Just a Quickie

Hope everyone had a great weekend! I'm short on time this week working on a special project so just some quick bullets with thoughts and happenings from last week.

New swimming motivation - Did another 4K swim at Lucky's Lake on Saturday. With now 10 crossings under my belt, I'd been thinking of joining the haloed 100K Club (those who've done 100 crossings). But after I got done, a guy told me he'd seen a small 3 foot gator on the other side earlier in the morning, and I don't think he was kidding. Dam gator! Now I'm going to have to swim faster and get all my crossings done before that thing gets too big for comfort.

Lightbulb moment - For the first time in months, Dave was actually home all week and he kicked my @ss on the bike on Sunday. We had 100 miles to ride and after mile 60, I had to back way off the 18-19 mph pace we were going to be able to finish the ride in good shape and run afterwards. Dave felt sorry for me and stuck with me. We ended up with a 17.3 mph avg but I ran the best I ever have off the bike, 4 miles at a 8:49 pace in 94 degs heat index. Click! I remembered what I was told at an IMFL training camp back in 2006: Give up 15 min on the bike and gain up to 45 min on the run. I believe it now.

More running in circles - I found another indoor marathon! This one's called The InStep Icebreaker Indoor Marathon and it's held in January in Wisconsin, a state I've not yet run in which is good. And it involves running "only" 95.4 laps vs. the 150 I ran at the Zoom Yah Yah Indoor Marathon last January in Minnesota since the track is bigger (443m vs. 282m). It's a guaranteed flat course with dry 50-55 deg conditions, no wind, 95 aid stations, 190 opportunities to use porta-potties. I don't think I can resist :-)

50 in 50 by 49? - And speaking of marathons, originally, I was planning to complete my 50 states marathon quest in 2011 when I turned 50 but I've been thinking why wait? I only have 8 marathons/states left to do (WY, NM, WI, WV, DE, CT, RI, and VT) and could do them all next year. There are just so many unknowns in this economy. Some races are struggling due to sponsor cutbacks and traveling has become increasingly more difficult, esp. using frequent flyer miles, which I try to do whenever possible. Then there's the lure of moving to Hawaii early. Who wouldn't want that?

Anyway, back to my project. I'll be catching up on what you've all been up to by the weekend!

Back in the Food Chain

Gators, snakes, turtles, oh my!

Has it really been nearly 2 years since I last swam at Lucky's Lake and got my patch?

Well, Coach put an end to that streak last Saturday morning. This time I did 4 round-trip crossings vs. 2 (each one is 1K long), my longest swim this year and my first non-wetsuit open water swim over 2K ever!

The water temp was 85 degs but I did see a couple people wearing sleeveless wetsuits. Some had noodles in tow, others had fins, snorkels, you name it. I wore fins only on my last crossing since my arms were quite tired. That way I knew for sure I could make it. The rule is if you have any doubts, don't do it!

Because there are NO lifeguards or people on kayaks watching over you. And you know there's NO such thing as a guaranteed gator-free lake in FL.

Just to remind you and give you a "fuller" FL lake swimming experience, Lucky, the owner of the house whose backyard we start from, has placed a couple decorative gators right at the water's edge. Nice guy, huh?

Before we got started, I saw something breaking the surface of the water near some reeds by the shore. Just a turtle it turned out. Whew!

And soon we were off. Here's a photo from the Lucky's Lake Swim website to give you an idea of what the lake looked like. There was a much bigger turnout Saturday morning, though, like about hundred swimmers, which was nice. The more links in the food chain, the better!

Most folks did 1 or 2 crossings. I was going for 3-4 so I asked Dave to float along next to me on the last 2 for added safety. It worked out great, I thought, until I found out that the fins he was wearing hurt his foot a lot (he's been having top of the foot pain lately). Next time I'm on my own so I'd better get faster so I can swim while there are still others out there.

One of the last to get out but all limbs still attached. 11,524 yards in 3 swims last week!

My post-swim treat: jalapeno bagels, one of my favorite foods. Dave brought some home for me when he went through the Chicago airport on Thursday. Thanks Dave!!

Saturday afternoon, I put 10 miles in on a gym treadmill at a 7:50 pace. The cool, dry 70-80 deg indoor temps felt soooo nice to run in and, really, I wasn't wussing out. I was actually trying to be smart about not overdoing things in the heat for a change. And, of course, that 4K swim earlier did take some energy out of me already so I didn't want to push things too much.

Because Sunday I was to do a "short" 50 mi bike ride followed by a 13 mi brick run. The ride ended up being 59.3 miles (18.6 mph avg) but the run was right on. Don't want to run any extra in the heat! Ended up with a 9:51 pace in 93-94 degs heat index, which is on the low side of my iron marathon goal pace range so very happy with that. It seems that wearing a Camelbak is really helping me stay much better hydrated. I might even wear it during part of the marathon at the Great Floridian depending on how hot race day will be.

So ends another iron training week for me. Congrats to everyone who completed IM Canada and IM Louisville!

Easter Egg Swim Meet

We have a VERY casual swim meet at the Kona pool on Saturday and if you have a USMS card, you can swim. Warm up at 3, meet starts at about 3:30. Come and say hi even if you don't swim.

That was part of an email I got from Karlyn Pipes-Nielsen, one of my swim instructors here in Kona.

Me compete in a masters swim meet? HA, I've never even been to a swim meet, nor do have a USMS card. But I could certainly come by to watch!

And watch I did. Stop watch, that is. Coach Eric, Karlyn's husband and swim coach, handed me a green one and put me to work.

What fun!! A very low key meet, indeed. About 8 folks there competing, including Karlyn, pro triathlete Bree Wee and some local swimmers and triathletes. You could pick which events you wanted to do, start from the blocks, pool deck or in the water, and flip turns were not mandatory (but two-handed touches were required for butterfly and breast, as usual). Sometimes people were racing the same distance but doing different strokes. One guy even raced by himself a couple times.

The highlight for me was watching Karlyn and Bree go head to head on the 500 yd freestlyle.

Bree (left in photo above) is often one of the first women out of the water in tris but on this day hoped to be lapped no more than once by powerhouse Pipes-Nielsen (right in photo above). Now if it were me going up against either of them, I think a fair race would be if I swim 250 while they swim 500. Both are FAST!!


Here they are ready to go. Bree looks to be saying a little prayer, haha.

And below is 14 seconds of their race coming up on 350 yards. Karlyn is getting close to catching Bree and would eventually do so, but only once. Great job, Bree!



There were three of us timing Karlyn. My watch time was in the middle so 5:04:13 was used as the official time, a new 45-50 year old women's masters record for her -- Congrats Karlyn!!!

Tomorrow I get a swim lesson from Coach Eric (Karlyn is on travel). Who knows, next year they just might have to find another timer ;-)

A New PR!

No, not another race. 40 comments on my last post -- THANKXOXOX!!!

Seriously, two years ago when I started blogging, I had no idea what I was getting into. It's so unlike me to write about myself and I didn't really even like taking pictures much. I think the number of photos of me from high school until my mid-thirties is probably less than 10!

Too busy working and so self-critical all the time. It's a wonder I made it to my 40's ...

Here's a couple things from the life of an older, much wiser woman :-)

1. My photo tag (4th photo in my 4th folder). Sorry, it happens to be running related.


Explanation: Photo that appeared in the May 2005 issue of Runner's World in reference to my 21 Run Salute. It was taken in downtown Orlando near Lake Eola. The photo shoot took 2-3 hours and the photographer and his assistant had brought all sorts of lighting equipment and props, including crumbs to get birds to fly around me. Who knew getting one good photo could take so long!

2. My blog style (thanks to Spokane Al for pointing me to the Typealzer site):

ESFP - The Performers

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

They enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.

I find this pretty funny because I once took a Myer-Briggs Type Indicator Test and got an INTJ result. So either I've really changed or am a schizo blogger.

Added: My other blog, EnduranceSportsBar.com, came up as "ISTP - The Mechanics" so maybe I do have split personalities.

3. More family time - After the Route 66 Marathon, I went to Austin for a couple days to meet up with Dave. He ended up arriving late and leaving early but I got to see Marathon Chris, who was attending the same conference as Dave, and visit my sis Jade Lady and her family, who live in the area.

L to R: Dave, Me, my niece and brother-in-law. Sis, who took this photo and the one below, was added to the top left.

And I got to swim in beautiful Barton Springs.

Four birds with one stone!

Now, time to catch up on what you all have been up to. My Google Reader says 30 new and exciting posts to read.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

Babes & Beaches

Congrats to everyone who raced last weekend!! While others were tapering and gearing up for their big day, Dave and I were out West checking out some babes and beaches. But the babes we saw were not at the beach.



No, they were out in the desert at TriSports in Tucson, AZ.

As soon as we opened the door, there they were, rows of sleek beauties oozing sexiness in assorted colors, sizes and shapes. Hey, baby, wanna go for a ride? In addition, there were all sorts of other goodies, cute clothes, shoes, wetsuits and even a big Endless Pool to try the wetsuit in. It was tri heaven!

The purpose of our visit, however, was to get fit for new bikes that have not yet been built. They have a special custom bike fitting area with different seats and handle bars you can try with a Serotta Bike Fit System, which can be adjusted and used to fit people of different sizes. Good because Dave and I are pretty much at opposite ends of the size spectrum.

Dave has actually decided to get both a new tri bike and a road bike and needed to get fit for two bikes. Believe me, anything to get him to not work and travel so much is a good thing!

He tried three different seats and decided on the first one for his tri bike and the second one for his road bike, which is actually a woman's seat but his butt likes it. Both of us gave thumbs down on the third leather one. Oweee!

Then it was my turn to get fit for a road bike. I had to have some body measurements taken since we didn't have them on paper with us. There was this one medieval-looking spring loaded inseam measuring device that was not at all pleasant.

After fitting us, Mark, the bike guy (left in the photo), gave Dave (right) and I a no-photos-allowed behind-the-scenes tour of the store. He also gave us a nice goody bag to thank us for dropping a small fortune on the bikes. We'll be back in January for the final fitting and a test ride after our babies are built.

___________________________

Then we headed to San Diego or, more accurately, La Jolla. Dave had some meetings to attend and I tagged along too since I knew the area well having attended UCSD for grad school and would not be bored.

We stayed at the Hilton Torrey Pines. Being a Double Black Diamond Super 007 Frequent Hilton Hotel Guest, they gave Dave a really nice suite and said nothing about a woman claiming to be his wife who wanted a second key and free breakfast buffet tickets too. Hmm, maybe I should accompany him on more of his business trips?

We had a great view of Torrey Pines Golf Course with downtown San Diego off in the distance and an ocean view, too, in another direction.

I did some open water swimming down at La Jolla Shores Beach, where I'm more comfortable swimming alone at than La Jolla Cove. I did some laps out and back to a buoy located about 250 yards off shore right in front of the lifeguard station (they use it for their swim test). The water temp was 62 degs but didn't feel cold with the 70-80 deg air temps. When I swam there October 2006 to prepare for Ironman Florida, air temps were in the 50's and I dreaded going in the water (Who am I kidding? I just hated swimming back then, period.)

I also ran at Torrey Pines State Reserve, which was about a mile from the hotel. Having read the off-road adventures of RBR, Jane and Robin recently, I was inspired to give trail running a try. Of course, I tripped on something nearly right away and was promptly reminded to pick up my feet.

I took Broken Hill trail which led to ... guess what?

Down near the ocean, Broken Hill trail met up with Beach Trail and I followed that back up to the bluffs where I started. OK, so it was only a few miles but I didn't roll an ankle, fall (stumbles don't count), get lost, get stung by any bees or step in anything worse than soft sand. Note to self: Do this again soon!

Of course, no trip to San Diego would be complete without a bike ride along the coast. Dave and I rode from the hotel up to Oceanside about 20 miles away a couple times later in the week. I was thrilled to see how much I'd improved as a cyclist since I rode here last back in January 2007 with my travel bike on its first trip. Dare I say I'm starting to like riding hills?

Near the end of each ride, we enjoyed this magnificent view of the Torrey Pines State Beach. Then we had to climb a big hill back to our hotel, which was located behind the trees in the top left of the photo. Chalkings from a recent MS 150 ride were still on the ground to help motivate us. Great way to end a great ride!

Better Than a New Pair of Running Shoes

Last year, I attended a 4-day swim camp in Kona where I learned a new way to swim freestyle. My 100-yard swim times went from 2:30-2:45 to 2:00-2:15. More importantly, I actually began to enjoy swimming for the first time in my life!

And if you enjoy doing something, you want to do it more and get better at it, right?

Well, perhaps not if it's an unhealthy habit ...

But swimming, the thing I've really struggled with for the past couple years since getting into tris, ABSOLUTELY!!

So I went back for another swim lesson last week. For less than the cost of a new pair of running shoes, I can get one of the best swimmers/instructors in the world to help me, Karlyn Pipes-Nielsen. Or her swim guru husband, Eric Nielsen, since KPN was out of town. Either way, the benefits of the lesson would last MUCH longer than a pair of running shoes would for me.

I was videotaped while swimming in their Endless Pool, which is sort of like a treadmill for swimmers, making it easy for the instructor and camera to see what I'm doing wrong over and over and over. And I had to swim slowly. Darn, no cheating or hiding faults when swimming slow! If you promise not to laugh, you may click the play button below.




In case you missed it, these are some of the big things that were noticed, all of which would either slow me down and/or make swimming harder for me:

- My right arm was crossing the center line when I breathed left
- While extending my arms forward, my hands (esp. the right one) often did a "wheelie" upward in the water
- I have a pause in my stroke when breathing to right or left
- My legs were splitting open like a parachute when breathing
- Arms "windmilling" more than they should, getting stuck at the hip
- I had plenty of hip rotation if I remembered to do so when pulling

After an hour, I had fixed all these problems and was now swimming perfectly. NOT!

No, I was now just aware of these things and had made some small steps toward improving them, some of which may not be obvious in the next video because they are still mostly in my head!

- Wider entry with the right arm so no more crossing over the center when breathing left
- A slight angle downward with my hands when extending my arms forward to avoid the "wheelie"
- A little less pause in my stroke when breathing
- More continuous light kicking trying to reduce legs splitting when breathing (though definitely still noticeable)
- More power in my pull earlier in the stroke, focusing on a faster recovery (not really evident yet but less tiring for me than trying to put power at the end of my stroke using triceps)
- Hip rotation now a function of shifting the opposite shoulder forward to extend the arm (rather than when pulling, which is easier for me not to have to remember)

It's a work in progress! (TRT 1:52, with some other non-lesson fun thrown in at the end)




But there is no doubt that I'm enjoying swimming now. Two days after the lesson with just the changes that I'd been able to incorporate, I swam 3x300 yards on 6:00 intervals (5:30-5:35) and then 3x200 yards on 4:00 intervals (3:40-3:45), which are some of my fastest pool swim times to date. With continued practice, group swim workouts and that lesson, my 100-yard swim times are now 1:45-1:50 compared to 2:00-2:15 last year. And I know this is still just the beginning :-)

Thank you Karlyn and Eric!!!

Swimming Milestone!

OK, for all you runners who may have been struggling with swimming as much as I have the past couple years, here's my latest piece of advice: Pull a hamstring!

No, not really. But, seriously, in the past couple weeks I think I've made more progress in my swimming than I have in months!! Thanks also to the new killer group swim workouts.

First off, the hamstring injury took away my ability to do the breaststroke (takes good hammies to do the frog kick!) so I have FINALLY gotten rid of that urge to fall back on doing breaststroke here and there for recovery during workouts on my own, which is good because my tri club coach's favorite recovery is clearly 200 easy freestyle. (Last Monday, Coach: Shirley, what are you doing? Me: (pant, pant) Just got done with the 3x200 set you asked me to do, Coach (pant). Coach: Give me 200 easy!)

Secondly, to do some of the things we've been required to do in the group swim workouts (which reminded Irish Blue of Navy Seal workouts she'd seen and have now got me thinking Coach may have read her comment on my other post, LOL), I've had to really work on generating speed and power via my pull and hip rotation, not kicking a whole lot to keep the hammy happy. And that's exactly what Coach focused on on Monday. After we'd done a bunch of descending, ascending and recovery 200s, he went around holding onto people's ankles so we were having to drag him! And as I was glub-glubbing through this latest form of torture, the whole pull and hip connection thing really clicked for the first time -- WOO HOO!

Which I think led to the third good thing that has happened since my hamstring injury, and the reason for the title of this post ... I can now do the 3x300 Threshold Test in my little Swim Workouts for Triathletes book fast enough to have a time that appears on their T-Pace Chart! A year ago when I bought this book, I was nowhere close and even just a month ago when swimming three sets of 300 yards with 30 seconds rest, each 300 took just over 6 minutes and 6:00 was the slowest time listed on the chart. What, don't turtles deserve to have a T-pace that's on the chart?!

But yesterday I swam the 300s in 5:46.64, 5:40.80 and 5:38.17 for an average of 5:42, which according to the chart (or just divided by 3) means my 100 yard T-pace or Threshold Pace is 1:54 (the book says yards and meters can be used interchangeably).

This means I can now do the other T-pace based swim workouts in my little book that I've been saving for when I'm fast enough. But mostly, it just makes me feel that I'm really a swimmer now! (I know, IT'S ABOUT FREAKING TIME!!!)

For anyone interested in knowing more about my struggles with swimming, I've created a history. Here are my major lessons learned after 2.5 years of serious swimming, 4 1/2-iron tris, 2 olys, 2 sprints and 1 Ironman attempt:

If you don't have a swim background, take swim lessons. Learning from a book or DVD does not work well.

Do not be content to just survive swim segments of tris. Work on your weakness!

Keep looking for a stroke that suits you. There are different ways to swim freestyle and everyone, even good swimmers should always be looking for ways to improve.

Do not swim laps mindlessly. Unlike running, swimming is nearly all about technique and if you're not thinking about it and working on it, you're not going to improve by much.

Have someone videotape you when swimming, both above water and underwater too, if possible. You'll be amazed at what you can learn from seeing yourself.

Join a group swim program. You will never work so hard and see as much improvement on your own.

What Color is Your Parachute?

Mine was actually black but it didn't matter. Swimming 200 yards with that thing on never felt so hard.

Then came 200 yards kicking with fins on one side, which was considerably easier but no arms were to be used except to take a breath and then switch sides. Felt a little twinge in my hamstring but nothing major.

Felt something else that was really weird disturbing, though ... a very warm stream of water hitting my arm as I was kicking and looking down so I couldn't see where it was coming from. I feared the worst. WTF, is someone peeing on me? Turns out they'd activated the fountain-like cooling system because the pool was too warm (I'd guess above 85 degrees). When it kicks on, there is warmer water in the pipes that gets ejected into the sides of the pool. Great, now it was probably a degree or two warmer near me.

After that, 200 yards with a belt that had two protrusions at the hip. Me: Hey, Coach, this thing is interfering with how I finish my stroke. Coach: It's telling you that you need more hip rotation. Doh!

Another 2x200 yards with no toys working on high elbow catch and putting it all together. Then finally 200 yards easy. Ahh ...

But wait, there was more to come:

4x50 yds in 0:55 with 5 sec rest - Fast for me!

2x75 yds in 1:15 with 5 sec rest - Ridiculous, I got no rest at all!

4x25 yds all-out sprint with 20 seconds rest - I made it without puking!!

Then 200 yards cool down with a pull buoy plus 600 yards warm-up for a total of 2450 yards.

Oh, and all the slower swimmers from last week were not there this week so I was back in the slow lane. But, I was not the slowest person in that lane (there were two of us). Hopefully, the other new guy won't get scared off. Cuz I'm liking these group swim workouts. Reminds me of bootcamp classes I used to take and teach.

Opportunity Knocking!

Last Saturday for the first time ever I got a weird hamstring pull in my right leg and was able to run only 7 of 10 easy-paced miles I'd hoped to do with a group. Now, having run full marathons 6-7 days after another marathon in the past, I doubt it was caused by running. The most likely suspect is a hard swim workout I did the day before that included 2x100 yards of kick board drills, which I rarely do because I'm a terrible kicker and I've actually wanted to kick less while swimming freestyle anyway. But I felt completely recovered from my marathon on Friday and thought why not do what the swim workout book says?

Well, I definitely felt my glutes and hammies after the kick board but thought nothing more of it until I felt a "pop" in my hamstring during the run. Darn it! Needless to say, I will not be running the 5K I'd hoped to run this Thursday and probably not the bike time trial next Tuesday either. I know hamstring injuries can be a b*tch if I don't let it heal so I will be taking it easy for a while. Luckily, I have no more marathons until the end of September and the faster running I'd hoped to do this summer I will just have to play by ear.

However, this gives me the perfect opportunity to work on my swimming again and yesterday was the first meeting of a new tri club group that has started up at a YMCA located only 2 miles away. For $60/month, there will be two club workouts a week and I'll have unlimited access to the pool/gym for other workouts on my own. Even though I'm on travel up to 4 months a year, I think it's worthwhile (unfortunately, they can't waive the dues when I'm gone).

And yesterday's tri club swim workout was great. Surprisingly, I was not in the slowest lane (I usually am) and the coach actually thought my swim form looked good -- WOO HOO! It was tough doing the faster intervals using only my arms to go faster (I was barely kicking) but the hardest were the 8x25s that included pulling ourselves out of the pool at each end and then jumping (not diving) back in. The coach actually let me get away with doing only 6 because I felt another mild "pop" in my hammy after the 6th one and was afraid any more out&ins might do more harm than good. My arms were thoroughly pooped by the time I got home :-)

But, I got some bad news about my speeding ticket. Because it was issued in Idaho, I CANNOT attend traffic school or do anything to prevent the points from appearing on my Florida driving record. So for the next 3 yrs, I could be paying something like 27% more for car insurance :-(

An extra $900-1000/yr for insurance and a gym membership adds up quick, doesn't it? Better make good use of the latter ...

Progress

Back in Kona now where I've managed to do my first workouts since the bike crash. 15 min upright exercise bike (no weight on upper body = no pain), 15 min elliptical and 20(!) minutes on the treadmill. I kept the intensity level low but did indeed break a sweat -- YAAAAAAY!!!

Then I put on my bathing suit to go for a short swim -- ICK! The big ugly bruise on the side that got slammed onto the asphalt was glaring at me (my right side, the photo is a mirror reflection). And with parts of it still swollen and puffy, it not only still hurts like hell, it makes my thigh look HUGE :-(

I managed about 20 min swimming with a pull buoy before I had to stop due to rib pain. Breast stroking actually hurt worse.

But, I've done more today than I did all last week. Time to enjoy the sunset :-)

Aloha! (Second photo added)

Headed to Austin

Whew, what a busy week last week was! I had high hopes of making it to the pool 3 times but only made it twice. But perhaps you couldn't tell from just looking at the yardage -- 6500!

In fact, I think that the D3Multisport advanced winter maintenance training program I've been following is perhaps more for Ironman athletes than half Ironman athletes, at least the swimming part.

But could swimming too much be a bad thing? I mean, it still is my weakest sport by far and so a part of me thinks it'd be good to get used to swimming 3000-5000 yards and then only have to swim about 2200 yards during a race.

Or is this just plain insane?

I have been known to do such things ...

But, this week will be a step-back week. I'm actually going to be in Austin visiting my sister (photo above: me left, sis right) and creating my Team Evotri video application. While there, hopefully, I'll get to meet up with Ellie who's planning to run the Austin Marathon next weekend, if she's feeling better (she's been sick, poor thing), do some swimming at Barton Springs (in the background of the photo), and run around the ever-popular Town Lake. Who knows? Maybe I'll run into Lance Armstrong :-)

PS - Mark your calendars. The SimplyStu Worldwide Triathlon is 3/28-30. No money, stress or hassle -- Just get out and tri!

Splish Splash

Bree mentioned a company called Splish that makes cool swimsuits. I thought this one might be good for me since I've improved this year but still have got a long way to go.

Here's the idea behind it: Turtles are really quite speedy. I mean, if you look at the sloth, which moves at 4 inches an hour, I'd say the turtle is basically a rocket ...

I like the idea of being a rocket, if only to a few :-)


Some of the suits are pretty funny like this one. Can you imagine some guy wearing this? If I didn't drown from swallowing so much water laughing, I'd probably have to get out of the pool before I peed in it.

There was no description or explanation provided. Maybe it's something like: Wear this to discourage your competition from drafting behind you or even getting into the pool with you. By default, you'll be a winner.

And you can also design your own custom swimsuit too. How fun!

Lucky's Lake Swim

This past weekend I heard that the Central Florida Tri Club was doing a practice swim at Lucky's lake. I'm not usually able to train with them because they mostly work out at the downtown YMCA, which I'm not a member of, but this swim was open to anyone. Lucky is an avid local swimmer who encourages people to come swim in the lake at the back of his beautiful home. No lifeguards but wetsuits, pullbuoys, noodles, etc., are all allowed. Just make sure you can swim the 1km round trip distance.

To greet swimmers at the edge of the water, there are two small decorative alligators. Though Lucky's website FAQs mention that it'd be unusual to have a real one over 5 feet, it does say there have been some gators in the past and there may be now, as well as fish, turtles, snakes, etc. Great motivation to swim fast if you needed some.



But, really, no one was too worried. There are folks who swim in the lake every morning. I, for one, was much more concerned with whether my wetsuit would still fit (next Sunday's race, Miami Man, is usually wetsuit legal but I'd not worn the wetsuit much since last year when I was in Ironman shape -- gulp!). And being a full wetsuit (one with arms) and having a new swim stroke, shoulder fatigue was another issue in question.



So off we went into the dark green yonder. It's 500 meters to the other side if you swim in a straight line, which few people do. There were no marker buoys along the way so great practice sighting off landmarks. Both out and back I definitely noticed that I veered to the left (no line at the bottom to follow!). I'm not sure why since I'm right handed and pull stronger with my right arm but suspect it has to do with having better balance on my right side, hence the right arm will stay out in front longer, and also always sighting with my right arm forward, both of which will cause my right hip to dip down, in essence giving me a rudder effect of turning left. So this week in the pool I will do some swimming with my eyes closed to test my theory and work on swimming straighter. The lifeguards will probably get some amusement watching me. Why the heck is she all of a sudden swimming into the lane lines?



But after 2 round trips (2 km), essentially the 1.2 mile distance I will swim in my race, I was happy. The wetsuit fit fine, my shoulders were not overly fatigued, and I got some additional experience swimming in open water. It would have been nice if I had set my watch to keep track of my swim time but I forgot (doh!). I guesstimate it took me roughly an hour including the rather lengthy breaks I took on both ends to talk to others.



Before leaving I went to sign the wall in Lucky's backyard. Since 1999, it's been a tradition for swimmers who had completed at least one 1km round trip and the wall was quite full. I managed to find an empty spot towards the bottom and received a patch (first photo). After 98 more crossings, I can get a cap. As Lucky says, "the best things in life are free."



But, can you believe I later bought some leftover Halloween candy that was on sale at Walmart? I should be banned from shopping right after Halloween (and Christmas), especially the week before my period. Did I mention that I've got to squeeze into a little black wetsuit this weekend?!?

Long Run Experiment

CewTwo's recent blog entry prompted me to write about my latest long run experiment. You see, most of my running life I've been a so-called Zen runner. I love to disassociate while running, letting my mind wander freely. I enjoy long slow distance (LSD) runs the most because I can relax and zone out with my thoughts for long periods of time. Speed work requires a lot of focus and effort while shorter runs seem, well, too short.

But swimming has taught me to become mindful of what I'm doing. From the recent swim camp I've realized that the only way I can improve is to focus on my technique and my environment (to avoid collisions, make sure I'm swimming straight, try to develop that elusive feel for the water). And the payoff has been huge, not only in terms of faster swim times but also greater enjoyment.

Could the same happen with my running in Orlando?

Because in truth, I was not looking forward to my LSD this week. I wanted to run all of it outdoors and knew it would be hotter and more humid than Hawaii, quite boring scenery-wise and I'd be one of very few runners out there. Most of all, I didn't feel safe zoning out any more, especially with Dave being out of the country. Last year a guy on a bicycle tried to grab me in broad daylight along a popular bike path, there were two attempted rapes of female runners within a mile of my house (and I don't think they ever caught the guy) and just this week I heard that another female runner had been attacked while running in a very nice Orlando area neighborhood. ARGGGHH!

But there was no one else I knew who could run long on a weekday morning so I headed out alone around 7:30am (sunrise ~7:15am) with no specific route planned but prepared (pepper spray, cell phone, rearview mirror, etc). I'd just run for 3 hours and go wherever I felt safest and coolest. I thought it'd be pretty hard to stay focused for such a long time but actually found it to be very similar to what I was doing in the pool recently and also what I had done while training in the martial arts, which I did for 6 years after some other jerk jumped out of his car naked and started chasing me.

So all throughout my run: How am I breathing? Am I working too hard? Were my neck and shoulders relaxed? What were my arms doing (were they too high, crossing my center line, were my hands clenched)? Is my posture tall? Who or what do I sense coming up ahead, to the side or from behind? What are some good places for someone to hide (the perp in one of the attacks near my house was hiding behind a wall and pulled the victim behind it)? What are my options? Do I look vulnerable? Do I feel strong, strong enough to run like hell or handle things myself if necessary? Am I keeping my cadence up (I count steps for 30 seconds, multiply by 2 and see how close I am to 180)? Am I landing midfoot? Am I watching where I step so I don't roll my ankles? Am I experiencing any aches or pains and if so, what can I do to get rid of them? Do I need to drink fluids or eat a gel? Where should I run to find some shade? Where is my next water stop?

I stayed closely tuned into what I was doing, how I was feeling and what was around me. The results were incredible. I felt like I was in total control of my run the whole time, like an elite runner who ran gracefully in the heat, like an action hero with a heightened sense of awareness and the ability to either avoid trouble or deal with it head on (yeah, maybe I watch too many movies).

And time seemed to go by much faster, even ended up running for 20 minutes longer than I'd planned (3:20). I also have hardly any post-run soreness at all, nothing compared to how I felt after the 3 hour run in Hawaii two weeks ago.

So it appears I've found yet another way to enjoy running. It's not at all like the enjoyment I've had before but rather a feeling of accomplishment that I got the run done despite less than ideal conditions and fears. Don't worry though, these days I have other ways I can zone out :-)

Running time 3:20, ~20-21 miles.
Weather 75-85 degrees, fairly high humidity and low wind.
People count: 7 walking, 4 running, 5 riding bicycles, 2 hanging out, 1 doing push-ups on a bench, 9 construction workers.

Swim Camp

Please forgive me for my tardiness in writing this report! I ended up staying in Kona for an extra week so some unexpected condo warranty work could be done (Dave was in Omaha, Nebraska, all last week any way). Then, after we both got home Friday night, we spent a short weekend together before he took off for Poland yesterday.

Now, finally, about that swim camp ...

In short, it was AWESOME!!!

Never have I swam so much over the course of 4 days but also, never have I felt like I'd made so many gains in my swimming in such a short time. Karlyn Pipes-Neilsen and her husband Eric are wonderful instructors who really know triathletes, some of the world's best, in fact. Everything they taught me was offered with a "try it and see if it works for you" attitude. And the timing was particularly good for me because I'd been swimming long enough to know what wasn't working for me, but not long enough to have developed bad habits that couldn't be changed.



And even Karlyn's physique gave me confidence I could swim better, for she was as thin as an elite marathoner (so no more lack of body fat excuses, not that they really apply to me but it seems that many better swimmers have a lot more built-in buoyancy than I do). She also had extra small size feet like me, not huge paddles like Ian Thorpe.

Below are the camp highlights. We had swim sessions in her Endless Pool, at the Kona Aquatic Center and in Kailua Bay, where the Kona Ironman race begins. Karlyn did provide nice notes for us campers but they're copyrighted so I cannot post them online. However, there are several articles on her Aquatic Edge website, an instructional DVD available, and she also gives clinics in various locations if anyone is interested in learning more about her style of swimming.

1. Above water and underwater video sessions -- Cameras don't lie. In true color, I saw myself dropping my elbows often, pulling too far back, "windmilling" my arms, pausing when breathing to my left, tensing up my arms/hands too much during recovery and kicking as if my life depended on it. On the good side, my 10 and 2 o'clock hand entry positions were now resulting in the desired shoulder width apart freestyle stroke so my arms were no longer crossing the center line, not even while breathing (we'd worked on this during a private lesson back in July). I don't think I could have understood what to do to improve without seeing first what I was really doing. It was amazing how distorted my perceptions were!

2. Breathing in a more relaxed manner -- This was huge for me and probably why I often got headaches while swimming for long periods continuously. I discovered I tend to hold my breath and then exhale everything at the last minute before getting another breath. To avoid this, Karlyn suggested that I keep my mouth open underwater and hum or hiss to exhale some air immediately and continuously, but never all of it. She also suggested that I mix up my breathing, take some shallow breaths and deep breaths, and don't only breathe every 3 strokes like I usually do. An article Karlyn wrote about breathing can be found here.

3. Contrast drills -- Throughout the camp, the way I was convinced to make improvements was to try something different and then compare with what I'd been doing before: high elbow catch vs. dropped elbow, short pulls vs. long pulls, straighter arm recovery vs. high elbow recovery, front quadrant swimming vs. windmilling, relaxed breathing vs. forced breathing, pulling with fingers slightly separated vs. tightly squeezed together, keeping shoulders "quiet" (flat but still allowing the hips to rotate) vs. rolling the whole body from side to side. Often the new things felt weird at first but I let faster swim times and/or less effort be the deciding factor. Interestingly, stroke count was not considered at all initially, though I ended up dropping it by a stroke or two with more practice of the new techniques.

4. New drills, strokes and mental training -- Swim freestyle an entire pool length (25 yds) without taking a single breath? Swim 50 yard intervals on 1:10? Swim 4x30 strokes at ascending speed (400, 500, 600 and then 800 psi) in the Endless Pool? Try the backstroke and the butterfly stroke? Say what? Well, I learned and did them all (though the back and fly were pretty ugly) and found out quite a bit about body rhythm, what I could do to make swimming more interesting/challenging and what I could do if I really put my mind to it. I need to start thinking and training more like how a real swimmer does, not someone who's just hoping to survive the swim segment in a tri. And little did I know at the time how useful knowing the butterfly and backstroke might be.

5. Open water strategies -- These are things I practiced knowing I wasn't going to be one of the slowest swimmers for long (-: running in/out of water, dolphining under waves (using elements of the butterfly stroke!), sprinting and then settling into a sustainable swim pace, drafting, rounding corners by dipping one hip more than the other (instead of pulling harder with one arm), sighting while swimming freestyle (keying in on big landmarks instead than small buoys whenever possible), kicking harder to get blood flowing to the legs towards the end of the swim, backstroking a bit to check behind me for waves that might slam me close to shore, and then once I touch the ground telling myself to get up and run (no hesitating or celebrating that I'd made it back to land!). And during our open water swim, I was psyched to discover how much straighter I swam with the new freestyle stroke -- w00t!

6. Increasing swim speed range -- Before the camp, I really had only two freestyle swim speeds, slow and slower. I'd easily get out of breath if I tried to go faster and even swimming slower still seemed to require more effort than it should. But now with a much stronger and simpler stroke (looks like I'm paddling a surfboard) and more relaxed breathing, I can swim faster without necessarily kicking more. To swim slow and easy, the key for me was to focus first on not kicking (which results in hardly kicking) and then just letting my arms barely pull me along. Then I discovered that I could swim faster by simply pulling harder/faster but still not (hardly) kick. OMIGOD, what a difference! It was almost as easy as swimming with a pull buoy!!

Dare I saw that I'm even starting to actually like swimming?

My First Peaman

Peaman biathlons (swim & run) are fun, free training events held several times a year in Kona. I'd heard about them a while ago but never seemed to be in town when one was held. This trip I got lucky!

My swim instructor Karlyn Pipes-Neilsen said it was one of the longer Peaman events, a 3/4-mile swim followed by a 4 mile out-and-back run. The swim was along the Kona Ironmman swim course and the run was along Alii Drive, right past our condo. Couldn't be more convenient.

No entry fees, no applications, no bib numbers. Swimming with fins, masks and/or snorkels are all allowed and the run is optional, or you can choose to do just a 1-mile run, or you can have someone else do the run for you (i.e., relay). In fact, if there isn't an existing division that you fit into, they'll create one. Isn't that cool?

Well, I was still feeling pretty fatigued and sore from the 3 hour run the day before (Saturday) so I decided that I'd wear fins during the swim and play it by ear on the run, maybe skip it altogether. Before I left our condo, I took a couple 8-hour Tylenols. Then I mustered a VERY slow 1.5 mile jog over to the swim start at the pier (easier than driving and trying to find a place to park).

A hundred or so people were there, I'm guessing, many with snorkels and fins :-). Sean "Peaman" Pagett, the organizer, gave event instructions that included a request for everyone to "swim with aloha," namely, please try not to elbow your neighbor (double cool!). Then there was a countdown from 5 and we were off.

I'd lined up in the back and to the side as I usually do in tris, but found myself passing folks because of the fins. I settled in amongst others swimming my pace and was hardly ever touched or bumped (amazing!). I got out to the turnaround sighting on my own but then followed/drafted a guy back in for a while. I finally looked up and then saw he was pretty far left of the course and had to swim extra distance to get back on course. Lesson learned: Check to make sure the person you're drafting is swimming in the right direction!

Once back on the beach, I got a disk with a number. It said 59, which I would later find out meant I was the 59th swimmer out of the water. I put it around my wrist with the attached rubberband and then headed over to where my shoes were and looked for some water to wash all the sand off my feet. Didn't see any and forgot to bring my own - Doh! So I just put my socks on right over the sand and pulled on my shoes (hopefully my feet will forgive me!).

I was still undecided about whether or not to really do the run, though. My legs didn't feel all that bad after the swim but I knew I couldn't/shouldn't run very hard and there were several swimmers just milling around rather than preparing to run (including my fellow swim camper, Judy). I procrastinated a bit more by putting my fins back in my bag (the transition area was not secure) and eating a gel to get the saltwater taste out of my mouth. Finally, I made up my mind to run, dug around my bag for my sunglasses and headed out. How far? TBD.

The run was on sidewalks and on the shoulder of the road if there weren't any sidewalks so we were dodging tourists, other runners just out for a run, and a little cross traffic at times. As I approached the 1/2 mile marker signifying the turnaround for the 1-mile run, I was about to pass the first person who appeared to be doing the event but she turned around unexpectedly. I couldn't bring myself to follow her and kept going. So, it was decided. I'd be doing the full 4 miles after all.

I continued running at a moderate pace and noticed that the sand wasn't really bothering my feet much. I passed a couple other women in the event (telltale signs: wet hair and wearing swimsuits) but a couple guys passed me, too. After the first mile, I began to see a number of folks who were already on the return leg including Bree Wee, one of the best female triathletes on the island (Karlyn introduced me to her at the pool the other day). She looked to be the first place female in this event so I gave her a big cheer -- GO BREE!

At the 2-mile turnaround, there was a water station, to my surprise (I carried a water bottle with me thinking there wouldn't be any), and I set my sights on a young woman wearing a tri outfit like me about 50 yards ahead. I didn't want to push my legs too hard the day after a long run so I reeled her in slooowly. About a mile later, I finally caught her and picked up my pace a bit more as the course flattened out (less than a mile to go!).

When I reached that 1/2-mile marker again, I was feeling great so I let loose for a speedy finish. I passed one more guy on the final stretch along the water and was handed a popsicle stick with the number 50 on it at the pier.

They asked my name (no age), what distances I'd done and whether I'd worn fins when I turned in my disk and stick. There was no mention of race times, and I never saw a clock or heard anyone yelling out finishing times, so I assume the results are just relative placings within the various divisions: Peas, Finned Peas, Split Peas (relay), Pea Wees (kids), etc. Supposedly, the results will be published in the local newspaper. When? Who knows, who cares.

After I'd cooled down, had some snacks and chatted with some folks, I realized that I'd forgotten to stop my watch at the finish (total event time was like 1:20-something by then). Heck, I didn't even hit the lap button to keep track of my run/swim segments for my training log (WHOOPS!). Guess I'll just have to guess.

A sign of too much fun. Thanks, Peaman!

Congrats to all who raced this weekend, especially those at Ironman Wisconsin. I'll post more about the swim camp when I get back home. I actually have one more swim session with Karlyn in her Endless Pool before I leave end of this week.

Aloha from Kona!

Well, thanks to advances in technology, I have high speed internet access here in paradise. For a while now I've had a Sprint mobile broadband card for my laptop but no high speed internet network to connect to in Kona. Now the bubble has been broken and I can blog, read other's blogs, and root for Brent, Rural Girl, IM Able and others doing Ironman Wisconsin this weekend, and also Duane who's doing a sprint tri.

Can you hear my cowbell now?

Of course, the reason I'm back in Kona is not to play on my laptop. I'm here for a 4-day swim camp and also so that some warranty work can be done at our condo. Today was the second day of the camp and my swimming was videotaped both above water and below. It was incredibly useful to see what I was doing, especially under the water where my elbows thought they'd be safe to drop and cost me power, among other things. And with only two people attending this camp and two instructors, there was plenty of attention on moi and plenty of swimming, 2 hours worth. I usually swim for only about an hour and am pooped!

Which is why I probably will do very few other workouts until the swim camp is over on Friday. Yesterday I went out for a run that was supposed to be an easy 6-miler. But shortly after I got started, this guy came up alongside me, started chatting and before I knew it, we were cruising along at about a 7:30-7:40/mile pace, which is like a tempo run pace for me. To avoid overdoing things, I took a bathroom break at a beach park at the halfway point and just threw water on my face so he'd go on ahead and I could run back on my own slower.

Luckily, the first day of swim camp later in the afternoon involved only about an hour of actual swimming while other time was spent on overview and going over the 4 basic strokes. I need to be a lot more careful about expending extra energy outside the camp. That little bit of faster-than-usual running was FUN!

A Good Training Week!

Well, perhaps doing less than I'd hoped during my recent Hawaii trip has still helped my training.

First of all, I forgot to mention that while in Kona I got a private swim lesson from powerhouse Karlyn Pipes-Nielson to learn her so-called "Wide Entry Freestyle" swim style, which looks much like you're paddling an imaginary surfboard underneath you while swimming (see a clip from her instructional video). It's quite different than the Total Immersion (TI) swim style I learned a year and a half ago when I started swimming. Good body position and balance in the water are still very important but there's much less body roll involved and much more focus on stroke mechanics (in particular, a high elbow catch and a much straighter arm recovery). Instead of swimming on one's side to go faster through the water, the idea is to hydroplane on top of it.

I won't argue which swim style is faster from a hydrodynamics perspective but will say that Karlyn's swim style seems to be working for me so far. Namely, I'm now able to swim easy-paced 100 yard repetitions nearly as fast as I could sprint 100 yards before (2:05-2:10, excluding rests). I've still got a lot of work to do to be able to swim long continuously with the new swim style, but my goal of swimming 1.2 miles in 50-55 minutes (a 2:30-2:45 100m swim pace) at Miami Man in early November looks very doable even if I have to take some breaks to do the breast stroke to sight and actively rest. And a wetsuit should help!

This week I also noticed some progress in my cycling. For one thing, my cadence meter is now working because Dave fixed it and it's reading above 85 RPMs most of the time (last time it was working I had difficulty staying above 80). And during our training rides in the Orlando area, I'm rarely drafting and my speedometer has still been reading 20-22 mph pretty regularly with occasional max speeds reaching 26-27 mph on some of my short sprints. The Miami course should be similar barring any hurricanes.

It seems my cycling improvements have come in about 6 month intervals. After 6 months I finally stopped falling over. After 12 months I felt comfortable riding on the roads and could do some group riding (drafting, pulling, pointing, yelling, etc). After 18 months, I don't need to draft to go 20+ mph, am spinning as I should for better efficiency and can get up out of my saddle to go up hills and sprint. In another 6 months, who knows?

My running is pretty much the same, however. But a 2-3 hour run still feels as it did a few months ago, which is good considering the summer heat. My next marathon, the Siouxland Lewis & Clark Marathon in Sioux City, Iowa, is not until October 20th and my goal is just to finish since Miami Man is only 3 weeks later. I'll probably only add in a little faster running as the weather begins to cool off, not much more mileage.

This Thursday Dave and I are headed to Wichita Falls, Texas, to join the spandex-clad hoards that will be at the Hotter 'n Hell 100 bike ride. We opted to go only 100K (there were 100 mi, 100K, 50 mi, 25 mi and 10K options) to make sure we can finish without Dave overheating and in plenty of time to be able to fulfill other family obligations we will have during our trip (his folks live in Wichita Falls and his sister about an hour away).

Our mantra during the ride will be: Hotter 'n Hell, Cooler Than Florida. At least, we hope it will be in the morning :-)

TGIB - Thank God I'm Back

Who'd have thought that playing tourist in Hawaii could be more exhausting than training for marathons and triathlons? At least my workouts are usually no longer than 2-3 hours and there are planned recovery days.

Not so in Hawaii the past couple weeks.

My mom and I did a 12-hour around-the-island bus tour, attended a 3 hour all-you-can-eat luau, spent a day walking around the Hilton Waikoloa Resort, visited numerous museums, scenic sites, and other cultural centers, ate at various restaurants, and we shopped until I nearly dropped. "This is probably the only time she'll ever visit Hawaii," my sister told me. "I can do whatever my 70-year-old mother can do," I kept telling myself.


In between, I did manage to escape for a few swim-bike-run workouts but I always seemed to feel tired. I wasn't sleeping well with the condo temperature hovering around 85 most of the time (my mom got cold easily so no AC and no wide open windows, which I like). And she always seemed to be complaining about something ...


I did, however, have a couple of notable training experiences: 1) I fixed my first flat all by myself out on the highway and 2) I swam in Kailua Bay solo (wore fins since there are no lifeguards). These are things I've done in the past with Dave by my side guiding me and keeping me calm. This time I was by my lonesome and I conquered some fears I had about whether I could do them on my own -- woohoo!

The day after I got back I slept for nearly 12-hours straight. And I've had to take 2-3 hour long naps nearly every day, still. Guess I'm recovering. Meanwhile, here's a few photos from the around-the-island bus tour. Enjoy!

Orchid nursery

Rainbow Falls

Thurston Lava Tube

Tikis at Place of Refuge

Turtles at Black Sand Beach