 45 seconds for every 100ft (1 length), so that puts me at 18min 22 sec for .75 which is my race length in April (Sacramento Int. Tri). I usually swim for 45 minutes. I'd be happy with that time, but I'd like to get faster. net/net, I have a little work to do.

My runs have been great and my bike riding has improved. I need the most help on the bike. However, now that I got my shifting all straightened out, I hope to be better... It was really screwed up. The guy at the shop said "I wouldn't want to do any sort of ride with the way that was", that gave me a little boost given the fact that I did 2 rides around 20 miles or so w/ some serious hills.

I'm just hoping that the rains go away so I can get out of spin class and back on the road, Although today's spin class was Tough! I hate the high rpm in/out of the saddle thing. But I Love to climb. I'd definitely go for the polka dots!

This week will be much more intense... I'll have some extra mental fuel this week to burn off some angst!

Until next week... Train Hard and when you don't want to get out of bed, just remember that the guy who beats you probably got out of bed when he didn't want to.