Another good swim

Wow, it's so much fun to see improvment!

This morning I changed up the swim routine just a bit, doing sprints first.

100 easy warmup
5x50 at 1 min
5x200 at 4 min
5x50 at 1 min
100 cooldown
(Total 1700)

The first set of 50's I worked on arm turnover more than form. Felt fast and it got the early morning blood pumping. I did most of these at about :40-:42.

The 200's are what really suprised me. The past few weeks, I've been getting them done regularly at 3:13 (for about a 47 second rest between sets). This morning, I consistently did them in 3:03-3:05. Wow! I don't know where I lost that 10 seconds, but they felt so much stronger.

Last week, I worked with a couple of girls on swim strokes and maybe it was a bit of a mind-refresher to me too. I also follow a good triathlon blog and last week she had some interesting video showing Michael Phelps' stroke. http://www.triathlontrainingblog.com/?p=1342 I concentrated more on the stroke, mainly with reaching more in a breath stroke. Wow, I did feel a bit more power. Something must be clicking.

One week to go before the triathlon. Whee!

I feel the need for speed

Since I found the average speed function on the bike computer, I've become a bit obsessed. This morning's ride in, I managed to average 16.1mph overall. The first 13 miles I averaged 16.8, but admittedly, it's the considerably smoother and less trafficked half of the ride. I got to work 15 minutes earlier than I used to last summer. Whee!!

Amazing sights this morning -
- Incredible sunrise over the storm clouds leftover from last night's rain.
- A parade of mallards crossing the street; 12 babies in tow.
- A huge, bouffant hairdo on a teenager. It was reminiscent of the early 60's, but on a goth girl.
- Bright green lawns still heavy with rain.

Enjoy the day, all!

Olympic lenght triathlon

So I'm debating doing my first olympic length triathlon (1500m swim, 40k bike, 10k run).

One of the guys in my circle of former Adventure Team friends has gotten into triathlons the past few years and said that he was planning to do this one this year. http://www.toyotausopentriathlon.com/site7.aspx

So I'm looking at my event calendar for the year and think it actually might fit in well with what is going on this fall. I have 2 major bike events, RAGBAI and Hotter n Hell, in July and August, then the next major event is a half in Las Vegas in December. I'm thinking that by the time I'm ready to start training for the half, this will be the mid-point.

Whaddya think?

Pre-triathlon

Well this workout was in the plan for yesterday, but after a big breakfast with the neighbors, the belly decided that this would wait until Monday morning. We had another big meal last night and man, I was still full this morning.

Anyhoo, I got up this morning, checked the YMCA website to see what time they opened and was thrilled to see they opened at 7am. Game on! I grabbed the necessary gear and headed out. The plan was a bike-run-swim-bike. Technically, I was doing all the disciplines in order (sort of) and working them at about 80%.

The bike to the Y was fantastic. I did 8.7 miles right at :30 with an average of 16.8! Of course, there's one really good downhill on the way, but hey, I'll take it! There are a lot of great downhills on the course too (followed by uphills, dangit!)

Once at the Y, I went upstairs, changed shoes and jumped on the treadmill for 3.1. Kept the speed at 5.7 for the first .25 miles, up to 6.1 through mile 1, then 6.5 through 2.5 miles. At 2.5, I put the angle up to 2.0 and dropped the speed to 6.0 to simulate a slow, gradual, brutal hill at the end of the race in Austin. Then the final .25 miles, I cranked it up to 6.9 to finish it out. Bleh! Tiring! Finished in about :29, I think. I can't remember.

I did run without socks, which is something I'm considering for these sprint tris. It worked out well without any hot spots so I'll probably do it in Austin.

Waddled back downstairs to the pool to finish off the min-tri. After a quick, cooling shower I jumped in the pool and cranked out 800. I was excited about the time on that 800 until I realized I was doing yards instead of meters. Still, it's going to be pretty close. I got that 800 yards done in :14! Holy crap! Despite being really tired from the bike/run, this went pretty well. The open water with a bunch of other swimmers will slow me down a bunch, but I'm happy with this time, for sure.

Last year my times looked like this for my very first triathlon (same course as this year):
Swim 21:50 T1 03:26 (panicked on the first bit of the swim, then figured it out)
Bike 46:19 T2 02:09
Run 33:58 (choked completely on the run!)
Final 1:47:44

So now I'm going to throw this out there for my goal times:
Swim 17 T1 2:30 (different/faster to put on shoes this year)
Bike 43 T2 2:00
Run 31:30
Final 1:36:00

That's a big difference (and my high level goal), but I don't think it's that far out of reach. I'm in much better shape for the swim/bike than last year, but the run probably will be my downfall again this year.

Keep your fingers crossed!

Great ride!

So yesterday was a perfect day for a ride into work again. Almost no wind, relatively dry air and cool temps. You can't ask for anything better than that.

I've been using a bike computer for a while now; normally it's set to the mileage screen so I can see how far I've gone. It's just where I like it. But for some reason yesterday I had it placed on the average mph screen and didn't realize it until about halfway to work. I didn't play with it much on the way there, but was excited to see I was holding steady near 15.0 mph average for most of the way, though there were several times on nice long straightaways I had a good 18-20mph pace going.

The morning part of the commute was a new record. Normally each leg of the commute averages about 13-13.5 mph, mainly because of traffic. Yesterday morning, I averaged 15.1! Whee!

My friend, Dianna, is regularly telling me I need to keep my foot positioned more flat, so that the downstroke is almost like scraping mud off my foot. All this time, I'd been lazy and made it more of a toe-down sort of stroke. I think keeping the foot flat really helped in using the entire leg to pedal rather than just the quads.

The same sort of technique was used on the way home, this time I was very concious of the average mph screen. I kept wanting to pump it up a bit more just to see if I could do 15.5 on the way home. Sure enough, I was able to average the 15.5 for the whole trip home. I knocked nearly 10 minutes off my normal commute each way! Whee!

Take that, bad traffic!!

5/13 workout

Skipped yesterday because of too many other things to get done (and it was too damn windy to ride), but made up for it this morning. I did a brick workout in the gym, meaning I did a session on the bike and immediately went over to the treadmill to run. It's funny how wobbly the legs are between the two. It takes a good 1/4-1/2 mile to really get steady again.

Spin (25 mins) -
Warmup 5 mins, increasing tension. Then I just used the music on my MP3 to determine if I was doing speed, hills or jumps. I love when (old) U2 comes on because it just energizes me.

Dreadmill (28 mins)-
Since no warmup was really needed, I jumped on and started out at 5.8mph. Then increased by .2 every 2 mins up to 6.6, then 2 mins each down again to 6.0. Then I just stayed at 6.4 through a song and took a quick slowdown after each one before ramping back up again. At 2.3 miles, I did 1/2 mile on a 2.5 incline to simulate that damn hill at the end of the run at our Austin tri. It was tiring, so I dropped to 5.8 again. Cooled down.

Good workout. Tired, achy, but worth it.

5/11 workout

Tired. Man, now I'm worried about the tri. Then again, maybe I'm still tired from the ride on Saturday. Maybe it's because I woke up long before the crack-ass of dawn (4-ish) and couldn't get back to sleep. Today's workout wasn't good.

Actually, I guess the run wasn't too bad. I did a 3 mile ladder in about 30 minutes, which included a 5 minute walk to start. I cooled off a bit before changing into my suit and swimming.

The plan was to do another 2000, but the arms were really tired. To top that off I was sharing the only lap lane open with another lady (normally not bad), but then a kid (young teen?) got in with a waist belt on and was jogging. To top it off, there was another young girl sitting on the steps at one end of the pool, invariably getting in the way. Dodging all three was frustrating. Top that off with being tired and I just gave up and left at 800yds. I could've probaby finished 1500, but there wasn't anything going on conduicive to a good workout.

I guess tomorow will be a weight/core day instead. Sigh..maybe I can get in a ride.

Miscellaney

I love to socialize with a few people so when they make a call about a "status meeting at Stratos" at 3:30 late in the week, I'm usually in. Dangit if it wasn't my run/swim day. Did I do the right thing and go run? Nope. Sabotage.

I've been eating badly as well. I do well at work during the day for the most part, but now that I'm home quite a bit in the evenings doing schoolwork, I end up chowing down a lot. It's not pretty. I keep sabotaging my weight. Frustrating.

The past week or so has been really wet and windy. While the wet is great for my new lawn, it's not so good for the bike riding.

Fortunately today was a perfect day for riding. A few neighbor friends and I went down to Cedar Hill (south Dallas) for the organized ride down there. We did 42 miles and it was perfect. A few hills, perfect cool weather, lots of energy, and a big burger at the end. I love these organized rides. Thousands show up and it's such a great sense of camraderie. The legs are tired. I probably could've forced my way through the 60 miler, but it wouldn't have been fun. Next month.

Oh, I got a new pair of cycling shorts at REI yesterday. http://www.rei.com/product/765087 They were on sale and man, they were exactly what I needed. Lots of padding and very comfortable. They'll be great for RAGBRAI in July!

Update -
Friday bit the bullet and swam 2000yds strong.
100 warmup
5x200 x 4mins (these all went faster than usual...3:05-:08 most times!)
1x500 x 10 mins
6x50 x 1 min
100 cool down

Hey T if you're reading this, I hear the water at the lake is just about warm enough to swim now. If you're home Memorial Day weekend we should get you out there...

The war is over!

"Get up! Get up!" General Katz yowled as she sat on my chest. "It's time to finish off the war!"

It was only 6:30 on a Saturday morning and it surely wasn't time to start the day. Unfortunately, the little general wasn't backing off. Reluctantly, I waddled out of bed to get her breakfast and get her off my back. Or rather, my chest.

But it was time. She was right. I looked outside to get my bearings on the day ahead. The ground was soft from a nice rain the night before. Clouds filled the day. Yes, this was the day to end the war that had been waging in my own backyard.

The war on crabgrass.

For years, I was resigned to the war. Hated the backyard because it was just so dull. I'd neglected it and paid for it heavily as the years took their toll. As the years passed, I was mowing less Bermuda and more of the crabgrass. It hit my knees at times it got so tall. Finally this spring I decided to attack.

In early March, after what was supposed to be the last freeze, I hit the backyard with roundup. Hit it hard. There was a bit of St Augustine grass that had been trying to move its allied forces in from neighboring lands, but it could never take hold of much but the edges. Where it stood, it stood firm. I allowed it to continue. But the nasty crabgrass got a full napalm-like explosion to kill it all. It worked. In a matter of weeks, it was crippled and dying.

But even in death, the crabgrass held onto its territory. Never letting go or relenting. I needed to get new reinforcements in to help the fringe army from next door. But to do this, I had to remove the decaying army still holding ground.

It took me 3 days of battle to finally pull the last of the dead crabgrass from the ground, all by hand and most of it holding tight in its roots. I took away 10, 30-gallon sized bags from the yard and sent it along to the trash. All the while General Katz was watching from a distance. It was exhausting but the war is over.

As the final hours of the battle were waged and the reinforcements brought in in waves (the transporters only held about 60 sheets of sod at a time), Katz patrolled the new territory, surveying the land, and sniffing it all out to make sure it was just right. She sighed, then as any good general, laid down in the sun, blissfully snoring in the sun.

All is good in the backyard lands these days. The new troops are standing tall and holding steady. As time goes on, these troops should propagate and take over the rest of the land.

Freedom reigns in St Augustine!

Swim

Wow, I can't believe how much I'm enjoying the swimming lately. It's coming so amazingly easy so far it almost feels effortless. Now I'm not saying that to boast or anything, but I'm just so surprised.

This morning I set out to get in 1500 before going to work. I normally have an idea of how much I want to get done and roughly how I'll break up the effort. This was this morning's plan:

1oo warmup
5x200 at 4 min intervals
6x50 at 1 min intervals
100 cooldown

The 200's were consistently at 3:15, which gave me about 45 seconds to recover between sets. The 50's were between 43-45 seconds. I like doing these at the end of the workout when you're a little more tired so it sort of simulates having one last push to the end as hard as you can. This whole set took me 32 minutes. Wow! If only the other 2 tri-sports were going as well. LOL!

Had a few problems with my goggles seeping water. I can't find the pair Deeann gave me last year, though I know I've seen 'em recently. May need to hit REI on the way home to get another set.

I think Friday I'm going to try for 2000 and maybe get a ladder workout in. Hmm...

On a side note, yesterday I did an awful 3 miles on the dreadmill. Tiring. Need to work on the speed and distance considerably. Thursday I'll do 4.

Have a great hump day!