Over the weekend we had weather in the low 40’s which not only melted most of the snow left on the ground, but also let me break out shorts for my run on Sunday.  It was actually pleasant enough out that Jennie and I were able to walk up to Big Bob’s Pizza in Gaslight Village to have lunch with her brother, his fiancé, and his room mate.

So much for our heat wave.  Today was back down in the 20’s with a single digit feels like temperature.  As I sat in my office, I was dreading my run as I watched the wind blow the snow all over the place.  I sucked it up and headed out around 4:00.  Even though it was still light out, I decided to go with the reflective gear because the blowing snow as reducing visibility and I didn’t want to become someone’s hood ornament.

It was slow going – especially into the wind – but it was a relatively good run. 

On top of running, I did a long swim today.  For my workout, I did:

800 yard warm up
3×300 yards (30 second rest)
200 yard kick
3×200 yards (30 second rest)
200 yard kick
3×100 yards pull (20 second rest)
100 yard cool down
3100 yards total

I stayed almost perfectly consistent on all of the intervals (5:10 for the 300’s, 3:30 for the 200’s, and 1:40 for the 100’s)which was the goal. 

Also, at the pool, I had a “small world” moment.  I found out that the husband of one of the women I swim with works at the same company as Jennie.  We are both regulars and see each other two to three times a week and chat while we wait for the lifeguards to get ready and didn’t realize it until today.  It is amazing how we are all connected in some way or anther.

As for my strength training, it is progressing nicely.  I absolutely love my new weights.  I am still hoping to find some good strength routines to mix things up though.  For now, I have just been doing a set from the 12 Week Triathlete book.  It takes me about 25-30 minutes to go through and I feel so good after doing it.

On the non running front, Jennie and I cleaned and repopulated our aquarium.  It turned out to be a pretty big project because I neglected cleaning it for so long.  We still need to get some new plants to replace ones that didn’t make it through the cleaning and I have to build a new hood because the old one finally bit the dust, but here it is.

Kind of hard to see all the fish, but there are: 4 Giant Danios, 4 Red Velvet Swordtails, 5 Tiger Barbs, and 1 Pelco (Algae Eater).  I will hopefully do a better job at preventive maintenance so it doesn’t get so bad this time.

I arrived at the pool today at my normal time for my 11:30 swim.  A few of the regulars and I jumped right in and began swimming.  As I swam, I noticed a few wanders along the pool deck.  Newbies.  Resolutioners.  Unsure of what the next step should be, they walked back and forth in their baggy suits that no doubt still had the scent of sand from their last trip to the beach.  A few would hesitantly approach a lane and timidly stand at the edge hoping someone would stop so that could ask if they could share a lane.  The bolder ones would dangle their feet over the edge of the pool hoping to get the attention of a fellow swimmer.  And still others took a seat in the bleachers and simply waited for a lane to open.

After the swim, a couple guys in the locker room were talking about all the additional people at the pool lately.  They were all wondering how long the resolutioners – the people swimming because they made improving their health a New Year’s resolution – would last.  It reminded me of Shawshank Redemption.  You may remember the scene.  The one where the new prisoners are arriving.  Morgan Freeman’s character, Red, and the other prisoners are taking bets on which new prisoner will be the first to break down.  Now, no one was placing actual bets, but most everyone agreed that it would be back to normal by February.

Don’t get me wrong.  I hold no ill will towards the newbies.  I’d love to see them all keep up swimming – the more the merrier (unless it turns into this or this).  And I am sure I was the same way when I started to swim 2 years ago.  But still, I find it amusing to watch.

Any ways, I had a great 2500 yard swim today.  My workout was:

6 x 75 warm up
1 x 400 pull
1 x 300
1 x 200 pull
1 x 100
1 x 300 kick
1 x 300
6 x 75 (50 free, 25 back) cool down

After my swim, I did a 6 mile speed workout.  I started off with a mile and a half warm up followed by 5 x 800 with 400 active recovery and then a warm down to round it out.  My 800 intervals came in at 3:31, 3:25, 3:24, 3:23, and 3:12 and overall I had a 7:47 pace for the entire run.  After the last interval, I had a coughing fit that almost made me puke.  As disgusting as it may sound, it felt great. 

"A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more."

-Steve Prefontaine

I had my best day of workouts since the marathon today.  It really took a lot out of me though and now I am exhausted. 

It started out with a swim this morning.  I did a speed workout from my book.  It was a total of 2900 yards.  The warm up alone was 800 yards.  Good Lord.  I remember when my entire swim was 800 yards.  After the warm up, it was a series of 7 200’s followed by 10×50yds.  I did the 200’s at a better pace than I expected: 3:21, 3:23, 3:26, 3:27, 3:24, 3:33, 3:33 which equals out to between a 1:40 – 1:46 per 100 yards.  The last couple of intervals really took a lot out of me and struggled to get through them. The 10×50 yards weren’t as bad, but I started to feel my calf cramp up on the 7th one.  So, I took it really slow for the last 3 to let it rest.  Overall, it was a great swim and one of the harder workouts I have had in the pool in a while.

I followed up the swim with a run this afternoon.  As I planned yesterday, I did an 8 mile out and back route.  This was my longest run since the marathon and I was worried that my hamstring would act up on me.  Luckily it didn’t.  I knocked out the 8 miles in 1:05 for just over an 8:00 min/mile pace.  It was also a good mental run to do the longer out and back rather than the shorter loop that I usually do. 

I think I am going to try and add a couple of speed workouts into my running the next couple of weeks.  There is a Thanksgiving Day 5k that I might do and I would love to go under 20:00 (which I haven’t done since high school).  I think I could do it if I put the effort into focusing on speed rather than distance a couple days a week.

That’s all for now.  I have to try and get some more work done before I fall asleep on my keyboard.

I have officially passed 100 miles swimming this year.  It only took me 63 hours and 26 minutes.  Actually, I passed the 100 mile mark a couple days ago, but apparently the Buckeye Outdoors website doesn’t do conversion from yards to miles very well.  According to them, 185,882 yards is equal to 99 miles.  It is actually 105 miles, so there must be a rounding error somewhere.  The math geek in me wants to figure out where the problem is and let Buckeye Outdoors know about the error, but the procrastinator in me is going to put that off until later.

Nevertheless, 185,882 yards over the course of 99 swims averages out to better than a mile per swim.  I’m pretty amazed the average is so high being as I didn’t start swimming a full mile at a time until earlier this year.  I started swimming just a year and half ago, barely making it 4 lengths before needing a break.  I eventually worked my way up to 20 lengths (500 yards) and then to a half mile.  Not long after that, I felt ambitious and took on a full mile.  Now, I do at least a mile each visit, although most of my workouts are around 2500 yards.

Most importantly though, I am really enjoying swimming.  I started out swimming simply so I could finish a triathlon.  I did it because I had to.  I didn’t love it, I simply got through it.  Now, I look forward to my Monday, Wednesday, and Friday lunchtime swims.   It is fun to see improvement.

Obligatory math geek joke… (apologies)

 Courtesy of XKCD

Today’s workouts were all about increased drag coefficients; both in my swim and my run.

First, the swim.

My saga to get a new swimsuit is hopefully coming to a close.  I ordered a new suit online about a month ago, however it was backordered.  After being promised that it would ship as soon as they got more, I held out hope that it would still arrive in a decent amount of time.  After 3 weeks, I gave up hope, canceled the order and ordered a different suit.  That one has already shipped and should arrive anytime.  However, today I wore my swim trunks rather than my jammer out of fear that the final threads in my current suit would finally give way, leading to an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction.

I can’t believe how much slower I was wearing a baggy suit.  My 300 yard intervals were nearly a minute slower than they usually are!  I suppose that it is making me work harder, but it just made me feel sluggish.  It was sort of mentally defeating to be so much slower, but I survived.  My shoulder, which has been giving me off and on problems, didn’t bother me much, so I can look to that as a positive from the workout.

On to the run. 

I headed out this afternoon when there was a slight break in the weather.  In case you aren’t from the area, we have been having some crazy weather the past couple days.  Fall is starting with a bang.  Temperatures have dipped into the 50s.  Then, throw in a cold rain coupled with winds gusting up to 50 mph and you know what we are dealing with.  The first 4 or so miles of the run were mostly dry with the rain picking up a bit after that.  By the end though, it was really pouring.  By the time I got home, I was soaked through and through.  I actually weighed myself in my wet clothes and sans wet clothes.  The difference was a full 5 pounds.  That’s almost like running with weights.

Overall, it was a great run.  I really don’t mind running in the rain all that much.  However, a warm spring rain is preferable to a cold fall rain.  Nevertheless, I made the best of it.  It was a very consistent run over the 10 miles with all of my mile splits falling within a 20 second window (fastest: 7:53, slowest: 8:13) for an average of an 8:01 pace. I also had a slight negative split; second half 20 seconds fastest than the first – I’ll take that any day.

Overall, two great workouts to start the week.  We’ll see how my bike training goes now that the weather has turned.  Perhaps I’ll have to move the bike onto the trainer, but we’ll see.

Finally, as I mentioned, fall is upon us, so I leave you with this, courtesy of Pure Michigan.  Enjoy.

In case you don’t recognize the narrator, it is Tim Allen; star of the 90’s sitcom
Home Improvement and native Michigander