Monthly Summary - December 2008

Here's December:

Swim: 24,000 yards
Cycling (outdoors): 0 miles
Cycling (indoors): 4:40 (hours)
Run: 34.45 miles
Strength Training/Yoga: 12 sessions

Approximate monthly total training/racing time: 30.5 hours

Weight: 165 pounds

We're headed out in a few minutes for some New Year's Eve festivities. December was another up-and-down month, pretty standard for 2008. I'll start working on my 2008 Annual Summary in the next few days!

Happy New Year to all! Thanks for sticking with me!

Run/Walk - December 29
Distance: 5.1 miles
Time: 55 minutes (10 min. walking warm-up, 45 min. run/walk)
Course: Mission Hills/Hillcrest, San Diego
Conditions: Sunny, low-60's

Swim - December 30
Distance: 2,200 yards
Time: 48 minutes

Run/Walk - December 31
Distance: 3.75 miles
Time: 43 minutes (10 min. walking warm-up, 33 min. run/walk)
Course: Encino
Conditions: Evening run, 50's

Go CHARGERS!

It wasn't such a Super Charger season, but they're hot right now and they made it happen in a big way tonight.

I don't really feel like writing much tonight, but it has been a good week in California. We've spent a ton of time with family, first in LA and now in San Diego. We're headed back up to LA tomorrow for a hopefully pretty chill week. I've also gotten some pretty good training in, three swims, two runs and one strength training session. I normally don't swim two days in a row, but I swam yesterday and today at my parent's YMCA. I've said it before: I love that pool - outdoor, 10 wide lanes, comfortably cool temperature. If I lived near that pool, I'd be in the pool all the time. Coach John has set me up with another swim test, this one is a 200 yard sprint. I tried it a few weeks ago and swam the 200 in 2:44. I knew I could do better. I swam it again yesterday and did the 200 in 2:36! A huge improvement. I went out as hard as possible and swam the first 100 in 1:16, but couldn't keep the pace.

I did my first outdoor in run in months (since October?) the other day. I've now done two runs. I wish I could say that my knee feels great. Unfortunately, it doesn't. It actually feels mostly fine when I'm running, but at other times, it's a little achy and sore. I'm not sure what to do. I'm going to keep trying for now and will do a couple more runs while we're here in California. I'll reevaluate once I get home.

Run/Walk - December 23
Distance: 4 miles
Time: 46 minutes (10 min. walking warm-up, 36 min. run/walk)
Course: Encino
Conditions: Sunny, mid-50s

Swim - December 24
Distance: 2,400 yards
Time: 52 minutes

Strength - December 24

Run/Walk - December 26
Distance: 4.3 miles
Time: 49 minutes (10 min. walking warm-up, 38 min. run/walk)
Course: Encino
Conditions: Sunny, mid-40s

Swim - December 27
Distance: 1,750 yards
Time: 37 minutes
200 yard swim test: 2:36!

Swim - December 28
Distance: 2,000 yards
Time: 40 minutes

West Coast here we come!

It's time for our annual West Coast holiday trip. We're headed off tomorrow morning and very much looking forward to time with family and friends, eating lots of holiday goodies, and warmer weather for exercise and play. Hopefully getting to and through the airport tomorrow morning won't be too painful.

Happy holidays to all!

Treadmill Run/Walk - December 17
Distance: 3.2 miles
Time: 40 minutes (10 min. walking warm-up, 30 min. run/walk)

Strength - December 17

Swim - December 18
Distance: 1,600 yards
Time: 35 minutes

Strength/PT - December 18

Treadmill Run/Walk - December 19
Distance: 3.2 miles
Time: 40 minutes (10 min. walking warm-up, 30 min. run/walk)

Swim - December 20
Distance: 1,750 yards
Time: 36 minutes

Strength - December 20

Indoor Bike - December 21
Time: 1:00

Swim test = :)

As you've seen, I've been getting back into training and generally having a good time with it. Of course, I wish I could be running more, but for now, I'm content building up slowly. I also haven't been spending the time on the bike that I had initially planned, but circumstances have changed and I've adapted my training schedule.

One benefit of less running and cycling is that I have been spending more time in the pool; I'm swimming three days a week instead of two. My overall swim volume isn't all that high (4,500 - 5,000 yards per week), but I feel like I'm getting some quality yards in and seeing some subtle improvements.

Today Coach John scheduled my first swim "test" since April. In the past, I've done 1,000 yard time trials and each time I did it, my time improved. My best time was in April when I swam the 1,000 yards in 15:28 (1:32.8/100 yards).

Coach John wanted me to go all out for 1,250 yards today. I was pretty nervous. I haven't been pushing myself in terms of speed recently; I haven't swam a set longer than probably 600 yards in a couple months; and I've never done a "test" longer than 1,000 yards. I certainly know I can swim 1,250 yards (or longer), but it's still daunting to do it for time. When I first started doing the tests in December 2006, I'd only been swimming for a couple years and I erred on the side of caution, going out too conservatively. As I got more comfortable doing the 1,000 yard time trial, I learned to push myself from the start and made up a lot of time that way. Today, I wanted to go out strong and push the pace; if I ran out of gas before the end, so be it.

After a 400 yard kick/swim warm-up, I rested for about a minute and then got started. Even though I wanted to push the pace, my first 100 was a little too fast: 1:28. That's fast for me when I'm doing shorter sets! (I tried to look at my watch at each 100 during my flip turn. I'm sure this slows me down slightly, but I like knowing my pace and it helps me keep track of overall distance.) For the next couple 100's, I settled into a good, easy stroke, maintaining a stroke cadence of 15-16 strokes per 25 yards. I was hitting 1:31/100 yards pretty consistently. I started trying to calculate how much more slowly I could swim the rest of the 1,250 and still keep a 1:34/100 yards average. These are the kinds of games I play while swimming! But I was able to keep pace. Around 900 yards in, my stroke count increased to 17 per 25 yards, but I was still swimming 1:31 or 1:32/100 yards. I hit 1,000 yards at 15:12, which was a personal record for 1,000 yards! My last 250 were pretty tough. My form got progressively worse and I was mostly just muscling through the water. But I did manage to keep pace and concentrated hard on keeping my stroke count. I didn't look at my watch for the last 10 lengths and just tried to concentrate on finishing strong. And finish strong I did: 19:02 (1:31.36/100 yards), considerably faster than my projected time and a faster average than my last 1,000 yard time trial!

I was pretty beat at the end and know that I pushed hard. Maybe not 100% hard, but I do want to save room for improvement!

p.s. we had our first real snow in NYC today. It started with some of the biggest snowflakes I've ever seen - like the size of my hand. It was beautiful!

Indoor ride - December 14
Time: 1:00

Treadmill run/walk - December 15
Distance: 3.2 miles
Time: 35 minutes (5 min. walking warm-up, 30 minutes of 2 min. run/1 min. walk)

Strength, PT - December 15

Swim - December 16
Distance: 1,850 yards
Time: 45 minutes
1,250 yard swim test: 19:02 = 1:31.36/100 yards (1,000 yard time was 15:12)

Indoor ride - December 16
Time: 30 minutes

"If it was easy, everyone would be doing it."

I was up in early early this morning to go to the pool for a swim. My plan had been to swim, lift weights, take Charlie out and then have a relaxing afternoon, including getting in a good nap before heading out to a couple of holiday parties this evening.

My day was going along just as planned until I remembered that NBC was airing its annual coverage of Ironman Hawaii today. "OK," I thought, "I'll watch for a little bit and then take a nap." Well... I have to give big props to NBC because I just couldn't turn it off. No matter that I already knew who won.

NBC was fortunate to have exciting races in both the men's and women's pro fields, with Craig Alexander and Chrissie Wellington winning their respective races. Watching Crissie race is really amazing - last year I was so impressed with her smile and joy as she crossed the finish line and this year was no different. She was leading on the bike, but got a flat. After stopping to change the tube, she regained her lead on the bike and then proceeded to crush the marathon, with a new Ironman marathon world record. Sick.

Al Trautwig's narration was emotional and interesting and inspiring. As usual NBC covered some amazing amateurs, including CAF-sponsored athlete Ricky James, Nave Seals Keith Davids and David Goggins, former MLB pitcher, Jeff Conine and 72 year-old (!) and 17 time Ironman (!!) Harriet Anderson.

(The title for this post was a quote from Chris McCormack (2007 winner) that NBC used in the intro and the closing of the show. Macca's known to be cocky and the quote is a bit egotistic for me, but it still made me smile!)

Running update: This week I did my run/walk three times and didn't have any knee or back pain while running. My runs were short - five minute elliptical warm-up, then 25 minutes of alternating two minutes running with one minute walking. I'm keeping the running pace at between 8:30 and 9:00 minutes/mile. Outside of running, I still get little pangs of ache - in my right kneecap or the inside of my left knee - but it's nothing even close to what I was feeling just about a month ago. And the running hasn't made it any worse. I'm going to continue to be very careful, but I'm feeling pretty encouraged right now.

PT & Strength - December 8

Treadmill run/walk - December 8
Distance: 2.5 miles
Time: 30 minutes (5 min. elliptical warm-up, 25 min. run/walk - 2 min. run, 1 min. walk, repeat)

Swim - December 9
Distance: 1,550 yards
Time: 34 minutes

Indoor bike - December 9
Time: 30 minutes

Strength - December 10

Treadmill run/walk - December 10
Distance: 2.5 miles
Time: 30 minutes (5 min. elliptical warm-up, 25 min. run/walk)

Swim - December 11
Distance: 1,750 yards
Time: 35 minutes

Treadmill run/walk - December 12
Distance: 2.6 miles
Time: 30 minutes (5 min. elliptical warm-up, 25 min. run/walk)

Strength - December 12

Swim - December 13
Distance: 2,200 yards
Time: 41 minutes

Strength - December 13

Enjoying my couch

I love watching documentaries. In general, I'd rather watch a documentary than a fiction feature. Documentaries about sports (of course), social causes, music, family, true crime, etc., you name it. I guess it's the history major in me. It's a big reason we have Netflix and the only reason I look forward to the Tribeca Film Festival each year (their movie selection pretty much stinks, but they always have great documentaries). With the colder weather coming through New York and my reduced training time combining to provide extra couch time, I've seen three good documentaries recently that I want to recommend:

"Bigger Stronger Faster*" is fun. If you're in the mood for a good sports (though not running or multi-sport) documentary, "Bigger, Stronger, Faster" is an interesting portrayal of power-lifters, body-builders and other athletes, steroid users and clean. It will make you laugh and probably cause you to re-think some of your notions about steroids and doping. The movie is written and directed by Chris Bell. He and his family also play a prominent role in the film. Bell and each of his brothers grew up idolizing Arnold Schwarzenegger and have each been power-lifters and steroid users. At the time of the movie, at least one of his brothers still used steroids. That's the background he's coming from, but I didn't feel like he was too biased either for or against steroids or other performance enhancers. His primary point is that we have to think about the issue a little more deeply and question the media blitz that makes it very clear that steroids are bad - bad for competition, bad for your health, bad for our youth. Bell narrates the movie in an engaging, funny manner. He asks good questions and speaks with interesting scientists, policy-makers and pro- and anti-steroid advocates. One of the primary themes of the movie is the mixed message athletes (kids and adults) receive - you have to strive to be your very best but watch out how you accomplish that goal; some "performance enhancers" such as supplements, altitude chambers, LASIK surgery and certain drugs are fine, others, such as anabolic steroids and blood doping (perhaps somewhat arbitrarily) are not. Bell is also very critical of the mostly unregulated, but legal, supplement industry. One of the best parts of the movie is Bell's great expose of the creation of supplement ads with the amazing "before" and "after" pictures. Robo, this one is especially for you!

"Taxi to the Dark Side" is not a movie to watch on a relaxing Friday night. It's tough to watch, but you need to see it. "Taxi" is built around the story of a young Afghan taxi driver who was beaten to death by American soldiers while being held at Bagram Air Base for a crime that he didn't commit. It exposes the torture and abuse the American military, government and CIA employ, excuse and endorse (implicitly or explicitly) in the "War on Terror". It's disgusting and disturbing. The movie won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature earlier this year and writer and director Alex Gibney gave a brief, but memorable speech with a plea to move the US "away from the dark side and back to the light." The one ray of hope from watching the movie today instead of when it was in the theater is that hopefully the new administration won't let the violations of human rights, law and common decency featured in this movie continue.

"Spirit of the Marathon" was good, but not as good as I'd hoped. The movie got some press (in the endurance sport community at least) when they had a couple "one time only" sneak previews in running hubs around the country earlier this year. "Spirit of the Marathon" tells the story of about six runners (two pros and four amateurs) as they prepare for and run in the 2005 Chicago Marathon. The movie mostly is about what it takes to get to the starting line of a marathon - for first timers and seasoned veterans alike. It also goes into the history of the marathon, the rise of Boston as the premier US marathon and the dominance of Kenyan distance runners. My main problem with the movie is that I didn't find any of the stories about the amateurs all that interesting or inspiring. That's not to say that they don't have great stories (they definitely do), but I just didn't feel like their stories were told all that well. Even though it is a pretty honest depiction of the blurry, early mornings and tired bodies, I didn't get a good sense of their struggles or their successes. I wanted to be more excited for them at the finish line, but didn't feel invested in their achievement. Making up for that is the story of Deena Castor, who won the bronze medal at the Athens Olympics and held the American women's marathon record, but had never actually won a marathon. I won't spoil the ending, but her race against the reigning Chicago champion, Constantina Tomescu-Dita, is a very exciting one. The filmmakers also have some great historical marathon footage and interviews with some top marathoners from the last 30 years.

Swim - December 4
Distance: 1,550 yards
Time: 30 minutes

Strength - December 5

Treadmill run - December 5
Distance: 1.1 miles
Time: 10 minutes

Swim - December 6
Distance: 1,900 yards
Time: 38 minutes

Strength - December 6

Indoor ride - December 7
Time: 1:00

Starting S-l-o-w-l-y

Baby steps.

This is a picture of the "workout summary" after my run today:


1.0 miles.
10:00 pace.
0.0% elevation.
I kept my cadence very high (~180 steps/minute) and tried not to think about my knee.

Thankfully, it didn't hurt - and doesn't hurt now. It felt weird to be running, but that was more psychological than physical. After a good stretch, I'm now back at my desk with a bag of frozen peas on my knee. Now I'll wait and see how it goes. I definitely won't run tomorrow. After that, it's one day (and one mile) at a time.


Indoor bike - December 1
Time: 40 minutes

PT - December 2

Strength - December 2

Swim - December 2
Distance: 1,500 yards
Time: 30 minutes

Treadmill Run - December 3
Distance: 1 mile
Time: 10 minutes
(20 min. elliptical warm-up)