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Posts tagged with: swim
Jul 20, 2011    |      0 comments

Return of the Snake

Last night was our second to last swim session of the season at the Culver City Plunge. We’ve done “the snake” (where we meet on one side of the pool, swim up the lane, go under the lane line, and go down the next lane until the other end) several times before, but this time the full set was the snake! We received the swim set a few hours before we met, and it simply said, “1 x 4000”.

Did a quick 100 warmup, then treaded in the water until the start. Towards the end of my set, I could feel my technique faltering, so I kept trying to focus on the stroke follow through and hand entering the water, that my coaches keep telling me to do. I guess after a while all I want to focus on is move forward and I tend to forget. Damn! Again, I remember seeing our team swimmer elites lapping me over, and over, and over again. I ended up doing 16.5 snake laps, which equates to 3300 yards in 1:25. 20 laps give the full 4000. It gave me a good gauge of what my Vineman swim time might be, but there are more factors involved, like no pool walls to slow you down, but the wetsuit will make me faster, but then again, I never swim in a straight line either. Overall, it was a great pool session, especially seeing some 70.3ers who came back a few days after their race (hardcore!).

Jun 27, 2011    |      0 comments

Vineman Training Weekend Pt. 1

Friday
Most people will venture out to Santa Rosa for a little wine tasting, but no, not the IronTEAM, we drive up there to get a preview of what’s to come in a few weeks. We got a taste of the Vineman 70.3 and the Full Distance triathlons! Starting on Friday, I met up with some teammates in the valley and we trekked the long, scenic route up north because some of us have never been there. Pictured above was our pit stop at Big Sur. Such beautiful ocean views! I can imagine why the Big Sur International Marathon is one of the top races to do in North America. Although it was nice and scenic, the drive took about 10 hours! We were unfortunately stuck behind some slow trucks on the cliffs, then took the necessary gas/food exits, so that was pretty much day 1 until we got to the Hilton for a little debriefing of what’s to come from our coaches.

Saturday Swim
Day 2 was the main reason why we went up to Santa Rosa – to test out the course! In the morning, we did a bunch of car/bike shuffling at the high school and on to Johnson Beach, where we will be doing our swim. The coaches set up bike transition racks for our convenience, then it was off for a lovely swim in the Russian River! The “slower” swimmers got a head start (which I’m a part of). The water was amazing! I was so used to the cold, salty, & rough ocean, that this was a sweet departure. Temperature was perfect, and the best thing? It was shallow! Shallow enough to stand. It was tough at some parts because I couldn’t even extend my arm all the way (I shouldn’t anyway). It was nice to be shallow enough to see the river floor so I could get a sense of how fase (or slow) I’m going. My open water skills have improved, and my nerves are much more relaxed. We were supposed to swim the full 2.4 miles by looping from the start to the “Big Green Wall”, which I missed! I was with another teammate and we kept on swimming past it – wayyyy past it! I was wondering why no one passed me up yet? I turned around sooner on the second loop to offset my mistake, but eventually finished! Of course, I was one of the last ones out because almost all the bikes on the rack were gone!

Saturday Bike
After the swim, we had an opportunity to test out the full 112 miles on the bike! The course was two loops through the beautiful vineyards of Santa Rosa. We passed by so many wineries that it was so difficult to resist temptation to stop and get a drink! The course was exactly what people described – hot, relatively flat but rolling hills, bumpy, scenic. It was true test of endurance, but more importantly a test with my nutrition and hydration. I tried something new though – Honey Stinger Waffles. It’s very tasty, but doesn’t have much calories, which I’ll be needing. It’s best to try and fail on this new product now than on raceday! There’s a big hill towards the end, but it’s nothing compared to some of the hills we’ve conquered during training. The bumpy roads masked within the shadows of the trees was a challenge. I lost 2 water bottles because of it! Overall, I was feeling great after I eventually finished the 112 in 7:20 hours. It wasn’t painful, it wasn’t overly difficult. It’s manageable if I set up my nutrition and bike strategy well. I now know how 112 feels, so that completed my puzzle of the IronTEAM unknowns.

THEN, just when you thought it was over, we had to do a 6 mile transition RUN. Yes, a run. My legs were so heavy! I was still able to run here and there, but slower pace nonetheless. It was a preview of what’s to come, but I felt overall good about it. It’s still a little crazy to think I’ll be running 26.2 after the 112, but it’s great to know that really is within arm’s reach!

Jun 19, 2011    |      0 comments

Pier to Pier Swim

We did it! The team did a 2.4(ish) ocean swim this morning! Everyone met at the Manhattan Beach Pier, talked about the day’s schedule, then proceeded to the shore. We ran south 2 miles (in our wetsuits), and 1.5 miles (for the 70.3 team) to a little past the Hermosa Beach Pier. Luckily, the waves were tolerable enough to tackle on one try, and we had to swim far enough to the point where the water was a little calmer. If you add that, plus the zigzagging, that’s where the extra 0.4 came from. This was definitely the most challenging swim of the season. So many factors come into play – the distance 2.4 miles, or 4224 yards (that’s 169 laps in the pool!), challenge of sighting (no close buoys to help you swim in a straight line), ocean current and choppiness (it was so bad at one point, I had to stop and throw up because I was so seasick from the ocean movements). There were so many times though that my imagination would wander and think there’s sharks or other sea creatures below me ready to snatch me up! I was so far in the ocean, with NO ONE around me that it freaked the hell out of me! One more motivation to finish the swim faster – survive!

It does have its advantages over a pool workout though – no walls to stop your rhythm, the wetsuit makes you faster, and it’s closer to the real 2.4 of an event. I was considerably more confident in open water, it was a great way to practice my pull and breathing techniques. There were little bursts where I was sensing the water, and getting a better glide through it. Sure, I took some rest periods, but not as much as I used to. When the Manhattan Beach Pier came closer and closer, it just felt like it would never end! Do you ever drive to Las Vegas, and when you initially see the lights from The Strip from the freeway, you think you’re almost there, but in reality you’re still 45 minutes away? Well, that’s EXACTLY what it felt like. So close, yet so far away! I eventually made it to the shore, with no problems with the waves, and yessss, I did my little celebration dance in the water! Coach Brad even found some kelp, and as you can see from the photos above I rocked that kelp boa pretty well, don’t you think?

May 25, 2011    |      0 comments

Just Kidding

What do you do when you’re in the pool and follow the swim set, line by line? You do them… somehow a few of us thought the “Just Kidding” part was referring to the “Shuttle Race” part, not the whole 1000 to that line item. Oops, and yes, some of us did the 1000 last night at our team swim at the Culver City Plunge. By the end of the night, I thought I was off by 400 yards, when in fact, I went well above the prescribed 3050 yards. A good mistake, I guess?

Oh, and here’s a picture of me in action (I’m the one with the happy face swimcap!)

May 11, 2011    |      0 comments

3850

I did it! I completed my longest swim of the season! 3850 yards! the scheduled swim set for the intermediate swimmers was 4450 yards, so I guess I need to pick up the speed a bit, but I’m just so happy I surpassed the 2 mile mark! It was 2.1875 miles to be exact. Whew! It was a pretty slow start since I was getting back into the hang of things from my training break from food poisoning. It was around the 3rd set of 5x100s that I got into the rhythm. Again, I have to work on my bilateral breathing, or keeping my head down for a few strokes to prevent muscle fatigue on one side, or veering off a different direction. It’s still unbelievable I’m doing these kind of workouts – I keep flashing back to that very first practice where I was frustrated to even get halfway.

Apr 23, 2011    |      0 comments

Hansen Dam Open Water Swim

The last time I put on my wetsuit was my first open water ocean swim a few weeks ago in Santa Monica. Ever since then it’s only been pool swims. TNT rented the Hansen Dam in the San Fernando Valley for the LA tri teams (Eastside, Westside, and IronTEAMs) to practice. For some, it was their first time in open water. Luckily I had a few open water swims under my belt (Long Beach, Desert Tri, and Santa Monica ocean), so I was somewhat comfortable now. I did have the initial jitters because of the put excitement of it all, but hey, that’s what practice is for.

The plan was to circle the man-made lake four times going counter clockwise around 4 buoys for a total of 2000 yards. The first lap, as expected, as very rough for me as I didn’t really get a good rhythm. I also think that my wetsuit wasn’t properly tucked in, so my shoulders felt a little tight. Second lap was a little better, getting the hang of things. Most of the time, I had to keep a fresh open mind and not let distractions get to me (like the rest of my teammates more than halfway around the lap ahead of me, water getting into my goggles, swimcap getting uncomfortable), and just go with it. Once I had all that out of my mind, the last two laps seemed to go by very quickly! Sure, I zigzagged a bit, but I was happy I finished! After the swim, we changed out to do a six miler, which wasn’t too bad. It got a little hot near the end, but nothing we can’t handle.

We ended practice with a nice potluck picnic, where each team brought a certain type of food. Our IronTEAM resident baker, Holly baked up a pretty awesome Wildflower Nasty Grade themed cake, pictured above. There, our coaches went over more Wildflower specifics because this was our last weekend practice before the event. It’s gametime (soon)!!

Mar 29, 2011    |      0 comments

Snake

Tonight marked another milestone in my training! It was an hour and a half practice at the Culver City Plunge, and swam a total of 3050 yards!

What does that look like?

1×300 – Swim 100, kick 100, swim 100
1×50 – Stroke count
6×50 – One arm drill declining switch, First 50 switch every 6 strokes, next 50 5, etc
2×50 – Stroke count down
4×50 – Drills, 50 one arm, 50 hipe slap repeat
2×50 – Stroke count down, swim back dropping 2 strokes
1×50 – Stroke count each lap
2×100 – Easy first 75 then croc the tail for last 25
4×400 – Sighting 1x per lap
1×150 – Long Glides

I was 150 into the last 400, so I was short 400 yards, but we snaked for 400 yards in the end. What is a snake? We all started at the deep end of the pool, swam down the lane, go under the lap rop, swim back, and zig zag. Once we’re at the end, we got out of the pool, walked to the start again and repeat. We had to go at full effort the first loop, then the second was lower. 50 cooldown.

Yes, it was intense. Yes, it was difficult, but it was probably the best swim I’ve ever had. I was keeping up with the rest of the team, and was very aware of my technique and what I had to do to correct it. It was a bit refreshing because it was a little warm out and the water was nice and cool. I can confidently say I “got it”.

Jan 6, 2011    |      0 comments

UCLA North Pool

This morning’s swim lesson was moved to another part of UCLA, which was the North Pool. Not as nice as the Spieker Pool, but it’s the lessons that matter. My friend Petty was out sick, so it was just me and my instructor, so it was pretty much a private session. She felt that I didn’t need fins, and I was up for the challenge. You see, I never really learned how to tread in water before either, so I was a bit scared. She started me off in the shallow part of the pool, practicing with the kickboard, then towards the deeper end. Once at the end, she slowly got me to let go of the board and tread. After a rough start and few tries, I eventually got it! I practiced breathing and becoming more comfortable, as I was doing the egg beater with my legs, and waiving my arms in a circle 8 motion (stuff I learned from YouTube videos). As I bobbed up and down, and became one with the water. It wasn’t so bad after all!

Next, I moved on to backstrokes. Never did that either, so she slowly introduced more moves. I think it’s easier to do because breathing this way is better, but water does go up my nose and it did bother me a little. A few laps up and down the pool, I was confidently check off another skill I learned today! It was very productive, and I think I’ll stop these private sessions after maybe two more sessions. I’m just so happy now that I’m more comfortable in the water, and my fears of the deep end has diminished!

Dec 30, 2010    |      0 comments

I Wear Tight Shorts

One of the things I had to get over when training for a triathlon is that I have to wear tight shorts for swimming and biking. Initially, I was very uncomfortable because I’ve never worn tight shorts before. I’ve never really had to. I was warned by my roommate that yes, it will feel weird, but since everyone else is wearing the same thing, the fears will wear off, and it did. Some of the last few things I needed to get for training were more shorts. Swimming almost everyday, I needed some backup shorts, and the last time I ran in biker shorts with the extra padding, it felt really weird like I took a dump in my shorts, that I needed true triathlon shorts.

A great source for endurance sports accessories and gear is Amazon.com. I initially used it for my holiday online shopping a few weeks ago, but when I saw the benefits of great deals in combination with free shipping and no sales tax, it was a no brainer to use it again. Each of the above shorts were discounted at least $15, so I jumped on it quickly! They barely arrived earlier today, so I’m just super excited to try them on!

Dec 30, 2010    |      0 comments

Being Calm

I remember back when I was learning how to drive stick shift, I kept stalling because I would panic at stop lights, trying to get that sweet spot on the clutch. Every time I stalled, I shook my head, turned the ignition, and started again. Several tries, and I eventually got it. Trial and error, learning from my mistakes. The more calm I was, the more confident I was. I also remember times of crazy deadlines, where in high pressure situations, it was always best to take a step back, take a breath, be calm, and continue. Situation wasn’t going to change, only I could. Now take that mentality for swimming. It’s all about being calm and relaxed in the water. This morning’s semi-private session was mainly focused on just that. I was able to stick myself in the deep end and tread (with fins on for now), practiced my breathing, made sure all my fears were gone in the deep end. I was definitely more comfortable submerging myself in my exhales, then kicked up for air when I needed to. My breathing rhythm has dramatically improved, and my stroke and body position improved. In the back of my mind though, a hugh motivator, is that these classes are expensive, and I HAVE to improve, or else it’s just more $$ out of pocket. I have to keep reminding myself that I’ll be ok, and that I will eventually float. My instructor had me practicing on body rotation on the strokes, which I had a much better feel for towards the end. A little TMI, but those fins messed up my feet as I had a few cuts from all the movement. Maybe I just need to remove them next time!

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