Week 1 Training is done – only 23 to go to IM Wisconsin.

My swim workouts are somewhat like starting all over again. I swam some in Florida but had many bouts of “stuffy nose” and sneezing after each workout. Now is no exception but it’s a small price to pay for the training. My whine of the day-my swim muscles ache!! 

Last Wednesday in the pool I was doing 7-300s as the main set in the 3500 yd swim workout. Problem one was, since I still have some short term memory issues, I would lose count of how many laps I had done. A volunteer counter would help. No thongs are allowed in the pool area so dress appropriately.

Secondly, a very large woman and man were doing walking workouts in lanes one and two while I was in lane three. In an hour and a half workout it’s hard to stay focused on form and all the other things you should be doing so I watched them under water when my breathing turned their way. The woman stood at the edge of the deep water and slowly raised both arms up and along her body, up over her head, and spread her arms like a sun salutation. At first I thought to myself that she probably burned one calorie doing that and if she did it 389 more times she would burn off the Krispy Kreme Glazed Devils Food Doughnut she probably had for breakfast. Immediately I felt guilty and angry with myself. I know we have a problem with obesity in this country but we’re not going to solve it ridiculing overweight people. Sorry!!

After a while they retired to the Jacuzzi as many do so I thought they were done. After a while they came back to the pool and resumed their workout only this time they were only about a foot apart facing each other. She leaned against the side of the pool with her feet spread about three feet apart. It’s kind of like an accident on the highway; you don’t want to look but you can’t look away. Luckily two swimmers came in and things settled down. Thanks Jenifer and Paul.

The long bike on Saturday was tough. The wind was strong from the WNW at 15-25 mph. Rode out and back past Hopkins (yes, I did the hill past Hopkins). Went 2:08 into the wind and my quads were toasted. Came back in 1:42 and really tried to hold the effort down due to fatigue and was trying to keep it in heart rate 1. No cramps but plenty tired. At the last 50 meters of the hill past Hopkins I dropped to 7.5 mph. I let it coast down the other side and didn’t get above 17.5 mph, still into the wind. After a bag of peanuts and some G-Push I rode back up the other side. Was on the brakes all the way down the other side and still did 31.5 mph.

So that brings me to the math question of the week:

Facts:

The time to the turn-around was 2:08. The time back was 1:42. I looked at the average speed at the turn-around and it was 13.2. The total was 56.42 miles.

Questions:

# 1) essay question – How sore was my butt? ( Jean says I won’t honor any requests to feel it to measure the soreness).

#2) counting question – How many dead possums, raccoons, skunks and squirrels did I see?

Rules for question #2:

a) Record your counts separately by species.

b) Since the ride was an out and back, I saw each one twice, but each animal counts as 1.

c) If you’re not sure what it was, call it a raccoon.

d) The same animal scattered over a 20 foot radius counts as 1 (keep in mind that it could be more than one animal-CSI:Miami could tell you how many animals there were, which one died first, and what they were talking about when they were hit)

#3 Ciphering question – What was my average speed on the way back and if I had continued my same average speed on the return trip, but continued to 2:08 and not stopped at 1:42, how far would I have gone past my house?

Send your responses to me and I will forward them to the Institute For Insanity Research.

The track run on Thursday was difficult for me. There was a 20 minute warm-up on the streets until I got to the High School track. The track workout consisted of 2-400s, 3-800s, 2-400s, and 3-800s all at 5k race pace and each separated by a 200 yd easy run. There was also a 15-20 minute cool-down back on the streets. My last 800 seemed fast to me but was probably at a light jog pace and my cool-down consisted of a walk from the track to my house (whoops, Jean’s house).

In a few e-mails back I said that I’m not overly anal but now I think I’m morphing into Tony Shaloub as Monk (USA Channel Fridays at 10 PM-no promotion intended). The other day I was at the Fitness Center doing bicep curls. I was looking over at the rack next to the Smith Machine. At the lower end there are two beams where you can rest the weight bar when you are doing a barbell scapular elevation (what do you mean you don’t know what that is?). I noticed that one side was anchored in the fifth peg from the bottom and the other side was anchored in the sixth. I thought it was unusual but no big deal. Not so! The longer it went the more anxious I got. There was a weight bar across them both at a slant and it just looked wrong. I finally had to go over there and raise the one side up to be even with the other. I walked back to my machine smugly thinking that now all was right with the world. How sick!!

On to week two!

Just Jack

P.S. One of you graciously (I won’t name names) loaned me two nipple clips for the problem I had been having with my heart rate monitor slipping down and giving false readings. The good news is that the chest band now stays in place. The bad news is that now my resting heart rate is 161. I am leaning toward plan B which is spending money for a new band.