January Numbers & A Dubious Milestone

Before I get to the numbers, let's talk about that dubious milestone, shall we?  For the first time in about 5 years, I have not logged a single mile on the bike (or trainer), in a full month.  When I had my bike crash in August of 2009, I was off the bike for about 10 -12 weeks, but was on the trainer regularly.  It feels kind of bizarre, but with my focus on swimming and the emergence of enjoying running during the cold months, it makes perfect sense.  Last year, my shortest month in, in terms of mileage, was 94.84 while in 2010 it was 164.17.  I have rough total for 2008 and 2009, but it wasn't until I started training for IMAZ 2010 (in December of 2009) that I started keeping accurate data.  As of today, 74 days after IMAZ2012, my tri bike hasn't moved on the rack in my garage.  In fact, I STILL haven't put my regular wheels back on and Carlos still has my skewers in his racing wheels/disc that I borrowed!!!!

One final note before the numbers.  Today is the first day, since last Friday, that I am completely free of any soreness from Frank's workout and I go back tomorrow for more!!!!!

I'm not going to keep a running tally of TOTAL mileage/yardage, rather I will just compare the monthly results.  Maybe I'll do a total comparison quarterly.  With that in mind, here you go!

JANUARY 2010 TOTALS:

SWIM = 0 yards

BIKE = 364.75 miles

RUN = 32 miles

JANUARY 2012 TOTALS:

SWIM = 7500 yards

BIKE = 258.4 miles

RUN = 0 miles

JANUARY 2013 TOTALS:

SWIM = 19750 yards

BIKE = 0 miles

RUN = 26.89 miles
ENDLESS POOL =  90 Minutes

Feeling Human Again

Today is the first day, since Friday, that the soreness has started to subside.  Make no mistake about it, I am still very sore, but it's more like that "good" sore feeling that comes after a solid workout.  In fact, I was able to do the following butterfly swim workout just fine:

• W/U - 1x(400+4x100+4x50)(:20RI), 6x50K Fly (1st 6 kicks off wall are FAST)(:30RI), 6x50S (Free down / Fly back)(:20RI)
• M/S - 8x50 Fly (1st 6 kicks off wall are FAST)(1:15SI), 200S EZ, 6x50 Fly (1st 6 kicks off wall are FAST)(1:10SI)
• C/D - 250EZ

I say that I completed the swim just fine meaning that I wasn't hampered by any lingering issues from Friday.  I will tell you that I have some work to do with my fly strength.  I was struggling a bit on the last 2 50s in the first set and then again on the last 2 of the second.  But hey, that's what practice and strength training are for, right?!?!

Has the Hurt Locker Been Locked?

Here I am, approximately 72 hours out from my first strength routine with Frank and I can tell you that nothing has improved.  If anything, the soreness has increased!  Check out the following text exchange again:

• Me (3:05PM):  Can't remember the last time I was this sore.  Abs hurt to where I can't laugh, cough, or sneeze.  If I do, it will drop me to my knees!  Sitting here hurts!
• Frank (5:01PM):  Get you strong like bull!!!
• Frank (7:45PM):  Boxing gloves ordered, speed work for cadence and turnover.

 Say what?!?

Officially In the Hurt Locker

I rolled out of the rack around 6:00AM to go coach at 7:00AM.  It was definitely a struggle just to do that!  Wow, I'm really complaining about this, right!?!?  Honestly, the last time I was this sore was in high school when I first started lifting weights.  I can remember not being able to lift my arms above my shoulders and slathering on Asper-cream every chance I had.  At 8:54AM, the following exchange started with Frank:

• Frank:  How's the body feeling?
• Me:  Feeling it in the glutes & lower abs today!
• Frank:  Wine will ease the soreness
• Me:  Workout, shower, drink wine, repeat.  Not always in that order though.

Geez, my abs are SCREAMING at me right now!  My glutes, inner thighs, shoulders, entire back, and arms aren't happy either....or are they? 

Here Comes the Pain!

It's less than 24hrs after my "torture session" with Frank and I'm in big trouble!  Typically, when I work out various muscles for the first time, I get a bit sore the day after, but REALLY feel it the following day (48hrs after exercising).  Today is brutal!  Here is a text exchange between me and Frank:

• Me (12:30PM): Oh boy!  Yesterday's workout just kicked in.  Definitely feel it in my upper back, shoulders, and obliques.
• Frank (Sarcastically at 12:53PM): Scotch will sooth the sore muscles.

Even though I was super sore, I still had a swim set to take care of.  Secretly, I was hoping that said set would loosen me up and alleviate some of the pain.  Here is the 3000 yard set that I did:

• W/U - 1x(400+4x100+4x50)(:20RI), 3x(4x25+[100])K (:20RI)
• M/S - 16x50 (25 sprint / 25 EZ 4,8,12,16 sprint all)(:20RI), 8x50 MAX EFFORT (:20RI)
• C/D - 200EZ

I can't wait to see how I feel tomorrow!  

Endless Pool & Day 1 of Strength Training

So, today was finally the day where I started my swim specific strength training.  Up first, however was a 50 minute endless pool session in the morning.  If you recall, during my last endless session, Frank discovered that I wasn't bending my left arm quite soon enough.  Since then, I've made a concentrated effort to make sure I get that early vertical catch and grab as much water as I can earlier on the left side.  While doing another film session, he indicated that my left looked good, but noticed that my right hand was pulling out a tad too soon.  The video revealed that I was pulling it out just before my waist when it should be after.  To help remedy this, we reverted back to the ol' "Thumb Off the Thigh" drill where I was to physically have my thumb touch my thigh every time.

Later that afternoon, it was time to go back to Frank's studio for my strength training.  Here is what we did after 300 skips with a jump rope.  We did 5 sets with a 30 second break between sets:

• 10 sit-ups with hands straight up above my head (streamline position) and the bottoms of my feet touching (legs bent).
• 10 Side Plank bends on each side.  Get into the side plank positing and lower your hips to the ground and then push them up as far as you can.
• 10 abdominal twists with a 10lb medicine ball while sitting on the ground (legs elevated).
• 10 deep squats, with a 10lb medicine ball, facing the wall.  Power up from the squat and throw the medicine ball has high as you can up said wall.
• 10 push-ups.

After that, we did this routine 4x through with no breaks between sets:

• Step-ups with a 10lb medicine ball.  Step up with your right leg and then high knee kick with the left while pressing the medicine ball above your head.  Repeat with the opposite leg.  10x each leg.
• Dead lifts with 95lbs (45lb bar and 2 25lb weights)

I left the studio tired, but feeling good.  I haven't done any type of core routing, weightlifting, or even visited a gym since September 10th ~ 4 1/2 MONTHS ago!  This is definitely gonna leave a mark.

Day One of Nationals Training? & New Swim Suits

I was supposed to meet Frank at his studio this morning so we could begin my strength training for the USMS National Championships in Indy.  As I stated in a previous blog, we have had a hard time getting this training thing going.  It seems like every time I'm zigging, he's zagging.  When I then try to zag, he zigs!  Just when we thought all of that was over with, I get the following text:

"OK, here's the deal.  Blew a hole in my radiator.  No car.  Can we meet again this Friday at 6:00AM instead of tomorrow?"

And the saga continues!  At any rate, this probably worked out for the best as I've been nursing a sore back for a few days now.  Not quite sure how, but something got tweaked as I was getting into my car to go and coach swim team.  Imagine that, a simple maneuver like sitting down tweaks my back.  Nothing 800mg of ibuprofen can't handle!  But I digress.  After receiving the above text, I asked if he could at least send me a workout to get started with.  It needed to include some butterfly, backstroke, or both as well.  "Check" was his response.

While sitting at work, a lovely little package arrived from the company I picked to create our ONE Masters Swim team suits.  So, on my first day of nationals training, I'll be sporting some new gear.  Here is a pic I sent out to the club letting them know the suits were in:

Since I haven't been to the YMCA to swim in quite some time, my annual membership had elapsed.  Before I was to swim, I'd have to re-up at the front desk.  I'm not too fond of swimming at this particular venue, but I really can't beat it for convenience.  On top of that, I had a ONE Multisport board meeting at 5PM that was literally several miles from my work.  I had my work cut out for me and if I wanted to re-register, get my swim in, shower, and head all the way back down to the meeting in time, I was going to have to hustle!  

I printed out the following Frank Sole workout and headed out the door:

Warm Up

1 x ( 400 + 4 x 100 + 4 x 50 ) @ 15 RI

Main Workout 

8 x 100 free swim @ 1:35 

8 x 50  fly kick with board @ 1:00

8 x 50 fly/free sprint the fly down easy free back (fly down free back) @ 20RI 

1 x 200 easy 

8 x 50 fly @ 20 RI

Warm Down 

100 easy

Only problem was that I realized that I didn't grab said workout off the printer and had to turn around to go get it.  This was a total waste of precious time.  Finally, I get home, let the dogs out, get my swim gear together, and head over to the Y.  Once there, I tried to renew my membership, but they said that they needed my card (which I didn't have) after initially telling me they didn't.  Another waste of time!  At least the kid let me in anyway and said that I could do it the next time I came back.  The time was now roughly 3:45.  I had a MAXIMUM of 45minutes to get the above 3300 yard workout done and get home....not gonna happen.  Ultimately, I was able to do everything but those last 50s fly.  I quickly hopped out, dried off, and headed home.  No time for a shower, so I did a quick change and headed off to my meeting smelling of chlorine.  After all of this, I was only 10 minutes late!  I guess that one of the reasons for me telling all of this is that I NEVER had this problem during my entire IM training.  I can't recall having to cut any workout short because of a prior commitment.  Oh, how things change when you are not training for the big event!  Anyway, hopefully this is day one on my journey to Indy!

Swim Evaluation In Frank's Endless Pool

Went to Frank's studio (Sole Swim Solutions) this morning to get in a nice long, easy, endless pool session.  During the session, Frank was going to video my stroke again so he could offer up immediate feedback on any issues that I was displaying.  He also indicated that he wants to document my progression from now until nationals and possibly use said videos as a teaching tool for his other clients.  He took all kinds of video; above, front, back, both sides, and from a number of different positions under the water too.  At the end of this entry, I've included a link to the video he shot from above the water.  Frank described my stroke, in this video, as "classic form of fast/strong swimmers."  He said that I had perfect head position, good hip rotation, and perfect breathing technique.  What you can't see is what is going on underwater.  The only hiccup we saw there was that my left arm wasn't getting the "early vertical catch" as quickly as he'd like.  I wasn't bending my arm soon enough and was grabbing water too late.  I'm sure as we progress, there will be other items that come up, but for now he says that I look pretty solid.  One final note about that endless pool.  It's not as easy as it looks.  There is a constant battle to stay straight and in the middle.  The turbulence created by the waves not being able to escape off into a pool tends to try and get you crooked.  If you get just off center, the same thing happens....you get crooked.  Finally, trying to stay in the middle is tough too.  Inevitably, I find my self creeping up on the machine and then have to back off.  Frank says that this happens to just about everybody that gets in.  "Like moths to a light", he says.  The seemingly constant struggle to stay in the perfect position also plays with form as well.  OK, with that, here is that link to my video:

Endless Pool Video 

Mid-Month Report

Other than a few "odds and ends" there really isn't much to report, so this entry is probably more for my records than anything else.  Basically I want to document my overall fitness level and weight right now.  

Fitness wise, I haven't been doing much.  Ironically, my main source of exercise is coming in the form of running.  Wow, that's odd for me to even think about.  In fact, no longer do I dread lacing up the kicks and going for a jog.  Maybe it's because I don't have to answer to a coach and worry about my results when I report them.  Maybe it's because I'm not worrying about hitting a certain pace for a certain period of time.  My runs now consist of me heading out the door and settling into a comfortable pace and going for between 3 miles and 6.2 miles.  If, on a particular day, my comfortable pace is 9 min/mile, than so be it.  If my next run produces an 8:15 min/mile pace, great.  Right now, my PR for a 10K is that 52:48 (8:30 pace) I did back on 09/23/2012 in the Nathan's Olympic triathlon.  This last Friday, I did an out and back (OAB) on a trail system near my house called "Reach 11."  Again, I set out with no particular pace in mind.  In fact, I was only planning on running for about 4 miles, but at mile 2, instead of turning around, I kept going.  Ultimately, I ended up just missing my PR by a mere 7 seconds (52:55 ~ 8:32 pace).  Believe me, had I known I was that close, I would have pushed it a bit more. (Reach 11 Run)  I have yet to ride my bike in January and today saw my first swim workout.  The swim was a 3950 with plenty of speed built in.  Speaking of swimming, it seems as though Frank and I have had a tough time connecting to officially start my swim training for those three big meets this year.  The USMS Spring National Championships in May are rapidly approaching.  I wouldn't say that I'm in danger yet, but I am losing training time and am getting rather antsy.  Finally, I was able to secure a nice 25% discount on some laser etched, fully customizable, goggles for ONE Multisport athletes.  I had a chance to wear them this morning and they are fantastic!  The mirrored lenses weren't quite appropriate for the darkness (we swim from 5:30AM - 6:30AM on Wednesdays), but they were super comfortable.  Here is a pic:

In my previous post, I sarcastically used the Schrodinger Equation to tell you that I gained about nine pounds since Ironman.  I say "sarcastically" because it doesn't take a mathematician to figure out that a gain in weight always happens after an Ironman.  It's just the nature of things as the training decreases dramatically.  That being said, there must have been something wrong with the scale, or I just ate, or whatever, because that 9 pound increase seems to be an anomaly.  I've weighed myself 7 different times since then with the following results:

• 01/03/2013 = 160 lbs
• 01/04/2013 = 159 lbs
• 01/08/2013 = 159 lbs
• 01/11/2013 = 159.5 lbs
• 01/13/2013 = 161.5 lbs
• 01/14/2013 = 158 lbs
• 01/16/2013 = 157.5 lbs

If you recall, my race day weight, on 11/18/2012, was around 155, so in reality, I'm not far off that at all.  In fact, looking back during my training, I fluctuated primarily between 154 and 158.  Oh sure, there were a bunch of times where I checked in at 153 or 154 (I had one random day where 3 different attempts at the scale showed 150), but based on the recent data, and the fact that I'm still sticking to Eric's diet about 90%, I'm happy to see that I haven't really gained much at all in the last 2 months.

The Schrodinger Equation & Weight Gain

In quantum mechanics, the Schrodinger equation is a partial differential equation that describes how the quantum state of some physical system changes with time and is shown below:

For our purposes here, let's assume that the quantum state is my weight and/or fitness (does it really matter?) and that the change in time is Nov. 19th - Jan. 2nd.  Furthermore, let's also assume the following values:

i = number of cookies eaten
ħ = pieces of cake consumed
Ƌ = number of chemically made ingredients and/or preservatives in any one product
Ψ = adult beverages
t = time spent NOT exercising

After calculating it all out, throwing it through a couple of double derivatives and then rounding up, you will come to the conclusion that I have put on 9 pounds since race day.  Yup, you read the right....on race day, I weighed about 155 and today I weighed in at 164!  The last time I weighed this much was on 05/22/12 when I was 164.5.  This isn't exactly how I envisioned  my training for 3 different national championships would start out!