Day at the beach

I joined Wes and Dani for an afternoon at Pineview Reservoir before heading into work. It was the first day in a while where the wind wasn't blowing, so it was perfect for a day at the beach. Jen was shacked up at home with a dislocated knee, so I felt kind of bad leaving her there, but she was in no shape to be swimming.

I didn't plan on doing any ACTUAL swimming, but it only took about two minutes once we got there for me to cave, slap on my Speedo and head out. I swam out to the first buoy with my safe swimmer and then turned around and went back. It probably wasn't more than half a mile. It was a nice little swim though, considering the sad state of my shoulder at the moment. I wish I would have taken pictures...

Total distance: 1,000 yards (roughly)

Body's breaking down again

Sometimes I feel like I am truly not meant to be an athlete. Every time I think my body is getting stronger, a nagging injury surfaces to say, "Hold on a sec there, bud. I'm not gonna just let you do whatever you want." It has been nothing short of maddening.

Immobilized with ice packs on both my
shoulder and knee after getting home from
the gym. Don't I look happy?

Last Thursday, I started feeling severe pain in my shoulder again. Not the normal achy soreness that I've had ever since I injured it last year, but a legit pain. I took the weekend off after Friday's short swim and it hasn't improved at all. To make matters worse, my knee started acting up again while I was at the gym today.

It seems like I have an injury in both parts of my body that are crucial to getting any sort of cardio workout. When my shoulder hurts, I can't run because of the knee, and visa-versa. It makes it impossible to effectively train for swim events, triathlons or even that elusive half-marathon I've been wanting to do. I've never been so upset with my job and the incredibly shitty insurance I receive as a "benefit." I'm a journalist, so I'm not exactly raking in the dough and just to get an MRI done on one part of my body is going to cost me more out of pocket than I have. And yeah, I'd need two of them.

Anyway, today's session was good, other than the knee pain. I ran 1.5 miles, cycled for 20 minutes, ran for another mile, and cycled for 15 more minutes. My knee started hurting during the second run session. After some extensive stretching in the sauna, I did an easy swim for a cool down, even though my shoulder is on fire.

I don't know what the hell to do.

Total distance: 9.6 miles cycling, 2.5 miles running, 600 yards swimming

Another mini triathlon

I've been watching the Biggest Loser on Netflix a lot lately, and surprisingly, I've been craving dryland training because of it. So, today, I decided to do another little triathlon.

Rode the bike for 20 minutes first, then followed it up with another 20 minutes on the treadmill, although I walked this time, with the incline set up high. I actually ended up burning more calories that way.

Once I got down to the pool, I met a few people who are training for some upcoming races, including a gal who is also doing the Bear Lake Crossing in August. Based off what I heard from her, though, it sounds like she is severely underestimating how difficult it will be. She's never done open water before and hasn't been swimming more than two miles per week. She doesn't even plan on training in open water until two weeks before the race. But she claims to be swimming her entire life and that somehow qualifies her to not train properly. Who knows, perhaps I'm the one who is underestimating her. I hope she gets it together and manages to pull it off.

Total distance: 1,500 yards swimming, 5.55 miles cycling, 1 mile walking (inclined)

Mini triathlon

I think I'm doing the Layton Triathlon next month, mostly as a means to keep me motivated and exercising while I prepare for my Bear Lake crossing in August. I figured it was time to mix it up a little bit so I did the bike, treadmill and swam today.

First
Cycling 20 minutes (hard)
Second
Running 1.5 miles (moderate)
Third
Swim 1,000 yards (hard)

I ended up getting a decent workout, despite not doing any one thing for longer than 20 minutes. Not a bad day considering I had zero knee pain and limited shoulder discomfort (it usually hurts when I swim two days in a row).

Total distance: 5.6 miles cycling, 1.5 miles running, 1,000 yards swimming

Milk was a bad choice

Here's some free advice. Don't drink milk immediately before a workout. I made the mistake of having a bowl of cereal less than 30 minutes before getting in the pool today and I paid dearly for it. Every time I hit the wall to flip around, my stomach felt like the inside of a washing machine. It made for a long, miserable swim.

I must have looked something like this when I felt like retching.

Warm up
250 free
Core
500 free
750 free
1,000 free
5 x 100 free sprints
300 kick with fins
Cool down
Skipped it

When I hit the wall after my first 500, I felt closer to vomiting than I have in a very long time during exercise. Anita looked down at me from her chair and must have seen the look on my face and asked if I was OK. I took an extra minute to rest and resumed my ladder sets. After doing the sprints, I gave up and did kicks for the remainder of the hour, giving up on my goal of hitting two miles for the day. I came close though... Yuck!

Total distance: 3,300 yards

Morning run with Jen

I've been so proud of Jen lately. I talked her into training for her first 5k run and she's been working diligently at it for about a week now. She's doing a couch-to-5k program and she hasn't missed a training day yet. She even woke me up this morning to go run with her at the Roy High track.

My knee hasn't been hurting, but then again, I haven't been running. The thought has been in the back of my mind though, ever since my last attempt at running and it gave me problems. I hoped all the hiking and cycling I've been doing has helped strengthen it and today was a nice little test.

While Jen did her own thing, I ran a short two miles, stopping every quarter mile to do stairs on the bleachers. For the second mile, I stopped every 1/8 mile and did push-ups. There was no pain or discomfort, so it was a nice little workout on a Saturday, and I rarely exercise on weekends.

Tomorrow, Pineview Reservoir for a long swim ... if the weather holds up.

Total distance: 2 miles running

McDonald's guilt = Long bike ride

Normally, I don't feel guilty about the junk I eat. I try to make good decisions some times, but often I just don't care, knowing that I'm exercising enough to make up the difference. However, after eating McDonald's for lunch today, a strange guilt came over me after and I immediately went home, changed and went to the Roy Rec Center.

Camera phones don't focus very well when moving. Bleh...

Lap swim hours were long over, so I hopped on the stationary bike and cranked out 17 miles in just over an hour. I was pouring sweat and felt crummy, probably because of the extremely fatty food in my system. I followed it up with some free weights. According to the machine, I burned just under 700 calories on the bike, probably enough to cover half the meal I ate earlier in the day. Yuck....

Total distance: 17 miles cycling

Short Pineview swim with anxiety

I took a trip up to Pineview Reservoir for a swim today. I was planning on doing three buoy laps to start training for Bear Lake, which is probably going to be my next big swim. It's a crossing of the width of the lake, which is a bit over seven miles. The weather was beautiful and when I got there, the water appeared calm.

Snapped a quick photo when I got out of the water since I couldn't get the damn camera out of the safe swimmer when I was in the water.

The water felt great and I was moving along nicely for the first part of the swim. I hit the first buoy, realizing I accidentally went to the second one, rather than the first, so I doubled back to the original buoy before crossing the length of the "bay." The water was starting to get a little choppy by the time I hit the fourth buoy, which is the turnaround point, so I stopped and attempted to pull the camera out of the safe swimmer, which is where I discovered my first complaint about it. If you have more than a few small items in it, it is too difficult to grab anything from inside it while it is still inflated, thus making it nearly impossible to tread water and keep it from getting submerged while you take stuff out/in. I spent a solid two minutes doing eggbeater kicks just trying to re-inflate it and then readjust the waist strap. It was exhausting and I never could get the camera out.

Before I got in. The ripples in the water may look small, but they aren't so little when you are trying to swim through them.

On my way back, the waves really started to pick up, just like they were at the GSL race last Saturday. Although this time, rather than hitting me from the side, they were coming straight at me. There wasn't a boat in sight, but all the sudden a great deal of anxiety and panic came over me. Sighting the buoys became very hard and the waves really shook my psyche. I swam as hard as I could to the final buoy and then back to the beach. I'm not sure what came over me, because my stroke felt strong and I wasn't getting tired, but I just had a feeling like I was truly alone and it freaked me out. Being by myself and with no support kayak, it just didn't feel right to go back out for another two laps, even with my safe swimmer. All-in-all, it wasn't a great start to my Bear Lake training. I only did about 1/3 the distance I wanted to. Next time I'll just have to go out with Jen on the kayak and then I'll probably feel better about going for longer.

Total distance: About 1 mile

Race report: Great Salt Lake swim 2012

It's strange when you train for something for so long. The event comes and then goes just like that. You spend so many hours preparing for something that seems to last for only a few minutes. That's how today's race was.

The waves didn't really seem so bad until you got out in the open.

The weather at the Great Salt Lake marina wasn't as rough as originally expected, although there were decent-sized waves from the wind. Apparently, a few support boat volunteers ditched Josh, so he had to square that away, forcing us to get off to a bit of a late start. 

By the time the race started, I was already a bit psyched out. Just swimming out to the starting buoy proved to be a challenge in the 3-to-4 foot swells. The first 700 yards or so were the toughest. Although I wasn't having as difficult of a time sighting as last year, the waves made it very hard to see Black Rock and the finish line. However, a giant red arch above the finish line in the distance saved me from getting too far off the course. The same waves kept me from getting any real rhythm and breathing was hellish with waves crashing into your face with the stinging salt. At the pace, I was going, I thought for sure I'd have a disappointing finish time.

Heading out to the starting buoy

However, something clicked a little over half-way through and I started getting into a nice groove. I passed a handful of swimmers that darted out ahead of me earlier, and for once, it seemed like my few ounces of open water experience paid off. By the time I reached the beach (which seemed to appear in front of me out of nowhere) , I took my time standing up and trotting to the finish line. Last year I almost vomited from getting up too fast, and fortunately, all was well this time. 

Just before the start. BRING THE PAIN!

Jen was waiting there for me with some mouthwash after I received my medal. Then, I realized I forgot to stop my timer. I'm not sure how much time ticked off after I finished, but when I stopped it, the clock read 31:10. I'm almost certain the real time was at least 15-20 seconds faster, but either way, I still topped last year's time by over 2 1/2 minutes despite much more challenging conditions. I didn't get under 30 minutes, like I wanted to, but I'm certain if the weather was better, I certainly would have. I haven't seen the official results, but Jen says I was the sixth swimmer out of the water and the fourth male. I'll certainly take that considering there were about 35 swimmers.

We took off pretty fast after the race, and I didn't get to see Rachel finish, but I'm sure she did just fine. She was a bit nervous about the swim, even though she did the same route earlier this week in 8-FOOT swells. I also got to chat with Chad for a few minutes, which was nice. He finished just before me. Blast!

I'm the dude on the far left.

P.S: Here's a shout out to Josh, who once again, organized a heckuva race, despite having to adjust to a few speed bumps. Nice work!

Total distance: Around 2,250 yards

UPDATE: I just got the official results and I finished 10th out of 28 swimmers (4th out of 11 males) with a time of 31:01.

8-mile swim next year?

Josh is all smiles after organizing another successful swim

One more day

I seriously can't take my mind off Saturday's race. I've been having a hard time focusing on anything else during the past few days and today Gords told me about some crappy news. A nasty wind storm is forecasted for Saturday morning and winds could reach 40+ miles per hour. Gords and Josh were forced to cancel the 8-mile race and bump the 1-mile race up to 9 a.m. instead of noon. I feel really bad for all of those who were training for the 8-mile race. Few non-swimmers don't really understand how much work and how many hours go into training for something like that and I'm sure it was a devastating blow for the 15 athletes who were registered for it.

I was already nervous the weather would negatively impact my ability to top my time from last year and I'm trying to stay positive. I figure if I can beat my time in stormy water conditions, perhaps it will feel more rewarding, even if it is only by one second.

Anyway, I went to the gym to get some work in on the stationary bike, but it was in use, so instead, I used the treadmill. I set it to a slow 3.5 miles per hour, but cranked up the incline every two minutes. That made me work up a serious sweat after about 10-15 minutes and it was just as intense as a good hike. I called it at exactly 30 minutes. My calves were certainly feeling the burn. After that, I did some light ab work, but no weights. I'm trying to give my upper body a break.

Tonight will consist of ice, ibuprofen and more ice. Tomorrow will consist of more of the same along with rest, hydration and carbohydrate loading. My goal is to drink an entire gallon of water at my desk while at work tomorrow night and load up on fruits and veggies.

Total distance: 1.6 miles (running, or hiking, or walking or whatever you wanna call it)

Short and sweet

I don't feel like writing much today. The cold weather deterred me from going to Pineview again this morning, so I went to the pool for a short swim. I'm trying to keep my shoulders fresh for Saturday's race, so today's swim was short and sweet.

Warm up
200 free
Core
5 x 100 free (on 1:45)
5 x 200 free (on 3:30)
6 x 50 sprints (on :45)
Cool down
200 breast

I'll probably go once more this week for a very short swim, just to keep my shoulders active, but no real workouts. Maybe I'll do a good bike session tomorrow.

Total distance: 2,200 yards

No Pineview, but a nice pool swim

I was planning on going for a solo open water swim at Pineview Reservoir this morning, but when I woke up, it was really windy outside. Choppy waters usually make swimmers less visible and if I went by myself, it probably wouldn't be the safest idea. Instead I hit the Roy Rec Center for a nice easy swim.

Warm up
200 free
Core
2750 free
Cool down
200 breast

I felt great the whole time and I even picked up my stroke a bit for the last 500 yards or so. With race day on Saturday, I probably will only swim once more this week before giving my shoulder time to rest. Hopefully, it's an open water though.

Total distance: 3,150 yards