Thursday, May 8, 2008
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Thankfulness
I took today off--sleep deprivation made even a nice short run seem mildly inadvisable. School stuff is crazy this week!
The strange thing about the fact that I am doing a (huge!) triathlon next week is that it seems to me much of the time almost as fanciful as if I had decided that I was going to take up mind-reading or learn how to use a magic wand properly. I have thrown myself very fully into triathlon training, and it happens that I have a very vivid and strongly developed imagination, but the texture of the thing feels less like an actual realistic plan than like when I used to play an elaborate game of witches with my friends in third grade in the graveyard behind the school. I have never done anything athletic seriously before!
Let us say that I imagine myself very vividly as a triathlete, only I am well aware that it is an act of the imagination, or even a sort of fiction...
I have been thinking a lot recently about what a large and wonderful pool of swimming teachers and mentors I have found over this past year! It is somewhat amazing--I have always been very greedy for learning, and fairly well adapted to finding teachers, but swimming has cast up an embarrassment of riches (I am mentally accumulating the elements of a post-race swim-related post in this regard, I am going to write a long screed of praise).
I am lucky, in my life in general, to have been always a person who could persuade other people that my own plans were worth taking seriously. (Like when I was ten and eleven years old, I was writing a novel, very seriously, which I called "my bestseller"! Parent: "Where's Jenny?" Brother, with no satirical intent: "She's upstairs writing her bestseller.")
I am not sure this is particularly to my credit. On the contrary. It is more simply a matter of having a strong will and, as I mentioned before, a vivid imagination, the ability to project myself into the future and then figure out how to get there from here.
(I still have not written an actual bestseller!)
So my family members, although it is very strange to them that I have undertaken this project which is not at all what one expects of one's strong-willed and self-disciplined and focused but extremely sedentary relation, have certainly been very supportive. They still think I can do whatever I set out to do. And I have all sorts of teachers and coaches and training partners who have been extraordinarily helpful also. But the group whose support makes me feel particularly thankful are my students!
They seem unquestioningly confident that I can do whatever I set out to do--like, really, if I said that I was going to climb Everest next year with no oxygen, they would calmly greet this with the attitude that obviously anything I tried I would accomplish with ease and panache! Which is at once untrue, flattering and deeply confidence-building. Their confidence in me gives me more confidence in myself!
I think I have had conversations about swimming, literally, with at least fifty different Columbia-related people over the last year! There were some good recent ones at the grad-student-sponsored department party, and I whiled away a pleasant hour at a party this winter for candidates for a fellowship whose governing board I'm on with conversations about swimming the Bosphorus (apparently the Byzantinists do it every summer, as a group!) and the amazing pool at the University of Chicago. Talking triathlon is a way of making a connection and also, sometimes, stirring triaspirationality in the other person also, though mostly it just lets me indulge my obsession...
All this is a roundabout way of saying that I am extraordinarily grateful for my students at Columbia. They are quite lovely! Presents are optional, really I am just grateful for them in themselves, but I got a very touching present the other day from a special student for whom I'd written a letter of recommendation to grad school. She mentioned, on her CV, that she was an amateur triathlete, and we had several very enthusiastic conversations along these lines. She came by my office the other day to let me know she's gotten in to the first program she'd applied to, with a lovely note (thanking me, also, for introducing her to the term "Jacobite," which had been the answer to a clue in that day's Times crossword!) and a most thoughtful triathlon-related care package. A picture of whose items follows below, the prompt for this post:
[Ed. "Special student" is a technical term describing a student who is not enrolled in a degree program!]
The strange thing about the fact that I am doing a (huge!) triathlon next week is that it seems to me much of the time almost as fanciful as if I had decided that I was going to take up mind-reading or learn how to use a magic wand properly. I have thrown myself very fully into triathlon training, and it happens that I have a very vivid and strongly developed imagination, but the texture of the thing feels less like an actual realistic plan than like when I used to play an elaborate game of witches with my friends in third grade in the graveyard behind the school. I have never done anything athletic seriously before!
Let us say that I imagine myself very vividly as a triathlete, only I am well aware that it is an act of the imagination, or even a sort of fiction...
I have been thinking a lot recently about what a large and wonderful pool of swimming teachers and mentors I have found over this past year! It is somewhat amazing--I have always been very greedy for learning, and fairly well adapted to finding teachers, but swimming has cast up an embarrassment of riches (I am mentally accumulating the elements of a post-race swim-related post in this regard, I am going to write a long screed of praise).
I am lucky, in my life in general, to have been always a person who could persuade other people that my own plans were worth taking seriously. (Like when I was ten and eleven years old, I was writing a novel, very seriously, which I called "my bestseller"! Parent: "Where's Jenny?" Brother, with no satirical intent: "She's upstairs writing her bestseller.")
I am not sure this is particularly to my credit. On the contrary. It is more simply a matter of having a strong will and, as I mentioned before, a vivid imagination, the ability to project myself into the future and then figure out how to get there from here.
(I still have not written an actual bestseller!)
So my family members, although it is very strange to them that I have undertaken this project which is not at all what one expects of one's strong-willed and self-disciplined and focused but extremely sedentary relation, have certainly been very supportive. They still think I can do whatever I set out to do. And I have all sorts of teachers and coaches and training partners who have been extraordinarily helpful also. But the group whose support makes me feel particularly thankful are my students!
They seem unquestioningly confident that I can do whatever I set out to do--like, really, if I said that I was going to climb Everest next year with no oxygen, they would calmly greet this with the attitude that obviously anything I tried I would accomplish with ease and panache! Which is at once untrue, flattering and deeply confidence-building. Their confidence in me gives me more confidence in myself!
I think I have had conversations about swimming, literally, with at least fifty different Columbia-related people over the last year! There were some good recent ones at the grad-student-sponsored department party, and I whiled away a pleasant hour at a party this winter for candidates for a fellowship whose governing board I'm on with conversations about swimming the Bosphorus (apparently the Byzantinists do it every summer, as a group!) and the amazing pool at the University of Chicago. Talking triathlon is a way of making a connection and also, sometimes, stirring triaspirationality in the other person also, though mostly it just lets me indulge my obsession...
All this is a roundabout way of saying that I am extraordinarily grateful for my students at Columbia. They are quite lovely! Presents are optional, really I am just grateful for them in themselves, but I got a very touching present the other day from a special student for whom I'd written a letter of recommendation to grad school. She mentioned, on her CV, that she was an amateur triathlete, and we had several very enthusiastic conversations along these lines. She came by my office the other day to let me know she's gotten in to the first program she'd applied to, with a lovely note (thanking me, also, for introducing her to the term "Jacobite," which had been the answer to a clue in that day's Times crossword!) and a most thoughtful triathlon-related care package. A picture of whose items follows below, the prompt for this post:
[Ed. "Special student" is a technical term describing a student who is not enrolled in a degree program!]
Yoga
I interrupt a particularly intractable night of insomnia to note that I think I must take up yoga again. I am not sure it will help with sleep, but I am suddenly convinced it would be of inestimable benefit to my streamline position! That way you stretch your arms up into the air with very straight long body and biceps pressed close to the ears is strongly homologous to the most desirable position for freestyle...
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Tuesday swim
It was a good one. It was interesting--I concentrated on all the stuff from yesterday, doing as best I could to reproduce that drill sequence instead of doing the couple main sets. I did all the freestyle with bilateral breathing, and strange to say it did not feel that bad. I really notice improvement in a couple areas when I concentrate on a drill set like this.
(It is possibly due to J.B.'s guru-like qualities, but he has kind of persuaded me not just that in general my stroke would be more balanced if I switched to bilateral breathing, but that in particular, even though the race is so soon, I might benefit from doing the first part of the swim breathing this way and then switch over if I'm not feeling comfortable to my usual breathe-every-four-on-the-right. It seems persuasive to me that some advantages of smoothness and rhythm might come from trying it this way. We will see...might be I altogether forget this plan in the heat of the moment?!?)
Warmup: 700 as 4 x (125 free + 50 kick-swim in IM order)
Drill set: roughly the sequence from yesterday, concentrating on body rotation and position in the water. Maybe 500 total.
Then I did an abbreviated version of the first main set: 8 x 75 free, descending by pairs (smooth, harder, faster, fastest, only not really going all out even at the end), on 1:45, 1:45, 1:40, 1:35. Not bad, stroke felt good, very enjoyable and not too slow either (though it was all I could do to keep track of the pace clock, I could not tell you times...).
1800 yards total
(It is possibly due to J.B.'s guru-like qualities, but he has kind of persuaded me not just that in general my stroke would be more balanced if I switched to bilateral breathing, but that in particular, even though the race is so soon, I might benefit from doing the first part of the swim breathing this way and then switch over if I'm not feeling comfortable to my usual breathe-every-four-on-the-right. It seems persuasive to me that some advantages of smoothness and rhythm might come from trying it this way. We will see...might be I altogether forget this plan in the heat of the moment?!?)
Warmup: 700 as 4 x (125 free + 50 kick-swim in IM order)
Drill set: roughly the sequence from yesterday, concentrating on body rotation and position in the water. Maybe 500 total.
Then I did an abbreviated version of the first main set: 8 x 75 free, descending by pairs (smooth, harder, faster, fastest, only not really going all out even at the end), on 1:45, 1:45, 1:40, 1:35. Not bad, stroke felt good, very enjoyable and not too slow either (though it was all I could do to keep track of the pace clock, I could not tell you times...).
1800 yards total
Monday, May 5, 2008
Monday irk
Decent workout with M., only slightly thwarted by strong Irk Factor for the evening.
I meant to get to the gym early to do a couple treadmill miles (break in new shoes!), but was running slightly late and only had time for one mile as warmup; we were supposed to start at 5:30, but M. was fifteen minutes late due to Evil Irksome No. 1 Train Delay. I got started anyway, but we had to finish right at 6:30 so that I could rush home to shower and change to go to a talk at 7:15.
A talk whose time, it dawned on me, must have been changed without anybody telling me, because I got there to find an empty room....
The first thing I did when I got home was check the e-mail with the announcement. Yep, 7:15. At least I have the (low) moral satisfaction of knowing it was not my mistake--but I have still missed a talk I would have very much liked to go to, and which led me to rearrange the fitness-related part of the early evening in inconvenient ways.
I could have had the extra fifteen minutes, I could have run a couple miles!
I think I am going to have to spend the evening sulking with a trashy novel, some days just do not go one's way...
I meant to get to the gym early to do a couple treadmill miles (break in new shoes!), but was running slightly late and only had time for one mile as warmup; we were supposed to start at 5:30, but M. was fifteen minutes late due to Evil Irksome No. 1 Train Delay. I got started anyway, but we had to finish right at 6:30 so that I could rush home to shower and change to go to a talk at 7:15.
A talk whose time, it dawned on me, must have been changed without anybody telling me, because I got there to find an empty room....
The first thing I did when I got home was check the e-mail with the announcement. Yep, 7:15. At least I have the (low) moral satisfaction of knowing it was not my mistake--but I have still missed a talk I would have very much liked to go to, and which led me to rearrange the fitness-related part of the early evening in inconvenient ways.
I could have had the extra fifteen minutes, I could have run a couple miles!
I think I am going to have to spend the evening sulking with a trashy novel, some days just do not go one's way...
Drill set
A very good lesson this morning with Jim B. We worked through the same stuff from last week, which gradually came mentally more clear to me! And he had good advice again about the race itself.
(He suggests coming back for one more tuneup lesson in the middle of the summer, do a lot of drill and such in the meantime. This seems to me good...)
So the single biggest thing remains this question of maintaining decent body position. Let head and neck relax, don't jerk head slightly up out of the water when breathing. In a way it's almost easier doing these drills on my habitual non-breathing (left-hand) side, not so many bad habits to break. The hips really fall down in the water when I do this. Really the huge insight I took away from last week's lesson was that it is very easy, as we go along with things in life, to rationalize a bad habit on the grounds that it's psychologically comfortable and therefore worth the cost. The thing last week's lesson showed me is that if the cost of a bad habit is very high, it must be broken...
The drill set that I can take away and work through, all with this goal of having good body position and rotation, turning from the hips (this is the other most important thing, & not what I am good at), keeping head and neck in neutral position when turning to breathe, keeping stroke long in the water.
(Really I have again forgotten the exact sequence, I might be missing one, but it's along these lines...)
Start out finding stable buoyant position vertically in the water, then put arms forward in streamline and start kicking; rotate from hips onto back to breathe. Right, left (with opposite hand at side).
Kick 6 and 6--6 on each side, rotating upwards for a breath (from hips!) and then back down and onto opposite side.
(Keep feeling of front hand being really stretched out. Do one pair of lengths with back arm floating forward underwater, then another pair with above-water recovery.)
Then 6 - 3 - 6, but do it a couple times if the rotation/pull from hips isn't happening right. Focus on body position. Don't jerk head up when breathing!
Then do some 25s of swim, keeping all this in mind: the long reach forward, the turn from the hips both on the recovery part of the stroke, the turn from the hips to come back into the water. Don't lead with arm/shoulder, lead with hips.
Breathe a little earlier in the stroke than seems plausible, especially on left-hand side--this significantly helps with body position.
Avoid tendency to pull up with elbow and rotate too far over--concentrate on having a long 'back' part of the stroke, with hand at the end of the stroke really coming alongside the thigh.
He is very certain that I should switch to bilateral breathing on a regular basis, maybe for all the time. I can see a glimpse of how much it would potentially balance my stroke. I'll do it in these warmup bits over the next week and a half and see how I feel. I thought it might be a bit much to try and switch over so close to race time, but he suggested maybe trying to do it for the first third or so of the swim--I think that is possible, I will see how it goes.
OK, that's enough for now. A lot of things to concentrate on. Swimming is the thinking person's sport! Nothing to do but strive to become better at it, there is a huge amount of room for improvement I must say...
(He suggests coming back for one more tuneup lesson in the middle of the summer, do a lot of drill and such in the meantime. This seems to me good...)
So the single biggest thing remains this question of maintaining decent body position. Let head and neck relax, don't jerk head slightly up out of the water when breathing. In a way it's almost easier doing these drills on my habitual non-breathing (left-hand) side, not so many bad habits to break. The hips really fall down in the water when I do this. Really the huge insight I took away from last week's lesson was that it is very easy, as we go along with things in life, to rationalize a bad habit on the grounds that it's psychologically comfortable and therefore worth the cost. The thing last week's lesson showed me is that if the cost of a bad habit is very high, it must be broken...
The drill set that I can take away and work through, all with this goal of having good body position and rotation, turning from the hips (this is the other most important thing, & not what I am good at), keeping head and neck in neutral position when turning to breathe, keeping stroke long in the water.
(Really I have again forgotten the exact sequence, I might be missing one, but it's along these lines...)
Start out finding stable buoyant position vertically in the water, then put arms forward in streamline and start kicking; rotate from hips onto back to breathe. Right, left (with opposite hand at side).
Kick 6 and 6--6 on each side, rotating upwards for a breath (from hips!) and then back down and onto opposite side.
(Keep feeling of front hand being really stretched out. Do one pair of lengths with back arm floating forward underwater, then another pair with above-water recovery.)
Then 6 - 3 - 6, but do it a couple times if the rotation/pull from hips isn't happening right. Focus on body position. Don't jerk head up when breathing!
Then do some 25s of swim, keeping all this in mind: the long reach forward, the turn from the hips both on the recovery part of the stroke, the turn from the hips to come back into the water. Don't lead with arm/shoulder, lead with hips.
Breathe a little earlier in the stroke than seems plausible, especially on left-hand side--this significantly helps with body position.
Avoid tendency to pull up with elbow and rotate too far over--concentrate on having a long 'back' part of the stroke, with hand at the end of the stroke really coming alongside the thigh.
He is very certain that I should switch to bilateral breathing on a regular basis, maybe for all the time. I can see a glimpse of how much it would potentially balance my stroke. I'll do it in these warmup bits over the next week and a half and see how I feel. I thought it might be a bit much to try and switch over so close to race time, but he suggested maybe trying to do it for the first third or so of the swim--I think that is possible, I will see how it goes.
OK, that's enough for now. A lot of things to concentrate on. Swimming is the thinking person's sport! Nothing to do but strive to become better at it, there is a huge amount of room for improvement I must say...
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Oh dear...
I continue to be amazed by my own ability to turn a thoroughly non-epic and on the whole almost completely failed bike ride into an epic internal drama! Today's ride came in two parts, and at the midpoint it was an utter unmitigated failure, but I suppose I will call it in the end a modest draw in the ongoing me vs. bicycle struggle.
I will go and do two hours (if I can get a bike for that long) in the gym later, since the ride was worthless for fitness--I did at most fifteen miles, and all at a very leisurely pace.
1. This thing of walking the bike over to Central Park is just not OK! It attracts an absurd amount of attention, because I am ludicrously kitted out. The bike clothes and bike are bad enough--the Camelbak is the straw that broke the camel's back!!!
2. On my way there, I got in an extended and unwanted conversation (because, basically, it's the hood!) with a fellow in his car. Fellow (ogling): "Was there a 5K in the park today?" JMD: "I don't know--maybe..." Fellow: "Did you run it?" JMD: "No." Begins walking faster to escape unwanted attention... (Two blocks later) "I'm not stalking you, but are you training for something?" JMD (cannot resist): "A triathlon!" Fellow: "Is that hard? Could I do it?" More hasty walking. At light at bottom of 110th and Morningside: "Can I give you my card?" Fortunately at that point I could cross the street in a direction he could not follow...
3. It is an absolutely beautiful day today, and as soon as I changed into my bike shoes and started riding around the Central Park loop I realized this is not a good thing. It was absolute mayhem out there! I was completely back to the land of the death-grip, because the sheer volume and waywardness of folks out there is slightly not to be believed...
4. I particularly noted an Amazonian female triathlete/cyclist-type of the sort I most admire (tall and muscular!) ride by me, quite fast, around 90th St. She was wearing a very noticeable pink sleeveless top.
5. Just north of the 72nd St. transverse, after some already very death-grippish moments, I realized with mild to moderate horror that there was a nasty-looking bike accident to one side--it was the pink-shirted cyclist, lying flat on her back on the ground with about ten people gathered round her and a fellow talking very earnestly on his cellphone to the ambulance dispatcher...
6. After that it was kind of all over for my notionally peaceful park ride! I made it the rest of the way back round the route, but it really is crazy out there on a beautiful Sunday, I do not think I am up for it yet.
7. Two little boys on bikes up at the north end of the park did bring a bicycle-related smile to my face, because they were delightfully showing off to each other how they could ride with no hands--but of course this does not make for a placid cycling environment, they were riding with no hands against the direction of traffic and waywardly path-crossing! Ditto many other children on bikes, roller-bladers, adult cyclists etc.
8. The safety-related reason I felt I had to stop was that really I was clutching the brakes so tightly that my right hand had become almost completely numb. Not to mention my heartrate, though I was barely exerting myself physically, was almost as high as during my run yesterday!
9. So I stopped after the first full loop plus Harlem Hill and took off my bike shoes with a sense of utter defeat. I was afraid I was going to burst into tears! I certainly felt very strongly as if it would not take much to make it actually happen...
10. And then I had the walk of shame with the bicycle back in the direction of home! Typical snippets: "Stay hydrated, mami!" "Nice legs!" (Which, NB, they are not--I do not really think it is edifying to have self-criticism on the internet, I try and avoid it; I will take the balanced view and say that we are all critical of our own figures and hyper-aware of deficiencies that would never attract a second glance if we were thinking about somebody else, but that while other parts may be arguable I have never had nice legs! It is the pure exposure of 'em in bike shorts that attracts the unwanted attention, utterly shaming...)
11. "Why don't you ride that bike the rest of the way home?!?" For whatever reason, I actually sort of got in a conversation with this particular speaker, and I was glad I did, because his words were clearly uttered with curiosity rather than as simple heckling. I half-turned and said, "It is a very long story which I will not inflict upon you!" (Hmmm, it is no wonder that random people I meet treat me as a charming eccentric, really my way of talking is not like what is found in the world, it marks me as a strange creature! It is like when I once said in front of an unwitting camera-man who had no idea what I did for a living "It is my heart's desire to run the marathon!" and he said, in all seriousness, "Are you an English professor? Because I never heard anybody talk like that about wanting to run the marathon!"
12. So this particular fellow was a very nice Dogwalker who quite understood my plight once I did begin to explain. (He had four very handsome dogs on leashes, it makes anyone seem trustworthy and worth talking to!) He said that when he got his road bike, after having ridden a mountain bike for many a year, it took him about six months before he stopped feeling he was going to die. He said that even though he got these "eggbeater" pedals that are super-easy to get in and out of, he would literally be riding down the street thinking I am going to die on this bicycle. He said he would prop himself up at home in his apartment and just practice clipping in and out...
13. The strain of actually having a conversation with a real person had by this time slightly brought me back to myself, and the Dogwalker gave a whole-hearted endorsement of my observation that perhaps I would continue walking over to Riverside Park and go there for a while to practice. We solemnly introduced ourselves and shook hands...
14. Riverside Park was very crowded also, and I thought I did not really have the fortitude for a second stab at the bike shoes, but that the only important thing was to have at least a short ride that would take the edge off bicycle-related panic. So I rode down to where it got impossibly super-crowded, around the boat basin, and then back up to 125th St. and thenceforth back down to 96th St. and up towards home.
15. The dogwalker had another observation which is quite right, and which relates to something Brent observed in a comment about this before but which I am too lazy to re-find--that the way these road bikes are built, one cannot ride on the hoods and also hold onto a brake. I just need to get my head around the fact that either I am riding in a more upright position with hands near but not on brakes or I am riding lower down with better brake access. I will make my hands numb if I hold tightly from that upper position, and then it really isn't safe. I need to practice clipping out when braking in the drops, that is the specific bicycle-related task that can be accomplished this week...
16. The only thing that is going to get this all sorted out is patience and persistence. I think I will be fine for this upcoming race, because the fact is that's a much better cycling environment for me than a very crowded and confusing city park--everybody will be riding reasonably safely and in the same direction (much faster than me!), even though there are cars on the road it is not complicated, I am actually confident it will be all right. But I need to break it down afterwards into a horrible Evil Summer of the Bike.
17. When I first greeted the problem of riding this bike with utter horror, I went and bought another bike, a very cheap one (it was only slightly more expensive than the high-quality lock I bought with it!), which has since been gathering dust in the laundry room in the basement. But once I'm done with this race and have more time post-end-of-semester, I should take it out for rides where I have helmet and bike and sunglasses but am otherwise non-burdened by stuff. And I think I must find a group to ride with also--it is chicken-and-egg, I am not a good enough rider currently to make a plan to ride with a friend, but there are some easy group rides that involve taking a train out to somewhere more rustic, I certainly would have to steel myself for the part involved in riding from the other-end train station to the genuinely rustic part but I am thinking that a lot of this fortitude would be easier to come by if I were surrounded by people who thought I was being slightly silly & figured I would pull myself together pretty quickly if they had brief moral support and then turned a blind eye to panic!
18. That is quite enough bicycle-related listing for the evening! ARGHHHHHHHH! But I will point to a couple articles on a swimming-related site I greatly admire as evidence of the ways that the very accomplished may underrate the work required to get to a place of basic achievement. I have found this site quite inspiring, but both How to swim a mile in six weeks and Flip Turns seem to me grossly over-optimistic in the time frame and amount of practice they lay out. The obstacles to going from no actual swimming and pretty rudimentary swimming skills to swimming a mile over the course of six weeks are more psychological than physiological, I am sure that if you had ever swum laps before on any regular basis that this is a reasonable time-frame, but it definitely took me from January to June last year to get to the place where I first tried to swim a mile--at that point, it was quite easy, but there were countless obstacles to even trying it sooner. And I was swimming four or even five times a week, so that does not even count the "can't make it to the pool regularly" obstacle which is its own affliction. The flip turns piece suggests that doing ten turns after every practice might lead to reliable turns in six weeks. I suppose it depends what one means by reliable, but I would think it takes something more like twelve weeks of doing thirty or forty turns each practice before one would be at all comfortable with it. I have stopped working on turns because I need to concentrate on technique right now, but I will get back to them post-race. They are essential for getting the most out of a pool workout...
19. Even the most adventurous and bold athletes sometimes feel like they are going to die when they ride their bikes!
20. Nothing else to add, but 20 is a nice round number compared to 19...
I will go and do two hours (if I can get a bike for that long) in the gym later, since the ride was worthless for fitness--I did at most fifteen miles, and all at a very leisurely pace.
1. This thing of walking the bike over to Central Park is just not OK! It attracts an absurd amount of attention, because I am ludicrously kitted out. The bike clothes and bike are bad enough--the Camelbak is the straw that broke the camel's back!!!
2. On my way there, I got in an extended and unwanted conversation (because, basically, it's the hood!) with a fellow in his car. Fellow (ogling): "Was there a 5K in the park today?" JMD: "I don't know--maybe..." Fellow: "Did you run it?" JMD: "No." Begins walking faster to escape unwanted attention... (Two blocks later) "I'm not stalking you, but are you training for something?" JMD (cannot resist): "A triathlon!" Fellow: "Is that hard? Could I do it?" More hasty walking. At light at bottom of 110th and Morningside: "Can I give you my card?" Fortunately at that point I could cross the street in a direction he could not follow...
3. It is an absolutely beautiful day today, and as soon as I changed into my bike shoes and started riding around the Central Park loop I realized this is not a good thing. It was absolute mayhem out there! I was completely back to the land of the death-grip, because the sheer volume and waywardness of folks out there is slightly not to be believed...
4. I particularly noted an Amazonian female triathlete/cyclist-type of the sort I most admire (tall and muscular!) ride by me, quite fast, around 90th St. She was wearing a very noticeable pink sleeveless top.
5. Just north of the 72nd St. transverse, after some already very death-grippish moments, I realized with mild to moderate horror that there was a nasty-looking bike accident to one side--it was the pink-shirted cyclist, lying flat on her back on the ground with about ten people gathered round her and a fellow talking very earnestly on his cellphone to the ambulance dispatcher...
6. After that it was kind of all over for my notionally peaceful park ride! I made it the rest of the way back round the route, but it really is crazy out there on a beautiful Sunday, I do not think I am up for it yet.
7. Two little boys on bikes up at the north end of the park did bring a bicycle-related smile to my face, because they were delightfully showing off to each other how they could ride with no hands--but of course this does not make for a placid cycling environment, they were riding with no hands against the direction of traffic and waywardly path-crossing! Ditto many other children on bikes, roller-bladers, adult cyclists etc.
8. The safety-related reason I felt I had to stop was that really I was clutching the brakes so tightly that my right hand had become almost completely numb. Not to mention my heartrate, though I was barely exerting myself physically, was almost as high as during my run yesterday!
9. So I stopped after the first full loop plus Harlem Hill and took off my bike shoes with a sense of utter defeat. I was afraid I was going to burst into tears! I certainly felt very strongly as if it would not take much to make it actually happen...
10. And then I had the walk of shame with the bicycle back in the direction of home! Typical snippets: "Stay hydrated, mami!" "Nice legs!" (Which, NB, they are not--I do not really think it is edifying to have self-criticism on the internet, I try and avoid it; I will take the balanced view and say that we are all critical of our own figures and hyper-aware of deficiencies that would never attract a second glance if we were thinking about somebody else, but that while other parts may be arguable I have never had nice legs! It is the pure exposure of 'em in bike shorts that attracts the unwanted attention, utterly shaming...)
11. "Why don't you ride that bike the rest of the way home?!?" For whatever reason, I actually sort of got in a conversation with this particular speaker, and I was glad I did, because his words were clearly uttered with curiosity rather than as simple heckling. I half-turned and said, "It is a very long story which I will not inflict upon you!" (Hmmm, it is no wonder that random people I meet treat me as a charming eccentric, really my way of talking is not like what is found in the world, it marks me as a strange creature! It is like when I once said in front of an unwitting camera-man who had no idea what I did for a living "It is my heart's desire to run the marathon!" and he said, in all seriousness, "Are you an English professor? Because I never heard anybody talk like that about wanting to run the marathon!"
12. So this particular fellow was a very nice Dogwalker who quite understood my plight once I did begin to explain. (He had four very handsome dogs on leashes, it makes anyone seem trustworthy and worth talking to!) He said that when he got his road bike, after having ridden a mountain bike for many a year, it took him about six months before he stopped feeling he was going to die. He said that even though he got these "eggbeater" pedals that are super-easy to get in and out of, he would literally be riding down the street thinking I am going to die on this bicycle. He said he would prop himself up at home in his apartment and just practice clipping in and out...
13. The strain of actually having a conversation with a real person had by this time slightly brought me back to myself, and the Dogwalker gave a whole-hearted endorsement of my observation that perhaps I would continue walking over to Riverside Park and go there for a while to practice. We solemnly introduced ourselves and shook hands...
14. Riverside Park was very crowded also, and I thought I did not really have the fortitude for a second stab at the bike shoes, but that the only important thing was to have at least a short ride that would take the edge off bicycle-related panic. So I rode down to where it got impossibly super-crowded, around the boat basin, and then back up to 125th St. and thenceforth back down to 96th St. and up towards home.
15. The dogwalker had another observation which is quite right, and which relates to something Brent observed in a comment about this before but which I am too lazy to re-find--that the way these road bikes are built, one cannot ride on the hoods and also hold onto a brake. I just need to get my head around the fact that either I am riding in a more upright position with hands near but not on brakes or I am riding lower down with better brake access. I will make my hands numb if I hold tightly from that upper position, and then it really isn't safe. I need to practice clipping out when braking in the drops, that is the specific bicycle-related task that can be accomplished this week...
16. The only thing that is going to get this all sorted out is patience and persistence. I think I will be fine for this upcoming race, because the fact is that's a much better cycling environment for me than a very crowded and confusing city park--everybody will be riding reasonably safely and in the same direction (much faster than me!), even though there are cars on the road it is not complicated, I am actually confident it will be all right. But I need to break it down afterwards into a horrible Evil Summer of the Bike.
17. When I first greeted the problem of riding this bike with utter horror, I went and bought another bike, a very cheap one (it was only slightly more expensive than the high-quality lock I bought with it!), which has since been gathering dust in the laundry room in the basement. But once I'm done with this race and have more time post-end-of-semester, I should take it out for rides where I have helmet and bike and sunglasses but am otherwise non-burdened by stuff. And I think I must find a group to ride with also--it is chicken-and-egg, I am not a good enough rider currently to make a plan to ride with a friend, but there are some easy group rides that involve taking a train out to somewhere more rustic, I certainly would have to steel myself for the part involved in riding from the other-end train station to the genuinely rustic part but I am thinking that a lot of this fortitude would be easier to come by if I were surrounded by people who thought I was being slightly silly & figured I would pull myself together pretty quickly if they had brief moral support and then turned a blind eye to panic!
18. That is quite enough bicycle-related listing for the evening! ARGHHHHHHHH! But I will point to a couple articles on a swimming-related site I greatly admire as evidence of the ways that the very accomplished may underrate the work required to get to a place of basic achievement. I have found this site quite inspiring, but both How to swim a mile in six weeks and Flip Turns seem to me grossly over-optimistic in the time frame and amount of practice they lay out. The obstacles to going from no actual swimming and pretty rudimentary swimming skills to swimming a mile over the course of six weeks are more psychological than physiological, I am sure that if you had ever swum laps before on any regular basis that this is a reasonable time-frame, but it definitely took me from January to June last year to get to the place where I first tried to swim a mile--at that point, it was quite easy, but there were countless obstacles to even trying it sooner. And I was swimming four or even five times a week, so that does not even count the "can't make it to the pool regularly" obstacle which is its own affliction. The flip turns piece suggests that doing ten turns after every practice might lead to reliable turns in six weeks. I suppose it depends what one means by reliable, but I would think it takes something more like twelve weeks of doing thirty or forty turns each practice before one would be at all comfortable with it. I have stopped working on turns because I need to concentrate on technique right now, but I will get back to them post-race. They are essential for getting the most out of a pool workout...
19. Even the most adventurous and bold athletes sometimes feel like they are going to die when they ride their bikes!
20. Nothing else to add, but 20 is a nice round number compared to 19...
Bikes...
The problem with New York bike paths. Hmmm, weather looks OK outside, it will be better if I can do my bike ride this afternoon--I will not feel like doing it tomorrow either...
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Saturday swim
I had a minor revelation as I finished the warmup and thought about getting started on a long endurance set of the 4 x 500 type. I did enough long and mentally understimulating medium-effort exercise today already! So I did a slightly modified version of the main set.
(Lots of time to think about swimming stuff while swimming, but I will not trot it all out here...)
Warmup: 200 free breathing 2, 3 (by 100); 100 back drill; 200 free breathing 3, 4 (by 100); 100 back; 200 free breathing 4, 5 (by 100)
"Super 500" free - my version modified to go by drill rather than speed, with :40 for each 25 to give lots of rest time: 25-25-50 (drill-drill-swim); 25-75 (drill-swim); 50-50 (drill-swim); 75-25 (drill-swim); 50-25-25 (drill-swim-swim). Mostly catch-up...
10 x 25 (5 fly, 5 back) on :40
2 x 100 IM
10 x 25 (5 breast, 5 free) on :40
2 x 100 free on 2:00
Still ten minutes left, but I decided it was a good time to stop--brunch was a long time ago and slightly tiny, it was time to eat again!
Total: a thoroughly respectable but not excessive 2200 yards
Thunderstorms in the forecast for tomorrow morning. If the weather's really awful during the day, I'll do an indoor bike in the evening and then do the long one outside on Monday, which looks like it might be more clement. This is partly procrastination and partly common sense...
(Lots of time to think about swimming stuff while swimming, but I will not trot it all out here...)
Warmup: 200 free breathing 2, 3 (by 100); 100 back drill; 200 free breathing 3, 4 (by 100); 100 back; 200 free breathing 4, 5 (by 100)
"Super 500" free - my version modified to go by drill rather than speed, with :40 for each 25 to give lots of rest time: 25-25-50 (drill-drill-swim); 25-75 (drill-swim); 50-50 (drill-swim); 75-25 (drill-swim); 50-25-25 (drill-swim-swim). Mostly catch-up...
10 x 25 (5 fly, 5 back) on :40
2 x 100 IM
10 x 25 (5 breast, 5 free) on :40
2 x 100 free on 2:00
Still ten minutes left, but I decided it was a good time to stop--brunch was a long time ago and slightly tiny, it was time to eat again!
Total: a thoroughly respectable but not excessive 2200 yards
Thunderstorms in the forecast for tomorrow morning. If the weather's really awful during the day, I'll do an indoor bike in the evening and then do the long one outside on Monday, which looks like it might be more clement. This is partly procrastination and partly common sense...
Brooklyn half
Last week I was feeling fairly dreary about it, i.e. locked in on inconvenient/expensive training run because of dogged desire to complete half-marathon Grand Prix series (one in each of the five boroughs), but as soon as training partner L. suggested meeting for brunch afterwards, I perked up. And I am glad I did it--it was an enjoyable run, and it's quite something starting out like that on the Coney Island boardwalk. Very rattly/clanky boards when everyone's pounding along in an ambulant herd!
It will surprise nobody to hear I did not quite make my run-sedately-and-with-HR-155/56 goal. And I do not have good decoupling-type data, I cannot be bothered to really sort it out! But I didn't do too badly.
I ran pretty much as I intended to for the first nine miles or so, in other words, but while the first nine are flat the last four and a bit are pretty markedly hilly, starting as one runs up into Prospect Park and then round the park loop. Hillier than Central Park--L. says it's about half the distance of the CP loop but with same elevation. So holding the right HR would have meant appreciably slowing down, and between the annoyance of well-meaning passersby urging runners to speed up and finish strong and my fairly heartfelt desire at that point to polish the thing off, I just didn't have the fortitude to hew to HR limits--I didn't run hard, but my effort level went up quite a bit as I endeavored to keep a similar pace.
(I don't feel I pushed my legs too hard, nor my aerobic system, so we will just hope I have not done too much too close to the Florida 70.3 race. I think it should be OK.)
(What it most honestly could be described as is about nine miles at suitable longish run pace, it felt fairly easy although because I had no taper my legs were obviously slightly tired to begin with from yesterday's bike & swim, plus four miles hard tempo pace--not inherently hard/speedy, just hard because of hills.)
I also can now recalibrate the device--it gave me 12.89 miles, avg HR 158, avg pace 9:50. Official time: 13.1 miles, 2:06:09, 9:37 pace.
If it had been as flat all the way as on the opening miles, it would have been easier to meet goals--9:30 pace would have been appropriate, I guess, and 10:00 probably could have been done in low 150s. Reasonable enough--there is no point losing sleep over the fact of non-speediness on the one hand or mild lack of self-control on the other!
Mile splits, with avg. HR:
9:24 (153)
9:35 (156)
9:45 (155)
9:16 (156)
9:18 (156)
9:57 (158--walked through aid station to eat gel)
9:33 (157)
9:40 (159)
9:43 (156)
9:51 (160--first hill just before beginning of mile 9)
10:00 (162)
9:32 (163)
9:18 (167)
Three down, two to go (the remaining ones are Queens and Staten Island). And a very good last long training run for 70.3--I haven't done a lot of long runs in the last few months, so it was nice to get in a serious one! Now I'll sharply cut back on run length for the next couple weeks--shorter efforts with brief high-intensity work will be the most appropriate thing.
It will surprise nobody to hear I did not quite make my run-sedately-and-with-HR-155/56 goal. And I do not have good decoupling-type data, I cannot be bothered to really sort it out! But I didn't do too badly.
I ran pretty much as I intended to for the first nine miles or so, in other words, but while the first nine are flat the last four and a bit are pretty markedly hilly, starting as one runs up into Prospect Park and then round the park loop. Hillier than Central Park--L. says it's about half the distance of the CP loop but with same elevation. So holding the right HR would have meant appreciably slowing down, and between the annoyance of well-meaning passersby urging runners to speed up and finish strong and my fairly heartfelt desire at that point to polish the thing off, I just didn't have the fortitude to hew to HR limits--I didn't run hard, but my effort level went up quite a bit as I endeavored to keep a similar pace.
(I don't feel I pushed my legs too hard, nor my aerobic system, so we will just hope I have not done too much too close to the Florida 70.3 race. I think it should be OK.)
(What it most honestly could be described as is about nine miles at suitable longish run pace, it felt fairly easy although because I had no taper my legs were obviously slightly tired to begin with from yesterday's bike & swim, plus four miles hard tempo pace--not inherently hard/speedy, just hard because of hills.)
I also can now recalibrate the device--it gave me 12.89 miles, avg HR 158, avg pace 9:50. Official time: 13.1 miles, 2:06:09, 9:37 pace.
If it had been as flat all the way as on the opening miles, it would have been easier to meet goals--9:30 pace would have been appropriate, I guess, and 10:00 probably could have been done in low 150s. Reasonable enough--there is no point losing sleep over the fact of non-speediness on the one hand or mild lack of self-control on the other!
Mile splits, with avg. HR:
9:24 (153)
9:35 (156)
9:45 (155)
9:16 (156)
9:18 (156)
9:57 (158--walked through aid station to eat gel)
9:33 (157)
9:40 (159)
9:43 (156)
9:51 (160--first hill just before beginning of mile 9)
10:00 (162)
9:32 (163)
9:18 (167)
Three down, two to go (the remaining ones are Queens and Staten Island). And a very good last long training run for 70.3--I haven't done a lot of long runs in the last few months, so it was nice to get in a serious one! Now I'll sharply cut back on run length for the next couple weeks--shorter efforts with brief high-intensity work will be the most appropriate thing.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Friday swim
Hmmm, today's swim was afflicted (just like Tuesday's) by the familiar twin demons of Lateness and Chattiness! I will hope to swim more yards tomorrow. Technique-wise, though, I would say today's session was fairly mindful. TECHNIQUE and ENDURANCE--those really are the only things that matter right now, plus leading into a nice taper after this weekend...
(In the warmup, I am sorry to say, I was pretty much just wrestling with this new pair of goggles I got a couple weeks ago. I regretfully observe that they are just not going to work, I reverted to my old ones...)
Warmup (seriously trimmed down!): 50 free, 100 IM kick, 50 back, 100 free, 50 breast, 100 IM drill
Then 25 x 50, odd stroke (I did back) and even free:
First 5 as 2 kick, 2 drill, 1 swim
Second 5 as catch-up free
Third 5 as 1 kick, 1 drill, 3 swim
Fourth 5 as swim free (the long-axis feel of the backstroke really benefited my free swim by this point, it was good, I was concentrating on what I was doing)
Last 5 all swim
It is not many yards, but it was good, and I will swim longer tomorrow. I am thinking I should probably do another 5 x 500, I will consult with Coach H.
1700 yards total
(In the warmup, I am sorry to say, I was pretty much just wrestling with this new pair of goggles I got a couple weeks ago. I regretfully observe that they are just not going to work, I reverted to my old ones...)
Warmup (seriously trimmed down!): 50 free, 100 IM kick, 50 back, 100 free, 50 breast, 100 IM drill
Then 25 x 50, odd stroke (I did back) and even free:
First 5 as 2 kick, 2 drill, 1 swim
Second 5 as catch-up free
Third 5 as 1 kick, 1 drill, 3 swim
Fourth 5 as swim free (the long-axis feel of the backstroke really benefited my free swim by this point, it was good, I was concentrating on what I was doing)
Last 5 all swim
It is not many yards, but it was good, and I will swim longer tomorrow. I am thinking I should probably do another 5 x 500, I will consult with Coach H.
1700 yards total
Friday bike
I did not go far or fast, but after a slightly horrible initial six minutes or so, the rest was genuinely enjoyable, with stretches that I would call almost exhilarating. Call it an hour and a half of fairly easy riding...
(The part I especially liked involved working very hard while riding into an intense wind on the way back up from Chambers St.! I like the windy blustery kind of riding, where you have to work hard to go not very fast--I still have a psychological obstacle on going fast. It is chilly and overcast and blustery today, a kind of weather I particularly like. I would have gone further, only things just below Chambers on the bike path suddenly got very confusing and detourish and complicated--I am sure there is a way through, but it seemed overly troublesome to dismount and sort out next steps...)
One of the few good things about being so cowardly and such a novice is that pretty much every bike ride I do increases my confidence level by about 50%. Both Tuesday's and today's were really good. Goal for today: get used to the notion that I will leave the apartment in bike shoes and accomplish all necessary locomotion on the bicycle! Also practiced going in and out of the drops--comfortable once I'm in there, but I feel wobbly coming up and down, and I am also not entirely sure I would not tip over if I stopped fairly suddenly while riding in the drops. That is something to practice...
Triaspirational interior monologue, corner of 116th and Riverside, just before getting started:
Oh, I am determined to ride on Riverside Drive down to 96th St., I was feeling fairly calm the other day in the park--it is the easiest possible road to ride on, it is true there are buses and cars parked along the side but there are no right turns, thus no cars doing disconcerting things, it is incredibly safe!--hmmm...--fortitude--OK, let me hop up onto my bike--ARGHHHH, why does the awful seat/crotch of these stupid bike pants snag like that on the seat?!?--oh dear, now I have missed that light--my heart is in my mouth, what if I stop at the light and then my pants catch again when I try and start again?!?--hmmm, maybe I am going to ride along the park walk instead--oh, why, oh why did they pave it with these awful hexagonal-tile cobble-like things?!?--A ROAD BIKE IS NOT DESIGNED FOR RIDING ON BUMPY THINGS!--especially not bumpy things with a steep downhill pitch--arghhh, death grip on brakes again, what am I doing...
But once I got into the park at 96th St. it was all fine. The one thing I do not like about the west side bike path is that it gets very confusing in the middle. There are red lights specifically for bicycles which as a law-abiding and safety-conscious person I am strongly inclined to follow (and it is not really always very easy to see where a car would come from!), only nobody else follows 'em and I certainly got some funny looks from other cyclists and pedestrians when I stopped! Indeed, at one, a construction worker just gave me a comically quizzical look and waved me on through, I felt the need to explain that I was a very timid and cautious cyclist! Hmmmm, a little more experience and I will have a better handle on all of this. It is certainly useful riding along a path that's right next to a highway but separate from it--rationally speaking, it is entirely safe, but it gets you more accustomed to the sound and proximity of serious traffic...
(The part I especially liked involved working very hard while riding into an intense wind on the way back up from Chambers St.! I like the windy blustery kind of riding, where you have to work hard to go not very fast--I still have a psychological obstacle on going fast. It is chilly and overcast and blustery today, a kind of weather I particularly like. I would have gone further, only things just below Chambers on the bike path suddenly got very confusing and detourish and complicated--I am sure there is a way through, but it seemed overly troublesome to dismount and sort out next steps...)
One of the few good things about being so cowardly and such a novice is that pretty much every bike ride I do increases my confidence level by about 50%. Both Tuesday's and today's were really good. Goal for today: get used to the notion that I will leave the apartment in bike shoes and accomplish all necessary locomotion on the bicycle! Also practiced going in and out of the drops--comfortable once I'm in there, but I feel wobbly coming up and down, and I am also not entirely sure I would not tip over if I stopped fairly suddenly while riding in the drops. That is something to practice...
Triaspirational interior monologue, corner of 116th and Riverside, just before getting started:
Oh, I am determined to ride on Riverside Drive down to 96th St., I was feeling fairly calm the other day in the park--it is the easiest possible road to ride on, it is true there are buses and cars parked along the side but there are no right turns, thus no cars doing disconcerting things, it is incredibly safe!--hmmm...--fortitude--OK, let me hop up onto my bike--ARGHHHH, why does the awful seat/crotch of these stupid bike pants snag like that on the seat?!?--oh dear, now I have missed that light--my heart is in my mouth, what if I stop at the light and then my pants catch again when I try and start again?!?--hmmm, maybe I am going to ride along the park walk instead--oh, why, oh why did they pave it with these awful hexagonal-tile cobble-like things?!?--A ROAD BIKE IS NOT DESIGNED FOR RIDING ON BUMPY THINGS!--especially not bumpy things with a steep downhill pitch--arghhh, death grip on brakes again, what am I doing...
But once I got into the park at 96th St. it was all fine. The one thing I do not like about the west side bike path is that it gets very confusing in the middle. There are red lights specifically for bicycles which as a law-abiding and safety-conscious person I am strongly inclined to follow (and it is not really always very easy to see where a car would come from!), only nobody else follows 'em and I certainly got some funny looks from other cyclists and pedestrians when I stopped! Indeed, at one, a construction worker just gave me a comically quizzical look and waved me on through, I felt the need to explain that I was a very timid and cautious cyclist! Hmmmm, a little more experience and I will have a better handle on all of this. It is certainly useful riding along a path that's right next to a highway but separate from it--rationally speaking, it is entirely safe, but it gets you more accustomed to the sound and proximity of serious traffic...
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Wednesday run
Hmmm, it is possible for once in my life I might actually be too tired to blog--bodes well for notional sleep?
Missed out on biking earlier, it was just not fit-in-able. I was sorry, but I was not remorseful, because it seemed a clear verdict of common sense. Went to run with a friend at 4, only after 10 minutes of waiting I figured I had better set out on my own--tight timing at other end. 5.16 miles (same run I always do, funny how minor .3-.4 comes out differently with local tweaking!), avg HR 155, 9:40 pace.
First couple miles not great (not running-specific awfulness, just general feeling of physical awfulness, allergies and sleeplessness!), only then the usual thing kicked in, v. enjoyable for last couple. I was running pretty hard, the couple miles at the end were rather faster--I cannot say I am feeling particularly fast these days as a runner, I need to do some speedwork in June to remedy that, but I am certainly feeling fairly strong. Like I can run a lot further at the same speed, comfortably, than I used to be able to.
(Secretly in my heart of hearts I believe that if I do everything the same way, I will only remain the same rather than improving, so I am always favorably surprised when steady consistency leads to moderate improvement!)
Furthermore: Decoupling. (Courtesy of Bigun.) I am thinking I should do this run on Saturday at 155 HR and check out my mile splits to see how I am doing on running-specific base-building...
Missed out on biking earlier, it was just not fit-in-able. I was sorry, but I was not remorseful, because it seemed a clear verdict of common sense. Went to run with a friend at 4, only after 10 minutes of waiting I figured I had better set out on my own--tight timing at other end. 5.16 miles (same run I always do, funny how minor .3-.4 comes out differently with local tweaking!), avg HR 155, 9:40 pace.
First couple miles not great (not running-specific awfulness, just general feeling of physical awfulness, allergies and sleeplessness!), only then the usual thing kicked in, v. enjoyable for last couple. I was running pretty hard, the couple miles at the end were rather faster--I cannot say I am feeling particularly fast these days as a runner, I need to do some speedwork in June to remedy that, but I am certainly feeling fairly strong. Like I can run a lot further at the same speed, comfortably, than I used to be able to.
(Secretly in my heart of hearts I believe that if I do everything the same way, I will only remain the same rather than improving, so I am always favorably surprised when steady consistency leads to moderate improvement!)
Furthermore: Decoupling. (Courtesy of Bigun.) I am thinking I should do this run on Saturday at 155 HR and check out my mile splits to see how I am doing on running-specific base-building...
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