Blown Out of the Water

Last night I had just gotten into the pool and started my warm up when the wind kicked up. It started gusting so bad the flags were ripped from their posts. I finished a couple hundred more while waiting for the coach to show up; when he did, he canked practice. It was probably a good decision, as a huge dust storm rolled in just after, but I was selfishly disappointed.

Tonight I went for a run and promptly hit a headwind with the same gusts as last night. Oh, and I was doing hill repeats. I warmed up and then completed 5 x 5:00 with downhill (and tailwind) walking recovery. It was a nice workout and supposed thunderstorm rolling in made it a beautiful evening to be outside. Arizona is awesome like that, but can obviously present some frustrations.

Tomorrow morning, I am heading off to do the Pinnacle Peak ride I mentioned this past week. We will be starting from a different point and most likely including a lot more of the steeper hills in the area; we might even drop over the other side and ride through Fountain Hills, but we’ll see.  I really do enjoy the area, so maybe I’ll tuck away the camera and share a few pictures with you tomorrow. Happy training.

Temperature Rising, Swimmer Dropping

After taking three days off, including an extra one due to sunburn, I jumped in the pool last night. I managed a meager 2100 yards before getting out. There was probably a combination of factors that contributed to my early exit: it was an extremely hot day and the pool was very warm, it was the start of a long and hard workout, and I had been rear-ended in post-fireworks traffic the night before (which has most likely aggravated an injury I mentioned in Why Ironman? Here’s Why). It was disappointing to leave early because of a massive head/neck ache, but it won’t do me any good in getting to Ironman Coeur d’Alene next year if I put myself at risk.

So that’s what I’m dealing with right now. I was going to try a run tonight, but we’ll see how that goes. It was 95 degrees F when I left for work at 5:10 AM, I’m guessing that today is going to be another scorcher and so I might go to another pool workout and hope I don’t repeat last night’s fiasco.

I’ll post again later today regarding motivation as I’m currently watching a pretty cool “blogumentary” I found mentioned by Jonathan Starlight in his blog, Jonathan in the Distance. Some of what he says mirrors what I’ve found on YouTube and I’ll make mention of that later. Keep checking back.

Friday Night’s Pyramid

 Tonight, I got to do my first pyramid since starting this whole swim thing again. My coach described a workout he used to do in college that approached 12,000 yards. Yikes! The version he had me swim was a mere 4,100. I worked my warm-up into the first set and went from there. Lately, I’ve been really trying to improve my stroke. There is quite a bit of material out there describing the “catch and pull,” whereas I’ve known nothing but the “S” since I began organized swimming. You’ll often hear an analogy, described as swimming over a sea of barrels. I tried to keep that image in my head for most of the workout, but I reverted to the archaic “S” as soon as I got tired. I’m going to guess that I swam over the assinged 4,100 yards because as I kept trying to focus on my stroke, I kept losing count of which lap I was on. Therefore, I assume that the 1×400 turned into something more like the 1×500, the 2×300 into something like the 2×350; I might try and recruit one of the young tadpoles to start counting my laps for me.

 One of the benefits of participating in DTACs Master’s workout is that there are very few of us swimming in the evening; I’ve counted four (including myself). I haven’t been to a morning workout, so there may be some more there. Needless to say, I’ve got my own lane and it’s awesome! I’m never waiting for anyone in front of me, and no little speed demon is ever tapping my feet or bullying me into a lane line in an attempt to set a PR in the 25. I was humbled by a woman in the lane next to me, though. I mentioned that my plan was to race Ironman Coeur d’Alene in 2008. She said she was going to race IM Arizona in 2008. She asked if I had run a marathon. I said no. She said, “I’ve run eight.” That’s nice. Then she wasted me on the workout, and I got out of the pool standing not as tall and proud as I was when I got in. She was already dry. Such is the way of triathlon, I suppose. Lesson learned.

Master’s Isn’t So Masterful

Today I showed up for a master’s session again with Desert Thunder Aquatics Club (DTAC), what used to be the teams: Arizona Thunder Aquatics Clubs, Mesa, and DAC (which I think was Desert Aquatics Club? p.s. I swam for ATAC) . I’ve only been back in the pool for a couple of weeks now, which equals five or six practices. Gauging my performance during those last workouts, it would seem that the muscle memory from years of competitive swimming is serving me well. The fitness isn’t there though, and I find it difficult to finish 100s on the 1:45. But it gets better every time and I nearly hit 4000 yards this evening. I say nearly because just before my last set, a father of one of the little tadpoles hit the deck on the grass. Dunno if it was a seizure, stroke, or just dehydration, but the coaches responded well and I was left as the only adult near the pool. It fell upon me to keep the kids out of the way of the paramedics, so I handed them a challenging set of 5×50 on the 1:00. LOL! They took it in stride, setting their curiosity aside and finishing their last set for the night. I never did get to finish mine. Oh well, I’ll make it tomorrow night.

 UPDATE on DADDY: I followed up with Coach Bryan today, inquiring about the health of our victim. Apparently, an insect of some sort was the culprit. All’s well that ends well and Dad is back to normal. Grats!