Freestyle: Easier Said Than Done

No, that's not me. It is an unknown swimmer exhibiting excellent form as he completes the recovery and prepares for the entry phase of the stroke.

Today I was thinking of something while turning out the light and easy laps in the pool. Specifically, I was calculating the number of strokes I typically do for a given swim workout. Basically, I regularly take as few as 17 strokes to complete a length (25m) when I'm really trying to keep my count low, and as many as 22 when I'm fatigued and/or sprinting during training. So, for arguments sake, let's say I take 20 strokes per length. Now, on a typical long swim day, I'll do 2500m. That's 100 lengths, and 100 lengths at 20 strokes per length is 2000 strokes per workout. But it wasn't the number of strokes I was really thinking about, rather, it was the fact that of those 2000 strokes, only now and again do I really feel the execution of a single, perfect stroke.

What is a perfect stroke? I suppose, for me, it starts with a brush of my stroking hand's thumb on my thigh - the first indication that I'm exhibiting good form by "swimming tight" and "staying long". As that thumb brushes against my upper leg, I complete my roll and raise my elbow out of the water and high in the air, driving my recovery arm effortlessly forward. I know it's going to be a perfect stroke when I purposely keep my extended arm straight and pointed until the very last possible moment while "waiting" for my recovery arm to catch up. As my recovery hand enters my peripheral vision, I drive it down and into the water, not making a single sound or splash, and guide it forward as I begin the pull from the opposite arm. When this happens, it's just... Magic.

So what could go wrong? Well, how about: body under-rotation, crooked hand entry, slapping the water with the hand and/or forearm, over-reaching, dropping the elbow, under-catching, mid-line crossing... Just to name a few issues. By and large, my stroke is pretty consistent and proper throughout the workouts. And there's no doubt I've come a long way from the first day in the pool almost a year ago. But, man, every now and again when I feel that perfect stroke, I simply fall into a blissful state of pride and accomplishment. At least for a few seconds, until the next stroke is initiated when, at that point, all I can do is focus on making it happen again.

It's then that I remind myself to remember: it took me a solid 4 years before I could truly "spin circles" on the bike without actually thinking about what I was doing. That, is muscle memory.

Swimming commentary aside, I'm getting ready for the SkinnyMan Sprint Triathlon this weekend in Skaneateles, NY. The race, being named after me and all, will be an ideal event to win as this season begins to wind down. More on that later.

This past weekend I hit the pool for along swim on Friday, which went well but left me strangely sore in the upper body all night and when I woke up on Saturday. After shaking it off, I did a bike-run brick which also went extremely well. The 5k I ran after the bike was as smooth, controlled and as fast as a pure 5k. Sunday brought more positive feedback with a delightful 1.5 hour trail run which left me feeling more strong than expired. The way my recent training sessions have been going, I'm almost tempted to say that I've hit my peak almost according to plan. Considering my goal of peaking this month was established in October of 2004, it's pretty amazing to see it actually unfold accordingly.

Thanks for reading.

Blogger's Singularity

I thought The Daily Grind needed a face lift as we progress towards the end of the season. Hopefully, you'll like the new look as much as I do (I must admit, I spent entirely too much time on the new header)!

Anyways, another thanks to all my readers and "fans" for their continued interest and support!

Serenity

You can't really tell from the fuzzy picture, but tonight's ride was another winner... Rolling through the hills and enjoying the oddly crisp evening air. This weather's fantastic for afternoon/evening workouts, but man, it was freezing this morning. And if the weather stays like this, I'm sure not going to be a happy camper - getting into the water on race day - in the upcoming weeks.

Funny how this time of year, workouts are becoming less and less for training, per se, and more and more for simple pleasure. That feeling of breaking free from work, from people and from life, and rolling into the peaceful backdrop of Nowhere, NY that really centers the soul.

This weekend we'll be serving up a pretty intense bike/run brick workout on Saturday, followed by a leisurely long run on Sunday. Recently, I've given up on trying to phase into my new orthotics...My feet just aren't taking to them on the runs. But since I've switched back to my old ones, despite their bulky, broken down condition, my body has been much happier at the end of the day. I'll be working with my doctor on getting my new ones tweaked in time for the off-season and, with any hope, I'll be good to go when I resume my big volume runs over the winter.

In other news, I've taken a hiatus from swimming over the past week as I've tried desperately to identify a new place to swim. The two pools that I belong to are closed until mid-September (being high-school pools, apparently now is a good time for maintenance), and it's been a bit of a mad scramble to find a place to swim. Luckily, a solution presented itself to me, and I'll be getting in the tank tomorrow for a good, long swim.

Enjoy the weekend.

Surprises Around Every Bend

There it is. Further proof that, even in the middle of nowhere and far from home, there exist signs of the familiar.

Had a highly successful weekend of training, starting with a decent tempo run on Friday, another high tempo run on Saturday, and a light recovery day on Sunday. Today, I rolled out the door at 6:00 for a blistering ride and came home surrounded by Shadows & Tall Trees. Both on the roads before me, and on my mp3 player, ironically enough.

In addition to the earlier-setting sun, I was actually cold during the last 20 minutes of my ride tonight... Could Fall really be that close?

Bundle up.

Forward P

Take a look at my results this year. They're good, no doubt, but notice any trend? Notice they're all very close to first, but none are quite there? People spend an entire summer training to simply finish one triathlon, yet I can consistently place in the top group, often times taking a podium spot. But a win, so far, has been out of my reach. So I feel I'm stuck in "no man's land." Good enough to be dicing it up at the front of the races, but still one step away from owning the races. One critical step.

Summer has reached it's critical velocity. From here on out, the weather only gets colder, the days only get shorter, and the opportunities for making that one break-through performance of the year are getting smaller.

If I can get a win by the end of season, I'll be most pleased. If not, well, there have been plenty of learning experiences this year to take with me into the off-season. But with two major races left this year, it's more important now than ever before this season to keep the momentum high to finish the season strong. I'll be honest, though, that deep down and in the back of my mind when I've been out riding recently, rolling home near sunset with the slightest bit of cool in the air... I'm already thinking of the 2006 race season.

Roll on.

Little Falls, Little Cup

Part II - The Ride.

It was a little murky this morning as I made my way to Little Falls for the second time this weekend. Today I'd be racing the Canal Classic bicycle road race as part II of my effort towards winning the Canal Cup award. Today's race consisted of a relatively short (30+ mile) course with a series of three decent climbs, followed by a long, gentle descent all the way back to the flat lands before the finish. The three climbs come in series of increasing order of magnitude, with the third being the hardest and longest and occurring at about the halfway point of the race.

My good buddy Tim, who's heart was in a far better place than my legs, was there today to help me get through the race and secure the Canal Cup award. But after we rolled along together during our warm up, I insisted he race his own race today, as I knew he'd have the legs to do pretty well overall (even after taking 4th in yesterday's Capital Region RR!), whereas I was simply interested in keeping a tempo and going for a good overall time.

Sure enough, things exploded right out of the gate as they do in all road races, but I managed to keep a good position at the back of the lead group through the first major climb. However, just as the leaders at the very front crested the climb, I started to slip away as my "running muscles" were totally starting to lock-up under the load. In a matter of seconds, I'd lost contact with the lead group, and was starting to fall back as we approached the second hill. A handful of riders came up on me and we worked together for a bit while riding along the flatter section, but as soon as the road turned up again, they were off my pace. Like this, I pretty much rode alone through the top of the third and last climb, at which point I began the long descent by myself.

After about 2 miles, a group of 6 completely unorganized riders caught me and we started riding together. Every time the slightest resemblance of a paceline would form, someone in this group would fly off the front for 10 seconds and then blow apart before being swallowed up again by the remaining six of us. I suddenly remembered all the frustrations of road racing. I rolled to the front of this group and gave everyone an earfull about doing some work and getting organized to minimize the gap between us and the race leaders. Eventually, they got it, and we were rolling single paceline for the duration of the race. I doubt I made any friends today in this group, but hey, that's racing.

With my legs being as sore as they were today, I pretty much kept a consistent pace through to the very end. But it was not a typical race pace for me. The winner of yesterday's 10k was in the lead group, and so I knew I'd be runner-up at best for the Cup - at the time, I was okay with going 90% and being first runner-up.

After crossing the line, we all rolled around for a bit to cool-down and to dissect the race events. Tim had another fantastic performance, as predicted, taking 5th overall. I'd ended up finishing mid-pack, and as I explained to Tim, I simply let first place go after I lost contact with the lead group and rode a decent tempo for the rest of the day. This, unfortunately, was a mistake of mine. One thing I'd not considered (and I'm not sure why) was the possibility of a slower runner from yesterday being a faster rider today. In fact, I'd spent so much time focusing on who was in first, it never occurred to me to worry about who was in second. The price for this mistake, was a place on the podium for me by a matter of seconds, as in the end, I wound up taking third place in the Canal Cup.

As with every race, I always try to extract positive learning points from my performance. Overall, this was a very good race weekend, and I had a lot of fun doing these events. I ran a stellar 10k yesterday, and I'm very proud of that. I was off my target pace in the end, but given the heat and the difficulty of the course, I was okay with this. Today's race was challenging for me, as I'd not fully recovered from the efforts of yesterday. But my only true mistake was letting up on the pace today, and not focusing on the big picture. Something I won't let happen again.

I did end up taking home the "Little Cup", which was the third place trophy for the competition. The little cup was about 1/3 the size of the winner's cup, and just barely fits on my bookshelf. So, on a final positive note, had I won the overall or second-place cup, I'd likely have no place to display it ;-)

Thanks for reading.

Sun Spots at 200bpm

Part I - The Run.

Today was the Little Falls 10k, part of a two-day, two-event effort to take home the Canal Cup.

[Again - the Canal Cup is the award given to the athlete with the fastest combined time between today's 10k and tomorrow's bicycle road race.]

Heading out to the race site this morning, I knew it was going to be another tough one, with temperatures near 90, and humidity to match. The run course consisted of several loops through the city streets before heading out into the rolling country surrounding the town center. This was not a flat course.

At the gun, I went out firing on all cylinders, immediately forcing the group to string out. Within the first 1/2 mile, the race leader was already a good 20 seconds up the road, and all I could do was watch him run away. "Okaaaaaay," I thought, "Battling for second place today, I see." At the mile mark, my split was 6:12, meaning he was easily running sub-6. Begin mental dialogue:

"Okay. You're not going to win or lose the Canal Cup today. Focus, turn'em over, and let's aim for a podium finish in today's race."

Out of the city, the roads were on fire - the sun was coming down, the heat was reflecting off the open road and the humidity was squeezing my chest like an aircast. At mile 3, things got a bit ugly. The road turned up, and continued to do so for the next mile. Nothing that I'd call a leg-breaker, but a long, grinding, open expanse of pavement, hot as the devil's sauna itself. At mile 4, I thought about walking... Just for a few seconds, as I wasn't even sure I could make it to mile 5, let alone post a good time in the overall. But I knew the moment I broke cadence, I'd never start up again. So on I pushed.

At mile 5, my HR was soaring, but I was still keeping distance on my closest competitor. I could hear his foot strikes, but could not hear his breathing. He was close, but not that close - and I was completely hell-bent on keeping my position, and preventing him from catching me.

I upped it yet another notch - recovered now from my lull at miles 3 and 4 - I would leave it all out there from this point on. For the rest of the race, I was at (and actually above) my max HR (yes, indicating that I've actually seen a "new" max HR today, likely due to the heat). I came across the line, my legs virtually detached from my body, with the discomfort no longer even registering in my brain and my vision but a tunnel. This effort earned me 2nd place, with first going to the wildfire whom annihilated the field from the gun.

My time was far from goal, but given the course and the heat, I was extremely pleased with the result. There wasn't a single moment on the course where I thought I could've gone harder. And, at the end of the day, I landed on the podium and took home some hardware. Going into the race tomorrow with this kind of performance is nothing but good.

To be concluded...

Looming

When you hear me say "I really need a ride today," the true meaning generally falls into one of two categories. Either, I mean that I need to go out and do a ride as it's crucial for training, i.e., it's a "quality" session imperative to my bigger plan, or I mean that things have piled up mentally and I just need to "go". Just go, and push the gears. Feel the heat, the humidity, the sun and the wind on my body, the sweat in my eyes and the salt on my skin. Feel my legs filling with that all-too-familiar burn only to feel them drain on out during my final descent back into the valley on my way home. Just in time to watch the sun go down over the hills, over the river.

Today was shaping up to be a rare day, where when I said to myself "I really need a ride today," I meant it for both reasons stated above. And so with great enthusiasm, I rolled out into the hot evening to hit the hills. Solo. Just me and my mp3 player, and the endless roads laid out before me.

But it was 8 minutes, by the display of my HRM, when I heard it: PPPFFFSSSTTT. Followed immediately by: Wobble, Wobble, Wobble, Wobble. Yes, that would be the sound of a flat tire, and the lovely feeling of riding on your rim.

"Okay. Gain composure. There's no use in getting mad at this situation." I said to myself. I don't know, something about flats always has me reaching for the hot button. I guess it's just the fact that training is so hard by itself - why does it need to be further complicated by exploding equipment? Regardless, I got myself off the road and onto a nice spot of grass to get to work replacing my blown tube with my trusty spare. I was back on the bike in no time, ready to roll on.

"I hope my spare tube holds."

"I hope I cleaned out the tire okay, and I don't puncture again... I only have the one spare."

"Man, my legs feel good tonight... And I love this song playing on my mp3."

"Tire feels pretty good."

"I'm feeling the rhythm now."

"I think it's going to hold. I think tonight's going to be an awesome night..."

PPPFFFSSSTTT. Wobble, Wobble, Wobble, Wobble.

"Sigh."

That's the way the cookie crumbles, as they say. But I wonder: was it a sign that I just wasn't supposed to ride today? Perhaps I would have gone too hard and wasted my legs before a big race weekend? Or was it an omen? Telling me that my wheels are evil and I'll suffer yet another flat on race day?

Who knows.

In the end today, on a day where I needed both the workout and the therapy, I got 17 minutes on the bike. Very disappointing. But I suppose, perhaps, that it was better than 16.

Ample Warning

Coming out of the pool today from a monster swim, I had the opportunity to chat with another local Schenectady swimmer. This fellow, a gentlemen enjoying what is likely his 7th or 8th decade here in the Dutch country, came up to me:

"Hey there young felleh'! Whattya? Swim laps?" He inquired

"Ummm, yeah, I swim laps" I said, wondering laps as opposed to...?

"Heyahhah! I thought sah, I see you in that pool all the time! How many laps do ya duh?"

"Well... I swim by distance, so usually like 2000 to 3000 meters per session. So whatever that is in laps." I replied, and a bit unsure where we were going with this.

"Lemme ask yah, you swim on the high school team here sonny?"

"High school team?" I questioned, wondering if I really look that young. "Uh, no, not the high school team. I compete in..."

"'Cause I seen yah swim in there, and you could be on that team if you wanted to be!" He said with the utmost enthusiasm.

"But I..."

"Damn right you could! Did I ever tell you about the time I was on a swim team?" He started in, and I knew it'd be a long one.

About 20 minutes later, I found myself meandoring out of the building and to my car. Feeling the hot, humid air at 6:00 at night and contrasting it to the freezing cold, arctic airs blowing about at 6:00 in the morning back in January, I realized that I really have come a long way with this whole swimming thing.

So even though my newfound agent may have been "a little off" in his assesment, it was still a compliment I took to heart.

See you in the deep end.

Nowhere, NY: Where The Sidewalk Ends

It pours.

So, first off, the schedule change. Having gone through an incredibly good several weeks of training during the past month, I took a step back and re-evaluated my racing schedule for the second half of the season. Keeping in mind my season goals, I decided it was in my best interest to "trim the fat", so to speak, and eliminate my remaining "C" races. These would include the Grafton XTERRA triathlon and the Hops Dirt Duathlon. By removing these races from the schedule, I think I have a much better shot at hitting the Skinnyman Sprint and the Saratoga Lake Olympic triathlons with much more fervor than trying to cram in extra races in between. It should also give me that extra punch to take home the Canal Cup this weekend.

This past weekend was another winner as I went about my typical training regimen - first hitting up a long, hilly ride over, through and beyond Mariaville on Saturday, followed up by a good, long road run on Sunday. The heat and humidity were pretty high on both days, but I was feeling sharp and strong on both the bike and the run. Finally fully acclimated.

Generally speaking, I take Monday's as rest days. But every now and again I decide to do a light run around the block to keep things loose. Okay, so it's more like a 5k run around the park, but who's really counting? So tonight I took to the road around 6:00, did my thing and was just about finishing up at the end of my street when a fellow runner came up on me. We got to talking, told him I lived "right over there", at which point he quickly identified it as "Marty's old house." Asked if he knew the original owners, and he said he did...As he lives right down the way, and something about "doing the triathlon thing".

"Hmmm..." I thought aloud. "Did you say you're a triathlete?"

"Yes", he said, "Yourself?"

"Yeah, as a matter of fact I am, mostly short-course, how about you?"

"Ironman distance mostly, just did Lake Placid." He added, more modestly than I would've.

"Geese, that's pretty impressive! How'd you do?"

"Well, I qualified (for Kona), so I was happy... Though I've been 5 times before so..."

"Huh. Five times you say? Five, right? As in: V? Or: 4+1? Or even: [25^(1/2)]?"

"Yeah. Five times"

And with that we continued to jog around the block a bit, me quickly submitting my alpha card. He mentioned that Saturday's are the long run with him and his friend, starting from the end of the street - apparently something I've been missing out on for the past 12 months - and during the week he likes to ride west, mostly over and through... You guessed it: Mariaville.

We parted ways and agreed to hook up in a couple weeks to do some rides and some runs together. Why not, I thought, as I headed home.

See you out there.

Simply, Mariaville

Before the emails start pouring into my inbox, I should apologize for not updating the Grind to reflect my choice for not racing this past weekend. That is, I removed the Grafton XTERRA from my calendar a few weeks back in favor of putting in another long training weekend in prep for the upcoming weekend of racing at Little Falls.

So, for those who've already checked in with me to see "how things went" - Thanks, but no race to report from this weekend. There were, however, fabulous miles performed on bike and on foot.

More later.

Rollin'

Near Amsterdam countryside, about to enjoy the long descent. Does life really get any better?

Thanks to Graham Watson-in-training, from whom I totally hijacked this photo.