The frequency of my writing is the same as my exercise, mostly.
I did have a pretty good swim Wednesday right after work. Put in a butterfly workout. Butterflies are such beautiful little ornate creatures. Mysterious too - they go though a complete metamorphosis of all things to reach their air-born beauty. None of this translates to the pool and swimming butterfly. 'Fly' is a rhythmic stroke with a focal point on core strength and some shoulders. I've always contested that 'fly' comes from the core primarily, and if you have the shoulders to get your head out for a breath now and then good for you. I swam a 2,000 IM once...putting in 20 lengths of the pool of each stroke. That's when you learn that butterfly is not all strength. It's a rhythm. It's a painful rhythm is your not conditioned to it, as I remembered a few days ago. My trapezius and I are finally friends again after a few sore days.
Thursday was Thanksgiving. I drank like a fish and stuffed myself on pies, turkey and ham. Normal holiday eating. I did manage to run 4 miles yesterday. Today I ran 5 miles. Cold ones. Oh, the wind. I really hate running in the cold - but I need to get used to it for the next 4-5 months. Experienced some slight right knee pain - so I walked a bit. Nothing wrong with that. I think it's cool to walk it out if you feel pain in your joints the day after stuffing yourself full of wine and turkey.
Training plans. I'm thinking of adopting a new plan for the 2011 Ironman. I spent $25 online for the plan I follow...a 37 week program. I don't want to do the same old thing for a third time. More on this later.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
Sunday ride
I hooked up with the Sunday show-and-go ride yesterday. About fifteen guys showed up and we rode to Huntington and back. I was racking leaves in the AM with a warm sun, but when I got to the meeting point and geared up it was gray, windy, and cold. The weather modeling my mood as of late. We had a bit of rain at one point that added to the dreariness. Having not been on my bike for weeks I was a little reserved. And the fact that the only 'true' pair of wheels I have right now are my Zipp 808's. Those are not good wheels to ride in a tight group situation, hitting corners fast, on a windy day. I was all over the place. They sure do look cool though.
Tonight I'm swimming. I've really slipped up lately, letting myself get out of the exercise 'mode'. I think my adipose is growing. I've been lifting weights in a very random haphazard way. I don't track what I do, I don't even count my reps. I'll just do curls to the point of exhaustion or something and then switch to lateral plyometrics acting like a world class downhill slalom snow skier. That hurts so bad. Due to this pathetic effort I'm thinking of laying down some money for a personal trainer. Get someone to force me to do it, build up some muscle this winter, so long as it doesn't effect my stroke. If I really focused on weight lifting I bet I could even look like a triathlete ...like those big mean looking Germans I compete against at Ironman Wisconsin.
Tonight I'm swimming. I've really slipped up lately, letting myself get out of the exercise 'mode'. I think my adipose is growing. I've been lifting weights in a very random haphazard way. I don't track what I do, I don't even count my reps. I'll just do curls to the point of exhaustion or something and then switch to lateral plyometrics acting like a world class downhill slalom snow skier. That hurts so bad. Due to this pathetic effort I'm thinking of laying down some money for a personal trainer. Get someone to force me to do it, build up some muscle this winter, so long as it doesn't effect my stroke. If I really focused on weight lifting I bet I could even look like a triathlete ...like those big mean looking Germans I compete against at Ironman Wisconsin.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
The park is all mine again
I saw a shooting star this morning on the AM run. I drug myself out of bed and hit the dark cold streets at 5:15am. This was my first true 'back to dark' run. The star shot out of the western horizon, burned brightly for what seemed forever over Foster park, then went out like a light. I never see shooting stars when I'm looking for them, only by accident.
There was not a soul at the park. It was all mine. I spent some time running through the city too - and that was occupied by others. I ran down Rudisill for a while and there was what appeared to be a woman walking west on the north side of the street in a full drunk, cursing the homes at the top of her vocal ability. I chose to run on the other side of the street, quickly, thankful for my top-to-bottom attire of ninja black running wear. I don't even think she noticed me. Fleetingly I thought of stopping and asking if I could help her talk it out. At least to maybe tone it down a notch. But I just ran on into the night. Everyone has problems, some people just walk around the streets in the early morning proclaiming it to the world.
The run was mostly horrible, performance wise. I had a slight cramp walking at work today. Yesterday I hit the Y on the way home and knocked out a 2,000 yard swim. Uneventful. After that last night I lifted weights in the basement. Monday I was home sick of all things with a fever. I literally stayed in my bed, and slept all day long, and all night Monday. Weird huh. Talk about weird - I think I may have been slightly delusional from the fever. At one point my stomach was gurgling, gurgling with every breath, and it sounded like words - broken speach, very guttural: "How you doing", "How you doing", "How you doing"... with every breath! Now that's a fever! Blogging the truth of one's life is not an easy task.
There was not a soul at the park. It was all mine. I spent some time running through the city too - and that was occupied by others. I ran down Rudisill for a while and there was what appeared to be a woman walking west on the north side of the street in a full drunk, cursing the homes at the top of her vocal ability. I chose to run on the other side of the street, quickly, thankful for my top-to-bottom attire of ninja black running wear. I don't even think she noticed me. Fleetingly I thought of stopping and asking if I could help her talk it out. At least to maybe tone it down a notch. But I just ran on into the night. Everyone has problems, some people just walk around the streets in the early morning proclaiming it to the world.
The run was mostly horrible, performance wise. I had a slight cramp walking at work today. Yesterday I hit the Y on the way home and knocked out a 2,000 yard swim. Uneventful. After that last night I lifted weights in the basement. Monday I was home sick of all things with a fever. I literally stayed in my bed, and slept all day long, and all night Monday. Weird huh. Talk about weird - I think I may have been slightly delusional from the fever. At one point my stomach was gurgling, gurgling with every breath, and it sounded like words - broken speach, very guttural: "How you doing", "How you doing", "How you doing"... with every breath! Now that's a fever! Blogging the truth of one's life is not an easy task.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Saturday afternoon
I got up promptly this morning and began racking the leaves. Second rake of the season. I cleared all the difficult corners, the fence line between the homes, the part with the bushes that seem to collect leaves as if they have some value. Every nook and cranny was spotless. I even swept the driveway, as if it was a race so as to raise my pulse, secretly laughing at those overweight Americans with gasoline powered leaf blowers. With my work completed I ran a few errands, and upon return the yard was covered with leaves once again. My nine mature oak trees are the Ironmen of the plant kingdom. They're endurance athletes in their own right.
I took the dog for a run. One lap at Foster, like clockwork. He pulled and tugged and chased squirrels. I stopped once and got down eye to eye with him to really emphasize the point that I want to make: "stay with me". He looked nervous and confused, eyes darting side to side, ears down. Oh well - we ran on and the tugging ensued. This was my first run since the marathon. Took a week of running off. It was like heaven.
I swam a few nights ago, late, at Jorgenson. I was the only guy in the pool, which I love. It helps to focus on the bubbles, as there were not anyone else's bubbles to interfere with my bubbles. How much air you 'catch' in the pull phase of the stroke can be telling. Swimming in crystal clean calm water is good when you really want to think about what your body is doing in the water. I'm getting quite good at pushing through two strong dolphin kicks off the turn during freestyle - this being something that Phelps really introduced, although it was done before him. It's hard. You need oxygen usually fairly soon after the turn, so to stay under and kick using your whole body takes some discipline. I can't even really remember what my workout was - but I did do a set of five 100 IM's, held 1:15-1:20's. If I could only swim breast stroke. Breast stroke is kind of like running to me. It's the one when you look like a frog. It's really dumb, the pull doesn't do much, the kick puts weird torque on your knees and hips, you have to bob up out of the water to breath. I would have been a fairly decent IM'er had I been able to perform the breast stroke with more efficiency. And the name 'breast' stroke. Sure it made for good juvenile jokes in high school and college but really, I mean, it should be called the frog bob, or the knee breaker. My apologies to Makstenieks...he sure could swim it.
I took the dog for a run. One lap at Foster, like clockwork. He pulled and tugged and chased squirrels. I stopped once and got down eye to eye with him to really emphasize the point that I want to make: "stay with me". He looked nervous and confused, eyes darting side to side, ears down. Oh well - we ran on and the tugging ensued. This was my first run since the marathon. Took a week of running off. It was like heaven.
I swam a few nights ago, late, at Jorgenson. I was the only guy in the pool, which I love. It helps to focus on the bubbles, as there were not anyone else's bubbles to interfere with my bubbles. How much air you 'catch' in the pull phase of the stroke can be telling. Swimming in crystal clean calm water is good when you really want to think about what your body is doing in the water. I'm getting quite good at pushing through two strong dolphin kicks off the turn during freestyle - this being something that Phelps really introduced, although it was done before him. It's hard. You need oxygen usually fairly soon after the turn, so to stay under and kick using your whole body takes some discipline. I can't even really remember what my workout was - but I did do a set of five 100 IM's, held 1:15-1:20's. If I could only swim breast stroke. Breast stroke is kind of like running to me. It's the one when you look like a frog. It's really dumb, the pull doesn't do much, the kick puts weird torque on your knees and hips, you have to bob up out of the water to breath. I would have been a fairly decent IM'er had I been able to perform the breast stroke with more efficiency. And the name 'breast' stroke. Sure it made for good juvenile jokes in high school and college but really, I mean, it should be called the frog bob, or the knee breaker. My apologies to Makstenieks...he sure could swim it.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Only the life guards change
I went to the downtown Y this morning with goggles and suit in hand. Good old Central branch. Nothing changes there. Gwen was behind the desk, I use the same locker every time, notice the same greasy dim lighting, leave my towel and glasses on the bench, grab a kick board, and get my lane. I don't know what it is with age-group swimmers deciding to bite large pieces from kick-boards, but it can be done. I always look for a nice stout kick-board, one that I can pull through the water like a fin when I'm doing turns. Don't use the big ones. 'Bob' was there. His name is embroidered on his backpack. He's likely in his 80's. The triathlete was there, the one that can't do flip turns. He's doesn't swim intervals which I find odd....he just swims from one side to the next doing grab turns. I would fall asleep and drown if that's all I knew of swimming. The couple bobbing in the open area was there also - all the normal players.
Except for the lifeguard.
There's a new guard in town. Lifeguards change over a lot - monthly I bet. They start out eager enough to save lives I suppose - he said "good morning" brightly from the chair. I smiled and waved, knowing he wouldn't be there long. It's probably the heat. I cannot stand to sit around on a pool deck, sweltering, watching physical activity, doing nothing. It a pretty important job. The title says it all: Life Saver. You can be all kinds of things in life, but rarely do any of us get the chance to save someone from drowning. Still the heat though, I couldn't do it.
Swam 1,500 yards. 800 SKPS ( SWIM-KICK-PULL-SWIM). For the Pull on that I did a 200 IM drill down regular back. Then did a 200 free fast to see if I could lap the triathlete twice in 8 lengths, just missed him on the second approach. 4 x 50 Fly/Free. 200 Kick, 100 Warm down and out. Gwen sold me two bananas for a dollar and then I was on my way to Starbucks.
Except for the lifeguard.
There's a new guard in town. Lifeguards change over a lot - monthly I bet. They start out eager enough to save lives I suppose - he said "good morning" brightly from the chair. I smiled and waved, knowing he wouldn't be there long. It's probably the heat. I cannot stand to sit around on a pool deck, sweltering, watching physical activity, doing nothing. It a pretty important job. The title says it all: Life Saver. You can be all kinds of things in life, but rarely do any of us get the chance to save someone from drowning. Still the heat though, I couldn't do it.
Swam 1,500 yards. 800 SKPS ( SWIM-KICK-PULL-SWIM). For the Pull on that I did a 200 IM drill down regular back. Then did a 200 free fast to see if I could lap the triathlete twice in 8 lengths, just missed him on the second approach. 4 x 50 Fly/Free. 200 Kick, 100 Warm down and out. Gwen sold me two bananas for a dollar and then I was on my way to Starbucks.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Marathon
It was so cold. I wore shorts. There were 9,000 people there, all standing around shivering together until we finally started the misery. I tried to keep a nice steady pace, just running - didn't look at my watch every second to see if I was holding any particular time. Indianapolis is a beautiful city. The run took us through downtown north to Broad Ripple, then west to the Butler campus, through the IMA (Indy Museum of Art) campus, over toward the velodrome, then back to Meridian street, back downtown to the finish. I hooked up with some guy for a while and we talked about this and that for several miles which was good. It completely got my mind off the pain in my hips, calves, knees, etc. He and I kind of grouped up with some women that were from the same running team - they were listening to us talk. At mile 19 he couldn't hold the pace, so I wished him luck, thanked him for killing some miles with me, and started to go. At mile 20 people started to walk, a lot of people. Surprisingly I felt good, never walked. I started to pass people en masse as they died out. This improved my spirits greatly, and the fact that the pain was almost over. At mile 22 the women that were listening to my conversation earlier passed me. They were working as a team, counting off something. I said "I'm sticking with you from here out". They were on fire - the count was of the people we were passing, and it really did work.
I don't know what happens to women at this point of total physical exertion, but somehow the conversation lead to breast-feeding, more specifically breast pumping. Thats right folks - one of the women in this group starts to tell us a story about her kids, and travelling, and needing to pump, etc, etc...and after a detailed build up she concludes that she got pulled over by the police while driving a car and breast pumping. Not texting, pumping.
For goodness sake. I had to announce that I was married with two kids and 'we' breastfeed also, just to kind of join the circle. I don't know about runners. But that was one way to break the mental strain of those last 4 miles. We nailed it, me and the girls. I let them finish together in front of me all holding hands and stuff - we even high-fived afterwards. It was fun. The volunteers wrapped me in a big plastic wind-shield type blanket, then I walked to my car, changed my clothes in the parking garage, and drove home.
I don't know what happens to women at this point of total physical exertion, but somehow the conversation lead to breast-feeding, more specifically breast pumping. Thats right folks - one of the women in this group starts to tell us a story about her kids, and travelling, and needing to pump, etc, etc...and after a detailed build up she concludes that she got pulled over by the police while driving a car and breast pumping. Not texting, pumping.
For goodness sake. I had to announce that I was married with two kids and 'we' breastfeed also, just to kind of join the circle. I don't know about runners. But that was one way to break the mental strain of those last 4 miles. We nailed it, me and the girls. I let them finish together in front of me all holding hands and stuff - we even high-fived afterwards. It was fun. The volunteers wrapped me in a big plastic wind-shield type blanket, then I walked to my car, changed my clothes in the parking garage, and drove home.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
5 miles
Mustered up 5 miles last night in the dark. There was a slight rain, and it was cold, and I wore shorts. A friend of mine insist that I wear shorts during the marathon this weekend so I was experimenting. The starting tempurature is expected to be 27 degrees. I hate running in the cold. I mean - I love cold weather running. It's so invigorating and impressive. It's really, really neat. And I enjoy it.
So, yes, shorts. I bought some compression calf things, usually reserved for triathlon, but they did provide a little additional warmth last night. I'm going to start out with hat and gloves, two layers up top, and shorts. I'll lose things as I heat up. Hopefully no rain. My lower left back is in a knot. Not sure yet how far I need to take that excuse for poor performance...just thought I'd keep it alive for the post-marathon entry.
I haven't been in the water all week. I haven't been on my bike in weeks, sadly. Not much athletic to write about. I finished The Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller last night. It was pretty racy. And interesting. I don't think I could deal with the lice or bed bugs of Paris in the 1930's. Henre sure could though.
So, yes, shorts. I bought some compression calf things, usually reserved for triathlon, but they did provide a little additional warmth last night. I'm going to start out with hat and gloves, two layers up top, and shorts. I'll lose things as I heat up. Hopefully no rain. My lower left back is in a knot. Not sure yet how far I need to take that excuse for poor performance...just thought I'd keep it alive for the post-marathon entry.
I haven't been in the water all week. I haven't been on my bike in weeks, sadly. Not much athletic to write about. I finished The Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller last night. It was pretty racy. And interesting. I don't think I could deal with the lice or bed bugs of Paris in the 1930's. Henre sure could though.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Tuesday Morning
I rose from the dead and ran this morning. I hate running in the cold and dark. It's so completely unmotivating. In addition this is my busy season at work, so my mind is focused on other things. Staying with exercising through life's ups and downs can be a struggle, but I've found that if I keep exercising I usually end up better for it. Isn't that a novel idea.
I ran the neighborhood. Probably a 3-miler, not much. I've been having a pain in my lower back, left side, up high like my kidney's spasming or something. If I happen to pass-away at the marathon this weekend please have my left kidney promptly autopsied. I'm sure it to be the culprit. My left calve is not in order either, although I doubt it's fatal. It's tight though and an annoyance. I have an image of myself walking back to my car, a drop out, with a cramp in my calve bending slightly with each step to the left, favoring my undiagnosed kidney disease. Ouch. Mental imagery is supposed to flow more toward the positive side right? I'll suck it up. I'm planning to run steady the whole time, a nice November training run to get my mind off things.
I ran the neighborhood. Probably a 3-miler, not much. I've been having a pain in my lower back, left side, up high like my kidney's spasming or something. If I happen to pass-away at the marathon this weekend please have my left kidney promptly autopsied. I'm sure it to be the culprit. My left calve is not in order either, although I doubt it's fatal. It's tight though and an annoyance. I have an image of myself walking back to my car, a drop out, with a cramp in my calve bending slightly with each step to the left, favoring my undiagnosed kidney disease. Ouch. Mental imagery is supposed to flow more toward the positive side right? I'll suck it up. I'm planning to run steady the whole time, a nice November training run to get my mind off things.
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