Good End to a Good Week

Paranoia was running high on Thursday so I opted to bail-out on the trainer workout. Instead, I went to the gym and did some light weights, as well as some knee-stability exercises.

On Friday morning I got out of bed and hopped right on the trainer for 65 minutes of heavy sweating. I stayed at around 160bpm for the entire time, save for when there was heavy gunfire (Band of Brothers again), wherein I would shift, stand up and pump those pedals harder until the battled died down.

Pretty exciting, huh?

Quadrathon has recently posted a review for The Sufferfest, some indoor-trainer related workout DVD. I have never tried one of these before, and I hesitate to ever refer to indoor bicycle riding as spinning, especially since my living room is not the same as being trapped in that sauna-esqe room with 40+ yr. old cougars like you'd find at your local gym. That aside, the video itself looked pretty damn cool and very motivating. I might try it out...

That evening I went to the pool for an untimed, moderate-effort swim workout. It reads as follows...

Untimed Swim - 3100m
500m - warm-up
800m - untimed
700m - untimed
600m - untimed
500m - untimed
hot-tub

I had two hard swims earlier in the week so it felt right to lay up a little on this one and put a little time into form and general swim-enjoyment. I forget who said it, but I like the quote "make your hard workout short and HARD, but make your easy workouts long and EASY." That kind of mentality was what was running through my mind. I wanted to get in some decent yardage while doing so in larger chunks  at a time. Success!

Saturday I went to the gym and did light-weights for all swimming-related muscles: back, shoulders, triceps. Oh, and abs. On Sunday I came back to the gym again for a very thorough weight regiment for my legs, but also did some biceps. Oh, and abs again. Nice.

In the food-prep world, I recently cooked a great spiced chicken, whole-wheat pasta, chicken salad, tortilla soup w/chipotle peppers, broccoli, corn and... mmmm.... bananas foster! Did I mention the Ommegang Three Philosophers beer I drank on Saturday night?

MMM, mmmmmm!

Read more...

Swimming With a Friend > Swimming Alone

Maybe it's an attitude problem, but I ALWAYS perform better when I'm working out with a friend. This, again, proved to be true today when I was up at the Wilson Aquatic Center with co-worker and master home-renovator Patrick. To set the scene, the pool was magnificently uncrowded. A few of  the familiar faces were there, but we were lucky enough to have only two others in the lane with the two of us (that's 4 for your math whizzes). Enough of that though... let's take a look at the stats.

Interval Workout - 3300m
500m - warm-up
300m - 5:11 (1:44/100m)
300m - 5:19 (1:46/100m)
300m - 5:18 (1:46/100m)
300m - 5:12 (1:44/100m)
300m - 5:19 (1:46/100m) 
300m - 5:04 (1:41/100m) (RECORD!!)
300m - 5:17 (1:46/100m)
300m - 5:04 (1:41/100m)
100m - 1:24 (1:24/100m) (RECORD!!)
300m - cool-down

WoooooooooooOOOOT!! Another great day for improvement! As the stats indicate, I did indeed set two new swimming records, which I'm pretty damn happy about.

The main one is the 100m record, brought down 3 seconds from my last record. This record is purely a side-effect of my larger goal of a purely vain accomplishment. It really has no bearing on the rest of my training, but it feels great to watch the bar rise higher. To keep things in perspective, I like to remember the crazy-ass 100m time a friend of mine posted waaay back in highschool in his swimming glory - sub 0:50:00.  

Daaaaaaamn.

I've still yet to find anyone in the triathlete world that could touch that time.

In the time between I swam 5:19 to 5:04, a guy I met named Brennan was cool enough to offer to throw a few pointers my way. He saw me sucking air between sets and wondered if I was training for something. I shared the story of my swimming debacle at the Nation's Tri last summer, as well as my desire to improve on those times dramatically.

He noticed that I've got more twist than a corkscrew.

Wait, you mean I'm not supposed to do all of that gyrating??

No.

He basically noticed that I was yanking my head way out of the water to breath at an inefficient angle, thus causing a change reaction in the rest of my form. I would then over-rotate my body and ruin my streamline even more. His solution was to have me tilt my head up so that the water-line was about where my hair-line was. Eyes are forward, more water is hitting chest and when I turn to breath, it's almost at a forward angle.

It felt pretty good, too. I felt more aerodynamic in the water and my head was DEFINITELY moving a lot less than it had in the past.

Very cool!

Read more...

Numbering the Days

I realized this past weekend just how limited my time left in DC actually is. When March ends, so does my life here in DC. That can make a man pretty reminiscent. Last June, I wasn't thinking it would be my last summer in DC - I was enjoying the weather, my job, my softball teams and my training. But now, I can't help but think that, with only two months left, these are actually two very important months. There are so many things I want to do for the first time (or for the 10th time) before I leave.

Anyway, I'd like to try and project this care-free attitude toward my training. Whenever I'm saying "f*ck it" in my head right as I'm about to get in the pool to do a swim workout, hopefully I can take a second and think how awesome it is that I can hop on my vespa and ride only two miles up the road and hop in a brand new 50m pool. It really is quite a luxury, and given the state of endurance sports here in DC, I'm usually in some pretty amazing company.

With that, I'll segue into catching this blog up on my workouts...

Thursday - I went to the pool with a bad attitude, swam with a bad attitude and left with only 2000m in my pocket. It was crowded, I was unmotivated and I definitely did not get the work done.

Friday/Saturday/Sunday - Flew out early to MI for a weekend full of great food, great friends, great family and a ton of wedding planning. I did get to exercise my gastronomic curiosities by indulging in one of Chef Paul Prudhomme's amazing jambalaya recipes. It was the first recipe of his that I've tried, and it definitely won't be the last.

Today...

Swim Workout - 3200m
500m - warm-up
300m - 5:15 (1:45/100m)
300m - 5:24 (1:48/100m)
300m - 5:17 (1:46/100m)
300m - 5:27 (1:49/100m)
300m - 5:24 (1:48/100m)
300m - 5:25 (1:48/100m)
300m - 5:15 (1:45/100m)
300m - 5:35 (easy)
300m - cool-down (1 w/paddles + pull-buoy)

I felt good about the first and last serious efforts (the 5:15 splits) which turned out to be PBs for the 300m distance! I held back on the first one, too! I did start out again with a bit of a sour attitude, but was able to correct it mid-swim and just focus on the immediate tasks in front of me.

A girl in the lane next to me was kind enough to let me try out her hand-paddles and pull-buoy for a lap. I've only tried them once before and I looked and felt like an ass. This time things went much much smoother. I could definitely feel the speed increase, the form correction... and the immediate fatigue in my arms. It was cool though and hopefully I can get some more practice in with these in the near future.

Read more...

Short and Sweet Update

The pool was closed on Monday at all times except 9am-5pm. Nice, huh? For those of us that actually had to work on this holiday, that did us no good. With that in mind, I would not be able to get in my regularly scheduled swim workout. I hadn't had an off day in a few weeks and thought that this might be a great time to take it easy for a day and heal up.

So, I did.

I ate stew, watched movies, wedding planned and screwed around with some photoshop editing methods.

Elaine (my fiancee) and I here in DC a few summers back.

It was great, but I kinda wished I could have gone swimming and built off of my great week last week.

Tuesday I had planned to go to the pool. My friend was supposed to meet me at my place and then we travel up there together, but I got a call from him 30 minutes after he said he'd be there that he just got out of a meeting at work and had to stay later. Bummer! That took the wind out of my sales a bit and motivation started to nose-dive. Doing long workouts are always easier when you've got someone doing it with you.

Never-the-less, I dragged my ass to the pool and tried to pick myself back up mentally. I was starting to get there (mentally) after I swiped my card at the desk to the pool, but then turned and looked down into the pool itself and saw nothing but MAYHEM. Half of the lanes were reserved for a masters class and the other half were simply PACKED. We're not talking 5-6 in a lane, which is the typical "busy" for M, W or F. When I got into my lane, there were 10 people already in it... and that was a less-populated lane. Jeeeeeeeeeez.

Knowing that, I had to revise my swim workout since there was NO WAY I would be able to do carefully timed/spaced set of intervals of varying distances without getting messed up by having to wait behind someone, or passing, etc. Instead, I just did 6 x 500m, un-timed. The form was kind of sloppy but I ended up being the fastest one in my lane. Perhaps I should have switched over, but I guess I preferred doing the passing and being disgruntled as opposed to being passed and feeling really slow.

I'm considering a return trip to the pool tonight to make good on some speedwork and post some respectable times. If not, then a date with the bike-trainer is at the top of the list, followed by a trip to the gym to work on the abs.

Read more...

Best Trainer Ride To Date

I know what you're thinking - a great ride on your indoor bike trainer is kind of like being the smartest kid with down syndrome. At the end of the day I'm still indoors and I'm still on a bike trainer, but it's still better than nothing, right? RIGHT.

That aside, I had my best "ride" on my trainer to date this past Sunday. It just so happened to coincide with Brett Favre's absolute SHELLACKING of those f-ing Dallas Cowboys. Did that have something to do with the positive attitude?.. perhaps. In any event, I was able to power through an hour in the saddle with frequent get your ass outta the seat and sprint moments (third downs), heavy gear moments (in the red-zone) and some high-cadence moments (during commercials) for good measure. I enjoyed the sweating and the effort and welcomed the fact that football was there to keep me distracted.

To boot, I got up a little earlier and stopped in at the gym to do some light-weights, a ton of jump-rope and some abs BEFORE coming back and getting on the trainer. It was a solid day.

Today is Monday and the pool is closed b/c of the holiday. I'm thinking I will most likely take today as somewhat of a rest day in preparation for tomorrow's swim. However, I still plan on doing some abs and stability work for my legs over at the gym after work tonight.

In other news, I just started taking vitamins - Vitamin D and Fish Oil.

Read more...

Friday Intervals of DEATH! (and some other stuff)

Local duathlon aficionado turned triathlon nightmare Dirk De Heer has posted some interesting interval workouts that I've been curious to try out. They basically boil down to 50m x 1203931 times, with 10-15 sec. rest in between each. I tried my hand at an abbreviated version, which is as follows...

Interval Workout - 2800m
500m - warm-up
50m x 10* - 44, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48, 49, 48, 47
50m x 10* - 45, 48, 47, 49, 47... (crappy watch only holds up to 30 "laps")
50m x 10* - averaged 47 seconds
50m x 10* - averaged 46 seconds
300m - cool-down 
Hot-tub

Jump off of diving board 5 or 6 times demonstrating proper canon-ball technique.

*note: rest time btw. 50s was 10-15 seconds, 30 seconds after each 10x50m

Depart for gym for weights and abs for 1 hr...

Come home and die.

Wake up, crawl towards fridge and grab an amazing beer from the Ommegang Brewery near my future home in upstate New York.

I'M ALIVE AGAIN!!

Did I mention my watch only seems to hold 30 laps worth of information? So, my way more impressive 50m times were lost to stupidity which I didn't recognize until just now as I'm typing in the stats. I guess I'll have to figure out another method for keeping track of all of this time in the future, or just not worry about it...

I'm now home and salivating as I think about the fact that I'm merely seconds away from delving back into the world of hardcore stew production. It was amazing last time, but I'm now armed with a few ideas to take to an even greater level. Here's to a great week of swimming!

Read more...

First Noticeable Signs of Progress

Overall, this was one of the best swims of my life. I showed time improvements in nearly all of the ladder intervals. It was AWESOME. Check out the stats below...

Ladder Workout - 3300m
500m - warm-up
100m - 1:33 (1:33min/100m)
200m - 3:23 (1:42min/100m)
300m - 5:25 (1:45min/100m)
400m - 7:28 (1:52min/100m)
500m - 8:58 (1:48min/100m)
400m - 7:18 (1:49min/100m)
300m - 5:24 (1:48min/100m)
200m - 3:28 (1:44min/100m)
100m - 1:28 (1:28min/100m)
300m - cool-down

I'm very pleased with the progress. This is a good sign that despite my general lack of swimming knowledge, I must be doing at least something right. MOTIVATION!!!! WoohooOOO!!!!!

Read more...

Simulating the Life of a Bachelor

Working out. Eating meat. Drinking beer.

This was my Wednesday, and it was AMAZING.

I got home from work last night and hopped right onto the bike trainer, but not before popping Band of Brothers into the DVD player. It felt like I was bicycling through a war-zone and the dudes on TV were somehow managing to protect me from getting shot. In accordance with my plan to slowly and regularly raise my time spent in the saddle, I logged 52 minutes of higher-geared riding time (or about the length of a B.O.B. episode). My legs felt great and less taxed than they had the last couple of rides - a very good sign.

Post trainer-ride, I ventured out to the kitchen and began the creation of an amazing stew, complete with bacon, chorizo and pork chops mixed amongst a plethora of veggies and spices. To carry me over during the ~1hr. of cooking time, I cracked open a bottle of Schneider-Brooklyn Hopfenweisse, one of my favorite beers of all time, and cranked up some New Orleans street-band music. The beer was delicious, the music was fabulous and the stew was hearty, to say the least. It hit the spot perfectly, especially given the unforgivingly-cold temperatures outside.

A full stomach and strong beer were more than enough to settle me down into a deep relaxation for the rest of the evening which was mostly spent doing a bit of graphic design, recipe scavenging and Alton Brown reading. Damnit, I had such a good time (and so many left-over white-beans) that I'm planning to relive the whole experience this weekend!!

Here's to hoping I have a good lookin' swim tonight.

Read more...

Back at it - First Full Swim

Today was my first attempt at the full swim workout since the long 2+ week vacation. It started off awkwardly with me not being able to find my rhythm, but eventually I started to remember what rhythm actually feels like. It's nice to start getting back in form (well, in my form).

The point of no return!

I somehow missed the warning signs.

Ladder Workout - 3300m
500m - warm-up
100m - 1:33 (1:33min/100m)
200m - 3:30 (1:45min/100m)
300m - 5:49 (1:56min/100m)
300m - 5:23 (1:48min/100m)
500m - 9:19 (1:52min/100m)
400m - 7:21 (1:50min/100m)
300m - 5:30 (1:50min/100m)
200m - 3:28 (1:44min/100m)
100m - 1:27 (1:27min/100m)
300m - drills and cool-down

Nice tile color, by the way (Go Blue!)

The stats aren't really that amazing, but I'm especially proud of that last 100m which came in at 1:27. That's a lifetime record, folks!.. and it came AT THE END of my workout! Woot!! We'll see if we can break that record at Wednesday's swim.

My new hat!.. very warm, very stylish and verrry comfortable.

This is what death looks like... or 3300m in the pool 

for the first time in just about a month!

I'm excited to get out on the trainer tomorrow and kick some ass!

Read more...

A Few Good Quotes

Today was technically scheduled to be an off-day for me. WHAT?! An off-day?!?... after pizza & chinese??? Alas, the answer is yes. I didn't want to put extra stress on my knee by biking again or jeopardize tomorrow's swim by swimming today. I did head on over to the gym to do 1300 jump-rope, abs and biceps, so not all hope was lost.

This afternoon, while watching the Ravens try to kill the clock against the Patriots since the end of the 1st quarter, I was cleaning up my computer and came across some quotes I've collected that can be applied to the sport of triathlon. Here are a bunch of them:

1. A race is an exercise in leaving others behind. [Lance Armstrong]
2. Swimming is the worst part of a triathlon: if you stop pedaling on a bike you coast, if you stop running, you walk, but if you stop swimming you drown. [Unknown]
3. It doesn't get any easier; you just get faster. [Greg Lemond]
4. Everybody wants to know what I'm on. What am I on? I'm on my bike busting my *** six hours a day. What are you on? [Lance Armstrong]
5. You can quit and no one will really care....but you will always know. [John Collins]
6. There is something in every human being that seeks testing. A yearning to discover just how far one can go, how much one is capable of achieving. From this desire was born the most demanding athletic endurance test ever. [Unknown]
7. The physical pain you feel can't compare to the emotional pain you feel, when you quit. [Unknown]
8. My sport is your sport's punishment. [Unknown]  
9. The body is telling the mind to stop. The mind is telling the body to shut up. [Lance Armstrong]
10. There is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self. [Hindu proverb]
11. The only easy day was yesterday. [US Navy Seals]
12. Triathlon doesn't build character - it reveals it. [Unknown]  
13. I was already in the hurt locker. I was in the pain cave and I had dropped the flashlight, so it was pretty dark at that point. [Michael Friedman (Slipstream-Chipotle), describing his condition when Gilbert blew past him 173 km (107 miles) into the 2008 Omloop Het Volk] 
14. Why isn’t the aero position in the Karma Sutra? [Unknown]

Read more...

Pizza & Chinese

Lets start with the good:

On Friday I swam another 2800m. I forgot my watch and didn't feel like trying to memorize all of my times, so I budgeted my swim-performance on perceived effort and ground-gained on my friend who was there with me.

Workout - Ladder (build back up)
300m - warm-up
100m, 200m, 300m, 400m, 500m, 400m, 300m, 200m, 100m
No warm-down

My friend wanted to race me on the last 100m. I gave him a head-start and then proceeded to run him down. I caught him at the halfway point and was halfway back home when I noticed he was NOWHERE in sight. I pulled up, spun around and saw him clinging to the wall behind me. It turns out he pulled up lame on his turn at the wall with a devastating calf cramp. OUCH. It was kinda funny though - he was prrrretty dramatic.

Saturday came with an early morning weight and ab session at the gym. I then ran some errands just in time to make it back for the first playoff game of the season - jets vs. bengals. I then hopped on the trainer for 45 minutes of sweaty awesomeness! NO PAIN!

For those keeping score at home, that's TWO workouts and it wasn't even dinner time yet! FANTASTIC. All the while I was planning to undo whatever good I did today. It is a football tradition of mine to order pizza and chinese food for Philadelphia Eagles playoff football games. It sounds weird, I know, but it was SPECTACULAR. Now, I know any serious triathletes would scoff at this, but that's why they're serious triathletes and why I'm who/where I am, right?

Bittersweet though because my Eagles lost to those f-ing Cowboys.

Read more...

Another AquaVelo Report

I hit the pool again on Wednesday night cranking out 2800m. It was pretty rough, just like Monday's swim, both mentally and physically. I hit the gym on Tuesday night (weights/abs/jump-rope) before hopping on the trainer, and I think it's that time in the weight-room that wore my shoulders/back out and had me sore for the swim... specifically the front of my shoulders. It just made it ridiculously hard to reach straight out on my stroke and I often found myself cheating and not getting my arms fully extended at the surface of the water.

But yes, 2800m was achieved, complete with a few sets of drills in there. I timed myself on some things but don't have the figures in front of me to report. I can guarantee that they weren't impressive though, if that matters... which it really doesn't right now.

On Thursday I hopped on the trainer again and LOVED LOVED LOVED the 45 minutes of trainer riding. I haven't felt my thighs burn like that in quite some time (that's what she said?). That's the feeling of progress, folks, and it was fantastic!

I don't know what the hell happened, but I haven't had any knee pain in the last week. Now, that's not to say I'm about to go out and start running because I'm too damn scared that I'll snap 37 ligaments/tendons right away. No, that would be bad. So instead, I'm jumping a ton of rope to at least try to keep my calves in some kind of shape. My plan will be to keep pushing things little by little on the trainer until Mar. 1, at which point, assuming there are no setbacks (please please please), I will sloooooowly reintroduce myself to "left-right-left-right-repeat."

In other news, I tried that new Trident LAYERS gum today (strawberry citrus) and I wasn't impressed. The graphics and packaging are so much more satisfying than the 55 seconds the flavor lasts.

Read more...

Looking Both Ways

What a year, last year. There were many "firsts," for better or worse... but things were almost completely for better.

In sports, we are taught to perpetually look ahead to the next challenge, the next training session, the next game - never backward. We're supposed to be focused on the goal in front of us. We groan when we hear football/basketball/baseball players regurgitate the same "take it one game at a time" mentality, but that's what we're all taught growing up.

At the end of the season we all want to sit back and look at what we've accomplished and find a sort of justification for our time spent, our efforts which reinforces the lifestyle we have chosen. However, looking back can be a dangerous thing to do. When you look back, there is the chance that you could somehow feel satisfied, as if you accomplished what you originally set out to do.

In triathlons, the end almost never justifies the means.

It's undeniably tempting to sit back and appreciate all of the things I was able to accomplish physically and mentally this past year. I'm proud of myself, too - very proud. But each time I pat myself on the back I'm gambling with my future goals. I had plenty of time these past couple of weeks to enjoy this new dimension of my life but the time for looking back has ended.

It was around this time last year that I decided that I wanted to take a shot at competing in a triathlon. That goal lit a fire in me. I now need to find a new way to relight that fire and push on towards what lies ahead in 2010. My injuries are starting to subside, the weather is peaking at its worst and the days are finally starting to get longer again. I don't have any specific goals for 2010 in mind when I write this except to train hard and stay injury free. I loved the journey that was triathlon-training and can't wait to dive back into it 100% again in the near future.

Read more...

1 Swim, 1 Bike - 1 Bad, 1 Good

Monday was my first time back in the pool since sometime in the 'teens of December. I had planned on skipping the pool until Tuesday b/c I thought it would have been the most crowded day of all time, being the first workday of the new-year... but I didn't. I knew I was going to suck and that my endurance would be shit so I figured it didn't really matter how busy the pool was. And with that breath of motivation, off I went.

Recognize this place? Hmm, i need to come up with some more creative photos.

I did a 500m warm-up and that felt... ok. I then proceeded to start a 500/400/300/200/100 set and quickly realized that I wasn't about to turn in a remarkable performance, time-wise. I think I clocked in the first 500m at around 9:30 so at that point I just decided to stop keeping time and go out and do the distances for quality rather than racing against myself. Good call on my part, because the next 400m was already hell enough. Things felt heavy and awkward, but I pushed on. I threw in some drills, one of which included racing (and beating) a friend of mine - I was using a pull buoy and he was using FLIPPERS... sucks for him!

All in all, I accomplished my goal of getting back into the pool and loosening up the arms in hopes of getting back to the regularly-distanced program either on Wednesday or Friday.

Tuesday - NO KNEE PAIN TODAY

I took about two weeks off over Christmas because of traveling and having family visit. In that time, I had no workouts and did minimal walking so my knee got A LOT of rest. So much so that I failed to realize that the pain was slowly subsiding even more than expected. I was very cautiously optimistic about getting on the bike trainer... more so on the optimistic side. After 45 minutes at the gym doing core and light-weights, I came home and hopped on and cranked out 35 short minutes of absolutely PAIN FREE training. No tweaks, no weaknesses - just lots of sweat. At the end of the short session I felt great. I wanted to stop while I was ahead and give it another GO on Thursday to see if I can get the same results.

That short stint did yield some other minor discomfort, which reminded me of this...

DANGER! DO NOT RUB ON ANYTHING BUT BALLS!

What you're looking at is my specially marked stick of body glide. It is to be used ONLY on areas that are furiously and continuously rubbed against the saddle of my bicycle... namely the ball-region. Note how the special marking could deter any friends from grabbing it and using it themselves.

Back in the pool tonight!

Read more...

(Im)perfect Storm

It's been too long since I've made my last deposit. I guess you can say my blogging correlates to my working out.

Without looking back at prior posts, I want to say my last workout was a swim on a Tuesday. I had planned to swim at least one more day that week (possibly two) before my flight back to Michigan that Thursday night. None of that happened. My work had an impromptu Christmas happy-hour on Wednesday, followed by a quick/new deadline for work the following day not allowing me any extra time to squeeze any workouts in. Boo. On the flip side, before I knew it I was in MI visiting friends and family for the next week.

No working out that week, but PLENTY of cooking - including a plethora of Ukrainian/Polish food made by yours truly.

This, and more, were for the party we threw for our friends.

My little(BIG) brother, Ryan.

I was scheduled to be back in DC for a night before my fiancee, her family and my younger brother arrived in DC for an extended weekend of "vacationing." However, I came down with a nasty cold that laid me up, which meant no working out for that one night, or following morning.

They came, we partied, but now they're gone so it's time to get back into working out.

New Years Resolution #1 - get knee examined by someone other than Dr. Internet.

Read more...