Time Out

Well, a weekend of tough and fun workouts became a weekend of sitting on the couch blowing my nose. I think I'm on the mend now, but it hit me pretty hard.

Yesterday, I did manage to get back on the trainer, even though I skipped the pool workout. (I don't know how to swim if I can't breathe out my nose?) We did a 75 minute ride with 1 minute sprint intervals every 8 minutes. It felt awful and great to be working out again, all at once. Even though I had to stop occasionally for tissues and more often for coughing fits, I dragged myself through it, and managed an average pace of 13.1 mph. My top speed was about 31 mph, though I only held it for a moment.

Also, in a bit of a book review, I'm currently reading "The Making of the Atomic Bomb", by Richard Rhodes. It was a bit tough to get started, but it's absolutely fascinating, and a much better read than you'd expect for a book so heavy on physics. I'm only about halfway done, but based on what I've read so far, I highly recommend it.

Bleh.

I came down with a cold today. And then I got called back in to work. So now I'm here at 6:30, blowing my nose, and hoping I feel better before the reverse triathlon and epic swim in the works for the weekend.

Bleh.

19:55:56

Better swimmer than expected?
Worse estimator than expected?
Can't count to 40 correctly?

You make the call!

I think I got my count correct, but I lost my concentration on it somewhere around 30, so there's the possibility that I was 2 lengths short. Even so, that would add about a minute, and still put me well under my 25 minute estimate. It certainly wasn't comfortable by the end, but I think that's probably the way a time trial should feel.

Back to Basics

After this weekend's success and a 2-hour ride on the trainer Sunday, my legs have been pretty beat up. I showed up to the gym yesterday for a recovery swim, expecting a nice relaxing day, and instead getting an hour of flailing around feeling like I can't swim. It was the first swim workout in the schedule that didn't include a warmup, which is where I usually get in some drills.

Obviously, consistency is still an issue. While I know that there are good days and bad days, I don't want to risk a day that bad on race day.

So, for today's swim, 4x300 became 300 of drills, and then 3x300. I don't know if it was the drills, better concentration, or just an extra day of rest, but it was much better. I was even the fastest person in the pool for once, and I don't just mean the water aerobics crowd! (Other than one guy. But then I saw he had flippers, so he was immediately disqualified from our imaginary race in which he didn't know we were competing.)

This Saturday is supposed to be my first time trial in the pool - 1000m. However, I think we're going to be in Boston for some race, or something? So tomorrow looks like time trial day. The triathlon we're doing in early May makes you enter a time estimate for your 400m swim, and I put down 10 minutes as a rough guess. That would translate into a 25 minute time trial (would be 0:48ish half iron, 1:37ish iron), so let's mark that down as the goal for now.

E for Effort!

In college at OSU, I did some fencing. I took the classes, and fenced with the club occasionally, but I never tried out for the varsity team. I always sort of regretted that decision (back then, I might have had a shot...not with the current team!), and when I picked back up with my fencing a couple years ago, I decided that earning a fencing classification would go on my life list.

Now, the rules for earning rankings are a little complex (here, if you're interested), but to make it simple, more people + higher ranked people = more and higher classifications awarded. The classifications go from A (highest) to E (lowest), and then U (unrated) for everyone else. On Saturday, I fenced two tournaments: one for only unrated fencers, and one for D and under.

A little more background on fencing tournaments, as well. The first part of a tournament is broken down into smaller pools, generally 5-7 fencers in the tournaments I've done. In your pool, you fence each of the other entrants, first to 5 touches wins. The second part of the tournament is a single-elimination bracket, seeded from the pool results, and each bout is fenced to 15 touches.

The unrated tournament began first. To our surprise, enough fencers registered that the top four spots would be awarded a classification: D for the champion, E for the second place and both third place finishers. (There's usually no consolation bout, so third place is considered a tie between the losers of the semifinals.)

My club had three fencers entered, so our goal was to finish among the top four seeds. That way, we'd be guaranteed not to meet before the semifinals. I felt great in my pool, and it showed in the results. I won all four of my bouts, and only received four touches total against me. It wasn't quite good enough for the top seed - my teammate edged me out with only three touches against, so I took the 2 seed. We were happy to see after the pool rounds that we had indeed taken the top three seeds for the bracket.

Moving on to the elimination bouts, I was probably a little overconfident in my first match. My opponent did very well, even coming in as a low seed. She kept the bout close for the first few minutes before I pulled away. After the win, I realized I only needed to advance one more round to reach the semifinals and get my E ranking! Fortunately, I drew a fencer I had already faced, and had some strategies going in. She was much improved from the last time we matched up, but I managed to win this one as well, with a fair margin. I'd earned my E, but there was little time to celebrate, because the tougher matches were still coming.

Thanks to being edged out in the pools, I had to match up against one of my teammates in the semifinals. He is left-handed, which always gives me trouble, and despite being fairly new to fencing, he and I are fairly even. Fortunately, I jumped out to an early lead, and it was my day. On to the final! Or so I thought.

Remember how I was also fencing in the D & under tournament? At this point, I got called over to start my pool bouts for that one. Despite my best attempts, I couldn't convince them to let me fence my final first, because they were already changing their schedule for me. I decided I was going to be aggressive and end those matches quickly, for better or for worse. My first matchup, who I've faced before, made short work of me, 5-1. Due to the scheduling delays, I didn't get a break, and had to fence a second bout in a row, but I returned the favor, downing the next opponent 5-1.

My reward for those two bouts? Immediately jumping into my final bout for the first tournament, matched up against my teammate. He jumped out to an early lead, and I struggled to stay within range. Then, on what would have been a touch for him, my next challenge reared up.

In competitive foil fencing, fencers wear a mesh jersey that allows the electrical scoring system to register a touch. On one of my opponent's attacks, he hit me, but it didn't register a touch. He asked to test my equipment, and we found that it had a dead spot, which meant I had to change to new equipment. Sadly, I only own one.

I couldn't wear my teammate's that I had faced last, since he's a lefty. So my opponent in the final offered me one of his backups.

He's 13.

Now, I've never worn a corset, but I can now imagine what it would be like. I sucked in my stomach, got the zipper started, and then breathed out to get it zipped up. I couldn't take a deep breath, but somehow it held. We continued our bout, and I fought back. Down 14-13, I thought I blocked his attack and touched him, but I didn't get the call from the referee. So, I fell in the final, 15-13. However, if there's anyone I would have picked to lose to, it was the right person. He and his family showed a lot of sportsmanship by offering me equipment to be able to finish the match, and even brought me water during a break since I didn't have any time to get some before the bout.

The second tournament ended up going okay as well. I fenced fairly well, and finished somewhere in the middle of the pack, but I wasn't too concerned at that point. I got my ranking, and went home happy.

Tris and Quads

I told Meredith yesterday, "Either I'll have the strongest quads ever by race day, or my legs will fall off."

This Wednesday was the first "long" run of the training, a 90 minute run with Meredith and Andrea. For them, it's taper time for Boston, so I managed to hang with them for their 7 miles (for once :) ), and added on another bit on my own at the end. It was nice to get back out there, but I had a right quad that was on the verge of cramping during most of the run. I hydrated pretty well that day, so I'm not sure what was going on there. Afterward, we got our Wednesday night $4 burgers, and I realized I had all of 8 hours or so until a bike ride.

Thursday's ride was back in on the trainer, and honestly wasn't a great ride. After the fun of the outdoor ride, it was mentally tough to focus on pedaling in the living room again.

And after work, the fun really began with fencing practice.

But let's take a step back first. Meredith is quite the napper - she loves to grab an afternoon siesta after work, or exercise, or...well, pretty much anytime. :) I, on the other hand, usually just lay on the couch and watch TV or sit at the computer for my relaxing time. But yesterday, I don't know what happened. I set down my gym bag on the bed around 4:15...

And then I woke up at 4:55, sideways on the bed with my feet hanging over the edge. Tired much? I had to scramble to get my fencing gear together and zipped off to class. Thanks to my lateness, I got to run some extra laps before class started. We began with some shuttle runs and strength training, and here's the spot I thought my legs would fall off, or I'd just end up on the floor some other way.

For those of you who haven't fenced and want to try this exercise for yourselves:

• Place your feet a little more than shoulder width apart.
  
• Turn your back foot (left foot if you're right handed) 90°, so it's perpendicular to your other foot. Keep your weight slightly shifted to your back leg, so you feel it in your quad.
  
• Lower yourself so that your knees are bent. This is en garde position, which should look something like this:
  
  
• Take a small step forward, front foot first, then back foot.
  
• Keeping your back upright (don't lean over!), squat down so that you are sitting on your back heel, which will come off the ground.
  
• Using your quads, push yourself back up to en garde position. Don't straighten your legs!
  
• Take another small step, and repeat down the length of the gym.
  

Let's just say I was looking forward to a swim-only day today. :)

Oh, and a little math I learned today...

(Forgetting to wear bandaids on the first longish run of the season) + (Pool Swim) = Ouch x 2!

First outdoor ride!

It's about time! The weather finally cleared and warmed enough to take the bike out on the streets for the first time.

Speaking of the bike, I'm sort of tired of calling it "the bike". I think it needs a name. I'm leaning toward "Charlie Brown". He's a perpetual underdog, always gets beat by the same girl, but everyone roots for him in the end. Plus, this is an artist's rendition of my top tube as seen from the saddle:



So, Charlie and I took to the streets on Saturday for my two hour ride. First order of business? Those evil clip things that live on my pedals. I walked my bike down to the street where it's flat, and threw a leg over it. Right foot? Check. Push off. Left foot? Check. Hey, that was easy! I rode around our little loop, and came to the stop sign on the other side. Unclip right foot? Check. Stop bike? Check. Put foot on ground? Um...that ground is lower than I remember it...wobble...wobble...reach for curb and narrowly avoid the dreaded slow motion tip-over.

Assess situation...Oh yeah. Get off the saddle first before reaching for the ground. Details, details. :)

Next step - ride around the neighborhood. It amazed me how much smoother and easier this bike rides than my mountain bike. It's no wonder I couldn't keep up with Meredith and friends last time I attempted a long ride with them. I did about 4 miles around the neighborhood, and was feeling good and waving to all the cheering masses. (Pictured below, actual size)



It was time for the real roads.

Now, where we live isn't ideal for biking. On one side we have a very busy 2-lane road with constant lights and business entrances that's really not an option. The other side is a fairly lightly traveled road, with one caveat. It's barely narrow enough for two cars to pass at certain points. We don't especially even like running it, since you can get run off the road. I was nervous to ride it on my first time out, but it was pretty much the only option if I didn't want to drive somewhere. Thankfully, it was uneventful today, and I started up toward town, with one loop around a local golf course.

I started out east on one of the less-populated main roads, and headed for Abercrombie headquarters. On a Saturday, it's a nice flat deserted stretch out in the fields, other than all the half-naked models wandering around in their corrals. I used this part to test out my aero position. Not too bad...it felt comfortable. One problem:



I got to the end of that stretch of road, and paused for a moment to appreciate how quiet it was. The difference between running distance and cycling distance became apparent to me at that moment. From there, I rode another few miles before turning around, and got startled by one of these chasing me:



Fortunately, he stopped at the end of his property. I also saw some of these:



Despite their obvious viciousness, I managed to pedal past without incident, and made it home in 2:00:09. Total mileage (approximate, used MapMyRun.com): 28.55 miles. So, about 14.25 mph, and I wasn't stopping my watch for intersections or riding especially hard. Not too bad for a first try, I suppose.

Oh, if you want to see a video of my course, this pretty much sums it up (wrong state, but still...):

Exhausted

That was the slowest swim ever.

Last night's intervals were wet, but good. I decided to shoot for 600m in my 3 minutes of tempo, which is about an 8 minute pace. Not blazing fast, but...well, that's where I am in my running right now. After the first interval, which was right at 600m, I managed to get somewhere around 650 for the rest, which is about a 7:25 pace. For the last one, I tried to dig deep and get to 700 in the 3 minutes, but I missed it by about 8 seconds. Not sure if the chicken got me, or maybe I was just out of gas after the morning swim-tervals.

So, this morning was a 1500 continuous swim. I wasn't even...um...hausted...to begin with, so it was a fight to complete it. The first 30 lengths seemed like they'd never end (but they did), and by the finish I felt like I was purely kicking from my knees and splashing my arms down hard.

Props to the gym for the "Top Gun" soundtrack that was playing today. Other than "Take My Breath Away". That's not what you want to hear when you're struggling in the pool. :)

Dun dun dun!

Registered for the Muncie Endurathon today.

No turning back now!

My Parents Would Be So Proud

If they weren't halfway across the world right now! They're on a cruise down around the southern end of South America. Really sounds like a cool trip, but 50s and rain isn't so bad, right? Right?

This week, Meredith and I went to the grocery store. The grocery is not an every week occurrence for us, since we procrastinate on it all the time. But that leads to us eating out all the time, which makes for sad wallets, and sad waists. We loaded up on fresh things this trip (what?!), and things that are actually good fuel for our training. Apples, bananas, yogurt, grapes...things that haven't graced our fridge for quite some time. We really want to make a concerted effort this month to eat well, and save the restaurant cash for better things, like triathlon registration. :)

And yesterday, I changed the brake pads on Meredith's Element. If there's one thing I learned growing up, it was how to change brake pads on a Honda. Apparently, it's not quickly forgotten, because I knocked out the whole thing in an hour, even though my socket wrench decided to play hide and seek with me. (It won.)

So, Mom and Dad, this week, I ate healthy, and I changed my own brake pads. Thanks!

Today is interval day, both in the pool and on the track. Got the swim out of the way this morning. I'm pretty sure my 20x75 "sprints" in the pool, translated to land, would be indistinguishable from a normal walk...perhaps a light jog if I was lucky. This afternoon will be a 75 minute interval run, probably in the rain. Fun!