Chronicles of a fish: the days of surf and turf

Dory Dory

Sunday, June 8th, 2014

Bike

The area I live in is pretty much littered with hills, and after having a little issue with the injury after last weekend's ride it was decided that a brief warmup on the trainer to prepare the body for and protect the injury from the climbing that pretty much starts right away would be wise. So, onto the Cat for 30 minutes...then onto the Mad One for 2 hours easy, concentrating on spinning and practicing eating and drinking. The eating and drinking went very well , and the spinning was okay. There is so much up and down that it's impossible to maintain a steady cadence, but I try and mind the cadence and I try and work the gears appropriately. Oh, and I stayed in the small ring the entire ride, fighting the urge every now and then to move it to the big ring. Discipline. And it occurred to me as I was sipping on my Tropical Fruit Punch Gatorade what may be contributing to my new found comfort/confidence on the bike, especially while drinking and eating and waving to the locals - it's all that yoga I've been doing that has been working on my core and on my balance. I'm sure of it.

But the ride went well....I did the exact same route as last week, but I felt I paced this week better as I had so much more left in the tank this week than last. And good news, my lower back and tush were much more comfortable today than a week ago. Happy days. But the road kill....OMG, the road kill. Squirrels, opossums, birds, chickens, deer , a snake, and something that was totally unidentifiable. I actually ran over the snake. It was already dead, but I unintentionally added insult to injury. Sorry, Mr. Snake! Any way....a nice little ride it was.

Actual bike: 35.67 miles in 2:11:43 for an average speed of 16.3 mph

Swim

Just a nice easy recovery swim to reset the mind and body and prepare it for the week ahead. Whoop whoop!!!

Actual swim: 2,000 slow, comfortable yards (finally!!!)

Dory Dory

Monday, June 9th, 2014

Run plan: 5 miles steady

:eek::eek::eek:

Good god, this was not the start I had hoped for this week. This was downright awful. Not only was this a horrid display of very bad pacing, but this quite possibly also gives me a disappointing hint at how much running fitness I have lost. Granted this was done in the field with the drag of the grass, and yes the temperature was 86 degrees F with 98% humidity thus making the real feel 110 degrees F :eek:...but still, this was quite a disappointment as I just melted into a struggling puddle that kept plugging along, never stopping, but chanting over and over again in my head "if it isn't moving you forward, turn it off".....and..."you've made your bed now lie in it."

No further elaboration needed...I'll let the paces tell the story:
7:55, 8:20, 8:54, 8:59, 9:18

Barf.

Actual run: 5.6 miserably horrid field miles

Swim

Good news!! Not only am I now plucking out dead baby frogs from my scuppers on a daily basis (okay, slight exaggeration as I've only plucked out 3 in the past week), but I now have a pair of ducks who are trying to make my pool their home. !!!! So, after I sprayed off the duck poop from my deck, I hopped in the habitat I am most comfortable in and salvaged a little something of the day.

Actual swim: 2,000 yards in a pool that needs a good dose of chlorine shocking!

Dory Dory

Tuesday, June 10th, 2014

Today was a busy day.....

First, I did a sneaky lunchtime outdoor-hot-and-sweaty-in-the-sunshine yoga/stretching/foam rolling session.

Then after work I did the following....

Swim

No sign of any ducks or dead baby frogs in scuppers, so I got down to business right away.

400 yards warm up
4 x 800 yards with pull buoy on 11:30
2 x (5 x 80 yards (descending 1-5) on 1:15), w/ 60 sec between sets
400 yards cool down

Highlights:
4 x 800s -
Set #1 - Got a bit confused (must've been day dreaming ) and I either started this first set on the 30, or I did 2 extra laps...but either way this set felt decent and came in on either ~11:06, or 11:10 for 800 yards.
Set #2 - No issues (and no day dreaming). Kept this controlled and paid attention to complete stroke. 11:10.
Set # 3 - Had some technical difficulties when the pull buoy popped out from between my legs on a flip turn, so I had to regroup, making this set my slowest even though I still felt pretty good in spite of the arms feeling the pressure. 11:15.
Set #4 - Arms were working, but cardiovascularly I was fine. 11:13.

2 x (5 x 80s) -
These were really hard. Really, really hard, actually. Arms tired and legs were shocked into having to work. :eek: But I did okay on this. All 80s came in on 67 - 60 seconds....and the pacing wasn't perfect (the descending bit), but it was decent.

Actual swim: 4,800 arm tiring yards

Bike

Hopped on The Black Cat still dripping wet and basically just spun easy for an hour. There were 5 x 5 minute segments that I used a bit more resistance, but overall this was very easy.

Actual bike: ~12 ???? miles

Kurt Godel

Dory Dory wrote: »

Set # 3 - Had some technical difficulties when the pull buoy popped out from between my legs on a flip turn, so I had to regroup, making this set my slowest even though I still felt pretty good in spite of the arms feeling the pressure. 11:15.

I love this. A variance of two seconds needs to be explained away to your legion of readers who might otherwise think you were being lazy. Every swimmer who has encountered a leaking goggle, or lazy breaststroker, or errant noodle; shares this frustration.

Oryx

I am too slow to have such issues.

griffin100

Kurt Godel wrote: »

I love this. A variance of two seconds needs to be explained away to your legion of readers who might otherwise think you were being lazy. Every swimmer who has encountered a leaking goggle, or lazy breaststroker, or errant noodle; shares this frustration.

Two secs.......you could try and be more aerodynamic. Perhaps shaving your arse legs might help :pac:

Dory Dory

griffin100 wrote: »

Two secs.......you could try and be more aerodynamic. Perhaps shaving your arse legs might help :pac:

Last I checked, my arse did not need shaving , but I do tend to shave my legs on a regular basis since I wear shorts to work everyday in the summer.

And on another note....I was unsure if my arms would still be attached to my body upon awaking this morning after last nights pull-buoy-orama! But good news...they are indeed still attached....just sore as sh*t. Honestly can't remember the last time my arms have been this sore from swimming - it's been THAT long ago. :eek::o

Dory Dory

Kurt Godel wrote: »

I love this. A variance of two seconds needs to be explained away to your legion of readers who might otherwise think you were being lazy. Every swimmer who has encountered a leaking goggle, or lazy breaststroker, or errant noodle; shares this frustration.

That explanation was primarily for the benefit on one, um, enthusiastic reader. <waves, winks and blows a kiss to interested "hi, honey!"> :D

Dory Dory

Wednesday, June 11th, 2014

Swim

A nice and easy sneaky lunchtime swim with sore shoulders and arms. But it felt nice to just glide through the water, stretching things out a bit.

Actual swim: 2,000 shake-out-the-ache sneaky lunchtime yards

&^%&^%&^%

They're BAAAA-aaack!!!! :eek::mad::o

image.jpg

Yep, this is what I came home to this evening - squatters. !!!! And they STILL haven't left!!! Ay yi yi.....

%^&%^&%^&

Run plan: 9 miles at a "very easy pace", aka 9:30 min/mile

Another hot and sticky day here, but this evening was not nearly as nasty as Monday <cringes with thoughts of that horrid run :eek:> so I wasn't worried about doing this at a nice, slow pace. I grabbed a bottle of water and a bottle of Gatorade (Fierce Grape ) on my way out to the field and set them by a tree in case I needed a swig - but I never stopped during this run as I hated to break the momentum (sometimes it's just easier to keep going) and I never got all that thirsty.

Paces were okay...I could have been a bit more disciplined I suppose, but this was a HUGE improvement over Monday's run in SO many respects. My body held up pretty well considering this was the longest run since Boston, but I will admit my legs were glad when we were nearing the 9 mile mark. From around mile 5 or 6 I had been watching a wicked storm brewing from the west, and it made its way over the Massanutten Mountain by the time I was on that final mile, which prompted me to pick it up a little to finish before all hell broke loose, thus resulting in mile 9 being faster than it should have been....but I got in the door before things came crashing down. :cool:

9:25, 9:31, 9:11, 9:08, 9:14, 9:19, 9:11, 9:25, 8:57

Actual run: 9.1 miles in 1:24:24 for an average pace of 9:16 min/mile

Kurt Godel

Oryx wrote: »

I am too slow to have such issues.

Since when did being slow stop anyone on Boards from over-analysing their training as though they were preparing for the Olympics? You're in good company here!

Dory Dory

Thursday, June 12th, 2014

I had originally planned on doing a first-ever sneaky lunchtime bike ride today, but for an assortment of reasons it was determined that the best thing for me (and my injury) was to focus on yoga and swimming today, and to focus on cycling this weekend. So, a sneaky lunchtime yoga/stretching/foam rolling session it was!!!

Swim

Pace, pace, pace.
I am trying to learn proper pacing.
As a sprinter from way back when, I never learned how to pace in the water.
I don't always pace properly when running.
I sometimes pace horribly and blow up when running.
I am trying to learn proper pacing in both running and swimming...and eventually cycling.
Tonight, I tried to practice proper pacing in the water.

400 yards easy
The following 4 sets done with no additional rest in between:
4 x 200 yards on 3:00
4 x 200 yards on 2:55
4 x 200 yards on 3:00
4 x 200 yards on 2:45
400 yards easy

Highlights and tidbits:
The first 3 sets - 4 x 200s on 3:00, 2:55, 3:00 -
Because I knew the only set in this session that really mattered (at least from my perspective) was the last set on 2:45, I approached these first 3 sets as a warmup for the 4th set. I kept things easy, conserved energy, kept a steady rhythm, and didn't fret about how close I might hit the wall to the cut off time. I just had to retain proper reserves for those four final 200s.
2:40, 2:50, 2:45, 2:45
2:45, 2:45, 2:50, 2:40
2:45, 2:50, 2:50, 2:50

Final set - 4 x 200 on 2:45 -
I figured the first 200 in this set would be manageable, and it was, but after that I was unsure if I would be able to make the cut off times. And so, from that point on it became all about upper body and oxygen - the pull buoy has reminded me how to use my energy efficiently for endurance swimming (both mentally and physically), and Sun Yang has reminded me how important it is to breathe frequently. The second 200 in this set wasn't bad, but the third one was by far the toughest.....and on that fourth and final 200 I just let it rip, staying strong and upping the kick on the final 60 yards. I did okay with this. (thank you interested for all your tips and guidance on this set - you prepared me well!)
2:40, 2:40, 2:43, 2:38

Actual swim: 4,000 yards at a pretty good pace!

interested

Hey, all I said was swim at a pace that will allow you to not slow down ! nice job though - your good with numbers ... is the average pace for 16*200 with minimal rest becoming easier / was easier than you would have expected ?

Dory Dory

interested wrote: »

Hey, all I said was swim at a pace that will allow you to not slow down ! nice job though - your good with numbers ... is the average pace for 16*200 with minimal rest becoming easier / was easier than you would have expected ?

Yes. :)

Kurt Godel

Dory Dory wrote: »

Sun Yang has reminded me how important it is to breathe frequently.

Does this mean, whenever you need a breath?

Great set above there from you Dory. I love reading your log and seeing a session like that, there's so much to learn from the few choice words you put down. Do you have any swim goals that you are focussing on at all? Any Masters time goals you want to hit?

Dory Dory

Kurt Godel wrote: »

Does this mean, whenever you need a breath?

Great set above there from you Dory. I love reading your log and seeing a session like that, there's so much to learn from the few choice words you put down. Do you have any swim goals that you are focussing on at all? Any Masters time goals you want to hit?

Aw, you've given me my smile for the day - thanks!

Regarding breathing, it's pretty typical to breathe every stroke in any kind of distance swimming - full inhale, full exhale - no need to hold that breath, your body needs oxygen, and I wouldn't wait until it tells you it needs it. !! I know you've watched Sun Yang's amazing Olympic swim two years ago, and it's a video we all can learn from...but on the lady's side, I am in awe of Katie Ledecky and her masterful Olympic swim in those same Olympics. Here's her 800 meter video of that swim....watch her breathe, watch her stroke, feel her upper body power, feel her controlled presence in the water. Brilliant swim...and she was only 15 years old.

Edit: the video below won't play on this site...but here's the link for that video to use:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JHbNKX3VkIM

And thank you for indicating that you learn something from my log. I actually always try and impart something of value (not that I always achieve that, but I do try, even if that value is merely fringe entertainment). I tend to have to hold myself back on the volume of what I write because there are some evenings I could go on and on and on about my session or how I felt or what I learned or what I screwed up....the delete key gets some pretty heavy use!!!

As far as swim goals go - honestly, no....I have no pure swim goals at this moment, nor have I even considered having any pure swim goals. However, thanks to you (yes YOU, Kurt Godel!) I am seriously giving that 2 mile open water cable swim more thought. I started "massaging" the work schedule just yesterday to see if I could finagle two weekends off in a row to accomodate that swim. Fingers crossed. Truth be told, I don't have endurance swimming confidence yet...but I'm working on it.

Oryx

If you don't have endurance swim confidence, Mrs 120k-in-a-month, what hope do the rest of us have?

Dory Dory

Oryx wrote: »

If you don't have endurance swim confidence, Mrs 120k-in-a-month, what hope do the rest of us have?

I mean from a competitive swimming standpoint. Sure, I can swim and swim and swim in my hippy dippy trippy way...but you add the element of competing with time and competitors (and the stress and pressure I can pour on myself), then I'm a bit at a loss. But I'm learning.

Oryx

I don't understand this word: competitive?

Kurt Godel

What a great video! I saw it before, but this is the first time I really "watched" it. Nothing can be said about Ledecky's swim- beyond a slack-jawed grunt of astonishment. Perfect; her hand entry remained consistent throughout. Just watch how her catch forms- thats the way its done. Adlington was kicking hard from 300m on, way too early, obvious she was spent... Thanks for posting, I really enjoyed that! (Also I'm in love with Garcia's cocky enterance walk- mmmmmmmm!;))

Onto your own log and postings... well, I was way too young to take advantage of Interested's Grand Olde Splishy-Splashy era, although I have read it retrospectively several times. Maybe we should start a petition to get him logging again- the last log was the go-to place for swim tips. Your own log has taken that space now, and even though you might backspace, you certainly know to leave the good stuff behind. I always take your advice to the pool, and its always given in such a useful and positive way. I'm delighted that I had a small part to play in your considering the OW swim. FWIW I look at your pool times with a great big red target on their back. Some day, even though I may be doomed to failure, I want to square up to you in a swim race. Competition is good!

Dory Dory

Kurt Godel wrote: »

What a great video! I saw it before, but this is the first time I really "watched" it. Nothing can be said about Ledecky's swim- beyond a slack-jawed grunt of astonishment. Perfect; her hand entry remained consistent throughout. Just watch how her catch forms- thats the way its done. Adlington was kicking hard from 300m on, way too early, obvious she was spent... Thanks for posting, I really enjoyed that! (Also I'm in love with Garcia's cocky enterance walk- mmmmmmmm!;))

Onto your own log and postings... well, I was way too young to take advantage of Interested's Grand Olde Splishy-Splashy era, although I have read it retrospectively several times. Maybe we should start a petition to get him logging again- the last log was the go-to place for swim tips. Your own log has taken that space now, and even though you might backspace, you certainly know to leave the good stuff behind. I always take your advice to the pool, and its always given in such a useful and positive way. I'm delighted that I had a small part to play in your considering the OW swim. FWIW I look at your pool times with a great big red target on their back. Some day, even though I may be doomed to failure, I want to square up to you in a swim race.Competition is good!

Sure, I'll square up with you in a race under one condition: we get to have our very own cocky, rockstar entrance to the blocks. You'll be murmuring "Garcia who?"

Regarding interested - he actually had a log???? Really?? Oh, please do share the link with me.

(and you have no idea how much I wrote, deleted, wrote, deleted, and wrote, and deleted in this post!!!!)

Dory Dory

Friday, June 13th, 2014

Run plan: 3 miles recovery....then 5 miles easy

I did the 3 miles recovery sneaky lunchtime style in the rain....followed by some of my favorite yoga moves, nice stretching, and much needed foam rolling.

Then I did the 5 miles easy post work in very comfortable evening temps. A bit cooler today, and I am quite thankful as I don't enjoy running in the heat like I used to. I did not wear my Garmin for either of these runs - I just wanted the freedom of running by feel, and it was quite lovely to do so.

Actual run: 3. 5 recovery miles in the field over lunch.....then 5.6 easy miles in the field after work

Swim

Just a slow, comfortable swim as the sun was setting in the moody sky to the west. What a wonderful way to end the day.

Actual swim: 1,000 relaxing recovery yards

Kurt Godel

Dory Dory wrote: »

Sure, I'll square up with you in a race under one condition: we get to have our very own cocky, rockstar entrance to the blocks. You'll be murmuring "Garcia who?"

Haha:D You have the beating of me straight away then, I tend to be very introspective pre-race. I'd like to be a spectator watching you fist-pump and whoop your way to the blocks! What would be your walk-out theme music?

Dory Dory wrote: »

Regarding interested - he actually had a log???? Really?? Oh, please do share the link with me.

Can't believe you haven't seen this yet! Here it is; fix yourself a nice big mug of coffee and a comfortable chair before you start reading... the most useful swim log ever!

catweazle

Interested log was terrible - his race reports used to read something like

I came out of the water in first place.........and that is all!

You would find out eventually he ended up winning a few of the races from someone in the know congratulating him. Christ you could get a novel out of my race report if I ever won one

Dory Dory

Kurt Godel wrote: »

Haha:D You have the beating of me straight away then, I tend to be very introspective pre-race. I'd like to be a spectator watching you fist-pump and whoop your way to the blocks! What would be your walk-out theme music?

I'd walk out in my solid black, tighter-than-skin Speedo Fastskin, red swim cap and white googles to this.....

Kurt Godel

Dory Dory wrote: »

I'd walk out in my solid black, tighter-than-skin Speedo Fastskin, red swim cap and white googles to this.....

Junior just walked in the office and saw this playing; now he's a White Stripes convert. The Dory influence continues...;)

Ok, when we toe the blocks together I'm gonna enter all robed and hooded like a Jedi, before casting the gown to reveal black Speedo endurance shorts struggling to contain a sucked-in gut, swedish goggles, and a freshly polished dome. Music of choice (like the music, like the message):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sol8T7S8sW4

Dory Dory

I'm wise to your game, Lard-Boy. Having me doubled over with laughter and tears streaming down my face can't distract a well honed athlete like myself who had years of conditioning in my youth via sophisticated, pre-pubescent pre-race poolside psycing-out tactics. A little jiggle and jello is nothing compared to the armpit farts and alphabet belching by a 12 year old competitor while sitting in the clerk of course waiting to swim my 50 backstroke.

(Oh, and your son has great taste in music, by the way. I can hook him up with all kinds of Jack White if he wants! :))

Dory Dory

Saturday, June 14th, 2014

Bike

This weekend will contain not one, but TWO bike rides. Whoop whoop!! Just like I've been doing with the running, I am hoping to gently up the time on the bike over these next few weeks by incorporating one or two sneaky lunchtime rides and hopefully (if time and plan allow) two rides at the weekend...and today's ride was a short prelude to tomorrow's longer one.

Gorgeous, gorgeous day out...and my goal was to try and up the cadence a smidge as the last two weekends I've been a bit lazy about shifting, which results in me falling back into my old habit of mashing. The route I cycled is quite nice as the roads are not too heavily traveled (with one exception when I'm on Route 211 for a short piece), sight lines are pretty good, there are plenty of hills and drags, and there's plenty of shade as it's heavily treed.

I probably worked this little ride harder than I had planned, but doing these rides on my own sometimes leads to me competing against the clock (sound familiar? as that's my tendency with running). I didn't wear my HR monitor, but I'm sure this ride showed a higher BPM than the previous few rides - but the disappointing thing about today's ride is my speed was not anything to write home about. In fact, the very first ride after being out with my injury was this exact route, and that ride was faster than today's. Oh well....there was some quality in today's ride, and it was time on the bike, so I guess I'm happy about that.

Actual bike: 19.1 miles in 1:08:57 for an average speed of 16.6 mph

Swim

Ehhh....not my best session, to be honest. Maybe the bike ride contributed to this....maybe working around the pool all day in the sun didn't help....maybe waiting until 7pm to get this started wasn't my best move. ??? Oh well. I guess all sessions can't be home runs.

800 yards easy
3 sets of (10 x 40 yards on 50 seconds (goal was to not blast these, but rather come in ~30-35 seconds), 2 x 200 yards on 2:45) with 2 min rest between sets
400 easy

Highlights and lowlights...
Set #1 - The 10 x 40s felt incredibly easy, and I was loving the 20 seconds of rest. Good smooth stroke, relaxed, breathing every 3, and all 40s in on 30 seconds. But immediately on the first 200 everything went to pot, and the second one was no better - 2:43, 2:45.

Set #2 - I decided to try and slow the 40s down, thinking maybe that was contributing to my slow 200s, but it's hard to slow something down that already feels slowed down. All 40s in on 30-32 seconds. My strategy on the first 200 was to slow the stroke down, and to make sure I completed the entire stroke...and this felt much better all around, but I hit the wall right at 2:45 (maybe I slowed things too much?), and ended up taking an additional 5 seconds before I started my second 200. I upped the stroke tempo just a bit on the second 200, but kept the long stroke - in on 2:40. Happy.

Set #3 - I tried to slow the 40s yet even more, but boy did the slower ones feel really s-l-o-w. All 40s in on 30-35 seconds. These last two 200s felt pretty good, to be honest...and I thought they'd be my fastest of the day, but no dice. 2:43, 2:43.

Actual swim: 3,600 yards

Dory Dory

Sunday, June 15th, 2014

Bike

Another gorgeous day here in the land of milk and honey.....so it was picture perfect for this bike ride. Because I knew this was going to be a hilly ride today (not that all my rides here in the valley aren't hilly...), I took a bit of time first to warm up on The Black Cat just to make doubly sure my injury would be a happy camper for the up and down journey ahead.

I went on a new route today - around here we like to call this route the Rileyville Loop....because, well, it's in Rileyville....and there's a loop involved. (brilliant, I know ) New roads for me with new scenery - beautiful, in a word. And lots of railroad tracks. The ride can be described as this: up, up, up, down, down, down, up, down, S turn, lovely gentle downhill, railroad tracks, up and down, railroad tracks, looooong drag, missed left turn, more ups, more downs, more railroad tracks, more S turns....then exploding thighs. Tough ride...and a bit slow in the speed, but considering all that it was, I am happy with the stats and how I did.

Actual bike: per Garmin, 34.02 miles (but I had a Garmin malfunction at the beginning of the ride (couldn't remember if I hit start, then hit start, but then wasn't sure if I actually had hit start....), so actual ride is 35+miles) in 2:08:07 for an average speed of 15.9 mph

Swim

Just a s-l-o-w swim.....the body felt heavy and the legs felt like lead. I guess it was all those hills on the bike today. And the water is too damn warm! :eek:;)

Actual swim: 2,000 end of the week aquatic yards

Dory Dory

Monday, June 16th, 2014

Run plan: 3 miles recovery.....5 miles easy

Did the 3 miles sneaky lunchtime style in the god awful skin scorching, hot, sticky, sweaty, yucky, ucky, crappy, pappy, buggy, wuggy heat and humidity. Barf. Welcome to summer. And it's not even summer yet.

Actual run: 3.5 hot and buggy field miles

Did the 5 miles easy after work, and the temps and humidity were playing ball....only because of the storm that was brewing behind the Massanutten Mountain that I could not see until I was nearly done. Yikes! Wicked thunder and lightning put the nail in the coffin to getting in a swim after the run.

Actual run: 5.6 cooler and more comfortable field miles

mossym

well done dory, good to see the bit of pedal and foot work getting back in here...

it is the tri forum after all