Tuesday 01/12/10

Tuesday AM swim time. Today is supposed to be a double workout. Swim and Spin. We shall see.
I am at the gym to swim by 5:00 AM. The workout is shorter than normal, only 1900 yds for group 2, but I woke up last night and didn't sleep well because I was worried about this swim.

I started with a 300 yd warmup and another 450 yds of drills, than it was off to the main set. I was supposed to do 50 yds, breathing every 9 strokes, (Yikes)100 yds breathing every 7 (I ), 150 yds breathing every 5(am), 200 yds breathing every 3(starting), 250 yds breathing 3, 5, 7, 9(to ), 300yds normal breathing(panic!!!). I am a mess just thinking about it. I talk to Coach Mike and he gets me on another path. I will do the distances but not the breathing exercise. I will just switch breathing left for one lap and right for the other.
The rest of the workout goes well after I got over the silly breathing exercises. But, as I said before, this was a shorter workout.
Wednesday will be a different story.....
I forego the Spin workout and will do a double workout tomorrow.....

Monday 01/11/10

Its another Monday....another day off....
Screw the Boomtown Rats....
I like Mondays....

Sunday 01/10/10

Sunday morning, cold and foggy, another day in paradise. What is up with this CA weather?
I leave the house around 8:00 for a short run. Today was to be 6 miles of trail running. I am not traveling anywhere to run, so my run will be hills but no trails. I plan an out and back from the house. I take off and quickly realize that I hate to run with a water bottle in my hand. I need to work that out for the future.
The run goes OK and I realize I need to increase the amount of running that I am doing. Have I really missed that many training runs? I don't think so, but maybe I have. Something for me to keep an eye on.
Anyway, the run goes well and I am at home, showered and ready to watch football in plenty of time. Meenu makes me a great omelet for breakfast and football is on. I am excited about the playoffs and eager to watch the Patriots.
The Patriots all had beans for breakfast, because they stunk up the joint. Awful.....

Saturday 01/09/10

Another cool and foggy morning greeted me this am. I was out of the house at 7:15 am to go to Pleasant Hill. I notice as I am in the car that I need to get gas. No problem, I will stop at the Shell Station on the way there. I am pumping the gas and I realize, I do not have my sunglasses. Crap!!! I know it is foggy now, but an hour from now the sun will be out and I will be blinded by the light.
Not a good feeling. Back to the house to grab my glasses.
I am leaving the house again at 7:30 and I am still OK. It will take about 25 minutes to get there and I already have my swim suit on, so I'll have plenty of time.
I pull into the parking lot at 7:55 and all I see is my fellow teammates getting on their bikes.
SH!T!!!
In a hurry, I get my bike ready to roll. I already had the tires pumped, my water bottles filled, but I had to get my nutrition on to the bike and my clothes changed.
I was ready in an instant and we were rolling. We were doing an out and back on Pig Farm Hill. It is not a lot of climbing (compared to the DeathRide) but it is some. The first ascent of Pig Farm Hill is longer and steady. I struggled a bit on the first climb but managed my way up without incident. I enjoyed the descent as I always do.
Phil, Rocky, and I made it out to the turn around together and started our way back. We were working against the wind on the return trip and tried our best to paceline. After a few hiccups, we got it together and moved along. The back side of Pig Farm is a much shorter, but substantially steeper ascent. We plugged away and got to the top and got to enjoy a very long gradual descent. I love this type of descent. The legs keep moving but you never have to pedal hard and you get to go really fast.
Part two of the day is a swim. We are in the water warming up our swim muscles by 10:30. I don't feel great at the start, but I know it will come. We do our warmup and then some drills and on to the main part of our swim. I finish up the first set and we have a choice of doing another set or going to learn flip turns. Do I want to swim hard or go goof off learning flip turns...
After a couple of internal debates about what I needed most, I stuck with the swimming and did the second set. By the end of the second set, I felt good. I am more confident in the pool than I ever have been. I still don't feel great, but I am no longer hating the pool.
I actual finished the set fast enough that I slid over to the flip turn lanes and received a quick lesson on a proper turn. I certainly didn't master it, but I know how it is supposed to work. This could come in handy in two weeks when I do my first practice triathlon.
The last part of the day was core training. I know this area needs work for me. I need to not blow off these workouts any more. It was so bad, that I asked if I can go back to the pool to swim.....

Friday 01/08/10

Took the day off to celebrate Elvis' birthday....

Thursday 01/07/10

Another foggy day this am. It has been a bit eerie lately in San Ramon at the butt crack of dawn.
I got to the gym at 5:00 to prepare for another 2350 yd swim. The warm-up (300 yds) and drills (450 yds) again were on the sluggish side.
The meat of the workout was a selection of 300 yds drills. 5 sets of different strokes.
The first set was DPS (distance per stroke). The goal is to take as few strokes as possible for a lap. It is relaxing in that you are not moving alot because you are trying to coast.
The second set was breathing every 3 strokes. NOT my comfort zone. The drill is done to improve breathing on both sides, just in case you have to. My issue is that I can't relax if I breath every 3 strokes, I tense up. So I spoke with Coach Mike and he said work on breathing on your left on the way down and on your right on the way back. Problem solved!!!!!
The third set was increasing speed every 100 yds from level 3 to level 5. Level 5 is race day speed (a speed I can maintain over 2.4 miles).
The fourth set was breathing every 3 again and I changed that up like I did before.
The fifth set was increasing speed every 100 yds from level 4 to level 6. This part was comical as I tried to swim at level 6 after swimming 2000+ yds. That did NOT happen!!I was back to being a tugboat.
I finished the 100 yd cool down and felt pretty good about the workout.
The distances are steadily increasing, but I am feeling OK with them so far....

Wednesday 01/06/10

Today was a spin workout. I didn't get to the gym in time for the 5:00 AM class so I spun on my own. Doesn't seem to have the same intensity. I spun for an hour and then did some core workout. Overall, it was not an exceptional workout. Just kind of blase(spelling?).

Still not sleeping well, worried about my.....