The Tools (Part Deux)

Masters Swimming

Look out Michael Phelps…. Don’t let the name of the class fool you. I am by no means a “master swimmer.” My first day back on Jan 9th, I fell somewhere between a wounded sea lion and my dog Tucker in the water. Here is a video from the first day...





Over the past couple of months, I’ve gotten a good bit better. I feel like I have improved “streamlining” my body. Now, when I breathe I’m not sucking in half a cup of water and my overall comfort in the water has gotten better.

The group ( http://www.magiccitymasters.org/ ) is currently about 10-20 people who get together at the Mt. Brook Y three mornings a week. We have a “coach” who puts together our swim sets (warm-ups, drills, kick sets, pull sets, and main sets) for each day. He’s a really cool guy who will spend time with you and offer suggestions. My first week, he spent more time than I would have imagined critiquing my form and giving me pointers. There are all different levels of swimmers in the group. I am a “stingray” which is the beginner group. The levels progress through the sea life ranks from Stingrays to Barracudas, Porpoises, Dolphins, & ultimately Sharks. One of the coolest things about this group is that no one cares if you can’t do the entire set, or you are slow, or you flail around like a piece of seaweed just touched you. If you want to swim and have the opportunity to join a swim group like this, I highly recommend it.

My biggest goal with swimming now is endurance. I know that I can go about 300m without stopping. In my opinion, that’s not too shabby for a beginner. The only problem is that I’m pretty beat after that. I need to be more efficient in the water so I can save some strength for the bike & run segments.

I didn’t swim at all last week after the marathon and could definitely tell when I got done this past Monday. It’s been a little rough getting into a groove this week. I cut today’s workout pretty short. I didn’t stay for the main set which would have been another 1000m. Not all at once, split up in 250m segments. Here is what I did do:

Warm-Up- 200m
Drills- 100m (25m each: fingertip, over rotate, single arm(r), single arm(l))
Pulls- 4x75m (300m) descend 1-4 (means that you get faster with each set)
Kicks- 8x50 (400m) 4 each of free style kick & butterfly kick
Cool Down- 150m
Total- 1250m

I’m not going to be able to be there Friday morning, but on Monday, I’m going to do everything I can to force myself into a groove.

The Tools

Support

Training for these races will no doubt be one of the more difficult things I’ve done. Staying focused will be difficult while trying to balance Heather, the baby on the way, work, the house, and umpteen other things. I’m hoping to use this blog as a way to hold myself accountable. I’ll try to update it each day (or at least a couple times each week) with a quick training log entry and probably some random and not so random thoughts.

Heather has been extremely understanding of all that has gone into me starting to train. My family and friends are always supportive. (cue cheesy music from a family tv show) They are always there to encourage me and motivate me to do my best. When I am having a case of the blah’s, they are there to sympathize, let me have a pity party or tell me to quit bitchin. I hope everyone knows how greatly I appreciate all that you do.

My buddy Jason (IM finisher from previous post) is going to kinda coach me through this first year. He’s been an awesome source of info. Hopefully he hasn’t gotten too tired of all my questions yet. He’s going to help me create a suitable training plan. You can find hundreds of plans on the internet, but they can be a little generic and BOOORRRINNGG.

My buddy Jeff (fellow marathoner from Mercedes post) has been another great source of information. He’s completed 8 marathons now and has been there to answer all my random questions as they came to me at work. We are going to do an Ironman together one day. Jeff has also made huge strides in his personal goals. You can check out his story at http://harperfitness.blogspot.com/. Since he started running marathons, he has dropped 60 lbs. That kind of “transformation” is very admirable and inspiring.

I’m not sure when I’ll be able to update next because my sister is having their little girl sometime tomorrow and we are heading that way to see them. I’ll try get back on sometime Friday or this weekend. Have a great weekend!

The First Race

So, I completed my first race this past weekend…The Mercedes ½ Marathon. It rocked. Since I wasn’t able to do much training, my goal was to finish in under 3hrs (avg 13m 45s per mile). There was such a diverse group of people out there. Everyone was cheering and smiling. The amount of spandex out there was a little disturbing though. Here is how the day went..
4:00- Rolled out of bed, ate some hot pockets, took a couple Aleve, got ready, and headed downtown.
6:00-Parked and hung out for a bit waiting on Jeff to get there. A little miffed b/c I realized I left my knee strap at home
6:30-Headed to the start area




ME

Jeff
7:10-And we are off
Mile 1 seemed to drag, but I was ahead of my pace (12:02.25).
Miles 2 (11:08.25) and 3 (12:53.51) I’m feeling like I can go forever.
Mile 4 (14:02.10)…pee break.
Mile 5 (12:38.61) I got to see Heather in front of the Alys Stephens Center. If you haven’t ever heard my MH hoot ‘n holler, you are missing out. I heard her as soon as I rounded the corner and it brought a huge smile to my face. After a quick kiss, I was off.
Mile 6 (12:50.92) My pace started to slow a little. My knee was aching a bit, but luckily, I got to see Heather again in front of UAB Highlands. She gave me my knee strap so I took a quick 30secs to put it on. It definitely made a huge difference.
Mile 7 (16:42.02) Next time you drive on 11th Ave from UAB to Southside, pay attention to the grade. It is a long and steady slope, so I walked most of this
Mile 8 & 9 (26:27.85) I missed a marker somewhere so I don’t have a split for each mile, just the 2 mile stretch. Oh, and FYI, the firemen at the Fire Station on Highland need to put the flames on their pants out b/c they are liars…it so wasn’t all downhill from there.
Mile 10 (15:00.58) I had to switch b/t walking and running a good bit. My ankles and feet were pretty pissed to still be moving.
Mile 11 (13:40.89) I started to worry that I wasn’t going to stay below 3hrs so I picked up the pace a little more. Would have been faster, but I slowed down to drink the cup of beer that those blessed people were passing out. If by some chance you are reading this…Thank You!
Mile 12 (15:22.37) So now all the joints in my legs are griping. Walked for a bit and talked with another guy whose knee was about to burst.
Mile 13.1 (11:20.78) Decided to tough it out. For some reason, I kept thinking about the scene from The Replacements when they are about to run the last play to win the big game and in the huddle, Keanu Reeves’ character (Shane Falco) tells his teammates “Pain heals, chicks dig scars, glory lasts forever…”. With that as my motivation, I just looked down at the pavement and ran. I knew if I looked ahead, all I would do was look at the street signs and wish I was one block closer. I rounded the corner onto Park Place from 20th and new I’d be looking at the finish line after I took the next right. I could hear the crowds of people. The weird thing is that for those last few strides, the aching stopped. I looked up at the clock and saw that I was going to be done in under 3hrs (2hrs 55mins 12sec avg of 13:23 per mile). I crossed the finish line, got my medal and looked around for MH. If you haven’t ever done anything like this, I highly recommend it. Finishing was one of the coolest feelings. All along the course, people are cheering for you. It makes such a huge difference.

We had decided that after I finished the half, we would go back on the race route and catch my buddy Jeff finishing up the full marathon. We went back around to Avondale and were invited to sit with a family in their front yard. They were very nice people. After a while, we saw Jeff coming down the road. Heather started snapping pics (Toni you would be proud). Once he rounded the corner, I got out there and ran a couple of blocks with him. I could hear my feet going “What the hell do think you are doing? We’re done dude!”. I wished Jeff well and we were on our way. The rest of the day consisted of me laying on the couch with two bags of frozen peas alternating from my knees to my ankles. Thanks for taking such good care of me babe!

(I'll upload more pics later)

Well, I did it...

I joined the blogging world. I'll keep everyone up to date with my progress and training. What training you ask? Keep reading.

So, after several years (pretty much since high school graduation) of doing nothing healthy for my body, I’ve decided to take action. Depending on what you view as a correct weight, I’m anywhere from 50-90lbs overweight. My ideal weight would be around 200lbs. Don’t get me wrong, I’d definitely be happy with under 200 (maybe somewhere around 180ish). I’ve been trying to figure out what I wanted to do to for about the past year. I did the whole weight training bit but couldn’t really pin down a solid cardio plan. I thought about trying to play soccer again, but not having played organized soccer since intramurals at Auburn I would hazard to guess that my “touch” has gone to the crapper. I thought about doing marathons, but I fear that I would get bored just running. Then, the more I thought about it, the more triathlons seemed to fit the bill…

Triathlons are made up of three things you loved to do as kid: swim, bike, and run. When I was young, I rode my bike every single day it seems and who didn’t like swimming and running around care free.

I set my goals for the races. I could shoot to finish in the top 3 in my division or I could just want to finish under a certain time.

My buddy Carroll completed the Florida Ironman back in November. Hearing him talk of his training is what first inspired me. For those of you that don’t know, an Ironman consists of swimming 2.5 miles, biking 112 miles, and then running 26.2 miles. Finishing an Ironman is a huge feat. Being able to accomplish something like that is a feeling that I have longed for ever since I went backpacking out at Philmont my junior year of high school.

And so the journey begins…

I’ve signed up for several races this year. I just ran the Mercedes Half Marathon on 2/15 (see next post). My schedule of races for this year is located on the right side of the page as well as a countdown til my next race. There will be a few 5k’s thrown in there. My goal is to complete all these races this year and next year do Half Ironman Orlando in May and Ironman Canada in August.