A good run late this afternoon: 9.64 miles, 10:20 average pace (avg HR 142).
I was thinking a lot during the first few miles about this question of long slow runs. I feel I really benefited from the lowish-HR focus I had in September and October--it was nothing fancy, and I never really got it that low (it was more on the principle of "keep Jenny's HR in the 140s"--the park loop has a fair bit of elevation change, I find it very difficult to stay really slow enough to keep the HR at 140 unless it's quite flat; slowing down when I hit 150 is about as good as I can manage), but it was great. I've sped back up again over the last month or so, though, partly because I haven't had the concentration and willpower that are needed to do it properly and partly because of running with friends who are faster than I am and who are also mostly racing shorter distances.
The mental thing that made me able to enforce the slowness rule in September was that after reading everyone's August-September blog posts leading up to IM Kentucky and IM Wisconsin I was in a sheer frenzy of desire to do an Iron-distance race! A frenzy, I tell you!
(It is not that I am not still in thrall to the idea. I am. But it's going to be a while--two and a half years from now, I'm thinking, I want to do it well and I want not to get an injury--so there's no point getting all het up about it!)
So in September and October the thing that I'd hold in my mind--this is embarrassing!--was that what I was working on was the perfect sort of loping pace that I would have for my iron run several years from now, a smooth and easy and highly efficient gait that could basically be maintained for an almost infinitely long time. You know--what my ancestor did as she covered ground on the savannah taking a message to the neighboring nomadic tribe about an illness spreading among the animal herds, or whatever! The Iron lope!
And then if I do a lot of it over the next few years, it will be totally locked in to my body's memory so that when I have to run that marathon after having already insanely exerted myself I will just be able to go on autopilot and lope along...
Really when writers talk about runners loping they are talking about very fast runners, but the lope I'm thinking of is let's say 11:00 mile pace (on a not-too-hilly route). I can already more or less lope at 10:00 on a flat run when I haven't been doing something else, and I will hope to continue improving my comfortable speeds, but post-massive-amount-of-swimming-and-biking lope is a different story and 11:00 seems more prudent than 10:30...
Of course it's enjoyable to run quite fast for quite a long time (that's why half-marathons are such a satisfying distance to race), but the thing about loping is that it's really more oriented towards function than to feeling, it has to feel good but it's also about getting yourself somewhere with the most sensible apportioning of energy, and without making any demands beyond the minimum on your aerobic and fueling systems.
Once you think about it that way, it is hard to see what the appeal is in working on anything other than the lope!
This will be my last post for 2007--I am going to be off-line in South Carolina for two days, I might sneak in a run but there will be no blogging--so I will take this opportunity again to wish everyone a very happy and healthy year in 2008, but also a lot of loping. Loping on the road and in the pool, but also in life--cover a lot of ground, use your resources wisely, enjoy yourself...
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Strange hotel mini-swimming
Half an hour, and it was rather lovely, I had the (miniature) pool completely to myself. It let me think about various aspects of those strokes, I must sign up for Teachers College pool membership again in the spring and have one evening a week where I go and just think about stuff and work on technique.
It seems to me if you get the "keyhole" shape right with the arms on the butterfly, it makes all sorts of other things (the undulation, but even and also the forward propulsion which generally strikes me as less counterintuitive) work right. I am starting to get a good feel for that backstroke catch, I love that stroke (I am just clearer on the horizontal-axis strokes for now than on the others). I lose the breaststroke timing easily through impatience, but if I stay calm it works a lot better. (Like life!)
I must work on bilateral breathing! Even on right-side breathing, I could use some serious form adjustment, I'm turning my head way too high up and bringing it out of the water--Wendy had some good tips on how to alter this bad habit, but I did not have time to work on it this morning. A project...
It seems to me if you get the "keyhole" shape right with the arms on the butterfly, it makes all sorts of other things (the undulation, but even and also the forward propulsion which generally strikes me as less counterintuitive) work right. I am starting to get a good feel for that backstroke catch, I love that stroke (I am just clearer on the horizontal-axis strokes for now than on the others). I lose the breaststroke timing easily through impatience, but if I stay calm it works a lot better. (Like life!)
I must work on bilateral breathing! Even on right-side breathing, I could use some serious form adjustment, I'm turning my head way too high up and bringing it out of the water--Wendy had some good tips on how to alter this bad habit, but I did not have time to work on it this morning. A project...
Friday, December 28, 2007
Addendum
Best seven minutes of swimming I ever had in my life!
(Lifeguard clearly set on locking up for good at 10, not letting me swim till 10...)
Only a couple kids left, they were soon out and I had a precious four minutes or so of the magic rectangle all to myself. It will definitely be worth going tomorrow morning--the pool is too small to do freestyle or (particularly) backstroke, but no reason not to do half an hour of breast and butterfly, it will be very nice...
(It's like running after an injury, you are so glad just to run half a mile or a mile that you can hardly believe it!)
Really hotel swimming pools are properly for children, I suppose. We rarely stayed in a hotel or motel when I was a kid, only a handful of times (and not really enjoyable as all five of us crammed into one room for reasons of economy), but the motel pool is one of the great exciting phenomena of my childhood. We didn't get to swim often, but it was always my favorite thing--I can still picture one (somewhere vaguely southerly, Delaware or Virginia?) that struck me then as the height of luxuriousness, because it was lit at night underwater and you could swim there after dark!
Hmmm, I have not really revisited such things in adult life, but it does seem to me that swimming in an outside pool after dark is almost certainly one of the great pleasures in life. All of this maniacal swimming I have done this year has been in fairly grim basementish environs--of course it does not really matter...
(Lifeguard clearly set on locking up for good at 10, not letting me swim till 10...)
Only a couple kids left, they were soon out and I had a precious four minutes or so of the magic rectangle all to myself. It will definitely be worth going tomorrow morning--the pool is too small to do freestyle or (particularly) backstroke, but no reason not to do half an hour of breast and butterfly, it will be very nice...
(It's like running after an injury, you are so glad just to run half a mile or a mile that you can hardly believe it!)
Really hotel swimming pools are properly for children, I suppose. We rarely stayed in a hotel or motel when I was a kid, only a handful of times (and not really enjoyable as all five of us crammed into one room for reasons of economy), but the motel pool is one of the great exciting phenomena of my childhood. We didn't get to swim often, but it was always my favorite thing--I can still picture one (somewhere vaguely southerly, Delaware or Virginia?) that struck me then as the height of luxuriousness, because it was lit at night underwater and you could swim there after dark!
Hmmm, I have not really revisited such things in adult life, but it does seem to me that swimming in an outside pool after dark is almost certainly one of the great pleasures in life. All of this maniacal swimming I have done this year has been in fairly grim basementish environs--of course it does not really matter...
In which I am thwarted!
Now I really am laughing at myself, the last few days have been rather a chapter of accidents and this is nothing in comparison...
You know, usually I think I am a fairly realistic person, I am not especially quixotic and I am rarely disappointed--partly because I try and keep expectations deliberately low--but my eyes were suddenly opened now to the extent to which the notion that I was going to swim in Chicago has been an enabling fantasy of really almost Walter Mittyish proportions!
(That picture is most deceptive!)
I put on my bathing suit and sweatpants and went downstairs just now, and fled in horror at the spectacle! Of course the pool is fairly small (smaller, I am speculating, even than the small 20-yard ones I am kind of used to--in retrospect I suppose it is suspicious that they did not mention the size on the website), but it is also thronged with small children and bisected by various lines that bear no resemblance to lane lines--more like a Mondrian painting! Oh dear....
So I went downstairs to get a hold-in-reserve second-dinner sandwich at the restaurant in the lobby, which closes at ten (my meals have been totally irregular today and it is the only way to preempt the otherwise inevitable middle-of-the-night vending-machine raid, I cannot be eating a meal out of vending-machine snacks!), and I have come back upstairs, and since I am in my bathing suit already I think I might just venture back down and see if it is slightly less child-thronged in the last fifteen minutes before closing. If I go first thing in the morning, I can probably have a quiet swim, but if it really is impossibly tiny it might be as well to figure that out tonight and just get the extra sleep...
(Hmmm, my brain is overactively contemplating workarounds like doing a ten-mile treadmill run tomorrow morning and then having my Sunday run slot for a Riverbank swim trip, but this is ridiculous, if the pool really seems no good I will sleep in tomorrow morning as long as I can, I will have a nice run on Sunday in Central Park and it will be good for the mental health, I will just have to survive this awful Xmas holiday swimming drought, it is not good for the soul but it is a trial of patience of some doubtless admirable sort, I guess I just have to suck it up! I do not know why we grow up and believe that it is somehow good for us not to have the things we most like, but there you go...)
You know, usually I think I am a fairly realistic person, I am not especially quixotic and I am rarely disappointed--partly because I try and keep expectations deliberately low--but my eyes were suddenly opened now to the extent to which the notion that I was going to swim in Chicago has been an enabling fantasy of really almost Walter Mittyish proportions!
(That picture is most deceptive!)
I put on my bathing suit and sweatpants and went downstairs just now, and fled in horror at the spectacle! Of course the pool is fairly small (smaller, I am speculating, even than the small 20-yard ones I am kind of used to--in retrospect I suppose it is suspicious that they did not mention the size on the website), but it is also thronged with small children and bisected by various lines that bear no resemblance to lane lines--more like a Mondrian painting! Oh dear....
So I went downstairs to get a hold-in-reserve second-dinner sandwich at the restaurant in the lobby, which closes at ten (my meals have been totally irregular today and it is the only way to preempt the otherwise inevitable middle-of-the-night vending-machine raid, I cannot be eating a meal out of vending-machine snacks!), and I have come back upstairs, and since I am in my bathing suit already I think I might just venture back down and see if it is slightly less child-thronged in the last fifteen minutes before closing. If I go first thing in the morning, I can probably have a quiet swim, but if it really is impossibly tiny it might be as well to figure that out tonight and just get the extra sleep...
(Hmmm, my brain is overactively contemplating workarounds like doing a ten-mile treadmill run tomorrow morning and then having my Sunday run slot for a Riverbank swim trip, but this is ridiculous, if the pool really seems no good I will sleep in tomorrow morning as long as I can, I will have a nice run on Sunday in Central Park and it will be good for the mental health, I will just have to survive this awful Xmas holiday swimming drought, it is not good for the soul but it is a trial of patience of some doubtless admirable sort, I guess I just have to suck it up! I do not know why we grow up and believe that it is somehow good for us not to have the things we most like, but there you go...)
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Thursday run
5.41 miles, 10:15 average pace.
(Forgot the HR strap, remembered just as the elevator reached the lobby but it was not worth losing precious minutes of so-called 'daylight' time to go back up for it.)
(Forgot the HR strap, remembered just as the elevator reached the lobby but it was not worth losing precious minutes of so-called 'daylight' time to go back up for it.)
Thursday gym workout
A solid session with M. It has partly counteracted my sense of extreme psychological fragility due to stress and sleeplessness, but there is only so much that even exercise can do...
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Holiday run
Bit of a disaster area round here the last couple days--no exercise whatsoever, I had to switch into emergency end-of-semester grading mode, which is not a pretty sight! Submitted the last of 'em just before 2am last night, slept for not enough hours, then headed out first thing this morning for a short run. It was a beautiful morning for it, once the sun came up--I didn't even need gloves...
4 mi., 10:10 pace, avg HR 148. (Tiredness.) Then I did 3 x 15 pushups, and now I must hop into the shower and be out the door within fifteen minutes, or else I definitely will not have time to get coffee at the station before getting on the train to Philadelphia, and this would be a minor tragedy.
(Ran out of milk yesterday evening and sort of tactically/lazily didn't go out to replace it, mostly just because the cup of coffee and the morning run were clearly mutually exclusive time-wise, that was the cup of coffee that would have made me late!)
I am resolved to do more pushups in 2008, I only do them with M. at the gym but I like them so much, they are a terribly economical exercise in every sense of the word. I should do 15 mins. of pushups, planks and one or two other core things every time I do a bike trainer ride at home.
All right, now I really must tear myself away from the computer. Merry Xmas!
4 mi., 10:10 pace, avg HR 148. (Tiredness.) Then I did 3 x 15 pushups, and now I must hop into the shower and be out the door within fifteen minutes, or else I definitely will not have time to get coffee at the station before getting on the train to Philadelphia, and this would be a minor tragedy.
(Ran out of milk yesterday evening and sort of tactically/lazily didn't go out to replace it, mostly just because the cup of coffee and the morning run were clearly mutually exclusive time-wise, that was the cup of coffee that would have made me late!)
I am resolved to do more pushups in 2008, I only do them with M. at the gym but I like them so much, they are a terribly economical exercise in every sense of the word. I should do 15 mins. of pushups, planks and one or two other core things every time I do a bike trainer ride at home.
All right, now I really must tear myself away from the computer. Merry Xmas!
Monday, December 24, 2007
The hurt-pain-agony approach
Mostly what I write about at my other blog has nothing to do with triathlon, but I thought I'd link to something I wrote just now on two swimming books I've read recently.
(Hmmm, there is a picture that is slightly NSFW--consider yourself warned...)
Here's a taste, one of my favorite quotations from a book I have fallen absolutely in love with, Counsilman's The Science of Swimming (I have the first edition, in a rather dour library binding; I feel that the second edition cannot possibly be quite so delightful as the original):
(Hmmm, there is a picture that is slightly NSFW--consider yourself warned...)
Here's a taste, one of my favorite quotations from a book I have fallen absolutely in love with, Counsilman's The Science of Swimming (I have the first edition, in a rather dour library binding; I feel that the second edition cannot possibly be quite so delightful as the original):
It is extremely difficult for an intelligent, mature athlete to form an identification with a coach who sets himself up as a dictator, and whose authoritarian manner must be accepted unquestioningly. Athletes of low intellect, weak or unstable personality, or those who are lacking in maturity, may respond to a martinet, but if, in a free world, we do not look upon such tactics with favor in other aspects of human relationships, certainly we should not in athletics.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
2008
The maniacal goals-for-2008 post...
It may sound mildly excessive, but it all fits together. I have a vision!
Seriously, though, the overriding goal for 2008 is to have a happy and healthy year of training, some enjoyable racing and to take better care of myself, particularly vis-a-vis sleep and rest more generally. This is more important than any of the specific things below, though there are a number of things on the list that I will be disappointed if I can't bring about...
In September 2005 I quit smoking for good and started exercising and losing weight. 2006 was the year I fell in love with running. 2007 was the year I fell in love with swimming, just head-over-heels in love too (I am hoping this sport is not as much of a heartbreaker as running, certainly it is less injury-producing, also I fully hope to be a faster swimmer when I am sixty years old than I am now...).
2008 is going to be the year of triathlon!
Running goals: do the NYRR Half-Marathon Grand Prix; do my first marathon in Philadelphia in November; continue to build mileage and start working more on speed, but not at expense of continued running health. I'd love it if in 2008 I could race a 4-mile race below 32:00, a 10K below 50:00, a half-marathon below 1:50 and the marathon sub-4:00. (If things go really well with training, I'm hoping to have a 3:56 marathon goal, which leaves a bit of wiggle room to stay sub-4:00. Too soon to know, though, whether this is in any sense realistic.) My goal over the next few years is to reach 8:00 race pace at the half-marathon distance, but I don't know that it's realistic to expect that to happen in 2008.
Swimming goals: continue to work on all four strokes; build speed on freestyle and get as much open-water swim experience as I can (I was cheered up the other day by an e-mail in which the Manhattan Island Foundation announced their swim series for 2008, I'll definitely do a few of these); start working seriously on flip turns and bilateral breathing, two things I have been putting off dealing with properly. Find a really good structure of weekly workouts (there are two different masters' swim groups I want to check out in January, I'm hoping one of them might suit).
Cycling goals: well, I have quite a few ideas (hmmm, it would be exciting if I turned out to have an unexpected talent for bike-riding, only I think I will have to settle for what I have in the other two sports, which is to say only a very modest talent but an excellent work ethic which makes up for many shortcomings on the athletic front, wish I had realized that sooner), but really everything can be summed up as "fall in love with the bike the way you have with running and swimming." I need to become a confident and road-worthy cyclist, that's the long and short of it. I think this means finding a good group to ride with, learning cycling the roadie way (paceline riding, etc.) and really taking it seriously, but we will see how it goes...
Triathlon: my goal race is the New York City Triathlon (Olympic distance) on July 20. (The day before my birthday, that's nice!) The cycling is currently a total unknown quantity, but it's a notoriously fast swim and I would think it's entirely possible I could do it in just about sub-3:00--however I will try not to exercise myself too much about times. I'll definitely do a couple shorter ones first to get some practice, but I hate to give up lovely training days for the sake of shortish races, I've got a lot of writing that needs to get done next summer and I'd also just like to keep things open and flexible (it is not enjoyable, I find, to lock oneself in on an excessive number of racing commitments), so I won't go crazy with the practice races (here's a fairly complete list of some more or less local options).
(After that's over, I'll switch to a run focus, but I'll keep on swimming a ton and doing some bike-riding also, I do not think it will be a problem--I'm going to do marathon training with Coach Mindy who takes a fairly low-mileage approach with cross-training built in.)
I've got to get back on the yoga thing (I've got a yoga date with training partner L. for Jan. 2), and obviously I'll keep up the strength training and core work. It would be good if I could get mildly more adventurous, this is related to the bike-riding goals, but perhaps I am just not very adventurous! But if interesting new opportunities come my way, I must not turn them down because of some inflexible plan I've locked myself in on. I will make every effort to keep an open mind...
Best wishes to everyone reading here for good health and training and racing success, whatever that means to you and your loved ones (an expression I can never take quite seriously but which seems more apt than any other), in 2008!
It may sound mildly excessive, but it all fits together. I have a vision!
Seriously, though, the overriding goal for 2008 is to have a happy and healthy year of training, some enjoyable racing and to take better care of myself, particularly vis-a-vis sleep and rest more generally. This is more important than any of the specific things below, though there are a number of things on the list that I will be disappointed if I can't bring about...
In September 2005 I quit smoking for good and started exercising and losing weight. 2006 was the year I fell in love with running. 2007 was the year I fell in love with swimming, just head-over-heels in love too (I am hoping this sport is not as much of a heartbreaker as running, certainly it is less injury-producing, also I fully hope to be a faster swimmer when I am sixty years old than I am now...).
2008 is going to be the year of triathlon!
Running goals: do the NYRR Half-Marathon Grand Prix; do my first marathon in Philadelphia in November; continue to build mileage and start working more on speed, but not at expense of continued running health. I'd love it if in 2008 I could race a 4-mile race below 32:00, a 10K below 50:00, a half-marathon below 1:50 and the marathon sub-4:00. (If things go really well with training, I'm hoping to have a 3:56 marathon goal, which leaves a bit of wiggle room to stay sub-4:00. Too soon to know, though, whether this is in any sense realistic.) My goal over the next few years is to reach 8:00 race pace at the half-marathon distance, but I don't know that it's realistic to expect that to happen in 2008.
Swimming goals: continue to work on all four strokes; build speed on freestyle and get as much open-water swim experience as I can (I was cheered up the other day by an e-mail in which the Manhattan Island Foundation announced their swim series for 2008, I'll definitely do a few of these); start working seriously on flip turns and bilateral breathing, two things I have been putting off dealing with properly. Find a really good structure of weekly workouts (there are two different masters' swim groups I want to check out in January, I'm hoping one of them might suit).
Cycling goals: well, I have quite a few ideas (hmmm, it would be exciting if I turned out to have an unexpected talent for bike-riding, only I think I will have to settle for what I have in the other two sports, which is to say only a very modest talent but an excellent work ethic which makes up for many shortcomings on the athletic front, wish I had realized that sooner), but really everything can be summed up as "fall in love with the bike the way you have with running and swimming." I need to become a confident and road-worthy cyclist, that's the long and short of it. I think this means finding a good group to ride with, learning cycling the roadie way (paceline riding, etc.) and really taking it seriously, but we will see how it goes...
Triathlon: my goal race is the New York City Triathlon (Olympic distance) on July 20. (The day before my birthday, that's nice!) The cycling is currently a total unknown quantity, but it's a notoriously fast swim and I would think it's entirely possible I could do it in just about sub-3:00--however I will try not to exercise myself too much about times. I'll definitely do a couple shorter ones first to get some practice, but I hate to give up lovely training days for the sake of shortish races, I've got a lot of writing that needs to get done next summer and I'd also just like to keep things open and flexible (it is not enjoyable, I find, to lock oneself in on an excessive number of racing commitments), so I won't go crazy with the practice races (here's a fairly complete list of some more or less local options).
(After that's over, I'll switch to a run focus, but I'll keep on swimming a ton and doing some bike-riding also, I do not think it will be a problem--I'm going to do marathon training with Coach Mindy who takes a fairly low-mileage approach with cross-training built in.)
I've got to get back on the yoga thing (I've got a yoga date with training partner L. for Jan. 2), and obviously I'll keep up the strength training and core work. It would be good if I could get mildly more adventurous, this is related to the bike-riding goals, but perhaps I am just not very adventurous! But if interesting new opportunities come my way, I must not turn them down because of some inflexible plan I've locked myself in on. I will make every effort to keep an open mind...
Best wishes to everyone reading here for good health and training and racing success, whatever that means to you and your loved ones (an expression I can never take quite seriously but which seems more apt than any other), in 2008!
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Saturday run
Finally a real run! I see it actually has been a stupidly long time since I had a proper longer one--I was thwarted a few times by snow/slipperiness, and there was that 10K and the mild taper for it, so I think that in fact it may be that since the Philadelphia half a month ago I have perhaps only done one eight-mile run and a bunch of sixes, this is the first 10.
I was tired, it was not the best run ever and I did all the middle part at hard effort with C., he is just faster than I am! But it was really very enjoyable, I felt great as I was finishing (only my former stress fracture area felt very heavy the whole time, I must get back on a better stretching routine, I've been skimping on it and not doing yoga either. Not good!).
10.23 mi, avg HR 153, pace average 9:40.
I ran two miles over to meet C. at 86th St. in the park, then we did the six-mile loop together (the paces don't sound fast, but it's a pretty hilly run, I was working at high effort level for much of it), then he peeled off home and I ran the remaining two miles at a slower pace. I must think about how to structure the week's training so as not to do my long ones all too fast, I should do shorter ones with the fast guys and find a good slower-than-me companion for longer ones! But I do like running with these fellows, it keeps me up to the mark...
Mile splits: 9:48 (146), 9:38 (151), 9:26 (148), 9:26 (153), 9:40 (157), 9:11 (156), 9:10 (158), 8:59 (164--and the lap end HR was 172, I was really struggling, it was uphill & C.'s finish-line stretch but not mine! Walked a few blocks after that to bring HR back down, eat a gel and drink some water...), 10:12 (149), 10:24 (150).
10- and 12-mile runs are one of the great pleasures in life (high up there with novel-reading and good conversation), I must make sure not to go a whole month without one again unless absolutely forced to!
I was tired, it was not the best run ever and I did all the middle part at hard effort with C., he is just faster than I am! But it was really very enjoyable, I felt great as I was finishing (only my former stress fracture area felt very heavy the whole time, I must get back on a better stretching routine, I've been skimping on it and not doing yoga either. Not good!).
10.23 mi, avg HR 153, pace average 9:40.
I ran two miles over to meet C. at 86th St. in the park, then we did the six-mile loop together (the paces don't sound fast, but it's a pretty hilly run, I was working at high effort level for much of it), then he peeled off home and I ran the remaining two miles at a slower pace. I must think about how to structure the week's training so as not to do my long ones all too fast, I should do shorter ones with the fast guys and find a good slower-than-me companion for longer ones! But I do like running with these fellows, it keeps me up to the mark...
Mile splits: 9:48 (146), 9:38 (151), 9:26 (148), 9:26 (153), 9:40 (157), 9:11 (156), 9:10 (158), 8:59 (164--and the lap end HR was 172, I was really struggling, it was uphill & C.'s finish-line stretch but not mine! Walked a few blocks after that to bring HR back down, eat a gel and drink some water...), 10:12 (149), 10:24 (150).
10- and 12-mile runs are one of the great pleasures in life (high up there with novel-reading and good conversation), I must make sure not to go a whole month without one again unless absolutely forced to!
Friday, December 21, 2007
Friday swim and bike #20
Not quite at the ecstatic levels of yesterday morning's swim, but certainly very pleasant.
Warmup: 300 swim, 200 kick, 200 pull.
Main set: 4 x 125 IM with extra length of back; 10 x 25 non-free stroke, 1 kick - 2 drill - 4 fast - 2 drill - 1 kick; 4 x 125 free; 5 x 50 as finger-drag down and stroke-distance i.e. low stroke count back, 6-3-6 (kick 6 on side, three strokes, kick six on other side), fast, 6-3-6, finger-drag/stroke-distance.
Then I did 100 IM and 100 easy free and got out, only to realize that of course the last set of 50s was 10 x 50 rather than 5 x 50 (2 of each), only I spaced out on it. (Really the workout had two times the whole main set, only these "canned" workouts are for a longer time slot than we have, it is not because I am a slow swimmer that I only went through once. ED. To clarify, I am a slow swimmer, but that's not the main reason there's no time to do it twice!)
This is ludicrous, but the main thing I had become distracted by and that took my mind off the task at hand was wondering about the rationale for having 125s instead of 100s. Is it just to shake everyone out of their comfort with a standard rest interval? Or is there some other benefit I do not know about?!?
Bike #20, 30 mins., 600 mins. total.
Warmup: 300 swim, 200 kick, 200 pull.
Main set: 4 x 125 IM with extra length of back; 10 x 25 non-free stroke, 1 kick - 2 drill - 4 fast - 2 drill - 1 kick; 4 x 125 free; 5 x 50 as finger-drag down and stroke-distance i.e. low stroke count back, 6-3-6 (kick 6 on side, three strokes, kick six on other side), fast, 6-3-6, finger-drag/stroke-distance.
Then I did 100 IM and 100 easy free and got out, only to realize that of course the last set of 50s was 10 x 50 rather than 5 x 50 (2 of each), only I spaced out on it. (Really the workout had two times the whole main set, only these "canned" workouts are for a longer time slot than we have, it is not because I am a slow swimmer that I only went through once. ED. To clarify, I am a slow swimmer, but that's not the main reason there's no time to do it twice!)
This is ludicrous, but the main thing I had become distracted by and that took my mind off the task at hand was wondering about the rationale for having 125s instead of 100s. Is it just to shake everyone out of their comfort with a standard rest interval? Or is there some other benefit I do not know about?!?
Bike #20, 30 mins., 600 mins. total.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Running for Doug Stern
There were quite a lot of people, and the fellow who organized it said we'd raised over $1600 for the kidney cancer research program at Sloan-Kettering, so that's good...
Met up with C. and did a few fastish miles with him, then staggered through a cooldown mile en route to the post-run party. 4.4 mi., avg HR 155, fastest mile 8:43 but I do not have good mile splits due to ill-advised lap-button pressing...
Met up with C. and did a few fastish miles with him, then staggered through a cooldown mile en route to the post-run party. 4.4 mi., avg HR 155, fastest mile 8:43 but I do not have good mile splits due to ill-advised lap-button pressing...
Lovely Thursday morning swimming
It was the most divinely excellent swim this morning, really absolutely lovely and I am filled with seasonally appropriate Warmth for Mankind etc. etc. Mmmm---I had the lane to myself, it was highly depopulated, it was the most beautiful workout, I loved every minute (except it must be said that is a very good thing that fly comes first in the IM sequence, I always look forward to doing that stroke and enjoy it while I'm doing it and yet it is still true that you have to sort of willpower yourself up for it, it's tiring!).
(No bike--I forgot how we get extra swim time once the undergraduate teams aren't needing to practice in the morning, and I need some minutes to swing by the office to pick up blue books for my lovely students to write their exams in at 9am this morning...)
Warmup: 3 x (100 free, 75 breast, 50 back, 25 fly)
(Should have been 4, but we were moving on...)
Set #1: 40 x 25 pull, as 5 x 8 (5 x 25 free on :30, 3 x 25 back on :35).
Amazing! There could hardly have been a better thing for me, this backstroke is exactly what I would have been working on if I'd had a lesson Saturday after all... That's just the right interval for the free; by the end of the series, I'm taking a few extra seconds on the back, but it's close, once I'm a bit better it won't be a problem. Useful to do pull back stuff like that, I think...
Set #2: 20 x 50, as 5 x (4 x 50). Odd sets: 25 stroke + 25 free, in IM order (fly-free, back-free, breast-free, free-free); even sets: 50 of each stroke in IM order. Those 50s of fly are intense!
I am in bliss--having that extra fifteen or twenty minutes for the workout makes a huge difference, and it was nice being able to really work on the intervals because of having the lane to myself... I still felt very strong at the end, but I also felt like it was a workout that tired me out, too often we are stopping and I still annoyingly feel like I want to swim hard for another hour!
I am going to investigate the early-evening CU masters swim for the spring semester. I am not sure, but I am regretfully concluding that early-morning swimming perhaps is just not realistic with my schedule. I think I will hold on to the Thursday workout at all costs, and in the spring it all goes back to 6:30-7:45 rather than 6:00-7:00, which may be a crucial bit more tolerable. And maybe my body will finally just give in and start going to sleep earlier! But I'm not counting on it, I need to take steps...
(No bike--I forgot how we get extra swim time once the undergraduate teams aren't needing to practice in the morning, and I need some minutes to swing by the office to pick up blue books for my lovely students to write their exams in at 9am this morning...)
Warmup: 3 x (100 free, 75 breast, 50 back, 25 fly)
(Should have been 4, but we were moving on...)
Set #1: 40 x 25 pull, as 5 x 8 (5 x 25 free on :30, 3 x 25 back on :35).
Amazing! There could hardly have been a better thing for me, this backstroke is exactly what I would have been working on if I'd had a lesson Saturday after all... That's just the right interval for the free; by the end of the series, I'm taking a few extra seconds on the back, but it's close, once I'm a bit better it won't be a problem. Useful to do pull back stuff like that, I think...
Set #2: 20 x 50, as 5 x (4 x 50). Odd sets: 25 stroke + 25 free, in IM order (fly-free, back-free, breast-free, free-free); even sets: 50 of each stroke in IM order. Those 50s of fly are intense!
I am in bliss--having that extra fifteen or twenty minutes for the workout makes a huge difference, and it was nice being able to really work on the intervals because of having the lane to myself... I still felt very strong at the end, but I also felt like it was a workout that tired me out, too often we are stopping and I still annoyingly feel like I want to swim hard for another hour!
I am going to investigate the early-evening CU masters swim for the spring semester. I am not sure, but I am regretfully concluding that early-morning swimming perhaps is just not realistic with my schedule. I think I will hold on to the Thursday workout at all costs, and in the spring it all goes back to 6:30-7:45 rather than 6:00-7:00, which may be a crucial bit more tolerable. And maybe my body will finally just give in and start going to sleep earlier! But I'm not counting on it, I need to take steps...
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
To my deep regret
the last shreds of 30-in-30 near-miss workout series are slipping through my fingers--I didn't bike yesterday, I will not bike today, I am full of self-reproach!
I am making an exercise schedule for the next two weeks to cheer myself up (but work and family obligations are pressing, I must stay flexible, it is bad for the soul to be internally grumbling about missed exercise when more important things are happening, I should write myself a stern note to this effect!):
Thurs. 12/20: 6am swim, 30 min. gym bike; fun run in Doug Stern's memory in the evening (prob. around 6 miles?)
Fri. 12/21: 6am swim, 30 min. gym bike
Sat. 12/22: run 10 (no swimming lesson, I. couldn't get pool access, alas--last week's was the last one...)
Sun. 12/23: 60 mins. bike
Mon. 12/24: 30 mins. bike plus some kind of core workout at home, swim @ Riverbank as reward if all grading is finished/grades submitted and if pool there is open
Tues. 12/25: run 5 early am, then to Philadelphia
Wed. 12/26: day off (Philadelphia)
Thurs. 12/27: 10am gym workout with M., run 5
Fri. 12/28, Sat. 12/29: Chicago (swim Fri. pm and Sat. early am in hotel pool)
Sun. 12/30: run 10, poss. 30-40 mins. bike in evening
Mon. 12/31-Wed. 1/2: South Carolina to stay with the family of a friend of mine who died around this time last year (will run once if I can, but I'm home by mid-morning on the 2nd, will get back on track then if I've lost the thread--run 5-6 miles in the afternoon I think)
Thurs. 1/3: 6am swim, 8am gym workout with M.
Fri. 1/4: run 5 early
Sat. 1/5: bike or swim?
Sun. 1/6: run 12
And then on Monday 1/7 I am going to visit Brent in the Cayman Islands, a trip that will include truly unprecedented amounts of swimming of one kind and another, it is going to be the nicest thing! Quite a bit of running too, I imagine, plus a dramatically large amount of work on my academic book manuscript...
[ED. A firm afterthought: all this is in aid of mental and physical health, and as soon as a workout obligation starts to create stress or make life worse rather than better I must skip it, this is perhaps not a good principle in general but I've got a lot of stuff on these next couple weeks and I cannot be filled with self-reproach every time I miss a workout! A couple days off will potentially be for the greater good, especially if it means more sleep...]
I am making an exercise schedule for the next two weeks to cheer myself up (but work and family obligations are pressing, I must stay flexible, it is bad for the soul to be internally grumbling about missed exercise when more important things are happening, I should write myself a stern note to this effect!):
Thurs. 12/20: 6am swim, 30 min. gym bike; fun run in Doug Stern's memory in the evening (prob. around 6 miles?)
Fri. 12/21: 6am swim, 30 min. gym bike
Sat. 12/22: run 10 (no swimming lesson, I. couldn't get pool access, alas--last week's was the last one...)
Sun. 12/23: 60 mins. bike
Mon. 12/24: 30 mins. bike plus some kind of core workout at home, swim @ Riverbank as reward if all grading is finished/grades submitted and if pool there is open
Tues. 12/25: run 5 early am, then to Philadelphia
Wed. 12/26: day off (Philadelphia)
Thurs. 12/27: 10am gym workout with M., run 5
Fri. 12/28, Sat. 12/29: Chicago (swim Fri. pm and Sat. early am in hotel pool)
Sun. 12/30: run 10, poss. 30-40 mins. bike in evening
Mon. 12/31-Wed. 1/2: South Carolina to stay with the family of a friend of mine who died around this time last year (will run once if I can, but I'm home by mid-morning on the 2nd, will get back on track then if I've lost the thread--run 5-6 miles in the afternoon I think)
Thurs. 1/3: 6am swim, 8am gym workout with M.
Fri. 1/4: run 5 early
Sat. 1/5: bike or swim?
Sun. 1/6: run 12
And then on Monday 1/7 I am going to visit Brent in the Cayman Islands, a trip that will include truly unprecedented amounts of swimming of one kind and another, it is going to be the nicest thing! Quite a bit of running too, I imagine, plus a dramatically large amount of work on my academic book manuscript...
[ED. A firm afterthought: all this is in aid of mental and physical health, and as soon as a workout obligation starts to create stress or make life worse rather than better I must skip it, this is perhaps not a good principle in general but I've got a lot of stuff on these next couple weeks and I cannot be filled with self-reproach every time I miss a workout! A couple days off will potentially be for the greater good, especially if it means more sleep...]
Gym workout
It is amazing how much better I feel at the end of an hour working out with M.--I was a little worried about whether I was actually just too tired and overwhelmed to take advantage of its benefits, but fortunately that was not the case...
I am going to indulge myself one day next week in a long lavish post about goals for 2008, but the real essential truth of the matter is that my one huge goal for 2008 is to take better care of myself and calm down a bit. This includes things like hydration, really I do not drink enough water, but the main thing is to figure out how to sleep a bit more & not let myself get into such a state about things. I have really overextended myself this last few months, and the worst thing about the state I'm in is that I have nobody to blame for it but myself. It's like when you're on a machine at the gym and it seems too easy and you turn up the resistance higher and higher and then all of a sudden you're staggering and can barely pedal or stay on the treadmill or whatever.
There's a fatal lag time--I feel something lacking (often already a sign of overwork), I pile on more activities, I pile on even more activities because I'm feeling the strain and more work initially seems like a panacea, and then the next thing you know it is absolutely too much and a complete disaster. But I do not actually enjoy being in a state of frenzy, and I am going to devote more brainpower to figuring out how to make some of this stop, or at least moderate its baleful influence...
I am going to indulge myself one day next week in a long lavish post about goals for 2008, but the real essential truth of the matter is that my one huge goal for 2008 is to take better care of myself and calm down a bit. This includes things like hydration, really I do not drink enough water, but the main thing is to figure out how to sleep a bit more & not let myself get into such a state about things. I have really overextended myself this last few months, and the worst thing about the state I'm in is that I have nobody to blame for it but myself. It's like when you're on a machine at the gym and it seems too easy and you turn up the resistance higher and higher and then all of a sudden you're staggering and can barely pedal or stay on the treadmill or whatever.
There's a fatal lag time--I feel something lacking (often already a sign of overwork), I pile on more activities, I pile on even more activities because I'm feeling the strain and more work initially seems like a panacea, and then the next thing you know it is absolutely too much and a complete disaster. But I do not actually enjoy being in a state of frenzy, and I am going to devote more brainpower to figuring out how to make some of this stop, or at least moderate its baleful influence...
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