Swimming Progress

I've started following the recommended exercises for Total Immersion swimming. I agree with the logic that I'm not swimming in Tri's so much to win the leg but to do it in a reasonable amount of time and have energy left for the other two legs. With that in mind, I hit the pool today to work on technique.

Fist Gloves ON.

The first 10 minutes I spent getting an average SPL (strokes per length) number at a comfortable pace, with fist gloves. The number worked out to about 25.

I then did 10x50 repeats with a goal of 23 SPL, making me pay attention to form and slowing down a bit. I was able to do that successfully, with flip turns, for the first few repeats. I decreased to 21 SPL's for the next 3, and then 19 for the following 3. 19! This is what I was doing without fist gloves last week!

Fist Gloves OFF.

Bare-handed I got down to 17 SPL! 17!!! I was swimming at decent speed, silently, saving energy, breathing correctly. It felt great and when I got out, I felt like I could do the whole workout again! This is going to really affect my race planning as I feel, with more work of course, that I can swim much longer now. Time will tell.

Fist Gloves

Today I swam for an hour at the club. What an experience!

One goal was to briefly review the different stroke components and then swim my "new" stroke, which I did. It was taking about 20-21 strokes-per-length, about 2 higher than usual, but I felt good.

The next goal was to try out my new fistgloves. These are basically rubber mittens that you put on and swim with for about a half hour. It takes away the water feel from your hands and you learn to use your arms and body rotation to swim - which I did. The really interesting part is swimming once you take them off: your hands feel *everything* in the water - you feel so much more powerful and "right" it's a bit of a rush, actually.

From the TI site:

After wearing the gloves for 15 to 30 minutes, swim with open hands. You'll immediately experience what we call the fistglove® effect – a rush of information from your previously "ordinary," but now highly sensitive, hands to your brain that immediately helps you become more discriminating in how you apply hands to the water, instinctively choosing angles that give maximum purchase on a highly elusive medium. You'll also become ultra-sensitive to the importance of "gripping" the water instead of "slipping" through it.

The third goal was to learn flip-turns. Mission accomplished! I ended-up swimming 50's and 100's instead of 25's which I can already tell will help my endurance immensely. I think not teaching flip-turns right off the bat does people a disservice as you get used to swimming 25's only, and when you're out in the open water you must go much farther than that. Learning 50's and 100's, and even 200's, gives you a much more realistic feel for your stamina.

Tri-and-a-Half-lete

My buddy Craig (one of the six people who happen to read this blog) and I are going to race through the mud at the Muddy Buddy race on 11/2 in San Dimas. This entails alternately riding and running a mile, then going over (or through?) obstacles, then doing it again 6 times, culminating in a run through a huge pit of mud. Then we get washed-off with fire hoses. Sounds fun right?

Right. Except, of course, for the part about riding a mountain bike, which I have, but haven't ridden in the mountains! In fact, I've even put on "smooth" tires (knobby on the sides, smooth down the middle) to make road-riding more comfortable (of course, this was long before acquiring an actual road bike).

In preparation for this dirtfest, Craig and I headed up to Mulholland to ride 3 miles to the Nike missile monitoring base and back. Of course, when Craig said "3 miles" he really meant "4.6 miles, mostly uphill, through sand and gravel." Well I did it (with only a bit of whining). I didn't get mountain biking at all until we hit a long downhill.

As my daughter would say, "OMG!" What a blast! The downhill rides made it all worth it: it felt like skiing and even sounded like skiing! I was riding just barely in control at times, getting up to 20mph at some points. Too much fun.

Now I just need to get a shock absorbing fork for the front of the bike, switch the tires back to knobbies, and I'm good to go!

We are going to DOMINATE the Muddy Buddy!

Swim Update

In my swim last week the goal was to change my stroke slightly to the "total immersion" way and I think I was successful: I was able to cross the pool in 19 strokes, and in almost half the time as others in the pool (who were taking 50 strokes, no joke, to cross).

Now, usually I swim in a pair of board shorts, but last week I decided to swim in a pair of tri shorts. What a difference! I felt like I was just gliding through the water. Highly recommended. I picked-up a couple pairs of "Jammers" (basically bike shorts without the pad) for future swim practices.

Don't worry, Speedos are NOT in my future (out of respect for everyone else in the pool)!

Corner Bakery - Highly Recommended

I order food from the Corner Bakery restaurant in Calabasas, CA a couple of times a week.

Today I walked over to pick-up my usual order (a chopped salad and a green tea) and realized, at the counter, that I had left my wallet in my desk. I explained the situation to George, who apparently knows me by name now, and told him I'd go get it and come back. He graciously told me that as I'm a regular, not to worry about it.

This is remarkable in a number of ways. First, the guy knows me by name and sight. This is a busy restaurant, a chain restaurant, and to be "known" just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Second, to comp me a lunch, easily, at a chain restaurant, just feels...well...good! I urge you to try out Corner Bakery if you haven't already! (just remember to bring your wallet)

90 RPM

Yesterday I rode 25.6 miles - a big jump with moderate IT-band pain afterward, but bearable. The goal of the training was to stay at or slightly above a 90RPM cadence - which proved more difficult than expected early on, and for the second half of the ride actually pretty easy. In fact, I started pedaling too fast very frequently and had to shift to slow myself down. My heart rate never went above 75% though, so I count it as a very successful workout.

Next bike workout: perfect circles!

Tonight is cross-training in Sherman Oaks with LA Tri Club - always a fun time and a great workout (except for the trying-to-walk-for-the-next-three-days part...)

4th Try at a Tri

Yesterday was the "Day at the Beach" sprint triathlon at Hermosa Beach, CA. I was late getting there and parking was filled, so I ended-up 1/2 mile away from the transition area at 6:30am; the first wave was scheduled to go out at 7am with a "mandatory" pre-race meeting at 6:50am.

In a rush I chowed down a tupperware-bowl of corn flakes standing in the street, pumped-up the bike, threw the tri bag on my back, and pedaled to the transition area in my flip-flops. First time for that!

I setup during the pre-race meeting (me and about 6 other people among the 1,000 setups) and being in wave 4 (going off at 7:28 as my new friend Derek told me) I headed down to the beach.

The sand was so cold that my feet got numb! I hit the water, which was warmer than the sand, and got in up to my knees. I looked over and saw a bunch of blue caps getting ready to run in and realized that Derek's estimate was 7 minutes too late so I ran and joined my fellow wavemates and the gun went off!

Not having warmed-up, the swim (1/4 mile) was atrocious. The water felt very cold and it wasn't until the second buoy (and heading in) that I started to feel comfortable. From start to the first bouy, about 100 yards out, took me 5 minutes! Awful.

The bike was a 3-loop course (10 miles) in a single, small lane. Billed as a "tri designed for beginners" it was tough to pass and get passed. Constant yells of "Left!" were the norm as people kept passing each other. Guys with $8,000 bikes shared the road with women on beach cruisers - in small lanes and some tight turns - it was crazy. As far as I know nobody got hurt though so all was well.

The run stared off badly: it felt like I had something wedged in my shoes. I finally stopped at around mile 1 to see what was up and all looked fine, so I threw them back on and continued to run. At about mile 2 everything started to feel good in my shoes, and it was at that point that I realized that my toes had been numb from the cold on the bike and swim! The "stuff" jammed in the front of my shoes had been my hypothermic toes!

Of course, after the fact I find out that either I missed the mat or my timing chip was malfunctioning as my split times were either missing or garbage (I wasn't the only one). I was timing myself on my watch, but as I've got a new watch I'm still working on figuring out how to retrieve the times!

I completed the ordeal in 1:18:06.5 (apparently the chip worked at least at the beginning and the end, which is good), 51st in my age group out of 66 and 294th overall. Top male time in my age group was 0:51:23.3. Obviously I've got some work to do. It's going to be a long, hard, indoor winter of training!