I Hate It When I Forget My Pants

One of the more frustrating things in the world of exercise is forgetting something critical you need for your workout.  Today it was my shorts.  I had planned on spending a bit of time on the stationary bike at the gym, followed by an easy few miles on the treadmill.  I even managed to make it down to the center in the general vicinity of the time I was aiming for, only to realize I took out the shorts I had packed the day earlier because I needed something quick to wear last night and never replaced them.  I try really hard to keep focus on these types of things as in general it means I’m keeping on top of all the minutia in my life, and not just general fitness types of things.  But when I forget something it really annoys me.  I've no one else to blame, unfortunately, which tends to leave an extremely bitter taste.  At least it wasn't a swim I was planning on.  A forgotten bathing suit is the absolute worse.

My other post-mental drips of note today include the fact that it is slowly starting to warm up around here.  This is good news as, if all goes according to plan, I’ll be racing the Quassy Olympic Rev3 race in two months.  Hopefully I’m not cutting things too close as my behind hasn't seen the seat of a bike that’s been on an actual road since September.

Unfortunately, although I don’t think the cold is really that big of an issue when I ride outside, the roads tend to be quite salt-and-sandy from the winter.  If  there is a good stretch of nice weather days and there isn’t really anymore snow on the side of roads to melt, then the normal traffic does tend to push most of the grit far enough to the side to make for safe riding.  That really hasn't been the case this winter, though, as whenever my internal clock kicks in and starts ringing to tell me should think about getting outside for a ride, something like this happens:

A stretch of road I ride during my commute to/from work taken about two weeks ago

That basically resets the clock, and the roads, for me.  With a bit of luck I think Thursday might be opening day for me.  It’ll have to be a short ride and something during work hours instead of a commute in and/or out, but that’s about all the schedule will allow.  If at all possible, I’m going to also try and get a swim in that morning as well as there really isn't going to be another opportunity until next week.  Needless to say this isn't at all how I’d like to officially kick off training for a specific race, but all things considered I think I’m in an OK situation if I can push through the next month and a half.

Other highlights of note include a March total of just under 14,000 yards of swimming, making 5 consecutive months where I've swam more each month than any given month the previous 2 years.  My total yardage for my winter swim training is now up over 73,000 yards.  I might just have to make a goal of 100K for next year.  There also was about 45mi worth of running.  The running total actually all but matches the best monthly totals I've had since I started keeping track of my triathlon training, save one winter month two years ago in which I ran a 1/2 marathon.  If only my times were as... umm... impressive as my mileage.  Heavy sarcasm implied in multiple different facets in that last sentence.

What happens when I lose focus

A few things that make me slap myself in the head…

I carry everything I might need for work (lunch, workout clothes, random bills that I might pay at the office, phone charger, etc) in one bag.  I have a tendency to be a pack rat as well as travel with the whole world if possible.  I've been trying to reduce that footprint, hence allowing myself one bag.  After a run yesterday during the lunch-ish hour, I showered, stuffed my workout clothes back in the bag (even used the side compartment that separates the sweaty stuff from the rest and headed back upstairs.  When I got home, a few pieces of mail as well as a receipt and other random notices were soaked through with sweat as they were underneath the pouch holding my running clothes.  While it’s not making me sick or anything as I sit here having just opened those bills and handled those few notices that are now ‘crusty’ paper, it’s not like I don’t notice it.

One of those receipts, by the way, was from the car dealer that I just brought my (less than) 2 year old car to for an oil change and state inspection.  And why I’m not sitting here slapping myself in the head due to my own stupidity, the fact that my car failed inspection because of the front two tires being too worn on the inside rim makes me want to strangle something, including myself to a certain degree.

The car was bought in June of 2011.  It has 33K miles on it (lots of highway miles), and in the less-than-two years I've had the car I've already rotated the tires twice.  They SHOULD NOT be worn down to the point of needing replacements already.  I’d rationalize that maybe the wheels got out of alignment somehow in the past year, but given both sides of the car are worn makes me a bit skeptical about that root cause.  Regardless, I’m pissed for not picking up on this sooner, pissed that the tires are such that they wear so fast, and also pissed that they are not a more standard size and less than two years into owning the clown car I’m going to have to shell out $400 for two new tires and an alignment.  So much for the money I've saved buying a small, fuel efficient car.

On the triathlon front, I got back into the grove in the pool after about a 2 week absence due to a family trip up north to Rangeley Lake, ME followed by a week’s worth of a nasty cough and cold to manage about 11K yards in the pool for Feb.  I've switched up the normal swim workout a bit to include some longer intervals that topped out at 1000 yards at one point, but consistently adding in sets of 500 yards in addition to the shorter intervals I try to do at a faster pace.

I've also managed to get back out on the roads for some runs the past two weeks and think I’ll be able to maintain this into the spring.  The one complaint I have about running again has nothing to do with my slow pace, but rather my new phone’s GPS or the new release of RunKeeper that is consistently telling me I’m running anywhere between a quarter and a half mile more than I know my normal route to be.  Very frustrating to see a map of the GPS and have it bounce all over the place.

Not the worst example by far, but does show how choppy it can be

I haven’t determined exactly who’s at fault, but I know it’s not me and I’d like it to be fixed.  I’m not sure my old phone’s GPS will work now that the phone isn't linked to a cell line, but I’m going to update the old phone to the new RunKeeper app and if it does work I’ll be able to tell whether the problem is with my new phone or not.

50,000 yards of swimming

I made a decision back in October, while taking a break from any sort of focused training (and letting my PF heal/heel), that I was going to make a concerted effort to spend the winter swimming as much as possible.  So far I've been able to do a pretty decent job of holding to that goal and with one more workout in the month of January (hopefully this Saturday), I should pass the 50K mark for total yardage.  This is all since I started back up on the first of November.

Before.....

I know this isn't probably such a big deal to many, but it certainly is for me.  Compared against the same time period last year, I'm 30,000 yards ahead of schedule.  If I am able to keep the same pace up for the month of February, I'll come extremely close to matching my total yardage from all last season.  Unfortunately, that's more a horrible testament to how little I swam during the spring/summer months last year.  Regardless, now that I'm in a groove, so to speak, I'm actually starting to see some nice improvements with my times/fitness.

Comparing apples to apples with respect to workouts, my logs are showing that even in the past month, from the beginning of January to today, I've definitely seen a drop of 4 seconds or so per 100yds during intervals. More specifically, while the first sets I do during a workout are faster now than they were at the beginning of the month, the last few sets show a more substantial drop in times.  This, to me, nails home the fact that my strength and form at the end of workouts is definitely much better.  Which makes me very happy.

What I'm more excited about, though, is being able to keep this pace up for February and March.  In the pool, I've never been much better than a 2:00/100yd swimmer.  And that's a split I would only get when doing short intervals.  Bumping distances up to a 400yd or longer interval and things quickly deteriorate into abysmal territory.  As it stands today, I can regularly swim sets of 100yds in less than 1:50 (granted, with maybe 30ish seconds rest in between intervals) and my longer intervals are slowly rounding into shape as well, with the ceiling on how slow I end up going during the later stages of the workout now at least within shouting distance of that elusive 2:00/100yd mark.

The swim will almost certainly be the weakest part of any race I do (assuming we're not including T1 times here), but it does feels good to think I'm making progress.  That and the fact my lats/back are now stretching the seams of all my shirts makes happy.  OK, time to go flex in the mirror.

... after.

2012 New England Triathlon Clydesdale Rankings*

* Unofficial, of course.....

By nature I’m a competitive person, and I’m also one of those people that tend to find a strange sort of comfort, or maybe equilibrium is a better word, when playing around with numbers.  With respect to triathlons, that manifests itself by going through spells where I find myself breaking down swim, bike, and run splits to a chaotic degree… wondering where I might have placed in a race had a been a bit faster in one leg or another.  I don’t think these traits put me in any sort of outlier bin with respect to all the other people who race triathlons.  Exactly the opposite, most likely.  I will specify, however, that my compete-level is always measured against myself.  Unless a person has done something rude or obnoxious to the extreme, I have hardly ever found myself taunting or belittling someone based on their performance compared to mine.  I am most definitely not one of those people who, in the course of their competition tend to leave a wake of insults aimed at bolstering their own ego.  Those race reports where people tell how awesome they are, write about how they found their motivation by passing that guy with the carbon wheels (or ‘chic-ing’ as some ladies tend to say when they pass men)?  Whole lots of immaturity and selfishness going on there.  Hardly any of us out there are anywhere near professional status, and even those who find themselves at the faster end of the age-group spectrum should appreciate the time and effort all your fellow races put into their training and determination.  Thinking anything less than what a good job everyone else is doing belittles their commitment.  Unless you know the other person.  Then anything goes, because that’s just a whole lot of fun.

Stepping off the mini-soap box, I focused my insanity with respect to numbers with my desire to better myself by dangling a nice big carrot in front of me and spent a bit of energy mining race results from the past year here in New England.  Specifically, races in ME, NH, VT, MA, CT, and RI that had a Clydesdale division.  Technically New York is part of the USAT Northeast Region, but there were too many races in NY to include them.  The carrot, of course, was to figure out where I rank compared to my fellow Clydesdales here in New England.  I worked a bit of computing magic to make the task a bit less monotonous but I've got to say the USAT Rankings web site didn't do much to make this job any easier.  But then I also didn't feel like waiting around for USAT to publish a .pdf either.

Anyway, enough b.s. from me.  My aero-helmet is off to the guys listed below.  Some of their times and splits were awfully impressive for people lugging over 200lbs around.  I’m real curious to see if any of these guys will make the list in 2013 when the weight limit is bumped up to 220lbs.

The top 9 Clydesdale NE rankings for 2012**

1) Rick Durgin, 40, Westbrook, ME:  86.98949 (4 races)

2) Steven Soba, 42, Goffstown, NH:  83.48417 (5 races)

3) Ryan Johnson, 28, Somerville MA:  81.62134 (3 races)

4) Jason Eaddy, 36, Sudbury MA:  81.11957 (4 races)

5) Tim Grady, 39, Hopkington MA:  79.93037 (5 races)

6) Dave White, 38, Rockland MA:  79.66436 (5 races)

7) Rafeal Martinez, 42, Bloomfield CT:  79.43142 (5 races)

8) Simon O’Leary, 51, Newton MA:  79.27952 (5 races)

9) Marc Wolpers, 46, Cos Cob CT:  79.13544 (8 races)

** The fine print…. All races were USAT sanctioned races in MA, CT, ME, NH, VT, and RI.  Only people who had valid USAT rankings were included (which meant 3 or more races… there were 3 or 4 guys who would have also been included but had less than 3 races).  Only people who declared a residency in one of the above states were included.  Each person raced at least once as a Clydesdale, but they didn't have to race all their races as such.  If I made any mistakes, I apologize.  Why a Top 9?  Seemed like a good cutoff.  There seemed an appropriate break from the 5 guys what ranked in the 79’s compared to the many more that ranked in the 78’s.

*** Where did I fall in all this, you may ask?  (After all, that was a big part of my rational for doing this in the first place).  My ranking this past year was 69.49158, with an individual race high of 71.68ish at the Rev3 OOB Olympic race.  I definitely have a goal of cracking the top 10 for this type of list next year.  What remains to be seen is whether that’s by attrition (folks dropping out of the division for not being > 220, or by improving my time.  Hopefully it’ll be the later.

2013 Northeast Region Athena and Clydesdale Triathlon Races

I'm dropping a quick post to say that I've updated the list of races for the Northeast region (NY pending.... maybe) that have the option to register in an Athena or Clydesdale division.  You can follow this link to the page, or simply click on the tab above.

As I note on the page itself, I've tried to verify this information based on results from previous years along with specific statements on the race websites themselves.  If I've missed a race, then they don't do a very good job marketing themselves. If I've included a race that has changed their format, I apologize.

And for my next magic trick, assuming I have a bit of time to set up a few scripts, I'll see what I can do about putting together an extremely unofficial ranking for the 2012 season.

2013; An awkward start

My first training activity of the new year was a swim yesterday, the 2nd.  This doesn't include the 20 trips from the 2nd floor of the house, down to the basement, and back up again that I did the day before.  Nor does it include all the core work I did by virtue of having the Little Man trying to stand on my stomach while I was laying on the floor.  If I can figure out a way to log that sort of information then I will reevaluate its place in my training routine.

I've been on, for me, a great swimming kick.  Since I started training again back at the beginning of November I've averaged one swim workout almost every 3 days, about 16.5K yards a month.  I think it’s been paying off too as I've seen my 200yd interval times pretty consistently average less than 2:00/100.  I've also been able to increase my general endurance in the pool during longer (400yd, for example) intervals and noticed that the slowest 50yd splits during those longer intervals aren't nearly as horrendous as they used to be (ie my worst 50yd splits are no longer in the low 70 second range, but rather the mid 60 second range).
I will make it a point during the month of January to do a 15 minute time trial swim as I did something similar last year in March and this way I can compare where I am compared to last year.

Today I planned on making my first run of the new year, and the first run, truth be told, since the end of September.  While my foot is still not 100%, at this point I see no reason to hold off as it seems it will heal when it does and running won’t make it any worse.   The run was, unfortunately, derailed by work issues as well as a general wussy attitude when confronted this morning with this:

I find the accuracy to the tenths digit  amusing...  I think that 0.1 degree really makes a difference

I had actually debated, yesterday, to head outside during lunch for a run, but being my first day back in the office in about two weeks, my packing skills the night before left something to be desired.  I had everything I needed except for a fleece.  And there was no way I was going outside in what was, at that time, 20-something degree weather in a tech-tee.  I at least managed to remember to pack everything I needed to swim, shower, and dress for work.  While this might seem like a positive conclusion considering I forgot the fleece, I managed to leave my (clean) underwear in the car with my work baggage instead of bringing it in with me to the Y before my swim.  I opted to wait until I got to work to remedy that situation rather than a quick change in the parking lot.  I really didn't need to lose my membership on account of someone parking next to me and complaining at the front desk about some dude in his car with no pants on.  And if that was the end of my brain devolution, I think I’d call myself lucky.  Unfortunately, I also managed to spend a very embarrassing 15 seconds or so (that seemed much longer than it was) trying to get into my car only to realize that I had the wrong car.  Same make, model, and color which provides for a good excuse except for the fact that my car is covered in enough layers of salt and grime to turn a black car white, while the other car was a nice sparkly black.

Yes, I feel like a clown trying to unpack myself from it when I get out, but I can also coax close to 40mpg out of it

One guess as to which one is mine

One would have thought that the triathlon bumper sticker I was staring at on this other person’s car would have tipped me off (since I don’t have any such sticker on my car), except for the fact that my mind was trying to rationalize who had managed to add a sticker to my bumper and why, whoever this mysterious bumper sticker bandit was, selected lady stick-figure for the swim-bike-run pics instead of a guy.

I am actually amazed at how well this clip from the photo of the car above enlarged

So while it might take some time for me to interpret all the omens presented the first few days of the year (or simply deduce that either I'm losing my mind or that the chlorine is eating away at my brain cells), I’m going to relish my new found graduation from being tagged as a barge-esq swimmer to more of a battleship/oil tanker type of vessel.  I'm also going to try and track down the owner of my bizzaro car and let her know I like her bumper sticker, if that's possible without coming across as a stalker.

My Heel Spur and PF

I've never been the most flexible person, at least in terms of muscular elasticity.  I like to think that I'm extremely flexible in other areas of my life.  Regardless, that inflexibility finally created a situation that necessitated a trip to a doctor.  The result, a nice 'ol heel spur, or calcaneal spur if you want to sound snooty about it.  After getting a fancy real-time x-ray (maybe not really that fancy... the technology, when I thought about it, probably wasn't that complicated considering you hardly ever see anything but digital x-rays these days, and getting a live feed from an x-ray is probably just a matter of leaving the thing on instead of a quick zap), and having the technician move my foot around a bit to the right spot, we finally saw this:

The spur itself is the little hook pointing to the right at the bottom of the heel

And there is was, the root of some really annoying pain at different times during the day.

Technically, the spur itself is not the root of the problem, but an artifact of plantar fasciitis.  The pain is focused on the spur, where the tendon and the bone meet.

I first felt the pain from the spur itself back in September.  Specifically, a day or two before the 25th of September.  Why can I remember that date so accurately?  It's the last time I went for a run, and is logged in my RunKeeper activities.  Thinking I just bruised my heel doing something around the house, maybe jumping onto/off of something in a pair of socks or dress shoes (dress shoes, in my world, are defined by any everyday footwear NOT considered a running sneaker), I decided a bit of rest from running would be the best treatment.  Given I just stunk up the joint a few weeks before at the Pumpkinman, I didn't feel too bad about this decision.  The break from running, not surprisingly, coincided with a break from swimming and cycling as well.  It also coincided with a crazy two month period where TL was recovering from getting tagged on her bike to the tune of 9-ish broken bones.

Anyway, fast forward to the end of November and things were actually getting worse, with the annoying pain becoming something that actually really kind of hurt when I would get up in the morning, among other times.  This symptom, being more bothersome after rest, was the telltale sign that actually triggered me to go to see a doctor.  There wasn't much he could do other than offer more rest, suggest some stretches, and give me a cortisone (I think) shot.

I've a followup appointment scheduled for after the new year, but I'm not sure I'm going to go.  The foot is feeling better these days.  I try to spend some time in the evening rolling my foot over a tennis ball to stretch out my arch, in addition to a bit more focus on stretching the calves and foot area.  I've decided that the new year will be as good a time as any to get back (on/off?) the wagon and start running again.  Although technically I've been doing a warm-down of a mile or so on the treadmill after some quality time on the trainer/stationary bike.  I don't think the 9-10 minute mile really should count as a running workout, though.