Swim 10/22

1000 yards in about 30 minutes. I'm just trying to get back into a routine with swimming, working on keeping good form. I did 10x100, resting for 30 seconds to a minute between laps.

The swim felt better. On Tuesday, I felt like a brick swimming through the water. Today I at least felt like a brick with rounded edges. ;)

Bike 10/21

25 minute spin in the 39x17, while watching Mythbusters. Again, I was able to stay in the aero position for the entire time. Saddle comfort is another matter, I need to move around slightly from time to time.

Afterwards I did 15 minutes of hamstring stretches.

Bike Gearing, part 1

I decided this was a general enough topic for my regular blog, so I moved it.

Bike Gearing, part 1

Bike 10/20

I piddled around in the evening reading a book, and got on the trainer late. I wound up spinning for 40 minutes while watching Smallville.

It was great - for 35 of the minutes I managed to stay in the aero position! I sat up for the last 5 because my forearms were sore - the aero pads aren't very thick.

Afterwards, I did hamstring stretches for 15 minutes.

Winter Bike Training Program

After T2 and I worked out on Sunday, we watched a few minutes of Spinervals DVD's. These DVD's are meant for indoor bike training, and since we are likely to spend at least half our time indoors this winter, and I heard these DVD's were pretty good, I decided to try two of them.

I bought "No Slackers Allowed" and "Sweating Buckets". The workouts looked okay - it is hard to really form an opinion from just watching and not following along. What we saw was Coach Troy moving to various athletes, yelling encouragement and training instructions, all set to some cheesy music.

I told T2 I saw an online indoor bike training program put together by another triathlete who frequents TriNewbies Online. This program is now located here. Just click on "Intervals". There are a total of 50 workouts, which is around 4 months of material if you do 3 workouts each week with no repeats.

So that is another option, print out the programs and follow along while we train on our own, or train together while watching a movie or something.

Swim 10/19

I thought I would have to move my swim to tomorrow, because I had a 1 pm meeting and just couldn't get away early enough to make it to the pool.

But, a few minutes before noon, the meeting was cancelled. So I drove over the Juanita Pool at Juanita High School, and swam 1000 yards in about 30 minutes. I did some easy laps, and I felt a bit tired and I realize my swim fitness has degraded. (Hard to imagine, I know!)

My swims for the last two months have been all open-water, and in a few ways it felt good to get back in the pool.

Diet Soda

I made it through today without any soft drinks at all. I usually have at least one a day, either at lunch or at dinner.

A few years ago I started to drink diet sodas instead of the regular ones, so that was marginally better: 1 calorie instead of 140 calories. However, the calories were still empty.

I decided, as an experiment, to avoid soft drinks for an entire week. Today was day one. I'll be bringing my Nalgene water container to lunch this week so I remember to skip soft drinks.

Base Week 1

Okay, so I'm starting up slow. :)

Oct 11 - Oct 17

	Minutes
Swim	0
Bike	0:50
Run	0
Strength	0
Weight	140.8 lb
Body Fat	17.1 %

Also, I decided to take Mondays as a rest day, and do a swim/strength workout on Tuesday instead of a run on Tuesday. As odd as it may be, running is my "strength" and thus I need to work on swim/bike far more.

Group Trainer Ride

JHS called T2 this morning and cancelled the bike ride, since it was pouring rain.

Instead of riding outside with T2 and JHS, T2 and I scheduled a trainer ride at T2's in the afternoon. I packed up my bike and trainer, drove over to T2's, and setup there. We had a nice 50 minute spin on our bikes, while watching Ironman Austria and ITU Honolulu coverage T2 had saved on TiVo.

T2 looked at my aero form, and noted I appeared stretched out, and that my forearms need to come back a few inches for me to get the 90 degree shoulder angle. T2's form looked great - 90 degree hip angle and shoulder angle, and T2 only has road geometry bikes! I stayed in aero form for approximately 5 minutes before sitting up a bit for the rest of the time.

I had to squirm a bit due to a bit of butt numbness... after getting fit for my bike, my next priority will be to find a comfy saddle. Something a little wider as my hip bones seem to bear most of my weight.

Overall, the spinning went well, and it did feel pretty good to get started. Moreover, T2 and I helped motivate each other to get in a workout on a rainy day, something we'll likely need to repeat.