Today was my 20 minute swim. It was warm and lightly raining outside, which actually made for a pleasant temperature in the outdoor pool. I was equipped with my heart rate monitor, I felt good. I estimated I'd swim 16 laps = 800 meters = half a mile = triathlon swim distance. I was psyched.
It was a gruelling 20 minutes. I was never tired per-se, but I didn't even come close to swimming continuously. I kept stopping to catch my breath, then feeling better pretty quickly and getting back to it, just to feel out of breath almost immediately. I still can't figure out why I was breathing so hard. Sometimes I would swim on my back, but I felt like I was going so slow, and I would veer left and right too much.
My heart rate monitor didn't monitor my heart rate very well. Maybe the strap was moving too much, or maybe it didn't like the chlorine? When it did synch up it showed me what I suspected: my heart isn't the limiting factor; I was rarely above 150 bpm.
The whole process actually reminds me of when I started running recreationally three years ago: I would slow to a walk all the time but was never really sure why. Breathing? Boredom? I'm honestly not sure. But with practice and time came the ability to run continuously for 30, 40, more minutes. To just run and run and run, even when I don't feel like it anymore, to just tell my body to keep going as long as the body is still listening to me. Endurance is a very mental thing. I had assumed that since I have built up my running endurance to x minutes it would cross the sport divide, but I guess it doesn't.
Come to think of it, I am fighting this same endurance battle on the biking front. All the biking I've done so far is to get to or from work or errands, to get somewhere that I want to go. But now that I think about it in these terms, there's always a moment around 10 minutes into my rides where I just want to stop pedalling. I don't stop, just slow down, because I have a train to catch or some other compelling goal. But there is no such goal in the pool, just another lap to complete for no immediately apparent reason.
Wow, I feel like I've made a breakthrough in the mental game of this training. How cool! This entry didn't take the path I was planning at all, so now there's no good segue into this very important (to me) bit of information, so I'll just jump straight in:
I kept looking at my heart rate monitor's time display, wishing for the time to go both faster (so I'd be done) and slower (so I'd complete the half mile in time). With about 6 minutes to go I had 4 more laps to complete to hit that goal, so I bucked-up a bit and stopped being so lazy with my effort, and completed with five seconds to spare! I should have been elated, right? But something didn't feel right. I don't know all the statistics, but I just didn't think I should have been able to swim a half mile in 20 minutes with the truly lack-luster performance I put in.
So I went to the gym front desk on my way back to the locker room, and asked the girl there "Are we sure the pool is 25 meters?" and she said "Oh, no, it's 25 yards. We told you meters before, but I looked it up and it's yards."
There we go. I didn't swim 0.50 miles but 0.45 miles. I would have had to swim 1.6 more laps to make it to half a mile, probably taking another 2.5 minutes. I guess that isn't much difference. In fact, I'm tempted to go out there with my super-duper-mega-long measuring tape and measure that sucker myself.
The side meters have been updated appropriately.
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Fastest!
I just ran my fastest mile ever (I think)! 9 minutes, 7 seconds.
My 1 mile run time actually didn't improve as much as it appears: I sprinted my heart out at the end of today's run, but didn't on the December 1st run. Still, just the desire and motivation to do that sprint is a sign of improvement.
And I really do think that's the fastest mile I've ever run. I never ran just one mile (timed) in high school, I think, which is the last time I was in as good of shape as I am now (last year I was in better strength-shape, but I'm in better cardio-shape now). I think, though, that even back in high school I didn't care about being fast or strong, but about being good at basketball and tennis and other sports, and I didn't connect being fast with being good at those things. I wasn't a very good athlete, in other words. I kind of blame it on bad coaching, actually, though surely part of the blame is on me. That's a full rant for another day.
Tomorrow's Triathlon Training Menu: 20 minute swim. ... I'm already nervous given how tired I was after the 12 minute swim on Monday. I'm trying not to think about it or I'll be defeated before I get in the water.
| Boot Camp Tests | December 1 | December 20 |
| 1 Mile Run | 9:50 | 9:07 |
| 30 Seconds Sit-ups | 16 | 20 |
| 30 Seconds Push-ups | 25 | 26 |
My 1 mile run time actually didn't improve as much as it appears: I sprinted my heart out at the end of today's run, but didn't on the December 1st run. Still, just the desire and motivation to do that sprint is a sign of improvement.
And I really do think that's the fastest mile I've ever run. I never ran just one mile (timed) in high school, I think, which is the last time I was in as good of shape as I am now (last year I was in better strength-shape, but I'm in better cardio-shape now). I think, though, that even back in high school I didn't care about being fast or strong, but about being good at basketball and tennis and other sports, and I didn't connect being fast with being good at those things. I wasn't a very good athlete, in other words. I kind of blame it on bad coaching, actually, though surely part of the blame is on me. That's a full rant for another day.
Tomorrow's Triathlon Training Menu: 20 minute swim. ... I'm already nervous given how tired I was after the 12 minute swim on Monday. I'm trying not to think about it or I'll be defeated before I get in the water.
Monday, December 19, 2005
Triathlon Training
My triathlon training schedule is based off of this plan I found on beginnertriathlete.com, then modified slightly because the bike and run distances it was designed to train for are slightly different than my race's. Today is day 1.
So!
Today's Menu:
28 min bike
12 min swim
My commute involves 70-80 minutes of biking, broken up into two 15 minute and two 20-25 minute chunks. For today, especially because I don't have all my gym gear here with me, I'm just counting my commuting minutes as my training minutes. In general, though, I shouldn't do that because I can't get a good, focused, sustained effort in while dodging cars and stopping for traffic lights. :)
The swim was fine, though I'm still very slow. 10 laps (500 meters) in 12 min 48 sec, 39 meters per minute, 43 yards per minute. My first lap was about 50 meters per minute. I just couldn't keep that up at all. I can run and run and run, but I look like a dying sloth in the water. :)
So!
Today's Menu:
28 min bike
12 min swim
My commute involves 70-80 minutes of biking, broken up into two 15 minute and two 20-25 minute chunks. For today, especially because I don't have all my gym gear here with me, I'm just counting my commuting minutes as my training minutes. In general, though, I shouldn't do that because I can't get a good, focused, sustained effort in while dodging cars and stopping for traffic lights. :)
The swim was fine, though I'm still very slow. 10 laps (500 meters) in 12 min 48 sec, 39 meters per minute, 43 yards per minute. My first lap was about 50 meters per minute. I just couldn't keep that up at all. I can run and run and run, but I look like a dying sloth in the water. :)
Free Food
I've been working for DW since September 6th; 15 weeks so far. 15 weeks of free food. Well, and lots of other things, but we're going to talk about the free food.
People at work predictably talk about the "DW 15," referring to the number of pounds people often gain after joining the company and having access to the commissary everyday.
Over the past 15 weeks I have instead lost weight, nearly consistently, at a rate of 0.2 pounds per week. There was a blip at Thanksgiving, which almost goes without saying. But since September 6th I've lost 3 pounds. While eating as much free food as I want.
People at work predictably talk about the "DW 15," referring to the number of pounds people often gain after joining the company and having access to the commissary everyday.
Over the past 15 weeks I have instead lost weight, nearly consistently, at a rate of 0.2 pounds per week. There was a blip at Thanksgiving, which almost goes without saying. But since September 6th I've lost 3 pounds. While eating as much free food as I want.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Last night's workout
My work gym has this bootcamp class. I think I've mentioned it a thousand times already. 1.5 hours of exercise twice a week. Last night's session:
10 min of warm-up and stretching
20 min of: 30 sec stationary bike standing sprint + 30 sec treadmill sprint, repeat. This was HARD!
15 min of calisthenics like medicine ball toss and lunge walking and squats and "running mans", etc., but in a circuit training, no rest periods between exercises kind of way
20 min of running sprint drills like "suicides" and gym laps, etc.
Then, at the very end, because I'm the fastest girl in the group, the instructor challenged me to do a suicide sprint in 30 sec or less. If I didn't make it the entire class would have to do an abs workout. I gave it my all, after an hour and a half of exercise, and made it in 26 seconds!
Then I iced my knee, took a shower, and went home.
That was easily the hardest workout I've had in probably a year. Never overestimate your own ability to push yourself: I like to think that I workout hard on my own, but it's just clearly not true.
Then, at the very end, because I'm the fastest girl in the group, the instructor challenged me to do a suicide sprint in 30 sec or less. If I didn't make it the entire class would have to do an abs workout. I gave it my all, after an hour and a half of exercise, and made it in 26 seconds!
Then I iced my knee, took a shower, and went home.
That was easily the hardest workout I've had in probably a year. Never overestimate your own ability to push yourself: I like to think that I workout hard on my own, but it's just clearly not true.
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Validated and Verified
Last week I weighed myself on the fancy gym scale, then weighed myself again at home an hour later. There was a one pound difference, definitely in the noise given the hour that passed. So, I trust my scale again.
Which is good, because I'm hovering between 146 lbs and 148 lbs pretty reliably right now, and it blows me away. I'm keeping my total calories down, but the quality of those calories could definitely be better. All this exercising really is making a big difference. Whoo hoo! That said, I'd love to change the composition of my body a bit, for vanity and for the triathlon. Those 146 lbs would do me more good if 5 lbs of the fat magically transformed into muscle. And I'd still love to someday see a two or four pack on my abs.
But I've learned a few things about myself over the years. One thing is that everything comes in stages, and right now I want to be able to have a doughnut at breakfast when they serve them. But another thing I've learned is that I have to watch how much permission I give myself. I'm still tracking all my food, my weight, and my exercise. This has already told me why I still have a belly: too much refined sugar, not enough weightlifting.
So the doughnut sits next to me, saved to be a mid-morning snack with my second cup of coffee instead of the end of breakfast. I can have it, but later, and only because I have an hour and a half of bootcamp tonight.
Which is good, because I'm hovering between 146 lbs and 148 lbs pretty reliably right now, and it blows me away. I'm keeping my total calories down, but the quality of those calories could definitely be better. All this exercising really is making a big difference. Whoo hoo! That said, I'd love to change the composition of my body a bit, for vanity and for the triathlon. Those 146 lbs would do me more good if 5 lbs of the fat magically transformed into muscle. And I'd still love to someday see a two or four pack on my abs.
But I've learned a few things about myself over the years. One thing is that everything comes in stages, and right now I want to be able to have a doughnut at breakfast when they serve them. But another thing I've learned is that I have to watch how much permission I give myself. I'm still tracking all my food, my weight, and my exercise. This has already told me why I still have a belly: too much refined sugar, not enough weightlifting.
So the doughnut sits next to me, saved to be a mid-morning snack with my second cup of coffee instead of the end of breakfast. I can have it, but later, and only because I have an hour and a half of bootcamp tonight.
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