Last workout before the race.

This image shows pretty well how the normal Tuesday/Thursday/Sunday run/run/bike routine suddenly got crowded with cramming for the swim.

Today is the end of that cram session and there was one last trip to the pool. Swam 450 yards again. Crowding meant having to circle and even stop a few times which strangely led me to swim faster when I had a clear shot. The six beat kick seems to be here to stay. If I'd planned it, it sure wouldn't have been my intent to make a major change to my technique three days before the event, but it just sort of invited itself to the party.

Since I have a kick now, I figured why not try to use what free attention I have to focus on bringing the kick just up to the surface of the water like they say you should. This wasn't too hard and I had the sneaking feeling that it was speeding me up. I counted strokes and came up noticeably less than usual (25 vs low 30s normally -- and this is with no push off or flip turn). Like 20% less. And I was actually having to remind myself to glide a bit more so I could exhale better and get a good inhale when I was ready.

Really looking forward to getting this one in the record books.

Only 3 days to go.

Interesting swim tonight. Was circling 4 to a lane so had to stop a few times to make room. Passed all my lanemates but no one passed me. Hmm. Fast lane too. Still making no claims about being fast.

Out of nowhere came a 6 beat kick. Dunno if it was adding propulsion, but it kept my feet up. Also was getting good body rotation both directions. Realized why my rotation (up) to the right has been bad, which is why I could not breathe to the right, because I was not pushing my left shoulder down the same way I do my right shoulder when breathing left. Focusing on being symmetric (pushing both shoulders down the same) made the rotation better and it felt like it made the pull easier too. Very interesting. Too bad I didn't have clear space to see how fast I was going.

Will probably only swim tomorrow (450 yards) and then that will be it before the tri.

Doing way too good a job preparing for success in this event.

Went to the Shadow Cliffs park after work to attempt to pre-run the course. There are a few hills on it and I wanted to know how much to hold back if any to make sure I would be able to sustain a solid effort all the way through.

Googling for "pleasanton tri for fun gps" turned up this.



I printed it out and looked at it carefully to make sure I knew what was what in the sections where the loops overlap. During the run I checked the map every minute or two to be ready for the next turn, but I still took a few wrong ones. I should have noticed you can also view a satellite image version, like so.



That would have made it a little more clear which trail to take, as there are quite a few out there that run parallel to each other and at ground level the trees block your view of where they go. However, the run I did was essentially similar. The climbs were the same. The distance actually came out a bit long. 100 meters over a 5k is within the margin of error on the GPS anyway so I am not going to worry about it.

Here's what I actually did.



The real shocker was the pace. Unlike in the race, I wasn't warmed up already before the start, so as my heart rate picked up it felt like I started out too fast. But then I remembered this was going to be a much shorter run than usual so it should hurt a bit. Mostly the focus was on keeping up the cadence, remembering to breathe, and checking the map. Having decided to do the swim with a shirt already on (to avoid having to wrestle one on in T1) I did the run in my favorite rashguard. This also means I can put the heart rate monitor on before the swim and that's another thing not to have to do in T1.

Nearly 8:00 minutes flat per mile is pretty good for me. Heart rate was pretty stable low 170s once I warmed up. 180 is something I can maintain for about an hour, so if I push 170 on the bike I can probably up it to 180-185 for the run. That may mean a slightly better pace in the race. It is also possible I'll be more tired then and won't get the same speed for the effort. Or maybe I'll be lucky and a bit of fatigue will make me run looser. 25:50 was several minutes faster than I could have hoped.



Have I mentioned I'm looking forward to this?

Now all I need to do is practice putting socks on while my feet are wet.

Swam

That's it. Go into the gym, change, swim 450 yards, swim an extra 50 practicing sighting every 3rd stroke or so. Out. Done. Went and got some groceries and went home.

Probably will swim two more times before the event. It'll be interesting to see what kind of routine I settle into after the first tri is behind me. The pool is going to be closed for 10 days (Aug 22/Sep 1) for maintenance so that probably means no swimming for a couple of weeks.

Already looking to the future and trying to convince some other people to come do the Olympic (plus) distance event at Laguna Phuket in Thailand in 2010. That is my next goal.

Only one workout today, the WOJ shop ride as usual.

Kind of a mellow ride. One guy had a busted spoke and the pace dropped way down after that as he soldiered on back to the shop.

Put in what felt like a good effort on the climb up Pinehurst from Canyon. Averaged 171 bpm for almost 10 minutes on it. Not sure what my max HR on the bike is, but it was getting close there. Here's the detail graph with that climb highlighted. (Taller HR spikes are from crosstalk with the wheel speed sensor going down hill.)

Open water practice

Went to Lake Temescal today to swim (at least) 400 meters. The length of the lane isn't marked, probably because it isn't really constant. So there may have been a bit of erring on the conservative side. Putting the GPS unit under my swim cap worked pretty well and I was surprised when I uploaded the data that it said about 660m. Time was about 16 minutes. That projects out to about 10 minutes for a 400 meter swim. Not bad since I was sighting all by my lonesome and had to stop and turn around at the ropeline every 60 meters or so. In the race it will be a continuous swim with two left turns. Since I tend to drift left I think I'll start on the right, stay out of the way of the folks who think they need the inside line, and use them as a boundary to keep me going straight.

Used the tinted goggles for the first time and that was a good purchase for outdoor swimming. Also tried the earplugs again. No water in the ear this time. No wobbling around while exiting the water. All good.

18 swims in 3 weeks

Not bad. The only off days where when the pool was closed unexpectedly.

Pants aren't fitting anymore. Hmm.

The drawstring on my board shorts is pulled all the way taut and they still start sliding down as I'm running in them. That's a bummer. I really like these shorts.

Ran 4 miles with the dog. Then went to the gym to get in another 450y. Tried some earplugs for the first time. They worked. Messed around with gliding, to see if I could get more for less, and then tried again to find some way to have a productive kick. Can sort of one-beat when my left shoulder is high. Anything more than that doesn't seem to produce speed but it definitely demands more air.

++

Swam 450 straight again. Broke in some new goggles. TYR Nest Pro. Very nice. Easier to get a seal than the TYR Racetech. Those aren't bad, but you had to get them in one exact spot or they'd leak. Nest Pros you can just lob onto your face and go.

Breathing is not requiring all my attention now so I am poking around youtube looking at videos and picking things to practice. Today it was trying to get my forearms more vertical before pulling. Seemed to help. Yee haw. Now if my kicking felt like it was contributing to moving forward I might be on to something.

Repetition is a useful thing. Repetition is a useful thing.

This swimming every day stuff is helping immensely. Lapping in the pool is becoming easier, both more automatic and more sustainable. Even managed to fit in some straight-ahead sighting in this workout.

My outlook for the event is being upgraded from hoping to finish the swim without stopping (holding on to a kayak, or treading water/breast stroking, etc.), to maybe actually finishing with a mid pack time.