Doing Too Much...

I've been running five days a week, swimming twice and playing soccer once a week the last two weeks. Absent from my schedule has been spin class. It's on Thursday mornings and is really tough to wake up for after a late night at soccer on Wednesday nights (not to mention how sore I've been after soccer). I'm desperately waiting for the weather to get nicer so that I can ride outside and not be so reliant on spin.

But, I think I'm doing too much. Once I add biking back in to the mix (this coming week), I think 5 days of running is probably overdoing it. I'm gonna start "counting" my soccer on Wednesday nights as a running day and not worry about it. In fact, if there is a "toughest workout" of the week, it would probably be soccer. So, I'm not feeling too bad about replacing a day of running.

I'm making this decision because my body is already starting to break down and I'm still pretty far from the triathlon. So, I'm gonna do a little preservation over the next 4-5 weeks until soccer is over. Then, I'll amp it back up again to the finish. I don't want to peak to early and I certainly don't want to drag myself to the starting line either.

I Swam 500 Yards, What?!!

So... I almost tried to do this the other day but then didn't... So, my plan was to swim 1 x 100, 1 x 350, 1 x 100, 1 x 350. But, due to a packed pool, I only really had time for one longer swim. So.... why not right? I swam the full 500!! So, I swam 1 x 100, 1 x 500, and 1 x 100... I can officially swim the distance in my triathlon.

Next up? Gotta get faster. I'm still 3 months away from the tri though... so, plenty o' time.

Speed Workout and a Dip in the Pool...

Justin, Lisa and I ran over to the F&M track yesterday over lunch to do a speed workout (my dumb idea). Justin and I did 400s and Lisa did a bleacher workout. So, we jogged 1.5 miles to the track and a half mile around the track as warm up. Then, we did 4 400s with 400 jog between each (for a total of 2 miles). They went pretty well. Actually, they were right around (or a little lower) the last time I was doing 400s. That's awesome, because I haven't been doing any speedwork at all.

400 #1- 1:31
400 #2- 1:33
400 #3- 1:28
400 #4- 1:28

I'd like to do these every other week and add a 400 each time until I get to about 8-10 of them. We'll see how wooped the triathlon training makes me though. That will probably have some bearing on whether I keep this up.

And, I got to the pool this morning and did another workout. 100, 300, 100, 300. I'm really getting close to the 500 yards that I'll be swimming in the tri. I think next week might be 350...

The "Triathlon" Went Well...

I thought it was going to be much worse than it was. It turns out the toughest part of the whole thing was waking up at 5:00 am. Other than that, it went pretty well. I started it off with a spin class and man those classes kill me. I'm not sure, but it feels like everyone is staring at me the entire time I'm in there. Everybody seems so into biking/spin who goes to those things.

Then, I went swimming on my own... The pool was pretty packed, but I was able to squeeze in and get my laps in. I'm actually getting pretty close to the full distance. I did 250, 100, 250, 100 again and it wasn't that bad (and that is immediately after doing spin). I plan to do 300, 100, 300 the next time I get in the pool. Amazing how quickly this is coming along. I can't wait to start focusing on speed... but, one thing at a time here.

Then, I went on a lunch time run of 4 miles with Justin and Mallory. This kinda sucked, but it's not like we were going slow or something. So... I'm pretty impressed. I made it through the adventure without too much trouble. I'm not saying that I'm going to be fast, but this tri isn't as scary all of a sudden. It's still a number of months away. But, I'm really starting to get excited about it. I hope this energy for it continues!!

Triathlon Tomorrow!!

Ok... not a real triathlon. But, I'm waking up at the butt-crack of dawn to go to my second spinning class (RPM). The class starts at 5:45 and I'm 25 minutes from the gym, you do the math. My plan is to sleep in my clothes and have my car packed for work tonight. That way, I can just wake up and get in my car.

Then, right after I do the spin class, I'm gonna head over to the pool for a swim workout (still undecided on what I'm doing). Then, over lunch, I'm going out for a run of 4 miles with "the crew". So, to say the least, I'm assuming I'm going to be trashed tomorrow. On the bright side, I should be able to eat whatever the heck I want! Sweet...

Swimming Maniac

I'm really getting better at this swimming thing. I've swam a little bit each of the last three days. I swam a shortened (wanted 500 yds) 325 yds on Saturday. Then, before I went on a 6 mile run in Harrisburg on Sunday, I did 500 yds to make up for it. And, since I was still pretty spent from my six miler (I haven't been doing long runs lately), I decided to take a light day today and not run.

So, what did I do? I went swimming! And, boy did I... I swam a total of 700 yds for the first time ever. I did 250 then 100 to bring my heart rate down, 250 again and then 100 to finish. I'm officially at half of the 500 yd sprint tri distance. And, I think I'm really not that far off from doing the full 500. I'm gonna continue to inch towards it. Then, as soon as I can actually do it, I will start working on times (I have no idea how slow I am at this point).

The six miler on Sunday went well too. I ran with a whole host of people... A guy I just met (Mark Rebuck), Justin (my work running buddy), Nate (my old work running buddy and good friend) and Bill (running buddy who I met through Nate). Then, everyone but Justin went and grabbed Indian food afterwards. Nate and Bill call it their Run4Naan. I dig it.

The run itself was really icy and not that pleasant. At times, it wasn't that bad, but here's a picture of the trail that we were running on...

5 x 100 Yards in the Pool...

This swimming thing is not easy, but I'm making small gains. When I started, I could barely do 50 yards in the pool, I couldn't breathe and I didn't have goggles. Weeks two and three I just concentrated on doing a couple 100s and filling out the 500 yards with as many 50s as it took. Some days that meant I did 3 100s and 4 50s. Other days, 2 100s and 6 50s. But, today, I decided to "eat a bicycle" (i.e. I mine as well eat a bicycle, it's that hard), to quote Nate. And, I swam 5 x 100 yards!!

So... that was a nice early accomplishment. I am already planning 2 x 150 and 2 100s for my next time out. That may be a little early, but there is only one way to find out.

On top of that, I maxed out in pushups on Sunday and did a disappointing 32 pushups. I meant to do more the rest of the day, but conveniently "never got around to it". So, when I did pushups with Adam (another contest mate) today over lunch I was super surprised to find that I could do 40 straight pushups. Whaaaa??? I have no idea. I obviously still don't have this pushup thing figured out. But, that's two big accomplishments in the same day.

Adam and I were talking and it's really not gonna feel all that big a deal until we can do 50 pushups. But I gotta admit, after doing 32, 40 sounds really good.

Goggles...

My ever evolving swimming training reached another point of stupidity yesterday. I had swam 4-5 times already, all without goggles. The last time I went (prior to yesterday) was the first time the chlorine even remotely bothered me.

I don't know if a new batch was just "dumped" in (as I'm sure that's how it works) or if I finally became a normal human being. But, that was the longest swimming session to date. I NEED GOGGLES. Funny thing is, this is probably one of the most elementary things about swimming. I shouldn't have had to learn this one the hard way. Alas, that's pretty typical Eric right there...

I see goggles in my very near future. Moron.

Swimming: 7 Things I've Learned So Far...

1. I suck at swimming (so far)
2. Swimming makes me burp. I think that has something to do with the large amounts of air I'm trying to take in to avoid drowning.. Might have something to do with the egg and salsa breakfast too. Stay tuned.
3. It makes the middle of my back sore.
4. I can't do as many pushups because of it.
5. It's intimidating to see all the "swimmers" while I'm flailing around in the pool.
6. Blow bubbles under water to exhale so that you can actually breathe when you come up for air.
   
7. I... gasp... like it.
   

Bubbles...

Who knew (I'm sure most everyone except me)? But, you have to exhale bubbles under water before you take your next breath when swimming. I kept coming up for my breath and having to exhale first. It wasn't working at all. Then, I put it on my status message on Facebook that I was having trouble and a friend of mine (Andrea), who swims, told me the enlightening news. Gotta love the Interweb. I knew I had to be doing something wrong. And... I was.

Well... I haven't drowned...

I swam for the second time today and felt a little bit more comfortable. I'm not swimming for time yet or even worried about how many laps I'm doing. I'm just trying to get used to it all. The breathing seemed a little more normal. But, still not right. I think I'll get more and more comfortable, the more I do it. I think I need to slow my pace down until I get my breathing right too. Otherwise, I'm going to be stopping every time I get done with one length of the pool.

I also ran around the short track at the gym (yuck). But, it was nice to run and swim in the same workout. I also shot some hoops in between all of that. Did I mention that I LOVE the new gym? Having a lot of fun so far. I really think this is the change of pace I needed.

1000 miles and a New Year

I woke up yesterday morning super early to get out for a morning run of 5.4 miles to complete my 1000 mile year. It was cold, windy and even my dog didn't want to be out there after a while. But, I did it.

Then, I went directly to work. At about 10:30 our office manager yelled over the cubicles at me, "Hey, I thought that was you over there. Do you know you scheduled a vacation day today?" D'oh. I wasn't even supposed to be at work. Oh well... so I took a half day. I was going to meet Melissa over lunch to sign up for the new gym (Universal Athletic Club) anyway. So, now I didn't have to come back to work after we were done signing up.

The gym is an entirely different story. It's like we're going to be able to totally change our lifestyle there. They babysit from 6 weeks old and up. So, Meliss can go in and work out when she is home with the kids and get her "fitness queen" status back. She really loves to be in shape and after two kids, she is going to start having more time for it. I'm really happy for her.

And... the kids benefit from this too. They can take swim lessons and the kids area at the gym is absolutely ridiculous. It's got a big apparatus inside of a huge gym that includes ball pits, climbing, big slides, tubes to climb around in and much more. Sophie is going to have a blast (already did yesterday). Check out the kiddo place by clicking on the photo below.


And finally... as I said, it has a pool. One of the things on my 2009 calendar is to start "training" for a triathlon. I haven't picked one and I'm not sure how comfortable I'm going to be with the swimming part. But, this will be my opportunity to try. My first swim is today... Wish me luck.