Not the Best Day Ever

Today pretty much sucked. I’ve been sick on and off for the last 3 weeks and last night it was definitely on. After my bike ride my cough just went absolutely nuts. The upside is I think I’m getting a pretty good ab workout from coughing constantly, the downside is I’m coughing constantly. I’m swimming in Las Vegas this weekend and I was starting to get worried about being able to breath right. Breathing is kind of important to the voluntarily submerged… Anyways, Heidi finally coerced me into seeing a doctor and that didn’t really make my day any better. I spent about 2 hours at the doctors office mainly in the exam room by myself waiting. The funny part was they had a picture on the wall of a pissed off looking woman waiting with her arms crossed. Someone there must have a sense of humor.


The doc figures that there is some kind of mystery respiratory sickness going on but the reason it’s kicking my ass so bad is that he’s pretty sure it’s on top of some asthma. Yay asthma :( How did I get so far in life with no one ever saying “hey, you have asthma?” I’m not real excited about this, but it does explain a few problems I’ve been having. There are a lot of days that I can’t get a full breath when I’m swimming, it just kind of gets stuck 3/4′s of the way.

The doc set me up with some gnarly cough syrup for the interim, a run of pills to try and kill my temporary respiratory ailment, and an inhaler for the more permanent respiratory problem.

I’m staying home from the gym tonight but hopefully I can swim tomorrow. I only have 3 days left to practice before my next meet.

January 20, 2009 | 2 Comments »

No Really, is This January? It Can’t Be!


rest stop in Shell Beach

Today I went out for a ride that ended up being about 33-34 miles with my friend Laurel. And yet again, it is insanely gorgeous out here on the central coast. It was hot with no clouds, my only complaint is that the weather matched with a 3 day weekend drew out basically everybody that lives in the central valley. I think there are more people from Fresno and Bakersfield in Pismo this weekend than people who actually live in Pismo.

In an effort to not get run over by giant diesel truck wielding tourists we did a variant of a ride I’ve done before but we did it backwards. I figured if we hit the coast early enough most of the people I was worried about would be asleep and hung over still. Luckily I was right. We cruised through Pismo with no problems. Before we started moving inland we turned into a Shell Beach neighborhood to check out the view. There were a ton of surfers out and the views went on forever. I didn’t want to leave but we had work to do. From there we rode along the frontage road into San Luis Obispo. We cut across the South Side of town and then took Orcutt road all the way down to where it hits Lopez Drive out towards the lake. Another 4 or 5 miles back towards town and we were home.

It was nice to have someone to ride with for a change. I’m glad Laurel is up to it every once and a while. I don’t really have any other friends locally that would have any interest in waking up early-ish for a 30+ mile bike ride. Most would look at me crazy for a minute and then change the subject.

Here’s some pictures from today’s excitement –


all the little dots in the water are surfers


my riding buddy for the day, Laurel




surfing in January, you can’t beat that


out on Ontario Road between the beach and SLO


me on the south end of San Luis Obispo


foothills and vineyards


more vineyard action


apparently bikes make me happy :)


rest stop in the Village (Arroyo Grande)


January 18, 2009 | No Comments »

This is Janaury Right?

Having grown up in Wisconsin I have a deep respect for what January is capable of. The last couple days here in California have been unbelievable hot and beautiful. We’ve seen 70′s and 80′s around here all week. This afternoon me and Heidi went and had lunch at Steamers in Pismo Beach which has some of the best views in town and some of the fanciest mediocre food money can buy. After eating we decided to go down on the sand and walk around. We probably walked 1 1/2 – 2 miles through town and out on the sand. We walked barefoot out in the water a little bit and let me tell you what… the water temperature is still based in January! We finished our walk by scaling a set of death defying stairs. We were both breathing a little hard when we finally hit the top.

Later in the day we went back (Steamers actually shares a parking lot with my gym) and spent some time at the gym. We both spent about 35-40 minutes on elliptical machines. I’m still feeling the burn a little bit.

Anyways, here’s some pictures from my day off of my cell phone… I should have some more pictures tomorrow from my bike ride that I’m planning!


the view from lunch









hiding in a rock cave type thing


the reverse view


me gusta la playa

the stairs of doom back to our car

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New USMS Event – SwimFest ’09

Source


USMS just posted its quarterly update and it covered an event coming up in May that I thought was kind of interesting. They’re launching something called SwimFest which is basically a 3 day clinic for coaches, pool swimmers, and open water/triathlete swimmers. SwimFest is open to any registered USMS swimmer regardless of ability.

It sounds like a pretty good deal. For $85 a day you get a whole bunch of attention from a deck full of coaches, under water videotaping, an event t-shirt and a free Finis snorkel. The hitch is that you need to get yourself to Texas which depending on where you are right now might cost slightly more than $85.

SwimFest is being hosted by Woodland Masters Swim Team at the Conroe Independent School District Natatorium in Shenandoah, TX from May 22nd to 24th. Day one is coaches only. Day two is an all day pool clinic. Day three is an open water/triathlete clinic.

You can read more about SwimFest here. I don’t know when USMS is going to start proactively pushing this event online, but it’s slated for a full page ad in the March/April issue of Swimmer Magazine.

I would actually dig doing something like this but I don’t think I have the time. I’m pretty sure that’s the same week Heidi graduates from nursing school and well… she would punch me in the throat if I ditched out on it to go swimming. Plus I promised a Texas state trooper that I would never come back to Texas… but that’s another story for another day that is nowhere near as exciting as it sounds. 

And in case you’ve been paying attention… Shenandoah also happens to be on the shortlist of cities for the future home office site of USMS. So this might be a bit of a dry run to see how the city and USMS work together. The other contenders to host the USMS national office include Charlotte, Indianapolis, Fort Meyers, Daytona Beach, Raleigh/Durham, and Sarasota.

January 17, 2009 | No Comments »

Is That Polar Bear Freestyling?


Source

High elbows and everything, that polar bear is legit man. I think he’s on the Canadian open water national team…

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You Don’t Have to Go Home, But You Can’t Stay Here

I didn’t get out to the pool until pretty late tonight. I think I hit the water a few minutes after 9. I had about 2500 yards planned but it wasn’t going to happen… the kids running the place get a little antsy around quarter to 10 so I had to scale it back to a 40 minute swim. I wish they were open for an extra hour but I don’t think it would benefit much more than myself. I basically did a big 1000 yard warm up, a hard set, and 500 yards of cool down.

Warm Up
400 free
100 kick
400 free
100 kick

100 fly
25 free

75 fly
50 free

50 fly
75 free

25 fly
100 free

Holy crap they’re closing right now cool down!
400 free
100 kick

2000 yards total

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Loch Ness Monster Exposed


Picture is for sale on a t-shirt at Threadless,
found via Monster-Munch.com

I stayed home tonight to get some rest and catch up on some stuff. I really want to swim tonight but my shoulder probably needs a day off anyways so it all works out. I shaved my head which was incredibly overdue and I’m working on a small web-project for a client. In the meantime I planned out a bike ride with one of my friends for Sunday which should be a good time. We did the Candy Corn Classic charity bike ride back in October and this is the first weekend that we’ve been able to ride together since then.

January 16, 2009 | No Comments »

Chugging Along…

I got a big box of goggles today at the office which I was pretty stoked about. I got kinda bored at work and started taking ill-advised cell phone camera self-portraits. I hope you guys like my work… can you believe that I am a self taught photographer :)

Tonight I did more of a distance focused workout. Most of my racing goals are shorter distance based, but I do want to get into some open water racing this year so I need to build up a tolerance for distance. This year I’m hoping to swim the mile in Fresno after Nationals, the Naples Island swim, and if I can get the time I want to do Big Shoulders in Chicago. My biggest problem with distance sets is counting… past 150 yards my mind starts drifting big time. I can’t just think about numbers, it’s impossible for me. I did a bunch of 500′s tonight and I think half were really 450′s and the others were 550′s. I’d prefer the simplicity of just swimming around the pier but people get eaten by sharks here and I don’t have a swimming buddy so I stick to the pool.

Warm Up
400 free
100 kick

4 x 500 free

4 x 50 fly/free fast

200 Cool down

2900 yards total

January 15, 2009 | No Comments »

Sticking To a Workout

One of the things I’ve been working on is writing a workout and sticking to it. During SCM season I would write some really ambitious workouts and as I went through them they would magically modify themselves until they were easier. I’ve been really good so far this month with doing every yard I have decided to do. Tonight I wrote myself a set that looked really easy on paper (8 x 50 fly), but about half way through I was really tempted to make a mid stride modification. After 4 50′s of butterfly my upper arms were getting really tight and I was breathing pretty hard. In my head I was thinking “…maybe if I just did 6, that’s still 300 yards right…” It took some convincing but I managed to talk myself into getting all the way through it. I’m glad I did. I feel really good now that I’m done. It’s really easy to get away with cheating when you don’t have a coach or workout partner to keep you on track. I think doing the blog keeps me going to the pool and tracking my yardage with Go The Distance is really helping me stay on track with my yardage.

I went to the gym with Heidi tonight so I didn’t ride the bike, I just swam. Here’s my workout:

Warm Up
400 free
100 kick

8 x 50 fly

100 kick

4 x 200 free

100 kick

100 IM
200 IM

200 Cool down

2400 yards total

January 14, 2009 | No Comments »

A Lifetime Supply of My Favorite Goggles

Traditionally I’ve always had a problem finding the right goggles for me. When I was an age grouper I was the guy with like 50 pairs stashed in his swim bag because all of them worked in practice but all of them leaked off the start during a race. Not cool. Fast forward about a decade and I have a crush on my current goggles.

I’ve been using Speedo Sengar goggles since I’ve come back to the pool (despite having a bunch of others at my disposal) and I’m really happy with them. I’ve tried other brands and styles but they never make it more than 500 yards with me. The problem is I am so happy with them that I live in constant fear of losing my only pair of goggles that haven’t fallen off or leaked in a meaningful way during a race. They’ve served me well in practice, pool races and open water swimming. They suction onto my head really well, if I give them a solid push down right before a race I’m good to go. Plus they come with a silicone strap which works really well on my shaved head.

I had no idea what they were actually called until yesterday and then found them for cheap over at SwimOutlet.com. I ordered 5 pairs of them! A bit extreme maybe, but if they stop making these things I don’t want to be left with one pair that will inevitably get lost or break eventually. I got 2 pairs mirrored, 1 pair clear and 2 pairs smoked. I’m not taking any chances!

I’m not out to sell the rest of you on my favorite pair of goggles… as a matter of fact I’d probably be happier if nobody else liked them and I could scoop up even more of them for cheap in clearance bins… I just want to remind you that it’s never a bad idea to have backups of your favorite swim stuff because it does go out of style and production. Especially if you’re a fan or a brand that’s threatening to pull out of swimming altogether.

Anyways… back to exercise and stuff :) Tonight was a dryland kind of night. I got to the gym really late and didn’t have enough time to swim. Instead I plugged in the iPod, hopped on the elliptical and worked on that until they started kicking people out. I don’t know what it is about the elliptical machine but it kicks my ass everytime. Tomorrow I should be back in the pool.
January 13, 2009 | No Comments »
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