exercising and art

When I'm not in the mood to run I paint.  I haven't been running much.  I hit my trainer in the basement and pushed it super hard for 5 x 3 min sustained max effort with 2 min rest in between on the bike.  Short and sweet.    I hit the pool today also and did a sprint set, 2 x100, 4 x 50, 4 x 25 all out free style after my warm-up.  Staggered out of the place dizzy with noodle arms. 

One of my latest distractions above.  Looks kind of like Van Gogh huh? 

I've changed this one a little - this was a few weeks ago and I'm still working on the flowers, the stem, and the vase.  Yes, there is a vase down there somewhere in the blue.  This is a Uglow take off.  I went to Hyde Brothers books today and bought two nice books about Cezanne.  I'm digging still life's lately. 

I did this one a couple months ago, not such a great picture - kind of far away - but a pear none the less:

More to come.  I tend to paint it up during the winter months, and then completely stop once spring and good weather returns.  So, I have to get it in while my creativity is present.

Group Spin and Swim

I drove to Summit City Bikes, local shop, in the biggest snow storm of the year last night.

There I  hooked my bike up to a stationary trainer along with about ten other guys,  and we pedalled in front of a TV playing a DVD of other people pedalling and grimacing on their bikes.  After sixty minutes or so the pain finally ended.  The  title of the DVD was Maximum Threshold Training.  You know that's going to hurt, and it did. 

I swam today, briefly...1,750, so one mile.  Two strange things happened.  First, during a backstroke set I was having very lucid visions while under water dolphin kicking off the wall (this is when you are underwater, looking through the water to the ceiling).  My new goggles have really opened things up for me.  I felt more comfortable in the underwater world, seeing clearly all the bubbles blast past me near the surface of the water, than the world outside of the water. The water was calm, there was no one in the pool, so as I rose to the surface I could see, geometrically,  the plane of the waters surface.  It was so smooth I didn't want to break it for a breath.   Creepy huh?  I was exaggerating this experience by kicking like a dolphin nearly the length of the pool upside down, underwater.  Endorphins maybe?  Possibly, because the other strange thing that happened on the next set was that I got a cramp. I can't remember a time when I've gotten a cramp swimming.  It was bad enough that I decided to get out and call it a day.  One bad cramp spoiled my swimming 'trip'. 

new goggles

Bought new swimming equipment yesterday. $84 on new goggles, and two swimming suits (? Geez, I know, crazy).   It's amazing what a new pair of scratch free goggles does for you in the water.  Especially as blind as I am.   Everything still looked totally fuzzy and indescribable, but goodness, so much brighter. 

AM workout  = 800 warm up (200 free, 100 free kick, 100 fly kick, 200 back, 100 back kick, 100 breast kick), then 4 x 200 each stroke of 50 swim, kick, drill, swim - then Free ladder set of 50-100-150-100-50.  For a nice pretty 2,050 yards. 

Ran 5.5 miles yesterday.  Beautiful snowy, bright sun run.  Had some pain in my right knee so I switched things up a few times.  Ran high knees backwards, ran side-stepping like a soccer player, etc.  It actually worked...broke the monotony I guess. 

Last week my wife was out of town on business.  I was 'on' with the boys for everything required of two kids ages 9 and 7.   Didn't get too many workouts in needless to say.  Lifted weights in the basement a few times.  Got a babysitter one night so I could hit the Y to lift.  I don't mean to brag but I'm starting to look a little like Lou Ferrigno.   I think I'm to the point where I  may name my biceps - something modest,  like "Lighting" and "Thunder" (as I saw in some movie once).   Mine are really more along the lines of "Light" and "Drizzle" playing off the weather theme.  But I'm working on it.  My quads are going to be "Oak" and "Sequoia" before it's all over...I did squats tonight until I felt faint right after work at the YMCA.  Bring it!

Day 1. 37 week program

Consistancy is the key to Ironman.  Workout 6 days per week. Balance your efforts between the three disciplines, hang out with swimmers and cyclyist and runners.  Today I socialized with the cycling crowd.  Always an interesting group.  All about performance.  I do find it interesting, adults that form into teams....they wear team colors, talk team tactics, don't really like the guys on the other team.   I've never been one for team sports.  I'm still mostly unattached when it comes to the cycling thing - but it's nice to train with 'em.   About 15 people showed for a New Years day ride....cold.  25 miles.  We did a sprint down a gravel road for some reason I'm not sure.  Riding on gravel does develop your handling skills I suppose.  I got dropped from the leaders near the end and spent several miles solo between a group farther back trying to catch me, and the guys leading which I was putting all my heart and soul into chasing down...but couldn't do it today.  I haven't been on my bike in weeks and I could feel the burn.  My legs were like cold wind burned noodles when we finally reached the car.  I had the bright idea of cutting the index finger of my gloves off, just a little tiny bit, because they're too small.  That extra room felt great in the kitchen before I left, but not so good in 30 degree weather traveling on a bike at 25 miles per hour.  I needed a balaclava also - my face was frozen in no time.  Oh the perils of winter cycling.  It's not for the timid.   

So today marks the beginning of a dedicated training program.  I don't even really have a program to follow yet.  I found a few online that cost several hundred dollars which I don't want to afford.  I need to buy a new wet-suit, get tickets to San Francisco and figure out how to ship my bike there for Alcatraz.  That stuff cost some good money. 

One bit of advice should you ever choice to do Ironman/triathlon....write all your workouts down.  Keep cumulative track of the effort. Build on each week.  Writing it down doesn't let you cheat.  Or, better said it's clear when your cheating.  I cheat on running all the time - but not to my training log.  Write it down.

My morning swim.

I will begin my training in earnest soon.  I need it.  Today my alarm went off at 5:00am.  My clothes were staged - ready to dress and proceed to the pool.  Then I snoozed for an hour.  Rolled out at 6:00am, brushed teeth with eyes closed, grabbed a nice fresh towel from the guest closet supply (my wife hates it when I use the good stuff), then managed to get to my car over the packed ice in the driveway from the snow I never shovelled.  Listened to Radiohead's Hail to the Thief all the way to the YMCA, parked, got out, lifted the hatch to the Subaru and then realized I forgot my bag.  Within my bag I keep some swimming essentials:  my suit, my goggles, my lock.  There I stood with my fluffy nice towel and nothing else.  No nude swimming at the downtown YMCA so I proceeded to Starbucks for my grande Pike with cream, then home.

It may be a blessing in disguise.  Normally I keep my swimming bag out in the car regardless of the conditions.  I'll swim one day, throw my wet suit in the bag, put it in my sub 20 degree car, then go swimming two days later.  I literally have to twist and bend the frozen rigor mortis'ed Speedo to break it into shape.  Putting that baby on is cold.  Like a cold you don't really want to face. The searing pain only last a second though and it's usually a good motivator to get in the water and start hitting it.   

Escape from Alcatraz

On a total fluke I signed up for the lottery to get in the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon in San Francisco next summer.  I never win anything or have luck when it comes to earning something for nothing, but that all changed when I opened my email last week to the words "Congratulations, you've been accepted to compete in the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon 2011". 

What have I done!  I have to swim from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco in freezing cold water.  That's cool, I'm a swimmer.  The difficult part is that the San Francisco Bay averages about 55 degrees at that time of year.  And the other difficult part:  two ton sea-lions.  I've never swam with two ton sea-lions in the wild before.  Or those other things that like to eat two ton sea-lions. I read on the events website that it's one of the most challenging events in triathlon.   I did once swim so far from the shore in Florida with my coach and another swimmer that we couldn't see the shore line.  We pasted fishing boats.  During one deep cold dive looking for conch shells, head splitting from the pressure, I heard a high pitched squeal, very close by.  Dolphins.    The three of came up and decided to swim back, fast.  I just kept thinking that sharks eat dolphins don't they? Sharks eat anything yes?  I will have to overcome some fear.  I'm respectful of open-water ocean swimming.  It's like running through a densely forested wild jungle in the nude.  

Needless to say I've been in the water the last two days putting in some yardage.  My life has been a complete mess lately on several fronts.  I'm even gaining weight - up to 187.  I'm not sure if I'm going to make it again to Wisconsin, but I'm swimming to San Francisco on June 5th.  It may be the last thing I do.  Or try to do!

writers block and atrophy

It's not really writers block.  I just have nothing to write about.  How does one write about nothing?  I did have a fairly pleasant run in the snow a few days ago.  Snow running is a nice change of pace when first getting out in it - but that changes as the winter progresses and running results in ice balls forming on your eye-lashes and frozen teeth in the wind.  I don't even enjoy the process of layering my body in lycra and polypropylene to fend off the advancing cold. Too bad you can't 'bank' the time and effort you've put into running, but unfortunately the day you stop running your body starts to atrophy.    One morning last week I got up in the dark and did sprints at the park in the pitch black.  There was another runner there, and I think I completely scared them to death as I was running all out sprints, not like a normal jogger.   I've been swimming here and there, likely twice a week.  No cycling.  I need to bust out the trainer and start riding indoors.  The thought kills me. 

I've been mildly weight lifting, gaining some strength I guess.  My IT guy at work starting working out, taking all kinds of protein shakes and other questionable compounds, and really started to look physically bigger.   My muscles don't do that. With great disappointment I write that I'll never be nicknamed "Meat-Pack".