Thursday, January 21, 2010

Welcome to Hell...

That could best describe my swim workout. Last night I flaked to get some quality time in with my sis, so tonight I was determined to make myself suffer. I slept through my alarm so no doubles. I drove out to the Plainville Y after dinner and just made myself determined to throw down big yards at a ludicrous speed...yes that's right Mel Brooks Fans Ludicrous Speed! Plainville has a smaller pool than Waterbury (4 lanes instead of 6) and I ended up having to split mine most of the night. For the last half of my warm up I was splitting with a 10 year old who was cranking out laps at a surprisingly good clip seriously the girl had talent. And at the end of the night I was in with a newbie tri guy. A few of the Plainville tri club who had seen me before knew who I was ( one of my first nights there I got asked if I was a pro. Seriously I maybe fast in the water but once I transition to that bike ....it also led to me being that M-dot guy....seriously I must be having self esteem issues because I normally never mention my Ironmans unless someone happens to notice my inside out finisher's towel. And this year I've probably spouted off about it 20 times. seriously I've just got to hide it.) Alright but enough of all that my grand total for the night was 5400 yards. Except for a little tightness in the shoulder I felt pretty good. My main set was 4x500 on 7:00 I was finishing most of them on 6:35. I seriously felt smooth and invincible in the water for the first time in a while. HEAT is having a 1000 yard time trial and I might seriously do it. I need some competition.

Likewise one of the local tri clubs is running a free half marathon for members of HEAT, Shoreline Sharks and Team Mossman, and local invited runners. Last year HEAT swept the top three and the winner threw down a 1:22. It's at the end of March so I'm hoping with a little more training that I can throw down a sub 1:30 split because I mean if I'm cranking out 1:34 as a split in a full marathon 1:29's gotta be cake. So I have some competition to drive me. The swim challenge, the 1000 TT, and the half mary and all are the grand total of free....and I thought I wasn't going to race this year.

Getting pumped.
R.D.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Swim Focus: If I can't go to New Zealand this is the next best thing.

Well everyone's seen the ridiculous yardage I've been cranking out in the last few weeks. There's good reason , the HEAT tri club is doing a virtual swim around New Zealand's North Island. Well I figured this competition was right up my alley because it involves my two favorite things, swimming and New Zealand. And since the Ironman was not in the cards this is the next best thing.
Needless to say the total distance around the North Island is 1200 miles and the guys have decided to break the race into 12x100 mile sections. Everyone records their swim yards for the week until the leaders finish 100 miles then the scale gets reset. Not sure if they're running any prizes per section or for the total shabang, but just being able to toss up some numbers and get some braging rights has been good motivation to get out the door and pound out the yards. Currently I'm in 3rd place ( about 30 miles back as I started in December and the rest of the crew began in November. Also one guy is at a swim camp so he's tearing out yards I've haven't put up since 2005 when I was trying to do the whole college swimmer thing.) Needless to say Segment 2 is coming up and I'm already considered a favorite so I better not disappoint.

On the running I'm starting to work my way back into it I'm not in my usual high mileage mode but I am starting to get back into my consistent 3 runs a week. The New shoes have definitely helped with that. As now I can push myself and not have to worry about equipment failure. Cycling I left the bike in storage as I'm in a "complicated living situation" at the moment, which is sort of fueling me to get my act together quickly, and make decisions on what I should do with the rest of my life, although I'm hoping to get out and do a "Freeze you beans" ride in February.

Well all that said and done I'm off to the pool to take advantage of a work free afternoon.

Lord of the Lane lines.
R.D.