Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Waiting to exhale

Deadline day today, so it was an enforced rest day. I just could not get over to the pool. This worries me because: a) I need all the pool time I can get, and 2) I'm still not really swimming yet.

Two things giving me a little more confidence. I miscalculated how much time I have; there's enough time for about 12 sessions in the pool, not nine, before training starts in earnest. And I think I know what my problem is: I'm not exhaling under water.

I'm holding my breath. So when I try to take a breath, I have to exhale first, then inhale. That doesn't give me time to get an adequate breath. So I've devised my own little drill I'm going to spend my next session at the pool standing in the shallow end and exhaling underwater. The entire time. Twenty minutes, half an hour, whatever. The other swimmers will look at me like I have three heads, but hopefully, that should prepare me for the *real* drills in Fitness Swimming by Emmett Hines.

I mention the book not only because I've got an affiliate link to Amazon on the page ... over to your left a little ... under the triathlon logo ... that's right, now click and make me some money ... Where was I? Oh, right. It's also a very approachable book, quite funny and terrifically encouraging. It outlines drill from beginning static balance drills through stroke integration drills with easy-to-follow instructions. And it puts together a training program, going through various levels of difficulty from beginner through I'm-ready-for-a-meet.

The book is designed for swimming only, not a triathlon, with a session every second day. That'll be fine until I get to the triathlon training program; in fact, it'll be necessary. Once the tri training starts, though, I can follow the tri training schedule with the swim training workouts, extending each program level from three weeks to four. I doubt I'll get past the first level, anyway, but that should get me to 400 metres.

AND BTW ... Brian Jackson in the office has also registered for the triathlon, and he is, in his own words, "stoked." Brian's about 20 years younger than me, and in better cardio health, but he owns a mountain bike, so I can make up a few minutes on him there. It's motivating to have someone else to keep up to.

Monday, March 29, 2010

A word about smoking

Don't. Seriously.

I haven't had a cigarette in a week. I'm not craving one, and the habitual part, where I reach for a cigarette pack when I leave the subway, for example, is disappearing, too. No withdrawal.

But, madre de dios, do I feel like crap.

Problem with quitting smoking -- yes, I've done it before; lasted six years once -- is that you don't feel better immediately. You feel worse. Much, much worse. I don't know the scientific details, and I don't want to. I just want to stop coughing up what I'm coughing up. I want the feeling like someone is sitting on my chest to go away.

This, if history can be my guide, will last another five weeks. I should be turning the corner just about when my 12-week training program starts.

Last time I quit, I was commiserating by phone with Matt Friedman, a fellow ex-smoker and advocate of carrot sticks for treating the condition. "That feeling in your chest?" he told me. "That's cilia growing back. That's healing." (Matt rides cyclocross races now, so he can't be the sanest person I know.)

Friday, March 26, 2010

Um, Houston?

Whatever confidence I gained by discovering I can run farther than a tubercular goat evaporated in the pool today.

I can't swim.

Swimming is all about form, and I can't keep my face underwater. Absurd, I know, especially with spankin' new prescription swim goggles (which, in the only bright spot of today's workout, performed flawlessly). I was very much taken aback; so much so, I was out of the pool inside of 10 minutes.

"Baby steps," I said sheepishly to the lifeguard.

"That's the idea," he said.

So, taking stock at the end of Week 1: Running looks like a check -- I should be up to training level in a week. Swimming? Yergh. At best, I've got three swims a week. That's nine sessions to get to a comfortable 100 m. Which is when the real training starts.

I'm starting to side with the people who called me crazy.

BARGAIN ALERT

Europe Bound on Front Street in Toronto is unloading KHS Urban Xpress commuter bikes at about $130 under list price ($449 instead of $579). This is the bike I picked up at the 2009 Toronto International Bicycle Show. It is an awesome ride -- swept-back rear forks lengthen the wheelbase a little.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

About goggles

I'm blind as a bat. At least bats have echo-location. I have ringing in my ears.

Okay, not entirely blind. Just in need of powerful, and usually expensive, corrective lenses. When I started considering a triathlon, I figured I was probably in for big-ticket prescription goggles, lest I lose my way and continue swimming out to sea, never to be heard from again.

I happened to be in a Wal-Mart with an optical department, wherein I found prescription goggles for ... $39.99. Just bring in your prescription, and in two weeks, you got swimming goggles.

I picked up my prescription from my last pair of glasses and tried to drop them at another Wal-Mart.

"I can't fill this," says the woman at the optical counter. "The prescription's three years old."

These are the kind of circumstances under which I normally throwing a shrieking fit. These were SWIMMING GOGGLES. They could only match them to a diopter to begin with. I was not going to be driving or performing heart surgery with them on. If I want a pair of swim goggles that make my eyes look five times their natural size, and I'm willing to give you money for it, then make my expletive-deleted goggles already. It's not that you can't; it's that you won't. You want to force me to take a $50 eye exam FOR A PAIR OF SWIM GOGGLES.

I did not shriek, hurl profanities or insults, or make any manner of scene. I snatched my prescription back. "Fine," I hissed evenly (can you hiss evenly?). "I'll order them on the Internet."

Which I did. A little place in Kitchener, Ont., called Aqua Goggles, will take your prescription online, and, for $24 plus shipping, send you a pair of swim goggles. (Aqua Goggles also does competition-quality non-prescription goggles for $5. Run, do not walk, to the Web site and order today.)

It went something like this: At 6 p.m. last Friday, I placed my order. A couple minutes later, I got an order confirmation by e-mail. Shortly thereafter, I received an e-mail saying my goggles would ship within one business day.

One business day later -- on Monday -- I received an e-mail saying my goggles had shipped. Two days later, they were in my mailbox. And they are of awesome quality. Matched to half a diopter. I actually could probably drive wearing them, in a pinch.

I'm just sayin' ... if you need goggles, prescription or no, you can't do better than these people. Fast, quality service. And they're local (to me, anyway).

Today's a rest day. My quads have been saying "Oy" all day. Gotta work up to this workout thing.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Pre-training begins

Having never run even a short triathlon before, I obviously need a training regimen. (Even if I had, I'd need one, but at least I'd know what worked and what didn't; I need a little guidance.) Turns out, there's an app for that.

Actually, there are several in the iPhone App Store. I settled on First Time Triathlon ($9.99, from JammyCo). Based on your proficiency at each of the events (beginner or intermediate) and your race date, the app maps out a 12-week training schedule. It's fairly simple: swim x metres, run or bike x number of minutes. There's not much detail in terms of drills.


Which is probably good. I've got some issues on the swimming front that'll require specific workouts, so the app's schedule will be more of a guideline than anything.


With a race date of Aug. 14, the training program begins in mid-May, which is also good. The app is designed with a certain minimum standard of fitness involved. Essentially, you have to be able to swim 100 metres and run a mile without weeping, and I'm not convinced I can do that right now. Thus begins the training for the training.


It started today with a running workout. a 400-m warm-up at a VERY slow pace -- tiny old men were passing me, and they were in the walking lane -- a good round of stretching, some leg extensions and curls for my knee issues (more on that another time), and then a 1-km run at about a five-minute pace. Not exactly Olympic calibre, but I'll take it. The a 200-m walk to cool down. (Thankfully, when I got pack to the office, Kathleen reminded me to stretch *after* exercise as well.)


And I feel great. For a while, I would have killed for a cigarette, but it passed. The test will be if I can haul my sorry ass out of bed tomorrow.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

... and they're probably right

Almost everyone I've approached with this notion of running a triathlon has had the same, two-word reaction: "You're insane."

There have been exceptions.

One friend briefly considered entering the race as well, but he's got a wedding in August.

My BFF, while noting that I was definitely a couple sandwiches short of a picnic, said she would be supportive in any way she could, as long as it did not involve actually running, biking or swimming.

Pauly, who turns 43 the weekend of the race, put it this way: "More like a 400-metre swim, 10-k bike ride and 2.5-k ambulance trip ... not how I want to spend my birthday.

(The only person whose immediate reaction was supportive was my ex. "Oh, absolutely, you should do it," she said. That's when I reminded her my life insurance is payable to our daughter.)

Motivation is difficult when you haven't got a training partner. I've been waffling the last couple of days. Finally, this afternoon, I registered online for the Toronto Island Give-it-a-try. My motivation: I just put $55 into it. I'm cheap enough that for that money, I will put myself through hell.

Monday, March 22, 2010

You're in it now, son. Up to your neck

That's a favourite line of mine. From The Guns of Navarone. Gregory Peck tearing David Niven a new one. Brilliant.

Blogs have many functions. I don't know what they are. This one, however, is now devoted to helping me shame myself into shape. See, if I announce my intention to the world, or at least the five or six people who read this space once over the next 20 weeks, I pretty much have to finish what I started, yes?

Why? It started at the Toronto International Bicycle Show, a March ritual for me. (I do get *some* exercise.) In 2009, it was a bike. A KHS Urban Xpress. Excellent deal. This year, best I could do was a pair of Adidas bike shoes for $30. (Odd size; 42-2/3. Happened to fit me perfectly.) And a jersey for my daughter, and a two-for-one deal on PowerBar protein supplement, which is actually drinkable mixed with water. And a copy of Get Out There, a bimonthly outdoor sports magazine, out of which popped a pamphlet from the MultiSport Canada Triathlon Series.

Not all triathlons are he-man, run-till-you-drop affairs for the hyperfit or suicidal. Yes, a full ironman triathlon follows a 3.8-km swim and a 180-km bike ride with -- get this -- a full marathon-distance (42-km) run. Truly for the batshit crazy only. But the races in the MSC Series -- there are 10 in Ontario this summer -- all have a Give-it-a-tri category: 400-m swim, 10-km ride, 2.5-km run. Manageable. Unless you just quit smoking 12 hours ago, you consider beer a food group, and you watch three hours of TV a night. Oh, and you're 46. And a half.

So ... I joined the Y across the street from work. I've ordered prescription swimming goggles (a story unto itself). I downloaded a training program for my iPod, (yes, there's an app for that).

Well, you're in it now, son. Up to your neck.