I've got legs . . .

. . . but I'm not sure I know how to use them.

It's been a quiet week so far, which is exactly what I've been needing. Yesterday as I was walking down the stairs out of the apartment, something was different. It took me a couple of steps to figure it out, but the difference was that my legs were no longer complaining as I bent them for each step. Thighs, hamstrings, calves, ankles, arches, knees - they all have been achy over the month or so. Monday was a rest day, and I think that the rest was a very good thing.

On Tuesday morning I dragged myself out of bed early to swing by Redwood City to feed Brandon and Lisa's cat on the way up through Huddart Park to King's Mountain road. I think this is becoming one of my favorite rides - it has a nice hill to wake me up a bit, and it has many scenic vistas ... and I'm all about the scenic vistas. Maybe that's why I have such a non-thing for swimming; no vistas whatsoever are to be had in the pool - nothing to see but lane markers and all of those forbidden air-bubbles generated by my less-than-stellar arm strokes. I need to get one of those swiMP3 players, maybe with an audiobook or something, to keep me better entertained. And running: sure, maybe more vistas, but they go by too slowly to completely disengage my brain from the knowledge that running for more than five miles or so is, well, not really that fun, yet - maybe it will be sometime in the future.

Hmm...this is sounding a bit whiny? No, I'm really having a good time, and looking forward to the days when I actually look forward to swimming and running as much as I do biking. Because people do, right? Yes, crazy people.

We had a fun/not-fun workout today at the track. The best/worst was a drill titled "Wolves and Camels" - you see, wolves run in packs, and camels have humps. Makes perfect sense, right? We divided ourselves into groups of five, roughly based on speed. Somehow I found myself in the supposed 2nd-fastest group ... which ended up running further, I think, than the speedy people, maybe. Big mistake/good choice. The drill is this - you run in a line for 2 easy minutes followed by a hard minute, the first person in line gets to set the pace for the group, and the group has to stay together. This drill definitely got me out of my comfort zone - it was very tough to keep up on some of the "hard" minutes, but I was able to, mostly, until the last set, when I got dropped pretty badly. It was worst/best because it was pretty tough, but I could also see how this type of work could maybe, someday, result in me getting a bit faster ... just have to be willing to push a bit harder, I guess.

Thanks for reading, and thanks also for all of those donations to a great cause!

and I was runnnningg!

I did my best Forrest Gump around the neighborhoods of Menlo Park, Atherton, and Redwood City, covering about 7.5 miles in just over an hour, and the best part was that the "back" was as fast as the "out". Or maybe it's not the best part - if I'm that consistent, does it mean that I'll never get any faster?

Got my hiney kicked at yesterday's swim practice. We did a "golf swimming" drill, in which we added the time in seconds it took to complete a lap to the number of strokes used in swimming that lap - lowest score wins. I was proud to be consistently about 8 points ahead of (ie. worse than) anybody else in my group. The coach was a bit perplexed - this was after he had said that my kick was pretty good and that I had "nice hip rotation." Hmmm... He blamed my baggy shorts, and the pounds of water I drag along with me in the water. Watch out world - it's speedos for me from now on! What a treat. To me, the shorts hypothesis is unlikely - I'm thinking it's those noodles attached to my shoulders where most people have arms.

Sunday weekly total: 4500 yards swimming, 132 miles biking, 11 miles running. Getting better, but also getting a bit surprised at how much time this all takes! Thanks to all of y'all for the donations and support - what donations, you ask?

Just add soap

We had dinner at a restaurant called Lavanda last night; in addition, Lavanda is a "Wine Bar" ... tres Palo Alto - what can I say about "Wine Bar" that isn't already said by "Wine Bar?" Lavanda subscribes to the culinary and pricing structure model that posits that (1) food shall be stacked roughly in the shape of a cylinder, and (2) the price of the entree shall be proportional to the following ratio: cylinder height:cylinder diameter. I'll happily go along with this scheme, provided the food is truly exceptional. My 3-inch wide tower of fish did not live up to the expectations engendered by its price, though. Honestly, I think I preferred this place as its old, non-"Wine Bar", veggie-burger-flipping, "Good Earth" incarnation. "Good Earth" was there way back in the good old days when Palo Alto actually had a Woolworth's. Those days are gone - out with the Burger King, in with the Cheesequake Factory. But as an added bonus, somehow the name "Lavanda" fits right in with the laundry leitmotif that occurs in far too many of these posts. There were no folding tables, change machines, or quarter slots in sight though. All of this brings us to the question of the day - would you rather be a food critic, or a movie critic? Michelle chose food, I chose movies.

Wednesday's track practice was fine, though I have resigned myself to the fact that I have never been nor will I ever be a speedy runner. Unfortunately, I have been doing far too much cycling at the expense of swimming and running, where I really need help. Frank and I sped through Los Altos Hills yesterday evening, climbing up to Altamont and cruising down Page Mill Road. And this morning I went on what was supposed to be an easy "recovery" type ride, around the Sand Hill/Portola/Alpine loop. I was taking it easy, and even let three folks pass without falling into the "MUST CHASE THEM" rut ... at least for a little while - they turned out to be pokey going up Portola Road, so I just had to do my best to zoom by. So much for "recovery."

Michelle and I went swimming this evening at Avery. My lane was packed - I think at one point there were about 8 people doing laps in the same lane. It made for good triathlon practice, I guess - lots of close quarters leg-kicking and splashing. The locker room at this schmancy aquatic facility is pretty disgusting - the whole locker room is flooded with about two inches of standing water. Yuck.

Still here? Check this out!

Deck the halls ... with Spandex

So it's like Christmas around here. Only instead of garlands and lights and wreaths and stuff like that, it's a week's worth of newly-washed spandex running shirts and shorts and bicycle jerseys hanging over chairs and doorframes and on doorknobs all over the house to dry. Very festive. What really puts you in the holiday spirit are those oddly disturbing chamois linings of the bike shorts sticking out at jaunty angles here and there for all to see. Too much information? Sorry.

Went for a nice bike ride this morning, up through Woodside and through Huddart Park to King's Mountain road, then back via Portola Valley - about 21 miles with a nice hill. It's going to be very difficult to move away from this place, for many reasons, not least of which is cosmic convergence of nearly perfect cycling geography and weather. A highlight of the ride was running into the famous Tuesday/Thursday bicycle odyssey loosely organized by Chain Reaction bicycles. I've been following their exploits for over a year now, and I was a bit star-struck upon meeting them in person. Most of the very extensive web-diarying about this ride involves the current fastest time bicycling up King's; I guess there's not too much more to write about when you've done the same route hundreds of times over the years. One of my "must do's before I leave California" has been to join this ride for a day ... I just need to shave about 5-10 minutes(?) off of my time cycling up King's Mountain Road. Doable? Doubtful.

Yesterday I did either 1500 or 1800 yards at Rinconada pool. You'd think that, with nothing better to do but swim the same monotonous yards back and forth, it would be easy to keep track, but I just cannot do it. Either my brain soaks up too much chlorine and doesn't function properly, or all counting is superceded by competing thoughts such as "hip rotation, glide, reach, head down, breathe, leaky goggles, thumb-to-thigh, reach-over-barrel, legs together, don't bend those knees . . . . etc." I guess I have not yet reached a point where I can think of things besides swimming while swimming.

Happy Birthday Michelle!

Sleeeeeepy

Wow, this workout thing is starting to catch up with me I think. As soon as 9:30 rolls around I turn into a droopy-lidded brain-sucked tree sloth without enough energy to hold onto the tree, not able to think of much else aside from sinking into my pillow. Where's the invigoration?

This morning I went on my first "Captain's Run." I was late, so I had to scurry to catch up with folks; thankfully, I chose the correct direction to run on Canada road. Before the run, I figured that Canada was rolling and hilly, but nicely graded so it shouldn't present much of a challenge. Well, the dirt path that runs alongside the road? Not so friendly in its grade. And after 30 minutes I was cooked, and the remaining 30 minutes was not so fun. Maybe it was the lack of breakfast, or maybe I've somehow trained myself that 30 minutes is the maximum allowable running time. Either way, major adjustments are necessary.

And now my right calf is complaining and making me waddle like a duck more than I usually do, and this minor curse is piled on top of a lifetime of comments regarding the generally ducklikeness of my walk. Why can't I have a nice purposeful stride like, say, all those astronauts in The Right Stuff? And a strong chin like Atticus Finch while we're at it.

Weekly Sunday total: 3500 yards of swim, 123 miles of bike, and about 9 miles of run. Spazzy legs are still an issue, unfortunately. Also, thanks to those many people who have promised donations. Move out of meta! And thanks tons to those of y'all who have already donated generously.

End of an era . . .

So after my hearty paean (a word forever seared into my brain because I missed it on the GRE) to the wonders of Roble Pool, I am a bit sad to learn that the whole complex is shutting down. Out with the pool, out with the gym, out with the Karate classes, and in with the dancing and the drama. Oh, the drama. Yes, it looks like Stanford is going all Billy Elliot on Roble. As of August, I hear, we'll all have to bow to the swim gods at Avery. Guess I'd better start practicing my flip turns and get on that ab-roller.

Practice this morning was fine. I still swim like a head of lettuce losing its leaves, and this morning it was even worse. We did lots of kicking and hip and arm movement drills; Coach Tom says that if it feels awkward, it's a good sign. Awkward is perhaps a word that is too kind; anyhow, maybe some improvement will be happening over the next couple of weeks.

Biking this morning was tough. Brian is a speed demon - I don't know how fast he was going on foothill. I was in the 26-27 mph range a few times, and was still dropping behind. These are speeds I would normally save for special occasions. I guess the point is to get faster though, and that won't happen if I'm always cruising along without pushing a bit. I'm tending to do better on the hills than on the flats, which is a bit surprising because I have never thought of myself as much of a climber.

Two whole people told me this morning that they've actually read what I have written here. This is very exciting. I thought I was just writing to loosen up the writing joints, slapping the sentences down so that when it comes time to write something important (aka thesis later this year) I'll be all loose and limber and won't spend hours staring the the computer screen and agonizing over every single sentence. I was hoping that perhaps all of that journaling practice we did in eighth grade English class might turn out to be helpful someday. We'll see. Anyhow, thanks for stopping by. Why not stop by here next?

Things that are sore . . .

. . . in order of soreness:

1) Right calf, towards the outside

2) Right foot, because of funny walking caused by #1.

3) Upper back. I don't know why.

4) Hamstrings. Entirely too many lunges at yesterday's track practice.

But I'm loving every minute of the soreness. It makes me feel like I'm doing something worthwhile, and it makes me thankful that my only health complaint is soreness caused by activities that would be impossible if I had genuine health complaints. So yes, I'm thankful for the soreness.

Yesterday's track practice was OK, other than the fact that it involved a 17-mile bike ride down to Cupertino. And then 17 miles back. The ride itself was pretty good though, as most of it took place on Foothill Expressway, which is a magical road that somehow seems to be going downhill no matter which way you ride on it (other than a few minor bumps).

Over lunchtime today I managed to squeeze in 1500 yards at Roble Pool. It may have been possible to do more yardage, but the lifeguard there has a lonely job and loves to talk ... and he keeps on talking even after you jump into the pool. So when I arrived today, I was engrossed in a bit too much nodding and mmm-hmmming and not quite enough swimming.

Thanks to those of you who are stopping by to read! I am very excited to have received my first comment EVER! I am somewhat comforted by the fact that it appears that blogger/blogspot does not make it very easy to comment - I've heard that folks have wanted to leave comments but were prevented from doing so because of the crazy registration process. So email me if you'd like, and then check this out!

Hidden Benefits of Exercise:

Let's see - weight loss/maintenance, elevated metabolism, improved sleep, better muscle tone, increased energy level .... yawn ... BORING. Here's one to appeal to us lazy folks: keeping up with the laundry! Normally, the laundry protocol has to begin considering doing a load only when down to that last pair of underwear. Now, with a limited set of workout clothes and many workouts in a week, laundry is a necessity. No more washer-stuffing, dryer-not-drying loads either; rather, the amount of clothes is just right to make the washer happy and not shake down the house in its spin cycle.

Only 1100 yards of swimming today, because I got to Roble pool at 12:25, and it closes at 1pm. I am beginning to like Roble better than schmancy Avery Aquatic Center, which is too much of a scene for me I think. Sure, all the greats have trained there (Janet Evans, Summer Sanders, Pablo Morales, Jenny Thompson - who was in my dorm and gave me a can of Old Milwaukie as my secret santa, thank you very much), but I am only 1/1000th great, and there's just too much paddle-handed, zoomer-zooming, tinted-goggle, rock-hard-abbed, flip-turning extremeness there for my tastes. Roble pool is tiny, with just five lanes. The best thing about going over lunch hour is that it's only open to faculty/staff, so I have to dig through my wallet to find my old contraband staff ID. But the folks there are more my speed. I'll just have to get there earlier next time to put in the full hour and reach the target distance. And I'll have to figure out how not to get massive sunburns on my back. Now I have this funky tanned neck above a crabapple red upper back. Very attractive.

Went for a 23-mile spin at sundown with my friend Frank. Though he did beat me up the hill at Huddart Park to Kings Mountain road, he was complaining the rest of the way that he was struggling to keep up. Must be those new wheels of mine. Or maybe it was because his legs were completely shot from some crazy twenty mile hikes up and down the canyons of Bryce and Zion National Parks over the weekend. That didn't stop us from trying to chase down my neighbor Katie, whom we spotted at the top of Sand Hill Road in her shiny red SAAB with her shiny red new bike on top. The stoplights refused to work with us though, and we never caught her. What an exciting life we lead! Thanks for reading.

Happy Christmas Wheels!

Last Christmas a bunch of folks in my family got me a heap of gift certificates to a mail-order bike parts company. Because of their generosity, they all now have the privilege of being inundated with unwanted bike catalogs, full of much too much spandex and sprockets. But more to the point, because of their crazy generosity and because of their cosmic convergence of gift-certificate gifting, I was able to treat myself to a big-ticket bike item, and I chose to get zippy new wheels for my bike. Huge thanks to Suzanne, John and Johnny, Uncle Dave the secret Santa, Uncle Hub and Aunt Pat, and Pops Woods for the wheels. I finally received them about 3 weeks ago, and got around to getting them all set up today. They sure make my bike look faster; the jury is still out on whether they'll actually make me go any faster.

I went for a spin this afternoon, and I could be imagining things (very likely), but it seemed as if I could accelerate a bit faster with these new wheels. It was a good ride on a hot afternoon - I went up Page Mill and down Moody, and then back up Altamont again. I wanted to test some hills because the other major alteration to the bike of late is to swap out the triple chainring with a double. My front derailleur has been out of whack for many months now, and I have been unable to shift into the granny gear. Since I haven't missed it, really, I thought I'd just get rid of it. The amazing Rob and Jacquie Mardell, who run a bike shop out of their garage, had a used double crankset that they were willing to swap free of charge for my triple. And while doing so, Rob tuned up my bike so that it is even more fun to ride. The great thing about these folks is that they don't officially charge for labor; instead, they just ask that you donate a comparable amount to what you'd pay at a bike shop to his fundraising efforts for the Ironteam - they're doing the Ironman Canada later this year. Moreover, apparently they get a great deal on parts and sell them pretty much at wholesale. Check out their website for the full scoop. Good thing the Mardells live pretty far away, otherwise I'd be there spending money an awful lot.

In other news, Michelle and I went for a 50-minute run early this morning. We weren't speed demons, but at least I was able to run the whole time without my legs spazzing on me. There was still a bit of iffiness in the right calf region, but I think I'll be able to get over that.

Wow - what a long post. Thanks for reading (if anybody really does?). If you do - check out this for even more!

Cruising -

Had a pretty good week: 106 miles on the bike, 3600 yards in the pool, and about 7 miles of running (legs are still iffy). But best of all, the fundraising part got off of the ground. Many folks have donated generously, and many more have promised to donate (a ton of thanks to both!) Join in the fun by clicking here today!

This morning we had a great workout in the pool, but the highlight was hill repeats on the bike. I guess the point is to improve your speed, but we tackled the same little (but fairly steep!) hill multiple times - I loved it so much I did it an extra time around.

Now I am pretty tired, but cannot sleep for some reason. Somebody tell me a story . . . .

Track workout marker sets!

Today after a few warmup laps, the TNT folks had us do a pacing drill where we were to run two sets of two laps in the same time, at a speed we might expect to keep up for five miles or so. I did 3:35 for the first set, and 3:30 for the second, so I guess the pacing is OK. Somehow, since the dawn of time it seems, I've laid claim to that 7-minute mile speed. I ran 7-minute miles in 6th grade, and I ran 7-minute miles when I did a couple 5K's and 10K's while in college. Shockingly consistent - now I just need to figure out how to climb out of that rut and go a bit faster. I'm pretty sure a large portion of it is mental - I just don't really feel like pushing myself outside that comfort zone. But come to think of it, I would be pretty darn happy if I could keep up a 7-minute mile pace during that 13-mile run in the actual triathlon!

Also yesterday I covered about 29 miles on the bike, commuting to and from the track practice at Mt. View HS. And Tuesday morning I did a quick 21 mile loop on the bike. I'll see if I can get into the pool for some splashing around today.

Thanks for reading, and please please donate now!. Thanks a TON to the folks who have already made donations - I really appreciate it!

3 bits of good news

Lots of good stuff, training-wise, today. Most importantly, I finally got that fundraising letter off to some people. It's always a bit weird asking for donations. Somehow, in the eighth grade, I was able to sell more magazines door-to-door than any other student. I'm not sure how I managed to do that, as that feat does not mesh with my current personality. Maybe I just wanted that top prize: a 3-foot cone of fluff, with dark sunglasses and a fedora, that could go about 0.05 mph and be controlled via remote-control and went by the name of SpaceMutt. The snake-oil salesman-type manager of this magazine drive somehow convinced all of us less-than-cool jr. high types (or at least he convinced my friends and me) that SpaceMutt was the niftiest thing ever, and that everybody wanted one. So I won the thing, and my friend Larry came in second ... and he used his magazine selling points to get another stupid SpaceMutt instead of something genuinely useful like a WalkMan or something. I think I still carry a bit of residual anger and resentment over being manipulated to trudge around my small hometown, hitting up my neighbors to buy magazines they didn't need. But come to think of it, this project was infinitely better than trudging around to those same neighbors trying to convince them that they needed to buy cheese and sausage and (blech) fruitcake to support the high school band. My inner geek, never fully obscured, is beginning to shine through brightly here, so I'd better get off of this tangent right about now. The upshot is, Donate Now, please. Thanks.

On to the other news - Michelle and I went swimming this evening, and I hit the 1500 yard target without much problem at all. This does not mean that these yards were covered quickly. I need to figure out the breathing issue - on the first lap or two, I'm actually pretty good and relatively fast, with fairly decent form; when I start to need to breathe regularly though, everything goes screwy. Does practice make perfect? We'll see.

Finally - my legs were pretty quiet today, even after yesterday's run. So maybe I can finally get back to the normal running routine and leave these crazy 30 minute stints behind me. Here's hoping. Thanks for reading!

Maybe I will make it after all?

Went running today, very slowly, with Michelle, for over 30 minutes. While on a normal day for a normal person this might not be so impressive, I am very happy that I was able to run for that long. In the last couple of weeks, each running session has ended prematurely with one of my calf muscles painfully snapping like an over-tightened guitar string. So today is the first day that I've actually hoped to believe that I might actually be able to finish this half-ironman triathlon that I have tentatively signed on for this fall. Last Wednesday at track practice, TNT coach Tom suggested that I was not getting enough water and electrolytes in my diet, and both of these get depleted pretty severely, as witnessed by those salty crusties that show up on my bike helmet straps after a moderate to hard ride. So since then I've completely cut out the diet cokes, and have been trying my best to ingest the burst-inducing 8x8 ounces of water each day, which is about 64 ounces more than I am used to drinking normally. I'm happy with the results today, though at this point it's tough to distinguish between correlative and causative relationships between fluid intake and running output. The lack of caffeine, along with the cat getting up promptly at 5am each morning, begging for breakfast, has made me fairly sleepy in the last few days.

Swimming is going OK. I feel fairly comfortable with all of the swimming drills we've been working on, though I am still painfully s-l-o-w. Don't know what it's going to take to get faster. I'm supposed to be swimming 1500 yards in each swim session this week - I don't think I have done even close to half of that thus far, but I'll give it a try on Tuesday.

Biking is fine - went for about 42 sunny and flat miles yesterday, and worked on pulling up from the hip. This felt a bit awkward, but I was beginning to imagine some possible speed increases, so I'll keep on trying that out. Now I just have to make my mind up to write that fundraising letter. It's going to be tough asking for money, but it's a very good cause.