Monthly Archives: April 2013

The Struggle

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All morning I told myself I needed a rest day. I didn’t need to run today. I needed some time to let my legs recover from the big ride last weekend. My terrible performance in the pool yesterday was proof that I wasn’t fully recovered yet. My normal run time came and went. It was going to be a rest day! But then something snapped inside my head and I knew I was going to run.

The run started off poorly. I felt wasted. I was hitting every light red, even lights that just go into driveways that I’ve never hit red before. I was sweating profusely even though it was nice and cool outside with decent cloud cover. I hadn’t been running even five minutes and I was already walking. I would find out later that my heart rate wasn’t very high either. I was just struggling mentally. It was pathetic. I told myself it was fine, because even walking was good for me. I would allow myself to walk the 10k, but I wasn’t going to cut any distance.

I tried to run a few times, but fell back into walking a lot of the first 5k. After the turn-around I was actually feeling pretty good, and I wound up jogging most of the way back. I did walk a few short periods up the big hill. I continued to hit every light red, which frustrated me enough that I ran a few of them where there were no cars.

I’m not happy with my performance overall, but I’m not too upset about the second half. I’m happy that I forced myself to go out and do the whole thing. That’s the best part about today’s “run”.

RunKeeper: https://runkeeper.com/user/jtalbot/activity/174118163

Strava:

Beat Up

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I’m actually not feeling all that sore from the big ride on Saturday, but for some reason I had no energy in the pool today. My triceps are pretty sore, but it’s not from the bike ride. I’ve started doing sets of 15 push-ups from time to time during the day, trying to get in at least 100 each day. I think that probably has more to do with my poor performance today than anything else.

The sunshine was the only thing keeping me in the pool after the first thousand yards.

300 free
2 x 100 kick
2 x 100 pull with paddles
2 x 200 IM with fins
3 x 100 free
3 x 100 kick
300 pull
—–
2000 yards

Dana Point (108 miles)

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This whole week I have been looking forward to doing a big ride today. We didn’t really have anything planned other than “doing a big ride” until last night. We decided we were going to ride up along the coast through Camp Pendleton and up to Dana Point. We figured it would give us about 100 miles, which would be our longest self-supported ride ever. It sounded awesome, so we called Ryan to see if he wanted to ride with us.

I haven’t been sleeping very well this whole week, so I was fairly anxious about how ready for this ride I would really be in the morning. I slept really well last night and woke up ready to rumble. Charmaine picked up our usual breakfast before a big ride… McDonald’s. I swear there’s nothing better than a Sausage McMuffin with Egg before a big ride. It has the perfect mix of carbs (32g), protein (21g), and fat (27g). I also loaded up one of my water bottles with a mixture of Red Bull and XXX Vitamin Water.

Ryan got here at six and we headed out by about 6:30. I was a little worried that it would be cold in the morning, but it wasn’t bad at all. In fact, the weather for the entire ride was perfect. I would guess it was about 60 degrees when we started and probably didn’t get above about 65 the whole way, except when we stopped to have “lunch” (banana pancakes, bacon, and more eggs) at RJ’s Cafe in Dana Point. It was really warm and sunny at lunch, but almost as soon as we got back on our bikes, the sun went back behind the clouds and we had an amazing ride home.

I did manage to crash my bike again. I’m getting pretty good at it. This was definitely my best crash yet. They have been doing a lot of construction along the west side of the 101 through Solana Beach, so we took the back roads on our way home. As we were heading down the hill from the back roads to get back on the 101 and head home through Del Mar, I decided to cut up onto the sidewalk where another biker was already waiting for the light. It looked like the sidewalk was all graded down to street level, but I quickly realized I was mistaken. The curb was graded down to street level on both the left and right of where I rode my bike, but between those two sections it was a full curb. I’m still shocked that I didn’t see it at all. I slammed my front wheel directly into the curb, stopping my bike immediately and sending me flying through the air over my bike and onto the sidewalk. Ryan said I looked quite acrobatic in the air. I wish someone had recorded it so I could see it. I rode away with only a few scrapes on two of my fingers and a bruise on the front of my leg. That’s amazing considering the violence level of the crash. I think it may have killed my crappy ($20) bike computer too. I’ll have to see if I can fix it.

Quick Dip

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I have a meeting at 1:30 today, so I had to be quick at the pool. That’s a shame because it’s so amazing outside today. The sun is shining and it’s 69 degrees. I could have stayed another hour, then blown off work and headed to the beach. But that was not to be. I have a meeting, so I had to be quick.

500 free
5 x 100 free under 1:15 on 1:55
5 x 100 kick no fins
500 pull with paddles
200 kick on my back with fins
4 x 50 IM order with fins
100 warm down
—–
2500 yards

Fail

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I have several guesses about why I failed so hard today. The obvious first choice is that I haven’t been able to sleep very well for several days. I have been anxious about the post office misplacing 2 of the 4 checks I mailed at tax time. One was tracked until it left the sorting facility, and the other was never tracked at all. I think the anxiety over those missing checks didn’t help my sleep situation any. Luckily, one of the checks cleared my checking account this morning, so I’m hopeful the post office just forgot to track my checks and didn’t actually lose them.

It’s another one of those amazingly beautiful San Diego days today, so I was looking forward to getting outside all morning. Right before lunch time I got a little anxious about the run, but I was feeling good. I stepped out the door to start my run and immediately rolled my ankle. I hadn’t even started yet and I knew I was in for some trouble.

I thought I might be fine, so I headed out on my normal 10k route. I hadn’t gotten too far when it was obvious to me that it wasn’t going to be business as usual, so I headed down to the trail along the 56 freeway where the running trail is in the nice sand that’s easier on my joints. I spent a lot of time switching between jogging and walking, but I eventually made my way back home. I’m not impressed at all with my performance, but hopefully I’ll be back ready for some serious biking by this weekend.

My heart rate monitor was fully charged when I started, but it stopped tracking just a few minutes in to the run. If this was the first or even the second time that had happened I might forgive it, but I’m really upset about it. It’s not critical that I record my heart rate, but I paid good money for this piece of equipment and I expect it to work. It doesn’t work at all when I ride my bike and it only seems to work about half the time when I run. My advice to you: Do not buy a Zephyr heart rate monitor. They suck.

RunKeeper: https://runkeeper.com/user/jtalbot/activity/172031547

Strava:

Cold and Dark

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I didn’t sleep well again last night. I’m still a little beat up from running yesterday. I had just about convinced myself to work through lunch and put off doing anything outside till tomorrow. But then I cracked. I put on my swimsuit and walked over to the rec center.

I was the only one there.

250 warm-up
5 x 100 free under 1:15 on 1:55
5 x 100 kick no fins
500 pull with paddles
4 x 100 drill IM order with fins
2 x 100 kick on my back with fins
250 warm-down
—–
2600 yards

Running with Pebble

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I supported the Pebble smart watch project through Kickstarter a long long time ago (more than a year). My watch finally arrived yesterday afternoon, right when I was contemplating switching from Strava to RunKeeper. That is significant because the beta version of the RunKeeper app for Android has native support for Pebble baked in and Strava does not.

So today I ran with my Pebble watch. I don’t know if it helped or hurt. It was sort of nice to know my pace at anytime, but I wonder how much of a distraction it was at the same time. The technology is very cool, but I’m not convinced that RunKeeper is the answer for me. For one thing, it doesn’t support the heart rate monitor that I already have. Of course, I’m not very happy with my heart rate monitor, but I’m determined to get my $70 of use out of it. Of course, I’m even more determined to get my (whatever I paid, I don’t remember anymore) of use out of my Pebble… so maybe I’ll be using both Strava and RunKeeper for a while. It may prove to be more work than it’s worth to use both. We’ll have to see how it goes.

I gave myself all sorts of excuses this morning. I woke up early this morning despite going to bed late last night. I rarely perform well without a good night’s sleep. I couldn’t find any of my running socks (dual-layered), so I was stuck using some old biking socks. I didn’t have any caffeine to prep with (they say a little caffeine before a workout helps you perform better and last longer). It was sunny and hot outside, despite the forecast of being nice and cool. I was wearing a dark shirt, which had no trouble converting all that sun into heat. Etc.

Despite everything, I had a decent run. I hit a few lights red on the way out, which probably stopped me from setting a PR on my 5k, but I managed to bring it home for a PR on my 10k. I cut almost a full minute from my previous PR. That means I’ve cut 5 minutes off my 10k time in the last week. I’ll take that!

RunKeeper: https://runkeeper.com/user/jtalbot/activity/171177078

Strava:

Rethinking Things

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Is this really a swim blog? I swam today, but most of the things I write about now are not swimming. Maybe I’ll change it from /swim to /somethingelse. Maybe I should figure out what to call it before I make any changes? No. I changed the theme today. I recently added a Strava widget that was wider than the text area of my old theme (the default wordpress theme) and it looked bad. So I updated the theme to something wider. I may change it again if I ever figure out what to call this blog.

I started questioning my use of Strava, at least for running. They just changed their activity details page for runs and it is so much worse than it used to be. I’m pretty upset about it. They used to show you where your fastest mile, two miles, 5k, 10k, 15k, etc. segments were for each run. They don’t do that anymore. That’s just one example of things that are worse now. They also changed how you navigate through each run on the map. It’s much worse. You can’t view your performance by distance anymore, only by time. Etc. I’m not happy about it.

Maybe I’ll go back to using RunKeeper for my runs. Maybe I’ll start using RunKeeper for my bike rides too? No, Strava hasn’t messed up the bike ride activities yet, and it’s still the best around. But I may start using both Strava and RunKeeper for a few runs and see which I like better. I have a hunch that it won’t be Strava anymore. I don’t think I’m alone in being upset by it either. This could turn out to be a big mistake for them.

But enough of that. It was a beautiful day today. I thought it was supposed to be cold, but it was 68 and sunny at lunch, so I had no choice but to swim. The pool was empty and I got to do my own thing.

400 free
5 x 100 free under 1:15 on 2:00
5 x 100 kick no fins
500 pull with paddles
300 kick on my back with fins
200 IM with fins
100 warm-down
—–
2500 yards

Perfect Day

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Weather cannot get better than this. It was about 79 degrees and beautiful blue skies when I walked down to the pool this afternoon. I wasn’t the only one that noticed how nice it was. There were a bunch of people there. I started a bit late, so I had to just get through it and get back to work. It was sad not to be able to spend any more time outside than I did, but I’m so glad I got to go out and enjoy it while I could. Like I said earlier, this is the definition of perfect weather.

500 free
5 x 100 kick no fins
3 x 200 pull with paddles
100 easy
200 IM with fins
100 fly kick with fins
2 x 50 underwater with fins
100 warm-down
—–
2200 yards

Take That (PR 10K)

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I wasn’t feeling especially fast today. I hit more red lights than normal. I knew I wouldn’t be setting a new record on my 5K, but I knew I had to set a PR for my 10K, so I didn’t let myself stop at the half way point to catch my breath. I stopped only long enough to see where I was time-wise, and make sure my GPS updated at the furthest point.

I was hot and dry today. I think it was at least 15 degrees warmer than 2 days ago; that’s a big change. I actually ran out of water before I got back home. There was a nice warm desert wind blowing and the fire danger is high. All those things combine to take a lot out of you when you run. I tried to talk myself out of it all morning and then the first quarter mile. But after I crossed Carmel Country Road and headed up the hill, I was committed.

I wasn’t especially fast or slow, but I knew that in previous runs I had stopped at the half-way point for multiple minutes. If I simply cut my rest there, I could set a PR, as long as I didn’t die and wind up walking or stopping later on… and then I did.

About half-way up the big hill on Del Mar Heights road, there were two landscaping trucks blocking the sidewalk and bike lane. I was barely able to squeeze by on the edge of the sidewalk. They each had huge water coolers and I was just about out of water. I thought about asking the guys if I could grab some water, but then decided that was a bad idea. I broke down and walked for a bit while I considered it. Then I got back into a jog the rest of the way up the hill. Then it was all down hill from there and I finished strong. I was a bit upset about missing the light to cross Carmel Country Road both ways today, but there’s not much I can do about it.

I still managed to set my PR for a 10K. I cut more than 4 minutes off my old PR. That’s pretty huge.

Old 10K PR: 1:10:28
New 10K PR: 1:06:23