Training Report

Swimming today had an unexpected twist at the end.

I went to the gym to swim in the indoor pool being as it was 55 degrees outside. The workout today called for a 200 yard warm-up, 900 yards of ascending difficulty, a 500 or 1,000 yard T-pace trial (getting an average pace over 1000 yards as a benchmark), then a 400 yard cool down.

I swam the first two parts, then did the 500 t-pace trial (in 10:45) then did another 500 (I felt good and had time left) (in 11:20), and cooled-down for 200 yards by doing some focus drills on technique.

I was very happy to have finished the workout (2,300 yards total!) and then found out that based on this my time to finish an Olympic-distance tri swim would be about 38 minutes. I reviewed the Malibu Olympic Tri results and found, for my age group, that would put me pretty-much dead last. Not a good thing.

Hoping against hope, I called the gym and asked how long their pool actually was, as I assumed 25 yards. 25 METERS was the answer. Not yards, meters! Recalculating, that put me at 33 minutes for the swim (solid middle-of-the-pack) and means I swam about 2,515 yards today! Holy smokes! Converting that to the Braemar Club pool, that would be 105 lengths!

This was definitely much better news! My goal is to swim 1,000 meters in 20 minutes (a 10% decrease) putting me at a 30-minute race swim. Of course the first race isn't until May, so by then I will hopefully be able to swim it even faster. (can you hear the whip cracking?)

BYO Lane Markers

For the first blog entry of the new year (is it the 16th already????) I thought you might be interested in this (if you're a cyclist): Light Lane

In other news, tomorrow I'm riding with a group from LATC starting at the LA Zoo parking lot and going up the hill to the Hollywood sign then back down again (I'm guessing the return trip will be a bit easier). 24 miles or so, 1:45 projected time, first major ride with the tri setup. As an added bonus I'll cruise on over to area "C" and say "Hi" to my TnT friends from last season.

First Post-Bike Fit Report

It took an extra day but I got a ride in today. This morning I rode up to the pool (2.6 miles each way), swam, and rode back. My house is part-way up a pretty steep hill.

When I first started training 8 months ago I couldn't get a quarter of the way up it (I actually packed running shoes in a backpack and switched at the bottom of the hill so I could walk my bike up). A couple of months later I was able to ride all the way up, albeit huffing and puffing and standing up on the bike.

Today, for the very first time, I made it all the way up the hill in a seated position! I haven't ridden the hill in 6-8 weeks, so it's not from practice that I accomplished this.

The only thing that changed was the bike fit, and Ian assures me that the extra power I was able to use during the climb is from the fit, and that there will be more changes, such as an increase in average speed, in store for me.

My recommendation? Get a bike fit!

p.s. Another new personal best today: 40.5mph on the bike. I can remember way back to the summer of '08 when 24mph scared me silly.

Zombie Apocalypse

Just got a copy of Left4Dead - this year's "Doom." I haven't played a first-person shoot-'em up in, whoa, 10 years?!?!?!?!? Very cool game, more of a review to come.

LinkedIn

Now that I've got Facebook pretty much under control, I'm turning my focus to LinkedIn. I picked-up the book I'm on LinkedIn, Now What??? A Guide to Getting the Most Out of LinkedIn and it's got some great tips.

If you have any suggestions or tips for using LinkedIn, or would like to connect with me, please do so! You can click here to see my profile.

Training Happenings

It's been an interesting weekend!

Aside from four holiday parties in the last five days (seriously, if attending those doesn't make for a good reason to train hard, nothing does), I finally caved-in and got a bike fit, from Ian Murray of Triathletix here in LA.

The fit consisted of taking a look at my current position on the bike, discussing a number of things, and then "aero converting" my bike and adjusting from there. By "aero converting," which is Ian's specialty, I mean changing the seat tube for one that increases the forward angle of the seat (more vertical), lowering the seat and handlebars a bit, and attaching aero bars (they look like horns coming straight out from the front of the bars). By doing all of this I will decrease drag significantly while riding, which should make riding easier and faster. Of course, this was all adjusted for optimum positioning on the bike, which Ian tells me will help relieve my IT Band pain and some upper shoulder pain while riding. I'll be on the bike tomorrow to really give it a workout.

I also got a run in today. This is notable because I haven't really run at all since early November. My left knee was giving me some trouble so I've been patiently rehabilitating it and today, while wearing a strap, I ran 5 miles (at a 9-minute average pace) with 1/4 mile warm-up and cool-down walks. My knee felt great! unfortunately, my IT band did not. I think it's time for a follow-up visit with my ortho doc.

Happy New Year everyone!

Why Didn't I Think of That?

What a concept: a calendar covered in bubble wrap!

Dream Stealing

And so it starts...

My friend Joe just sent me this link about a group in Japan that is able to record simple images from the human brain.

Increase Test Scores for Free!

Just read an article about the daily wake/sleep rhythms of teenagers and how adjusting school start times yields more attentiveness and fewer car accidents.

Certainly our society has the common sense to change things when it benefits society as a whole, as a number of states have already done. Without changing budgets, changing teachers or acquiring new equipment/training, we could increase the testing scores of high school students overnight. So why don't we do it?

Years ago when we were looking for schools for our son, we found one with a policy that really resonated with me. The school had researched and concluded that boys have a much shorter attention span than girls (ya think?) and that getting them up and moving at regular intervals allowed them to concentrate better. So, every 20 minutes the kids would switch classes. It seemed to work with them.

As a country, and a state (California) we have a huge education problem. So why not take the low-hanging fruit, so to speak, and make things easier for everyone? For young kids, start early and get them moving more. For older kids, start an hour later. There will be issues with after-school programs and timing, but we'll adjust. After all, the first priority should be our kids' welfare. We've adjusted to the current schedule, we can adjust again.

Pre-Season Halfway Point

It's back to pre-season pre-training starting today. I took the last week off to let my body get itself back together and let me tell you, it felt good to be pain-free! I did miss the endorphins though.

Today was my first day back and I continued the "anatomical adaptation" phase of my strength training with the "B" program (based on the program put out by TTS). I'm getting used to the gym again and my legs are definitely getting better.

Over the next 4 weeks or so I'll go through the program, then take a break, and head into a real strength building phase in January, which will correspond with the beginning of actual tri-training for the Wildflower Olympic tri in May and possibly the Solvang Century in March (I'm now debating doing this as it has become apparent that it will throw a significant wrench into my tri-training plans).

Warm and Fuzzy: Multiple Kill Vehicle

This link will take you to a video of a test of a "multiple kill vehicle."

Sound like something from The Matrix? You bet!

A bunch of these will be launched in a carrier vehicle straight into the path of an incoming ballistic missile. When it reaches some predetermined point, the carrier will release a bunch of these nasties and they will be guided in to intercept all the anti-nasties released by the missile, detonating them in flight.

Wow - all those ideas in sci-fi books I read as a kid are coming true...

Business Question Poll

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Nikon Thanksgiving Sales

If you are looking for a camera there are some great deals this week on Nikon equipment where you can save $300 and more:

Abe's of Maine

Nikon Black Friday

Crazy-Fast Computers for 2009

Check out this article on Engadget. 24GB? That's insane - but I still want it!

Sign of the Times

Looks like the local Lamborghini/Lotus dealership is gone, gone, gone... Now what am I going to get?

Swimming Update

In today's swim practice I was able to swim a length in only 12 strokes in 24 seconds. I then increased it to 15 strokes and put a little speed on and got my time down to 21 seconds. The overall exertion level is still much less than it used to be for the same distance. I like this Total Immersion stuff.

Halfway to Ironman 2010

I last posted that I plan to do a full Ironman (2.4/112/26) in 2010. I'm thinking it would be nice to ramp-up, and so today I registered for what will likely be one of the most difficult things I've ever done: the Vineman Half-Ironman in July. That's right: 1.2 miles of swimming-goodness, 56 miles of biking goodness and 13 miles of running goodness. In one day. In Sonoma. In July 2009.

Coming to a training center near you this January!

Ironman 2010

I went to a talk last night put on by Triathletix. The speaker was Cherie Gruenweld (author of Become an Ironman) an incredible lady who completed 21 Ironman races - her first being in Kona. Listening to her speak and watching several videos tipped me over the edge: 2010 will be the year I do a full Ironman race!

Save the Trees

Plastic Logic in early 2009 will release what may be the first real, usable version of electronic paper. Check it out here. The upsides are numerous, including not having to carry tons of books around and not having to print, distribute and trash billions of newspaper pages a day (world-wide), decreasing the demand for paper and therefore the number of trees that need to be cut down to supply this demand. It's compatible with a wide range of document formats (PDF included) so this may turn out to be a very viable product.

Swimming Update

I've hit the pool three times this week as swimming is my "limiter" and in the off-season it's good to concentrate on your limiter (so as to unlimit yourself, I guess). So I'm swimming and doing strength training (to get all those little, atrophied muscles that aren't used in swimming, biking and running back up to spec).

Today I swam for an hour, painstakingly (boringly) working on technique and trying to maintain a constant, low stroke count over varying distances. I was able to keep the count between 14 and 17 SPL at up to 100 yards. Not too bad! The exciting part, if you just missed it, was that I actually swam a 14 stroke length (multiple times in fact)! The other nice thing about using the Total Immersion technique is that after 100 yards I'm only a bit tired/winded, and actually much less than I previously was after only 25 yards.