Puking: The Good and The Bad

I think I've stated before that I swam prior to my relatively recent foray into triathlon. For many years growing up I wore a back brace 23 hours a day - if I was in the water, with its reduced gravity, I got an extra hour. A bonus. Any actual swimming time counted as exercise, which didn't even count toward the extra hour. Double bonus.

Until high school I only took advantage of this exercise hour in the summer - swimming on the local pool's swim team. Starting freshman year, I began swimming through most of the fall and winter. I was by no means fast, but I was reliable, generally for a third place finish. Sometimes fourth. I helped fill the lanes and became comfortable in the water. I liked the quiet punctuated with inter-set gossip. And it was a sport that didn't require coordination of the eye hand variety. Triple bonus.

Fast forward to my recent foray into triathlon. I was nervous jumping into the pool having not swam a lap essentially since college when I would occasionally visit the University's pool. My return to the chlorine was far from triumphant - I was horribly out of shape and had no speed, but I knew what I was doing. The mechanics were rusty but there. I'm not sure my triathlon career would have lasted this long if I was picking up swimming from scratch.

And, for the past 2-3 years, as I've continued to practice and read the TI book and drill, drill, drill, the kinks of worked themselves out, and while I'm sure that if I actually saw my stroke I'd be horrified, it at least feels good. Smooth. Fluid. And I still look forward to the quiet of the black line (almost as much as I miss the inter-set gossip, but alas, my town is lacking in non-NCAA caliber master's teams).

In addition to working out the kinks, I've apparently built up some speed.

Liz occasionally has us do "swim tests" which consist of 10 100s with 10 seconds rest between each. You time yourself for the whole set, subtract 90 seconds from that time (for the rest) and dived by 10 to get your base pace (or something like that) per 100.

My first swim test was over a year ago and it was fine - acceptable to me.

My second swim test was this past December - almost exactly one year after the first test and in that year I dropped 30 seconds off of my total time or 3 seconds per 100. To a normal person, 3 seconds is nothing. But, to a swimmer, 3 seconds per 100 is a fair to good improvement to make over the course of a year.

After my second swim test, I did a timed 500. The 500 used to be my second favorite event when I swam in high school (my favorite was the 200) and I REALLY wish I knew what my best time was from back in the day. But, since it was from the dark ages, before everything was electronic, I suspect I'll never know. Anyway, for the timed 500, my average time per 100 was the same as my average time per 100 for the test which was ... good to very good. Because, while the timed 500 is (obviously) only half as long, there is no rest. I was please. Very pleased. And curious.

And then, this month, we re-tested. I saw the test on the schedule in the middle of a week in the middle of our craptastic winter and I was, in a sick, sick way, looking forward to it. I was actually a bit sleepless the night before the test - I had intended to do it in the morning but that plan was foiled by snow that would have made the trip to and from the pool too long for a pre-work workout. I worried that my plan to reschedule in the evening would be foiled by ice, but mother nature cooperated and I started the workout just before 8 pm.

I started the warm-up and almost bailed on the test. My arms were heavy, my legs were tired I worried that I hadn't waited a full hour since eating my banana, I worried that I hadn't eaten enough through out the day ... was I feeling light headed? I decided I was just worried about the degree to which I would be crushed if I hadn't gotten at least a little bit faster in the month since my last test and decided to just do it.

I almost bailed after the first 100 - I thought I was going to puke or wet my pants, but then I realized that I had swam those laps in a time 15 seconds faster than the base pace from my previous test. I chalked it up to that and continued a bit more controlled. The test is sort of a mind game to me - the first 100 always feels good until I stop and want to die. I'm 'fresh' so I go out too fast and then reign it in a bit for #2, which is better. On #3 I focus on the fact that I'll be half way done in 2 more 100s. #4 is all about survival and #5 means I'm half way done - I've made it that far so I can finish. #6 is super exciting because when its over I'm over half way done. #7 is the hardest but #8 isn't too bad to get through, because after that there are only 2 100s left! #9 is the light at the end of the tunnel, its okay to kick a little harder. And then #10 is all out, breathing less, pulling faster and stopping the watch while trying to get in as much air as possible and feeling like I'm going to puke. Its a good almost puking feeling though.

I looked at my time and knew it was faster than the test one month ago, which was good. But subtracting 90 seconds and dividing by 10 is hard with an oxygen deficit. I was unwilling to get too excited about the improvement until I got back to the locker room where my phone has a calculator.

I took a few more breaths and prepared for my cool down. While doing so I noticed the creepy guy. The creepy guy is an overweight, older, hairy man who I see when I swim at night or on the weekends. My pool is in a gym in a condo complex and right off the pool is a sauna and a steam room. The pool deck is kept warm and surrounded by lounge chairs so some people come to the pool just to steam and, well, lounge. I think creepy guy lives in the building and he seems to come to lounge most nights. He showers, but never gets in the pool, he saunas and then sits in a lounge chair and I always think he's watching me. But I convinced myself that he wasn't watching ... he was just watching the pool where I happened to be. Plus, I'm pretty generic looking in cap and goggles - could he really know it was me from one day to the next?

Apparently, yes.

After my cool down I went to grab my towel and he spoke. To me. I was SO OFF GUARD. I asked him to repeat himself and he said ... "I see you here swimming alot. Did you swim in college?"

And for the second time in my 1 hour workout I felt like puking. But this time, not in a good way.

ANYWAY, back in the locker room, I did the math on my phone's calculator AND ... 30 seconds faster. Again. That's 3 more seconds faster per 100. 3 seconds faster in a month. That's very good to great in my book.

So yeah, I'm pleased. To say the least. I wonder when they'll ask me to be on the olympic team? He, he.

Now if only I could feel this way about riding a bike ...

Happy weekend folks. Stay warm ... the sun has to come out eventually, right?

Tests, Plans, Weather and Other Non-Sequiturs

I went to college in Northern Indiana and many of my college friends have settled down in Chicago - as a result of, or maybe in spite of this, I have on several occasions given fairly serious thought to moving there.  Like to live.  Except the coldest I have ever been in my life has been in Chicago in February - so cold that I can still remember getting back to the apartment where I was staying, watching in horror as the person I was staying with struggled to get the keys out and the door open and when I was finally in the apartment, sitting there with my coat on wondering if there was a legitimate way to stay both in Chicago and in the apartment until Spring.  I think the horrific weather (and the fact that I'm not licensed to work there and my family is here and by the time I really was ready to maybe move there most of the people I would have wanted to be spend my days with were married) play a big role in why I never pulled the trigger on that whole moving to Chicago thing.  Anyway, when its gets so cold here in the East that its all they talk about on the news and walking the four blocks to lunch* leaves me so tired and cold that I just want to crawl up on the couch in reception and stay there until Spring, it makes me happy that I don't live in Chicago - it might be 15 here but its 15 below or something crazy there.

But, the weather gives me a good reason to stay in on a Friday night and blog.  And, if nothing else, I'm thankful that I wasn't standing in the Hudson River recently - when the plane crashed they said that air was 18 and the water 40 - only 14 degrees cooler than the water in this race.

Kind of crazy that I did the race in the first place knowing that the water was going to be that cold.  Crazier still that I'm thinking of doing the race again ... especially with this weather we're having -  the lake might be even cooler this year.  Anyway, for the spring/summer I'm thinking something like this:

• The Harryman (freakishly cold water) - olympic (more or less) distance - May 16, 2009
• Rev3 (super hilly) - Half IM - June 7, 2009
• Philly Tri - olympic - June 28, 2009
• NJ State - olympic - July 26, 2009
• Timberman - Half IM - August 23, 2009

I'll train with a fairly intense (for me) bike training group in March and April and train for a half marathon in October ... so it'll be busy (especially June) but hopefully fun.

I've been trying to be diligent about training and was super happy with my tests - I improved from all of last year's tests especially in swimming and running (I mis-recorded last year's bike test results so it was hard to know how this year compared to last) perhaps proving that even after all these years I'm still a good tester.  Over the next two weeks I'm going to do a new bike and run test and re-do the swimming test.  I'm looking forward to the swim test (in a sick, sick way) because I haven't missed a swim since the new year - with any luck I'll continue to be a good tester;)

I'm trying to keep this up while maybe fitting in a day or two of skiing (I feel like someday far, far away when I'm finally grown up and settled down, skiing will be a great thing to do as a family but I also feel that if I don't ski this year I might never ski again, so I'm going to try to fit it in) and yoga (in the next 2-3 years I'd like to become a yoga instructor - but I need to keep up my practice to make this a reality).  So overall things are good.  Busy, but good.  You might say I'm content.  Which is really more than enough right now, basically the wisdom to know the difference.

*  This was only the second time in two weeks that I went out to lunch.  I'm on a home cooking/clean eating/no processed food (she writes as she drinks a beer) kick and have brought my breakfast and lunch to work everyday (except for the day a false fire alarm in my apartment building caused me to leave sans lunch).  I admit that I was never really a believer in the whole you are what you eat logic until now - it seems that there might be something to it.  Maybe.

Anyway, stay warm kids.  Happy weekend.

2009: Off to a Good Start

or, in addition to remembering my watch, I need to know the time I'm trying to beat.

There has been so much to say, so many good posts floating around in my head, but it seems that I've been to busy living and doing, eating well, bringing my own food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, working out before work (even swimming), having Christmas parties, celebrating Christmas (but not yet taking down my Christmas tree) and, well, living and doing, that the posts never get written.

But, I will tell you about my first "race" of the season.  "Race" and not Race, because I decided a week ago to run a 5 mile race instead of my 50 minute scheduled training run.  There was no race specific training, no tapering, no involved plan with the coach.  Just me, going for a 5 mile run followed by brunch.

I arrived on time enough to get checked in and warmed up before the 8 am start.  Had I known about the NYRR's new plan to keep us corralled in the running lanes I might have arrived earlier.  Or not.  I'm not good at arriving places before 8 am.   Anyway, the "race" started and I crossed the starting line shortly thereafter with the same - Oh God, how am I going to get through this feeling that I always have and in addition to the "will I finish?" panic, it was super crowded.  Trying to find room to actually run (v. shuffle) was, at best, like playing a game.  But I suppose it distracted me, because the 1st mile flew by in 10 minutes almost even.  I thought this odd because given my training runs and the crappy, crowded conditions, it seemed that I should have been going slower - I actually thought the markers might be off which is virtually unheard of for a NYRR race.

My original pacing goal had been to try to keep up with Sara, but in the game of find some free space to run, I managed to misplace her, so I had no one to keep up with and decided just to run and I did and I ticked off the next 4 miles in about 9:15 each and while this wasn't easy, I never really thought that I was going to die - perhaps my giddiness at running paces I haven't seen in years masked the pain.

I finished strong in around 47 minutes and I was pleased to say the least.  Given that I DNF'ed my last Race, I was due a good race.  Post race I decided I was also due a good brunch and headed to sarabeth's with sara and theresa (a potential future triathlete).  Post brunch I swam and ran some errands so by the time I got home, official results were posted ...

46:55.

Not bad I thought and then began scrolling through my race history to see what my PR was.  And then I realized that I missed a PR by 9 seconds - I really need to know these things going in, because I think I could have gone 9 seconds faster, right?  Certainly without the 1st mile traffic jam I would have PR'ed.  Of course, its easy to PR with the benefit of hindsight and almost PR or not, it was an awesome day that has me excited about the next few months.

So, 2009?  So far so good, kids.