Epic Battle : Mind vs. Legs

A week or so ago I sent out this tweet

Handed out a beating this afternoon. My legs will learn to be seen by not heard!
— Jeremy Solt (@couchtowhatever) August 11, 2013

That was Sunday, I showed them! Mind over wimpy neglected legs! The following day I took it easy, a couple of hours of not-super-intense riding. The following day I dished out another helping of "make yourself better" at a time-trial where I had a decent showing.

Two days off, I like these guys, they like to party.

Friday (Bring the Party!)

I do a new set for me
8x
  20 seconds 100% effort
  10 seconds coast.

Me: How do you like me now!
Legs: ...looking into unionizing...

20 minutes later
Same set.

I'll admit, this was a taxing ride. It wasn't just my legs who didn't want to be a part of that workout anymore. This was really the first time they had put up any sort of fuss beyond getting tired. They were sore.

Saturday

Head out for a swim workout.

Coach: Hey you should do the hard workout today
Me: Uhh, looks ok on paper

I also hear the coach convince another guy to level up for the day, he gives a much more enthusiastic response.

20 minutes later

Coach: Don't pay attention to the other guy, he went to do the easier set
Me: Wha? Huff -- puff
Legs: How are you enjoying the cramping in you calves...and quads
Me: I can deal, SUCK IT!

25 minutes later

Coach: Last set of sprints. OFF THE BLOCKS!!
Me: Where's the ladder? My legs don't work

First Sprint

Me: Goooooo!

Legs: SUCK ON THIS!
Me: GHAAAAA!!!!

Worst cramps ever

As soon as I hit the water on the very first sprint both calves cramped up like I had never experienced. I waited till the people were past and then lumbered out of the water like a sick walrus. Here's where I also mention there is an audience of about 50 high school aged girls watching on, waiting for their own swim practice to start. Lots of stares, and not the kind all the high school boys are hoping for. The coach came over and applied enough pressure to the bottom of my feet get my calves to stop flexing, and I missed the second two sprints. Unbelievable pain.

Next day

Legs: How do you like me now??

The next day was pretty painful to walk around. It was my daughters' combined birthday party though, so I made an effort to get into the bounce house. Much to my surprise it wasn't that bad. Walking was a chore, and my muscles were sore to touch.

So here I am two days later. We're back on talking terms. I've done a mid-level run, some mid-level swimming and some biking. Much to my surprise my legs only really bother me when I'm sitting or walking. They feel fine when I'm swim/bike/running. I'm hoping to be feeling good on Saturday for the last race of the year for me.

Drinking water and swimming

A while back a high school friend on Facebook posted something about the 21 most annoying things for swimmers. One of them was this

From: tumblr

So, I've been swimming since I was 7 or something. And now I'm 35, and I can honestly say that water is not part of my swimming routine. And honestly, it's not part of most people's. When I got to my master's swimming workouts there are not many water bottles there.

But still, it got me thinking. I am pretty psychotic about my water. I sweat A LOT!

After every run, and for the sake of saying it I mean any run that is a workout, I drink water immediately after. For any training run when it's more than 90 degrees I take water with me. For any run longer than 40 minutes in hotter than 80 I take water with me. And for any run longer than an hour I take water with me.

For every single bike ride, period. I take water with me.

So I'm not sure why in 28 years of swimming I haven't gotten in the practice of taking water to a swimming workout has got me pondering. To put an end to the pondering, I just took some water to swimming a few times. And, not too surprisingly, it's hard to remember to take a drink. Also let me break down the latest swimming adventure.

400 warm-up
I could have taken a drink after this, but let's be honest, it seems a little silly.

4x100 kick @ 1:55
I'm no kicking stud, so this is really a 400 straight for me. No drinking.

4x100 drill/swim @ 1:40
Good place for water after this. Not before, because the lane mates don't care I suck at kicking.

4x100 choice @ 1:35
Good place to take a drink after this, but I miss it.

7x300 free @ 4:20
It pretty much sucks for me to see 2,100 yards in a single set of 300s, so I get a little psyched out. Though, honestly I should be able to make these right around 4:00 pretty easily. The people in front of me are lane vets (I just moved up) so they plan on coming in around 3:50, too bad for me I fall for it and end up keeping up for the first two, then (thankfully) slowly fade away. The side effect of that is that during my 15 seconds of rest I just pant. The last thing I want to do is put water in my mouth and try to breath through my nose during my rest time. I steal a swig at the start of the fifth one (which I just turned into a 250) in an effort to look more than just lazy, because missing a 50 for water is WAY more acceptable.

100 cool down
"Waters all around!" Except all I can think about is not moving. I'm tired, and it's time to go to work.

So there you have it. If you see me swimming and I have a water bottle that doing more than holding the pool deck in place then I've figured out how to drink water and swim at the same time. Otherwise, I too, do not understand why a swimmer needs water while swimming :)

Meet Review : Hopkins Spring Splash

This meet was the first swimming meet I've done since I was a senior in high school. I wish I knew my times from back then, but I don't. I know I was faster, but I'm not sure by how much.

The primary motivation for this meet was because my kids had recently done their first meet and my wife and I thought it would be fun for them to see me swim in a meet too.

I really had no idea what to expect. So I signed up for my two "go to" events, 50 free and 100 free and also signed up for 50 back so my daughter could see me doing backstroke (or painting the ceiling as they call it at her swimming lessons.)

I can only assume my wife thinks of this as the money shot. She was cat calling as I walked down the steps to warm up

Mens 50 Yard Backstroke
Seed - :30
Actual - :30.86

First in my age group
Second overall

Since I knew I'd be doing some backstroke I probably should have been doing more in practice, but I hadn't. So I did my practice in warm up. I figured I needed to flip about 2.5 strokes in from the flags. I did that, and it was too early. I flipped over and .... glide .... flip turn. Also, I'm not actually too sure how much faster I could have gone. Unlike freestyle I don't have a good feel for backstroke so I can't tell how efficient my stroke was. While I was going I felt like I was going along well, but when I finished I was disappointed with my time.

Top 5 Overall
30.49
30.86
31.98
33.35
36.41

You may think I'm in there alone, but there are actually two others in the pool with me - this is the first 25, so it wasn't a super close race

Mens 50 Yard Freestyle
Seed - :28
Actual: :24.85

Second in my age group
Third overall

My goggles came off - which was disorienting. Also it meant that I was basically blind. I had no idea where people were or a very good idea of where I was. I coasted in the first wall did a fairly gentle flip and sort of coasted into the second wall. I was disappointed. I probably could have shaved a quarter second off without all that hesitation.

Top 5 Overall
23.42
24.60 (Pro Triathlete)
24.85
24.86 <-- This guy was in my heat
25.66

Mens 100 Yard Freestyle
Seed - :58
Actual - :55.28

First in my age group
Second overall

In my heat I wasn't even seeded high, two or three guys ahead of me. When I hit the first wall I could see that I was clearly winning. Two thoughts ran through my head - first I had taken it out way too fast and I wasn't going to be able to hold it. Or two, I had clearly seed myself too slowly. To be honest though, a 100 is basically a sprint, so it shouldn't really be possible to take it out too fast, so that was fleeting.

The only downside to this race was the second wall, I came in way too close and wasn't able to ball up tight enough on the flip to get a good push. So I pushed super deep, and dolphin-kicked to the top.

Also of note about this race, my wife got a video of the entire thing. Believe it or not, this is actually the only video of me racing I can remember seeing. And only the second time I've seen video of me swimming at all. When I was in high school there was a kid who said he had video of me racing from many years prior (before we knew each other,) but I never got a chance to see it.

Top 5 Overall
54.88
55.28
56.80
57.41
57.87
 
Overall
It was fun to be at a swimming meet and do something where it's way easier to place top 10 than it is to place top 300.

The day of the meet my wife had asked about making sure to get some food. At that point it occurred to me that swimming isn't really an endurance sport. I mean it can be, but in general races are much shorter than in other sports.

Let's put this in context. We got there are 5ish, I got in the water to warm up probably around 5:30

This is apparently my pre-"get in the water" stance where I act like I'm about to do some sort of polar plunge.

 warmed up 5 or 10 minutes

If you look really closely you can see my little head down there. The kids are coming to say hello during warm-up

And then swam three races of the course of three hours. So, for me, total time in the water over the course of four hours - 10 minutes. Less than 2 minutes of racing.

On the other hand, the shortest triathlon I've ever done took just over an hour. The longest was pushing three hours, and this year I'll probably do one or two that will approach 6 hours. I have to admit though, after not really knowing what it meant for many years, I am a sprinter at heart, even 55 seconds seemed like too long on Saturday :)