A pretty quick summery of last week which was dominated by tired legs from the Century ride. Back to around 8.5 hours of training because our bike ride on the weekend was cut short by a broken spoke so we went for a run instead. Nothing beats bike riding for adding lots of volume.

Above is a picture of running at Lake Chabot.

Swim

1hr 50min (4600yds)

Tuesday’s swim was supposed to be 8×100 then 8×50 but I completely skipped the 50s. I didn’t even realize that until I was recording my lap splits. The 100s were messed up by other swimmers too as the lanes were packed. Oh well, I was still tired from the weekend so was good to get some swimming in. First 100 was 1:33, but most of them were 1:45 or so. Didn’t really care about pace, just wanted to get them done. Did these with a pull buoy.

Thursday’s swim wasn’t too much better motivation-wise, but at least the pool has some room and my main set was interruption free. 75 and 50s. Averaged 1:41/100yards for the 75s, but sadly was kind of dragging for the 50s.

Bike

3hr 30min (51 miles)

Just the M2 class and a rather short ride on the weekend for biking last week. Strangely the M2 session was really good.

Threshold set: 2x3min at 90%, 3x2min, 4x1min, 2x30sec. Started around 235 for the 3mins, 240-245 for the 2 min. Not sure after that…
Strength mini-set: 3 x 1:30 @ 75rpm climbing cadence. Did around 280-285 for these. Not too bad.
Activation set: 4 x :15, very high watts (those were the instructions, not what actually happened), very high cadence. 400-500watts.

Normalized power for the hour: 198 watts.

(riding along the coastal hwy near Pescadaro)

Our ride on Saturday was going to be around 40 miles, perhaps more if we felt okay. We never had to decide that because Patty’s back wheel broke a spoke at around 20 miles in. She waited at a gas station while I rode the 10 miles or so back to the car. That did enable me to get a 30 min harder effort in while heading back up Hwy 1 which was kind of fun. Average for this section: 21.6 miles/hr. Too bad that a) I can’t ride that fast for longer, and b) there was a bit of a tail wind. Fun while it lasted though.

Back in town after I rescued Patty we went to the bakery and ate bear claws and then went out to see the goats (and eat their cheese) at a local farm. Yum. Next time we’re just going to skip the ride and start eating.

Sunday we went to see the start of the Tour of California. We’ve become quite the followers of professional bike racing.

(tour of california start in Santa Rosa, CA)

Run

3hrs 44min (18.1 mi les)

(running near Bass Cove in Lake Chabot)

Above is our weekend run after we returned to Oakland from the failed bike ride. Three hours, 14 mile trail run around Lake Chabot in the evening. This was probably way too long, but we took it easy and walked the steep parts. In the end it took us about how long it usually takes us when we’re in trail running shape. Legs felt strong and my HR stayed down the whole way so I felt pretty good about this run and the state of my fitness in general. Also, nothing beats a long trail run.

Other than that we just did a jog up Strawberry Canyon on Thursday, nothing too stressful.

So that’s it. Not the biggest week, but it’s progress.

Total about 9 hours.

A slightly lighter week of training this week as we backed off the bike distance in preparation for this coming weekend’s century ride in the wine country. We probably don’t need to taper for a ride next week exactly, but it felt good to reduce the distance a bit and actually get something done with the rest of our day.

Swim

2hr 01min (5000yds)

Tuesday

It was swarming at the pool. The swim team was taking up 3 lanes and were themselves dealing with 4 a lane at least. There was craziness in the slow lane. In the end I moved lane twice and didn’t really manage to put together the best swim session. Plus, my arms felt tired. Still, I got in the distance and my main set (more or less), before joining a 4 a lane circle swim to see out the rest of the yards and blowing off my drills.

300yd Warmup
400yd 3-5-7-3 drill
10x75yds on 20sec RI (swimming about 1:45 pace)
10x50yds on 15sec RI (though the RI was really variable)
600yds easy/cool down/circle swim hell.

Thursday

Main set:
2x200yd; 4x100yd; 2x200yd

I usually don’t like 200s. Too long to really push, too short to cruise. But today I had a pretty good swim. The first two 200s in 1:47/100yd and 1:49/100yd. The second two in more like 1:53/100yd pace. The hundreds were not as good as last week, 1:44-1:48.

The good news was I didn’t feel too smashed afterwards which is a really good sign because more than speed, that’s the goal. Also, not so many people in the pool for a refreshing change, I even had a lane to myself for a while. I still hugged the lane marker because it feels weird to swim down the black line. In addition to a generally better swim I had a slight break though with bi-lateral breathing today, in that it was actually pretty workable today. I’m going to keep practicing this for some of every session in the hopes it will improve my stroke overall. On the dark side, I still have too much of a pull buoy dependence though. My legs like that. I give my legs what they want.

Bike

4hr 35min (73 miles)

Livermore

Wednesday

M2 class was another downward spiral. Actually, I was pretty confused at one point so the specifics are a little lost, but the general idea was a decreasing length of over 100% effort like last week but instead followed by recovery at 90% for 2 minutes. Still pretty hard. It was an interesting exercise because you’re screaming for a recovery after the hard effort, then have to deal with the lactate buildup while still pedaling a pretty concentrated effort. Amazingly that works and the recovery gets easier as you go on. If you get the power right you can do this in the real world, for example at the top of a climb, say 110-120% effort for 5 mins of a climb, then 90% effort across the top, then fully recover on the descent.

Saturday

Kelly had her science fair in the morning so our long ride had to wait until midday. It was hot already, were hungry, and when our pump decided to just let air out of Patty’s tires, not in, we were almost ready to just pack the bikes back on the roof of the car and go home for a run. Using a hand pump we got her back in business and headed out towards Livermore for a 50 mile round trip.

Not a bad ride, but warm and we were were kind of glad to be done. Feeling generally faster and more powerful.

Run

2hr 15min (13 miles)

Tuesday

Quick run at Clark Kerr including running up the hill. More of a recovery run than anything.

Friday

Thursday’s run didn’t happen because I was at work until late. So Friday at dawn I ran 3 miles on my hill loop. This was pretty much as good as running feels, which makes me think I’m probably about to be injured. I took it nice and steady but still arrived home in the best time I’ve run in years. I feel like I’m finally getting over the injury last fall and getting some running speed back.

Sunday

The good, the bad and the ugly with this run. My legs didn’t feel so good after the bike ride, it was warmer than I’m used to running in (which we call “good training”), and we ran on pavement which we almost never do. But the good was we ran all over the place in Oakland, from the lake where people were actually out in bikinis, to people buying tamales out of the back of a pickup truck near the swap meet, to a weird street we ran down on the water front filled with artists and fences made out of bike pieces and UFO sculptures (5th ave marina **), to Jack London square, through China town and a temple swarming with Buddhists and filled with good smelling food and incense, to the Oakland Museum were we ran up the steps like Rocky, and back to the lake.

** The reviews on Yelp of 5th Ave Marina, which I’d never heard of before are awesome:
“Avast, ye mateys. This here be th’ most rickety, barnacle crusted haven in all o’ Dead Man’s Estuary. ”
“Great place for a bonfire.”
“Beware, zombie dogs from the sea.”
“this place is unsafe…”

Training last week has finally settled down after the week in Utah and the week before that which, missing it’s weekend training, was pretty minimal. Last week I managed to get in all my planned workouts, plus an extra run. I’m still pondering how to get another bike ride in, but for now this is sort of working with the rest of my life.

Swim

1hr 53min (5000yds)

Back in the pool twice last week. Tuesday’s session was kind of a regression. My arms seemed tired, perhaps from the Sunday bike ride or just general fatigue from the trip and all the driving. It was time for another straight swim of 2500 yards. This one didn’t go as well as last time, I spent more time at the wall because I felt out of sorts, or because I needed to change lane or other people were entering my lane etc. And then the pool spa started to smoke out the pool with some horrid electrical burning smell which did nothing for my swimming either. So in the end I got in the distance, but it was kind of a mess.

Thursday’s swim went better, at least at the beginning. I swam a 100yd in 1:37, which is a good 5 secs than I’ve swum one before. The other 7 100s were all under 1:45, so this was exciting. About 5 seconds faster for each 100 than a few weeks ago. Hopefully this will translate up to longer straight swims. I’d really like to be able to continuous swim closer to 1:55/100yds.

Bike

6hrs 51min (96 miles)

Monday
Sports Basement trip #1. Took bikes in to get serviced and have them install my new crank and pedals. Running Ultegra throughout now, and hopefully the end of my click noise on each down pedal.

Tuesday
Sports Basement trip #2. Picked up the bikes. Patty’s bike needed a new chain and her front brakes are almost done. Mine needed a new chain as well and they replaced the BB too though I’m not sure if it was damaged or if they just did it for compatibility with the new crank. I’m kind of glad they did anyway.

Wednesday
Back to M2 and did a Downward Spiral. No M2 himself, but still a good class. A downward spiral in this case is: 2min at 100% watts (CP10), 1:45, 1:30… down to 15sec, each with better watts, each with equal time easy spin rest. Then repeat the whole thing a second time after 5min recovery. I was a little skeptical I was going to make it, but the second time through was actually better than the first. Some M2 people have been posting their workouts on Strava and it’s frightening how high their power is for this set. Ouch. Oh well, I can only train at my level, knowing that they are riding 400 watts while I’m doing 250 isn’t really that helpful to me, other than knowing why they are competitive in their age groups or Cat 1 racing, while I’m just hoping to get through a 112 mile ride unscathed.

Saturday
For our long ride we headed back up to Healdsburg to ride some of the roads of our upcoming century ride (in 2 weeks). Here’s the details:
– Miles ridden: 75
– Elevation gain according to Strava for 75 miles: 3756ft
– Elevation gain of the full 100 miles according to website: 3300ft.
– Time left home: 6:05am
– Hours gone from home: 11
– Hours moving: 5:40
– Number of bottles ejected and lost: 1 (Chalk Hill descent)
– Times I completely ran out of water: 2
– Temperature at the end of ride: 89 degrees.
– Number of cracked aerobar arm rests: 1
– Condition of the roads: not good
– Length of snake on Graton climb: 5ft (alive)

Sunday
Sports Basement trip #3. Had them adjust my derailers and brakes a little. Replaced the bike bottle. More carbo-pro. And Patty and I got new bike shorts which we hope will help us with the 100 mile ride. Apparently bike shorts are supposed to last 6 month to a year and be good for about the number of miles = $$ you spend. e.g. $30 bike shorts good up to 30 miles. So I should be good for 135 miles. Biking is expensive.

Running

3hrs 53min (20.4 miles)

(running above Berkeley)

Lots of running this week, relatively. Felt good. I miss running.

Tuesday
We met after work and ran around the track a bit before chatting with the LMJS Tuesday track group for a bit. It was their first time at Clark Kerr where we are every Tuesday and Thursdays. It was nice to see them again. We declined their invitation to do quarters with them, instead we ran up the street hill nearby and looped about the bottom the campus. A pretty easy run. Felt good to run the legs a bit after the Sunday bike ride and all the time driving.

Thursday
Did the full Strawberry Canyon loop, although not running too hard. It was pretty warm out and the legs generally felt good.

Sunday
Then Sunday I got up early and ran 1hr 30min on Sequoia Bayview though to Skyline gate, then on another 10 minutes to make it 45 min out. Stopped an had a Gu and a drink then ran back. Again it was warm and people were already on the trail. Lots of dogs and the mountain bikers were just getting going. Legs were tired but it got better as I went.

Patty had stalled on her run all day so by evening she wanted some company so we dropped Kelly off with her grandparents and went up to Redwood park Steam trail and ran out and back for an hour. It was stunning up there. Warm like summer, lush green like winter. Forget me nots out everywhere. By then my legs were quite a bit stiffer than earlier in the day so I took it super easy. Also, my inside heel was letting me know it was there, a problem I had a couple of years ago. I wonder if my new pedals need the cleat loosened up? Anyway, it went away so something to keep an eye on. 2.5 hours for the day, 8 hours of running/biking for the weekend.

Totals for the week: 12hrs 41min

Swim

2hrs (5000yds )

I made it back into the pool two times last week. Every time that happens I feel like I’m making real progress towards my training. I’ve started to see actual progress in the numbers too. For one, I can swim 2500 yards twice a week and my arms only feel a little like falling off. Secondly, my 100 yard splits have improved in both speed and steadiness. I used to be able to swim 1:52 or so early in my set, but after 4 or 5 100s it was back to 2:00+. I’m now down around 1:45-1:47 for the whole set.

Tuesday: 2500yard in the pool

Tuesday I did 8x100s then 8x50s for my main set. The 100s were clearly a lot better than last year so I was pretty excited. Interestingly my 50s weren’t too much faster than the 100s, even perhaps slower. I think this points to a couple of things. The first is that when I try to swim faster, I often go slower because I’m less smooth. Yet another counter-intuitive element to swimming like how my kick makes me go slower. The other thing is I really don’t like 50s, they are more anaerobic than I particularly enjoy while having my head under water most of the time so I fall back to my 100s pace/effort too easily.

For drills I’ve been working on 3-5-7-3 breaths to work on my underwater breath out and general lung capacity while swimming. It’s also good to try to breath on my bad side. These are both fairly clear limiters so I might as well chip away at them during drill time.

Thursday: 2500yard in the pool

Thursday I was running late so swam at 8am instead. The pool was pretty much empty but at 9am just as I was getting out it was being cleared for some group class, so I guess 9am is a hard limit on lap swimming. Good to know.

The set of 10×75 followed by 10×50. The pace was pretty similar to Tuesday, but my arms were tired by the time I was done. I don’t think I should increase my swim distances for a while.

Bike

5hrs 37min (84 miles)

Wednesday: M2 Cycling Class (1hr 10min)

On Wednesday it was back to M2 with a pretty similar workout as last week. I think I went a little hard early on and was generally a mess by then end.

Sunday: 60 miles (4hrs 30)

Sunday we headed out to Clayton to do a loop of Mt Diablo, starting off with the Morgan Territory road climb. Since we’ve ridden this loop a few times before it was good to try an calibrate our fitness against the past couple of years.

(heading off for our ride in Clayton, CA)

The ride ended up being pretty hard. My normalized power was 180ish so that’s quite a bit higher than previous trips around the mountain and pretty solid for a 4 hour ride for me. Part of that was that Livermore valley was fairly windy and so there was some good hard pushes in there that kept the power up. I also pushed up Collier Canyon pretty hard into a head wind and had some fun riding by some people (it took a few minutes of 300+ watts to take out two cyclists but it was worth it, I’m usually the one being overtaken).

(peak power graph)

By the time we reached Danville, about 40 miles in, Patty had more or less had enough. Her new saddle is not breaking in quick enough and she was tired of fighting the wind. I decided to go ahead and get the car while she rode to Sports Basement. She ended up riding about 54 miles, so probably could have just ridden it in anyway.

In the end I had a pretty good ride. Power agent reports it was a new 30min and 1hr power record, plus I think it was probably a NP record too, so I’m hoping this means my cycling legs are on their way back.

Run

1hr 56min (10 miles)

The week was dominated by extremely wet running opportunities.

Tuesday: missed

Tuesday’s run was aborted because a few miles in Berkeley simply wasn’t worth going out in the middle of a storm. We instead sat in Peets across from the Claremont Hotel and watched a river of water pour off the tennis courts.

Thursday: 3.2 miles hill

Kelly didn’t go to gymnastics as she has her parent’s ability to get injured. Plus, I think she’s tired of it and isn’t really making much progress despite 6 hours a week there. I know I look for improvements continuously so I can imagine it’s probably getting to her a bit. She seems to generally enjoy it though and doesn’t want to give up on it, so we’ll see how it goes between now and the summer.

Anyway, that left us scrambling for a run, so we met at home and did a quick run up Park Blvd and back down the canyon.

Saturday: 1.5 hours (about 7 miles)

On Saturday we headed out in another storm to Redwood Regional Park. Driving there we could see the storm front moving across the Bay towards us — a wall of blackness. It started to rain as soon as we got out of the car and by the time we returned we had run an hour and a half in pouring rain, shin deep puddles and lots of mud, plus the temperature had dropped down 10 degrees. It was a run to remember.

(Redwood Park in the Rain)

In other running news I have a new running watch. Two years after killing my Garmin I have the FR70. The main aim is to get a HR reading off my Garmin HR strap which I use with my Powertap. That way in a race I can get a HR value on my watch when I get off my bike and start running. It also has a foot pod so I get some measure of pace and distance. It is supposed to be as accurate as GPS, though uncalibrated it was about .2 of a mile different from the cell phone GPS track I made. I’m inclined to think the watch may be more accurate because running in a canyon under redwood trees in a storm is possibly the worst case senario for a GPS device. Anyway, I hope to calibrate it at the track to improve it’s accuracy and then will do some more comparisons.

Total

9hrs 33min

(flooded conditions on the trails in near Lake Chabot)

It’s been awhile since I updated training, so here goes.

First, there’s really too much to update, so I’m skipping over most of the details. In the Fall I was injured for all of October with a calf injury but recovered and ran my first 50k trail race in Marin at the North Face Endurance Challenge. It was a great experience and made me want to run a 50k every weekend. Now four months later I have yet to run another one and have moved back to Triathlon training. Hopefully we’ll be back at that in the late summer and fall.

In January I ran the Epiphany run, which for me turned out to be just over a marathon distance from Skyline Gate to the Lake Chabot marina and back on the trails. Patty had knee (IT) trouble which has plagued her ultra running so turned back. I ended up running part of the outward journey was a guy we know from the Endurables. After that our next goal race, a Coastal Trail Runs race in Marin sold out on us, so after flailing around on our plans for a while we returned to cycling and to begin getting ready for our spring and summer goals:

1) May 5th – Wine Country Century- 100 bike ride in Sonoma County
2) July 28th – Full Vineman – 2.4 mile swm, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run.

Yes. I’m signed up for my first Ironman.

Kelly says “You’re going to end up in hospital daddy”. I hope not, but it’s certainly got me back training and especially got me back in the pool.

Swim

1hr 47min (4700 yards)

Tuesday: 2200 yards

Warmup, drill work, and a main set ladder: 25yd up to 175yd and back to 25yd on 30sec

I’ve been back in the pool and have a new routine of getting out of the house early to swim before work. That’s much more reliable because if I try to swim in the middle of the day something usually comes up and I push it and push it until there’s no more lap swimming. So far the swimming is actually going fairly well. I’ve been swimming about 2200 yards, working my way through a series of sets like this one. This is the same set I used last year so it’s interesting to compare lap times.

In the set I averaged about 3 seconds a lap faster that when I did this not far out from Boise last year (first 25yds was in 24 sec, 50-100yd in mid 1:40s/100yds, and the 175 was just under 2:00/100yds. So it’s earlier and I’m swimming faster. At least that’s not a bad sign. For Vineman I really just need to swim the distance and get out feeling like going for a bike ride.

Thursday: 2500yd straight swim.

Got into a pretty good rhythm and felt strong through this. That was super-encouraging as really the swim is my biggest worry. The woman I was sharing the lane with was knocking off laps at about the same rate as me, you know, rather than someone doing frog kick with a snorkel and pool noodles wrapped around their waist, or something, so that really helped. I wanted to tell her she was the best lane buddy ever, but that seemed excessive. Swam the 2500yards, 50 laps, in 50 minutes, which is not especially fast but felt at least sustainable.

Bike

4hr 54min

Wednesday: Cycling class

Back to the M2 bike classes. It’s still the easiest way to get in over an hour of riding mid-week while having someone push me a little harder than I like. This is my one high intensity session on the bike for the week. I’m hoping with a few years of cycling behind me now I’ll see some real improvement this year, but this first session just made me feel like I’ve got nowhere on the bike. My power levels felt about where they were 3 years ago. But that will improve, right?

Anyway, this week’s workout was something like this:

4x(2:30@90%watts on 30sec rest) (~200watts)
3:00@110%watts (~225watts)

4x(2:00@90%watts on 30sec rest) (~200watts)
2:30@110%watts (~235watts)

4x(1:30@90%watts on 30sec rest) (~200watts)
2:00@110%watts (~238watts)

Saturday: 43 mile bike ride out of Danville.

The usual route, out towards Livermore and back. This week added bonus fun of dodging a winter storm coming though the Bay Area instead of the usual pelletons of team cyclists. In the end we probably picked one of the only semi-dry areas around that morning and only got misted on a bit in the first hour. Turned out to be a nice ride.

Run

2hr 16min (12 miles)

Tuesday – skipped.

Missed run because Patty had to go out and I felt too tired to come home and run.

Thursday – 40min hill run (700ft gain)

Ran up Strawberry Canyon in Berkeley to The Hill. We hiked to the top of that, and then returned along the lower firetrail back to the Cal stadium and then along the streets back to Clark Kerr. Since Patty and I now meet in Berkeley on Tuesdays and Thursdays to pick up Kelly from gymnastics, those days are now locked in to running either the hills behind campus (Strawberry Canyon or Claremont Canyon or both) or running on the track.

Sunday – Watched and cheered at the Oakland Marathon as it came by near our house, then did a fairly easy 1.5 hour trail run (about 1000ft gain) in Lake Chabot, pictured above. Wet and muddy fun.

So that’s it. Another week done.

1 Mile in 36:26

The swim went well, which was kind of a big deal because 6 months ago I couldn’t swim a lap freestyle. Now I’ve done a mile swim in open water. There was a wicked current as you got further out, all the pros ended up swimming up current to get to the first buoy. Successive waves headed further and further to the right. I went around the buoy ok, but ended up kind of far out, not totally out, but I swam further than I needed to (or maybe the current kept pushing me out or something). When I made the final turn it was closer to shore and calmer. No more waves splashing on me and bobbing up and down, which I wasn’t so prepared for. My practice open water swims were calmer for sure. So for the last 1/3 mile I got into a pretty good rhythm and started to take a few places back. Open water swimming is pretty fun actually. It took like 36 mins, which I’m ok with. Work to be done there to stay with the pack, but it’s ok. I think for my level of open water swimming experience I did fine. I was a little surprised how fast everyone was. Not too many people behind me at all! Tough AG!

The bad thing was I cut my foot all up on the rocks getting into the water. Didn’t notice until the transition when my foot was covered in blood. Nice.

T1

Bike

22 miles in 1:48:52

The bike was my worst event by far. People are so strong and fast and because there was 3 laps the pros (and strong AGers) were flying by continuously on their space age tri bikes. “leeefftt!” whooosh! I was doing about 15-16 miles/hr on average (it was really a very hilly course), about the speed I expected. They were doing 22 miles/hr. Most of the rest of my age group was doing 18+ miles/hr. I’m not going in another tri until I think I can ride 18 miles/hour over hills for 1.5 hours at least. And then, as if I wasn’t doing bad enough relative to everyone else, I got a flat back tire on the last lap! After working on that for a while a former Olympian (Victor Plata) came running by on the run course and offered to help. He changed my tire for me! Actually, like 10 people, all top athletes in the midst of their own race, pretty much offered to help me. In a way that was a highlight. Can you tell the guy who rides a mountain bike and never gets a flat?

T2

Run

10K in 1:00:36

The run was the run. It was 10K. I was kind of tired. A little dejected. Not really feeling like killing myself by then, although I could have moved up like 5 places pretty easily. By that time most people were walking and at least I was able to run the whole way. That’s some kind of achievement in a triathlon I suppose. Took me about an hour. It was a pretty run. There were deer.

At the finish line Kelly ran across with me. At least one person doesn’t think I suck, though she thinks I’m crazy.

Post race

Total time: 3 hrs, 34 min

Not my greatest event, but at least I finished as people keep trying to tell me.

On Saturday we completed our first triathlon in the non-competitive, Tri for Fun series at Shadow Cliffs Regional Park in Pleasanton, CA.

—

It was 7:25am and I stood knee deep in a muddy lake. Around me I was surrounded by nervous people. Minutes earlier I’d kissed Patty goodbye, in case one of us drowned. She’d left with the earlier group which, as I stood there, was rounding the first buoy of the course. I couldn’t spot her, so hopefully she was in the mix somewhere doing fine. I turned my attention back to the guy standing in the water with the microphone. We were the final wave, and he was making jokes, mostly. “If you don’t know why this is like water polo, don’t be near the front.” I think that part was serious. I looked around and I was sort of near the front as many people had joined my wave. I tried to move sideways, but it wasn’t going to be enough. There was way more people in this wave than I expected, maybe a hundred people had joined it behind me and there was 20 seconds left. Oh well, I’m going for it. I looked down at my watch and it was ready to go, pulled my googles over my eyes, took a deep breath, and thought this is it, I’m finally facing my swim fear for real. The horn went off and we all started to move forward…

—

Our alarm would have gone off at 4:30am, except both of us had been awake for some time. I’m so used to running races that it’s barely exciting to think of one that morning. This morning was different. When we watched the tri for fun #1 there was a lot of people being rescued from the water, even in the supposedly experienced and elite wave. While my swimming has been going well (I’m up to swimming a mile straight in the pool, though not fast), the open water thing has remained hard with the various added stresses like sighting that seem to come along with it. Added to this was the uncertainly of doing it with other flailing humans in the water. Maybe it would be better having someone to sight off, or feet to draft behind? Or maybe I’d be run over, kicked, punched, semi-drowned, fight to the surface in a panic and not recover. Or maybe I’d simply be blown off the back of the pack and I’d watch everyone disappear around the course while I tried to go back to swimming like in the pool, the best I could. All these seemed like real possibilities. I simply couldn’t know what would happen once I was in a swim race.

A swim race! That’s so unlike me. I hated swimming as a kid. I couldn’t do it. It was all horrid chlorine and water up your nose and people yelling at you. Several months ago I couldn’t freestyle 25m. But, if I’ve learnt anything from running it’s that if I set my mind to something I can do it. Anything. Even swimming. So, this race was all about that. If I made that then my whole goal for the year to ‘learn to swim’ would be a success. I didn’t really care what happened after that, I was determined to make it round the swim course. Then I’d go for a bike ride with Patty. Then we’d do a little run.

We packed our mountain bikes with their nobly tires — it would have to do –onto the back of the car, along with our transition gear stuffed into a bag we got from some race, and headed out as the glow of the approaching dawn appeared to the east. Just before 6am we pulled into the parking lot at Shadow Cliffs.

The racks were already filling up quickly so we decide to grab our bikes off the back of the car and head right to them to get a spot. That strategy worked well because by the time we returned from our car with the rest of our gear and our bike pump space was almost gone and people had started to claim trees or picnic tables or just random pieces of grass.

Patty preparing her transition area

We got registered and body marked. Patty showed me her ‘corrected number’. “I can’t believe she wrote my number wrong: it’s an omen, my whole race is ruined,” she sort of joked.

Body marking

We walked down the the beach and listened to a ‘first timers’ talk. She ended by saying she hoped to see us crossing the finish line of an Ironman. Whether people like it or not Ironman and triathlon are inescapably linked. The question I’ve got twice now: did you do a half or full? Still, though this was short, it wasn’t that short for a previous non-swimmer. And on top of that, a 5K can hurt a lot more than a marathon. It’s just shorter and different. And it’s a place to start, anyway.

After the talk we did a little swimming. It was already 75 degrees, so getting into the water wasn’t very hard. The water was warm and the air was warmer. It felt good in the water, gliding along with the sun rising across the far side of the lake. We watched the first few waves go and then headed over to the start area. Patty would go in her age group wave (40+ woman) and I’d take the wave after that which was basically anyone who’d not already gone.

—

The Swim: 400yds in 9:28 (2:22 min/100yd)

… and so I dove in and the world filled with green bubbles and disembodied limbs. My head would surface and there’d be heads all around me. Some looking at me. I’d go back under and there’d be bodies and suddenly a foot from nowhere would come at me and I’d come up and tread water or throw in a little breast stoke because there was nowhere to go, and wait for a spot to open up. Back under with some freestyle. Back up and looking for space or a direction that might be clearer. Green. Bubbles. Random feet and hands. If I think back on it it’s surprising how fast we made it to the first buoy, our tangled mass was at least moving along.

At the buoy I breast stroked wide and then found some space and got myself into some sporadic freestyle. My sighting was going well and I kept thinking I’d get on someone’s feet and let them tow me along. But I’d do that and then next thing they were stopped in the water figuring out which way to go. So I’d go around them and start the process again. My heart rate was up for sure, the initial washing machine took a lot out of me, but it was under control. Breath, relax, breath, relax…

Also quicker than I imagined I reached the final buoy and rounded it with a clear sight to the shore. I’m almost there I thought. I was getting a little tired and was glad it wasn’t too much longer. This section dragged, but soon I was looking down at the bottom and the weeds growing there. I wondered if Patty was looking down at this too, the thing she hates most about swimming in the lake. The weeds gave way to sand and I put my feet down and started walking up the shore. I stopped my watch and stared at it disbelieving for a moment. It about a minute faster than I’d swam that distance in a pool. I’d done it! I looked back and there was a lot of people still out in the water, so I wasn’t the slowest either. The day was already a success. The months spent in the pool were a success. I could swim!

T1: ~5:30

I made my way up into the transition area. Patty was sitting by our bikes pulling shoes on. I grabbed my towel and dried down a little then sat down and washed my feet off with a bottle of water and pulled on my running shoes. Overall T1 was sort of a mess, but we got out of there eventually with our bikes and helmets.

The Bike: 11 miles in 41:15 (16 miles/hr)

The bike leg was the surprise fun of the race. We thought we’d be passed a lot because of our heavy mountain bikes, but that didn’t turn out to be the case. We just applied some of our trail running muscles to it, as well as relatively high fitness (for us at least) and started passing a ton of people. It was fun! There’s nothing quite as fun as riding past someone on a fancy tri-bike with your mountain bike. By the end of the bike course I was getting a little tired but was okay. I figured I could use up a bunch of energy on the bike and then tough out a 5K run.

The course too was nicer than I imagined, running either around the perimeter of the regional park or past vineyards.

We pulled into T2 something like 15 minutes faster than our test ride of this distance.

T2: ~2:15

This transition went much faster because we already had running shoes on. The only problem was the rack next to us started to topple and so we helped get it back up and everyone’s bikes back on it before we left. Otherwise it was just off with the helmet and gloves and on with a visor. I took a Gu and sucked down a little more fluid. It was pretty warm by now and the run course was nothing but exposed dirt fire trails.

The Run: ~3.2M 28:06 (8:49 min/mile pace)

Running wasn’t the easiest. My legs felt heavy and it was pretty easy to get a burn out of them. I settled into an uncomfortable 8:40 pace or so. It felt slow. I felt slow. But it seemed like a reasonable effort given it was baking hot and I’d used most of my legs propelling a mountain bike around the course. Plus, the Gu wasn’t sitting right.

At some point I looked back and Patty wasn’t with me. I decided to keep going and see if I learned anything by trying to keep up my pace under these conditions. My race thoughts were down to basics: how far to go, what’s my pace, is my HR too high? Occasionally I’d try to ponder how it felt, what I could compare it too. It was different from running alone for sure. Less pounding, more tired. Fatigue without the swelling maybe? And on top of that there was also the heat, which felt reminiscent of the Tilden race a few months ago. Cooking.

I tried to concentrate and keep going strongly. I passed people all over the place. The course had some hills and each one had a lot of people walking. Hills I could do, and so I ran right up them all, while I walked through the aid stations where I mostly poured the water on myself.

Hilly and exposed

The finish was great with lots of people cheering. While hot and sort of hellish the run went pretty well. It wasn’t my fastest 5K but it certainly wasn’t my slowest. I felt proud of myself for not letting up during this run and pushing to the end. It’s always good experience to be suffering and endure past that point when you’d rather just stop and walk. That kind of pain is temporary, you can keep running.

Total: ~1:26:30

After I crossed the line I circled back and watched Patty cross too, not too far behind me. She was glad to be done.

Patty done

—

In the end, this race was all about the swim and as I think back on it I still can’t imagine that it was me out there doing that, mixing it up in a watery brawl. It wasn’t really pretty as I never got truly clean water to swim in, but it’s all about getting around the course and I did that. I can’t help but wonder what a longer course would be like, if I could just get into a rhythm out there.

I was also pretty excited to get across a triathlon finish line for the first time. Now we have to figure what’s next. Our goals for this year have been met and for much of August we’ll be on vacation in South East Asia where training will at a minimum. That will make it hard to ramp up to something bigger this year on the triathlon front. But we’ll see.

Morning swimming at Lake Anza

We’ve been practicing our open water swimming here at Lake Anza in Tilden Regional Park (Berkeley). One day Patty will embrace swimming. Today was not that day. For me, things are going fairly well with it. It really doesn’t bother me to be swimming in the green murk and I’m up to 1000 yards continuous swim in the pool. I’m feeling pretty confident about swimming 400m during the triathlon in a few weeks. The main issue now is sighting. Doing it without using a lot of energy is a problem, which probably means I’m trying to get my head too far out of the water, or attempting to do it at the wrong time. Of course swimming around in circles is not good either. I might need to be able to swim 1000 yards!

Swimming at Lions Pool in Oakland

This winter I’ve been trying to learn how to swim. This is kind of a big deal for me since I’ve always hated being in a pool. Sure, I can swim a bit. Breaststroke here or there, thread water, generally save myself in an emergency. But actual graceful swimming, effortless fishlike swimming, as in something I might do for exercise. No. Never.

So right before Christmas I joined the YMCA and started going there with a friend from work. She was a high school swimmer and pretty much does swim like a fish. So much so that it amuses her how bad I am at swimming. At one point I finally demostrated what I knew of free style. It lasted a few strokes before I stood up shocked at how much water had just gone up my nose. She thought for a moment and then declared that I was lifting my head to breath and my legs were sinking. Hmmm, just one of the problems. I stood mid-pool dejected. How could I suck at this so badly.

As the winter continued I concentrated on the drills in my teach yourself swim video (Total Immersion (TI) if you must know). Satisfied I could glide around OK, I got as far as what they call skating. You glide along on your side with the bottom arm outstretched towards where you’re going, head looking towards to bottom. This was the first a-ha moment for me. I could balance in the water, kick gently, and move along like I was almost swimming. When I needed to breath I rolled onto my back to breath, took a couple of good breaths then repeated. It was a big deal actually being in a lane and moving along with the other swimmers even if I had this wacky TI drill thing going the whole time. For fun, if I put on flippers, I could actually swim by my work friend. Completely cheating, but still, when it comes to victories and swimming I was willing to take anything I could get.

The next break-through came in the shallow kids pool where I was relegated due to packed lanes. The life guards hate me for using it because they have to get down from their usual tower and come over and watch me as well. And watch me they do. But they pretend not to. I know they do. And they contain their laughter too. I know they do. Anyway, I started to incorporate a stroke into my gliding and actually found a rhythm with using the entry of my hand into the water as the clue to do a body switch, pushing the hand forward in front of me in counter-action to the other hand pulling. It was just the way it was supposed be, at least how the video described it. It’s supposed to be a core action, the hands and arms just follow along with the program. At last, something in this stupid video was making sense.

For all the victories (ha, so far between victories), for a long time I was still left with a disconnect. I could skate, I could switch, I could roll onto my back for air, but somehow when I tried to put it together then it didn’t work. While the solution wasn’t obvious at the time, what was happening was when I took a breath my body would essentially fold under me, sending my butt down, head up, and sinking, spluttering, flailing resulted. The life guards would pretend they weren’t panicked each time I did this, but I could see them reaching for there floaty life saving thingeys. It wasn’t pretty, and it was discouraging.

Finally I had the breakthrough I needed, and initally I did it by cheating. I didn’t go out of my way to cheat, but it was still cheating. I broke with the TI rules and I started to pull with my offhand as I rolled to breath, rather than keep it straight out. It got my head to air. Then, after breathing, if my head almost dived back under following my arm into the water I kept some form of stability in the water and could stroke and breath again the next time up. For the first time in this long process I was swimming. It was crappy swimming, It was cheaters swimming, but I was swimming. I headed into the lap pool, put on fins for some extra help, and right then swam my first pool length. Then another. And another. Then I got out and quit while I was ahead.

I got back to work and hit the internet, then headed to the book store. One of the first things I read was in ‘Going Long’, the ironman book. It specifically mentioned my off-hand regression, that it was common for swimmers to push down with their hand to help them breath.

Off side arm — in an attempt to push our heads out of the water, many swimmers will push down with their offside arm when breathing. Remember to let the leading hand float for a little bit when breathing.

Hmmm, it’s good to see I’m not alone in this discovery. It didn’t have any solid advice about how to fix it, but I did get the idea it was to do with not having a proper roll. Next step was to watch swimming videos on YouTube all night and I noticed one thing which give me the final clue I needed. I had the idea to use my stroke to help with the roll, one hand entering the water to push that side down, the other hand pulling back and to my leg to pivot that side up, all the while turning my head to the air. Next time I was in the pool, family day at the local city pool, I gave it a go and it worked! No more off-hand regression, in fact it was necessary to extend my offhand to make it work right.

That was a couple of weeks ago and I think my stroke has come a long way. I can now work on specific parts of it as I swim rather than working on it for a couple of strokes and then standing up to breath. Within a week I’ve progressed to being able to swim 50m at a time, an official lap (not just a ‘Peter lap’ which equals 25m), and swimming a total of about 1000m over a session. The next goal will be to do 100m at a time and then keep working up my distance from there. Hopefully the improvements will keep coming with time in the water.

It’s been pretty amazing to get this far since it’s been something I’ve always hated and thought I was born to suck at. Now I don’t really suck at it much more than the next guy, and I’ve grown to really enjoy it as a form of exercise.  Now, if I can just figure out the effortless graceful fishlike part of it I’ll be all set.