I used to like swimming at Canyon Meadows pool, but this morning changed that. If there are any swim lane Nazi's looking for work, apply to Canyon Meadows, they need one. Adult lane swim starts, and the pool opens at 7am. The door actually opened a couple minutes to the hour, so far so good.
They've been playing with the big lockers. Used to be only a couple needed a quarter, and all the rest were bring your own lock. Last week it was mostly quarter locks. This week, it's not possible to lock most of them at all. I wonder if someone ripped out the lock mechanism in a fit of rage. The shower room smells like they used a disinfectant that has passed it's expiry date. Gross.
There is one guy swimming in the pool when I get out there. Cue the foreboding music. He's swimming some bastardized half breast stroke in the fast lane. I get into the second and get started. More on that later. More swimmers join, and one walker, not in my lane. So far, there is one person in the next lane swimming faster than me. Another lady joins my lane, and swims almost exactly as fast as me, and another joins us later, and fits in beautifully. The three of us swoosh back and forth, at about 65 second 50 m laps, very happily. It's the only order in the pool.
In the other fast lane, more people join, and all I can say is that I'm glad they weren't screwing me up. Weird strokes, varying paces between slow and very slow, and fashion disaster swimsuits. Squabbles about sharing. One breast stroker actually has a reasonably nice stroke and if his arms and legs weren't 8 feet long, and he didn't splay them out all the way, life for those around him would be much better. In what should have been the medium lane, the walker got in the way of the fast swimmer. I cheered when the swimmer bashed the walker with her elbow, hopefully right in the kidney. In between intervals I'm looking at the mounds of swim toys along the edge of the tool. You think I'm kidding. I'm talking mounds. I've never seen so many toys.
There was a deep water running class ending and another starting, so there was herds of people wandering around like half slaughtered sheep. Standing looking like they want to join a lane. Or not. Standing in the way. One geezer was lying down on a towel near the end of the pool where people get in, and walk back and forth, and was feebly thrashing around like a turtle on it's back. If it hadn't been for the towel I'd have thought he was having a heart attack. What's with these people? Several of them came out of the locker room wrapped in a towel the size of France. One of them slowly got into the pool while taking the towel off, inch by inch. Sally Rand couldn't have done it better.
After my workout, I'm in the shower trying to hold my breath. Some Oriental men have this habit of spitting into the urinal, after making a huge production of the most disgusting noises a human body can emit. Now imagine 3 of them, in the shower, apparently holding a competition. I didn't even finish my shower. I figure I'm going to run once I get home and I'll shower then.
The number is right on 230. I should have weighed myself Friday morning; I felt thin and light. Today feels heavy and bloated. I was walking out to the car, and had yet another geezer attack. I'm at the exit door. A geezer is leaning up against it, growing roots to get the traction to push it open. I ended up going out another door. By now the parking lot is full. One person thought they'd be helpful letting me out. They stopped at the very last second, just noticing I was going to leave, and motioned me to back out. Except they were just enough forward that I couldn't back up. Neither could they, because they'd stopped so fast the person behind them nearly rear ended them. So I'm waving at them to keep moving, the guy at the back is laying on the horn, and the idiot geezer finally figure out he wasn't going to get my spot, and moved on. Me and the driver behind the geezer exchanged a shrug as we passed.
Not the best of starts to a Sat am. The next nearest pool is over in Acadia, and I've never liked swimming there. hmmmmm.
Oh yes, my actual swim, now that I'm over my indignation.
250 m warm up
50 m kick
5 x 100 m on 2:30. Mostly about 105 to 110 seconds each.
50 m kick
25 min smooth swim, not sure how far. Maybe 1200 m.
1 hour total 2K or so.
Now for my run. Even though it's going to warm up quite a bit today, I wanted to get while it was still below zero C. (yes, I can hear my American guests -"Pervert!) The thing to remember it doesn't all melt at once, melted can look really similar to not melted and partially melted is even more slippery. Plus, if it's still cold, my feet won't get wet. Anyway, ran down the path to Fish Creek and turned around at the parking lot. Made it most of the way back, nice and easy, and discovered that it's very difficult to run when there are large solids that want to do what comes naturally to most people. Fortunately, I was essentially done and not far from home. All's well that ends well, as the hobbits say. 30 minutes, with some strides trying for a quick turnover. At one point I felt like I was hardly moving as my feet churned along underneath me.
Ironman Canada - DONE! What next?
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
swimming progress, biking uphill, Fri update
I was wondering if I was even going to get into the pool today. Their parking lot is a mess, and it's going to get worse before it gets better.
Swam 1000 K sharing the lane with one other fellow. Man could he swim! The only reason he only lapped me twice is that part way through he started doing some kick drill, and I think some breast stroke. I could keep up with that.
I tried Kelly's thumb to the thigh thing and it works different muscles. My arm got tired about 3/4 mark and I had to push to finish. Still improving. Down to 20:30. After I caught my breath I tried one hard 100 m. I didn't look at my watch at 50 m, but am guessing it was about 50 seconds. Faded badly in the last 25 m, to end with a time of 105 seconds. Maybe if I did it when I was fresh I'd break 100 seconds, but I'm not going to bet on it. 30 min overall.
Off to spin class! Except we didn't spin. The whole workout was uphill, uphill, uphill, and more uphill. Oops, missed an uphill. Throughout it all, I was pedaling reasonably strongly, but I wanted to nap! I wished I had aero bars on this bike so I could put my arms down, let my head droop and snooze. But I didn't. I pedaled. Did I say it was uphill?
Greg was telling us to imagine him on a couch, being towed behind our bikes. A couch with no rollie wheels. He wasn't riding, so he wandered around, putting people into harder gears. This was to make sure they got the full benefit of the workout. So he says. I think he's just making sure we aren't dogging it.
At one point I'm sweating a bucket. I hate it when the sweat runs down onto my glasses. In my basement I just shake my head, and a shower of sweat goes everywhere. I was *THAT* close to doing that, then realized Leslie is a foot and a half away on one side, and Katie the same distance on the other side, and would probably be upset if I shook my icky sweat on to their 'glow'. Or is it a 'glisten'? Whatever. 1.5 hrs.
Taking today as a rest day, and will swim and run Sat. I needed to sleep in a bit today, and scheduling made the swim a bit complicated anyway. Plus, I didn't want to describe a post sushi-fest run outcome. And no, normally I don't eat sushi twice a week, this is a bit unusual.
Swam 1000 K sharing the lane with one other fellow. Man could he swim! The only reason he only lapped me twice is that part way through he started doing some kick drill, and I think some breast stroke. I could keep up with that.
I tried Kelly's thumb to the thigh thing and it works different muscles. My arm got tired about 3/4 mark and I had to push to finish. Still improving. Down to 20:30. After I caught my breath I tried one hard 100 m. I didn't look at my watch at 50 m, but am guessing it was about 50 seconds. Faded badly in the last 25 m, to end with a time of 105 seconds. Maybe if I did it when I was fresh I'd break 100 seconds, but I'm not going to bet on it. 30 min overall.
Off to spin class! Except we didn't spin. The whole workout was uphill, uphill, uphill, and more uphill. Oops, missed an uphill. Throughout it all, I was pedaling reasonably strongly, but I wanted to nap! I wished I had aero bars on this bike so I could put my arms down, let my head droop and snooze. But I didn't. I pedaled. Did I say it was uphill?
Greg was telling us to imagine him on a couch, being towed behind our bikes. A couch with no rollie wheels. He wasn't riding, so he wandered around, putting people into harder gears. This was to make sure they got the full benefit of the workout. So he says. I think he's just making sure we aren't dogging it.
At one point I'm sweating a bucket. I hate it when the sweat runs down onto my glasses. In my basement I just shake my head, and a shower of sweat goes everywhere. I was *THAT* close to doing that, then realized Leslie is a foot and a half away on one side, and Katie the same distance on the other side, and would probably be upset if I shook my icky sweat on to their 'glow'. Or is it a 'glisten'? Whatever. 1.5 hrs.
Taking today as a rest day, and will swim and run Sat. I needed to sleep in a bit today, and scheduling made the swim a bit complicated anyway. Plus, I didn't want to describe a post sushi-fest run outcome. And no, normally I don't eat sushi twice a week, this is a bit unusual.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Even we don't have a word for that kind of snow.
At least not one that doesn't have swear words in it. Let me describe. Picture packed down snow, really hard, but not yet ice, at least several inches deep. Now imagine as it warms up very slightly, and cars keep driving on it. All the pretty corners get rubbed off the snowflakes. They turn into a little tiny brown sphere of ice that don't stick to any of the uncountable number of other spheres of ice on the road. There will be at least several inches, maybe more. Maybe much more where it mounds up between the ruts. A car will pack it down a bit but squooge more out the side. And spinning, or slippage just mounds more of it up.
Running in this stuff is like running in very soft sand. That is, not terribly productive if your goal is to go forward with a minimum use of energy. Calgary does not plow most residential streets. Ever. A city that averages 1.3 m of snow per year, NEVER plows most residential streets. Only the bus routes, and the major connector roads. Their written snow removal policy is four words long, "Wait for a chinook".
I don't know how much snow we've had since early December, but it's at least a foot. We've had a couple days where some of it melted, and the salt that's in the gravel started to work. The streets were a sloppy enchilada the last couple days. Now it's cold again, so all that water freezes in a nice thin film. Plus, it's snowing again. People are getting stuck on residential streets. The City's response is to put out radio ads to tell people not to call the City asking them to plow the streets. The phone responders are tired of telling people to go F themselves. Well, they don't say that exactly, but it's what they mean.
Some of the bike paths get plowed, (yes, really, go figure!) and they're a joy to run on. Some don't, but they're still hard packed, so with yak traks, they're pretty well a joy to run on. Well, in between the mounds from the various places that do get plowed. But when you cross streets, or run on the streets, and some of the sidewalks, well, it's like running in that very soft sand.
Tonights run was in a bunch of that, but I put a firm limit on the heart rate. 130 and I'd start to slow down. Ran 10 walked 1 for 6 reps. Mostly it was good. Did an out and back, and didn't quite get back to my starting place, but the last part is up hill, in that snowy sand. churn churn churn. Calves felt a little tired, so I'm glad I didn't push it.
Nice night for a run. Light snow, maybe -5 C, no wind to speak of. Could be much worse. Walked to warm up, and to cool down. Stretched after my run. Calling this 1.25 hrs.
Running in this stuff is like running in very soft sand. That is, not terribly productive if your goal is to go forward with a minimum use of energy. Calgary does not plow most residential streets. Ever. A city that averages 1.3 m of snow per year, NEVER plows most residential streets. Only the bus routes, and the major connector roads. Their written snow removal policy is four words long, "Wait for a chinook".
I don't know how much snow we've had since early December, but it's at least a foot. We've had a couple days where some of it melted, and the salt that's in the gravel started to work. The streets were a sloppy enchilada the last couple days. Now it's cold again, so all that water freezes in a nice thin film. Plus, it's snowing again. People are getting stuck on residential streets. The City's response is to put out radio ads to tell people not to call the City asking them to plow the streets. The phone responders are tired of telling people to go F themselves. Well, they don't say that exactly, but it's what they mean.
Some of the bike paths get plowed, (yes, really, go figure!) and they're a joy to run on. Some don't, but they're still hard packed, so with yak traks, they're pretty well a joy to run on. Well, in between the mounds from the various places that do get plowed. But when you cross streets, or run on the streets, and some of the sidewalks, well, it's like running in that very soft sand.
Tonights run was in a bunch of that, but I put a firm limit on the heart rate. 130 and I'd start to slow down. Ran 10 walked 1 for 6 reps. Mostly it was good. Did an out and back, and didn't quite get back to my starting place, but the last part is up hill, in that snowy sand. churn churn churn. Calves felt a little tired, so I'm glad I didn't push it.
Nice night for a run. Light snow, maybe -5 C, no wind to speak of. Could be much worse. Walked to warm up, and to cool down. Stretched after my run. Calling this 1.25 hrs.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
spin, then sushi
Zoomed home from work, then hopped on Estela for a quick spin session.
Warmed up, did one leg drill.
Started in big chainring, second biggest cog
1 min 100 rpm, 1 min 85, next bigger gear,
1 min 100 rpm, 1 min 85, next bigger gear
again, and again. Heart rate started about 100, ended up about 145. Somewhere in here started gushing sweat from every pore.
rested 2 min, then did that again, though I didn't quite maintain the 85's.
Easy pedal 5 min.
Then 10 at 85-90 rpm, trying to maintain top of zone 2, ended up being low 130's or so. The sweat wasn't just the occasional drip, it was a steady stream, constant drips off my head. Sweat was even running down my arms.
Then 10 min in a really easy gear, 90 rpm, letting heart rate settle.
Cool down another 10 min. That should all add up to 1.5 hours. A bit of stretching after, but probably not as much as I really should have done, but I wanted to get showered.
Had a few minutes to putter about, then left to meet Bev and Graham for sushi. Wonderful to see them again, since they live quite a bit out of town and don't get here often. The timing was perfect, met them outside just as they parked. Ate just the right amount, and had a really nice chocolate mousse cake for dessert. No shame. This is the sushi place in Willowpark. Very nice.
Warmed up, did one leg drill.
Started in big chainring, second biggest cog
1 min 100 rpm, 1 min 85, next bigger gear,
1 min 100 rpm, 1 min 85, next bigger gear
again, and again. Heart rate started about 100, ended up about 145. Somewhere in here started gushing sweat from every pore.
rested 2 min, then did that again, though I didn't quite maintain the 85's.
Easy pedal 5 min.
Then 10 at 85-90 rpm, trying to maintain top of zone 2, ended up being low 130's or so. The sweat wasn't just the occasional drip, it was a steady stream, constant drips off my head. Sweat was even running down my arms.
Then 10 min in a really easy gear, 90 rpm, letting heart rate settle.
Cool down another 10 min. That should all add up to 1.5 hours. A bit of stretching after, but probably not as much as I really should have done, but I wanted to get showered.
Had a few minutes to putter about, then left to meet Bev and Graham for sushi. Wonderful to see them again, since they live quite a bit out of town and don't get here often. The timing was perfect, met them outside just as they parked. Ate just the right amount, and had a really nice chocolate mousse cake for dessert. No shame. This is the sushi place in Willowpark. Very nice.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Only one resolutionista
FOMC today, and only one new person. Even some of the regulars are missing, so it was a quiet place. Thought about doing some more intervals but I can't see the pace clock in this pool. Swam 1000 m in one go, really thinking about form, trying to reach forward, get a good pull, and stay strong all the way to my thigh. The overall swim was slow at 21 min, but I wasn't trying for a fast time, was trying for a steady pace. Gradually slowed down a bit throughout, as my arms got tired. What was interesting is that my left arm, (my LEFT arm!!!) is what was getting tired. For the first time in months. I take this as another sign of progress.
Schedule is going to be all messed up this week. One of my good friends is coming into town and we want to go for dinner Tuesday night. Wed morning I'm giving a co-worker a ride to work, and will try to get into the pool mid morning. Friday after work I'm trying to get together with some friends I haven't seen for a while.
Schedule is going to be all messed up this week. One of my good friends is coming into town and we want to go for dinner Tuesday night. Wed morning I'm giving a co-worker a ride to work, and will try to get into the pool mid morning. Friday after work I'm trying to get together with some friends I haven't seen for a while.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Linda says the nicest things.
Remember those old Jenny Craig ads, where they have someone holding their old pants waaaay out to the side to show how much weight they have lost? This is the closest I have to it, and the closest I'm likely to get to a Jenna shot. These are the biggest pants I ever bought.
This is just a small example of why I had to shovel out my garage. Now picture the entire wheel well full of this crap - that's happened a bunch of times.
Here's the bottom of the driveway as it's been for several weeks. The hole in the ridge is just big enough to get the car through, and it's high enough that the bottom of the car scrapes going over it, unless I'm really careful.
And here it is after about an hours work with a pick and shovel.
Now to business. My bike plan was 5/3, with 30 min run off bike. Friday I was supposed to do 30 min easy, but life got complicated before and after work, and a run didn't work for Sat. So here we go!
Warmed up, and did some one leg drill. I won't say this is getting easier, but at least my legs aren't falling off after 15 seconds anymore. Accelerations.
5 min fast, 2 min hard, 3 min easy pedal
5 min hard, 2 min fast, 3 min easy pedal
5 min fast, 2 min hard, 3 min easy pedal
5 min hard, 2 min fast, 3 min easy pedal
5 min fast, 2 min hard, 3 min easy pedal
5 min hard, 2 min fast, 3 min easy pedal
More one leg drill with accelerations.
A little bit of cool down, but not much, since I was going for a run.
Today is beautiful out, nice and warm, about 0 C I guess, since things are melting slightly. There's a brisk wind, and I was planning to run in some exposed areas (not *with* exposed areas - perverts!) so I took a minute to dry off a bit and put on fresh clothes.
I ran this route; it's about 7.75 Km. I needed to make up for the run I didn't do on Fri, so I went for an hour long route. There was a time not so long a go that even an all out effort running wouldn't get me around that route and back to the house in an hour. Today was nice and easy run, heart rate in mid zone 2 till the bottom of the hill. Lots of snow on the paths still, and the Yak Traks make the footing *much* more secure. (Thanks Julie!) But I had never realized how much running in snow is like running in soft sand. There were a few places where it was a real struggle to keep the momentum going.
Still, taking it easy, no last minute burst to make it under the wire, I got back home well under the hour, almost 2 minutes in hand, so I jogged slow a little bit more to make the hour, then walked a bit. As soon as I got in the house I snarfed a restorative Nutella peanut butter banana and cookie with milk. Still in my very sweaty workout gear, minus shoes and outside layers, of course.
Linda was also getting something out of the fridge, and says, "Do you know what you smell like?" I flashed on any number of disgusting things I've had to deal with, and was prepared for something witty like 'the child of rotten seaweed and a blocked u joint conceived in an uncleaned male locker room', and I was totally ready with "You married it!". But what does she actually say? "Fresh air. You brought in fresh air with you on your jersey." I was tempted to go for another run and bring more in. Instead I went downstairs and did a bunch of stretching.
121 bpm Avg heart rate over the whole period.
151 peak hr
2485 calories
1.75 hrs on the bike, at 114 bpm average (which seems a little bit low, but there were all those 3 min rests in there, and I don't need three min to get my heart rate back down into zone one again.
101 bpm during 4:23 transition
135 bpm average over 1 hr run. (Last half is *much* harder than the first half. Maybe I should run it in the other direction.)
Weekly totals
swim 2.0 hrs
bike 5.25 hrs
run 3.0 hrs
Total 10.25 hrs
This is just a small example of why I had to shovel out my garage. Now picture the entire wheel well full of this crap - that's happened a bunch of times.
Here's the bottom of the driveway as it's been for several weeks. The hole in the ridge is just big enough to get the car through, and it's high enough that the bottom of the car scrapes going over it, unless I'm really careful.
And here it is after about an hours work with a pick and shovel.
Now to business. My bike plan was 5/3, with 30 min run off bike. Friday I was supposed to do 30 min easy, but life got complicated before and after work, and a run didn't work for Sat. So here we go!
Warmed up, and did some one leg drill. I won't say this is getting easier, but at least my legs aren't falling off after 15 seconds anymore. Accelerations.
5 min fast, 2 min hard, 3 min easy pedal
5 min hard, 2 min fast, 3 min easy pedal
5 min fast, 2 min hard, 3 min easy pedal
5 min hard, 2 min fast, 3 min easy pedal
5 min fast, 2 min hard, 3 min easy pedal
5 min hard, 2 min fast, 3 min easy pedal
More one leg drill with accelerations.
A little bit of cool down, but not much, since I was going for a run.
Today is beautiful out, nice and warm, about 0 C I guess, since things are melting slightly. There's a brisk wind, and I was planning to run in some exposed areas (not *with* exposed areas - perverts!) so I took a minute to dry off a bit and put on fresh clothes.
I ran this route; it's about 7.75 Km. I needed to make up for the run I didn't do on Fri, so I went for an hour long route. There was a time not so long a go that even an all out effort running wouldn't get me around that route and back to the house in an hour. Today was nice and easy run, heart rate in mid zone 2 till the bottom of the hill. Lots of snow on the paths still, and the Yak Traks make the footing *much* more secure. (Thanks Julie!) But I had never realized how much running in snow is like running in soft sand. There were a few places where it was a real struggle to keep the momentum going.
Still, taking it easy, no last minute burst to make it under the wire, I got back home well under the hour, almost 2 minutes in hand, so I jogged slow a little bit more to make the hour, then walked a bit. As soon as I got in the house I snarfed a restorative Nutella peanut butter banana and cookie with milk. Still in my very sweaty workout gear, minus shoes and outside layers, of course.
Linda was also getting something out of the fridge, and says, "Do you know what you smell like?" I flashed on any number of disgusting things I've had to deal with, and was prepared for something witty like 'the child of rotten seaweed and a blocked u joint conceived in an uncleaned male locker room', and I was totally ready with "You married it!". But what does she actually say? "Fresh air. You brought in fresh air with you on your jersey." I was tempted to go for another run and bring more in. Instead I went downstairs and did a bunch of stretching.
121 bpm Avg heart rate over the whole period.
151 peak hr
2485 calories
1.75 hrs on the bike, at 114 bpm average (which seems a little bit low, but there were all those 3 min rests in there, and I don't need three min to get my heart rate back down into zone one again.
101 bpm during 4:23 transition
135 bpm average over 1 hr run. (Last half is *much* harder than the first half. Maybe I should run it in the other direction.)
Weekly totals
swim 2.0 hrs
bike 5.25 hrs
run 3.0 hrs
Total 10.25 hrs
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Got my mojo back!
My swim mojo, that is. It came back, right in the middle of my swim today. Then the pool was over run with resolutionistas.
I wasn't sure how it would go today. My arm has been getting better, feeling stronger, little by little. There's still some range of motion issues, strength problems at the ends of the range of motion, and some rotation issues. Today I wanted to do some intervals, and push my arm a little. I figured go till my arm fell off, or I couldn't maintain the pace. Remember that the last time I did these, I got 5 done before I had to rest. My massage therapist is coming a little later today, so I figured if I over do it, she can help me out.
250 m warmup. At the end of this my arm was feeling a bit weak and hollow. Not a good sign. But I did it in exactly 5 min, which is the fastest I've done that for a while.
50 m kick
30 x 50 m, on 1:15 starts, most of them done in 55 seconds. (!!!!!) More on this in a minute.
50 m kick
100 m cool down
At the end of the warm up I was having serious doubts about how the intervals would go, but I decided to do them anyway and see how far I got. The first few weren't bad, then I started slowing down a little. Getting up to number 10 was a struggle, and I was getting close to a minute for the 50 m.
Now I need to tell you who I was sharing the lane with. Don't know his name, but he's an 11 time Ironman. IMC 4 times, Florida, Arizona, Wisconsin, Placid (I think). And he looked it. Brought some serious pool toys. I was prepared to be humble. I don't know if this was his easy day or what, but he didn't swim that much faster than me. And with the toys slowing him down we were well matched.
I got 10 done, and wondered if I should stop. My arm was hurting and my time was just on 59 seconds. Then my inner shark showed up as he pushed off a bit ahead of me. I caught him at the other end, then tried to push hard to pass. He picked up his pace. Yes, boys will be boys, and I know this infuriates some of you. But I was loving it! I went to do another that fast, and did. Me and my shark didn't want to look like weenies. I wasn't breathing as hard as I had been. My arm felt better. My stroke felt better. My turns were better, though I'm still doing open turns. I figured woohoo! The decision to keep on going was a no brainer.
All the rest of the intervals were 55 or 56 seconds, so I was getting 20 seconds of rest. My heart rate went down. My breathing relaxed. I relaxed. I cruised along. A 50 m lap was easy. My arms felt strong, and my kick was just right. My inner shark approved. This is the pace I want to swim at, and used to be able to do. Well, not for quite as long as I'd like to but that's the idea. Progress has happened. Nothing dramatic, no clicks or pops in my arm, just something kicked in. (Now to do it without the rest in between laps.)
As I ended the intervals the pool had been filling up with slow swimmers. At lap 30 my arm was starting to tire, but I was still maintaining the pace and could have gone on. There was a guy standing at the end of the pool looking like he wanted to join in. Told him if didn't mind waiting a few minutes for me to do a kick lap and 2 cooldown, the lane was his. So he piled his stuff next to mine, and started a bit of stretching. I realized just now if I'd done another lap, I'd have done 2 K total, such a nice round number.
I got out of the pool, and hit the dive tank for some core work. It was filling up too. The hot tub was full. Showered and got my number - a slightly heavy 230.
I call it a solid hour swim today, and I AM TOTALLY FRICKING THRILLED!!!!!!! It felt great. This was a HUGE step change! I feel great. I don't really need a coffee, but I'm drinking one anyway. I think I'll rampage around the house today. I'm in a tidying mood. Look out clutter. One of the things to do is shovel out my garage. There is so much glop on the bottom of the car, and it falls off when you park inside. The driveway is a mess. I have some photos I'll put up later.
Oh, and Linda and I went out for our mumblty anniversary dinner last night. The actual date was the 5th. We just had a really nice dinner, a nice chat about stuff, and went to Indigo to do book shopping. I got a polar bear calendar, Rick Mercer's book, and a book on Leonardo da Vinci. I'm still behind on my reading, but I'm trying to make time for it. So many books, so little time.
Lastly, I'm signed up for the Police Half! What was I thinking? I've never run a whole half marathon ever, and this one has people with guns enforcing the 2.5 hr cut off time. Eep! I was encouraged to call my coach, and have a meltdown over the phone, but I resisted. That's twice now. Hope you appreciate it IG....
I wasn't sure how it would go today. My arm has been getting better, feeling stronger, little by little. There's still some range of motion issues, strength problems at the ends of the range of motion, and some rotation issues. Today I wanted to do some intervals, and push my arm a little. I figured go till my arm fell off, or I couldn't maintain the pace. Remember that the last time I did these, I got 5 done before I had to rest. My massage therapist is coming a little later today, so I figured if I over do it, she can help me out.
250 m warmup. At the end of this my arm was feeling a bit weak and hollow. Not a good sign. But I did it in exactly 5 min, which is the fastest I've done that for a while.
50 m kick
30 x 50 m, on 1:15 starts, most of them done in 55 seconds. (!!!!!) More on this in a minute.
50 m kick
100 m cool down
At the end of the warm up I was having serious doubts about how the intervals would go, but I decided to do them anyway and see how far I got. The first few weren't bad, then I started slowing down a little. Getting up to number 10 was a struggle, and I was getting close to a minute for the 50 m.
Now I need to tell you who I was sharing the lane with. Don't know his name, but he's an 11 time Ironman. IMC 4 times, Florida, Arizona, Wisconsin, Placid (I think). And he looked it. Brought some serious pool toys. I was prepared to be humble. I don't know if this was his easy day or what, but he didn't swim that much faster than me. And with the toys slowing him down we were well matched.
I got 10 done, and wondered if I should stop. My arm was hurting and my time was just on 59 seconds. Then my inner shark showed up as he pushed off a bit ahead of me. I caught him at the other end, then tried to push hard to pass. He picked up his pace. Yes, boys will be boys, and I know this infuriates some of you. But I was loving it! I went to do another that fast, and did. Me and my shark didn't want to look like weenies. I wasn't breathing as hard as I had been. My arm felt better. My stroke felt better. My turns were better, though I'm still doing open turns. I figured woohoo! The decision to keep on going was a no brainer.
All the rest of the intervals were 55 or 56 seconds, so I was getting 20 seconds of rest. My heart rate went down. My breathing relaxed. I relaxed. I cruised along. A 50 m lap was easy. My arms felt strong, and my kick was just right. My inner shark approved. This is the pace I want to swim at, and used to be able to do. Well, not for quite as long as I'd like to but that's the idea. Progress has happened. Nothing dramatic, no clicks or pops in my arm, just something kicked in. (Now to do it without the rest in between laps.)
As I ended the intervals the pool had been filling up with slow swimmers. At lap 30 my arm was starting to tire, but I was still maintaining the pace and could have gone on. There was a guy standing at the end of the pool looking like he wanted to join in. Told him if didn't mind waiting a few minutes for me to do a kick lap and 2 cooldown, the lane was his. So he piled his stuff next to mine, and started a bit of stretching. I realized just now if I'd done another lap, I'd have done 2 K total, such a nice round number.
I got out of the pool, and hit the dive tank for some core work. It was filling up too. The hot tub was full. Showered and got my number - a slightly heavy 230.
I call it a solid hour swim today, and I AM TOTALLY FRICKING THRILLED!!!!!!! It felt great. This was a HUGE step change! I feel great. I don't really need a coffee, but I'm drinking one anyway. I think I'll rampage around the house today. I'm in a tidying mood. Look out clutter. One of the things to do is shovel out my garage. There is so much glop on the bottom of the car, and it falls off when you park inside. The driveway is a mess. I have some photos I'll put up later.
Oh, and Linda and I went out for our mumblty anniversary dinner last night. The actual date was the 5th. We just had a really nice dinner, a nice chat about stuff, and went to Indigo to do book shopping. I got a polar bear calendar, Rick Mercer's book, and a book on Leonardo da Vinci. I'm still behind on my reading, but I'm trying to make time for it. So many books, so little time.
Lastly, I'm signed up for the Police Half! What was I thinking? I've never run a whole half marathon ever, and this one has people with guns enforcing the 2.5 hr cut off time. Eep! I was encouraged to call my coach, and have a meltdown over the phone, but I resisted. That's twice now. Hope you appreciate it IG....
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