Wild, wet, windy, wedding weekend

How's that for some alliteration? :)
This weekend, Andy and I headed over to Redmond for Andy's sister's wedding. It promised to be a busy but fun weekend, and Jess and Jeff didn't disappoint. I spent last week closely monitoring the weather and trying to figure out what kinds of workouts I could get in. Wednesday night I made the decision to not bother trying to ride outside, since the forecast looked, in a word, crappy. Thursday, I was supposed to get up early and get a swim in before we hit the road, but sleeping in a bit came way too easy, so it turned into an off day. Had I known what was in my swimming future, I would have gotten this workout in....you'll see why in a minute.

Friday, my only scheduled event was the rehearsal at 5:30pm, so my plan was to get a long brick in mid-day. So, I set up my trainer in the hotel room, hooked up the PS2 so I could watch my IM DVDs (thanks, Andy!!) and pedaled away. Despite the unusual setting and a sort of weird pre-workout breakfast, the ride was awesome! 2 solid hours, mostly tempo, and I did a few harder 10 and 15 min intervals. While I was riding, the sun was out and it looked dry, so for awhile I was sort of regretting not getting outside. Uh, yeah, my decision to ride inside was confirmed as a good one as soon as I stepped out the front door of the hotel for my run. Lets just say that it was about 38, spitting rain, and windy out. I actually saw some people on bikes out on the trail...must be from Seattle. Wackos. Anyway, I did what turned out to be a hard effort 10k, and managed to hold on and average sub-8s again, which I'm really happy with. I was spent pretty good after, but it was my longest and hardest brick of the season so far. My foot was again somewhat uncomfortable on the run, but I managed it ok, and every run I'm learning to deal with it better. The thing I'm most pleased with about the brick was that my average HR was down at 138, which for 3 hours is right on where I hoped to be at this point. And that's after a month of very sporadic training.

Saturday was wedding day, so I knew in advance that I wouldn't be able to get a long workout in. So my plan was to just do my standard 3000 swim workout and call it good for the day. Prior to leaving, I had done some research on-line and found a 24 Hr Fitness in Bellevue that had a pool, so I figured I was good to go. I knew that the Marriott pool wouldn't cut it, cause, well, its a hotel pool. Since the gyms here in Spokane all used to be 24 Hr Fitness facilities, and I've swum in all their pools, I assumed that "24 Hr Fitness + Pool" would equal a standard, lap pool. Note my use of the word assume here. So, as the girls all went off to do their girl wedding day thing (a great mystery of life), I headed off in a semi-excited state to the gym for what I was feeling would be a great swim. Successfully navigate to gym: check. Confirm one last time they have a pool: check. Pay my $15 day pass: check. Get changed in locker room: check. Shower, walk out on pool deck: shock and disappointment. The pool at this major, nationwide fitness facility is not much better than the one I had just left behind at my hotel. The pros of this pool are these: water, 3 x lane lines on bottom of pool. That's it, that's the list. There were a few people splashing about doing something akin to water aerobics, and then there were these 3 guys who were literally standing by the wall having a very animated conversation. It was like they were at a bar talking, but no, they were standing in a pool. At a gym. And when I walked on deck with my swim cap, goggles, and water bottle, appearing ready for a workout, they looked at me like I had 3 heads. This would be a trend for the next hour. Every person who walked out on the deck and everyone in the sauna literally stared at me like I was a crazy person as I was doing laps. Well, sort of laps. The pool had no lane lines, and was very murky. When you add the murky water to the fact that there were none of the normal black "Ts" on the walls, you end up with some smashed fingertips. I never gave much thought those black Ts, but its kind of like your thumb...you never know how much you need it until you smash it with a hammer. Anyway, the other fun thing about this pool was the design. Uh, not 25 yards, and not square. The hot tub jutted out in a circular fashion and there were some wide-ass stairs, so that on one end, there was about 18 inches of flat wall to attempt to make a turn. So, after giving up hope of doing a 3000, I decided to just swim for 45 min straight. Other than the fact that I had to swim in a semi-diagonal direction to get to my "turning area" and the fact that I could go down and back in about 20 seconds, it wasn't too bad. I did manage 45 min, but had to dodge many other pool entrants who were so shocked to see me doing more than talking or splashing that they pretended I wasn't there. Wow, totally not the workout I was hoping for. But, I suppose better than nothing. If anything, it made me miss terribly my Sunday swims with the club and Team A+. And my lesson learned from all of this: when a fitness center says they have a pool, well, know that not all pools are created equal.

Saturday night was enough fun that I forgot about the swim...maybe because the wedding and reception were at a winery??? :) Damn good wine, damn good party, and, oh yeah, did I mention the wine?

Speaking of the wine, Sunday morning, when I got up, it was about the time that the club was meeting back in Spokane to swim. Lets just say that swimming was the farthest thing from my mind...although I did feel a little sad that I was missing it. Not like I was in any shape to swim, but, well, you know. :)

So that was my weekend. All in all, one good workout, one so-so workout. But the fact that I went away on a mini-vacation and got any workouts in is a big deal, so I felt good about that.

Liquid magic

About a month ago, on the recommendation from my friend Kirk, I started experimenting with a fairly new energy drink called FRS. We first tried it at IM CDA last year, and it was ok, but at the time, I was wary of adding new things to my training diet. I recently found a few different flavors at a local grocery store, and hit upon one that suited my palate, Peach Mango. Then, low and behold, at our most recent Tri Fusion meeting, Julie from FRS came to talk about their product and hand out some samples. Talk about great timing! Although I didn't get a chance to talk to Julie in person, I did use the opportunity to do some more research on this product, and I'm now hooked. If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend it. Check out more info at http://www.frs.com/ I've been testing out having some before and after workouts, as well as mid-afternoon at work, when I'm usually dragging. So far, this stuff has been absolute magic! I had a can yesterday about 20 min before my run, and it turned out to be a great run. While I won't give all the credit to the FRS, I am convinced that it helped. Today, I did a quick 1 mile swim at lunch, and had a can right after I got back to my office. That was about 2 1/2 hours ago, and I'm still going strong, not feeling tired like I usually do.

See, I really like this stuff! :)

Speaking of my run yesterday, it felt so good to be able to get out after work and run outside. It seems like its been forever since I've been able to do that, between the seasons and my injury. It was just like old times! I only did 4 miles, but still managed to go sub-8s, which for right now is pretty good for me. My foot didn't hurt, but it was still a little sore/tired. But I'm learning that I just need to deal with it, be careful, and get thru it, because I just need to log some serious running miles. I've actually found that by making slight adjustments in my gait every now and then, I can reduce the discomfort during the run, so that's encouraging. I guess you could say that I'm learning to be comfortable with the discomfort.

My swim today was also awesome. I did a descending mile, which sort of turned into a time trial, and my time seemed to be pretty quick. I'm curious to see how much I improve over the next few months, so I think I'm going to do this workout every few weeks. Taking out the rest I took, I estimated that I swam the mile in about 27:30 today. I'll take that any day!!

Easter swimming

OK, so now I know that less writing on the workout board, does not equate to an easier workout.

See...4 sets, one of which is a semi-warmup...should be no problem, right?

HA!!! Today's swim was an arm-burner. I made it thru the first 1000 ok, then the 250's took it out of me. So the last 10 100's were absolute torture....but, I made it, and didn't have to sit out any 50's, so, here's to small victories.

I have to give some big-time kudos to my buddy, Steve. He swam with us in the A Lane today, and only had to sit out 200 total. Out of 3750. This is the guy who was not thinking he would be able to move up to our lane for another 2 or 3 weeks. And he's only sitting out 200 of 3750 with Roger leading??? And then, after we finished up, Steve decides that he owes somebody those 200, so he proceeds to knock out a 200, immediately after the 10 gut-busting 100's! Damn....

And of course, to my A+ teammate Jessi....thanks for pulling me thru today :) Uh, and yesterday, on the bike :) Lastly, to my other A+ teammate, Tiffany: We missed you today! It was only 2/3 of the fun we normally have.

For proof that the workout didn't totally kill me, this is after, and I'm still smiling (albeit weakly) The 4 guys on my left and right totally kicked my butt today.....