Friday and Saturday

Forgot to blog my last two workouts. On Friday, I did a 8.75-mile bike ride in about 38 minutes, for just under 14 mph average. It was at lunchtime and was a nice easy ride with only a few hills, but into the wind and uphill together towards the end. That was a lead-in to Saturday's brick.

Saturday morning was cold, windy and raining. As much as I would've liked to skip it, there's no saying race day will be pleasant. (Although early July is a fairly safe bet...) So I went out and muscled through a 43-minute ride of almost 10 miles (13.5 mph avg) that was a pain in the butt because of the wet. Actually, my butt was numb after about 2 miles because of all the cold water spray from the back tire.

Towards the end, the pedaling got harder and harder and I wasn't sure if my legs were really getting that tired or if the rain and gunk splashing up were killing the chain lubrication that much. When I got home, I wheeled the bike in the house and went right back out for my 1-mile run. It wasn't very fast, but I was able to run for longer distances between the walk segments than my first brick about two weeks ago. I did the mile in 14 minutes today vs 15 minutes last time. My next brick goal is to be able to run the whole mile.

Shoulder is better

This morning's swim went well. I did a mixed free/breast 300 yard warmup, with no shoulder pain, or hints of it. Then she had me do 6 x 100s of freestyle with fins, to take it easy on the shoulder. No troubles there. Then 5 x 50s of breast, with double-kicks every other 25. It was a neat drill to de-emphasize the stroke, and we isolated a problem with my kick that's getting ironed out now.

During the breast 50s, she mentioned that I was going too wide with my arms, and I did my best to correct. Afterwards, I did notice when I went wider, and did feel the extra impact on my shoulder. I think Tuesday may have been a case where I pulled too hard and too wide during a length and caused the problem.

(Note to self: My shoulder hurts when I move my arm like this. Then don't move your arm like that.)

Getting faster

After Sunday's run when I felt like I could keep going at every walk segment, I moved this morning's (cold, wet) run up to the 2:30 min run/1 min walk ratio on my Jeff Galloway running app (that I like a lot). I was able to do the 2:30/1 ratio without too much trouble, so I think I may even be up to the 3/1 ratio by next week.

Otherwise, this morning's 3.2 miles was just a basic run in the cold and rain. I hope when I cross the finish line at my first Ironman, I remember all the early days like this where I got out there early to race the kid's school bus, or rainy days I pushed through. I also hope I fully enjoy the experience at every finish line I cross between now and then.

Good news, good news ... bad news.

Got back yesterday from the trade show. While I was down there, I spent three days where I was on my feet walking or standing better than eight hours a day, but I managed to eat fairly balanced meals. I did not drink enough water to stay hydrated, though. I stayed away from alcohol, which is hard to do at these events. The best part was I got in two specific workouts. One morning I snuck into the pool, which had a lane for lap swimming, and did about 30 minutes (not sure how far, as the lane was definitely not 25 yards). Then on Sunday I went for an afternoon run and worked up a good sweat in just under 3 miles.

This morning was back at swimming and we did a 300 warmup followed by a timed 500. I did the 500 in 13:53. The last time she timed us was for a 400 (I don't remember how long ago), and my time that day was a 14:47. So, I've cut almost a minute off my time even adding 100 yards. Felt very good to hear.

Then it happened.

After the 500, we were set to 16 lengths @ 55 seconds per. On the second length, I was doing breast and felt pain/rubbing in my right shoulder. It was very similar to when I injured it a couple years ago weightlifting, and the bursa sac got inflamed and rubbed against some of the small bones (acromion?) by the joint. I took a lap off, and tried again doing a front crawl. It was OK on the up and over, but painful on the pulling part of the stroke underwater. I decided I better call it a day, get some ice, do some specific stretches for it today and tomorrow, and get back in Thursday.

I guess the good news following that is I know the stretches I need to do based on the physical therapy I got for it last time, and I can still run and bike with an achey shoulder.

(Crap.)

Easy morning

This morning's bike ride was just over 6 miles in about 28 minutes, so around 13 mph. Not working terribly hard, but I did choose a route with a couple steep climbs.

The scale this morning gave good news. down a little over a pound. That's actually good and bad news. I was telling myself to ignore the scale when I started the tri-specific 12-week program, and it worked ... for a while. Now this morning's weakness and then good number means I'll be more tempted to check every week. Hopefully I can stay off at least for this month. The scale is a terrible thing for me. A bad number sabotages my exercise morale, and a good number triggers my need for regular feedback (and, obviously, getting on the scale more often exposes me to potential bad news more often).

No new posts expected until next week now, as I prep for Orlando's trade show this weekend.

Swim work

This morning's swim, 1,250 yards, was a 300 yard warmup (150 breast and 150 free) and a 150 cool down (all breast) followed by 8 x 100s. The 100s were a mix of kick work and stroke work. The first 100 freestyle was no legs using a pull buoy, 1 min rest, then 100 freestyle with fins, 1 min rest. Repeat.

Upper body is tired and definitely feels like it did all the work today. No more official swimming for a week now. Bike tomorrow and hit the road Thursday.

Slogging through

It was nice to have the day off (from training) yesterday, but by about 5 p.m. I felt like a slug for not going out to do anything, other than walk around the museum with the kids for the afternoon. I know I need to let my body rest and recover, but after six straight days of training it felt weird.

Back to it today meant 3 miles at lunch in about 40 minutes of 2 min run/1min walk. It was also straight into the wind and stinging rain for the first half. I wanted to turn around a few times, telling myself how stupid it was to force the issue on a crappy day when I could just do a Wii Fit run or something inside. But I know me and I know the first time I quit on an exercise day, the easier it gets next time. (But man it was cold running.)

I did it, and now I can look forward to swimming (inside) tomorrow morning, which is my only swim class this week with the trade show coming up Thursday-Monday. I plan to bring a suit/goggles and running shoes, in case I get an opportunity to get some workouts in at the hotel.

Keep slogging.

Brick!

This morning was awesome. Other than the teenage brat who yelled "Fatso" at me as I was riding my bike. And even that served to inspire me to push harder rather than quit or get discouraged or whatever the little a$$hat expected me to do. ...

So, it was a 31-minute bike ride followed by a 1-mile run. Actually, the mile was in 15 minutes, so closer to a "brisk walk" pace than slow run ... but I did it. The legs were protesting after I got off the bike and started the run, but it settled down pretty quick.

Possibly the best thing about this training for a tri is that I'm not getting bored or thinking, "I don't want to run/bike/swim again today." Each day is different.

Splits

Did my 32-minute bike ride on Wednesday, and my swimming yesterday morning, and today was a 3.1-mile run at lunch. Or run/walk as I'm doing.

Right now I'm working on the 2min run/1min walk splits of the Jeff Galloway system, and using his 5k app. It's kind of cool having a famous running partner keeping time and telling me when to walk and when to run. I find that towards the middle of the run, I feel gassed and start walking early, but typically it only seems to be a few seconds before he says to. I'll know I'm ready to move my splits up to 2:30/1 when I hit those 2min marks without thinking about them.

With a long day at the museum planned for Sunday, I'm moving the bike/run brick to tomorrow morning. A 30-minute ride followed immediately by a 1-mile run. I'm looking forward to feeling just how awkward the legs are starting out on that run.

Less tight

Next week technically starts the 12-week training to the sprint-distance tri, but I time-shifted some of the workouts into this week because I have work travel late next week and over the weekend. So, last night was another 3-mile run, followed by swimming and weights today (swim is done, weights at lunch), a bike ride tomorrow, swim/weights Thursday, another run Friday, rest Saturday and a bike/run brick on Sunday. Eventually, the typical week will be rest days on Sundays.

The run last night wasn't quick, but I did a little over 3 miles with a couple steep hills. I used a new running app from Jeff Galloway that helps me track my distance and keep on pace. Right now I'm working on the 2 minutes run/1 minute walk pace, which is about a 12-minute mile. I hope to be up to 5/1 pace by race day.

I did an extra swim day last week Friday in preparation for two straight days of 9-plus hours in the car. It went well. I did a 450-yard (race distance) warmup of free and breast in about 12 minutes, then 500 yards of kickboard with fins, then a 450-yard cool down of just breast also in about 12 minutes.

Today's swim also was pretty good. Warmup was 300-yard free and breast, then we did 2 laps of scuttling, which was any partial arm stroke, no kicking, up and full swim back. We followed that with a ladder that was supposed to be 8 lengths, 4 lengths, 2 lengths, 4, 8, with a minute in between each ladder. I thought she said laps, so I started with 8 laps and then 4 laps before we realized I was overdoing it. So instead of doing 200 yards, 100, 50, 100, 200, I did 400 yards, 200 yards, 50 yds, 100 yds, 200 yds. And I did OK. All told, today was 1,350 yards in about 40 minutes, just a few hundred yards short of a mile.

I think in a year's time I'll definitely feel comfortable doing a 1.2-mile swim (or more) in under an hour, and 56 miles on the bike doesn't scare me. Even adding 10 miles to last night's run seems quite doable, at the right pace. ... I think I just talked myself into doing a Half Ironman tri next year! 70.3

I rock.

Tightness

My hips and hamstrings are on day 3 of being tight. Really tight. Not cramped. Not achey. Just tight.

I blame running, the new addition to the equation. And I'm not going to change anything, because the tightness will go away and I'll keep exercising and getting fitter.

This morning's swim was pretty good. A 300yd warmup, then 100 yards with just a right fin and 100 yards with just a left. This was so the coach could fine tune some points on my freestyle. It was difficult and odd to swim unbalanced, but I think I improved some of how my hands are entering the water. Then we did 4 x 100s, with three sets of ab work poolside between sets. So not a lot of distance today, but good technique work.

Next week begins the specific 12-week training plan going into my birthday tri. Instead of mourning the end of my 30s though, I'm looking forward to my 40s and beyond.

(I really hope I can inspire my kids for life. Maybe if it's implanted somewhere in them how difficult this is getting back in shape, and how much fun I [intend to] have doing tri and other races every year, they won't ever let themselves get out of shape...)

With the start of the tri-specific program of swimming/running/biking/weights, I'm easing off the Wii Fit/EA Sports Active program to do just the training plan. I don't want to risk overtraining and getting a stupid injury. I've also put karate on hiatus, for financial and training reasons.

Coming soon ... running.

Jumped on the bike right after work last night for a 13.xx-mile ride with a few rolling hills around here, and was amazed to be done in 58 minutes, because it was quite windy, with heavy gusts. It felt like I was always riding into the wind, until my final turn home when I actually was riding into the wind and it was slow and hard-going. The other areas I was just fighting sidewinds apparently.

This morning, did 1,350 yards in the pool, all tri legal with crawl and breast (minus the 400 yards with fins and kickboard). No extended breaks, which was good. Worked on extending my stroke for crawl, and making my breaststroke less a breathing/relief stroke and more competitive. Coach wants me to work into a three-stroke breathing rhythm for crawl which will speed things up by keeping my head down longer. I'll need to work a lot on that because I am not comfortable/never learned to breathe on my left side during crawl. It feels weird and if I take any water in when I breathe in it really freaks me out...

Up next today, I am going to lace on my shoes and go for a run/walk this afternoon after work. Don't know how long or how far yet; I just want to get my heart rate up and need a shower when I finish.

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Oops. Forgot to log in my swimming last week. Was only able to do one day, and the swim coach was out, but left a workout to do. 250 yd warmup, then 500 yd swim broken up into 20 lengths at a minute a piece. When you get to the other side, you have the rest of that minute to rest. Then a 4 x 100 yd kickboard, with fins. and finally a 100yd cooldown.

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Update II: I did lace up my shoes and go for a 3-mile run after work. It took somewhere around 40 minutes, with a run/walk mix, where I tried never to give myself more than 1 minute walking. Some of the run segments were 3 and 4 minutes, but most were 2 minutes. Over the course of the last 24 hours, I did a tri with yesterday's bike, this morning's swim and now the run. My legs ache, but they don't hurt.

I can do this. 

A good swim today

Nothing special to report today. I did do a race distance without needing a rest, though I did need to change-up strokes a few times.

Started with a 250 warmup (which I did without a rest), and then the main workout was 10 laps of water running/swimming. We would run in the water about half a length (12 yards or so), and then finish the length swimming any stroke, and then swimming back the full length of 25. So it was roughly 120 yards of running in water plus 380 yards of swimming. I did pull some rests in between some of the laps.

We finished off with 400 yards (8 laps), nonstop. Technically this was 40 yards short of race distance, but it was at the end of 30 minutes of swimming. I did a mix of freestyle and breast, mostly breast, with 50 yards of backstroke mixed in. It felt good and I did it in 12:50. I can only get better from here.

By race day, I'm hoping to do 10 minutes or less of swimming. Not sure about bike and run, but I am starting to feel confident I will be able to do the whole sprint tri in under 2 hours, which was my goal for first time out.

UPDATE: Also rode my bike today, for just under 6 miles, at lunch. Was a 25-minute ride. Lots of gnats out there. Yuck. Ride was good though.

I rock.

Went to pickup my bike today in Whitewater at Quiet Hut Sports. They did the Spring maintenance thing and replaced the flat front inner tube (though there were no cuts in the tire ... hmmm, weird).

Anyhow, rode home the 14.63 miles of rolling terrain and knocked it out in 51.30. That felt pretty quick, for me, and I checked Map My Ride for the last time I did this ride. It was Sept. 1 last year after I'd only been riding about 5-6 weeks or so. That day I did it in 1:04.

So, over the winter through EA Sports Active on the Wii and with swimming twice a week for the past few weeks, I am definitely improving. My pedaling was steady and constant, and breathing was measured for the most part. Awesome -

(My legs are kind of shot right now with such a long ride for the first one of the year. I'm dreading and looking forward to swimming in the morning.)

Going the distance

Today's swim was a good one. After a long layoff since Thursday morning, and plenty of personal bad news yesterday, it was refreshing to hit the water. Quite simply, it was a 250 warmup, then ladders (50, 100, 150, 200, 250, all with 1 minute rest between), and a 50 cool down. Did the ladders as a mix of kicking only, freestyle, and backstroke, and 90 percent of it with fins.

Distance today: 1,150

I'm still worried that I'll end up in the water at about 250 yards and just have trouble breathing, but the more I read on tri forums it seems like a lot of folks will switch to breast for brief periods for sighting and to catch a breath. So I'm less worried about that and just need to keep at it.

Also, taking the Trek in for Spring maintenance and get the front tire worked on. Hopefully riding again in a few days. EA Sports Active workouts on the Wii are going great, and I know I need to get running out there soon too.

Ugh

Yesterday was going to be a trifecta. Swimming at 5:30, a quick, first-of-the-spring bike ride at lunch (it was 70 degrees out), and an hour of karate in the evening.

Instead, swimming happened, but it wasn't much of a workout. The night before, I had a bad bought of reflux that had me up for a couple hours and a coughing fit for about 30 minutes. My throat was raw. By the time I got to swimming it was on just a few hours' sleep, and after one warm-up lap, I had to stop and cough. I still had fluid in my lungs from the GERD. I made it through the 45 minutes, but it was very slow going. Not much progress.

I was feeling a little better by lunch though, and got the bike all set for the first ride. Got all my gear on and headed out. For 1.4 miles. Then the front tire spontaneously started leaking air quickly, and i had a 1.4-mile walk back home. At least it was nice out.

By the time late afternoon was turning to evening, I was way too tired to think about karate. Oh well. Still got two workouts in. Sort of.

Great goggles

Another good workout this morning. 200 yard warmup, 500 yards kick work with fins, 250 yards in/out work (next graph) and a 150 yard cool down.

The new part of the workout today was swimming one length (25 yards), then getting out of the pool and walking back to the other side to dive in and do it again. So the walk was to catch breath, but we were also doing walking lunges as we went. Getting in and out of the pool so often was a little extra workout in and of itself as well.

The cool thing for me about the 250 portion was the diving in. I used the starter's platform just like I remember from high school, and the form and underwater kicking came back really quick. The best part may have been my Speedo Vanquisher 2.0 goggles, because they did not shift off my eyes at all when I hit the water. The tech on these is great. They fit in tight with awesome suction, but with plenty of vision and no fogging. They don't hurt or pinch, and I don't get raccoon eyes for the day. The instructor recommended them, and they may be the best $15 I've spent in a long time.

Take a deep breath. Not too deep, though.

Swimming today was a blast again today. Did a 100 warmup (crawl, crawl, breast, back), and then for the bulk of the session the coach had us do 20 lengths (25 yards) with a minute per length. So that meant whatever time you didn't use became a brief rest period before the next length.

I did really fast, for me, front crawls the first two lengths (sub-30 seconds), but the 30 seconds of rest time wasn't enough and I had to balance speed and rest throughout the swim better. By the middle lengths, I was doing some breast and back to catch my breath, but then I was down to 5-10 seconds rest between swims. I'm sorry to say, I took two lengths off in the middle and so I only accomplished 450 yards of the 500. But I did my best to keep it together after that longer rest and finish strong with as many front crawl lengths as I could.

After that, we did 5 laps of kicking, with fins and boards. Next was 2 laps of front crawl with fins. Finally, we finished with 2 laps swim, no fins.

Today's total: 1,000 yards.

A couple times, after I was real tired, in my breathing during front crawl I would take in a bit of water and it freaked me out. Both times, I had to switch to breast for the balance of the length to calm down and get my breathing centered. Have to work on that. I'd hate to swallow some Pewaukee Lake water and freak out 4 minutes into the tri.

1,150 yards

Today was a tremendous confidence booster in the water. I got in the pool before the instructor showed up, so I did a quick 50 yards (1 lap) to both warm up and start exhausting my 'swimming' muscles prior to the day's workout.

Next was a 200 freestyle warmup, and then we were doing 400s (8 laps) split up into a set of 200 kicking (with board) and 200 freestyle (no board). I mixed it up with flippers as well. My two 400s were split like this:

100 kicking, 100 kicking with flippers, 100 crawl with flippers, 25 crawl, 25 back, 25 breast, 25 crawl.

I finished as strong as I could with a 100: breast, crawl, back, crawl. All told, 1,150 yards with shorter rest periods. I am tired and feel great.

Also, weighed in yesterday and registered a 1 lbs. loss for the week. It's not a Biggest Loser-style number, but it is a steady, sustainable loss. I'll take it. Or leave it (off) rather.

Not drowning

Swimming was awesome again today. Roughly 1,000 yards total over the 45 minutes. Today I went a length at a time with just a little rest at each wall, rather than full laps with longer rest. My cardio needs to build up as much as my stroke needs work.

The instructor had me working on lengthening my stroke and slowing my kicking down, which are essential for a longer swim. Apparently, I have more of a power-type sprinter's stroke and I try to move as quickly from wall to wall as possible. And it eats up oxygen like Cookie Monster on freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.

One great note from today's session: At the end, when I was thoroughly tired and worn out, she had me do two last laps (four lengths) of any style, with no rest at the walls. I was able to do it (25 crawl, 25 backstroke, 50 breaststroke). I tried to switch back to front crawl on the last 25, but by body just wasn't into it. I swallowed a bunch of water and changed up mid-length to breaststroke again. But, I finished.

So, can't wait to get back in the water Tuesday.