Tag: Swimming

Sugarbomb

~ meh ~ 4 Comments

Starting tomorrow…pull out that Speedo…it’s February Fitness time!

As a Masters coach I am encouraging one and all to get out there and push your fitness levels this month.  Though I personally am taking a break from hard training due to some chronic injuries that just will not quit (bummer), I still plan on swimming.  Last year I went about 40,000 yards, which is totally beatable.  So there’s goal #1.

Along the same lines of improving overall health/fitness….I have a massive sugar problem.  And apparently sugar is horrifically terrible for you.  So goal #2: cut back on sugar intake.  Eliminating fake sweeteners, avoiding sugary foods during the day, and no candy at all.  It’s a bad habit, time to break it.

And finally, my coworker and I have committed to no bitching this month…which is completely unrelated to physical exertion, but a serious exercise in mental fitness.

And there it is. February Fitness.  Go get ’em.

Streak Report–Part II

~ meh ~ 1 Comment

sausage race finish line…picture via

And now, for the second and final installment of the streak report.  Not a lot of running and minimal biking (because I was in California and did not have a bike with me.)  At least I got to do a lot of this in the sun.

Continued from Part I…

Day 13: 1hr 15 min of TRX with sprints in between each circuit

Day 14: 5.3 mile run alone with my music, shins and knee reeeeally got to me

Day 15: 26 mile bike ride (1 hr 30 min).  Also the day I decided to take the next week+ off until my leg stopped hurting.

Day 16 : First day in CA.  3200 swim OUTSIIIIDE!

Day 17 (Christmas): everything was closed.  Did a 5ish mile walk with Paul and Dad in the hot hot sun (I broke a sweat, counting it).

Day 18: 4.something mile hike in the mountains of SB with some old friends (we walked uphill, also counting it)

Day 19: 4000 swim (1hr 15 min, main set: broken mile)

Day 20: 3500 swim (1hr 15 min, long course masters practice in SB)

Day 21: 2500 swim (1 hr, long and easy, hypoxic pull)

Day 22: 3000 swim (1hr 15 min, threw some fast 100s in there)

Day 23: Nothing.  Spent the day recovering from a migraine on the flight home.  Then baked bread.

Day 24 (but actually day 25 bc I started on day 0): (NEW YEARS DAY!) 1hr 30 min ride on the trainer.  Felt like death.

The end.  How anticlimactic.  It wasn’t a complete fail, I only did nothing on 2 of the 25 days, but also not a complete success.  I’m still not running, going to try to start again this weekend.  Fingers crossed….

Unplugged

~ meh ~ 2 Comments

…is where I was for the past week and a half.  I sat down at a computer exactly once and it was for 5 minutes.  And it was glorious.

The past week, in a nutshell:

xmas in santa barbara (and an xmas dinner in seal beach)

hiking in the mountains

old friends

at old hangouts

a little swimming in the sun

in totally amazing weather

then i headed thata way

to sf

where i spent a lot of time walking

over hills, through familiar neighborhoods

avoiding death monsters

hanging out with super awesome peeps, making great food

and eating (and drinking) it

enjoyed some local music

and local art

culminating in a bridal shower for alix

where my more artistic counterparts took over the job of making the rehearsal bouquet (because I was ruining it) while i went and drank champagne and ate about 30 shrimp before hopping on a red-eye back to kentucky

so long, california. until next time.

happy 2012

Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.

~ meh ~ Leave a comment
NASA Satellite image, April 2004

Just a month and a half after her first attempt, 62-year-old Diana Nyad tried again to complete a cage-less swim from Havana to Florida, only to be stopped 40 hours and 92 miles in (just 11 miles short of the 103 mile goal) by Man ‘o War and Box Jellyfish stings.   She says she’s learned to respect the ocean and won’t try again.  I have trouble believing her.

A few pics here.  Pretty gnarly.

Time’s a Goon

~ meh ~ Leave a comment

I LOVE SUMMER SO MUCH.  Even when I get tangled up in the pool vacuum hose.  (and no, I don’t know where my bellybutton went in that picture…maybe the whiteness ate it.)

It doesn’t hurt that Paul’s sister’s boyfriend’s mother (did you get that?) has a house with a pool around the corner from where we live.  And she lets us use it pretty much whenever we want.  She even brings us lemonade and pretzels while we float around in the sun, which reminds me of summers in high school when we lived at Emily’s pool and her mom would bring us popcorn.  And now that I’m not doing 3 hour bike rides every weekend, this is what I do instead: lie on my floatie reading my book, drinking lemonade, getting sunburned, and dreading the end of August.  It’s amazing.

Anyway, the book I’m reading above is A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, and I thought it was pretty phenomenal.  Different format than most novels, almost a series of short stories, very fragmented and unconventional in both the narrative and the actual visual presentation.  Really good.  Recommend.

Time to be Fearless…or insane

~ meh ~ 1 Comment
Photo via CNN

If you’re bored today, check out Diana Nyad‘s progress as she attempts the 103-mile swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage (they have a kind of electrical shark-guarding field that surrounds her during the swim, but apparently it doesn’t work for certain types of shark, so she also has a team of “shark divers” to distract any sharks that go after her.  Uhh…)  She jumped in at 7:45pm ET yesterday, the swim is expected to take about 60 hours.  She’s 61.

Track her progress on the swim here.

Update:  She didn’t make it.  After 29 hours she voluntarily quit, and exited the water vomiting (uhh…good call on calling it quits).  Props to her for going for it.

Race Reports: A Backlog

~ meh ~ Leave a comment

Turns out:  New job + Old jobs + Training + Paul out of town = Blog fail.

Did a few races the past 2 months.  To spare you from pages of details that you don’t care about anyway, here are a few haikus to fill you in.

USMS 15K Relay National Championship (5K Open Water Swim)
Poor Buoy Placement
Can Make For Frustrating Swim
In Indiana

(I'm the one with the 3 on my arm)

Markey Race for Women’s Cancer (Sprint Triathlon)
Thunder And Lightning
Cannot Stop Us From Racing
In Our Wet Clothing

4th of July Bluegrass 10K (10K Run)
Fun To Run Fast In
The Bluegrass But Blisters Sting
Go America

Music City Tri (Olympic Distance Triathlon)
Nashville Has Hills
Do I Still Like Triathlon?
Heat Stroke Feels Like Death

For full race reports (if you really want them), go here.