Am I getting faster? January 19, 2006
Posted by clayton in : workout , add a commentWith the swim, I really think I am. I mean, swimming 5days a week and not getting any faster would just sound weird wouldn't it? Today, I went for an easy swim and a nice bike ride to the pool and back.
The swim: 1700m total, now this really felt easy after all that hard work at the "closer" swimming pool. I really need to name these pools, it's just hard to write which one I went to…Okay, the pool that I go 5days a week is, "P-com" short for pool communications and the other one is ocean swimming, hehe…no, we don't swim in the ocean… So, I went to ocean swimming and did some interval training as usual. 200m warm up, 300m forming (making the stream line, one hand swims etc…) and the rest was intervals. 50m*1(1:10), 100m*1(2:00), 150m*1(2:30). Did three sets of these.
Ride to the pool: I was annoyed by the cars that were parked on the sidewalk. Didn't really think about them until today because I almost ran over a guy who just came out of nowhere. Why did this happen? There was a car parked right in the middle of the sidewalk and I had to detour around it. Let's think about it, will it be my fault if I did run over this guy? Partially maybe but I think it's 90%(or even 100) the person who parked his/her car's fault. Why did this annoy me? Well, the car was parked in front of a convenience store that HAS a parking lot. So, the driver didn't bother to park at the parking lot but instead, he just parked right in front of the store. Really convenient, eh? How self-centered can people be? The convenience store being there is already convenient and yet the driver still begs for more convenience? What a lazyass moron…
Tomorrow: I get off school early but the forecast says rain, darn it!!! I'll go for a bike ride if it's cloudy and I think I'll go for a run even if it rains. After that, a killer Thursday swim (last week was a 4500m+ swim) to finish my day. I was really dead last week, the challenge continues…
Speeding January 18, 2006
Posted by clayton in : workout , add a commentI went for a swim and did some speed training because the coach said there's a race coming up this weekend. I'm finally getting the hang of diving in…no air goes in my butt anymore, hehe. I just should've gone for a run though…
The swim: Did a total of 1300m, yes that's short but all speed training and I'd say it was pretty tough. Kept on panting after each sprint. The good part was that after all the sprints, it was easy to swim normal;-) But other than that, was just some tough stuff.
Short run+another "nice" swim January 17, 2006
Posted by clayton in : workout , add a commentDamn I had a long day at school today, just couldn't wait for it to end. I got home a little later than usual because we had to take a class picture. 4:30pm, I get home, change clothes, go for a run without my watch. I just can't remember where I put it. I went for 5km. After that, a swim.
The run: It took me about 25min and it felt pretty good out there. Not too slow, not too fast. No pain in the left knee and no cramps which I was afraid of after all the slacking out. I didn't wanna go too long because I had to study a bit and didn't wanna get any cramps in the pool, speed training, YIKES!!!
The swim: Swam a total of 3500m. 400m warm up, 1000m TT and the rest was speed training. Some stuff like 200m sprints, 50m sprints and kicking my a** off with the kickboard. My 1000m was another slow one, 19:46. Next time, I think I'll do 18:30 or something, definitely possible, it's all in the mind…I think I'm finally getting the hang of diving in the pool but here's one problem, a lot of air invades my swim pants and it feels weird, hehe. Wonder what it's gonna be like tomorrow.
Tomorrow: If I wake up early enough, I'll go for a short hill climb on the bike and after school, I'll run another 5km, study and go for a swim.
Finally pushed myself out the door January 16, 2006
Posted by clayton in : workout , add a commentToday, I woke up at 7am, ate breakfast, sat around for a while and finally went out the door at 9:30am. I thought about not going but then I won't be able to sleep at night because of the energy that's left. So, I went for a quick 40km.
The ride: Had absolutely NO motivation to take myself out for a ride but went anyway. Stopped at the first traffic light and I saw two roadies(triathletes?) go by and I sprinted to them right when the light turned green. I had a nice warm up of speeding at like nearly 50kph but forgot to push the lap button again. Caught up to them and damn was the ride easy. I was sticking behind them for about 15km and then they took a left turn over to the convenience store so I said, "bye" and went on. I guess I got used to the speed and I kept a 30kph pace for a fairly long time and it wasn't tough at all. On the way back, I still kept a fairly fast pace and attacked one of the hills. My lowest speed was 28kph, I usually go up there at 23kph max. The last time I really had a group ride was in late August last year…I think I should go out for more group rides. Ave speed 27.6kph, ave cadence 78rpm. Now I know that keeping the cadence high keeps me from getting tired.
Tomorrow: Come home from school, run atleast 5km even if it rains, study until 6pm and then go for a swim.
Wasted one whole morning but had a nice swim January 15, 2006
Posted by clayton in : workout , add a commentI woke up at 7am once but after I ate breakfast, I just couldn't wake myself up. Ended up waking up at 11:30am, damn it. I have a lot of excuses but it's all just a bunch of crap so I guess I'll talk about the swim.
Swim: Was it really a nice swim?? There are two answers to this question. If you're the kind of person who thinks that "swimming so hard that you think you're gonna pass out" is a very nice swim, then I had a very NICE swim. If not, it was just some tough crap, hehe. Swam a total of 2800m, not much but it was speed training. I was pretty much knocked out during the 200m sprint that came at the end of the swim. Oh yeah, there are people who come right after our swim for the free-swim, where the pool is open to anyone, and my greetings were terrible. I tried my best though, I meant to say, "Good afternoon" but it probably sounded more like, "Good aftboom." I guess that's how I express tiredness.
Tomorrow: I'll sleep earlier tonight and make myself wake up in the morning, maybe 6 or 7am and then go for a ride/run. No swim.
Damn, my shoulders hurt January 14, 2006
Posted by clayton in : workout , add a commentI took a day off from training. Thought about going for a swim but when I reached out for my cd player's remote which was on the bed, I ended up waking up at 7:15pm. If it was 6:30pm, I might have gone. Haven't had any rests since the first day of January so I guess it's okay. Don't wanna over train…How much is over training?
Tomorrow: I'll go for a ride, run, clean my room, study and then have a swim. BUT, nothing goes as planned so something might be missing.
Rain, rain, rain…no run January 13, 2006
Posted by clayton in : workout , add a commentI usually write bad stuff about rain but this time, I think it really helped me out. If I had the run, I wouldn't be writing this blog right now, probably be dead in bed after the swim which was a disaster.
The swim: I went to the pool thinking that practice will be done at 8:30pm like every other weekday swim but nope, it lasted until 9:20pm. The best part of it was that I was swimming the whole time…Atleast 4500m, remember, that's ATLEAST. Couldn't keep track of how much I swam today because I was swimming with the "bigger guys/ gals." Just to give you an idea of how fast they are, I wasn't able to catch up with them even though I was swimming freestyle and they were swimming breast stroke. I'd say the only rest I got was when I had to switch lanes, which awkwardly felt tough:-) You know what? I really gotta go to bed…just can't resist this sleepiness.
Tomorrow: I'm gonna go for a swim and hopefully a run before that, begging that the swim wouldn't be a disaster. Good night!!!
Haven't had a nice swim in a long time January 12, 2006
Posted by clayton in : workout , add a commentI had the usual dull day at school just sitting around taking notes and listening to what the teacher had to say. It's fun listening to the Modern Literature teacher because she has this one whole world of her own made up and she talks like a philosopher, interesting. Other than that is just boring.
Today's swim: I didn't have the knee pain anymore so I decided to go with my mtb. I've been having pretty bad swims nowadays and had a really hard time trying to swim 100m intervals with 2min cycles. Today was different, I was swimming 200m in 3min30sec and I was like, "wow, when's the last time I did that that easy?" I think it had to do something with the Saturday swim. My coach fixed my form a bit and now I could push more with my left hand. But does that make me 15sec faster on every 100m? I was actually told to slow down while we were having form practice, I noticed I was finishing every interval waaay faster than usual. My coach told me that my fastest 100m lap for today was 1min43sec which happened during the 200m intervals. Did about 2200m total and my arms aren't tired at all plus my legs feel just fine, maybe I should get back to running tomorrow.
Tomorrow: I'll check on my legs and see whether or not to run. I'll start studying kanjis for the kanji proficiency test kinda thingy that's coming up in early February. I always thought I'm pretty good at kanjis but after looking at the text, I was like, "uhhhh, what's this?" Now I've gotta study. Then another swim will come at night. Have a good night's sleep and take care!!!
Chose to swim January 11, 2006
Posted by clayton in : workout , add a commentSchool just felt long like every other day but I somehow got through the day without sleeping. The 5th period which is right after lunch is usually the hardest time of the day, I could deal with hunger but sleepiness is a different thing. Managed to stay awake and when I looked around, half of the class had their heads on their desks, awkward. No pain in the knee but I took the rest after school anyway. After sitting down for a while at home, I headed for the pool.
The swim: I just told my coach that my knee hurts, which it didn't, but just to get away from explaining all the crap(some of them were "good" crap) that happened during the weekend. So, he changed my schedule to a very simple one. 400m warm up, 100m*? 2'20~2'40cycle using a pull buoy. I ended up doing 26 of those. I think next time I'll just swim 3000m straight instead of putting in all those boring intervals. I mean, 2'20 felt pretty easy, just focused on my form and I finished every 100m without noticing it. Poor guys and gals, they had to do speed training. I felt sorry looking at them panting while I was swimming sooo slow;-) After the swim, my upper leg hurt bad and I was limping home.
Tomorrow: I think I'll have another day of just swimming. Still don't know which pool I'm gonna go to but I'd like to go to the "other" one.
Mission "Challenge 1000km" accomplished!!! January 10, 2006
Posted by clayton in : workout , add a commentToday's the last day of the challenge and is also my birthday!!! YAY:-) 17yrs old now…and DAMN, today's ride was a tough one.
The ride: Every two strokes, I was feeling pain in my left knee. The ride went like, "ouch, ouch, ouch" on flats and "OUCH, OUCH, OUCH!!!" on the uphills. Since I focused on pulling upward my left foot to get away with the knee pain yesterday, I got muscle pain and couldn't really do that today. I was at 956km when I started the ride and just had to push through. So, I shortened my 40km course and headed straight to the bike store. Really wiped out by the time I got there, hehe. I'm guessing I looked like a dead man walking already, the store owner kindly opened the door for me;-) Since he's the only worker in the store, he asked me if I could go buy his lunch some place nearby. Still had a lot of time left so I went to the first store which was closed, came back and went looking for another one when I saw one attractive woman, for some reason selling lunch, hehe. Bought it and took it to the store owner and he said, "Wow, look at the variety of the veggies and meat." There was obviously a lot of things to eat in there for a 400yen lunch.
I guess the store owner really likes to take pictures, he was soooo interested in my new cell phone's cam. I told him that I dropped my cell phone and all the memory/ data inside disappeared + it costs 20,000yen. He was like, "Ouch but that's a nice cam…" hehe, still interested in the cam, eh? Changed my front tire after that and headed back home. Total of 67km, 2:57'38, ave speed 23kph, ave cadence 63rpm. Here's a pick of the prize I got for accomplishing mission "Challenge 1000km."
I got home right before 3pm, took a shower and went out to buy 2sweaters which I was craving for. Wanted to go for a swim afterwards but my knee was still in pain (I had a hard time going up stairs!!!) so I decided to take a day off, as usual.
Tomorrow: I'm gonna check on my knee and then choose whether or not to go to the doc or to go for a swim. I hope I get to swim, absolutely not breast stroke though. No running or biking cause I want it to recover.