Driftwood

This nickname seems to have stuck when referring to my swimming speed.  I am so painfully slow.  And I really have no idea why.  I have taken lessons.  I have worked out dilligently.  I. Am. S. L. O. W.  And I just can’t figure it out.

I have been told that I am not on plane.  That my legs sink so I am dragging them through the water.  But I don’t know how to fix it.  I have been working on my “catch” or pull through the water.  Nothing is working.  I feel like I’m getting slower.  It was tough today to swim with 15 other people and be dead last coming in.  And I can out ride or run most (not all) of them on any day.  But it sucks to think that I am spotting them 5 minutes on a half mile swim in a triathlon.  That’s a lot of work just to catch up.

The swim itself was beautiful.  The sky was bright blue after a front came through and finally cooled things off after a week of miserable temperatures and humidity. The water was actually warmer than the air.  It was an interesting juxtaposition.The water was nice though.  I just need to get through it faster.  Anyway, it was an 1100 yard swim which is what my next triathlon is.  I felt good enough after the swim to go for a three mile run and, again, the weather was spectacular.  I averaged about an 8 minute pace without much effort at all.  I just wanted to move and this run satisfied the urge.  I couldn’t get any takers to go with me so I ran solo.  I don’t do that much anymore (that is… start AND end alone…).  My mind wandered back to swimming and what to do to make me faster.  I think it’s just going to take time.  I’ve only been swimming for 6 months total so I guess I shouldn’t expect much.  But the problem is, I do.  I expect more out of myself than this.  I’m not sure “MORE” is the answer at this point (as this is usually the easy answer for endurance athletes).  Better…  That’s what I’m looking for.  And I’m willing to work hard to get it, I just don’t know where to look.

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Two good workouts, entirely different reasons

Yesterday was my 17th anniversary!  You know what we did for our anniversary date?

…we ran six miles together.  Then indulged in the best ice cream in town.  We both agreed that it was our best anniversary ever.

Yes, there is a story here.  Living in California was such a blur for us that there are very few of our anniversaries that I actually remember.  Sad, I know.  But when we moved to Columbia and vowed to get in shape, we overlooked healthy eating and portion control on our first anniversary celebrated here.  Call it excitement from having our first real “date” in 10 years (no kids) or whatever.  Regardless, the gluttony and overindulgence we subjected ourselves to will be forever burned into our memories.  We. Were. Miserable…  For days.

See, we had been eating well, watching our calories, exercising and doing all the right things.  But that fateful day we had a HUGE meal (appy, entree, dessert, wine, coffee afterwards, etc.) that consisted of a big steak, monstrous baked potato and no less than 3 mini loaves each of DEEP FRIED sourdough bread (for the record… best bread EVER).

The pain and shame of that meal stuck with us.  Many weeks later my wife announced that she wanted to start running and maybe do a 5K.  I continued down the path to doom the marathon and the incident was all but forgotten.  Fast forward a year and it was time for our 16th anniversary.  Although I was recovering from a nightmarish injury that almost derailed my fitness for good, when discussion of what to do came around, we both agreed on two things.  First, we would NEVER eat that much again!!  Second, a run together was something that we realized we had never done.  So we decided to start a tradition.  Our “anniversary run”.  It was awesome and we loved it.  Being together and enjoying something we both loved (besides food!).  Perfect.  We even curbed our urge to eat and went to a good Sushi restaurant and ate with control.

Fast forward another year.  I am fully recovered from my injuries and in arguably the best shape of my life.  My wife is exactly one pound from her goal weight (which she achieved today!!!  Congratulations!  You are beautiful!), considering a 10K and even mentioned a half marathon as a long term goal (she is totally out of control).  But the funny thing was that when we were considering things to do for our anniversary, the first thing that came up was what we would NOT do (eat like pigs).  Too funny.  In fact, we both agreed that we really didn’t want to even eat out.  We just wanted to hang out together and enjoy each others company.  We also both agreed that we wanted to run together again! 

You may be thinking, “why can’t they run together more?”  Unfortunately, our kids are at an age (5 and 11) where they are just not quite self sufficient enough to be left alone.  Besides, they would kill each other before we ever got out of the driveway   So we have to do the responsible adult thing and work out in shifts.  We know this is temporary and eventually the older one will be able to tape little one to the wall babysit and we can run together more.  But for now, we just enjoy the minutes we have together as a family.

So to make a short story (part one) long…  We simply went out together and enjoyed a beautiful six mile run together.  It was wonderful.  Then, after we were back at the car, I dragged convinced my darling, sophisticated, grown up, responsible wife of 17 years to jump in the splash park with me to cool off!  Gotta bring her down to my level every once in a while…!  Then we decided that the best use of our remaining date time was to sneak over to Sparky’s Ice Cream for a tiny indulgence to celebrate our love.  We also decided that this IS our tradition and that we would even like to expand it to find a race to run together.  That’s cool…

The end (of an awesome day)

On the workout side of things, I got in 2200 yards in the pool!  I felt like crap for the first 800, but once I got into it, I enjoyed it.  I am continually playing with my swim stroke and may have found a pretty decent combination to work on.  More on that later.

Today I woke up from the bliss of my anniversary run to face the hottest day of the year.  Ninety nine degrees with dewpoints in the 70’s meant it was sure to be miserable.  We were scheduled to ride 26 miles and I wanted to run at least two afterwards.  Mostly to get past the pain of my failed ride/run brick last weekend.  I loaded the car with a couple of gallons of fluid in my nifty new cooler and hoped against hope that I wouldn’t suffer the same fate as last week.  We had nearly 30 riders this week and, thankfully, the pace was slow.  Fifteen to sixteen miles per hour on a somewhat hilly course made for a positively enjoyable ride.  There were the odd sprints/breakaways here and there, but for the most part it was a group gab and ride.  I needed one of these.  Most of my rides have been so intense that riding for the joy of it has eluded me.  This was just fun.  So when we got back to the parking lot, I felt I had plenty of gas for the run.  My newfound running buddy Jenny was there and chomping at the bit to go (even though she had been fighting a bug and didn’t have much energy) so I swapped shirts and grabbed some sport beans and took off.

Yes, it was hot.  About 90 by the time we started running.  But maybe these forced workouts in the heat are helping because although I could feel the heat, it didn’t melt me like I thought it would.  I wasn’t running fast at all, but it still felt good.  I was, however, glad to get back to the coffee shop/parking lot.  It’s amazing how enjoyable a good cup of coffee and a (low fat, carrot) muffin can taste, even in the heat (we sat out on the patio so we wouldn’t stink out all the other customers… !)

After we finished up the coffee, I headed out to another coffee shop on the way home in hopes of seeing some of my running friends.  I had seen them a couple of times on the ride as they were running a long route today (17-19 miles) and thought it would be fun to catch up.  I managed to get there just in time to see them for a bit and it was fun to catch up.  They are all training for our local marathon which is widely known to be one of the toughest in the nation.  As if running 26 miles isn’t tough enough, try doing it in mid Missouri on Labor day (think “hotter than Hades”) and add several of the toughest hills you will ever run to it.  Sound like fun?  Yeah… me neither.  But if you dare, it is called the “Heart of America” marathon and this year is it’s 50th anniversary (yes, I said five zero) so they all want to run it.  I, personally, feel way the hell too good right now to subject myself to marathon training.  I’ll volunteer or something.

Well, if my Sunday morning run/swim brick buddy calls me back tonight we will do another 3 mile run/ 1500 yard swim/3 mile run tomorrow morning.  Here’s hoping she calls.  I (can’t believe I’m saying this) actually enjoyed it last time and lord knows I need to swim more, so here’s hoping!

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Hot hill repeats

Look, I am never going to admit that bicycling is my favorite thing.  I like it (mountain biking much more so than road biking) but running will always be my thing.  So to get me out on a bicycle on a 102 degree day with dewpoints in the 70s does definitely signal either a change in my thinking or the sure end of the world.  Which one is all a matter of perspective.

I do, however, recognize that if I ever want to get any better as a triathlete I need to ride, a lot.  More than I ever have.  I already have more miles on this bike than any other road bike I have ever owned.  But I need more.  I also have to admit that I am not going to do any longer distances than I have to AND that I am just slow.  Only more riding and less weight will help this.  Therefore, I ride.

Yesterday I set my jaw and decided to suck it up and ride hill repeats in the heat.  I need the miles, and I have to get used to the heat as well.  I put on the lightest clothing I own, slathered myself with suntan lotion and took off.  I decided to take it EASY on everything except the hills themselves.  This ride has a short (1/4 mi?) hill that is extremely steep.  There is another 1/4 mile past that to recover, then it’s a quick trip to the bottom and back up again.  It’s about two miles over to the hill.  I went up a grand total of 4 times and then completely wilted.  But I had made a pact with myself not to get upset (last week I did 12 repeats in the cooler temps) and just write it off as getting used to the heat.  I rode calmly and slowly back toward the car.  But then something odd happened.  I started to feel…  good…?  Almost as if the temperature had dropped 10 degrees.  I was kinda comfortable (albeit sweaty).  So I rode past the car and added another 5 miles of easy to moderate riding.  I daresay it was almost fun.  What is happening to me?

Getting used to the heat

Man would I love to say that I’m a hot weather kind of guy.  I hear people that I run with talk about how they love the heat and running in hot weather.  I don’t get it.  When is fall?  Can I have snow?  My name is Frosty and I’M MELTING!!!

Today at 5:30am it was 77 degrees and was over 80 by the time we got done.  I know this doesn’t sound bad, and actually it really isn’t, but it was enough when the humidity was added in.  I wilted on the first hill and it didn’t get any better.  I entertained myself by becoming a sprinkler seeking missile and even going so far as to zig zag back and forth across busy roads just to find some relief (ok… not really… but I thought about it).  This, of course, cooled me off but had the adverse effect of filling my shoes with water and subsequently giving me blisters.

I’m afraid the only way to get used to this heat is to just get out and run in it more.  I’m thinking I might have to start doing a small lunchtime run (1-2 mi) just to be out in the thick of it.  Hopefully it will start to make the morning runs seem cooler!

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Like swimming in hot vegetable soup

Not that I have ever done that…  But if I had, I’m sure today’s swim is just what it would feel like.

Yuck.

The air temperature was 96 degrees with 75 percent humidity.  Doesn’t that sound lovely?  So I couldn’t wait to get in the water, hoping that it would cool me off.  The water temperature HAD to have been 90.  The first four to six inches of water were like a hot tub (only without the bubbles) and the water was GREEN and full of tasty little tidbits.  Every time I found a cool pocket, I wanted to stop and play in it just to cool off.  This may sound normal for some of you but it is all new to me.  I am from the mindset of jumping in the water to COOL OFF…  Not sweat profusely.  One should not FEEL sweaty IN the water.  There were a couple of times where I actually thought I was going to overheat.  Can this happen?

Anyway, I managed a slow 1500 yards and just tried to concentrate on cruising.  At the end, a friend and rocket fast swimmer came out to watch me slog my way in and pointed out that I may be extending my stroke too far back (towards my feet) because I am coming out of the water almost straight armed.  This was in an effort to try to get them most out of my arm stroke but she says I might actually be losing power at the end of my stroke and will definitely be fatiguing my shoulders more by lifting my whole arm out of the water at the same time.

I guess it makes sense, but I really need some pool time to process all of this and experiment with it.  That way I can focus on stroke mechanics without fear of drowning, boats, huge snapping turtles and heat exhaustion.  I feel like I’m getting slower…

Tomorrow is a morning run and a hill repeat ride in the afternoon.  As much as I need that ride, I just don’t know if I can handle the heat yet.  It’s supposed to be close to a hundred tomorrow and I seem to be wilting pretty bad right now so even if I go, I probably won’t be worth much.  Still, I need to acclimatize to the heat.  The MENSA’s who are putting on Club Nationals have decided that in Oklahoma…  in September…  it would be a great idea to start the Sprint distance race at 11am.  This could either go really really good… or really really bad.  I lived in Oklahoma for 24 years and, yes, there were times when the weather was nice in mid September…  I remember both of them very well.  The rest of the time it was at or near 100 degrees and 1oo percent humidity.  Oh… and windy as hell to boot.  But hey… At least the wind doesn’t usually come up until about 10:30 or so.  Oh… Wait…

Muscle cramps

Alright.  I need to express a little frustration here.  My last two workouts have ended disastrously in muscle cramps.  Yesterday’s swim was supposed to be 3000 yards but I could only get in about 2000 before my calves started cramping so bad I couldn’t push off the wall.  Then, today I went on the longest bike ride I have been on in 20 years and followed that up with a 3 mile run.  Halfway through the run I had to start walking because my quads cramped.  Only this time I thought I was going to have to dial 911.  I haven’t cramped this bad since I ran the marathon.

I’ve been trying to come up with reasons why this is happening all of the sudden and I’m just not sure why.  My diet hasn’t changed in the past 2 months so if that was the reason it would have happened before.  The only thing I can think of is dehydration due to increased mileage/temps/humidity.  If this is the case, then I have a problem.  The weather isn’t going to cool off any time soon and my mileages are only going to go up.

The problem is, I thought I had it covered.  I had two water bottles (big ones) full of Hammer, two smaller bottles of water and a bottle of Gatorade.  I don’t think I can drink any more than that.  And I did drink it all, but it didn’t help.  All I could do was slowly crawl/limp my way back to the car.  Then I had to sit there in full cramp mode for 10 minutes before my legs eased up enough that I could push the pedals to drive without seizing up and driving into a ditch.

That was this morning and it’s late afternoon now.  I still feel aweful.  Nauseated, weak and I can’t lift anything or do any full contraction of my muscles without cramping again.  This is after a good meal, lots more water, a banana and two Enduralyte tablets.  This sucks.

I guess I just need to focus on shorter distances until I lose more weight and my body gets used to the higher activity levels.  I know endurance will come, but I thought I was in better shape than this.

A goal that wasn’t a goal

Ok… so I was sweating BEFORE my run this morning.  Just standing there.  Dripping.  Seventy four degrees and 98% humidity at 5:30 am.  Ahh… summer in the midwest.

The funny thing was that I ran REALLY fast.  I have no idea why.  It certainly wasn’t the route we chose.  There is about a half mile section of the trail that is just nasty.  They still haven’t fixed it yet from when the flood washed it away.  I’ve renamed the route the ankle breaker for all the baseball sized rocks that were used to temporarily sure up the trail.  They did their job but now they demand complete attention from all who dare attempt this route.  One wrong foot placement and your day, summer and whole season will be through.  I have no intention of running this route again until it is fixed…!

But even with my disaster avoidance running style I still managed a 7:28 average for 5 miles.  I’m sure there were a couple of 8:30 miles in there with the warmup and whole pack dodging rocks at the same time so I had to have been running a couple of 7:00 miles in there!  Since this route was an out and back, I got to grin sheepishly at all the other runners who were going long today as I ran past them on the way back.  It was hard not to feel a little guilty that I wasn’t going as far as everyone else, but then again…

Tomorrow I am going to attempt a swim workout that is the farthest I have ever swam.  Three thousand yards may not seem like a lot to you Ironman types, but it will be a huge accomplishment for me if I can make it.  To go from not being able to swim… to swimming over a mile and a half… in six months… is big.  I don’t care WHO you are.  It has never been my goal to swim long distances, but I’m proud of the accomplishment nonetheless.

Thunder run

I awoke, as expected, to the sound of thunder this morning.  The weather that moved through last night dumped over 2 inches of rain on us and I knew it hadn’t stopped yet.  But I was scheduled for my usual morning run and as I have always maintained, if the temperature is over 50 I really enjoy running in the rain.  I quick check of the weather on the way out the door showed a HUGE area (about 100 miles wide) of moderate rain but no severe stuff so I decided that a run would be just the ticket.

After having to detour around a road that was flooded out (ominous sign… but it didn’t lead to anything thank goodness), I rolled into the parking lot and was surprised to see quite a few people milling about in the rain and occasional flash of lightning.  Our route on rain days is always the same so we didn’t even need an announcement.  We knew where we were going.  We actually even had a couple of new people show up as well.  We ended up with about 40 runners by my estimate so not a bad group for a soggy day.  The trail holds up well under most conditions and even though the creek running beside it had swelled to a raging torrent that threatened to overflow (again) we moved off into the early morning thundershower.

The bad news is that it was still unbelievably humid.  But the cooler temps and rain helped keep me comfortable through the run and my new hat kept the sweat out of my eyes and rain off my face so the rain was really a non issue.  My biggest trouble was picking a line that a.) didn’t take me through too many puddles and b.) didn’t force me to cut people off in the pack.  And actually, the worst puddle I hit was right in the middle of a main road we have to cross (didn’t see that one coming…!).  Yes, my shoes were very squishy when I got done but that was to be expected.

I did notice though that I still tense up a bit when I run in bad weather and I can really feel it about half way through the run.  My legs feel heavy and I breathe harder than I should.  I think I’m just paying a little too much attention to the road and it makes running a conscious effort, which makes me work harder.  Either way, a big downhill at about the 5 mile mark made everything better and I averaged about 8:00/mi pace which is decent in a thunderstorm.  I really love the rain.

So humid it should be two words

Hyoo.  Mid.

Yuck.

Went for an easy spin on the wind trainer tonight and decided to do it on the back deck.  I cruised in an easy gear for an hour at 90 rpm.  I wasn’t breathing hard, kept a conversational pace with my darling wife who agreed to hop on an old stationary bike and go for a ride to nowhere with me.  It was fun!

But about 10 minutes into the ride I noticed a rapidly growing puddle underneath me, but there were no clouds in the sky… no leaks… no water hoses or squirt guns.  It was just…  me…  I have never sweat that  much on that easy a ride.

…ewww.

No matter though.  I’m glad to get the miles in since I will be on the road tomorrow and teaching out of town on Wednesday.  I needed the seat time.  I will try to find a stationary at the hotel, but if not, I may just have to run again tomorrow evening.  I have my usual morning run tomorrow and it looks to be a wet one.  Then it heats up for the rest of the week.  Welcome to summer!

Mixing it up

A friend and I did a run/swim/run brick this morning.  A three mile run from her house to the lake, then a 1500 yard swim, then 3 miles back to the house.  She is a bit slower on the run than I am but MUCH faster on the swim (she is a swim instructor), but we decided to do the whole thing together anyway so it really didn’t matter.

The run was easy and comfortable (if a bit hair raising on the narrow roads around her house) and we had stowed our stuff at a friends house that lived on the lake, so we just had to trot over to it and carry it back to the lake.  I was concerned that the cool outside temperature would transfer to the water so I brought my wetsuit.  It was borderline whether I should have or not but I wore it anyway.  It gave me a chance to focus on my swim technique a bit even though it got a bit warm.  The water was just starting to go through an algae bloom so there was a vegetable soup of pea sized snot floating in the water which made the visibility zero and the water kinda gross smelling.  I doubt seriously we will be able to swim there much longer if it continues.  Blech…

The run home was equally as uneventful as the run out.

It is fun to do different kinds of workouts like this.  I will admit though, that after the aquathon, swim lesson and today’s swim… I’m pooped.  My arms and back are sore and weak feeling.  Partly because I am swimming just a little differently now and using different muscles, and partly because after I got in yesterday I spent the afternoon shoveling dirt, which uses an amazingly similar group of muscles…

I think it might be time to switch back to emphasizing the bike though.  I have done a LOT of swimming in the past couple of weeks, but I need more bike time.  I didn’t intentionally move away from it and I managed to get almost 60 miles in last week, but I would like to put in a couple of hundred plus mile weeks just to really get me going.  My longest bike leg this year will be 18 miles but it would be nice to really have the strength built up to not have to worry about it!

My next triathlon is in less than a month and it has a longer swim and run.  I’m OK with the swim and run but know that the more I work on the bike now, the better everything else will feel.  The weather looks to be heating up for good so this may have been my last open water swim in a wetsuit for a while.  I’m sure this triathlon will not be wetsuit legal so I am going to try to do the rest of my swims without one.  I also need to start doing some noon runs at work just to start adapting to running in the heat.  I have been running at 5:30 or 6:00am for so long that it has spoiled me to cooler temperatures.  If I don’t get used to it I will wilt and I know it.

This week I have to travel (just a day) so it will interrupt things a bit so I am going to try to get a ride in tomorrow and maybe some stationary bike time at the hotel on Tuesday evening, then hit the bike hard on Thursday Friday and Saturday.