Hidden Gem- Cape Girardeau

Last week went so fast I was really surprised to look up and see it was already Sunday!  Spent two days in Cape Girardeau teaching librarians at a BEAUTIFUL new public library and a great school library (Central High School).

My “Hidden Gem” series is an occasional post on great running spots in unexpected places.  This time I want to point out The Cape LaCroix Recreation Trail:

410 Kiwanis Drive
Cape Girardeau, Missouri 63701

Since this is a college town I should have expected at least some trails, but in all the times I have been to Cape, I guess I just never had time to look.

The Cape LaCroix is an urban trail that runs for just short of 4.5 miles (one way) through the suburbs.  It is a well maintained blacktop trail with adequate potty stops and seating to take the occasional break in a shady, wooded spot if needed.  It is well marked with mile markers (yellow) and 1/10th markers (white) on the blacktop.  It goes in and out of parks, neighborhoods and business districts west of downtown.

My partner in crime and I ran about 4 miles of it and I was pleased with it’s condition and location.  It feels safe and is always close to the real world if you need to jump off and re-establish contact.

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Redman Race Report

In December of last year…  I couldn’t swim.  Oh I could splash and flounder about, but getting from one end of a pool to the other was an effort in convincing the lifeguards that I wasn’t drowning or having a seizure.  But I learned that this race, The Redman Triathlon, was going to be the site of our club national championships.  Since I grew up in Oklahoma, this was a sign.  If I was ever going to actually “do” a triathlon… since I’m in a “triathlon” club…  This was the push.  So I signed up for a gym membership and this race on the same day.  January 5th was the first time I had ever done a real workout in the water.  My first “lap” in the water was right at 3 minutes for 50 yards.

Then there was the matter of my bike.  A cyclocross bike that I used to commute.  I knew it would be ludicrous to buy a triathlon specific bike (like buying a Ferrari for your first car).  I am a mountain biker from back in the day but I had never “raced” on the road.  I stuck some aero bars on it, scooted the seat as far forward as I could and called it good.

So of the 3 sports in triathlon, I was comfortable with one.  Running.  THAT, my friends, is what we call a “challenge”.

Now let’s fast forward to this race.  Through rides in the snow, drinking lots of pool and lake water trying to learn to swim, a bike crash and 4 other triathlons, I stood in the water at the starting line of Redman as a rookie with more questions still than answers.  Both overtrained and undertrained, with good nutrition and bad, feeling confident and terrified at the same time.  Then the horn went off.

First, an all out compliment.  Redman was VERY well organized and supported.  Through driving rain on the full and half Ironman course, to a race site that was, in a word, boglike (if that is a word), they put on a professional race with smiles and helpful people all around.  Also, props to TRI-OKC for providing the majority of the volunteer support as well.  Besides being a tough club with a lot of good athletes (congrats on your National Championship!!), they seemed to understand what it takes to make an event great and showed up in numbers.  It was great to see.

OK… Back to the starting line.

Swim:

Due to an unfortunate lake level rise overnight, the buoys drifted offline and the course had to be reset.  A minor 15 minute delay was all it took to reset the course from a square to a (sort of) olympic triangle.  The start was in the water, the course went counter clockwise and the first leg paralleled the shore about 20 yards from the beach.  This made it VERY shallow.  Since I breathe to the right I started as close to the buoys as possible.

My strategy was to focus on the things I have been working on.  Swim slowly and deliberately, finish every stroke, extend and glide, be smooth, relax.  If I do these things, I am faster.  The hard part is to zone out the hype and be calm at the start.  When the horn sounded, I let everyone go.  I knew that if I swam my race I would catch most of them.

The swim seemed long but I didn’t care.  It felt good.  The funny thing about swimming faster is that it causes another problem.  When you don’t swim “off the back”, you are right in the middle of the scrum.  Within 20 strokes I caught up to the pack and then there were elbows and feet everywhere.  Finding a hole to swim in was a challenge.  I must have been swimming faster because people were drafting on ME.  THAT was a new experience…  Sighting the first buoy was easy because there was a huge power plant in the distance behind it.  It was very disconcerting, however, to be swimming and see people RUNNING in the water beside me (some even passing me).  I didn’t know that was legal!  No matter.  I can’t imagine running half of your swim would help your legs when you actually got to the real run portion of the race!

The real challenge for me came when we made the turn.  I could NOT sight the buoy.  All I could do was be a sheep and follow the flock, hoping the fast guys knew where they were going.  It worked.  I finally caught sight of the final turn buoy about 200 yards from it and I was right on track, if a little to the right of where I wanted to be.  During the whole back leg of the swim, I really tried to focus on swimming in the tube and gliding as much as possible.  Except for the occasional crash from my scrum mates, I was able to do this most of the leg.  Once I made the final turn and spotted the Red Bull arch, I had to smile a bit.  That felt good.

As I stood up in the water I checked my watch.  I was right at 17 minutes for the 820 yard swim.  Right where I wanted to be and MUCH faster than my last race.  Not fast, by any means, but average.  The fact that I came out of the water surrounded by people with my color swim cap, a few with the cap color of the wave AHEAD of me and only got passed by one from the wave behind me was all I needed.

I heard the cheers of my teammates as I ran up to transition.  I didn’t look or wave, but it really helped.

T1

This transition area was well set up but for some reason it took me several times rehearsing my transition beforehand to actually feel comfortable with where my bike was.  Everybody kept moving my landmarks, so as I came in to transition I just kept reminding myself to go to the “M” rack and turn.  I ran right to my bike, stomped out of my wetsuit and then realized I had made a rookie mistake when I put my bike helmet on and it sat on top of my head like a beanie.  The headlock straps in the back had slid closed during all the jostling of travel and it took a second or two to get them adjusted out.  Also, my hands didn’t seem to want to work so I couldn’t get my swim cap off.  All of this maybe cost me 5-10 seconds so it was no big deal, but it was disturbing.  My T1 time was about 2 minutes.  Not bad with the run in and it was top 25% for speed, so it was OK.  I ran barefoot to the mount line and hopped on the bike.

Bike

Getting in my shoes on the bike went much better this time.  After reading some articles from professional athletes about getting in your shoes on the bike, I realized that my mistake from last time was just trying to do it too quickly.  I took my time, got up to speed and then got in.  It worked much better.

I just wish I had been able to train more on the bike.  My work schedule just didn’t allow it.  I was hoping that my swim and run fitness would transfer to the bike but I knew better.  Biking will help your run.  But more running doesn’t help you on the bike.  I could feel it even in the first 3 miles.  I could spin fine, but I couldn’t hold it.  I could climb fine and, in fact, was where I did the majority of my passing (thank you Columbia hills!).  But on the flats (read: majority of the course) I just couldn’t push a big gear (or spin a smaller one) as fast as I knew I should.  The course went out across the dam and turned into city streets.  It was mostly smooth, devoid of scenery or spectators, but well marked and supervised.  I was passed by course marshalls no less than 5 times in two laps of this 7 mile course.  I got passed 4 times and passed about 10 people.  There was little wind and it was mostly overcast and cool.  Perfect conditions.  Too bad I couldn’t take advantage of them.  I had hoped to be over 21mph for this race, but I came in just a tic under 20.  Disappointing, but I can’t say I didn’t expect it. 

T2

I got out of my shoes with about 200 yards to go to the mount line and stepped off easily and trotted into the transition area.  My legs felt surprisingly good and, although tired, were not wobbly at all.  I attribute this to NOT KICKING on the swim thanks to the wetsuit.  Anyway, I found my spot quickly got out of my helmet and into my shoes and I was out in 1:20.  This was a GOOD transition for me. 

Run

MAN… Was I glad to be out on the run…!  I settled into a comfortable pace and then pushed it just a bit.  I ignored my legs for the first mile because they actually felt better than they said they did and just tried to focus on breathing and tracking down the guy in front of me.  And then the next one… and so on.  My only indication of pace was the fact that, other than one woman who I traded paint with a couple of times before she finally stepped on it and pulled away, all I did was steadily pass people the entire run.  There were no surprises from behind and when I made the final turn and heard our now really loud crew cheering for me I knew I was done.  My average for the 5K run was 7:50.  Decent.  Not great.  But decent.

My overall finish was 1:27:42.  I was 82nd overall and 11th in my age group out of 25.  I was disappointed I didn’t score any points for the club, but I would have had to go 2:30 faster to catch 10th place, which I could have done if I had been better on the bike.  Kind of a felt like I let the club down a bit.  I don’t think it would have mattered in the grand scheme of things because TRI-OKC beat us by 40 or 50 points, but still, it was a personal thing.  Being with the club was awesome.  What great people.  Long after most people had gone home we were still there cheering on the final competitors.  Didn’t matter if they were on our team or not.  That was cool.

What’s next?

I don’t know…  No more triathlons this year.  This begins my “off” season.  I want to play and have fun now.  Maybe some mountain biking an trail running?  For sure I will keep running and swimming.  I need to come up with a training plan that lets me bike more.  The writing is on the wall for triathlons.  If you REALLY want to be faster, be better on the bike.  You spend the most time on the bike and even a one mile an hour improvement can shave minutes off your time.  I also want to stretch and lift this winter, just to change things up.

Whatever I decide, I know several things.  I love triathlons.  I love what they do to me, physically (lost 35 pounds this year!) and emotionally.  They challenge me to do things outside my comfort zone.  But all the time I’m out there, I feel so much better.  I love being a part of the club.  And finally, I really enjoy the variety.  Although running will always be my favorite sport of the three, the monotony got to me sometimes.  Now when I run I WANT to.  I look forward to it again.

Takeaways

These are my mental snapshots of the weekend and the event.

• I questioned myself about mid season.  I’m old… will I ever be able to improve…  Then I had the privilege of standing at the finish line and watching Rodney Adkinson from our club WIN the FULL IRONMAN distance at 47 years old.  I was humbled and a bit ashamed.  Great job Rodney.
• Two words: Red. Mud.
• Definition of toughness and heart-  Lisa Wells comes into this race with a back so painful she had to have a shot to numb it.  Then she crashes on the bike.  While I would have been done at that point.  She gets back on, finishes not only the bike but the RACE as well.  She broke her collarbone and will have surgery Thursday.  THAT is guts.
• Swimming the first leg of the course and looking up while breathing to see Ron Chapman RUNNING beside me in the water (and gaining).  Could have killed him (if it wasn’t so funny).  I almost choked to death trying not to laugh.
• Beer for breakfast.
• So many great compliments from other competitors about the club.  The best one was “Man!  You guys are everywhere!”  …that’s right baby.  And proud of it.
• Cleaning up trash at the race site until 7:30pm with new friends from Edmond (who roped me into it while I was trying to pack up my stuff!).  I realized as I drug myself into a restaraunt at 8pm that I was still in my race gear and REALLY stinky.  But hey… at least my feet were red.
• Tony Rigdon in a green cape and Speedo.
• Uwe, that damn Jager still hurts.
• Going for a run at the race site Monday morning before I left in my CMC jersey and having someone recognize it and say thanks.  That was cool.

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Race Week

If I had to rate my training for each of the three sports in triathlon in preparation for Club Nationals at Redman it would be as follows:

Swim: Good- Feel much better about the swim, the distance, and most importantly my stroke technique.

Bike: Poor- I’m strong, but didn’t get nearly enough miles in.

Run: Good- But WAY overtrained.  I needed more speedwork and less mileage.

 

I did my final “check ride” swim last night at Finger Lakes.  I focused on lengthening my stroke and being as long in the water as possible.  I did not kick (wearing a wetsuit) and breathed in every 4 with a 2 or a 3 as I needed it to see who was around me.  I sighted every six unless I was alone and then I went up to 8 unless I was off course.  I was pulling to the right, which is normal.  I swam the distance in my fastest time to date, covering the 1100 yards in 19:30.  I felt strong, not tired and not winded at the end of it.  I ran 3 miles after at an easy pace and felt really good.

In comparison, I swam 500 yards at the Kansas 50 triathlon in 13:30.  This maps out to 2:42/100yards or just about 1.25 mph.  This was a horrible swim for me and I came out of the water 10 places from last in the mens division.

Yesterday’s swim was 1100 yards in 19:30.  This comes out to 1:46/100yards (almost a minute faster per hundred) at 1.92 mph.  While this is still 30 seconds per hundred slower than the leaders will swim (more or less), I’m not worried about them.  What I want to do is come out of the water mid pack.  I can hold my own on the bike and run if I just don’t start out nearly 8 minutes down out of the water!

So let’s talk goals.  I really think I can do this race in under 1:20.  Looking at the numbers, if I do the swim in 15 minutes, which is a bit slower than the 1:46/100 listed above, do the bike in 40 minutes, which is a 21mph average, which I can definitely cover, and then run the 3 miles in 22 minutes (7:20 pace) that will put me at 1:17.  If I look to match my transition times from Kansas (the ONLY bright spot in that race), my T1 was 1:30 (long run to transition) and my T2 was :48.  That is 2:18 total trasition time.  This would put me across the line at 1:19 and change. 

I’m being conservative with my times in trying to set a realistic goal.  I’m pretty sure I can beat those bike and swim times, but anything under 1:20 would be a good result for me.

This is my taper week, if you will, for this triathlon.  I am taking today off, running easy tomorrow morning, spinning on the trainer tomorrow evening, swimming on Wednesday, riding Thursday evening and then heading down to Oklahoma on Friday! 

In all I think I am ready for this race.  I have no designs on doing anything other than having a good time and giving maximum effort in the race.  I’ve done as much as I could to get ready for it, given my work schedule.  So now there is nothing left to do but let it all hang out and see what happens.  One thing is for sure, I plan on leaving it all on the course.

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Big Monday

Big day yesterday caught up with me this morning on my run!

I started out the day volunteering for the Heart of America Marathon here in Columbia.  It’s a tiny little marathon by marathon standards but it was celebrating its 50th anniversary!  That makes it the fourth oldest marathon in the US.  It is so small for a couple of reasons.  First is the weather in Missouri on Labor Day (usually).  With temps in the 90s and humidity to match, that alone would scare all but the most adventuresome away.  But add to this a course that is arguably one of the top 5 toughest in the nation and you get the recipe for a 200 runner marathon.  BUT… If you can do this one, its a badge you can wear proudly forever.  This is a marathon in the true definition of the word. 

Unfortunately, I do not think that I will ever do another marathon.  Although my pelvis *seems* healed, all I have to do is run more than 10 miles and it hurts again.  That and I’m having a lot of fun doing triathlons and other stuff so the interest just isn’t there.  I have to admit I felt the old tug to go long as I was watching my friends run past me at mile 24.  Although their faces betrayed the effort, I was still jealous and really wanted to be running myself.

So after 2 1/2 hours standing beside the road guiding cars and runners along the course, I headed out to Finger Lakes to do a practice triathlon in preparation for Club Nationals.  About 10 of us did an 1100 yard swim, rode about 13 miles and then ran 3 miles.  This is relatively accurate to the distances at Redman and I was pretty pleased with the result.  I swam 1100 in right at 20 minutes, rode the 13 miles at about 21.5mph and ran the 3 mile course in 22 minutes.  I’m good with that.  Because of the way the parking lots were set up (gravel, ruts and mud) we didn’t have much of a chance to work on transitions but I should be able to come in just under 1:20.  That would be a great result for me.

Then I came home and played an hour or so of tennis with my son.  Not a big workout but still more than I should have done.  He likes it, though, so I wan to encourage it as much as I can. 

But the end result for me was just about complete exhaustion.  I crawled into bed and the alarm went off…  dammit…

Our run route this morning was one that I have been wanting to do for a while.  It involves a big hill that I like to run (is that sick…?) so I was going to do it, regardless.  Two steps onto the trail though, and I knew I had worked out hard yesterday…  I felt very sore and slow.  Like running through mud.  This route splits at about the 4 mile mark for runners choosing the longer routes.  As I ran the course, I did start feeling better but the big hill I was so looking forward to kind of kicked me in the gut.  When I got to the top my legs were burning and spent.  I thought maybe the big downhill on the other side would give me time to recover so I could do the long route (with two more big hills…) but I knew about half way down I was done.  I tucked my tail between my legs and turned off short and headed home.  I did manage to pick it up in the last mile quite a bit while trying to chase down a fellow runner, but that extra mile would have done me in for the week.  I’m glad I didn’t run it.

The sad part of it all was that I knew this was just lack of endurance.  The heavy legs and soreness is just from not running as far as I used to.  My conditioning is fine.  In fact I was able to chat with another runner coming down the hill without any huffing and puffing at all.  It was just my legs that wouldn’t go when I stepped on the gas.  I need more recovery time.  Tonight I’m just going to get the bike on the trainer and spin my legs out a bit.  I’m still tired…!

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Ready, but not ready…

I’m not quite in a full blown panic yet about my lack of bike preparation for Redman, but I’m close.  I have just found it extremely difficult to get in the miles I want to for this race.  My run mileage is fine, my swim mileage is really great.  But I would like to be around 75-100 miles per week for this race and I have only been able to manage 50 or so for the last month due to work, etc.  I’ve got one week of hard training left and then a week to taper before the race, so here is hoping I can get in some good bike miles this week.

Today I went out to Finger Lakes to swim.  I put in a desperation email to the club to beg for someone to swim with and did get a taker.  Otherwise I would not have gone.  We are not supposed to do open water swims alone, and I respect that.  When I got to the lake my partner wasn’t there and I thought she might have flaked on me so I wandered across the street and began putting on my bike stuff.  Sure enough, as soon as I heard the click of my chinstrap, she pulled around the corner and into the parking lot.  So I took off my bike stuff and wandered back across the street to swim.

The water felt cold today for some reason.  It took us both a bit to get used to it, even in our wetsuits.  But the water was also clear and we were the only people in the lake, which was awesome.  I swam 1100 yards in 20:30.  Not quite the 2 miles an hour that I am shooting for as a goal, but definitely much faster.

My big focus today was to slow down.  I know it sounds weird, but I find the slower, smoother and longer my swim stroke, the faster I go.  Going out I really focused on breathing and sighting.  But coming back my entire focus was on being relaxed and long in the water.  Amazingly, but not surprisingly, I was a minute faster coming back, and that was with two pauses to find my partner.  And it all seemed easier.  Getting the whole “go faster by being smoother and slower” thing is difficult for me.  This is juxtaposed from the other two sports where if you want to go faster, you speed up or push harder.  But I got to the end of the swim feeling like I could turn around and do it again without a problem.

After taking off my wetsuit and a bit of a chat with my partner, I wandered back across the road again, pulled out my bike and went for a short ride.  only 7 miles and mostly just to get the feel for riding right after a swim again, but it felt good.  No lingering effects of the crash other than a sore spot on my forearm that does not like to rest on the aero bars…!

This week I’m all about the bike and swim.  Here’s hoping it works!

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A bad case of the stupids

What the hell is wrong with me?  Why can’t I run easy?  I’m gonna hurt myself if I don’t back off… But I put my running shoes on and my IQ drops 20 points… Which is almost down to negative numbers for me… almost…

The “goal” for today’s run was an easy cruise.  Shake the legs out and get ready for a hard ride tonight.  I am a bit tired from all the extra workouts this week so I just wanted to glide through the morning run, maybe 5 miles or so, and then get ready for a hard ride tonight.

Then somebody said go…  I kind of blacked out… Woke up running ridiculously fast and trying to keep up with people that are WAY out of my league and ended up going almost seven miles.  Dumbass…

My time wasn’t super fast because the run this morning was a fun, if a bit awkward one that we call the “Tiger Run”.  It is a good luck run for the Missouri Tigers since they are starting their football season this weekend.  We do it a couple of times per year and it has us going past and “rubbing for luck” some of the famous campus landmarks, ringing the courthouse bell, and climbing up to touch the tiger statue on campus.  All of this is fun, but the footing is precarious and the crowd was big so it forced us to slow down.  This simply meant I ran faster in between landmarks.

Don’t get me wrong.  It felt great!  For a moment.  But then I looked up the “training hill” at my next workout, a normally rocket fast interval workout on the bike (which I desperately need) THIS EVENING and started to really analyze how I feel.  I’m tired.  I’m hungry.  I’m having a lot of muscle twitching.  And I know what all this means.  Tonight is going to suck.

When my leg muscles get twitchy it means I’m low on fuel.  I call these “pre” cramps because I know when I feel them that if I don’t eat EXACTLY the right things, I’m going to cramp up really bad on my next workout.  I’m trying to find my Endurolytes but I think I’m out.  I actually drank some homemade sports drink for BREAKFAST (Fauxtorade).  It’s better for me and doesn’t have all the sweet stuff in it that the commercial ones do, but I need a couple of gallons of it.  I may have to sneak out at lunch and eat a packet of Endurolytes or I’m doomed this evening…

…oh yeah… And then there is a big pool workout in the morning…

…maybe.

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You can’t tell me this is a coincidence…

With all this talk and work on my swim stroke over the last month I have been looking for some hard numbers to indicate whether I am making any progress.  After the disastrous 500 yard swim I had at the Kansas 50 (13:30!!) anything would have been an improvement.  But I really have been working hard.  Much harder with swimming than anything else.  This is not to become a world class swimmer, but more so that I am comfortable in the water and confident that, while I’m not going to come out of the water first, the water won’t evaporate before I finish…

I also understand that wetsuits can be an incredible boost in performance.  Especially if your difficulty is with balance in the water or sinking legs.  So I still have a long way to go in respect to swimming without a wetsuit.  Still, most of the swims I do in triathlons ARE wetsuit legal so I need to be comfortable in a wetsuit as well.

So when some group members decided to get together and do an open water swim I tagged along just to see how I was doing.  The lake has a straight shot that is right at 400 yards point to point.  I figured it was time to find out how bad things were.  The group was seven or eight people, all of whom are experienced triathletes and decent swimmers.  A couple were MUCH faster than me.

As we took off I tried to just focus on me and my technique, only paying the most minimal attention to things outside my head like other swimmers and sighting.  Reach, glide, strong pull, recover.  Roll to breath, feel your body in the water, be flat, minimal kick.  Sounds like a lot?  It is, but it’s getting easier.  That list was much longer last week.  So the first thing I noticed was that the other swimmers weren’t pulling away.  I swam with the pack the entire time.  My tracking was straight except for one slight veer into another swimmer…  And I finished the 400 yard leg in 7:20.

!!

All with less percieved effort and fewer strokes.  Read that to mean “not tired”.

You can’t tell me that this is all coincidence or just a result of my wetsuit.  This actually would translate into a roughly 8:15 500 yard swim.  Over 5 minutes faster than I swam in Kansas.  I would even give up a minute for the wetsuit (didn’t wear one in Kansas) but that is still over 4 minutes faster. And it was easier.  This alone would have put me in the top 25 finishers in Kansas.

OK… I get it.  Technique and form rule over power and cadence.  Getting that pull buoy was the best training aid I could have purchased.  It allowed me to stop worrying about my legs and focus on body position and balance in the water.  I don’t have to think about my kick so I can focus on the muscle memory building of proper stroke technique.

You know… It’s been a long time since I have had to worry about technique in any sport.  I have always been lucky enough to be good at most sports.  Finding something like swimming, that seems so easy and that others make look so easy, which presents such a big challenge to me has actually been good for me.  Instead of all power and muscle crunching like most sports I play, swimming forces you to do the little things right EVERY TIME (as my friend Jeff says, tongue firmly implanted in cheek, “Swimming is easy… Just find your perfect stroke and repeat it a million times…”).  And it punishes you if you don’t by slowing you down.

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…and then, some days, it just feels good to run.

Yeah… OK.  So tonight I am going to the lake to swim but this morning it was all about running…

Slightly cool (48 degrees) and dry, no wind, and about 70 running buddies.  Perfect…  We were running a route that had a 5, 5.6 and 6.6 mile option and I decided to just see how I felt and decide after the first mile or so.

The run leaders always to out at a pace that allows everyone to warm up together, then scoot to the side of the trail and let the horses fly by.  However it seemed that the pack leaders were in no mood to move over this morning and were running at about an 8:30 pace(ish).  There was a time not too long ago where this would have been way too fast for me to warm up, but I guess I’m getting in a bit better shape because this seemed a bit slow for me today.

The other effect this has on our group runs is it tends to bunch us up and this morning the “bunch” was huge.  This was full on pack running in the dark.  You really had to check around you before you made a move and there was lots of elbow rubbing.  Great training for group road races but not the best for the mostly solo running you do in triathlons.

After about 2 miles the pack spread out (thanks to a road crossing) on the trail enough that you could move around a bit and so I began to stretch my legs.  Since it took that long to warm up, I had already passed the short run turn and was rapidly coming up on the middle run turn.  Even though I don’t really need it I decided to go the long distance because I was feeling surprisingly good…!!  I was also running with people that are usually much faster than me and I wanted to live the dream as long as I could…!  …heh.

The route comes out of the mostly flat trail and then goes up a minor hill, down a BIG hill, and then back up the other side of it.  It’s flat after that for a mile or so and then finishes on another BIG downhill.

I found myself settling in about half way down the first big hill behind two guys that must have been taking it easy on a taper for an upcoming marathon because they are usually WAY faster than me.  But I was happy to not be running completely alone and they were still running slightly faster than I usually do so I decided to try to hang with them UP the big hill on the course.  As they chatted along up the hill, I wheezed behind them but made it to the top at about the same distance behind them as I started.  They gradually increased the speed on the flat at the top and so did I.  I got within talking distance for about 20 yards (not that I could talk at that point…) and then they accelerated away down the last big hill and finished about 15 seconds ahead of me.

I have no illusions of being able to run with them in three weeks after they have recovered from their marathon this weekend, but it was fun while it lasted.  I ended up with a 7:39 average pace for 6.6mi and if you take out the warm up mile it was right at 7:30.  Pretty good result considering I really didn’t even want to run the whole distance when I started!  I think the best part of this run was going up the big hill.  I really didn’t feel like I lost anything and managed to maintain my pace all the way up.  I did kind of crap out right at the end, but not too bad, considering I was working a little harder than usual.  I would really love to be able to run 3 X 7:30 or better at Nationals.  That would be a good result for me.

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Nice swim total

I put in just over 3 miles in the water last week.  This is my highest mileage total for swimming since, well… ever.  Yes, this was a conscious effort on my part to put the focus on swimming last week and keep the focus on swimming and biking for the next two weeks leading up to Nationals.  But it still feels kind of cool to see that mileage number go up.  The good thing is that they are quality miles.  I am not just going to the pool/lake and swimming.  I am focusing on specific things like technique, mechanics and body positioning.  My goal is to shave a minute off of my time for the swim at nationals.  It will still be slow, but maybe at least it will give me SOME chance of hanging in for the ride/run.

Yesterday we went out to Finger Lakes for a (cool weather!) swim.  The air temperature was about 70 degrees with a 10-15mph wind.  The water temperature was about 74.  Definitely wetsuit weather!  The swim was fast for me (1100 yards in 22 minutes) and mostly uneventful except for a near panic attack when I saw the bottom at one point.  The water is MUCH clearer now and even though I was in the right spot in the lake, there is a point that sticks out a little futher under water than I realized it did, so when I saw bottom and plants, I thought I was way off line and about to crash into shore!  It took me sighting several extra times to confirm that I was OK and that I just hadn’t been able to see that far down before.  Saw a big bass on the ledge though!  Once I calmed down I was fine and the rest of the swim was nice.  I almost didn’t want to get out of the water because it was warm. 

Then I went on a short bike ride, since I had my bike in the car, with a couple of other people and the only thing notable about it was that my knee didn’t hurt!  Raising my seat back up did the trick.  I was very worried about having done some serious damage to my knee because I had what felt like one of “those” aches (you know, the ones that mean you screwed something up?) in my knee after my last bike ride (a hill ride on a poorly fitting bike… not good).  It felt so good, in fact, that I decided to run 3 miles after the ride.  Kind of a slow mo triathlon (with a LOOONNNG swim and a short bike… heh).

Hit the pool this morning and really concentrated on body position and feeling where the water was hitting my body when I was doing things right.  It used to be that I could barely feel my shoulders out of the water when I swam.  But since I have been focusing on body position I can now feel the water hitting at about the top of the small of my back.  I know this doesn’t sound like much, but the more “on plane” I can swim, the faster I will eventually be.  And for now it also means that at least I won’t fatigue so easily since I am drafting my body and legs more behind my shoulders rather than dragging them through the water like an anchor.  There is definitely much less effort to achieve the same speed this way.  Now I just need to keep perfecting it and build my stroke so that it is stronger and more efficient.

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Swim form and technique (or lack of it)

In an effort to ease my frustration with swimming I picked back up my copy of Total Immersion Swimming by Terry Laughlin and actually read more than the workouts this time.  I spent some time pondering balance points, gliding and rotating and then decided to give some of it a try at the pool.  One of his first suggestions is to attempt to float on your back and find your galance point.  He likens it to balancing on a ball, where the ball is your chest.  Finding a balance point allows your legs to float more.  So I got in and attempted to simply float on my back so that my legs came up.  I tried pushing my back into the water, rotating over the imaginary ball so that my back was arched, leaning my head back into the water, arms over my head, etc.  I seemed to float fine… except for the part where my feet never left the pool bottom…

Undeterred by the fact that most 6 year olds can float better than I can, I then rolled over on my stomach and started working on body position.  TI recommends a “quadrant” approach where you divide yourself using the water line as the X axis and  your shoulders as the Y axis.  The theory is the more you keep your arms forward of your Y axis and at to just below the X axis (out front and below the surface) the easier it will be for you to get up on plane.  This is also coupled with keeping your head in line with your back and not lifting, but rather rotating, to breathe.  These concepts did seem to work for me and I found myself quite a bit flatter and closer to the surface (although not at the surface by any means).

Encouraged by this I then added more reach and glide to each stroke.  Extending my arm out a bit more and leaving it there for a bit longer.  This slowed down my stroke, but once I timed it I realized that it didn’t actually slow me down.  Hmm… less effort, same efficiency…  kewl!  It almost felt like I was doing hitch drills so I tried to relax and slow down my recovery stroke.

Then I went through a workout that had a warmup set of 200 swim/100 kick/400 pull, followed by 16 X 50 with a 300 warm down swim.  During the 400 pull I really worked on breathing every 4 and reaching/extending every stroke.  During the 50s I did several sets (I think 8 of the 16) at about 90% effort, giving me 10% to concentrate on form.  My 50 times dropped from 54 seconds to 48 seconds and then consistently stayed there for the entire set.  Again, all with seemingly less effort and recovery between.  I also tried another suggestion, since I was essentially doing intervals, that I got from an Active Triathlete article.  I took my 50 split and added 30% to the time.  This became my recovery period between intervals.  Even though I WANTED more time, this was just about right.

I ended up with a fastest split of 47:12 for the session.  Shaving almost 7 seconds off of my normal split by slowing down, extending my reach, gliding more and pulling only a bit harder.  I also focused on really driving my chest into the water and feeling my body on plane.  I did not have to kick hard at all, although the logic seemed to say otherwise.  I had to make myself NOT kick as much and only to help me stay on plane or rotate.

This is all still so new to me that the concept of technique over power seemed ludicrous.  I thought I needed to be stronger.  Although this is true to a point, what I’m finding is that form and technique seem to be far more important (remember, I’m self taught with only a couple of group lessons) than pure power.  If my technique is off, then all of my power just goes to keep me on plane and away from moving me forward.  If I present too much of a profile to the water (not streamlined) then all of my power goes to fight through the water because I’m the one blocking it.

But with just a few adjustments to form I am slipping through the water with less effort and more efficiency.  I didn’t feel nearly as tired at the end of the session.  And I cut my stroke count down from 24 to 19 in just the first session.  Granted, that’s not the 13-16 that elite swimmers can do, but it’s MUCH better.  Especially since I have only been swimming for 8 months.

I think I’m on to something here.  Yeah, OK… So I’ll never float like a cork or be an elite swimmer.  But I can be an effective swimmer with better form and technique.  I don’t want to come out of the water first. Mid pack is fine.  As long as I’m not tired or falling off the back, I give myself a much better chance on the bike and run.  That’s good enough for me.

I felt kind of rough at the Traknight workout last night and was only able to finish a portion of it.  I could tell I was tired and pretty sore so I decided to cut it short.  That was good enough.

This morning at the group run I was a little stiff and sore but started off easy and then picked it up on the way back.  I decided to run the shortest route to give myself a break.  I averaged around a 7:50 mile without much effort and I wasn’t tired when I got done.  My aches and pains went away after my warm up mile which lets me know its just effort pain and muscle soreness, nothing serious.  I give my legs a running break until Saturday and even then I only run 3 miles.

For the next two weeks I want to focus more on the bike and swim, so I may only run three days a week.  My run will be fine at Nationals.  As always, it’s the swim and bike I need to really work on.  Should be interesting.

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