Da swim

So I hit the pool last night. I felt alittle tight in the shoulders but pounded through the workout:

warm up:
6X100 swim
1X100 pull (this was supposed to be a kick set but 1.I hate kicking and 2.my legs were a bit tired from the long run)

3X100 Swim at 1:50 send off
3X75 IM (fly, back, breast) at 1:35
repeat 3 times

50 easy...I skipped this to get a drink and catch my breath

16X25 at :35 send off

They actually run 3 pace clocks for the different skills sets. I use the middle one. I was struggling to make the IM sets as my fly and back are horrible.

I'm it?

I jsut got this from Joe

1. Egg nog or hot chocolate? I will always go hot chocolate...except at x-mas, I will chug a glass or of the nog.
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? I am a good wrapper
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? If I had got the tree out of the attic, we do have a box of colored light that would go on it.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? nope
5. When do you put your decorations up? ummmm...yeah...that is on the to do list!
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Turkey...fo sho
7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? My parents would put a stocking at the end of our beds to open up when we work up. It always had Horlick's Malt Tablets in there. My brothers and I would much away on them....to this day we are addicted to malt...although they do not make the malt tablets anymore.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don't know. I am the youngest of 4 so I am sure one of my older siblings spoiled it for me at a young age
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Nope
10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? I'll let you know when it gets done
11. Snow! Love it or dread it? As long as the sidewalks are clear no problem with snow. Don't like the slushy messy stuff.
12. Can you ice skate? I am half Canuck...nuf said
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? This year...a forerunner 305!
14. What's the most important thing about the holidays for you? Alittle R&R with the family
15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? all the cookies
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? hummm...going to x-mas eve dinner with the family, eating too much and falling asleep on the couch so I don't have to do to church
17. What tops your tree? In theory, a star.
18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? Giving.
19. What is your favorite Christmas song? 12 days of x-mas
20. Candy canes? I can take um or leave um.
21. Favorite Christmas movie? I am from Cleveland...so it has to be The Christmas Story...filmed here. They actually turned the house into a museum.
22. What do you leave for Santa? A 1099 Tax form for taxable "charitable gifts"

60 degrees in December???

So I did get out for that long run yesterday at lunch. I can't believe that I ran in shorts and a tee shirt on 12/17 in Cleveland! Here is the break down:

2 mile warm up with the dog:
8:29, 8:25
Then by myself:
7:48, 7:42, 7:40, 7:43, 7:46, 7:44, 7:42, 7:39, 7:43, 7:44, 7:44, 2:02 for the last 0.26 miles.

13.26 miles, 1:43:57, 7:50 pace, 149 average heart rate. During the run I ate 2 gu's and had 12 oz of gaterade from the fuel belt. I felt pretty good but was ready to be done at the end.

Off to the pool tonight.

Tri One O One

Look at this: Tri One O One is a new triathlon series that features the old International Triathlon Union (ITU) distance of a 1.86 mile (3km) Swim, 80.6 mile (130km) bike and 18.6 mile (30km) run. A couple of years ago, the ITU changed their race format away from this distance. So Tri OneoOne is bring it back. Not that it means much/anything to me, but the pro's are really into this series as it has pretty good prize money and has a 'world cahmpionship' in November. I heard one of the directors speak about the race and they are REALLY bing on making it a great experience for the atheletes and their families. There are free prerace dinners and tons of swag. I think it would be a good training excursion for all you ironmen out there.

Infinit Nutrition is one of the sponsers of the race. Check them out. It is a sports drink where you can actually specify you own formulation. You fill out a survey on their site (free) about how you work out, if you bonk, etc. and they suggest formulations. I ordered some after trying it from a friend. It really rocks. Let me know what you think.

As for working out, on Friday, I did a workout with a friend in my basement where we would ride the trainer for 15 minutes then run on the treadmill for 15 minutes...then switch. We did this 3 times so 45 minutes on the bike and 45 minutes on the hamster wheel. I am not a big fan of riding indoor and I find it exponentially more difficult than riding outdoor. I have a cyclops fluid trainer and feel that to ride 20+ miles/hour is a challenge to do for any length of time.

If anyone has some tips, tricks and/or workouts to do on the trainer...I am all ears. I am really dreading it right now.

I am going to try to get in a long run here in a few minutes. It is a great day here in Cleveland...almost 60 degrees...which is going to be a record. I'll post some splits.

Learning to swim

Another post from Mr. Buckeye: This past summer was really the first year that the Mrs. and I started doing triathlons. We have been long time runners and the Mrs. is a great swimmer (struggles a bit with the bike). Well…everyone seems to have a weak link and mine is definitely the swim.

In the past, my idea of swim training for a tri was to hit the pool 3 times the 2 weeks before the race. So…pretty much no training at all. Going to the pool with the Mrs. was a painful exercise of watching her swim twice as fast as me….LITERALLY! Not to pile on myself but it is pretty bad.

I decided that this winter I was going to make a change and actually learn how to swim. The Mrs. was pretty active in a Masters Swim group and I bit the bullet and joined. I started going in early September. I was actually afraid to go the first time as I thought they would tell me I was beyond help. On my first day, I went to that far lane…oh, you know the one….lane 8 with other misfits like myself. I am not quite sure but I think in the first week I spent more time dangling off the wall wondering how the umm..errr..umm… “plus sized’ folks in my lane were kicking my ass.

I have stuck with it going 2 or 3 days a week. The coaches have been very helpful and spent some time working on my mechanics. I have come a looooooong way. For those of you in Masters group, you know that which lane you are in is really the ranking system of your skills. So here is my breakdown:

1) After 2 weeks, I moved up a lane out of the misfits..up to lane 7.
2) Lane 7 is the place for really bad swimmers (a step above the misfits). In general, they miss a lot of the cutoff times and do an incomplete workout. I spent a month here and eventually became Farmer Ted…king of the Dip Shits (a la 16 candles).
3) Lane 6. This is the first time of me actually swimming with real swimmers. Doing and completing the workouts. Hung here for a month.
4) Lane 5. My current home. I struggle to hang here, but I think that is good because it pushes me.

By no means would I consider myself a good swimmer but I have come a heck of a long way and I think it will help me in the coming year. I will never be one of the lane 1-3 sharks…..those guys and girls fly.

The work out on Monday was:

warm up: 6X100 (back, breast, fly)
kick: 300 IM (FYI I hate kicking!!!!)

2 X 200 pull
4X100 swim
do this 2 times

100 easy
75 breast
75 free

Off to the pool tonight. I try to remember the camera to snap a shot of the pool. On a side note, the grade school kids practice before we get there and it is fun to watch the kids while we stretch out. There is an 11 year old girl that bangs out 1 minute 100’s off the wall…impressive to watch.

I am out of the closet!

Ok, let me explain that a little bit. I am BuckeyeRunners’s husband and have been ‘lurking’ around ever since she started blogging way back when. That’s right…I read your posts, I leave comments, and in general pretty much keep up with everyone that is listed on the sidebar. I have been meaning to get in on the action for some time and start leaving posts…so here it is! I plan on doing this on a regular basis as Buckeye is going thru a bit of posting burn out.

As for training, I have been doing pretty well lately. For the running, I train using the Furman 3 day a week program. I know there are several of you out there that have used it with success…and I really like it. It has helped me get several PR's this year. I am planning on doing a spring marathon this year and have not started to ramp up the miles yet but I do a 13 miler every weekend just to keep the legs used to the double digit work. I got an early Christmas present of a Garmin 305 and absolutely love it. I am usually in a total rut when I run….I basically have 4 routes, 2 mile, 3 mile, 4 mile and 6 mile that all start and end at our house. To get a long run in, I do some set of loops based on these to get the miles in with stops at the house to get water and/or gaterade.

This past weekend with the trusty forerunner, I started by doing a 3 mile warm up with the dog (8:36, 8:48 little pee-pee break for the dog, 8:27) and then headed out to do the rest. I broke the rut..my goal was to randomly run where ever I felt like it until I got the rest of the miles in. I wore a fuel belt for the first time as well….loved it! It was such a nice change. I ran through many neighborhoods that I had never been in, got lost a couple of times in crazy spaghetti street neighborhoods, and had a great time. As for the splits, they were (8:15, 7:58, 7:54, 7:45, 7:51, 7:53, 7:49, 7:50, 8:10 hill, 7:50 and 3:03 for the last .4 of a mile) I was pretty happy with that. The weather was cold but I felt good and kept the pace pretty consistent.

More to come….my thoughts on swimming…