The snow makes for an empty pool

Organization happened yesterday. While the snow came down, and Calgary motorists were playing bumper-cars, in between episodes of shoveling sidewalks I puttered around the house. One of the bits that got done was getting set up to swim today.

The pool had only a couple of other people in it, and they were nice swimmers. So no great splashing waves. I was only in it for 500 m though. Mostly my arm felt good. It's still not what I'd call strong, but I can begin to pull a bit harder, just a tiny bit. That lasted till the last 50 m, when it started getting cranky and I stopped. What was odd is that for most of it my shoulder wanted to go click in a major way. Perhaps I should have stopped and indulged it, but I was enjoying the swim. Clicked it after, while doing the core workout in the dive tank. Which only had me in it. And water too, of course.

Let's not talk about my time for that 500 m, shall we? I was surprised at how hard I was breathing for such a slow pace. I've lost the feel of the water, but it will come back. Soon I hope.

The physio drills are just killing me. I'm trying to be good, but there was a time late last week, and into the weekend that I thought my arm was going to fall off. Just to help keep things balanced, I've started to do some of the same work with the left arm.

Here's a direct link to the London slide show. You can get at the Venice photos from that page.

Oh, and during the long stretching after the run on Saturday, I tried that push up thing with both arms. Good thing I've got the floor matting and yoga mat down. I went down even faster than when I tried it one armed.

Vacation. Snow. Workout.

I've started posting vacation photos on the web. In the section 'Other blogs I follow', click on Keith's non-fitness web page. Once on the London page, for example, there's a link in the upper right to go to the Venice page. More will be added. Watch for Milan, Rome, Torino, and Florence.

The workout today was shoveling snow. Lots of snow. Probably 6 inches or so. Perfect for making a snow man. A whole snow family that's been taking fertility drugs.

in, 2, 3, 4, out, 2, 3, 4, in, 2, 3, 4...

According to the IGP, today was supposed to be a rest day. Yesterday I was still feeling generally crappy and run down, so I decided that would be my rest day. My schedule is further complicated by having Estela in the shop. We finally figured out the intermittent clunk. We're pretty sure it's the bearings in the bottom bracket. Took her into Calgary Cycle, and the mechanic agreed. He even showed me the replacement bearings, and how the repair will work. They promised to take good care of her. I pick her up again on Tues evening on the way to spin class.

So that leaves no spin session on Sunday. Neither did I swim yesterday. This afternoon was nice out, so I went for a run during the nicest part of the day. 5 x 9/1 nice and easy. Much of my breathing was in the title rhythm. I didn't wear my heart monitor, just went by my breathing, and tried to keep it nice and even. Much of the run was spent trying to run lightly and evenly. I was trying to picture myself just moving along from the hips up, with my legs rolling along underneath, not really doing anything. During the last 9 min run section, I was concentrating on keeping my feet nice and light, with a quick turnover.

One of my projects is trying to get the mess in the basement under control. See these before and after photos. Now I have a nice area to stretch in after workouts, and golly gee, I'm actually spending more time stretching. Who knew? Here's the before from one angle. And yes, that's the famous hybrid I crashed.





And here it is from another angle. But don't be fooled, even then though my faithful old cube is displaying a Pilates DVD, I haven't followed along with it yet. But blogger insists on messing with where I want to put the text, and I'm really not up to trying to fool it with some html hacks.

I'm not a whiner, but...

Consider yourselves whined. Semi-upset tummy all day. Back of the neck muscle tightness threatening to headache all day. My arm ached all day. Some of the words that describe my performance tonight in spin class are: un-coordinated, heavy, flabby, slow, unsteady, weak, and generally unhappy. I dogged it. Sorry Greg. 'Nuff said. Tomorrow will be better.

Heart rate monitor weirdness

I ran between work and my massage appointment tonight. My heart rate monitor gave me some very strange numbers, both high and low. Do they start giving erratic results when they need new batteries? I'm just assuming the watch part of it is fine, since electronic stuff either works, or it doesn't work, and there is very little in between. Maybe it's time to move to a Garmin. I don't really mind a $70 timex lasting a year or so and pooping out, but I'd be choked if a $400 Garmin only lasted that long.

The IGP said aerobic, so I ran 4 x 9/1 trying to maintain a pace where I was breathing deeply and evenly, but not gasping or panting. That was supposed to work out to a heart rate in the low 130's or so, but it was all over the place so I stopped looking at it. My legs were feeling good, so I started with some light stretching, about 5 minutes walking, then running at what felt like a strong and confident pace. Things felt very natural and smooth, until the last few minutes of the run. Then I got tired and sloppy.

I wasn't really trying for a fast time, or any time in particular, I just wanted to run for 40 minutes at a strong pace. It just so happens I looked at my watch at the 5 K mark, and it said 32:15, but the heart rate was also 168 or something impossible like that.

People have asked how I'm doing with the one arm pushups. I actually tried one during the long stretching after the run, in our new workout area. My total is almost exactly one half. My physio therapist pummeled and contorted me this morning. My massage therapist worked on some of the same stuff in my arm, but also found lots of other owies. I ought to sleep really well tonight.

aerobically spinning our brains out

Last night's spin session was all about keeping a steady aerobic effort, 2 min on, 90 seconds easy pedal, and lots of it. Plus some one leg drills that went on forever, or it just seemed like it.

Last Sunday there was lots of front hub clunk, and I couldn't do it at all last night. Maybe it's because my basement is cool, and the spin session is practically a sauna.

This morning I was thinking about going for a run before work. If I was really really ambitious I'd go before leaving the house. If I was really ambitious I'd drop Linda off, then run, then go to work, then go to physio. And if I was just ambitious, I'd run in the evening, after work and before a massage session. I'll just say I haven't run yet today, but about mid-morning that's where I wanted to be, outside in a beautiful day. Yeah, some of the weenies think it's cold out, but there's no such thing as bad weather, just poor clothing choices.

My physiotherapist really worked me over today. A bit of pushing got my arm straight. ouch!

Quiet pool; short swim

Today would have been a great day for a long swim since there was hardly anyone in the pool. Sigh. Anybody that didn't know how I normally swim would probably think I was doing pretty good. But I know better. My arm still hurt a little during the stroke, especially if I tried to speed up. I went 250 m feeling not too bad, but I could feel my arm getting tired and sloppy. Rather than train myself to do a sloppy stroke, I stopped, and went over to the dive tank for some core work.

Hanging on the edge with just fingertips hurts, so I had to hook my elbows. After that I did my regular routine, and it felt pretty good. So it's a good start. I'm looking forward to building some strength in my arm, and getting some speed back.