Without You, I'm Ruthless

Quick shout out here to Ruth, rockstar-irongirl-turned-massage-student who took VERY good care of me yesterday. Can't wait until you get your license!

My tired swimmer bod sang today after an hour and 15 minutes on Ruth's massage table.

While I'd rather we'd have spent that time on our bikes, catching up on life and throwing down some miles, under the circumstances, this was the next best thing.

Thanks, Sister!

...today, after a chat with Coach Phil, I decided not to spin. I will swim like a fish again this week.

Mellow Johnny

I've already waxed lyrical about the pro peloton (even spelled it right this time!) but could not resist sharing this terrific photo that a friend sent me from the start line of the AmgenTour of California's fifth stage. Lance, you are lookin' good.

Closer to home, I'm becoming a swimmer again, and enjoying the eu-chlor-ia. Nothing new is happening with my knee; I'm not going to talk about it today.

I swam Tue, Thur, Fri and Sat this week. Friday was a little bittersweet. Many of my old-school Lane 4 family was in attendance, and, well...I could not keep up. It was one of those days that the mechanics didn't work. I didn't know where to put my hands. I finally had the opportunity to really rock it and it didn't come together.

Today was better. I love the Saturday 7 am masters workout at Greenlake pool. Now that I am spending more time in the water, I am much more conscious of my swimming -- and working at small tweaks to improve. The main set was:

8 x 50 free @ :50 + 400 IM
8 x 50 free @ :50 + 300 IM
8 x 50 free @ :50 + 200 IM
8 x 50 free @ :50 + 100 IM

A great opportunity to play with small technical shifts. Felt good.

Am heading out now for a massage with Ruth. Ah.

I Wish that had Gone Better

Yipes.
Just ran 20 minutes on the elliptical machine with low resistance and HR 125-135. I can't figure this thing out. My knee doesn't hurt, it just feels wrong. I really should be feeling better by now, shouldn't I?

I stretched and now I'm enjoying some ice, asking myself, Is this as good as it's going to get? Should I train through it?

It's not crunch time yet but it's getting there. If things aren't better in a few weeks I really am going to need a new game plan for this summer.

I have long promised myself a "summer of just swimming" and maybe this is it. But I have also long promised myself another Ironman at 40.

Small in Front, Big in Back

That combination was the name of the game as I spun for an hour this morning. Maybe it was foolhardy, but I just needed to give my knee an honest try.

I kept an easy pace, with a 125-135 heart rate except for the a few brief spikes. It felt OK. I was watching Stage 2 of the Amgen Tour of California. It has been an interesting race so far. So many of the old characters are back, not just Lance, but several of the guys who got snuffed by Operacion Puerto in 2006 or whose other drug-related suspensions have elapsed. Mike said "we're a Jan Ullrich away from the 2005 Tour de France" and he's right. They're all out there: Tyler Hamilton, Francisco Mancebo, Ivan Basso and even Floyd Landis. And they all look pretty good. My dear Jens Voigt, whose clean riding and tremendous spirit characterizes his every move, is in the race as well. I just love that guy. If you haven't seen it, watch Overcoming. You will love him, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UncELpyKQLU&NR=1

Few things in our world are more motivating than spinning in your basement with Paul Sherwin and Phil Liggett spoonfeeding you the pro peleton. Today's stage was from Sausalito to Santa Cruz. It was raining. I'm always intrigued by how "American" the Amgen looks. I'm proud that the top European pros are here, but it's funny how the landscape --mountain, shoreline, wooded road -- is so obviously New World. Cycling is such a European sport, but it is starting to look at home here.

Saturday Morning Fever

People used to say things to me like, Wow, you swim so beautifully. You're so smooth in the water. It's like you have wheels underneath you. I wish I could swim like you.

This morning, someone (whose opinion I respect) said, Wow, you sure are a classic swimmer. You swim like we did in the 80s. What??

This is good feedback, though a little painful. Do I really look like a dying spider out there? Yes, I did learn the basics of competitive swimming with Tears for Fears and Huey Lewis and the News ON TAPE blaring on the boombox at the side of the pool. That said, I spent 1996-1999 under the guidance of the uncomparable coach Mike Bemis who taught me to swim downhill, point my tummy button to the side of the pool with every stroke, and rotate. Have I lost it? Maybe. I am slowing down slightly as I concentrate on biking and running, but still have plenty of speed on women who learned to swim fast 10 years later than I did!


Dear Tom came through with what has become the weekly sauna pep talk with some good thoughts on rotating as a unit and keeping my hips and shoulders aligned. Dear Tim chimed in with "you have such a strong kick, your arms can't keep up. You should glide more." I'll take that and run with it.


This week was fair. I am struggling to keep my eye on the ball with respect to tri training because I am doing so little of it. I am starting to ask myself that dangerous question, "Am I really still a triathlete?" which is not a great place to be. Another few weeks of this and I'm going to have to learn to cook or something.


Thursday I had an acupuncture treatment to my knee and I have to say it feels better (credit the treatment, perhaps, and the ongoing rest) than it has.

Also on Thursday I managed to tweak my tricep muscle somehow at work. I can swim, but I can't turn the steering wheel or move it much laterally. Advil helps.


And finally (also on Thursday), Mike and I celebrated the 21st anniversary of our first date.


Karin's comment: Now I've loved you for more of my life than I haven't.


Mike's comment: Good thing our relationship is old enough to drink legally.


The photo is of our first date, the Kappa Sigma VD (Valentine's Dance) on Feb 12, 1988. The other person in the photo is Chris Thayer, my childhood friend Mike's fraternity brother.

Now that's what the 80s look like!

Chasing the Red Ferrari

The sun's out and it's killing me. I want to get out there and ride.

Took a baby step today, though, and spun for 35 minutes while watching an episode (one of the REALLY good ones) of Magnum P.I. They just don't make TV like that anymore. I've ridden through nearly 8 seasons over the years.

My knee felt fine during the spin, but not so great after.

How many mermaids does it take to screw in a lane line?

Today's swim practice was a good one, delayed briefly by some necessary adjustments to the line separating lane 4 from the neighbors. With Princess Maybe wielding a socket wrench and Jan and I taking the slack out of the line, we...had no luck. Good thing Liz knew where the line release button was, and how to use it (brain vs. brawn shines through once again)....before long we were off and swimming.

When I heard the main set, I worried that it would be mentally tough due to the repetition. Try this:

6 x 100 free @ 1:30 + 100 fly
4 x 200 free @ 3:00 + 200 back
2 x 400 free @ zen + 300 breast

(we didn't have time for the second 400, but went straight into the 300 breast). It actually turned out to be pretty fun, and I had the confidence to lead the second two 200s as Liz, who is the strongest freestyler in the group, asked for a "little time to space out." It's nice not to have to count laps and watch the clock sometimes.

My knee felt a little twingy but nothing serious, even on the breastroke. I'm not back to normal, but I believe I'm on the mend.

Pink Power

With the big RED LETTER registration date a mere week away, today thoughts turn to the Danskin. Danskin is a tradition for many women in the Seattle triathlon community. An all-women’s race, with a relatively forgiving, very well-supported course, for many it represents a first-ever foray into the sport. Despite its size (there have been up to 6000 participants in it, though I believe the entry list will be closer to 4500 this year), the race sells out within hours. You have to be on top of this one, or you will miss.

If I manage to get in, 2009 will mark my 12th trip around the Danskin's .5 mile swim, 12 mile bike and 3.1 mile run. Every year since 1998, it has one of been the best days of the summer. There’s something about the pink power there that makes you laugh and cry. Even though I’m “in it to win it” and one of my life goals is to do exactly that, the real race happens for the women out there who cross the finish line knowing they have stepped outside of themselves in a huge way. They chose this race because they had a goal, made a plan, stuck it out, and succeeded. You have to see it to believe it.

Of course, there is a faction of us who duke it out for the top spot year after year. My best Danskin was 2005, when I set a new course record on the bike leg. (It fell a year later, and has now been shattered by minutes.) Last year I was 6th. The Danskin sponsors import their pros from SportBeans, Luna Bar and other companies who typically top the race. This year, a new division has been created called “Amateur Elite” with 12 spots for those of us with day jobs who also are competitive in the sprint distance but don’t carry a coveted pro card in their wallet.

I think that will make this year’s Danskin especially fun (everyone in the AE group will need to prove a top 10 finish in a USAT sanctioned event, so the competition will be tough) but it’s nice not to be ranked against 25-year-olds who not long ago were All American swimmers and runners at Div 1 schools and have taken up triathlon for real.

I will be back to say more about this, but for now, I’ll post a few happy Danskin photos, and a Seattle Times article from last year. I am usually not such a publicity hound – at least not for myself. Sheesh.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/othersports/2008120160_webdanskin17.html

Silver Linings

So I've decided not to spin tonight. It's occurred to me that the maybe the best training I could do right now is no training. The more I poke at this thing with my knee, even as it seems to be getting gradually better, the more I could set myself back. It's early. I should just shut up and heal.

But as we know, that is really hard. Seven or eight years ago, I was a very serious swimmer. 3500 yards per day, six times per week was the norm. I lived for every chlorinated second of it. And then my rotator cuff started getting snarly, and about 6 months of PT ensued. I remember thinking that my injury was like being in an unbalanced relationship, when the thing you love very much hurts you. The pain is your protection from it. And yet, you keep going humbly back, only to feel the pain again and prolong the healing process.

The silver lining in the rotator cuff story is this: I didn't swim "for real" for about six months, but in that time, I became a rocket breast stroker because it was the one stroke that didn't hurt my shoulder. I swam hours and hours of it. These days, I still can hammer the breastroke and I am always smug when the third 50 of the 200 IM kicks in, appreciating, in the end, the rotator cuff drama. Silver linings.

I believe in the notion that good can, and often does, emerge from bad in the end. When I bought my Kestrel, I named it Silver Lining. But that is a story for another day.

Today I swam 6 x 500 (evens pull) with 1 x 100 back on after each 1000. I shared a lane with Sam who is super gracious and also incredibly fast (he swam 650s to my 500s @ 7' and just grinned as he gracefully lapped me). No pressure. I asked him what he was training for and I loved his answer.

"Nothing really. I just swim because I like it."

I spun reasonably well for a half hour on Sunday, but I am going to let wisdom prevail and swim only for the rest of the week. BTW the best Superbowl ad is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBl3FOKgs1A

I'll Fly Away

Many thanks to John S who coached a highly creative swim workout from Maui Masters at GLAD this morning.

http://www.gladswim.org/

We swam a total of 4500 yards. The main set was:

200 IM @ 20 seconds rest
100 IM @ 15 seconds rest
2 x 75 fly (back, breast, free) @ 10
3 x 50 fly (back, breast, free) @ 5
2 x 50 kick (fly back, breast, free) @ 5
4 x fly sprint (back, breast, free) on :30

We swam the set 4 x with a different stroke following the IMs in each rotation. Not surprisingly, fly was the easiest on my knee, no doubt because the power in the stroke comes from your belly button and not from your legs. Especially on the freestyle and flipturns, my knee felt a little loose and achy. I know it is important to keep the workouts "focused and specific" with respect to the triathlon race goal, but this little non-free indulgence was a treat!

Our lane had great energy, with Matt, Jan and Princess Maybe taking care of business and having fun. I also received some much needed-spiritual sustenance from Tom after the workout. Tom is a fellow traveler with whom I trained for IMC in 2005.

Today is Superbowl Sunday. Typically, I like to ride long on game day because the streets tend to be empty. I'm not brave enough to risk an outside ride, so today I plan to spin in front of the TV during halftime...with the cool ads keeping my brain from atrophying on the trainer!