Kona
I’ve been in Hawaii for a day now, and since my first day I couldn’t find an open pool that fit my swim schedule in Kailua, I instead opted to go out with Cousin Jill and Eric and their friend Rich and get completely hammered at the bar Jill works at. Which might not have been so rough on training had I known that Hawaiians are not at A/C addicted as Floridians. Cousin Jill and her husband included. So instead of downing some water and being fully recovered when I woke up, I instead continued to sweat and lose water until I woke up at 7 feeling like a jackhammer had been taken to my head while I was roasting in a fire. I took some Advil as a cure. It helped a little as Jill and I flew to Kona arriving early afternoon.
Swim: 500, 5x100, 400, 4x100, 300, 3x100, 2oo, 2x100, 100
2 Lipodrene
The Kona aquatics center is a lovely municipal facility located right next to the old Kona airport in Kailua-Kona. Basically, it’s the city pool for Kona locals, and best of all it’s free. Gave me a little local feel and provided a pretty empty swimming course.
The hangover was readily apparent as the first ten laps felt like they took forever. This isn’t terribly uncommon when I don’t do a warmup, but the lackadaisical swimming continued into the 100s, which all felt really labored. It was about the third 100 where I decided to just go at the pace where I felt comfortable to get through them. The one saving grace of this swim was that I limited my intervals to ten seconds between 100s (really, because I wasn’t going that hard), but I was still doing 100s in lke 1:50. Which is faster than I had done in previous cycles, but is definitely too slow for me now.
So cool as it was swimming past a sign that read “Kona Aquatics Center) and seeing the fog-veiled mountains behind the far side of my lane, most of this swim pretty much sucked. I was not pleased, but was glad to at least get in some extra training in Kona.
Run – 1 Hour
1 Lipodrene
I took an extra gel, changed over in the Aquatic Center locker room, and ran out to the old airport for my run. The airport looks like it should serve as the Ironamn transistion area, as it’s about ¾ of a mile of black asphalt right on the shoreline. The view was amazing, and motivated me a lot to run well. I later learned that the airport neither serves as the transition area, nor is it even on the Ironman run course, but whatever. Running on the shoreline, and then through the town of Kailua-Kona was cool enough as it is. The iPod didn’t hurt either. Shitty as the swim had been, this run went very well.
Although whoever the asshole was who told me I’d love Hawaii because it was like Florida without the humidity was full of shit. I do love Hawaii, but its is humid as fuck here. It’s like Miami in the Spring and early Summer. So I was pretty dehydrated at the end. But all in all a very solid run.
Showing posts with label swim/run brick. Show all posts
Showing posts with label swim/run brick. Show all posts
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
T55 - Hello, Right Side! - Swim/Run Brick
Gainesville
This past Valentines Day, or the day before to be more precise, me and my then-girlfriend went kayaking in Biscayne Bay. The whole time, we kept veering to the right. Since I was sitting in back, and more or less controlling our direction, I was getting a little irritated at myself. I hadn't been lifting for months, and swimming works both sides evenly. Why was my left arm pulling so much harder than my right? The whole fucking kayak trip we kept having to correct course, and I really felt like I was exerting even effort. Well, today I think I figured it out.
Swim: 2x1500
2 Lipodrene
The swim today was not terribly inspiring. Lost count a few times. Went at a solid pace, but nothing frustrating and nothing impressive. I was neither inspired nor demotivated. A very normal swim, interrupted by a gel halfway through 1500 number 2. But I kept my head under water for multiple strokes a few times and noticed something: my right arm was coming across a small part of my right side every stroke. I'd never noticed this because my head is always out of the water when the right arm strokes, so its location was never certain like it is on the left. The idea, of course, is not to cross your body with your arms so you get the maximum pull.
What I realized was the, basically, for the year and a half I've been swimming my right arms has essentially been drafting behind my body on its stroke. I'm sure this cost me some speed, but it also has made my left side considerable stronger. Hence the lopsided Kayak trip. I realized this, of course, at about lap 20 of the second set, but for the last 10 and a half laps, I focused on keeping my right arm on the outside of my body. Yeah, it got sore after about 2 laps. My right shoulder was burning by the end, it was getting so much use. I hadn't realized it, but my stroke was seriously fucked. Somehow I think this is going to make future swims a lot harder, but may well gain me some time.
Run - 30 Minutes
Did a quick transition in the GHFC locker room and headed out onto 8th Ave. I had hoped to have another crushing run like I did in Miami, but my legs were still really sore from the previous night's Fartleks. So I ran about my race pace, but realized the purpose here. Your legs, they might be a little sore after a 112-mile bike ride. Probably a good idea to start realizing how running on them is gonna feel. Now, today's run was about 23 miles shorter than the Ironman run will be, and the cloud cover made it pretty easy. But good to feel like I can run my race pace on sore legs.
This past Valentines Day, or the day before to be more precise, me and my then-girlfriend went kayaking in Biscayne Bay. The whole time, we kept veering to the right. Since I was sitting in back, and more or less controlling our direction, I was getting a little irritated at myself. I hadn't been lifting for months, and swimming works both sides evenly. Why was my left arm pulling so much harder than my right? The whole fucking kayak trip we kept having to correct course, and I really felt like I was exerting even effort. Well, today I think I figured it out.
Swim: 2x1500
2 Lipodrene
The swim today was not terribly inspiring. Lost count a few times. Went at a solid pace, but nothing frustrating and nothing impressive. I was neither inspired nor demotivated. A very normal swim, interrupted by a gel halfway through 1500 number 2. But I kept my head under water for multiple strokes a few times and noticed something: my right arm was coming across a small part of my right side every stroke. I'd never noticed this because my head is always out of the water when the right arm strokes, so its location was never certain like it is on the left. The idea, of course, is not to cross your body with your arms so you get the maximum pull.
What I realized was the, basically, for the year and a half I've been swimming my right arms has essentially been drafting behind my body on its stroke. I'm sure this cost me some speed, but it also has made my left side considerable stronger. Hence the lopsided Kayak trip. I realized this, of course, at about lap 20 of the second set, but for the last 10 and a half laps, I focused on keeping my right arm on the outside of my body. Yeah, it got sore after about 2 laps. My right shoulder was burning by the end, it was getting so much use. I hadn't realized it, but my stroke was seriously fucked. Somehow I think this is going to make future swims a lot harder, but may well gain me some time.
Run - 30 Minutes
Did a quick transition in the GHFC locker room and headed out onto 8th Ave. I had hoped to have another crushing run like I did in Miami, but my legs were still really sore from the previous night's Fartleks. So I ran about my race pace, but realized the purpose here. Your legs, they might be a little sore after a 112-mile bike ride. Probably a good idea to start realizing how running on them is gonna feel. Now, today's run was about 23 miles shorter than the Ironman run will be, and the cloud cover made it pretty easy. But good to feel like I can run my race pace on sore legs.
Monday, August 3, 2009
T51 - Reason #847 why UM is Nicer than UF- Swim/Run Brick
Miami
If I didn't already know it, UM is a lot nicer than UF. The gyms alone tell the story, but I went for today's swim at the UM outdoor pool at the UC, and it was freaking beautiful. Sun overhead, palm trees all around the pool, and nobody else in the water. Nobody. Go to UF's outdoor pool and you're lucky if you only have to share your lane with five other swimmers. I had to run the campus loop today too, since it was a short run, and that run is a more reasonable distance, has no hills, and is a lot more scenic. So UM, definitely a better training ground than UF. Once again, though, you get what you pay for. The UM outdoor pool, which I get to use free as Alumni, is also dedicated to a guy named Matt Gribble. I thought this was pretty funny.
Swim: 1 x 1750
2 Lipodrene
I was a bit rushed Friday with a haircut scheduled at 3 and meeting my friend Bob for the Marlins game at 5, so I decided to skip the 800 meter warmup that featured 200 meters of kick. Again, in the long run, I think a small loss. The swim felt great, I really powered through a lot of it, and kept count of the laps almost perfectly. But because it was a relatively short swim, and maybe because the UM pool just has more to inspire interesting thoughts than the indoor pool at GHFC, I had some random ass shit going through my head during the swim. A sampling:
"Hey, look at that, I can see Lake Osceola from here. Maybe if Chad Meredith had spent a little more time up here he would have made it across."
"I should Start a Chad Meredith Memorial triathlon that involves a Lake Osceola Swim. 'Swim the Lake Because Chad Couldn't.' All proceeds go to some anti-hazing charity or something."
"I remember doing lifeguard training in here when I thought 500 meters was a really tough swim. That guy was a fucking pussy."
"That is a big-ass diving tower over there. Looks like a giant cock. No wonder so many divers are homos."
"Speaking of homos, this is the same water that Greg Louganis trained in. That's pretty cool."
then
"Hey, didn't Greg Louganis have AIDS? Maybe I should be concerned."
then
"Dude, with the way you live your life, you're worried about catching an STD from a swimming pool? COME. ON."
All said, I couldn't have been happier with the swim. The pool even has a locker room upstairs, which I used to change over into my run attire, then shower after. Again, UM has some solid facilities.
Run - 30 Minutes
This was the shortest run I'd had in a while, and following a not-particularly-draining swim, I thought this might be a good time to just go all out for one lap around the campus loop. Never mind that it was black flag conditions (over 90 degrees and sunny and brutally humid), I had no legit reason to leave anything today. So I ran out to my car, had a gel, left my shirt and the remainer of my keys there, and hit the loop running. NOt jogging, running.
I couldn't help but remember doing a black flag run with Klueber and Johnson about 10 years ago, where I dropped both of them because they'd been out all night, I think at the outdoor pool, actually. I wasn't even a strong runner then (not that I am now, but a far cry from me in 1999) but I remember feeling like that run kicked my ass. As I did subsequent times running that loop on summer days, even up to last year when I used it as my course for training for the Miami Man Half Iron. But today? Another one of those sun giving you energy days. I used the iPod just to maximize the adrenaline, and let me tell you that shit worked wonders. That new Summer Run mix was some good shit.
This song "Big Sky" came on, which is hands down the best running song I've found in 5 years, and I more or less dead sprinted the entire back stretch from Doctors Hospital to my car by Gusman. I think that's about 3/4 of a mile, give or take. Anyway, this was hands down my best run of this loop ever, and the best short run of the cycle. I'd been waiting for another great workout, and Friday was definitely it. Always nice to crush a run that once upon a time gave you problems.
If I didn't already know it, UM is a lot nicer than UF. The gyms alone tell the story, but I went for today's swim at the UM outdoor pool at the UC, and it was freaking beautiful. Sun overhead, palm trees all around the pool, and nobody else in the water. Nobody. Go to UF's outdoor pool and you're lucky if you only have to share your lane with five other swimmers. I had to run the campus loop today too, since it was a short run, and that run is a more reasonable distance, has no hills, and is a lot more scenic. So UM, definitely a better training ground than UF. Once again, though, you get what you pay for. The UM outdoor pool, which I get to use free as Alumni, is also dedicated to a guy named Matt Gribble. I thought this was pretty funny.
Swim: 1 x 1750
2 Lipodrene
I was a bit rushed Friday with a haircut scheduled at 3 and meeting my friend Bob for the Marlins game at 5, so I decided to skip the 800 meter warmup that featured 200 meters of kick. Again, in the long run, I think a small loss. The swim felt great, I really powered through a lot of it, and kept count of the laps almost perfectly. But because it was a relatively short swim, and maybe because the UM pool just has more to inspire interesting thoughts than the indoor pool at GHFC, I had some random ass shit going through my head during the swim. A sampling:
"Hey, look at that, I can see Lake Osceola from here. Maybe if Chad Meredith had spent a little more time up here he would have made it across."
"I should Start a Chad Meredith Memorial triathlon that involves a Lake Osceola Swim. 'Swim the Lake Because Chad Couldn't.' All proceeds go to some anti-hazing charity or something."
"I remember doing lifeguard training in here when I thought 500 meters was a really tough swim. That guy was a fucking pussy."
"That is a big-ass diving tower over there. Looks like a giant cock. No wonder so many divers are homos."
"Speaking of homos, this is the same water that Greg Louganis trained in. That's pretty cool."
then
"Hey, didn't Greg Louganis have AIDS? Maybe I should be concerned."
then
"Dude, with the way you live your life, you're worried about catching an STD from a swimming pool? COME. ON."
All said, I couldn't have been happier with the swim. The pool even has a locker room upstairs, which I used to change over into my run attire, then shower after. Again, UM has some solid facilities.
Run - 30 Minutes
This was the shortest run I'd had in a while, and following a not-particularly-draining swim, I thought this might be a good time to just go all out for one lap around the campus loop. Never mind that it was black flag conditions (over 90 degrees and sunny and brutally humid), I had no legit reason to leave anything today. So I ran out to my car, had a gel, left my shirt and the remainer of my keys there, and hit the loop running. NOt jogging, running.
I couldn't help but remember doing a black flag run with Klueber and Johnson about 10 years ago, where I dropped both of them because they'd been out all night, I think at the outdoor pool, actually. I wasn't even a strong runner then (not that I am now, but a far cry from me in 1999) but I remember feeling like that run kicked my ass. As I did subsequent times running that loop on summer days, even up to last year when I used it as my course for training for the Miami Man Half Iron. But today? Another one of those sun giving you energy days. I used the iPod just to maximize the adrenaline, and let me tell you that shit worked wonders. That new Summer Run mix was some good shit.
This song "Big Sky" came on, which is hands down the best running song I've found in 5 years, and I more or less dead sprinted the entire back stretch from Doctors Hospital to my car by Gusman. I think that's about 3/4 of a mile, give or take. Anyway, this was hands down my best run of this loop ever, and the best short run of the cycle. I'd been waiting for another great workout, and Friday was definitely it. Always nice to crush a run that once upon a time gave you problems.
Friday, July 10, 2009
T31 - Country Club Training Day - Swim/Run Brick (Treadmill)
Sacramento
I decided that doing another long bike would not be a good idea, given the short amount of time I had Tuesday as well as how my back had been feeling to that point. And since Wednesday was a rest day (and by "rest" I mean waking up before 4 a.m. and flying across the country)I thought this would give my body a nice respite. So I took Sunday's training day and moved it to Tuesday. This day looked to be the easiest of the week, so it made sense for a day where my time was limited.
Swim: 30 Minutes Continuous
2 Lipodrene
Again, my swim schedule was dictated by my nieces' swimming lessons, so I ended up going to Rio Del Oro with them as they did their lessons in the kiddie pool. I swam laps in the lap pool, and felt good the whole way through. I really am going to miss the outdoor swimming, especially because my tan is looking phenominal right about now. At any rate, I did 27 laps in 30 minutes, and that included the beginning where I had to stop at the end of my first 4 lengths to fix my goggles. They are definitely starting to leak, and I'm thinking it may be time for a new pair. We'll see how long it is from this revelation to any actual purchase.
Run: 45 Minutes (treadmill)
Well, I have come to the conclusion that there is no easier way to run than with an iPod on an indoor, air conditioned treadmill. Seriously, I just kept turning the speed up I felt so good, so this is obviously a form of cheating. This whole workout was very fancy-boy, swimming in the nice outdoor pool with nobody there then doing the run on the treadmill. It times out perfectly and there were only 5 extra minutes to the scheduled training time. But they are rarely going to be this easy. My headphones are still broken (I borrowed some of dads) so the next few runs will have to be sin musica.
I decided that doing another long bike would not be a good idea, given the short amount of time I had Tuesday as well as how my back had been feeling to that point. And since Wednesday was a rest day (and by "rest" I mean waking up before 4 a.m. and flying across the country)I thought this would give my body a nice respite. So I took Sunday's training day and moved it to Tuesday. This day looked to be the easiest of the week, so it made sense for a day where my time was limited.
Swim: 30 Minutes Continuous
2 Lipodrene
Again, my swim schedule was dictated by my nieces' swimming lessons, so I ended up going to Rio Del Oro with them as they did their lessons in the kiddie pool. I swam laps in the lap pool, and felt good the whole way through. I really am going to miss the outdoor swimming, especially because my tan is looking phenominal right about now. At any rate, I did 27 laps in 30 minutes, and that included the beginning where I had to stop at the end of my first 4 lengths to fix my goggles. They are definitely starting to leak, and I'm thinking it may be time for a new pair. We'll see how long it is from this revelation to any actual purchase.
Run: 45 Minutes (treadmill)
Well, I have come to the conclusion that there is no easier way to run than with an iPod on an indoor, air conditioned treadmill. Seriously, I just kept turning the speed up I felt so good, so this is obviously a form of cheating. This whole workout was very fancy-boy, swimming in the nice outdoor pool with nobody there then doing the run on the treadmill. It times out perfectly and there were only 5 extra minutes to the scheduled training time. But they are rarely going to be this easy. My headphones are still broken (I borrowed some of dads) so the next few runs will have to be sin musica.
Monday, June 22, 2009
T18 - Recovery, My Ass! - Swim/Run Brick
Gainesville
So today was supposed to be the first day of "Recovery" week, where you do easier workouts to let your body recover a little before heading into the next phase of training. This last month had been the "prep" phase, meaning it was just sort of a month-long warmup. So you see this thing isn't gonna be easy. Anyway, as I look at the cars I see they literally took the exact same card from week 20 and used it here. NO matter, training is training.
Swim: 1x1500
2 Lipodrene
I didn't even bother with a warmup today. I had to make a phone call for my final project at 6, and like an idiot didn't remember this until I showed up at the gym at 3:30. So I just went in and started, skipping the 800 meter warmup. I noticed this as my stroke didn't really get going until about lat 13 or 14, where of course I lost count. The second half of the swim went well, but I definitely need to warm up for stuff like this. I think scheduling things too close to my workouts hampers them, because all I can think about it getting done. The lesson learned today was leave an hour of buffer time minimum.
Run: 45 minutes, easy pace
I opted to do the run from GHFC up NW 8th Ave. to the top of the hill at about 22nd Street. Well, not only was it insanely hot today (I saw one thermometer that said 104), but I realized that run has a stretch of about a mile and a half with no shade. So as such I felt great until I got to that, then just fucking wilted and hobbled my way back. I stopped midway, not even going up the hill, and had a gel. Then turned back around. As it was the run still took me 50 minutes, funny since it had take n45 WITH the hill on T1. SO, I guess running in 104 degree heat kinda makes your runs harder. I'm not going to stop running in the heat, and on short runs like this I'm not overly concerned about them not being that good, and using them to get used to heat. The longer ones, I may do at night or at least use cloud cover.
But seriously, THIS is recovery? Running 4.5 miles in heat and swimming almost a mile? Good. Good to know what I'm in for. Headed to Miami tomorrow, though I'll workout here first. Hopefully things will go better for me there this time around in terms of training.
So today was supposed to be the first day of "Recovery" week, where you do easier workouts to let your body recover a little before heading into the next phase of training. This last month had been the "prep" phase, meaning it was just sort of a month-long warmup. So you see this thing isn't gonna be easy. Anyway, as I look at the cars I see they literally took the exact same card from week 20 and used it here. NO matter, training is training.
Swim: 1x1500
2 Lipodrene
I didn't even bother with a warmup today. I had to make a phone call for my final project at 6, and like an idiot didn't remember this until I showed up at the gym at 3:30. So I just went in and started, skipping the 800 meter warmup. I noticed this as my stroke didn't really get going until about lat 13 or 14, where of course I lost count. The second half of the swim went well, but I definitely need to warm up for stuff like this. I think scheduling things too close to my workouts hampers them, because all I can think about it getting done. The lesson learned today was leave an hour of buffer time minimum.
Run: 45 minutes, easy pace
I opted to do the run from GHFC up NW 8th Ave. to the top of the hill at about 22nd Street. Well, not only was it insanely hot today (I saw one thermometer that said 104), but I realized that run has a stretch of about a mile and a half with no shade. So as such I felt great until I got to that, then just fucking wilted and hobbled my way back. I stopped midway, not even going up the hill, and had a gel. Then turned back around. As it was the run still took me 50 minutes, funny since it had take n45 WITH the hill on T1. SO, I guess running in 104 degree heat kinda makes your runs harder. I'm not going to stop running in the heat, and on short runs like this I'm not overly concerned about them not being that good, and using them to get used to heat. The longer ones, I may do at night or at least use cloud cover.
But seriously, THIS is recovery? Running 4.5 miles in heat and swimming almost a mile? Good. Good to know what I'm in for. Headed to Miami tomorrow, though I'll workout here first. Hopefully things will go better for me there this time around in terms of training.
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