Mass swimming

I guess you can tell by previous posts that I love to swim. I've always been a water baby, but who wouldn't be when you grow up in Southern California? I remember days after my parents divorced, we'd spend weekends with my dad on his sailboat where he lived. The marina had a small pool that was always over-chlorinated. My brother, Rob, and I would swim until Pop would pull us out, our eyes swelled shut from all the chemicals. Even in high school I swam my senior year and felt completely at ease. It was a place where the sweat wouldn't show.

But now I'm sort of re-finding my love of swimming through triathlon. It's a sport where I feel more competitive than most I do.

Today, my triathlon training buddy, April, and I did our first workout with Texas Triple Threat, a local triathlon club. They hold a swim every Sunday morning. This time of year they practice in a pool, but come late March, we'll be in Lake Lewisville doing open water swims.

April and I felt a bit of trepidation showing up at 7:30 this morning with about 25 other people. We thought we'd be outmatched by far. She set herself with the slow group and I set up about in the middlle as I eyeballed many a tattooed person with the Ironman symbol. It's terrifying.

Lo and behold, I warmed up and was held up by some of these guys. The coach suggested that I move up not one, but two lanes to the nearly fastest folks. After a warmup, we did 30 minutes of a continuous swim. The water was boiling like it does when you throw fish food into a pond full of koi. There were no lane lines to break the surge. It felt like it would in open water. It was incredible!

I got in with the guys in my group and was starting to pass... or try to pass. The guy with the purple cap and giant feet ahead of me apparently didn't get the memo that when someone touches your feet (several times, I might add) that he should've stopped on the wall and let me pass. I'd even hang out on the wall until he was halfway across the pool and catch up to him without much effort. I could see his inefficient stroke ahead of me and he drove me nuts. Finally at one point about halfway across the pool, I noticed that there was plenty of room, so I turned back around and got ahead of him. It worked until later when he was able to somehow get back ahead of me by sitting on the wall for a break. Bastard.

Thankfully the coach saw my frustration and suggested I move up to the fast lane. Finally I was in my element and excited to be pushed to keep up more. Where I enjoyed the more even pacing of the slightly slower lane, this lane really made me fight more to keep the pace higher. I think I'll go there next time. It felt so good to be in the top tier of swimmers. My biking and running aren't nearly as good so it feels great to be adept at one of the elements of triathlon

After the 30 minutes continuous, we did a few drafting/mass start drills which were a blast. We paired up and tried to keep up or physically pass some of the other swimmers. One guy pushed hard on me and game was on! I drafted him for the rest of that lap, but on the return, I pulled on his ankle and slowed him down, allowing myself to get just ahead of him. Yay!!!

On a side note, oh my Gawd triathlon guys are great looking! Holy cow, I think I finally may have found a bit of heaven. Now if I could only snag one of them...

Seeing progress

133 days until the race.

Finally! There is progress in both my weight (down almost 5lbs since Christmas) and fitness! It's almost like finding old friends again. I am finally feeling like an athlete again and clothes are fitting how they should be...without hurting to wear them. Hee hee!

The warm weather certainly has helped get me motivated again. I'm beginning to think I'm a lizard, needing the warmth to really gain energy. Three times this week I was able to get outside and have great workouts because of the warmth and it made me happy.

Sunday afternoon, I conned my tri-training compadre, April, into getting in a ride outside. It was about 55 when we started and nearly 63, 2 hours later. Awesome! We rode from her house out a hilly route I've done before and came back. It was a bit of an awakening for both of us that there is a lot of work ahead, but we managed. I think we'll hit that route again with all the hills.

Monday after work I was able to get a good run in around the 'hood. It was windy and only 4 miles, but it felt fantastic having the sweat running down my forehead while outside again. I think I even was able to wear shorts! Love it.

Yesterday was the peak, though. I knew it'd be in the low 70's so I went into work early with my bike on the rack. My friend, Rick, and I zipped out of work at 3:30 to catch the last 2 hours of light. We were able to get in 2 fairly fast loops in around White Rock Lake, despite 25+kt winds when we headed south. He took me up one killer hill where I was breathing so hard I couldn't even cuss. Yep, definitely need to work on the hills more, especially for Kansas. We made it back to the cars right at sunset, thankfully.

I left him and headed to the gym to get in a quick pool workout as well. I wanted to work on speed rather than distance.

200m easy warmup

4x50m alternating single arm strokes (left side needs work)

4x50m alternating breathing sides (left side needs work here too)

10x50 on the 1:00 - stay at a consistent time (managed to do consistent :37-:38 every time)

200 cooldown

Love it!

Hopefully tomorrow will bring another warm-ish day to get out for another long afternoon ride. I've put my aerobars on so I need to get used to using them and get the bike set up correctly so that parts don't hurt and I ride more efficiently this way.

Stay strong and train hard, y'all!

Swim practice with the kids

Normally I don't really care to hit the YMCA for swimming in the afternoons, but with the icy weather, roads were crazy in the morning and I wasn't even sure the gym opened on time. So I packed my gym back with swimming and running gear for after work in hopes that the one lap lane available during the kids' swim team practice would be open.

Perfect! I showed up and got in the pool just before 5pm as the next wave of kids poured into the pool and got it churning like a bunch of hungry koi. I'm always surprised to see how in synch they can be once they actually start doing their assigned laps, but beforehand, they're pure wiggles.

The churn in the pool makes it a harder practice, but one that is more realistic to a tri environment. As much as I don't care for all the extra commotion (as compared to the quiet 5am practices), they make for e great workout. I did 2000m and was definitely tired during and afterwards. I don't think I was fueled enough and felt as if I was working too hard for the effort. Remember that for next time.

Out of swimplan.com, this was the workout:

2x100 easy warmup

1x50m right breathing, 1x50 left breathing (repeat 4x)

12x100 on the 1:45. I ended up extending this to a 2:00 interval because of the kids and the effort

2x100 easy cool down

Have a great week.

Broken trainer and more treadmill

I was set to set up the bike trainer in the living room to get in a great spin. I got this thing used from a friend about a year ago (free, thankfully) and it's been collecting dust since it arrived in my garage. I pulled it out, set it up, and with the cold, a plastic part snapped off of it. Crap! It blew the workout I'd planned last night. Oh well, I'll make it up later in the week and figure out a new plan for spinning this weekend.

So this morning I'd planned to swim. But then I remembered a sign at the Y that the pool was closed for a swim meet. Dangit! Thankfully I had my running clothes packed in my bag as well and did a quick change. Another good treadmill workout...

5 min warmup
Starting at 6mph, I bumped up the speed .1 each minute for 5 minutes, then reduced by .1 each minute for 3 minutes. Then starting at 6.2, I went up .1 for each of 5 mins, then down 3 again. Up 5 more, then .1 down for 10 minutes to slowly bleed off speed and time. Ended up with about 4 miles with cooldown. Nice workout and it helped to work up the speed.

Dave sent me a killer treadmill hill workout. Thanks, man! When I give that one a shot, I'll holler (or cuss) at you with the results.

Rock on, y'all!

3.5 treadmill

I'm a wimp in the cold. I'd rather have a 90 or 95 degree day than one at 45. It wasn't that long ago that I enjoyed cold, but for some reason, I'm now at the point where I'd like to only visit the cold (like seeing my favorite friends in MN).

So when it's frigid like this (under 40...see I told you I'm a wimp), I end up hitting the treadmill to get in the miles. Today was no different. I loved taking a treadmill class at my old gym, which is sort of like a spin class - a mix of hills and speedwork. It breaks up the drone of the belt and pushes limits at times. If done right, it's a two-towel workout!

Today's workout is simple, but it can be hard depending on how you push it. The last 2 one-minute intervals were really difficult. And why is it that 1 minute goes by a lot faster when you're doing the recovery?

1 mile warm-up

10 x 1-minute intervals of 1mph faster than my "regular" speed.

1-minute recovery between intervals

1/2 mile cool-down (run, then walk at the end)