3 mile swim. Last week to donate.

This was an eventful weekend with this morning having completed a [first] three mile, open water swim. First, the rest week: It was fairly typical. If I remember correctly, the weather was dreary Monday morning, meaning I had to stick to the trainer. I was able to make it through ok; it seems cold weather isn't enough to keep me inside, but thinking of dealing with a wet bike usually does it. Wednesday, did my first quasi-tempo run. I'm at the point were I know I need to start incorporating some speed training into my runs. The higher stress is hard, but it helps. I've noticed that I can maintain quicker paces after I started lifting again. Also, instead of a short run followed by a longer one for Friday-Saturday. I did two moderate long runs (10 mi, then 12 mi) to continue to build endurance, without yet delving into the marathon training distances.

So, the swim was very much a learning experience. This swim was three miles, in the Nanticoke River off of the Chesapeake Bay. The course, after swimming past a jetty, made a triangular patter that we completed twice. Water temperature was around 68. There are also some tidal details, which I suppose are important, but I can't recall. exactly. I've only done open water swimming on two previous occasions, for the ~750-800 m of the Triangle Triathlon, both of which took place in pretty calm lakes, with water temperatures unknown, but easily above the wetsuit legal limit (78 degrees). So this was my first true test of open water swimming, and also the use of a wetsuit.

Either the wetsuit was too small, or it's naturally too tight for my comfort. I felt constricted in the shoulders the whole time. I think next time I'm given the option I'll lean towards a sleeveless wetsuit. The benefit of the full length is the extra warmth, but based on how my hands and feet felt, it wasn't too bad. More experimentation will be needed.

Two main factors when discussing water conditions are wind and current (and this really applies for all water activities; swimming, rowing, sailing, other boating...). For swimming, swimming with the current is good, against is bad, across it isn't ideal either. We were swimming in a triangular pattern, so we got a bit of everything. Wind primarily creates chop which is difficult to swim through. Furthermore, sighting, the process of looking up to check your course, is harder when swells obscure your line of sight.

All of those things primarily affect your general effort level, and ability to keep the straight line for the shortest race. At least for me, the chop and the current, and probably to some extent the wetsuit, really affected my ability to get the rhythm that I enjoy in the pool. Also, before getting done with the first loop, I began to get some cramping in my calves. At least twice per leg of the triangle, I had to stop kicking to wait for the cramp to subside. In the end I finished in 1:48.

I can't say that I'm pleased with that time. In the pool, I can swim a 4000 in barely over an hour, easily. This swim was just another 1200. I guess I can "blame" some of it on not being comfortable with the wetsuit. Also, other swimmers confirmed that the water conditions were some of the worst they've seen. A friend on mine did the sprint triathlon, whose swim course doesn't even leave the jetty, and she thought the conditions were bad. Nonetheless, I was a little disappointed, but since I didn't really expect put much extra prep work (considering my long run, and incorporating a tempo run, it was really an anti-taper week), I should have had too high hopes.


Subway's Veggie Delite: I drove down last night and stayed with Mike, a triathlete I bet a few weeks ago when volunteering at a local 5k. Against my better judgement, being on the road, I had to eat on the road. Though I could've stopped along the way, I waited until I got to Salisbury to find dinner. I wanted to find something local, but given the hour (around 9:00), I just gave in and slipped into Subway. Not eating there in recent months, I settled on the veggie delite, something I've not had before, which is really just the bread and cheese with veggies. I asked for every veggie they had. Don't ask me why, but I truly loved that sandwich. I think it's the fact that you can get so many mouthFUL[L]s of food, AND is pretty good FOR you. I enjoyed it so much that after the race, when I needed lunch/recovery food, again from the road, I had another veggie delite; two in less that 24 hours.

Yesterday (Saturday), I attended a symposium on the "Frontiers of the Interface of Chemical Biology." Essentially, a few (surprisingly few, if you ask me) researchers in that overwhelming broad field came and had the typical research talks and poster sessions. Not as cool as I'd've hoped.

The triathlon is in two weeks. BUT THERE IS ONLY UNTIL FRIDAY TO DONATE! Please help out. Some donations haven't posted. I really ONLY NEED $540 left to reach my minimum!!!

Long couple of Days. Ups and Downs

It's been a busy past two weeks since my last update. This past week I had a 15 page (minimum) paper, a homework problem set, and a presentation, all for one class. Then I also had an outline for another paper in a different class, and also had to grade lab reports for the organic chemistry lab I TA. It was a very stressful week. It was only Tuesday, and every time I heard the word nucleic acids or sugar or DNA or anything of the sort, I wanted to throw up and just disappear for a couple of weeks (months (years)).

I am so glad and thankful that I have the ability to exercise. I don't know what I would do without it. It's such a stress reliever by itself, and it's really the only thing that keeps me going. That just makes me think of when people find out how I train and ask "how do you do it." And really I just don't know how I could not.

Last weekend I had a couple of bike-to-run bricks. If I haven't mentioned it before, a brick workout is a combination of two or more of the disciplines (swim, bike, run) into a single workout. They're important preparation for a triathlon, because until you do one (either a triathlon or a brick), you won't be ready for the sensation that is changing from the swim to the bike, or [especially] from the bike to the run. One day was pretty easy; it was the morning I had Coast Guard duty, so the bike leg was particularly short (just 30 min on the trainer) and a 4 mile run. The next afternoon was great, with a decent 35 mile bike, followed by the same 4 mile run. What amazes me is that I seem to be significantly faster coming off the bike than if I started from a dead run. Of course, I'm just waiting to find the threshold where that is no longer true. I don't expect that when I do a half-Ironman, my half marathon off a 56 mile bike will be faster. (Of course, who knows...)

This week was suppose to be a recover week, and I did so to my mild extent, which given my school workload, it matched up nicely. I took the week off from lifting, which gave me time to do my grading. And Wednesday, due to a CBI speaker forum, I passed on attending the weekly TnT ride. This afternoon, I also decided not to brick after my bike ride. It was windy and chilly which made the ride kinda tough and miserable. This route was only the second time I've done this longer course, so I opted out of the run.

Yesterday was a very fun day. A couple of us (TnT people) went down to Salisbury, MD, a town (city?) on the Eastern Shore (you take the Bay Bridge to the big peninsula) to volunteer for a local 5k race. The TnT group out of that area has been putting on this and other fundraiser for a couple of years now to raise funds for TnT events (like Columbia, but also some of the 100 mi bike rides). By volunteering, they are able to throw some of their net our way.

It was a long day; we had to leave at 5:15am to make the two-ish hour drive. I think we wanted to get there early enough to volunteer just for registration, but we got looped into to helping through out the event, but it only kept us until about 10:30. What I really enjoyed was being able to meet all the triathletes. Baltimore is not the most [tri]athletic area; I really only started meeting triathletes through TnT. At this race though, I got to network with some interesting people. They were also amazingly nice. For helping out at the starting line, a race director hooked us up with some free lock-laces (shoelaces you don't need to tie/untie, making transitions quicker). It turned out another guy is the race director of the open water swim I'm doing in two weeks. I talked to him about inexpensive places nearby to spend the night before the race. We had moved on in the conversation, but not even 10 minutes later, he offered to put me up for that night (other common TnT acquaintances were also going to be there). Really; nice people. Another fellow volunteer took some pictures. I'll see about getting them up here or on Facebook.

We got back late enough that I decided to pass on trying to get to the lab. All I needed to do was some reading, and I would've only ended up being there for 2 or 3 hours. Instead I finally got my oil changed and made a trip to Charm City Run another local running store. I'm still up in air about if I should invest my "loyalty" in one specific store: Falls Road Running Store, or Charm City Run? And if I do, which one?

By the way, I think I will end up doing the City of Oaks Marathon. No matter how I played with the numbers, CoOaks will be cheaper, and I'll have the advantage of knowing the course location, which I learning can make a huge difference.

Right now doing laundry and relaxing until swim. I need a new swimsuit soon.

After this week, I was dying for the chance to visit Raleigh. I still don't know if/when I'll be able to do that next.

Please be thinking of my aunt Becky. Last week, her husband, my uncle, passed away. A lot of my family is with her now, so I'm sure she's in good company.