Trained 23 days out of 30 in May

That is a new record for me. I feel pretty good about that. I hope it translates to a good experience next weekend.

My Last Brick...

sort of sucked.

The water in Hagg Lake was freaking cold. It took my breath away at first, and that was with the wet suit and water socks on. I also had on an insulated cap, but it sucked. It was nice at first because part of my head was spared some of the shock from the water temp. Once I started swimming (and that took some time because I was breathing way too fast until I started to get used to the water) the cap started to fill with water around my ears when I would exhale. Somehow the bubbles would interrupt the seal around my face and allow water to pass through. And the water would go straight into my ear and cap would help to force it into my inner ear. The cap has a chin strap so there is no way to avoid the cap going over my ears. I swam back to the shore and took it off and swam with just a regular swim cap. There is no seal around my ears and despite the water going into my ears it felt fine. At least it could drain out when my head was out of water unlike with the insulated cap. I ended up swimming for about 20 minutes, but I didn't cover much ground. I probably swam 800 yards is all. I spent most of the time trying not to freak out. I mean I could swim fine once I got used to the temp, but every time I got about 50 to 100 yards away from shore I started to panic just a bit. There could be various reasons for this: I was alone, it was cold, I was afraid of getting ran over by a boat (despite a brightly colored cap), and just a weak mental state. Anyway, I swam a final long stretch parallel to the shore. then I got on the bike. That went fine, except that my legs felt sort of dead. I am sure that this was from yesterday's hard run, but it took a while for them to loosen up. After one lap around Hagg lake I transferred to the run. My calves were tight for the first mile but after that I was fine.

Back at home I took a shower and noticed that my shoulders got burned. Pretty darn burned actually. My shoulders were exposed for about 1hr and 20 min. That was enough when I didn't put on sunblock. I am going to have to put on a jersey with sleeves at least for the bike. Oregon has not been good to me for getting any sort of sun exposure this Spring and so this was my first effort in a sleeveless jersey of any sort. Ouch. I am going to have to break out the SPF 100 for my shoulders and upper arms during the run.

Right now it is about 3.5 hours after the end of my brick. I am feeling toasted. This does not make me feel good about Vikingman especially. Recovery better work really well this next week.

Bike Toss

Mr. Millar, if you don't want your bike, can I have it? I will even pay for the new chain, since you broke the old one.

Last One Hour Run Before Vikingman

Ran for an hour today. From here on out I am only running in 30 minute segments until Vikingman. I ran around our hilly neighborhood for about 35 minutes and then ran at the track at Catlin Gable School. I ran 2 miles at the track. The first I ran about the same pace I had been running during the run around the neighborhood and my time was 10:19. Then I ran a mile at a pace that put my heart rate in the mid to upper 160's to see what sort of time the effort would give me. My time was 9:11. This time was near the end of my hour run and so I feel pretty good about it and my ability to hold a decent pace. There is no way that I am going to be able to do either pace during the Vikingman, but I am pretty sure that a 12 minute mile pace is a good conservative estimate, assuming nothing goes horribly wrong.

Everyone tells me to relax about Vikingman. Bridget says my training has been great and that I should have no problem finishing. My swimming during class is great. My running is relatively painfree. The bike seems to be dialed. So I am going to do fine at the Vikingman. I am going to do fine at the Vikingman. I am going to do fine at the Vikingman......I will find an chalkboard and write this over and over a la Bart Simpson.

Taper is On

I never got the chance to do my final long ride before Vikingman. Oh well, I will survive. The bike is dialed in so at least I am not too worried about that part. I had hoped to have gotten in the long ride today, but I got rained out. I have mentioned before that I won't do long rides in the rain and I am not going to start now. I did do a long swim today. 2200 yards and 2000 of it was timed. Including stopping once because to talk briefly to Bridget and another time to fix my new earplugs (which rock, by the way), I swam 2000 yards in just over 44 minutes, or about 2 minutes 12 seconds for each 100. That will do for such a long distance. This is about 12 seconds slower than I do in swim class, but we do shorter distance and get breaks.

I always seem to hate the first 500 to 1000 yards on these long swims. I flip out or I get too winded...something happens that messes with my mental state. Sometimes I even get a claustrophobic feeling in the water for a while. But then once I am in for a bit I can get a handle on things and I do better. I seriously need to figure out how to fix my mind when I am in the water, because I am strong enough to swim Vikingman without much problem, but I get all freaked out when I swim without breaks for a long time.

Dudes

For some reason I use the word "dude" quite a bit. I think it comes as a result of growing up in Southern California during the 80's. My oldest son, who is 5, has picked this up and uses often as well. In honor of our frequent usage of this word I am going to focus on some "dudes" that amused or annoyed me from this past week.


Bad-Luck-Dude
We all have some streaks of bad luck but how about this in one day for my buddy Fish: Break a chain while riding. Go to shop and buy new chain. Notice that carbon aerobars had a little crack perhaps from overtightening. Ride anyway. Cross railroad at 25 mph and aerobar fails and the $300 dollar Garmin falls to the ground and shatters as a result. Bummer man. That is enough to pack it in for the day. At least you were OK. Better now than at the Vikingman. Despite all of that you still rode 60+ miles, nice work.




Snooty-Lawyer-Dude
Today at church we were having a discussion. Everything was fine and dandy except about halfway this guy decides to drop into the adversarial mode for some reason. He just moved into the area from London and he works at the snootiest law firm in town. Admittedly I have sort of a bias against him for a couple of reasons, he has a job at any law firm and he sometimes breaks out a hint of an English accent. He only lived there for a short time, there is no need to have acquired any accent. I don't know why this accent bit bugs me but it does. It is like he is showing off that he is cool or something. Anyway, I don't mind the adversarial mode at all, but church is not law school and while playing the Devil's Advocate is cool, it should not be used to show your supposed uber-intellectual-ness. And please, to everyone that wanted to argue with him, when it is time to go let's just go and let it be. I am hungry and just want to go home and get some food by the time church is over . At this point I don't care who is wrong or right. I stopped caring (and I was one of the ones engaged in the debate) at about 1:55 PM and church is over at 2PM. Lets wrap it up so I can feed the beast within.


Ferrari-Dude
You really need to stop trying to see how quickly you can go in your Ferrari from 0 to 30 mph in the 24Hour Fitness/Performance Bike parking lot. How many times do you have to do this? I keep waiting for you to plow into some pedestrian/bike rider. You are an idiot. I don't know how you got your money, but seriously are you this immature that you must continually show off whenever you come to workout? Does your music have to be 120 db while doing these repetitious loser parking lot drag races? Geesh. I know that the fitness club can be a place to pick up chicks, but you are ridiculous.


Butt-Sweat-Dude
There is a guy at work who seems to only sweat from his butt crack. He went to lunch via his bike and when he arrived back at the shop he was only sweaty on his back side. Not even his T-shirt was damp, but his shorts had sweat mark the shape of an hourglass. Gross. And Hilarious! We were all utterly amazed. He said that it had been always been that way, mostly just sweating out his back side. Nevertheless, I am glad he doesn't sit on my furniture. It was a great laugh and we all enjoy having him around despite the butt sweat.

ESPN Commentator-cum-Cyclist-Dude

Tonight was fun. A lawyer-friend I know from church, Stuart, has a brother that does color commentator stuff for ESPN's college football coverage. He is in town to buy a boat which he will be driving back to his place in Utah. Stuart has gotten into road biking and for some reason he thinks of me as an expert, which is sort of fun. I can spout out my biases and someone actually pays attention for once. It is nice that Stuart bugs me about cycling questions so I don't feel too bad about bugging him for job info regarding my attempts to get on with a Portland law firm.

Stuart rode over to our place and had his brother, Mr. ESPN, in tow. Mr. ESPN was pretty funny. He had bought a Trek 5500 used from some older guy in Utah. It is in good shape, but it is really too big for him. At the very least he needs a shorter stem and perhaps a non-offset seatpost. The dude is way stretched out, it is to the point where is arms are close to being locked while he is on the hoods. He also has no idea how to shift. He doesn't seem to quite get the trim feature of the left shifter. Yet, when I or Stuart get on it everything is fine. He also revealed that his junk falls asleep after less than an hour of riding. That always makes for humorous conversations especially when the brothers start making fun of each other. Anyway, Mr. ESPN-cum-Cyclist-Dude is a cycling neophyte, but he knows it and revels in it, if that is possible. And he has a great since of humor about this. I like talking bikes to anyone, but it was fun to talk to these guys about biking and other related topics. For a TV guy, he was really down to earth. Fun stuff, it made an otherwise boring evening pretty enjoyable.

Shaving the Legs

I struggle a bit with this.

Smooth legs are PRO, but is it warranted all the time? And particularly, is it at all warranted by me?

So far this year I have shaved the legs once, about 6 weeks ago. I think I decided to do so in order to put me in a better mental mindset for training. You sometimes if you don't feel like are the part, by faking it you actually come to a point when the faking it transitions to a time when you are what you were faking is real--that probably makes little sense, but hey this is a blog and the standards are low for publication.

Anyhow, I shaved the legs and they were lily-white a while back. They are still sort of white, but they are definitely darker on the tops of my knees and the backs of my calves from riding. Sunlight seems to be spotty lately so getting a tan has been difficult. I have not reshaved my legs because for some reason I started feeling like a poser. I don't know why, but I thought that shaving my legs when I still have a bit of a gut is silly. A gut is not PRO so why try to maintain an image of PRO-ness when I am not really feeling it nor do I feel I look the part. I mean I have been riding and running more miles than ever in my life but I don't really feel PRO. I feel...ho hum.

What is PRO? Belgium Knee Warmers blog is all about PRO and HERE is what they say about PRO. There definition of PRO is more inclusive than what mine has been. Maybe I am at least "pro" if not "PRO." Maybe it is time to get the razor out again. Maybe.

Should I do it when I start competing in road races? Never done a road race before. Should I do for the Vikingman? Should I do it after I complete my first century? Should I do it so that everyone thinks I am a PRO sort of guy? meh.

I think I will do it so that my increasingly defined legs look sexy. Yeah. Nothing better than shaved legs with long baggy shorts and black wool ankle socks and checkered vans. Is it PRO? I don't know. Am I PRO or even "pro"? Am I a goof-ball cyclist? You bet. Maybe that is enough.

I know this is Oregon, but seriously...

I am S I C K of this weather. It was supposed to have been sunny for most of today according the the weather report as late as last night. I wake up this morning to a forecast that calls for rain all day. What use is a weather report if this is how reliable they are. This is not the first time either. It is often the case the weather report is wrong here. I don't care what the excuses are, it sucks when the days activities get messed up because of the weather.

I guess one could say that I should put on my big boy pants and ride anyway, but that is not me. I am only going to ride in miserable weather one time of year and that is during cyclocross season. This is not cyclocross season. I am not going to ride for 4 hours in the rain just to train. So I decided to go for a run instead. I lollygagged around today so that all I had time to do was a 2 hour run instead of a 2.5 hour run. To make up for this I ran harder than my 2 hour run last week. I did this partially because I didn't bring my iPod with me for fear that it would get rained on. If I am running at a faster pace I don't seem to get as bored for some reason.

I ran a little over 10 miles in 2 hours. You might think that this 5 mph pace is kind of slow but when the elevation change of the route is taken into account I don't think it is too bad when you consider that there was over 1000 feet of climbing involved. Yeah, not fast but good enough.

By the way, I will never eat Panda Express prior to running again. I burped up some stuff about 10 times during the run. Nasty.

Despite my faster pace today I am sticking to my forecast of a 5 mph pace during the Vikingman. I will be happy with that after all that swimming and biking.

Swim Class 5/21: More "No Breaths"

No workouts yesterday. I had stuff to do for a job prospect before I went to the bike shop for the remainder of the day. So, I got an unplanned day off. It was only going to be an hour bike ride, and I am not going to worry about it.

Today's Workout:

Warm-up
5 - 50's with a 10 second rest after each

Main Workout

4 - 100's @ 2:30 each including rest
3 - 100's @ 2:20 " " "
2 - 100's @ 2:10 " " "
1 - 100 @ 2:00

10 - 25's no breathing on each, 15 to 20 seconds rest in between each one.


During the workout I tried to swim the first couple of set slower than what I felt was normal. I was leading the workout today in my lane, so even though I wanted to swim slow to save up for the last couple of sets of 100 I didn't want to be passed by the guy in my lane who is slightly faster than I. I kept coming in just under 2:00 for most of the time, although I was successful at coming in slightly over 2:00 a few times. When I say that swimming slower was a success, this is not as odd as it sounds. I am really trying to work on pacing myself so that I have plenty of energy for all of the sets. There have been times in the past where I have felt like the water was starting to boil because I am getting overheated. I was successful in maintaining a fairly comfortable pace the whole time. By the last 100 that we were supposed to swim I had enough in the tank to swim it in 1:47 or so. That is about as fast as I have ever swam a 100. I figure that my 500 time would be around 9:40 to 9:50 right now. This is slower than my individual 100 times today but of course I wouldn't have any breaks with the 500. My a couple months ago my 500time was around 10:25 I think. So yeah, I am faster. My wife got under 9 minutes I think before she stopped training, so it is not like I am super fast or anything.

Nevertheless, I still have anxiety over the open water swim. I actually can lose sleep over it if I happen to obsess about it before I go to bed. I am pretty close to pulling the trigger on the following item: The Tri-Aids SwimSafe. This may provide me with a mental edge since I would not have the constant battle that I have had in the past trying to fight down the panic that comes from being out in the middle of the river and having no wall nearby. Every time I have swam in the open water (4 times, but not in the past 6 months) I have freaked out a bit. Maybe I won't this time since I am a better swimmer, but I doubt it. It is becoming a phobia I think.

I am still going to complete this Vikingman, but that swim is going to suck. The water is going to be cold too. Ugh. Hopefully this Friday I will be able to get out and swim at Hagg Lake. A good open water swim would go a long way to putting an end to this anxiety.

As far as the "No Breaths" I made it 3 of the 10 times we did it. Unlike the last time we did it I didn't destroy my stroke to make it to the other side as fast a possible. Instead, our coach said that we should be just doing long strokes that stretch us out. We shouldn't have to freak out to make it. So that is what I tried to do. The 7 times that I didn't make it without breathing I made it with only one breath. Still not too bad. It takes practice to try and be as efficient as possible the whole way over to the other side. Efficiency is necessary because otherwise I am burning my oxygen too fast and I pop. The three times I did make I was pretty smooth, but I also was making the most powerful pulls that I could without flailing. I kept my legs from moving too much as well. I concentrated on being streamlined, so that my legs were not dragging low in the water behind me. Anyway, the no breath thing is starting to make more sense to me. In the past I have thought that this was a foolish exercise. But, I see that I was doing it wrong before, and so it wasn't really doing me any good. I still hate it even if I see the point.

I Bought a Fat Cyclist Jersey

Go Here NOW to buy your 2008 Fat Cyclist Jersey. I picked up a pink one, but they also have some sweet orange ones. Seriously, buy one now. They profit from them goes to help Fatty's wife and her battle with cancer.


I also want this jersey from Twin Six. Go HERE

Category 6...yeah that sounds perfect for me. Seriously, I need one of those.