I Got Here

So, the short story is that I got to September 27, 2009 and I survived. Actually, I more than survived, I enjoyed myself. And now for the long version ...

When I talked to Laura on Saturday night, she told me about their TNT practice session at the race site and also told me that the race had run out of bike racks so people with numbers in the 1000s and above currently didn't have a place to rack their bike. That meant both of us were without bike racks. I knew there was nothing we could do to worry about it and we'd just have to see how things went in the morning.

I managed to fall asleep pretty early on Saturday night (sometime between 9:30 and 10). I was a little upset that Drew fell asleep before I did, but I wasn't up much later than he was. I managed to sleep soundly until about 1:30. After that it was a constant waking up and falling back to sleep. Around 2:30, I woke up and just had to look outside. It hadn't been raining when I went to bed originally and I was still hoping that the weather forecasters were wrong. At 2:30 it was raining pretty steadily. After I knew it was raining, it took me a while to fall back to sleep. I just laid there for a while and thought of all the things that could go wrong with the rain, which wasn't very productive.

Finally, my alarm went off at 4:10. By that point, I was ready to get up and just start moving around. I choked down my breakfast of cinnamon-raisin bread and peanut butter as best I could. I double checked my bag for everything I would need and then just like that, it was time to head over to the race site. Drew dropped me and my bike off and said he would just wait there so that I could sit in the car instead of having to stand in the rain. I took my bike over to the rack and found out that I actually had a rack, which was good news. I tried to start setting-up, but the rain was coming down pretty steadily and I wasn't certain that I wanted to start getting stuff out of my bag any sooner than I had to.

I sent Drew a text that told him that I thought he should just go back to the hotel. I knew I'd feel better if I could just hang out in transition and I felt bad that he was just waiting in the car. A couple minutes later, I saw the bus that I knew would hold Laura and the rest of her TNT buddies arrive. I went up to the front of transition and said hi to her. The transition space was really crowded. I'm guessing that they didn't really find more bike racks magically over night and just had to try to squeeze all of us into the same number of racks. Also, I understand why they put the transition in numerical order, but I guess what I thought was silly was everyone in my transition area was also in my swim wave. Which meant that we'd all be in transition at roughly the same time, which wouldn't help with the crowding.

Finally, I had laid everything out as best I could. My best solution for the rain was to make one plastic bag of biking gear and one plastic bag of running gear and to just hope that they would stay a little bit dry. It actually did briefly stop raining while we were still setting up transition for maybe 10-15 minutes before starting up again. I almost think it would have been better if it just stayed raining.

At 6:30, everyone started heading over to the beach. As I told Laura as we were leaving transition, I knew it would sound really ridiculous, but I just didn't feel like getting my hair wet yet. We had been out in the rain for over an hour at this point, but I had either been wearing a rain coat or a poncho, so I still had dry hair. In order to keep it dry as we left transition, I put my swim caps on. There was supposed to be an athlete's meeting at 6:35, but that didn't happen.

Laura and I got into the water and were accompanied by some of her Brooklyn TNTers. We all speculated about the swimming course since no one had explained it and there clearly wasn't going to be a race meeting. We actually ended up getting into the water a couple of times before the start. Especially for me in my sleeveless wetsuit, it was a lot warmer in the water than out of it.

Finally it was 7:00 and we watched the pros start the race. I kept scanning the crowd looking for Drew and his parents. I didn't know what time they'd be back or if I'd get to see them before the race. I told myself it didn't really matter. At about 7:15, Drew found us. I just gave him the biggest hug. At that second, it was as if all my fear about doing the race disappeared. I knew he was there and would be cheering me on regardless of how I finished with the time. I guess I just needed to know that he'd be there and watching out for me.

Finally, it was time to walk over into the corral for the start of the swim. Most everyone else in our wave got into the water one last time, but Laura and I just stood on the beach and watched (that's me on the right, hands on hips).
Right before we got into the water, the guy with the megaphone shouted out some instructions. "Keep the buoys on your left. When you get to the end, the last buoy will be green. Turn around and swim back." Turns out none of those instructions were all that helpful.

And then the horn sounded and we all started running into the water. At some point while we were running in, Laura just looked at me and said, "this is ridiculous". And it really was. And then we were deep enough and started swimming. I did almost exactly what I wanted to on the swim. I just kept myself slow and steady and didn't let my race-day adrenaline get the best of me. The swim course was mostly protected by two jetties, but at some point, we had to swim past the jetty and the water got a lot rougher. I could tell almost the instant I had passed the jetty and wasn't very happy about the thought of swimming even further.

Although I had practiced a lot for nutrition before the race, the one thing that I couldn't practice was drinking a gallon of salt water along with what I had eaten for breakfast. What I will say is that the two didn't mix and I got sick during the swim. Twice. I tried not to panic about it and knew that all I could do was keep swimming and get myself out of the water. When I got to the turn-around point, it was a little confusing because there was no green buoy. But everyone else was turning, so I did too. One guy next to me said, "Well, now what do I do?". Pretty much my thought.

Swimming back in was rough, but mostly because there was a girl next to me who wouldn't stop bumping into me. I tried to speed up, I tried to hang back a little bit, but it seemed like everything I did, she did too and just kept hitting me in the head. I was surprised that it would be that far into the swim and still so congested. Once we got back into the protected area of the swim, I really just tried to bring it home stronger than I had swum on the way out. I felt like I was practically rolling onto my back to get a breath without taking on water, but it seemed to be working. I also decided that in the future, I would try to avoid salt-water triathlons at all costs. With so many races out there, it just didn't seem worth it.

The other thing that the guy with the microphone at the start didn't describe was the fact that on the way in, you had to swim in between two buoys. I noticed a lot of people going really far to keep the outside buoy on the left, but that didn't make sense to me, so at least I didn't add onto the distance of the swim too much like I saw some other people doing. Once I got pretty close to shore, I kept swimming for as long as possible. I saw some people get up and start running really far out, but I knew that swimming further would be better.

As soon as I hit the bottom with my hand, I was up and running. I remembered how tired and defeated I had felt at Staten Island after the swim and I didn't feel that way at all today. I was feeling really strong and totally looking forward to the cup of water that I knew that they would have on the run into T1 (me, in the pink cap, running).


I knew that I was going to have long transitions because of the weather and because I wanted to put on more clothes than I had before. And I accept that as part of the race-day conditions. I almost forgot to take my swim cap off before putting my bike helmet on. With the rain, I'm not sure it really would have made any difference and might have actually helped. Drew and his parents were talking to me while I was in T1 and he asked how I was doing.
My answer, "sticky." It's really hard to put on a long-sleeved shirt while you're wet and it's raining. But, finally I got it on and ran my bike over to the mounting line. I jumped on and was off for 25 miles.

The first part of the bike was just fine. I recognized the part up until where Drew and I had gotten lost on our aborted training ride a couple of weeks ago. The roads were really wet and I tried to avoid the puddles and the storm drains and whatever bumps I could. Once I got past the part where Drew and I had ridden, I knew that I was then going to be in for the two big hills. On the first one, I saw a girl walking her bike up the hill. I was thinking that didn't look so good for her. I was also really glad that wasn't me. Once I got the first hill over with, I was just anticipating Claire's Climb.

It was still a few miles away, but it felt like it was there before I knew it. The race actually tracks your time up the hill, so I'm interested to know how fast I did it. I will say that I when I looked at my MPH, it was somewhere around 5.6 or 5.8, so it certainly wasn't a fast climb. But I stayed in the saddle and just kept pedaling. There was a bag piper playing on my climb up, so that was a nice distraction from the hill and the rain. Once I hit the top of the hill, I was ecstatic. The bike was more than half-way done, the hard part was over, and it would be (mostly) downhill from here. The ride down the hill was where I hit my highest speed and I'm sure I could have gone faster had the roads been dry and I wasn't worried about my brakes being too wet to stop!

On both bike bike hills, there were lots of inspirational signs provided by the race. As I was riding past, I was thinking that I would remember most of the sayings. Of course, I only remember one: "Pain is temporary. Quitting is permanent." Although a lot of the signs were corny, there is something about that sort of encouragement that just gets you going a little bit harder than you were before. And at least it distracts you slightly from the task at hand.

My stomach still wasn't very happy on the bike. I tried to take a couple of bites of my Clif bar and I managed to get two down, but that was all I could do. I tried to drink as much as I could, especially of the Gatorade that I had brought with me in order to keep my calorie count for the day up. I was worried about not having enough left in the tank for the run, but I also knew that if I ate too much and my stomach revolted even more that I'd be more miserable, so I might as well just try to do what I could and leave it alone a little bit.

The roads were really wet and the cops and volunteers were terrific. I tried to say "thank you" as often as possible. Especially when there was a long line of cars that the police officers were holding back from crossing into the course. A lot of the volunteers offered words of encouragement, which was nice. I felt pretty bad for them standing out in the rain, but none of them looked too unhappy.

So, I'm not 100% sure that I needed to put on my long-sleeved shirt for the bike ride, but I was never sorry that I had it on. Had it been any windier, I think it would have been a necessity. The one thing I really wasn't prepared for was how wet my shoes were. The rain just poured down my legs and collected in my shoes and every stroke of the pedals just felt like I was stepping into a pool of water. Needless to say, it wasn't the most comfortable feeling.

I got done with the bike faster that I would have thought I would even under dry conditions. In fact, I apparently was lucky to even see Drew on my way into T2. He told me after the race that they thought I would be coming in about 10-20 minutes later than I did and they had just gotten there to start watching for me. I actually saw them before they saw me, probably because they weren't expecting to look for me.

The second I unclipped my left foot and set it on the ground, there was nothing I could do but laugh. My legs were complete jelly. They haven't felt like that in a long time. I think because I have been doing bricks almost every week with Terrier, they're used to riding for about half that distance and then running, but doubling the bike ride and then running was a different story. But, somehow I managed to run the rest of the way into T2.

I had another long transition because I took off my bike vest and long-sleeved shirt. I also had dry socks that I wanted to change into for the run. Then I grabbed my race belt and hat and was off on my way out of T2. Right when I was leaving T2, I saw Laura right in front of me. I yelled for her and after yelling a second time, she turned around. I ran up to her and we started the run together.

We couldn't believe that we ended up there together. We figured out after the fact that she must have finished the bike just behind me and had a shorter T2 than I did to get out just ahead of me to the run. The official results aren't posted to the internet yet, so that's our best guess, but I guess we'll know more when we get those.

I think Laura was a life-saver in that first mile. My legs were feeling tired from the bike and I hadn't quite settled into the run yet. At one point, I told her that if she wanted to run ahead of me, she should. Unfortunately, that's not what happened. After about a mile, Laura stopped running. I turned back and she told me that I had to keep running and I shouldn't stop with her. I know that if the positions were reversed, I would have told her the same thing, but my heart sank. She's been training for so long this year and has just recently been having some leg pain and I knew that was getting the best of her. A big part of me wanted to stop and encourage her along and make sure that she finished okay, but the other part of me knew that we each wanted the other to have their best race possible, and that I needed to keep running in order to do that.

Oh, and also in the first mile of running there was also this monster puddle that took up most of the road we were running on. That was the end of my dry socks. That made me less enthused about the fact that I had changed them and also the rest of the run. On the plus side, I figured that since they were already soaking wet, I might as well splash myself through future puddles just to have some fun.

Somewhere between miles 1 & 2, I saw Drew again. It was at the first water/Gatorade station on the run, and I was ready for it. I actually took these two cups, drank them, turned back around and gave Drew a quick kiss before heading out for the rest of the run...definitely some good motivation!

I followed my running plan to a T. I wanted to walk through the aid stations and run otherwise, and that's exactly what I did. There was only one brief moment where I walked. I ran uphill only to turn left for another uphill (meanwhile the volunteer was saying "it's all downhill from here" -- complete lie) and that second uphill got about a 15 second walk out of me. At the aid stations, I tried to drink as much Gatorade as possible for the calories (plus, the water tasted funny), but the Gatorade was all lime. I think maybe I'll have to try drinking that in the future when I'm training, because it's really not that good and I don't understand why they can't get another flavor.

I was also able to pick up my running about 5 times. I think I only did it for about 20 or 30 seconds each time, but it was really helpful in just giving me an extra boost and not settling into my slower rhythm the whole time. I saw Laura again between miles 4 & 5 on an out-and-back part of the course. She was walking and said her leg wasn't good. I was so proud of her for not giving up and for continuing on.

By the time I got to mile 5, all I could think about was how good I was feeling and even though I knew I was tired, I wasn't dying. I couldn't believe all the training I had done to get me to be able to accomplish this and get to the finish running. This never would have even been possible a year ago and I never would have dreamed that I'd be doing triathlons and be wanting to do more. That was what else I was thinking about on the run ... next year's races. But that's another blog post. Let's finish this race first!

Once I saw the sign for mile marker 6, there was a sharp turn into a park for the finish and the last 0.2 miles. At that point, I just started sprinting. The run through the park was not on pavement, it was on grass, which at this point had turned to mud. I did my best to not lose my footing and just run as hard as I possibly could.
And just like that, it was over! Someone handed me a medal, a towel, a water bottle, took my chip off my ankle, and then I was hugging Drew and I was done!

Drew and his parents suggested that I should get something to eat. We walked over to the tent and I picked up a piece of pizza had one bite and knew that was a really bad idea. Instead I grabbed some plain bagel and tried to munch on that for a minute or two while I settled down. It was still raining at this point and I was getting really cold. I decided that we should just go get my stuff from transition and then head home. I felt horrible for not waiting and watching Laura finish, but even though I was happy to be done and I felt great about the race, standing in the rain and the cold for one more minute was just going to make me miserable.

So, we headed back to the city and I regaled everyone with stories of the race. By the time we got back home, it had stopped raining (quite typical!) and it turned out to be a nice evening.

I did learn a few things:
1. Bring a flashlight to transition. Some of the racks were in complete dark (not under street lights) and if I had one of those, I would have been sunk without a light. Not to mention using a port-a-potty in complete darkness is something I'd rather not repeat.
2. Use body glide. I don't really like it and I feel like it just makes sand stick to you, but the weird chafing I have on my neck, collar bone and arms thinks that I should have used it.

Other than that, I had a fantastic time and was more than prepared for the race. I'm sad it's over, but I'm looking forward to next year.

Unofficial Watch Time: 3:37:27
Calories: 2843
Maximum HR: 191
Average HR: 174

I'll post the official results when they're available. I also am planning a new blog for my continued training as this one seems to have almost reached its end, so I'll keep you updated on that as well.

If I Could Reach

Remember earlier today when I said that I should take it easy from now on? Yeah, well, that's going to be starting tomorrow, apparently. I decided to go to the Terrier swim practice this afternoon. I was actually worried that perhaps there wouldn't be a practice since I knew a lot of Terriers were going to be competing in the War at the Shore triathlon this morning. It ended up that the coach had competed this morning and got to swim practice about 5 minutes late and there were only six of us that showed up for practice, but that also made it sort of nice and laid back.

I ended up with my own lane, which was a nice treat!
This was the workout for today:

200 free warm-up
200 kick warm-up
3 x 50 descending (on the 1:00)
3 x 50 descending (on the 1:00)
50 easy
3 x 100 descending (on the 2:10)
3 x 100 descending (on the 2:10)
50 easy
100 reaching - 19 or 20 strokes
100 reaching - 17 or 18 strokes
100 easy

The descending sets were 50 (or 100) easy, 50 medium, and 50 fast. Especially on the 100s, we really had to make sure that we weren't over-swimming the first two. Otherwise, we wouldn't really improve on our times for the last set. On the second set of 100s, Sarah said that we should all finish under 1:30. I didn't quite make it. I'm not going to lie. My arms were tired today. Although I think it was good for them to get out there and just sort of not push too hard.

The 100s reaching were done really slowly. Sarah had us do 25s and count how many strokes we took. The first 100 we were just supposed to swim normally and count. I had either 19 or 20 strokes per 25 meters. Then after the first 100 she told us to really reach and see how many strokes we could shave off. Once we all reached the wall after swimming 25 and reaching more than we did before, she laughed and said that we all did exactly what she wanted us to do. We sped up. Instead of keeping our same easy pace, we sped up and shaved a couple of strokes off. I went down to either 17 or 18 strokes per 25 meters.

The whole purpose of this exercise is that we're more likely to swim and reach further like that while we're actually racing, so we should practice swimming like that in practice so that it feels more natural while we're actually racing instead of changing our strokes. For the 100 cool-down, I definitely tried to keep an easy pace and also keep my stroke count a little bit lower. Sarah said that we should have the same cadence regardless of how fast we're going. It should be a change in effort rather than how fast we're stroking our arms. Although this is definitely something I'm going to work on, I think I'm going to save it for after the triathlon!

Today's total: 1700 Meters (1.05 miles) in approximately 52 minutes.

Calories: 506
Maximum HR: 182
Average HR: 145

Not Quite The Distance

This morning I got up and had two pieces of bread with peanut butter for breakfast. I knew that wasn't going to be enough for the day of the triathlon, but I was really trying to see how close I could eat that and go swimming as well as to see how long it would carry me through. I wore my full race day gear, including HR monitor, tri top and shorts, wetsuit, and two swim caps. I even wore my hair the same way that I plan on wearing it on race day, to make sure it all stays put when I take my swim caps off my head.

I had wanted to get in the pool earlier than Laura, so I got to the pool at about 6:50 and got all suited up. I was thinking that I'd try to swim the whole distance of the triathlon today and since I know that the swim course seems like the hardest to actually measure, I decided I'd swim 0.94 miles if possible. Of course, it didn't quite work out that way. Instead I did a quick 200 warm-up and then started just swimming laps back and forth. I had swum half of the distance that I was aiming for today (825 yards/0.47 miles) and I stopped for a second to check the time and to press my goggles on more securely. I also must have rubbed my eye, because I bumped my contact and had to actually get out of the pool to go look in the mirror to make sure everything was okay.

I got back in and started swimming again, did one lap, and then Laura appeared. We talked for a few minutes and then we both started swimming. By this point the pool was getting really quite crowded and I think I just wasn't in the mood anymore. I had sort-of lost my rhythm. I also was getting hungry, so I clearly need to eat a lot more calories before the actual race. I'm wondering if maybe I can try to drink some calories too in the form of one of those Odwalla Protein Drinks. I ended up swimming another 425 yards (.24 miles) and then saying that I was done with the pool.

In total, these are the stats for today:
200 yards / 3:34
825 yards / 17:07
425 yards / 7:01

Total swimming: 1450 yards (0.82 miles) in 27:43 (33:38 pace).

Calories: 304
Maximum HR: 172
Average HR: 156

Holy cow! What a heart rate. I knew I was just taking it slow and easy and not trying to rush, but was I even working out? Compared to some of my running heart rates, this looks like I was sitting on the couch watching TV, not swimming. Obviously, that's not really the case, and I'm sure the adrenaline of race day will increase this, but I really want to try and stay relaxed like I was today in the water. I think I'm a much better swimmer like this than I am when I'm really pushing it as I think my form tends to lose something in the quest to swim faster and faster.

Does This Pool Taste Funny?

Because Laura and I hate ourselves (and each other) we agreed to meet at a pool this morning at 6:45 for an hour-long swim. Normally, this doesn't sound so bad, but the location wasn't desirable for either of us, meaning we both had to get up even earlier and travel pretty far. The only thing that was going to make the trip worthwhile was the fact that there is a hot tub there and we could sit in that for 15 minutes after our swim was over.

I took all of my swimming gear, including wetsuit with me, as I thought that Laura and I had talked about wearing our wetsuits today. While we did in fact talk about it, I apparently remembered wrong, because when she got there, she didn't have a wetsuit with her. I had brought a bathing suit with me too, so we just wore our regular suits for the swim.

Before this morning, I hadn't been swimming since I was on vacation. And I hadn't been in a pool in a month. I'm not sure that's the best way to be training for a triathlon. I was never really worried about it because I know I'm a good swimmer and with all the running and biking I've been doing, I haven't lost any cardio fitness. Still, it was a shock to have to get into a cold pool this morning. I still don't like that.

Luckily, the pool wasn't too cold and I warmed up almost right away. It was just the getting into the pool that was hard. My objective for today was just to get in and have a nice long swim. I decided that I wouldn't do a swimplan.com workout, but I also didn't want to be continuously swimming either, so I decided to break it up into alternating swimming and kicking. After the first few hundred, I asked Laura if the pool tasted funny to her. She said yes, which made me glad that it wasn't just that I forgot what swimming pools tasted like.

I looked up the pool on the internet to confirm that it was yards (and not meters) and found this interesting tidbit:

Our 25-yard pool is primarily used for recreational aquatics activities and is the first commercial indoor pool in New York State to be primarily disinfected by ozone. This system of purification was chosen to supplement chlorine because of ozone's extraordinary ability to effectively purify water without side effects. Ozone purifies water and air very quickly and efficiently. 3,000 times faster than chlorine. Just as nature uses ozone to protect the earth, we can use ozone to protect ourselves from microorganisms in the pool. The result is crystal clear, purified water.

So, maybe that's why the pool tasted different than a normal swimming pool?

Also, pool rule says, "Flotation devices not supplied by the Y are not permitted", which on the board at the pool included "float suits". Maybe it's good we ended up not wearing our wetsuits?

This was my workout today:
500 yards freestyle
200 yards kick
500 yards freestyle
200 yards kick
500 yards freestyle
200 yards kick
400 yards freestyle

2500 yards (1.42 miles) in 59:15

About half-way through at around the 30-minute mark, I realized that I was starving. Once I realize that I'm hungry, it's hard for me to concentrate on anything else. Laura and I had actually been talking about our plans for the day of the race and what and when we're going to eat. I obviously will need to be eating a lot more than a half of a Clif bar before hitting the water!

All in all, not too bad for my first pool swimming workout in quite some time! I keep having a little bit of doubt about my ability to actually complete an Olympic-distance triathlon in 16 days, but I also know that I've been working really hard for months now and I could do this right now if I had to. I definitely feel better about everything after having been swimming for an hour and realizing that although I'm tired from waking up so early, I'm not physically exhausted and I have a lot of stamina. I just have to keep reminding myself to go out and have fun!

You're Too Fast

Today I drove the running route I took yesterday in order to figure out the distance. Turns out it was 3.6 miles, which was actually longer than I would have thought, especially since I ended up doing quite a bit of walking. It averaged out to be a 10:47 mile pace, while that's not great I'm still okay with it.

I didn't end up swimming until this afternoon. The weather was sort-of on and off all day long and we got rained on while we were out on our family picnic and excursion to the Lumberman's Monument and the Foote Dam. Luckily, there was a picnic pavilion at the Monument, so at least we were able to be dry while we ate. When we got back to the cottage it cleared up for a while and I decided that it was pretty much then or never for a swim.

I got all my gear on and headed out. My mom came along and took some photos of me swimming. Some of them have turned out really well and when I'm back in civilization again, I'll try to post some of them.

My plan for today was just to practice getting into and out of the water. The beach here is really nice and sandy and you have to go out quite a ways to not be able to touch the bottom of the lake. My brother and some of his friends found a rope anchored down in the sand and tied an old jug to it, so I just swam straight out to the jug and came back into shore.

It was nothing exciting and each time I got out of the water I would wait for a minute and talk myself into going back again. After the first couple of times I had gone out, my mom said that I was "too fast" for the camera and some of the shots she was getting were a bit blurry, so she decided to try to take a movie with her camera.

I went out again and she took a movie. When I got out, she made me watch it with her. I'm quite glad I did because her idea of a good swimming movie and my idea of a good swimming movie are nothing alike. Her idea was to get a close up of my face, which makes for good viewing. My idea was to see if I was swimming in a straight line or not and for that you need a bit more perspective. So, she made a second movie.

I will say that I sort-of lost track of how many times I went out there and back. I did walk out to the jug when I was done and found out that it was 134 feet* one way / 268 feet there and back = 0.05 miles each time. I was out there for 45 minutes and each trip there and back was about 2 minutes. Of course, I didn't use a stop watch or a HR monitor, so I don't have a lot of data, but I do feel like I accomplished what I wanted to today and got a lot of good practice in. And the video showed that I swam mostly in a straight line, even with the waves, so I must be doing an okay job sighting. All good news.

*To clarify, 134 feet = 134 small Amy steps. It's not an exact measurement.

When Will I Warm Up?

Yesterday we went to Super Wal-Mart to go grocery shopping, but I thought that maybe I should look for a brighter swim cap. In the sporting goods section, there was a very small selection, but what they did have was all Ironman brand. I ended up buying a new red cap with a grey M-dot for only a dollar, so I think those Wal-Mart roll backs were very helpful.

This morning I did pretty much the same workout as yesterday, except for a longer period of time. When I put my feet in the water, I immediately regretted my decision to swim. Even though putting on my wetsuit makes me work up a bit of a sweat, I certainly wasn't hot enough to justify the cold water temperature.

I walked out into the lake for a few minutes and my feet were numb. I was hoping that they would warm up once I started swimming. I kept walking and once the water started leaking in by the zipper, I was really unhappy. The water was like little daggers in my skin. I figured at that point it was time to put my head under. Wow! Was that ever cold!

I don't know what happened, but the water was much colder today than yesterday. My face was freezing. My arms were freezing. My toes were cold. Pretty much anything not covered by wetsuit was really cold.

I decided that I would swim for a longer period of time today. I planned on swimming for 30 minutes, so when I hit 15 minutes, I stopped for just a few seconds to make sure I knew exactly where I was and orient myself so I would be able to figure out the distance later on.

Then I turned around and headed back. I had swum north today instead of south like yesterday. That meant that the first part of the swim was with the current and the way back was against it. Although it wasn't much to look at, it turns out that any waves are something to fight against and I knew it would take me longer to swim back. I was actually happy to see that it wasn't a lot longer on the way back, just an extra minute and a half. I also knew I wasn't swimming very fast, but I just wanted to get in the cold water and have a nice relaxing swim.

I got out of the water and did a transition. I timed myself for the last couple stokes, jumped out of the water, goggles off, started running up the beach and unzipping my wetsuit. I got it completely off in 23 seconds. I thought that was fairly good, but I'm sure that people can do it much faster than me.

I then went for a run up the beach, the same direction I had been swimming. The best way I can figure out the distance I swam is to run there since I seem to have about an average 10 minute mile, I'm just using that as a guide. These distances clearly aren't that exact, but I think they are a rough estimate.

I reached the spot that I swam to in 4:20, so I believe that should translate to 0.42 miles each way for the swim. I exteded today's run to be 20 minutes long. I didn't even begin to feel warm in my arms and feet again until I had turned around and had been running for about 13 minutes. I was actually surprised it took that long.

I've heard that the water at Westchester is normally pretty warm, but with the cool summer we've had so far, I hope that it is still warm this year too. I'm thinking that tomorrow might be a pure running day, but we'll see how I feel in the morning. I do hate to give up the open water swimming practice.

Swimming:
0.84 miles in 31:27 minutes (36:00 pace)
Calories: 326
Maximum HR: 159
Average HR: 153

Running:
2.0 miles in 20 minutes (10 minute pace)
Calories: 261
Maximum HR: 179
Average HR: 174

Morning Brick

Yesterday we drove up to the cottage and I didn't get a real workout in. I didn't get up early enough before leaving to go running. I was feeling a little bit bad about that, but I did carry a lot of stuff yesterday. And I went for a walk along the beach with my mom and my aunt, followed by a rousing game of Scrabble, so I definitely got my blood pumping even though I didn't really do cardio.

This morning I woke up early and donned my wetsuit. I had only gotten my feet wet yesterday and I knew that the water would be cold, but it was totally different to get all the way in. The lake is really pretty shallow for quite a ways out. The deepest I could get was chest-high, which is fine for swimming. I got in and walked out for a while and then swam back to shore to try to get acclimated to the water temperature.

Once I got back to shore, I ran back into the water, did some dolphins, and started my swim. The first two minutes were really rough. I think what happened was that I was swimming too fast. Once I realized what I was doing, I slowed down a bit and settled into a rhythm, and the swimming got much more enjoyable and I actually probably ended up swimming faster once I just relaxed.

I decided that I would swim for 10 minutes in one direction before turning around and swimming back. I wasn't really sure how long that would be distance-wise, but I figured it would be a good start. Sighting on the swim out was really easy. There were two trees on a little point that were extremely easy to see. Swimming back to the cottage was not as easy. It was surprising because I was swimming with the current, but there was nothing to sight off of. And I was breathing on the left so I could keep the shore in sight, so it wasn't as comfortable in general. Although I'm sure it's good practice.

When I got out of the water, I wanted to go for a quick run because after the swim at Staten Island I really didn't want to run to transition, so I thought that I should practice. I had thought that I would only run for 5 minutes, but I wasn't feeling too tired, so I kept going.

While I was running, I reached the spot where I think that I swam to at about 3:00 minutes, so in total, I think that I swam about 0.6 miles. I ended up running for 10 minutes, which I'm assuming was about a mile. I just ran barefoot along the beach. I might bring my shoes down to the beach another day this week, but I actually think the barefoot running was probably easier.

Swimming:
0.6 miles in 21:07 (35:00 pace)
Calories: 229
Max HR: 166
Average HR: 157

Running:
1.0 mile in 10:00 (putting the pace seems redundant)
Calories: 131
Max HR: 182
Average HR: 174

Megan Says, "Move Over"

So, yesterday ended up being a rest day. I got up nice and early and headed out to JFK Airport to surprise Drew and take the cab ride back into the city with him and hear all about his African hunting adventure. We got back to his apartment and made breakfast and just hung out all day. Part of me thought at some point that maybe I should go and do some sort-of workout, but it seemed like much more of a priority to just spend some time with him. Totally think that I made the right call on that.

At the Terrier swim today I got into the middle lane (out of the five available lanes) and started doing the warm-up. I normally switch back and forth between the middle lane and the next fastest lane, but it really depends on who is at practice that day because the relative speed of each lane will change based on who is there. This was the workout:

300 Warm-Up
8 x 50 Backstroke down, Freestyle back on the 1:00 400
2 x 300 Pull 600
4 x 100 Freestyle on 1:45
50 Backstroke on 1:30
4 x 100 Freestyle on 1:40
50 Backstroke on 1:30
4 x 100 Freestyle on 1:35
50 Breaststroke (cool-down)

2650 meters = 1.65 miles in 56:10
Calories: 657
Max HR: 181
Average HR: 163

After the warm-up, Megan said we would be doing 8 x 50 on the 1:15 in the middle lane. We would do backstroke down and freestyle back. As a kid and even when swimming in high school, backstroke was always my favorite stroke. I know some people think it's really easy because your head is out of the water all the time, but I always really loved the motion your arm makes instead of the floating on your back part. So, I was really happy to be doing some backstroke. After the first 50, I was at the wall and Megan said I needed to move over into the faster lane. I wasn't sure I was up for it today, but I also wasn't going to question her judgment. Of course, moving over a lane also meant that I had to do the 50s on the 1:00 instead of the 1:15.

There were not a ton of people at practice today, so there were only two other people in my lane besides me, which was nice. We finished up the 50s and then Megan passed out the pull buoys. I was thinking that so far the workout wasn't too bad and that I sort-of was glad for that. Then she told us that we'd be doing 3 x 200 pull. The catch? The first 200 we'd breathe every third stroke (easy). The second 200 we'd breathe every fifth stroke (not too bad). The third 200 we'd breathe every seventh stroke (was she kidding about that?). I was wishing that we could do it in the opposite order so that it would get easier instead of harder as time went on. I normally breathe every second stroke and I sort-of wanted to give up during the last 200. I did take a breath on the fifth stroke twice in that set, but for the most part I did the workout as instructed.

The main set was 1200 broken down into 4 x 100. Each set of 400 would be 5 seconds faster than the last. I knew by the time we got to the last set on the 1:35, I would essentially be swimming a 400 as there wouldn't be any time to rest at the wall. The 50 meter backstroke was supposed to be a slow, active recovery rather than just resting at the wall for a minute. I wasn't sure I was 100% in favor of that, but who am I to say what's best? Also, on the second 50 recovery, I got water straight up my nose at the turn and couldn't stop coughing before starting the last 4 x 100. I'm sure that didn't help my time any.

All in all, this ended up being a really good workout. I was so surprised to get home and to see how far and frankly, how fast I swam today, even though I didn't ever feel like I was going that fast or that hard. I always just felt like I was swimming at my regular pace. Perhaps I'm just getting faster in general.

Last week, Laura had told me that she was planning on going running in Central Park tonight as a taper run for her half-marathon. When I got home from swimming, I asked Drew if he'd want to go along, so we both met her and two other people, Bill & Sue. I was a little nervous that I would be too slow for the group and I knew that I wouldn't want (or be able) to do the entire 7.6 mile run that Laura had planned. I was hoping to do about a 3.7 mile run instead, which meant that Drew and I would cross the 72nd Street transverse and head back East, while Laura, Bill & Sue would keep going North to do the entire 6.0 mile loop.

Sue and Laura talked most of the time we were running together, which actually helped me concentrate on their conversation rather than worrying about the actual running. It was also nice because I thought we were running at a pretty comfortable pace for me, so I didn't feel like I was holding anyone back. When we got to the transverse and turned off to head back to Drew's, he said that his calf was acting up again. I asked him if he wanted to start walking, because I would feel horrible if he got hurt on my account, and he said yes. We also stopped for a minute for him to try to stretch out his calf. When we had walked to the end of the transverse and started to head back North, Drew said we should run again. We ran for about 15 seconds before he said that his leg wouldn't let him. So, instead, we just walked the rest of the way home.

I know from my hamstring incident last week that it is much better to just stop as soon as you feel pain instead of trying to push through like I had with my heel pain, so I'm glad for his sake that we stopped when we did. In total, we went 2.5 miles in 27:15 (10:54 pace). Some of that time includes when we were walking and Drew was stretching, so I don't think that pace is actually accurate. I'm fairly certain we were more on a 10:00 mile pace while we were actually running. Either way, I'm still really glad that I got out and went for the run, even if it was cut short. Even though I think it was silly to swim, shower, and then run, I still think it was a really good workout day.

Running Stats:
Calories: 367
Max HR: 189
Average HR: 176

I Spy With My Little Eye

This morning I met Laura for a swim at Manhattan Plaza Health Club. Last time we went there, I wasn't overly impressed with the facilities or the clientele, but I was trying to have a more open mind this time. Laura sent me a text that she was running late, so I told her that I would just meet her in the pool. That way, I could get in a longer workout. I printed out a swimplan.com workout so that I wouldn't be struggling for things to do in the water and I could hopefully push myself a bit more than I had been the last couple times I swam on my own.

This was the workout:

Warm-Up:
4 x 50 Any Stroke (even pace), rest 0:15/50 yd
Build Up:
4 x 100 Freestyle Swim (kick every 4th 25 yd), rest 0:20/100 yd
Core:
2 x 200 Freestyle Swim, leave on 3:40/200 yd
2 x 100 Freestyle Swim, leave on 1:55/100 yd
2 x 200 Freestyle Swim, leave on 3:40/200 yd
4 x 50 Freestyle Swim, leave on 1:02/50 yd
Warm Down:
1 x 100 Freestyle Push & Glide, rest 0:20/100 yd
1 x 100 Freestyle Easy, rest 0:20/100 yd

If someone could please explain the build-up part to me, I'd really appreciate it. At first, I was thinking that I would just use a kick board for every 4th 25. Then I realized that I would need to have 4 kick boards at the far end of the pool for that to work and that didn't seem right. Then I thought maybe what I was supposed to do was use a pull buoy for the first 75 and swim regularly on the last 25. That still didn't make sense because the pull buoy would have always ended up at the far end of the pool as well. So, what I did was to swim 300 regularly and then I did 100 with a kick board. That was really all I could do to make sense of those directions!

Because it wasn't raining yesterday like it had been at our first visit to MPHC, they had the retractable roof open all the way. The retractable part was really only over the shallow end, but it was actually pretty nice to have it open to the sky. Laura got there when I was about half-way through the core portion of the workout. Shortly after she got there, I spied something pretty exciting. I saw someone walk up some stairs and I just had a feeling that perhaps that they were going to a hot tub. The guy in the lane next to me was resting for a few seconds, so I asked him if I was correct and he said that there were two hot tubs! I can't believe we didn't see them the first time we were there! What a bummer! I told Laura and we both agreed to keep swimming for a while before hitting the hot tub.

I finished my workout, but Laura wasn't done with hers yet. She said she wanted to swim for another 10 minutes or so. I told her that was fine with me and I decided that since I was already a bit cooled-down, I would just keep working on my new kick from the hips. I did 500 kick while she was finishing up. These are my totals for the day:

Distance: 2500 yards = 1.42 miles
Time: 1:02:21
Calories: 618
Max HR: 179
Average HR: 148

After getting out of the pool, we spent a very relaxing 15 minutes in the hot tub before hitting the showers. I will say, if a hot tub was involved at the end of every workout, I'd be much happier to get up in the mornings! Although it is disturbingly getting easier and easier to wake up these days. My hamstring still seems to be feeling tight and it's definitely still noticeable when I'm walking around, but it seems better than yesterday. I think this was just a minor thing, but I'm really glad that I didn't push myself too hard yesterday and do something serious.

It's All About The Breathing

This morning I went to Toga to go buy a replacement bike tube for Caroline and to have my bike get a tune-up and check on the brakes. I've also noticed the last couple times while riding that the MPH sensor might have been on the fritz (just temporarily both times, but it seemed like I should just ask while I was there). I was expecting that it would be about a $50 expense for the tune-up, since that's what the sign says at the shop. I only had to wait about 20 minutes for them to check out the bike. When they brought it back upstairs, the girl rang me up and my total was only $12 (for the two tubes I purchased). I asked about the cost of the tune-up and she told me that since I had bought my bike there, all basic tune-ups for the life of the bike are free! What a nice start to the day!

I then spent the afternoon hanging out at home since it was pouring rain (no surprise there!). Luckily, when I headed out to swim practice, there was a break in the rain. Sarah was coaching today. She said that we would be doing some longer sets today. This was the workout:

400 Warm-Up
300 Drill (one arm / thumb drag)
200 Kick
100 Build
2 x 500 (broken into 100's - 0:05 Rest) 1:00 RI
Flip turns
100 Cool-Down

Total: 2100 meters = 1.30 miles
Time: 1:00:49
Calories: 628
Max HR: 185
Average HR: 151

The drill portion I did 200 using just one arm and the other 100 I did doing the thumb drag drill (where you drag your thumb up the side of your body in order to get your elbows up). The 2 x 500s were broken into 100s, but there was only 0:05 rest between each 100, so it was mostly like swimming a 500. The first 500 we were supposed to keep at an even pace for each 100. The second 500 was supposed to increase in speed for each 100. I'm not sure that I really did that as I just get so tired by the end. One of the other girls in my lane said she doesn't think that it's fair that we're working so hard on the last 100 and going slower than the first 100. I tend to agree.

After the first 500, Sarah asked all of us who could do a flip turn. She said that those of us who raised our hands should try to do them on the second 500. I told her my ear problem and how I feel like my whole head gets clogged with water and she said that it was all about the breathing and she'd help me after the second 500. So, once we were done with the swimming, she broke us up into groups and had us practice flipping. I asked her and she said that as long as I blow out of my nose the entire time I'm flipping, I shouldn't have any ear problems. I did it a few times and she was right! I must have been holding my breath a couple of weeks ago when I was doing it and that was the problem.

For the last 100 cool-down, I practiced flip turning while swimming and breathing out and I didn't have any trouble at all. I guess now that I know the trick, I'll have to try to incorporate this into practice more often. Sarah said that if we work on this over the winter (off season), we'll definitely see results next year in our swimming. Even though there are no flip turns in races and a lot of triathletes say that they don't see the point, the extra second of rest that we're giving ourselves at the wall when we turn without flipping does add up and does give us that extra rest that we wouldn't have in a race. I can see both sides of the argument, but I would like to try it more often going forward and see how it goes.

Also, I know that I was mostly worried about not pushing myself hard enough while swimming and that was the reason for the HR monitor. Obviously, I wasn't too worried about that at Terrier practice as the workouts are usually pretty hard. It was more on my own that I'm concerned. I really wanted to wear the monitor today so that I could have a good comparison for when I'm swimming by myself to see how I'm doing then. I'm hoping to swim with Laura on Wednesday morning, so we'll see how that goes.

Pools & Whirlpools

This morning I met Laura at the 92nd Street Y for a swim. We were able to use our passes with no hassle at all. We walked into the locker room, which was much nicer than the locker room at the Westside Y (although not nearly as big!). The showers also looked promising. We walked out into the pool area, which looked nice as well.

We hopped into the water and started swimming. The one weird thing I noticed right away about the pool was that the walls of the pool were really high. Most pools have somewhere that you can hang onto the edge in the deep end (more of a ledge), but this pool just had a tile wall all the way around. It sort-of made it harder to turn around at the end of the pool. Probably an argument to do flip-turns could be made here, but they just really make my ears hurt. As an aside, I did get some ear plugs at the NYC Triathlon Expo, so maybe I should try those out with flip-turns sometime soon.

Again, I didn't really have a set swimming plan in mind. I did think that I wanted to keep working on this more straight-leg kick to see if it can help me with my times, so I thought should do a lot of kicking today. This was what I ended up doing:

200 Free (warm-up)
300 Kick
200 Free
300 Pull
200 Free
300 Kick
200 Free
250 Pull

1950 Yards = 1.1 miles in 42:05

I thought that the alternating between swimming, kicking and pulling was actually really helpful. It let me concentrate on either kicking or pulling and then I would try to put it all together when swimming.

I had asked Laura at about 7:45 if she would want to get out 5 minutes early from our swim so that we could go check out the whirlpools that were next to the pool. She hesitated for only a second before saying yes. We got out of the pool at 7:55 (I had to cut my workout a little short) and headed over to the whirlpools. Stepping in was so nice! It was warm and had jets. I could have stayed there all day long, I think. Of course, we only stayed in for about 5 minutes before heading to the showers. Next time we go there, however, I'm definitely going to plan on staying in those whirlpools for a longer time and will have to schedule my swim around my whirlpool time!

Back At The NYSC

After this morning's workout didn't happen the way or I planned (or at all!) I knew I was going to have to rearrange my schedule for the week and try to get in a swim this evening at NYSC. Now, this pool isn't so great in the evenings. It's usually packed with people and no one circle swims, etc. So, I didn't have high hopes for this swim workout, but as always, something is better than nothing.

I got there around 7:30 and as expected, the pool was quite crowded. Someone with a reservation at 7:30 didn't show up, so the lifeguard let me go in the reservation spot. He did tell me that it was someone else's reservation, but didn't really specify what that meant for me. I got into the pool at 7:38 so I thought I would have until 8:08 to swim. I didn't really have much of a swimming plan, so this is what I ended up doing:

360 freestyle
180 kick
180 pull
360 freestyle
180 kick
180 pull

1440 yards (0.81 miles) in 28 minutes

The distances are funny because the pool there is 18 yards long, so the freestyle sets were 20 lengths and the pull and kick sets were each 10 lengths of the pool. After my last kick set, at 8:03, the lifeguard said I had to get out in order for the people who had reservations at 8:00 to be able to swim. I got out but mentioned that he hadn't specified that I would have to get out before my 30 minutes were up. I was able to sneak into the lane next to me because two girls were sort-of splashing around and I asked if I could just finish up and they didn't mind at all, which was awesome of them.

In the end, I'm glad I got a workout in today and didn't give up and have an extra rest day. It's not what I was planning for, but life doesn't normally go according to plan, so you just have to adjust accordingly!

Russian Bathhouse

This morning I met Laura at the Westside YMCA for a swim. I checked in using my guest pass with no problems. While I was waiting for Laura, I noticed that this wasn't just a gym, it was also the kind of Y where you can stay the night. It seems like you really don't see those kind of old school Y's anymore.

We walked into the locker room, which was possibly the largest one that I've seen in quite some time. It just kept going on and on and on forever. We picked out two lockers, with an empty one in between us. It seemed like the perfect location - near the stairs to the pool, the showers and that aisle of lockers had two stools - one for each of us.

We headed to the pool and walking in, I immediately thought that we were walking into some sort of Russian bathhouse. Not that I've ever been to one, it just was similar to what it would be like in my imagination. There was really detailed tile work, which I think was the main thing that made it feel like a bathhouse to me. There was also a balcony/catwalk around the entire pool, which made it feel very old fashioned, but also pretty cool.

We hung up our towels, took off our flip flops and got into the water. Freezing cold. In those situations there is only one option - to start swimming. That's the only way I know how to warm up. And I really did warm up very quickly. After swimming a 300, I realized that I hadn't started my watch, so I was at a bit of a loss for exactly how long I had been in the water already. I figured it didn't really matter in the scheme of things if I didn't know the precise amount of time that I had been swimming.

Because I hadn't known what kind of pool this would be and what to expect exactly, I didn't print out a workout. I figured I would just go and do a long swim. Although I really love the Terrier swim practices with all the drills, I did just want to get in a long continuous swim. I decided that I would time myself swimming a 500 to see how it compared to Sunday's crazy-fast 500 time of 7:37. Swimming at my normal leisurly pace, I swam a 500 in 9:21 (1:52/100 pace). That was pretty much what I thought my 100 pace was, so I'm not too surprised by that. It is just crazy to think that I went almost two whole minutes faster on Sunday though!

While I was swimming, there was a guy and a girl in my lane chatting about Ironman triathlons. The guy is doing Lake Placid this weekend and he was explaining everything to the girl and was encouraging her to try out triathlons as well. I sort-of feel like I can't escape Ironman talk. I still haven't come to a decision about Ironman Switzerland next year. Yesterday I watched these incredible videos on YouTube about the Kona Ironman in 2006. (As a side note, if you have time, you should watch all 9 of them too as they're ridiculously inspiring!). I am still trying to figure out if I have the dedication and determination needed to finish the Ironman myself. I'll keep you posted on what happens with my decision making.

At some point this morning, the guy next to me got out of his lane and said if I wanted to move over and have a lane to myself I was welcome to. So, I thought that sounded like a nice idea and I did. Of course, I had been swimming in the far left lane and swimming against the wall half of the time and the lane line the rest of the time. In this other lane I had to swim against the lane line on both sides. Apparently I'm not very good at that because when I got out of the pool, I had another bruise developing on my right elbow from hitting the lane line. What is my problem? At this point it's getting to be a little embarassing that I can't swim properly.

Speaking of swimming properly, I really concentrated today on keeping my knees straight and kicking from the hips more than I have been. It still feels really weird (and slow) to me, but I do believe that it probably makes me more streamlined and therefore faster in the water in the long run. In total today, I swam 2300 yards (1.3 Miles). I had guessed that I was in the water for about 50 minutes, but Laura told me later that it was actually 53, so I wasn't too far off. I still think it's fair to say that I probably wasn't swimming all 53 minutes, although I didn't rest too much, so my 50 minute guess was probably just about right on.

Getting out of the pool and heading back into the locker room, we get to our lockers and there is an entire cosmetics counter laid out on one of the stools and that stool is in conjunction with the locker right in between the lockers that Laura and I selected. I mean, really? There were 6 lockers on either side of us that were empty and had no locks on them. Not to mention the rows upon rows of other lockers. Why would you need to use the one right in between us? I made up for it by using some of the lotion that was so nicely placed on the stool for me. For the record, normally I'm not really like that, I just couldn't find my lotion and it seemed like a fair payback.

Whoopin' & Hollerin'

This afternoon I went to the Terrier swim. Last week at practice, coach Megan had told us that because the 4:30 practice was so crowded, we were welcome to come to the 3:30 race-specific practice instead. I'm not sure if this is the last week of the 3:30 practice since the New York triathlon is next weekend, but I figured I would take advantage of the smaller practice group.

When I got there, the new swim coach, Jamie Barone, was teaching a flip-turn clinic. I know how to do flip-turns, but I just cannot do them on a regular basis because they really hurt my ears. I know that sounds weird, but I have had a lot ear problems ever since I was a kid and something about going too deep in the water (even a couple of feet) really gives me a hard time. I know that if I did them on a regular basis, it would make my pool swimming faster, but I figure that in triathlons you don't really do flip-turns, so I'm probably okay on that.

Jamie told us that he's a fan of doing short, fast sets in practices. He feels like longer, slower sets teach you how to swim slowly and doing faster sets helps you learn how to swim more quickly. We also all lucked out because it ended up that there were only 4 of us who were at the 3:30 practice, so we all had pretty individual attention. This was the workout:

300 Warm-Up
350 Kick
10 x 100 Hard/Easy split
10 x 50 Hard/Easy split
50 Warm-Down

Total distance: 2200 meters (1.36 miles) in approximately 1:05:00

The kick was done in sets. It was 25 hard followed by 25 easy. Then 50 hard followed by 25 easy. And then 75 hard followed by 25 easy. Finally 100 hard with 25 easy. Jamie was walking up and down the side of the pool with us while we were kicking. I was in the far left lane, closest to the wall, so he was mostly walking up and down next to me while we were swimming. He asked me if I had done a lot of swimming as a kid. When I said yes, he said it showed a lot in my kick. He said that I kick a lot from the knee instead of from the hip, which will make my stroke a lot faster and so I worked on that for the rest of the kicking drills. He said he could instantly tell I was kicking faster his way and I did feel a little bit smoother in the water, but it still doesn't feel 100% natural.

After that we did 10 x 100. It was broken up into five 200s that the first one was done fast and the second was done easy. Jamie had a stop watch, so he timed all of us doing our fast 100s. My first 100 was in 1:28, if I'm remembering correctly. I did increase my time from there, I think my third one was 1:33. Then Jamie gave me a different swim cap to wear. I wear a lycra one because I think all of the other kinds hurt my hair, so he told me to put on a silicone one over my lycra one. He said that my original cap carries a lot of water and is giving me too much drag. The funny thing was that after he told me that I was wearing the fast cap, I went down to 1:29 on my fourth hard 100. So, I guess he did know what he was talking about. It probably is worth wearing a second cap, although I would still want to wear the lycra one underneath because those other ones just pull on my hair too much. Or I should just toughen up. But I think I'll choose the second swim cap.

While were doing the fast 100s, Jamie would walk up and down the side of the pool and whistle and yell at us to encourage us. It actually was really pretty awesome and nice. It was definitely the encouragement that I needed to keep going, mostly on the last 25! He told us at one point that if we heard him "whoopin' and hollerin'" that we should just keep swimming - and swimming fast! The recovery 100s were done amazingly slow. I have no idea what the timing was on those, but it was really nice to just take it slow and easy. I did the fast 500 in 7:37 total (about 1:31/100), which was pretty good for me, considering that my normal 100 pace is about 1:50. I'm sure I couldn't have maintained that 7:37 pace if the 500 had been continuous, but still an excellent time. After our last fast 100, Jamie had us take our heart rates. Mine was 180. According to the formula, my max heart rate could be 192. He also had us take our heart rate after the recovery 100 and mine dropped down to 126. He said that ideally it would be about 60 beats slower from one to the other.

We then did the exact same thing with the 10 x 50. We did 5 fast and 5 as recovery. Jamie told us that we wanted our five fast 50s to be less than half of the time that it took us to do the five fast 100s. I came in at 3:30 total, which was definitely less than half of the time, so I felt good about that. The average for each 50 was 0:42. Jamie still walked up and down the pool while we were doing the 50s. He kept reminding me that I should kick from the hips instead of the knees (and yes, he did that while I was swimming by using arm motions). I tried to do it as best I could, but I think it's extremely hard to change your stroke while also trying to swim as fast as we could. We took our heart rates again on the last fast 50 (168 beats/minute) and after the last slow 50 (108 beats/minute). I guess that extra hard 50 really made my heart increase.

So, I'm not sure how often Jamie will be running regular practices. There are additional practices that I know he'll be doing on Thursday nights, but those are for an additional fee, so I'm not sure that I'm quite ready to do that, especially since swimming is not my weakest sport. I do hope that he runs some of the regular Sunday practices as well. I like that there are so many coaches because it really helps shake up the variety of the workouts. Next Sunday there is no swim practice because so many people are doing the New York City triathlon. I'm going to go and cheer on my fellow teammates - I think that counts as a workout, right?

Pool, Glorious Pool

Today I spent the morning sleeping in. Then I took an afternoon nap. I will say that I was a little bit bummed to be wasting such a nice day staying inside so much, but the sleep was so nice (and needed) that I'm really okay with that. Today was also the Terrier group swim, which meant more time spent indoors. Oh well. Hopefully summer is finally here and that will mean lots more nice weekends to spend outside.

Getting into the pool was so nice compared to getting into the ocean yesterday. While the pool is always a little bit cool, it's nothing like the ocean temperature and it's so nice to be able to see the bottom of the pool and know you're swimming in a straight line. I also never worried about drinking too much water and was actually glad to taste the chlorinated water instead of salt water. Megan was the coach today and she said that we would be doing a lot of speed work.

This was the workout:
300 Warm-Up
10 x 50 - on the 1:00
6 x 75 Pull
12 x 100 - on the 2:10
25 Sprint
75 Cool Down

Total distance = 2550 meters

The 300 warm-up was mostly a warm-up, but every 3rd length was supposed to be an easy to fast build. We should have all known right then that this wasn't going to be an easy workout and that it would pretty much kick our butts. The 10 x 50 were all easy down and fast back and we had a minute to complete each one. I'd say that I finished all of them in less than 0:50 and some were in 0:45, mostly depending on how fast the last 25 was.

The pulling was supposed to be easy-fast-easy. It's just still so interesting to me that people who are not great swimmers can be amazing pullers. I know it's because they obviously don't kick much when they're swimming regularly, but the difference between one and the other is really amazing to watch.

The 12 x 100 were broken down into three groups of 400. The first 100 would be easy, the second 100 would be slightly faster, the third 100 should be at race pace and the fourth 100 should be an all out sprint. Repeated three times and all of the 100s would be on the 2:10, so depending on how fast you swam, you'd have more recovery time. The first set of 400 was definitely the hardest one. Mainly the last 100 sprint. Megan said that she wanted to see us kicking really hard and I don't know why it is, but kicking really hard just takes a lot out of me. By the time we got to the second set of 400, I thought I was about to pee my pants (or bathing suit, as the case may be). I had to get out and go use the restroom, but I only missed a 50 of easy, so I don't think it was a huge deal in terms of the workout.

When we were starting the last sprint 100, I was just thinking how excited I was that once that was done we would get to do a cool-down and be done. Megan had different ideas, though. We had to do one more 25 sprint. She shuffled all of us around so that one person from each lane would have a race against each other. So, all of the really fast people from the far lane would race against each other, etc. When I was standing there, I was thinking that I wasn't sure I had it in me, but I was also thinking that it was only a 25 and I could do it. It actually was much more fun than I had expected - although I'm sure part of that was the competition aspect of it. I'm fairly sure I came in second, but it was pretty close with the girl in the lane next to me.

Finally we got to do the cool-down! I was definitely ready for that. My total distance today was 2500 meters (1.55 miles). I didn't use my stop watch, but I think the total time in the pool was about 1:03, just based on looking at my watch when we got in and out. Obviously not all that time was spent actually swimming as some of it was resting, but it still was a great workout and a good way to start the week.

We Are Like '80s Triathletes

This morning I met Laura and Jen so that the three of us could head to Coney Island for an open water swim. Because we wouldn't have anyone to watch our stuff, I really took the bare bones and toted all my stuff around in a brown paper bag from Whole Foods (just in case anything was stolen, I wouldn't lose a lot).

The three of us met at Laura's before heading out there. She had suggested that we should all wear brightly-colored swim caps so we would be easy to spot in the water. Since I own a black swim cap and I threw away the white one I used at Staten Island, I needed to borrow one from Laura. She had a neon pink one for me to wear, which definitely fulfilled the brightly-colored requirement.

We got on the train and headed out to the end of Brooklyn. Once we got there, we headed toward the water and set all of our stuff down on the beach and started to get suited up. I had applied Body Glide before leaving my apartment and I'm sure that some of it came off along the way, but I really didn't have any problems getting my wetsuit on. Jen had brought a neon yellow swim cap and Laura had a neon green one. The three of us together reminded me of some sort of bad '80s exercise video with the neon swim caps.

Once we were all suited and capped up, we headed into the water. It was definitely not as cold as I had remembered it being, but the waves were really significant. The last time I was there it was pretty much like swimming in a (very cold) lake. Today, not so much.

We headed out further into the water,about half-way down the jetty. We all just stayed there treading water for a few minutes saying, "OK" but didn't do anything. Finally I said I would countdown from 5 to get us going. And on 1, we all went. It never ceases to surprise me when that actually works. It always still feels a bit to me like we're kids and it's all a trick.

The distance between the jettys is .10 miles. Laura was in disbelief about the distance when we were at one end looking at how far we had to swim, but after swimming there and seeing the time on her watch, she believed me. I don't think that gmap pedometer has lied to me yet, and I guess this proved the point.

We all swam there and back (0.2 miles). Swimming there wasn't too bad because the waves were coming from the left, so it was easy to breathe on the right. Swimming back was another story. Although it was really good practice for breathing on the left. Otherwise the result was a mouthful of water. After the first 0.2 miles, Laura said that she had a sidestitch and was going to rest while Jen and I kept swimming.

Jen and I did another 0.2 miles. On the way there, I started having some goggle issues. Mostly that the right goggle was leaking just a tiny bit. I know that some people actually keep a little bit of water in their goggles to prevent fogging, but I am not one of those people. I think that part of the goggle problem was due to the fact that the waves kept hitting my face and jostling them out of position. I stopped, tried to suction them back into my eye socket as best as I could and kept swimming.

After Jen and I finished that leg, Laura came back and joined us for another 0.2 miles. Half-way through that leg, I realized that I wasn't feeling 100% because of all the salt water that I had swallowed and all I wanted to do was get out and have drink of fresh water. When we finished that part up, I told the girls that I needed to get a drink and that they should keep swimming. I think we had all reached our limits, however. We all ended up getting out of the water and getting something to drink. Once we were out of the water, we realized that we had had enough for one day.

I ended up swimming 0.6 miles in 26:04. Slower than my normal (pool) mile pace, but still fairly good, I thought, considering it was open water with waves! We celebrated our triumph over the waves with Nathan's hot dogs. After all, what's a trip to Coney Island without a hot dog?

Our Own Private Pool

This morning I met Laura for a swim. We had to change pools at the last minute and ended up going to the Atlantis Health Club / Marriott Hotel swimming pool. When we walked into the pool area, I wasn't so sure about it. It was only a 50-foot pool (16.66 yards), so really short. The shallow end was also extremely shallow (only 3 feet deep!).

Once I got in, however, I felt a lot better about the pool. The nicest part was that Laura and I were the only people in the pool for most of the time we were there. At some point a couple came and swam for a while, but that still meant that Laura and I had half of the pool to ourselves. I don't think Laura was ever really as excited as I was about the pool, but I loved that no one else was there and that we didn't have to worry about crazy swimmers messing up our swimming time.

The three-foot deep shallow end was a little weird. At some point I realized that it would be a good way to practice dolphins as if I was doing a beach start for a triathlon. It actually was pretty good practice and I am really hoping that Westchester is a beach start instead of a deep water start.

All in all, I swam for 23:46 and went 3500 feet (0.66 miles). I know that I'm going to have to start doing longer workouts and I am now feeling like I can get back into the groove of working out every day. I was just going through a bit of a rut after Staten Island and with the holiday weekend, but I am feeling a lot better about this now. All I need now is for the weather to cooperate!

My First Tri

Well, I did it. My first triathlon. I woke up in plenty of time. Drew made a nice breakfast for us and I double-checked the list and we headed to Staten Island. The exit from the highway that we were supposed to use was closed, so I was momentarily worried that we'd get lost, but once the cab driver looked at the map, we turned around and found the location very easily.

I noticed the Terrier bike trailer was there, so I went to collect my bike right away. I had brought my bike pump because I was too nervous without it. It actually turned out to have been a good thing to bring, since the Terrier pump was broken and I think about half of the team (and Laura) ended up using the pump. As soon as I had my bike all set, I headed over to the transition area. I racked my bike and started setting up my area. I cheated a little bit to see what the people around me were doing and to make sure I laid everything that I would need out. I had brought three water bottles - two for drinking and one to use to rinse my feet off in T1. My plan was to drink one whole water bottle before the race and then fill that one up with Gatorade. I took my water bottle and went to find Drew and to say hi to my dad and step-mom.

I had wanted to get in a short run before the race, but that didn't work out. I think I could have done it, but I'm sort-of glad I didn't because they closed the transition area at 7:15 and I think if I had gone for the short run, I would have felt too rushed. I felt a tiny bit rushed as it was. After they closed the transition area, we had our mandatory pre-race meeting. Then everyone headed over to the beach and we were able to get in the water before the race. When I was walking to the beach, I ran into Robert and a couple of other Terriers and we all got into the water together.

Not surprisingly, the water was pretty cool. I'm really glad that I got into to acclimate myself to the temperature, and when I saw how many people were standing on the beach and not getting into the water, I couldn't believe it! It seemed crazy to me that everyone wouldn't get in, but I guess that everyone has their own pre-race strategy.

I was in the water for 15-20 minutes and then got out and walked back along the beach to the starting area. Before I knew it, they were blowing the whistle for the first wave and it was time for me to get into the water. When they blew the whistle for my wave, I pressed start on my watch and started swimming. I did not have a very good swim. I'm not entirely sure what went wrong. I didn't feel panicked or worried about drowning. I could clearly sight the buoys and used the Verrazano as well for sighting. I think that part (or most of my problem was mental). I realized half-way there on the swim that I couldn't believe that I had signed up to do a triathlon. And even more than that, I couldn't believe I was doing one at that very moment. And I was just thinking that I sort-of had to pee and I had a long way to go before I could use a bathroom. So, I did a couple of stokes of breast-stroke, tried to get my head together, and just keep swimming. I felt like I never really got into a rhythm when I was swimming, which was part of my problem as well. As I was getting out of the water, I was thinking that this whole triathlon thing was crazy and I didn't want to keep running up to the transition area. Then as I was starting to unzip my wetsuit, I saw Drew, who was cheering me on, holding a big encouraging sign (that said "Wow! You're fast!") and taking photos. That made me realize that I had better HTFU and keep going. Although I started running out of the water and towards the transition area, I definitely slowed down to a walk for most of the run in from the beach.

T1 went really well for me. I yanked my wetsuit down and got it off really quickly. Then I poured water on my feet to get the sand off my feet. I didn't really dry my feet off since it seemed like too much work. I pulled on my right sock with no trouble, but I put the left sock on upside-down. That meant I had to take it off and try again. I clipped my race belt on, threw my helmet on and clipped it, and grabbed 1/2 of a Clif bar. I had thought to open the wrapper before the race, so all I had to do was break off a piece. I shoved most of that in my mouth in about three bites while running out of the transition area and heading to the bike mount area.

I got clipped into my bike with no trouble, which I was really glad about. Then I was off. The road that the course was on was pretty bad. There were several holes in the road marked with orange spray paint, but the entire road was really bumpy. The bike course was 3 loops on a 4 mile course (although looking at my bike computer, it might have been just a bit shorter than that). The turn around points were pretty sharp U-turns, so I made sure to really slow down on those. On my way back on the first loop, I looked at my watch and thought that I could possibly see Laura sometime soon. And then, just after having that thought, she was there! I yelled to her, which was fun. I ended up seeing her a few more times on the bike, so it was nice to have something to do. I did think that the bike was pretty boring. I'm guessing that part of that was that it was a loop course. I also think part of it was just that I was trying to race instead of just practice in the park. I don't know if all those crazy pedestrians and bike riders that I complain about so much make bike riding better, but they certainly make it more interesting.

On my second loop at the turn around to head back, the guy in front of me must have been taking the turn too fast because he wiped out. I stopped (remembering to unclip first) and asked if he was okay. It looked like he would be fine - probably just some scrapes and bruises. I clipped back in and yelled to a police officer and was back on my way. I really felt bad riding away, but he was sitting up and wasn't visibly bleeding and I knew assistance was coming, so I felt better about that. I'm not 100% sure what the right protocol is on that. Hopefully I didn't do the wrong thing. I remembered to drink my entire water bottle on the bike, so I was feeling pretty good about my hydration/nutrition.

Drew was waiting with his sign, camera, and cheers at the beginning turn around. That was actually rather helpful because I knew after I had seen him two times, it was time for me to exit the bike course. I dismounted and headed back to transition. I saw my step-mom as I was heading into T2.

I thought my second transition went smoothly as well. I ran in, racked my bike, and then switched shoes. I had unclipped my helmet as soon as I entered the transition area, so that I could remember to take it off. I turned my race belt around so that the number would be facing forward, grabbed my running hat and was off.

I started out going pretty slowly on the run. I knew that I just didn't have anything faster than that in me at that point. I looked at my watch while I was exiting T2 and realized that I was under an hour in at that point and it was looking like my hour and a half goal might be possible. The run was a there-and-back course. About half-way out, there was a water station. I took a cup of water and kept running, which wasn't very effective for getting the water into my mouth. At the turn-around, there were large cups of water. I took one of those, slowed down to a walk so that I could take 4 or 5 sips, and then dumped the rest on me to cool off and I kept running. Although I was a little disappointed with myself for walking those few steps, it was definitely worth it for the water break. I had known before-hand that part of the run back would be on the boardwalk. I was really nervous that I would feel dizzy and weird like I had last weekend at Coney Island while running on that boardwalk. Luckily, this one wasn't in the same pattern as the Coney Island boardwalk so I actually was okay. I also tried to avoid looking at the boardwalk and instead tried to look at the other runners or the ocean.

There was loud music playing at the finish line, so once I started to hear that, I knew I was almost there. I looked at my watch and it was definitely getting closer to being an hour and a half. I picked up my pace a little bit for about the last 1/2 mile of the course. And then, before I knew it, I was almost at the finish line and then I was crossing the finish line! My un-official time was 1:28:41 (according to my watch). I was really, really happy with that. I had said the other day that I would be happy with anything under 2 hours, but I was really hoping for an hour and a half, so that was awesome.

These were my splits and total times:

Swim: 9:43
T1: 2:30
Bike: 44:10 (16.3 MPH pace)
T2: 1:15
Run: 31:06 (10:02 pace)
Total time: 1:28:42
Place: 448 (out of 591) / 28 (out of 37) in my age division / 144 (out of 235) females

I know if I had been able to have a better swim and run into T1 that I would have been more competitive in my age group. However, I still feel really pleased with those results. I'm especially glad that I biked over 15 MPH average and my run was right around a 10-minute mile pace. I followed my race plan pretty well, I think. It definitely helped me to have thought it all out before-hand to make sure I didn't forget anything in transition and to have goals to try to aspire to.

So, I will say that I didn't love the race. I've been trying to figure out why that was. I'm wondering if part of it is that I got so spoiled having a workout partner most of the time that doing it all by myself was a little lonely and boring for me. I also was thinking the whole time about Westchester and how it's longer and I'm not really sure why I would want to do that since I consider myself to be a relatively sane human being. However, I do really like the training for the races and I think that it's an excellent way to keep myself motivated to stay in shape. I wouldn't be surprised if I keep signing up for them in the years to come. I'm hoping that next time when I have more of an idea of what to expect I will find it to be more enjoyable.

I do want to say thank you to everyone who helped me get this far. All the support and encoragement I got along the way was pretty incredible. I never really considered that I would be a triathlete in my life, so it's amazing to me that I can now say that I am one.

Open Water Swimming Makes Me Hungry

This morning I got up early in order to get ready and packed for my open water swim and run clinic with the Terriers. Drew was kind enough to get up early too and go the grocery store so that he could make breakfast for us. We had eggs, turkey bacon and toast. Seemed like a well-balanced meal to start the day.

I left my apartment around 9:30, because I knew it could take an hour to get out to Coney Island and with slower subway service on Sundays, I didn't want to be late for the 11:00 start time. I ended up getting off the train with about 12 minutes to spare. I started walking to the meeting place and luckily saw Lisa, so that was a nice surprise to see a familiar face.

Of course, as we were waiting for everyone else to arrive, it was raining lightly. At least there was no thunder, so it wasn't a problem swimming. Everyone else got there right around 11:00. Robert, the coach, talked to us all for a few minutes before we headed down to the beach. He asked who was nervous about swimming and reminded us that as kids we would have been dying to get into the water, but as adults we all become afraid, which is sort-of an interesting thought.

Robert said that it was really important on the day of the race to make sure that we get in the water before the race in order to acclimate our bodies to the water temperature. Once we got all suited up into our wetsuits, we all headed out to the water. Those first few steps into the water made me lose all feeling in my toes. Then, once I stuck my arms in, they were freezing as well (I have a sleeveless wetsuit). However, after staying in the water for a few minutes and swimming around, I felt a lot better. My face still felt cold when I had to stick it back in the water after taking a breath, but it wasn't horrible.

After we got used to the water temperature, we all got out of the water so that we could practice getting into and out of the water for races. Getting in for beach starts, he explained, we should run until the water level got to about our knees. After that, we should do a few dolphins, kicking off the bottom, until we couldn't touch any more. Then we could start swimming. The dolphins really make your heart rate go up, so I can see if you weren't already acclimated to the water temperature, you could be easily flustered. Once we had started swimming, we would swim for 20 or 30 strokes and then turn around and head back. The exit from the water seemed a lot easier. You swim until you are hitting the bottom with your hand, then explode up out of the water and start running. You should make sure to take off your goggles right away so that you can see. Then start unzipping and peeling off your wetsuit. By the time you reach the transition area, the wetsuit should already be below your hips. We practiced the getting into and out of the water several times.

Next, Robert had us do some sighting work. The first time, he told me that I was doing it backwards. I was taking a breath and then looking to sight, when I should be looking and then taking a breath. At first when I tried to do it his way, I was getting a little confused, but after the entire practice, I realized how much more efficient that his way was. And In fact, made it easier to sight in general. The swimming area that we were in was between two jettys that were about 200 yards apart. We would swim in a triangle - from the beach to the end of one jetty, then from jetty to jetty and finally back to shore (each triangle was about a quarter mile).

Every time we got into and out of the water, we were still supposed to be practicing what we had gone over earlier with the ins and outs. We then practiced swim starts in deep water. For those, you would be treading water (or holding onto a rope). The key to a good start here, Robert explained, is to be horizontal, or nearly horizontal by the time the race starts. So, during the countdown, you should start leaning over into the water. Once we had done those a few times, we then swam in a rough triangle again. This time, instead of using the second jetty to sight, we were to swim around this guy who had been in the water the entire time we were there and appeared to be doing some sort of testing. I tried not to think too hard about all the rain we've had and how clean or dirty the water might be and instead focus on the actual swimming. I think the guy was pretty shocked when we all swam around him, but since he was just standing there, I hope he didn't mind too much.

After getting out of the water that time, Robert then talked to us about drafting and how great it can be if you find someone who is sighting properly to swim behind. That way you're doing a lot less work and don't have to sight yourself as often. All you have to do is stay on their toes and follow along. We did the drafting in small groups (mine was a group of three). We each led for a leg. We swam out to the end of the jetty, and then back and forth between the jettys. By this point, we had been in the water for about an hour and a half and I could tell that I was getting hungry and losing a bit of steam. We then headed in towards the beach.

This time, Robert had us take off our suits completely. He gave us some pointers first and reminded us to have it below our hips before we get to T1. Then he told us to yank them down as fast as we could and use our feet to step on the suit in order to get it off completely. I actually think I did very well on that part and had my suit off rather quickly.

We then all headed back up towards the boardwalk to rinse off our wetsuits and change into our running shoes. I had to eat one of the bars I had brought with me as well as drinking some fresh water. I had had enough salt water for one day, I think.

We were supposed to run for 40 minutes. 20 minutes there and 20 back. The only problem with that was that by the time we got 'there' to the end of the boardwalk, we had only been running for about 10 minutes. By this time the day had really warmed up and all I really wanted to do was to get back in the water. I also found running in the boardwalk to be very disorienting. The slats were all at a diagonal and something about it made me feel a bit dizzy. Now I'm a bit nervous about my run next weekend, since part of that is also on a boardwalk. I also don't think I can wear these speed laces that Laura let me try out. They're too short. I did lace them further up my shoes, but my feet were feeling numb almost right away. When the rest of the team got back to where we had started from, they all kept going on the 40 minute run, but I had had enough for the day. I think not having enough food/water on the swim just caught up to me. I ran for 22 minutes total (about 2.6 miles/8:27 pace).

All in all, although it started with a little rain, it was a perfect day for the practice. There were very few people out at the beach and boardwalk, which was great for us. I was really proud of all the effort I put in today. Now I'm dying for a cold smoothie and a warm shower!