Iron Pol

When I was younger, most of my brother's friends were fairly crass.  One of those was a girl who went by the same name as the title of this post.  I'll leave the rest up to you.  Like I said, my brother's friends were a bit rough around the edges.

This morning, this term took on new meaning as I had a banner day in the pool.  The day started with a time trial for a "warm-up."  The goal?  See how fast I can do 1000 yards straight out of the blocks.  Apparently, better than ever.  I completed the time trial in 19:39, a full 10 seconds faster than my previous best time.  After that, I joined the dolphins in the fast lane for some 50s and 100s.  While I couldn't keep up, I was able to swim the 50s in 48 seconds, and the 100s in 1:48.

Apparently, I was either catching water well or I was particularly "slippery."  Either way, it felt good to have such a fast morning of swimming.  And to maintain the pace we did for the speed intervals AFTER the time trial was a good boost to the morale.

After a couple fast days, I'll try and put down some serious yardage, tomorrow.  Sunday will be a long run of around 17 miles as we head into the final month before the Green Bay Marathon.

Have a great weekend of training!

Finally, a big thanks to everyone who has been stopping by in the past few weeks.  The first ten days of March were a huge PR for the website.  I appreciate every single reader that stops by and hope you find some useful things while you are here.  If you're new, make sure you check out the Tri Blog Community page, and let me know if your site needs to be added.

No, it isn't a rest day.  It's an OFF day.  As in feeling "off."  Perhaps it's the long runs this past weekend.  Perhaps it's a rough night of sleep.  For the kids and therefore, by default, for me.  Perhaps it's just one of those days.

I planned an easy swim given the heavy mileage of the past three days.  I decided the short swim was a good opportunity to combine some basic skills with some 100s for speedwork.  I maintained a decent pace but still felt sluggish.  Far different from the runs where everything seemed to click.  Then again, I guess I'll take feeling slow over actually being slow (a relative term), any day.

I've always contended the best solution to motivation issues is race registrations.  Nothing is better at focusing attention than money spent on a race.  So, I completed my registration for the Green Bay Marathon, this morning.  To be honest, though, it had more to do with the race director telling our tri-club that the race is nearly at capacity.  If you're thinking about this race, it's time to stop thinking and start acting.

Once I dig up the paperwork, I will also hand in my registration for the Bellin Run 10K.  That will be a total of four confirmed events on the race schedule.  After the Spirit of Racine half-IM, my attention will be focused on preparing for a 50 mile running race in October.

In addition to these events, I may have inadvertently agreed to a long open water swim of either 3.5 or 7.5 miles, depending on which "wave" I join.  Someone in our tri club thought it might be a good idea to swim across the local lake.  The concept is taking on a life of it's own, and people are already talking about support boats, nutrition, and routes.  At this point, the idea is to swim at least 6.5 miles, finish at the swim location of the High Cliff Triathlon, and walk up the hill saying something like, "Whew, even Olympians only swim 6.2 miles!"

Hey, we have the coolest outfits and the coolest club.  Nobody ever said we have the most brilliant people.

One of the on-going debates in triathlon is the flip turn.  There are a great many triathletes who support doing flip turns in the pool.  It seems a lot of them are former swimmers.  There are just as many who prefer open turns and argue that flip turns are pointless as there are no walls in the lake, river, or ocean.  These are quite often people without a competitive swimming background.

Perhaps the most sensible argument I've seen either way was on the Swim Smooth video, where a lifeguard and experienced open water swimmer demonstrates an efficient method of navigating turn markers.  And if you've never seen the video of Olympic gold medalist Bill Kirby, check it out.  It is a great visualization tool.

Mike Ricci, who coached me to my first successful Ironman, is a firm believer in the flip turn.  He counters the "no walls in the open water" argument by pointing out that the lack of walls for flip turns makes it quite difficult to grab the wall and rest at the end of each lap.  And those of us who do open turns have to be honest with ourselves.  I know that my turn time gets longer and longer the further I swim.

Mike knows that mastering flip turns takes work.  To help, he created and posted a video showing some drills to help in the learning process.  It goes through several steps beginning at "do sommersaults in the lane" to the final product.  Again, just having the video to help with visualizing a good flip turn is a huge plus.

This morning, I decided to start putting effort into flip turns.  And it's not for any of the reasons commonly used to support them.  It's really just because they look cool.  In keeping with my abilities in the other disciplines of triathlon, I will never be an elite swimmer.  I'm happy just to pull out anything less than 2:15/100 yds for anything over 3000 yards.

But I can LOOK fast.  And how can I look fast?  By doing flip turns.  Face it, when you're at the pool and see someone doing flip turns, you KNOW they are a good swimmer.  If you take two people swimming at roughly the same pace, the one doing flip turns MUST be the better swimmer.  The facts don't matter.  Only perception.  So, I'm going to master flip turns so I can LOOK faster.  Maybe if I fake it enough, I'll start to live up to the perception.

And just to prove that I do occassionally learn something useful, here's a little tidbit I picked up, today.  Coach Mike's first step is to do sommersaults in the shallow end, just to get the feel of flipping in the water.  As a rank amateur, I can confirm that is more difficult than it looks.  One of the dolphins with whom I often swim was doing some aquajogging and made a very helpful suggestion.  Move to the deep end and use kickboards to help with the flip.

The trick is to use two kickboards to support your hands.  By pushing down on the kickboards, you can flip around them.  It helps keep the torso aligned and the hands in the right general area.  I really struggled with sommersaults in the shallow end.  Using the kickboards in the deep end felt more natural.  Using Coach Mike's progression, I was then able to do a few sommersaults (again, with the kickboards), and land my feet on the wall.

Happy swimming!  Just don't flip, too much.

There's a saying something like, "Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then."  Today, I feel like the blind squirrel.

After rearranging my workouts to better fit with the rest of life, I took yesterday as a rest day and did a swim/run workout, this morning.  Something about the rest day worked for me, as the workout went very well.  Perhaps it was time my shoulder needed to recover from playing dodgeball against the eighth graders at The Boys' Brigade.  Perhaps it was the "decent" night's sleep (meaning neither child woke me up, and I actually slept in my BED the whole night).  Maybe it was the free lasagna I had for dinner (leftovers from a work lunch).

Whatever it was, I had what is perhaps the best swim I've ever had.  It was certainly the best swim I've had in a long time.  It was a simple enough workout with a 300 yard warmup and 200 yard cooldown.  The main set was 10x100 at T-pace - 5" on 20" rest.  I've been throwing in at least one good speed workout each week in an effort to maintain my 2'/100 yard pace, or maybe even improve upon it.

I completed the warmup, and realized my pace was already 5" under my t-pace.  That's usually a sure sign I'm going to blow up a few hundred yards into the main set, and require outside assistance by the cool down set.  Needless to say, I wasn't overly confident going into the 100s.

The stars must be aligned properly, though, because I completed the entire main set with a pace of 1:51/100 yards.  That doesn't beat my personal best 100 yards ever, but it definitely beats my best average pace over distance.  And when I was able to complete the cool down set at a pace of 1:55/100, the first thing that came to mind was blind squirrels.

I don't expect to have days like this every day.  But it gives me a great swim on which I can focus when it comes to races.  It's good to know that I can complete most of an Olympic distance swim at a sub-2 minute pace.   That would shave a lot of time of my prior best swims.

And now, I have to get back to looking for nuts.  After all, blind squirrels only get lucky every so often.

I'm not a doctor.  I don't play one on t.v.  And I didn't even stay at a Holiday Inn Express, last night.  Even so, allow me to start by saying that portions of the workout described below aren't really suggested for normal training.  Sometimes, we all go a little nuts, or have a strange desire to know some useless bit of information.

My workout on Saturday started out normal enough.  I was in the pool as close to 6 a.m. (opening time) as possible.  I wanted to complete as many yards as possible before getting thrown out so 10 members of the water aerobics class have room for their workout.  They were running late, so I managed a 500 yard warmup followed by 14x100 at T-pace.  By then, the ladies were chomping at the bit to move lane ropes.

I relocated to the track for about 90 minutes of running.  A couple of runs during the week were perhaps a bit too strenuous, so I decided to do 10 miles at about 8:15 pace.  That pace keeps me near the bottom of Zone 2.  The run went very well.  Too well, perhaps, because somewhere around mile 8 I started thinking about Wednesday's run, where I did a half-mile somewhere around the 4:30/mile pace.  While I knew running a sub-5 minute mile was out of the question, I wondered just how FAR out of the question.

This is the part where you should refer back to the first paragraph and remind yourself that I sometimes do things that might be ill advised.

After finishing the 10 mile run, I took a break for a few minutes to even my heart rate out.  I found one of my favorite "run fast" tunes, got a running start, and started timing.  I had no idea what kind of pace I could maintain for one mile, so I started out what I assumed would be too fast.  I guessed right, and know each lap was just a bit slower than the previous lap.

Some time ago, I said there was no way I could ever run 10K at a 5:30/mile pace.  In fact, I was fairly confident there was no way I would ever move that fast without a machine, unless I was falling out of an airplane.

Apparently, I was wrong.  One mile, 5:29.  No gravity required.

I've said it before, and I'll say it, again.  I don't understand people who like to train naked.  Sure, there's some amount of freedom.  There are no worries about what to wear.  There are no concerns about things being too loose or too tight.  And there are no funky tan lines to explain.

But that's outweighed by the self-consciousness about what ISN'T there.  It just FEELS wrong.  Plus, there isn't anywhere to keep things that might be needed, later.  And there's just no telling what people might think as they watch you train.  "What is that lunatic doing?"  "Wouldn't he be better off with the proper attire?"

But sometimes, things get left at home.  And when that happens, there are two choices.  Go home and call it a day.  Or train naked.

That's what happened to me, this weekend.  I got to the YMCA on Saturday and realized that I had left not one, but both watches at home.  I was wearing my dress watch, but it's fairly useless in terms of swimming and running.  So, I was free of personal timing devices.

That changed the swim plans.  I use my watch to track laps and sets.  Without that, it is too difficult to work through and later recall the actual workout.  So I looked at the clock, started at a convenient time, and completed a half-IM swim.  Well, 2100 yards, but I think I could have made the last 12 yards in a race.  Using the highly accurate timing device, that took 46 minutes.  Then again, I wasn't wearing my glasses, and the clock is 30 yards away.  It could have been anywhere from 45 to 50 minutes.  When you're naked, you have to sacrifice accuracy for convenience.

After the swim, I headed to the track to run.  Some co-workers scheduled some training, and my plan was to get about 45 minutes of running in before they arrived, then finish when they did.   As the last paragraph mentioned, sometimes plans change.  By the time they were 30 minutes "late," I figured things must have come up, so I decided to put the time to good use and complete the half-IM run, as well.  I added a half-mile for good measure, as I was having to count laps and then mark them down on paper every 30 laps.  Remember, I still didn't have my watch.  I used a stop-watch function on my cell phone to time the run.  Just short of two hours later, I had completed just over 13.6 miles.

Two-thirds of a half-IM.  Naked.  Well, almost naked.  I did wear shorts and a tri-top.  But no watch.  And that may as well be naked.

A quick check of the training log shows nearly 45,000 yards swam in the month of November, with one day left.  That is significant for two reasons.  First, it's a lot of yardage for this turtle.  Second, my hair didn't feel like dry grass, this month.  Sometimes, a departure from the "manly" path is beneficial.  Leave in conditioner does wonders for chlorine dried hair.

One of the biggest challenges in training is patience.  While generally a patient person, the improvements from training often come too slowly for my satisfaction.  But if last year's efforts are an indication, the real benefits of November will become obvious over the next several months.  If I can just get someone to distract me with something shiny (new gear, not jewelry), I'll forget that I wanted immediate change.

A big focus for the past month has been on my stroke.  The Swim Smooth DVD set came in handy, and helped me identify some key drills for improving my form.  The most painful, and probably most beneficial, is sculling.  I put these drills to use in sets, sculling for one length (25 yards) then swimming back.  A couple laps of that was usually enough to have my chest muscles screaming.  That is a good sign that I need to do the drills and that they are improving strength in areas key to good form.  Though the 30-day focus is coming to an end, I will continue to use the Swim Smooth drills during the winter to fix one or two key weaknesses in my form.

After tomorrow, it's back to a normal training schedule.  It's time to start ramping up the run mileage, and get the bike onto the trainer.  And take a rest day or two.

One ongoing discussion in our swim group centers on water temperature.  We have a few hot-blooded mammals I honestly believe would prefer to see ice cubes (or icebergs) floating in the water.  On the other extreme is Coach Curt who frequently comments about various pools being "too chilly" for a normal swim.  I seem to fall somewhere in the middle.  I'm not fond of warm water, but still want to leave my wetsuit at home if I'm going to a pool.

Generally, the pool where I train is a good fit.  Occassionally, I'll get into the pool and shiver a bit.  It's usually nothing a few lengths can't resolve, and I warm up quickly enough.  And sometimes I hop in thinking it's a tad warm.  Still, it's water and cools better than air.  Warm water will still cool a swimmer in the midst of a tough workout.

Then again, I did qualify that with "generally..."

This morning, the only thought that came to mind when I got in the pool was kiddie pool.  You know what I'm talking about.  The wading pools common at many locations.  The ones with 6-8 inches of water, designed for toddlers.

I'm not sure what the water temperature was, this morning, but I sure hope they have a slush fund for paying the utilities.  I swear it was so warm my kids wouldn't have liked it.  They won't get into a tub with bathwater as warm as the water in our pool.

As I left the pool after a quick workout, I was left with one additional thought.

Who knew it was possible to sweat in the water?

In the past month, I've discovered a couple of co-workers are no longer with our company.  Generally, these discoveries were made when I sought out those individuals for help with a task or to give them information.  In one case, the guy had been gone for nearly a month.  I guess when it comes to the grapevine, I'm a victim of scorched earth technique.

For this morning's swim workout, I decided to do a time trial.  (No, this isn't horribly ADD, there will be a connection).  My lane partner was Coach Curt, who helped train the kids in our youth triathlon program.  As I finished the time trial, he asked what the format was, "Did you do 10x100, or something else?"  That led to the following conversation.

IP - Well, I did 40 lengths, whatever the exact distance is.

CC, looking at me rather oddly - Oh, is this pool short?

IP - The staff says it's 72 lengths to a mile.  That's about 24.4 yards per length.

CC - Actually, most pools are either 72 lengths to a mile, or 36 if it's a 50 yard pool.  It's the closest thing they can use so you start and stop at the same end.

IP - Blink.  Blink.

IP - Well, the Neenah pool says it's 66 lengths to a mile.

CC - They're using a competitive mile, which for some reason is actually 1650 yards.

IP - Blink.  Blink.  So, I've been shorting myself significant yardage on every swim?

CC - Why is that?

IP - Because I've been using 72 lengths to a mile, 1760 yards to a mile, so 24.4 yards to one length.  I do the math to figure out how far I swim for each interval.

CC - No, I'm sure you can safely use 25 yards per length.  If it's off, it won't be by more than an inch or two.

IP - Blink.  Blink.

In the end, our little conversation reveals several minor details.  First, I have completed SIGNIFICANTLY more yardage this year than I have logged.  Coach Curt pointed out that I can take a few days off, as I have several thousand yards in the bank.  Second, I may be just a bit obsessive when it comes to math.  Am I the only person in the world who has been calculating yardage out based on 1760 yds/72 lengths?

Perhaps an alternative title would be, "Yes, Iron Pol is Just THAT Naive."

Weekends are a great time to get in some big training numbers.  Of course, it is important that your spouse (kids, significant other, lover, parents, etc) be on board.  And the pool.  Well, lifeguards, at least.

As part of the 30-swims in 30-days, I was looking to Saturday for a long, slow swim.  I planned on being up early, and hitting the pool for at least 60 minutes.  Unfortunately, my wife planned on leaving for a conference at 7:15 in the morning.  With the pool open at 6 a.m., the idea of a 2500+ yard were pretty well busted up.  I settled for just over 1000 yards.

That's okay, Sunday presented another opportunity for that swim.  It would be convenient, as our tri club had a meeting scheduled for 4 p.m. at a local YMCA.  I got there about an hour early, ready to swim.  Well, mostly ready.  I didn't have my speedo (lowercase, because it's a Tyr suit).  That had been left at home.  I quickly decided I would forego both the speedo and my dignity, and just swim in my drag suit.

As I walked into the Y, I realized neither would be required, as the lights were out in the main pool.  That didn't bode well for their second pool, and I was told none of their lifeguards had made it to work.  Zero for four is pretty bad.

Faced with the dilemma of missing a swim so early in the month or driving, I opted to drive to another location.  After all, Bigun has been throwing some big yardage down, so missing a day was out of the question.  So, I headed down the road, watching another long swim go down the drain.  By the time I actually found my way to a pool, I had barely 15 minutes available for swimming.  I did what any good A-type personality (and bad triathlete) would do.  I pounded out as many yards as I could in that time frame.  880 yards later, I hopped out of the pool and rushed back for the meeting.

Two short weekend days and I got through fewer yards than a normal weekday workout.  Sometimes, things just go wrong.  Of course, the key is to get the workouts in and maintain some kind of consistency.  The alternative was to chalk up two no-training days.  Two short swims count for much more than two unscheduled rest days.

Short or long.  Easy or tough.  Get the training in, because the off season doesn't last forever.