The Ocean Around Oahu

Some random stuff for you on a Wednesday...

Just saw a cool video clip of amazing Australian Ultra Swimmer Penny Palfrey who (yesterday) broke the record (again) for the Kaiwi Channel swim... that would be Moloka'i to Oahu and she did it in just over 12 hours. I look at those conditions and salivate. I hope it's just like this on Sunday! Not that I have much interest in swimming for 12 hours, but 2 hours in conditions like that would be epic and a heck of a lot of fun! I wonder if Penny will hang around this weekend for the Double Roughwater Swim and take us all to school?? I sent her a FB message and asked her to.

Speaking of fun(?) ocean conditions, here's what North Shore Oahu (this is Waimea Bay) looks like in winter. Not sure why this guy is trying to stand up paddle at Waimea when shorebreak is like 3x overhead? I saw a follow up picture on FB and, well, that wave did indeed take him to school. I bet he won't try that again.

It's Like Riding A Bike

Last night I spent a bit of time on Training Peaks and looked through some of my training from last year... I gotta say, it was really quite fun/amusing to read through my bike/run workouts from January... that was my first real foray into HR training the right way (vs just wearing a HR monitor and watching what my HR did rather than actually changing anything up because of it)... I smiled as I read my notes about how frustrated I was going so slowly on the run trying to keep my HR in range... For many reasons (and that review process is the main one) I'm glad I always keep good detailed notes of each training session.

Anyway, what was especially fun was to read back on my bike workouts and what I was feeling that first month. My bike fitness progressed a ton faster than my run fitness last year and it wasn't long at all before I was riding a pretty decent pace at a rather low HR and according to my notes I was always amazed at how I didn't feel smashed or anything after some fairly long (yet not that slow!) workouts. And that meant I could back up every workout with another workout and another workout... solid stuff and I loved it.

So I haven't been riding my bike much at all since Ironman. Maybe a couple little rides here and there but nothing longer than maybe 40' and all on my road bike just la la la sight-seeing like a tourist. But I've been feeling some motivation to get back on my bike lately so today I got out my TT bike and my Garmin and actually did a short ride with some HR guidelines in mind. I was completely mentally prepared to cruise at my tourist pace since that's what I had to do last year for a few weeks as I was getting back into biking... but interestingly, that was not the case today! I was surprised to see that my HR was acting like it was August instead of late November. Apparently all that work I did last year (and progress I made!) did not just melt away in my 6 weeks off the bike. Nice! So looks like this year I won't have to spend a couple months just getting my aerobic system in place... it's still there... yay! Instead I'll get to focus on strength right from the start- which I think was my limiter on the bike last year. It's fairly common to have strength limiter so I am not alone there, BUT I am looking forward to seeing how strong I can get on the bike in 2012. In all honesty going into Kona last month I was fairly confident in my biking ability but I was quickly very humbled by how fast some of those other girls were riding... Interestingly, rather than feeling intimidated by that, I find myself feeling inspired. I can do that too. I know I can. I am feeling motivated! :)

My Happy Place

Well you will all be happy to know that I broke my funk! Mamasimmons is back. Phew! All it took was a 2+ hour run with 1700ft of climbing. :)

I think I was just missing the challenge of having any real 'meaty' workouts this week so it was awesome to go to my favorite route and run it feeling like something other than a lumbering elephant. It is certainly the case with me that I need to have good solid challenges on my plate. This run took me to my happy place.

Interestingly (don't tell my husband) I could not stop thinking about UltraMan during this run... and what a cool challenge that would be... I have some serious curiosity about just how hard it must be given that super ultra athletes Rich Roll and Jonas Colting both dropped out and DNF'd... If you've been following it this weekend you know they all mentioned the wind and they were not kidding- this really was one of the windiest weekends we've had all year with sustained winds of 20-30+mph. That's just relentless crap to ride through- and shoot, that kind of wind is tough to run through too! Anyway, we'll see if this UltraMan fantasy of mine is just a passing phase or if it actually becomes a goal at some point... I was thinking today that it would be super cool to go crew for someone next year and that would obviously give me more insight and probably set me straight and cure any crazy thoughts I might have about doing it myself. Or not.

In My Head

I've written like 3 different blog posts over the past week but have yet to hit publish on any of them. Do you ever go through periods where you just don't think that people really need to know what's going on in your head? That's where I'm at right now. Sometimes I read over what I write and wonder does anyone actually care about this crazy stuff going on in my head and in my world? And then I just save it and figure that since the benefit of writing it all out is actually just for me to sort out my own thoughts that I don't have to actually hit the publish button it to get what I want/need. So sorry, you're missing out on my deepest thoughts this week but here's some 'surfacy' stuff that you probably don't care about either. ;)

And just for the record, I'm not injured. I'm not pregnant. I'm not getting divorced. There is nothing crazy/big going on in my world... just in my head. Honestly, I think I'm in a bit of a tailspin because I'm just basically in between goals at the moment and don't know what to do with myself without some big race that I care about coming up at some point soon. Ok, the Double Roughwater is next week but somehow in my head that does not count as a 'big race' that I actually care about. Isn't that funny? I bet you guys all thought that I would really care about that one but it's just sort of another swim that I enjoy but it's not even on the same plane as 'Ironman' or anything to me. So of course I'll do the best I can at that swim but I'm not like banking my year on it or anything. It's just a fun challenge that I do every year.

And I'm not running the Honolulu Marathon. I got my race number thingy in the mail thing the other day... I entered the marathon last January when it was $35 for residents... I figured that $35 was not a bad price to pay to have the option of running it if I felt like I wanted to come December... I would never pay $180 or whatever it is to run that marathon (or any marathon for that matter!) which is what it costs if you miss the early entry. (Isn't it funny I'd pay $35 to not run but wouldn't pay $180 to actually run? Ha!) Anyway, I just don't feel like my running is at a point where I would cross the finish line of the marathon feeling like YES! THAT was awesome. I think I could put together a decent but not *super* (for me) marathon right now but running a marathon just to run a marathon when I don't think I'd be super happy with my result doesn't excite me much. (I'm too hard on myself at the finish line of run races so anything slower than what I really think I could do would be dissatisfying and I just don't feel the need to put myself through that again.) Honestly, it's not worth the recovery time to me when all I really want to do is train. I am enjoying run training right now and just want to keep on keepin' on and that does not involve resting for and recovering from a marathon.

Moving on. I did run a rather disappointing 1/2 marathon last weekend. It wasn't actually truly terrible until the last 3 miles... which I guess are pretty much universally terrible in 1/2 marathons but really this was like all of a sudden I'd picked up a 3000lb grand piano and put it on my back to carry up and over Diamond Head at the end. True story- While I was 'running' those last 3 miles I had the thought that 9' pace was actually a decent pace to be moving given that 3000lb piano on my back. Ha! Interestingly 4 days later I ran a 10 mile Turkey trot on the same course, called it a tempo run in my head (instead of a 'race'), felt absolutely horrible warming up, yet ended up coming through 10 miles faster than I did the first 10 miles of the half marathon and feeling 100x stronger. That sort of just solidified in my head that some days are just better running days than others. Go figure.

Anyway, we had a nice Thanksgiving. Nalani's family has the brilliant idea of having pie and coffee for breakfast on the beach (isn't that a wonderful Thanksgiving tradition?!?). So then later when you're stuffed from Turkey and potatoes and green beans you don't also have an obligatory piece of pie to stuff down. If you eat the pie in the morning after a solid 10 mile tempo run you can really enjoy it. :) Anyway, I thought it was brilliant. And here's what it looked like...

Twinkle Think... Twinkle Think...

Moana had a party at pre-school today and came home with a helium balloon. She let it go when she came inside and it ended up on the kitchen ceiling. It was cute to watch her drag a chair under the balloon and stand on it to grab it and pull it down. I gave her a high five b/c she was super proud of herself for 'solving the problem'.

Mama! I solved the problem!! Mama mama mama I solved the problem! Mama I solved the problem! Mama mama mama... (she is in the repeat everything 100x stage... that I hear lasts until she's about 13).

A few minutes later (after re-creating and solving the same problem several times) she let go of the balloon in our living room and then let out a very loud SHRIEK when she realized that vaulted ceilings provide a problem that cannot be solved with a chair. There was quite a bit of serious (and rather obnoxious) whining at first. Since we watch Sesame Street pretty much every day, we were able to calm her down by telling her that we need to Twinkle Think... Twinkle Think... (if you have a toddler you probably understand this reference... if not, use your imagination) about how to solve this new problem. That made her smile and eventually with the use of a broom pole daddy helped her solve the problem.

All this problem solving reminded me how much I enjoy solving problems. That I am indeed happiest when I have a problem to solve. Right now I have a couple of problems that, in the big scheme of things, are not very big problems, but they are problems for me nonetheless. One of these problems is that my running is (still) slower than I want it to be... which I know is not a unique problem and it is, indeed, a problem I have had for, well, let's see, since I started trying to run? Maybe it's a problem I'll never truly 'solve', because really, how many people truly think I am really happy with how fast I am running... Um, is there anyone who thinks that?? So this problem of mine is rather universal yet I whine about it sometimes even though I know that is very obnoxious. Anyway, I have spent a good amount of time Twinkle Thinking and hopefully have come up with some potential solutions. Unfortunately, this one won't be solved in a matter of about a minute with a long broom, but I think some diligent smart work over the next several months will point me in the right direction.

Keeping The Dermatologist In Business

So today I made my annual trek to the dermatologist. We have Kaiser insurance which has turned out to be way better than I anticipated... mostly b/c the folks at Kaiser understand and promote preventative medicine better than what I experienced when I had a regular open health insurance. Anyway, they know I am a crazy triathlete who spends too many hours in the sun my health history and consequently send me appointment cards in the mail telling me I have an appt to come in b/c they want to make sure to get rid of all my little pre-cancerous spots before they become a big deal.

Anyway, I took Moana with me and she was just awesome the whole time. She loves going to the doctor! Go figure. At her 3 year appt she got 3 vaccines and a TB test and didn't even flinch when the needles went in (and she watched! Brave girl!)... so today while doc was freezing my spots off I was totally pretending to be as brave as she was... though I was not watching... not that I could have seen anyway. Most of my spots were on my upper back and neck and, um, that freezing stuff stings. And then it burns. And then it blisters. OUCH. In all I had 7 spots that he thought were pre-cancerous and one that had developed further into a basal cell on the back of my neck that he actually numbed up and cut out today. Of course my first/only question before I let him cut was Am I going to be able to swim because I have a swim race in less than two weeks so if not I can come back after and you can cut away all you like but he assured me I could swim tomorrow no problem. Phew.

In more good news, he said I didn't have anything else that looked serious, though he did move me up to the 6 month appointment slot vs the annual one so clearly I'm not off the hook here. Now all of you who live where the sun don't shine all winter can give a little nod of thanks that you don't have to worry about this stuff as much as we do here in the land of year round ocean swimming and sleeveless bike jerseys and zinc sunscreen.

(And before any of you go ape shit on me about not wearing enough sunscreen, you should know that 100% of my basal cells and pre-cancerous spots have come on my upper body where I was exposed to mantle field radiation 12 years ago during treatment for Hodgkin's Disease. I can lather on sunscreen all day and I am still going to be at higher risk than you due to this history.)

Reflections: The Swim Block

First, by the numbers:
~50,000 meters done in 11 swims over 8 days in 5 different pools and two ocean locations. (Estimated 50,000 b/c ocean swims are not exact, but it's pretty darn close.) I didn't keep track of exact minutes or anything but logged ~16 hours of swim time. All that done with 1 awesome training partner who made it way more fun than it would have been solo.

Most challenging part:
~Finding the time to do it all... This was more challenging logistically than say a bike or run week would be simply b/c of pool hours and availability we had to work around. Good thing we had the ocean as an option as well.

The hardest workout:
~ The first one last week Wednesday 5 x 1000's. That workout trashed me. Lucky for me we got to do that one twice.

The least enjoyable workout:
~The second one last Thursday morning. I was still trashed from Wednesday and the water was freezing and it was dark out the whole time.

The most enjoyable workout:
~Tuesday morning sunrise ocean swim. It was simply gorgeous and glassy and glorious. Swimming doesn't really get much better than that.

The biggest surprise:
~That we both swam right through the fatigue and actually felt better as the block went on (rather than worse as I expected). Not only did we feel better, we swam faster at the end. It was awesome to do the test 1000's at the start and the finish of this week... Interestingly, my slowest one this morning was faster than my fastest one last week... In total I dropped 93 seconds (combined total for 4x1000's) with the last two each being a full 30" faster than the last two I did last week.

More deep thoughts about swimming a lot... These might seem a bit rambling but remember I just spent ~16 hours swimming so I had lots of time in my own brain... In no particular order...

~When you swim 3x/week for maybe 2-3 hours total, swimming is not nearly as natural and automatic as it becomes when you spend 16 hours/week doing it. If you want to feel more natural and confident in the water, spend a lot of time there.

~ I was very rarely bored in the pool. Go figure.

~I was crazy stiff/tight for the first ~3 days and then either it got better or I became numb to it but I swear right now I am not as tired/fatigued/sore as I was on Friday. I talked to Lucho about it yesterday and told him that I expected to feel like I was sliding right down the side of a mountain all week and was nervous about how quickly I felt like I was descending last week Thursday (day 2!). I was rather certain that by Sunday I would have been in the depths of hell on those 100x100's... But instead of sliding down out of control, by the 4th day I got my grip and actually started clawing my way back up. And then by day 6 I found myself climbing a whole different mountain- one that was higher than the one I was on last week.

~While I would admit that it was common for me to wake up in the morning feeling like I'd been hit by a bus, by the time I got up and had some coffee and hopped in the pool and got going I was okay. Same story told by Nalani so it's not like I am a freak of nature here- she fared physically and mentally pretty much exactly like I did.

~Surprisingly, I did not need a feed bag all week. Maybe a little more hungry than normal but not ridiculously so. I did find that I was very thirsty and my skin was very dry (there were days- ok really that was just Monday- where I swam doubles where I didn't even get out of my bathing suit between swims- true story- and I swear I felt like my skin was fuzzy from the chlorine. Nasty.) I also felt sleepy a lot and stiff especially through my upper body but also my legs.

~Pretty much universally when I swam doubles I felt physically better on the second workout of the day. That's the same story I've got for running so maybe afternoons are just a better time for me physically?

~Where's the physiology in what we found out this week? I don't really get it... science would say that as we use our muscles a lot and get fatigued that we would perform worse, not better. The improvement/adaptation part is supposed to come after we allow our bodies an opportunity to recover, which, when we're swimming 2x/day doesn't seem like recovery? I mean, Sunday 10,000M, Monday swam twice for 6700M, Tuesday swam twice for 6500M, then this morning swam faster than I've swam in years? Hmmm. I would say that yes, physically I felt better but that maybe the biggest difference was in my head... My confidence this morning was sky high and I had that Eminem song in my head (I'm Not Afraid) as I just ripped off evenly split 1000's that just got progressively faster as the swim went on. I knew I was not going to fall off any cliffs and I think the confidence I gained this week was the biggest benefit of doing the swim week.

~I'm really glad we did this swim block. Like I said above, the biggest benefit for me may have been emotional/mental vs physical... I thought it was super cool to pay attention to how my body was physically responding and teach myself that my limits are so much further out there than I even thought they were. This week, while challenging, did not put me at my physical limit (as far as volume goes) which of course begs the question- Where's the limit? I still don't know... which is rather cool I think. I absolutely loved the challenge of this though.

~I don't think I'll repeat this swim block in the near future, primarily because I don't think it is the wisest way for me to spend my training time and energy. The swim is not my limiter. I will say though that after this week I am now in love with the idea of sport specific blocks and without question I will be putting in some very big bike and run weeks in 2012. I feel like this week was further proof that our bodies adapt to whatever stresses we place upon them. Guess what kind of stress I'm going to apply next? ;)

If you have any other burning questions about this swim block, feel free to ask below... I'm happy to answer!