Fine Form, But Frigid

I flip and flop through the locker room juggling keys, watch and goggles. Pressing on my mind is the fact that the room is being chilled to a uncomfortable 65 degrees, and I am sporting a lot of exposed flesh. After the brief respite found in walking through the hot tub area, the pool room is even more of a shock. Icicles crawl down the floor to ceiling windows, grudgingly releasing drips of blue water when struck by the harsh winter sun. I wrap my watch around my knuckles and punch a Beer-sized hole in the scum of ice forming on the pool, gaze at the dark, freezing water revealed, and prepare my body for the shock.

OK, so there wasn't any ice, but it was damn cold today. I cranked out 40 lengths in 21 minutes, only taking one 30 second breather half-way through. My form felt good, but I need to pick up the pace. Just for fun, I paced the guy in the lane next to me for a couple of laps - he was of the "I am strong, water will fear me!" school of swimming, lots of splashing, legs trailing out below him, but he was still fast! I could keep up with him for a length or two, and I think I was doing about 2 strokes to his 3 (or even 4), but I eventually had to drop off and let him do his thing. At the end of my workout, though, I generally don't feel really tired, or out of breath. This is just reinforcing my plan to swim smart, not hard, and let people tire themselves out and get fished out by lifeguards in Lake Michigan. I'm getting very excited to start reading my swimming books, but "Wicked" comes first. A dear friend has already threatened to disappear it from my house if I don't finish it soon.

On the note of pacing people - guys seem to be really competitive in the pool. I suspect that the guy in the lane next to me was kicking it up a notch whenever we happened to end up side by side - I'd like somebody to come watch me swim sometime and see if that's the case. I'm not the most competitive person, and I still try to lap the person next to me if I can. I would be surprised if that's not the case with other people too. If I don't feel like dealing with it, I'll throw in a lap of breast-stroke to un-synch myself, so I don't have to deal with somebody thrashing right next to me.

Death of a Workout

For whom does the bell toll? It tolls for thee, Thursday swim... Had a couple of social events last night, and on the way home stopped into the lush's last resort, Friar Tucks, for "one quick beer." Three hours, several drunk text messages and one sloshed phone call later, here I am, not working out.

Tomorrow is a new day, I suppose. The weekend is also wide open. I have high hopes.

Beatdowns and Heartbeats

This morning I'm recovering from the island-style beat down I received from Stevie B last night. I may have pushed myself too hard; I don't know if I was suffering from a ton of lactic acid, or if I was just hungry, but I felt pretty nauseous by the time I got home. Felt better after some food, if you can call something cooked in a plastic tray food. The life of a bachelor is harsh indeed.

I've settled on a heart rate monitor, I think. I like the Polar M32 which can save your workout results, has some sort of fancy coded sensor strap, and proports to track heart rate zones and calorie expenditures. I took a look at the instruction manual online - the English portion alone is something like 10 pages. Sweet! I've also convinced the clan to make it my big Christmas gift, so one less thing to worry about.

Now to find a Batman-esque swimming suit...

Tomorrow is swimming day. I think I'll swim easy and try for a minimum of 50 lengths, screw the time. If I'm not too beat up, another swim Friday. If I am, maybe this weekend. I hate to do that, because I tried that last weekend. Half an hour of hungrily waiting for the bus in the cold, and I literally and figuratively threw in the towel and went back home. Coach? If I get a bad time, blame the CTA!

Sore Muscles, Soggy Liver

Reaffirmed my title of "Da Beer" last night as I wandered around my local Dive Bar(tm), sipping directly from several mini-pitchers like they were mother's milk, 32 ounces at a time. More importantly, I swam again for the first time in awhile. I think the evil Jamaican wore out my triceps, biceps and various other *ceps that I don't even know about, because it was a rough swim. From early in, I could feel the pull in my arm muscles as I went over my head on my stroke. On the plus side, I wasn't that out of breath, but that may be because I was going so amazingly slow. My splits, that I time on 5 laps (10 25m lengths), were over 5 minutes, when I was expecting closer to 4 minutes. Plenty of time, I guess.

I garnered some advice from my favorite message board and I'm going to narrow my choice of heart rate monitor down to a Polar model, preferable one with the factory-sealed chest sensor. Apparently they work better underwater, and you only have to send it back every few years. Coach might prefer one that you can change the batteries on yourself, since she isn't going to swim any time soon. Hi coach!

Now improve your soul with some Kaizen Swimming.

Triathlon Rookie

I've added a link on the right to Triathlon Rookie's blog, a hard-core soul who's doing a triathlon by herself. I am proud of her, and a little ashamed of myself.

Haven't read it all, but there seem to be lots of bike-buying comments that could be of use to one of our Shots.

Sorry for the Delay

It's been a couple of hours since I've posted, so I figured it was about time. Just ordered a couple of books on swimming, one dealing with the open-water style in particular. Lot's of non-work-related internet-based research went into these selections, so pay attention!

Total Immersion : The Revolutionary Way To Swim Better, Faster, and Easier
by Terry Laughlin. Focuses on swimming better, not getting stronger, which is more my style. Lots of rave reviews for this.

Open Water Swimming
by Penny Dean, who swam across the English Channel, so I think she knows what she's talking about. This may be overkill for Michigan Pondt, but it was only $14 so what the hell.

Reviews will be forthcoming when I get them and read them and stuff.

Navy Seals Love the Cold

I swear I have work to do, and I will do it. Just not right now.

Just want to send a very caucasian shout-out to the people at bikesportmichigan.com where I found the tri-bike article. Turns out they also have a guide to wetsuits, which I (re)discovered today. Point 3 on their "what's the big freaking deal about a wetsuit?" checklist:

• Warmth. It’s 7:00AM. The water is freezing. Unless you entertain fantasies of being a Navy SEAL, cold water sucks. Your wetsuit will wrap you in a warm cocoon of insulative neoprene. You may never know just how cold the water is. Navy SEALs usually use wetsuits anyway.

Neoprene never sounded so good.

At the very end, they talk about rapid removal of your wetsuit. They seem to think that I'd want to rip it off, hop on a bike, and ride a couple dozen miles. And then cap it off with a leasurly 6 mile run, just to work the kinks out, of course. Who are these people? I'm planning to wrap a blanket around me, wetsuit and all, and take a nap on the concrete while the two Shots go do their thing.

A Sweet Bike

I've been totally slacking the last few days. I'm going to get back into it after a rough Halloween weekend by going to my class tonight, then carbing up on some naan with my uncle who's in town for a few days. I'm going to start logging my distances and times here so that I remember them, and so Coach will get off my back.

Interesting article on road bikes vs. triathlon bikes. I kind of want a tri bike now - you can't help but look like you mean business on one of these...