« December 2004 | Main | February 2005 »
January 31, 2005
a bad case of the mundays
Where to start, I haven’t the slightest clue. I swear as the weeks have gone by, I fee like I’ve become a worse and worse swimmer. I hate to dwell on this, but it seems to be a perpetual problem for me. Tonight felt like rock-bottom, but I know that it could/can be worse. Jeez, just need to figure out what in the hell my problem is….so much of it’s mental.
It has been the cause of so much frustration lately. It’s one of the few challenges I’ve come across in my life that I can’t seem to get it licked. Heck, I don’t even know where to start. That’s not true, I know it involves getting back in the pool, probably on my own, away from the stress. I’ve been making so many excuses lately, like signing up to play indoor soccer once a week. I try to play it off like it’ll be a good way to cross-train and break up the monotony, but I really know that it means that there one less night a week that I don’t have to think about swimming.
Back to the frustration thing, I know that no one really wants to read this crap, but I think that this will help me get my thoughts in order…I hope. I know that physically I am more than fit enough to do this swim with out much of a problem. Sure I might lack some upper body strength, but I have a good cardiovascular base to build off of. It just that the technique is killing me, and the only hang up that I can really think of is that it has to be mental. I’ve always prided myself on being able to pick up on things quickly, whether it’s in a classroom or some new activity. Never has it taken this long to “get it”, and that’s only adding to the frustration.
Bottom line, I need to put my past failures aside and start anew. It sounds easy in theory, but actually doing it another story. A few bad laps and the doubts come flooding back. Our bike/run coach offered to help out in a one-on-one or small group atmosphere, which is really cool of her. Totally beyond the call of duty. A very large part of me wants to work this out on my own, but that’s not the quickest or best solution. There goes my pride, getting in the way again. Anyone know a good sports psychologist?
Well, I thought writing about this would help, and it has, but only a little. I haven’t been able to quite get it down in words what’s bugging me. Maybe I just need to sleep on it. To add insult to injury, it’s past 11:30 and I still have to work on some homework….bless my heart.
I would have like to have told you all about the excellent time I had this weekend snowshoeing [and more importantly, hanging out with some uber cool folks] up in northern Michigan, but I’ll have to save that for a cheerier time. The immediate challenge is to not dwell on my troubles in the pool and instead keep riding the emotional high from this weekend. Maybe I should take time to remember those words from one of the most thought-provoking bands this world has ever seen, Chumbawumba.
“I get knocked down, but I get up again. You’re never going to keep me down”
Lets hope I don’t “piss the night away”. Cheers.
Posted by ksmith at 11:44 PM | Comments (1)
January 26, 2005
best run ever
…on a dreadmill. I packed my gym bag this morning expecting to run at work, after work. I got in early and was hoping to leave at a reasonable time so that I might beat some of the crowd. As usual, something kept me working a little bit later than I wanted. I won’t lie, the thought of skipping out on my run entered my mind, but I didn’t entertain it for long. Plus, I hadn’t been on a run for almost a week.
I get down to the fitness center and I was planning all day to do that increasing pace run that I’ve done a couple times in the past month. It’s something that I cribbed from Runner’s World magazine. Pretty much pick a pace to run the first mile, then knock ten seconds off of your pace for each successive mile until you’ve ran your target distance. The past couple times I’ve done it I’ve been starting at a 7:00 minute mile and going for four miles. Four miles in 27:00? Not bad. That was what I was aiming for today.
After a few warm-up laps around the indoor track, I headed for the dreadmill. True to my word, I set it for 8.6 mph, or just under a 7:00 minute mile. The first mile ticks away smoothly. The second goes by even easier at 6:50. Third mile comes and goes in 6:40, what gives? Even though I only planned to go one more mile, I knew I had at least two more in me. So when the fourth mile rolled by in 6:30, I bumped up my speed one more time to 6:20, a very quick mile by my standards. The fifth mile took a bit more work, but it didn’t give me too many fits. That was odd, last time I ran on a treadmill I totally bonked. I guess the time off helped.
One interesting note, I ran the last 5k today in 20:13, a PR, and that came after I had ran a 7:00 mile and 6:50 mile. Talk about finding a groove. Now only if I could get my swimming to come around like that.
Snowshoe race this weekend! Boo-yeah!
Posted by ksmith at 09:55 PM | Comments (0)
i've been slacking again...
…on my website. Evem though my website has been static for over a week, it’s not an accurate reflection of training. So here’s the past week and a half, all rolled up in to one post. I’ll cut to the chase.
Saturday, January 15h
Snowed like a mutha. Did stop Knight and I from heading out to Walled Lake for our group training run and ride. It wasn’t actually a ride. We camped out in a bike shop and spun on our trainers for over an hour. It was deemed to snowy to run outside, so that part was canceled. A little snow never hurt anyone ;-) Grabbed some coffee with a few people from the training session. Good times.
Sunday, January 16th
Ran four miles around town in the snow. No timing, just a nice easy pace. Very relaxing.
Monday, January 17th
It’s Monday, you know what that means….swimming. This time our coach had an evil workout planned. Swim twelve sets of 100M starting at moderate pace and build up to an all-out assault. Oh yeah, only twenty seconds rest between sets. And take your heart rate during that time. I went out to hard on my first few sets and got a side stitch, bummer. I thought I swam well though.
Tuesday, January 18th
Winter league volleyball started up with sort of an open practice. Played for about an hour and a half. Fun stuff.
Thursday, January 20th
Ran just over three miles up and down 4th street. Another easy pace. Ran it just to stay loose. The west side group was sponsoring a fund raiser at a comedy club two blocks away. Royal Oak brewery is right next door. Excellent. The local acts were okay, but the main guy had me rolling.
Saturday, January 22nd
Snowed like crazy again. Even worse than last weekend. Still, thanks to my roommates 4x4 truck, we made it there, along with five other people. To top it all off, the store owners weren’t there to let us in. Suck.
Sunday, January 23rd
I was feeling guilty about not doing anything the day before, so I threw my bike up on the stand and pedaled for an hour. Ten minute warm-up, followed by six 90 second power intervals with five minutes rest between. It whooped me good. I need to look in to getting some aero bars, and figure out why I have a slight rocking motion when I pedal.
Monday, January 24th
Ah yes swimming, my downfall. I showed up for practice in good spirits. That didn’t take long to fix. After swallowing half of the pool water during my warm-up drills, I could never seem to find a rhythm. In a moment of weakness, I cut it short. I need the practice, but I wasn’t doing anything constructive. Need to start getting in the pool more often. And getting some better tips on swimming.
Posted by ksmith at 09:53 PM | Comments (0)
January 12, 2005
not quite eight
Tried to run eight miles of the treadmill after work today at a 7:30 mpm pace. I only made it six. For some reason I couldn't get in a groove and I didn't have much energy. Even the first four miles were more of a struggle than the decreasing pace runs I did earlier. Maybe I just need some rest. Hopefully the funk doesn't last too long.
Looking forward to x-country sking this Saturday. I might even try to go downhilling on Monday. We'll see.
Posted by ksmith at 10:01 PM | Comments (0)
January 10, 2005
i'm a slacker
This is pathetic. I can't beleive I skipped swim practice because I didn't want to go. It kind of erases the four mile run that I got up early this morning to do. I need to sit down and recommit to this. I'm such a slacker.
Posted by ksmith at 10:03 PM | Comments (1)
January 09, 2005
what day off?
Sunday's are supposed to be our day off. But I've been feeling a bit lazy this weekend, so I thought I'd go for an easy run with Knight. It was three-mile-plus rout that we usually go on. Nothing special, just lots of snow. Running through some of the deeper snow was like running through sand. You don't go nearly fast enough for all the energy you put in to it. Makes for a heck of a work out. But in the end, it was just another easy run, something to keep loose. Tomorrow we swim.
Posted by ksmith at 10:19 PM | Comments (0)
January 07, 2005
spin it
Spent a half hour today after work spinning on one of the bikes at the fitness center. I set it on level 16 of 20 and did the hill workout. Nothing too tough, need to save my legs for tomorrow's bike/run brick session.
Posted by ksmith at 05:31 PM | Comments (0)
where's the run?
Showed up at 9 am today at the bike shop where we're supposed to have our training ride and run, but no one's home, bummer. Not to worry though, the weather had held up the guy that was supposed to open it up for us.
As it turns out, the weather also caused us to cancel the run as well. We made up for it with a longer than normal spin session. An hour and change if I remember correctly. Man, those power intervals are really kickin' my butt, but that's how you get better. Felt good afterward.
We also had a run clinic on how you should run. Before it was my turn on the treadmill, I already knew what was coming. You see, I tend to run more upright than most people. I don't know, it's just how my stride has developed. It works for me and I'm reasonably quick with it. I not going to overhaul it now, but some tweaks here or there wouldn't hurt either. Maybe I'll work on it some more in the future if I'm looking to shave seconds not minutes of my time. But for now, I'm comfortable with it, and the run is my strongest part.
Grabbed some coffee afterwards with some of the other chums. Good times. I was keyed in on a snow shoe race up in northern Michigan here in a few weeks. Sounds like fun...and an excuse to go sking again.
Posted by ksmith at 02:11 PM | Comments (0)
January 06, 2005
dreadmill
Checked out the "wellness" (aka, fitness) center at my new job today. It's down in the basement of some random building on our campus, but it has quite a selection of equipment. Plus it includes a 1/12 mile indoor track. Good for warm ups and cool downs. It gets to be a little to repetitious for anything else.
Before New Years I said that I need to start picking up the pace of my running. So today I hopped on the dreadmill to grind a few miles out. To get things interesting, I wore my heart monitor and decided to run at an increasing pace.
It’s real simple, pick a time to run the first mile, I chose 7:00. Then knock ten seconds off each successive mile. I ran a total of four miles, the last one in 6:30. When I was done I wasn’t totally spent, but I wasn’t as fresh as I started. I should have pushed harder.
Here are the vitals.
4.0 miles
27:00 minutes
168 bpm avg heart rate
400 calories burned
The shower was nice too, seeing how the hot water heater is broke at my place.
Posted by ksmith at 06:18 PM | Comments (0)
January 05, 2005
ski colorado
What a trip. This was one of the best vacations I’ve ever had. It even beats the RV trip this summer. I’ve always though Colorado was a beautiful state, but this time it raised the bar even higher. All I’m saying is that I’m kicking myself for not learning to ski earlier. And if you think that I was slacking on my training, then you’re in for a surprise. I don’t think I’ve ever been so physically exhausted after four days of anything.
Here’s a quick run down of the past five days or so.
Thursday
A travel day for all. I don’t think anyone made it in when they were supposed to. Some foggy weather fouled everything up. But it all worked out in the end with all 16 people arriving within about four hours of each other. Didn’t get to out house until 9:30 that night. Partied like rock stars ‘till 4am, some until 6.
Friday
Up at 8 am to catch the first day on the slopes. Hit nearby Brekenridge for the entire day. This was my first time skiing ever. Luckily Batta was in the same position, and there were a few folks willing to hang back and lend a helping hand. By the end of the day we had done a couple blues without falling to much. Topping it all off was a soak in the hot tub afterward, and some more partying.
Saturday
The plan was to ski three of the four whole days we were out there with one day of R&R thrown in. Well today was the off day, sort of. Half of us didn’t want to come down with cabin fever and decided to try some easy cross-country skiing. Easy, yeah right. Nordic skiing is a heck of a ‘total body’ workout. After close to five hours on the trails, my energy was zapped, especially my arms. Kiefer and I did do a black diamond trail, which pretty much means some steep hills to climb along with their respective docents. Climbing in skis is tough work with them sliding all around. Going down hill on cc skis is just as bad. They’re made for flat land cruising, not downhill bombing. Only took a spill twice though.
The most entertaining part of the day was when we found this double hill. You could ski down the first hill and have enough speed to carry you over the second hill, which had a good sized drop off. Perfect for getting some air….in nordic skis? I had the crash of the day. You’ll just have to watch the video for yourself. I swear it wasn’t as painful as it looked. The only thing bruised was my pride. That series of evens made be the butt of several jokes during the trip. But I have to admit, it’s pretty funny. Check it out here.
Sunday
So much for an off day yesterday. We were back out on the Breckenridge slopes by mid morning again. This time I figured I’d give snowboarding another try. It took me a while to find my feet again, but I was able to make it down some blue runs alright after lunch. As the day wound down, so did I. I fell a lot more because I didn’t have the energy to move as forcefully as I should have.
One thing I’ve noticed is that when you loose control on skis, it happens gradually. Most of the time you skid out and don’t get hurt to bad. Snowboarding on the other hand is entirely different. Sure you might start to feel the board get a little loose under your feet, but once it catches an edge you weren’t looking for, watch out. It’ll throw you against ground hard. I jacked up my elbow and tailbone that day by crashing down on some ice. By the end of the day I was ready to swear off snowboarding., but looking back it wasn’t too bad except for the last couple runs.
Monday
Didn’t feel too good the night before. I was totally exhausted and sore beyond belief. I hadn’t felt that drained since Dances with Dirt this fall. I barely had the energy to go up stairs. Ten hours of sleep helped recharge the batteries, but did nothing for the aching muscles.
Woke up at eight so I could ride with everybody over to Vail for the last day. If I hadn’t already spent $70 on the lift ticket and $20 on the skis for today, there’s no way I would have gone. I felt like total crap still. But why waste money, I decided to go for it anyway, and boy am I glad I did.
Vail was absolutely beautiful. Breckenridge blew the crap out of the local slopes here, but Vail easily trumped it. It was so open with tons of great runs despite the fact that it’s half the size of Breck. After getting my butt handed to be the day before on a snow board, I decided to give sking another whirl.
It’s tough to go back and forth between skiing and snowboarding. It’s a very different feeling. Because of that, it took me two green runs to get things figured out again and loosen up from the soreness. From there it was a nice string of blues with a few friends. We were having so much fun we skipped out on lunch. There at the end, I nailed the last five or six blue runs without taking one spill. I felt like I was starting to get the hang of it. I really liked this longer Northwood run we did, plenty of speed and some excellent views.
For the final run of the day, we headed from the top of the peak down to the village at the bottom. Most of the run was blue-rated, but there was about a 200 yard section where you could stay blue if you wanted or take a black diamond rout that was littered with moguls. Feeling confident and not wanting to pass up the opportunity, Dave and I decided to go for the black. I lost it while trying to make the first turn, but made it down the rest of the run cleanly with the exception of a bone-headed skid-out at the end. I wasn’t exactly the best example of grace. However, I didn’t manage it better than I thought.
Crazy how quick I picked skiing up. I think I’m addicted now. I’m having some serious thoughts about going out to the local hill this weekend. I know it’ll look pathetic compared to Colorado, but I still have a few more runs left in me.
Again, what a blast. I’m hoping that we can do it again next year. Look for some more pictures soon.
Posted by ksmith at 10:02 PM | Comments (0)