2019 – 26 February – Check In (Original post)

Other than swimming an extra 300 yards, this was a great triathlon swim – 70.3 IM St George (2017)

Checkin’ IN!!!

“Luck is the last dying wish for those that want to believe that winning can happen by accident.
Sweat, on the other hand, is for those that know it’s a choice.
So decide now — destiny waits for no man.
When your time comes, and a thousand different voices are trying to you say, “you’re not ready for it”.
Listen instead to that lone voice.
The one that says, “you ARE ready.”
“You ARE prepared.”
It’s all up to you now.
So rise and shine.”

I am seeing a lot of chatter through my circles of influence on swimming. Let me be clear. I have never received any swim coaching outside of how to tread water back in high school, and even then it was in the vein of pure survival for water polo. That being said. I find many in the realm of triathlon ignore their swim. I still remember being that athlete. some 60 days out to my first Half Ironman event at the 70.3 IM St. George, I decided it was time to swim. What a mistake that was. To think that I would go from not swimming anything significant, in 60 days to 1.2 miles and also manage a 56 mile bike and a 13.1 mile run after – WHAT A FOOL I WAS.

So, after that humbling miss – completed it 3 minutes over time, I did what I could to be better. Along that time, a fellow from Crushing Iron reached out to me and asked me to check out his and his coach’s new idea. A podcast, free transparent conversation and information sharing AND what I needed to hear to improve. It was shared in multiple parts, but the “HOW TO NOT SUCK AT SWIMMING SERIES” – CLICK HERE series of podcasts really spoke to me and I can now relate to it. Also, this video was like Coach Robbie was speaking right to me:

Hope Mike and Robbie don’t mind the attribution here. But these were concepts that I could put to task. And you know what, the only tool I needed beyond goggles was a pull buoy.

I went from dreading the swim to now, I look forward to the swim. I tout the handle of “ZENTRIATHLETE”. Yes, I am a faith-based guy, I don’t throw it in folks faces, but it is a deep part of who I have shaped myself. To that end, I typically am trying to identify Balance, and mindfulness in all aspects of training and life. Well, swimming has become my ‘sanctuary’ It is where I can go, be me, be alone, and be with me. I can’t avoid me, or displace myself for the service of others while I am chasing the black pool stripe or keeping things together in an open water swim. It’s basic. I have two major things to think about:

Not drowning (this includes knowing when to breathe)
My stroke

It’s that simple. It’s a great thing. Every once in awhile in the pool I have to watch out for the occasional pool noodle crew or for the kid or adolescents or adult that curiously swims against and perpendicular to the pool lanes (this one tends to baffle me more as their age goes up).

Anyway, one of the major reasons I wanted to take on this topic for me is a reminder that I hated to swim at first. It was even worse than running . I mean my first 100 yards was over 3 minutes the first day, and then return swims over the next 20 days were nearing 4 minutes per 100. I swam a long slow set for me last night and my 500 yd’s avg 1:50 min per 100 or less – Again this is a mindful purposeful steady swim. I mix in a few sprints between longer sets and those sometimes get as low as 1:16 min per 100 yards (But no way sustainable – yet). So as I sit here about to jump on my trainer, my simple trainer, nothing smart about it. I am grateful that I have seen such gains in the pool and while swimming. Although it is quite simple in theory it is also quite complex. I’m just hoping I can keep up my swim fitness and find small gains. I hope that I can let the work and time speak for itself in the cold waters of Sand Hollow on May 4. But for now, I need to jump on my trainer and get to work. Tomorrow is run day.

Well I was able to have a good trainer session. My dogs were going crazy, so I had to interrupt things and let them out. While that happened I grabbed a sufferfest video and used it. In this one there is a 5 second and 10 second series of sprints. I decided to do that as the trainer was the only activity for the day. Starting to feel my leg cadence again and getting the ‘groove’ back a bit as it were. Weather is erratic still, but soon should be able to get outside. We are turning over from February to March where I joke that Mother Nature and Old Man Winter are strange bedfellows and we feel many effects of their estranged liaisons.

I was able to get out for a run in the mid afternoon before the rain showed up. Man I was thinking. Just last year i was able to sustain an easy less than 10 minute pace and a solid HR for 6 – 13 miles. I was also able to sustain a solid weekly and monthly volume. I have flipped the shark a bit, and ramped up the swim frequency and volume and am adding int he run and biking now. My general rule is to be able to train at least the amount of hours that I think I will be on course. My target is 6 – 8 hours for a half iron man and I use that. I need to be at that point by March 15 and am ramping right into that target. Because I am not able to do more volume, I am focusing on quality and the correct purpose.

For example in today’s run. There were points that I felt really good, but I didn’t over push, rather I found my nose inhale and mouth exhale rhythm for more than half the run. Last night on my trainer , just a nonchalant spin wasn’t enough so I added in some suffer fest for focus and strength needs. During my swim on Tuesday I felt like I could keep going, I exercised restraint so I can keep building toward March 4th and not wrecking myself along the way.

Well, on a side, years ago, I had the opportunity to live in France. Part of that opportunity involved a 8-9 week preparation or training segment. During that time I be-friended a fellow that I lost touch with over the year. Well, I felt prompted to look him up the other day. Well looking through the participant list to verify I was on it, 70.3 IM St. George, I ran across a name. Jason Horne – Clearfield Utah. Well I found him on FB and reached out. no luck. Found out he is a master’s swim coach in Clearfield, email contact was there – it bounced. Well, maybe I will get to bump into him at check-in or starting line or something else or before. This triathlon thing has a way of attracting like-minded individuals. It is a very curious hobby, pursuit and passion. Anyway, I have just been trying to process more of my thoughts and write more to help me in this re-boot as it were. Just time to re-focus a bit. Woohoo!

Activities –

I use the following trackers:

Garmin Connect (which pushes the files to the following services):
Training Peaks
Strava
and the ones I don’t remember (Map my stuff via Under Armour and things like the Great Bicycle ride initiative stuff)

Honestly, I mainly use Training Peaks as I pay for an annual subscription on it now, and it is the most detailed in data and other helpful information to keep me where I want to go. Use the ‘Links’, then ‘Track me’ section to find and stalk me if that’s your thing.

Relevant Pics

I have brother’s Aggie sweatshirt The egg mash returns A funny from my friend sad, but honestly very accurate Salads have returned Look who came to visit daddy on the job my new views of Logan Canyon are amazing LDS Temple – Logan Utah – perks of my run! yup, these views are excellent. updates to the pain space. Getting more comfortable with it. Building character.