Swimming, running, chaffed nipples, and tie-dyed shirts

Yesterday I met with my Swim coach Paul – a combination of trips and illness (mine and his) kept us from meeting for about a month. I feel really good about swimming. This is because I am such a horrible swimmer that I am seeing tremendous improvement and that makes it fun.

My biggest obstacle in swimming is the feeling that I am not getting enough oxygen. I only learned to swim a couple of years ago and in the winter months I do not swim as much as I should. Ironman 24 weeks away is keeping me motivated, though (3.8 km swim).

After about 100 meters I start to feel nervous. It’s not panic. But, it’s the sense that I need air that causes me start to over-roll and generally lose form. It is a false perception since I am swimming with my heart rate at about 145 beats/minute which is VERY easily sustainable when running or cycling (my anaerobic threshold is 142 beats/minute). The good news is that Paul has got me to where I feel a good sense of what it feels like when I am doing it right. This means that I think I am getting better and better at self correcting.


Today’s workout was:

50 m warm up.
50 m kick drill.
50 m swim.
50 m pull bouy.
24 x 50 m swim at 1:15 per (this results in a 10-ish second rest between 50s).
50 m pull bouy.

This was not quite in line with what Paul assigned but it was pretty close.

After a nap I went for a run.

Having screwed up the 3 x 10 @ 160 beats/minute I re-did the run. I am thinking that Bruce wants to check for heart rate creep at in order to see where I am at?

Good run.

Most important. I am continuing to push myself out the door for my training sessions even though I am NOT wanting to go. This is a good sign. I remain committed to my goals.


Other things of note:

(1) I want my Nip Guards to show up. Ordered 100 pair. I am carrying an extra 8-ish pounds and this is causing just enough jiggling that I am chaffing. This will probably take care of itself once I am back to lightweight short sleeve shirts. On Jan 1 I started to eat better. I am 160.4 lbs this morning. On Jan 1 I was 164.o. Maybe I am not eating that much better.

(2) Brainsport sourced an all-white Sugoi running shirt for me. Dick Blick art supplies has mailed the polyester dye. I figure I am three to four weeks away from tie-dying a couple of shirts. I am thinking I will do one spiral and one vertical pleat.

I am not going to Calgary this weekend after all. Tomorrow I will do another interval run. Sunday I will do a longer, slower run with Graham and Glenn.