We put together a 3 miles run/walk even for the people at my work. We have a thing named Active Health that is designed to get employees to be more active. So they get points for certain activities. A running or walking event that is 3 miles or more is worth 25 points. But most events cost more money than the accumulated points will be worth. So we put together a free event for employees to get 25 points. The event took place at a local park with a paved walking trail that is about a mile long. Actually there is line marked start and another line marked finish and it says one mile. Since the two are separated a bit, maybe 75 feet, the whole loop is a little over 3 miles. We planned to have a race starting at 11am, and then at 11:45, the people who wanted to walk/jog could go. We didn’t want the racers to be having to dodge a ton of walkers for three loops.
I changed into my running clothes before I left work, and wore a t-shirt and denim shorts over them. I wore my Pink Floyd-Dark Side Of The Moon shirt that won the poll on the LVM21 board as to which shirt should I wear. I headed to the park, arriving about 10:30. I stretched and got all my stuff together. 27 people had signed up for the race part, maybe 20-25 people showed up. I was pretty sure I would be one of the fastest people there. There would be water at the start/finish area, but not people handing out cups of water as the runners went by. So before the start, I grabbed a small bottle of water on set it beside the trail so I could grab it as I went by.
After some brief instructions, we were told to get set. I lined up at the front. Then were told to get set, and then go. I started running.
My goal was to run about a 7:00 pace. I was running, and seemed to be all alone. Where is everybody? I glanced over my shoulder and saw the nearest person was a little ways back. Had I overestimated the other people? Am I going to kill myself running 7:00 pace, when the next fastest runner might only be running 8:00 pace? But part way into the first mile, this guy wearing a white shirt caught up to me and was just sitting on my tail. I didn’t like that. I didn’t know if he was a slower runner matching my pace, or a faster runner biding his time. I kept seeing glimpses of white behind me. I slowed down a little at about 0.9 mile mark and let him pass me. Then I ducked in behind him. We finished the first mile in a little under 7 minutes. I didn’t want to slow to grab the water bottle. It was warm, and I was dripping sweat. I continued running, still right on the tail of the guy in the white shirt. I was catching glimpses of someone wearing yellow behind me. About the 1.5 mile mark, the guy in yellow passed the two of us. It was a guy I know named Paul. I passed the guy in the white shirt, and ducked in behind Paul. We continued running about 7:00 pace. The guy in the white shirt dropped slowly farther and farther back. Paul and I cross the 2 mile mark at about 14:00 minutes. Again I passed on grabbing the water bottle. As Paul and I were approaching the 2.4 mile mark, I glanced back and saw nobody anywhere near us. I was getting tired. I pulled up beside Paul and said that were in the lead by a huge margin. I suggested that we take it easy. He wanted to finish under 21 minutes. I said I thought we were on pace to do that. I suggested that we finished in a tie, and he said okay. I don’t think either of us wanted to get into a sprint to the finish. We talked about sprinting the last 0.10 mile, and at first I said yeah, then I said, let’s just hold the pace. I wasn’t sure if Paul would change his mind and sprint for a the win. But we were both honest, and crossed the line in 21:13. I guess that last mile was a little slower. As I said the course was a little over 3 miles, so I am guessing we averaged 7:00 pace. I probably could have finished a little faster at the end, but the race really didn’t mean much. It was just for fun. I don’t even get any Active Health points for, since I have already maxed out on them. So I was happy with a tie for first place. And I was happy to have held the 7:00 pace since I wasn’t sure I could. I hadn’t run that far that fast since July. I think the next place guy finished 30 seconds or more behind us.
Finis SwimP3 V2
SUMMARY: Sound quality good. Makes the laps go by faster..
Since I am training for an Ironman triathlon, I am doing a lot of swimming. Currently I am going to the pool three days a week, swimming for close to an hour. When I run or bike, I like having music. I also wanted music when I swim. I looked at the H2O Audio IS2 mp3 player. I came close to buying this, but decided that the headphones that work as earplugs might not plug my ears well enough. I ended up going with the more expensive Finis SwimP3. It works by bone conduction. I ordered it and was excited to get it. It came on a day I was supposed to go swimming, but I had to charge it first. The SwimP3 is charged by plugging it into a computer USB port. Since that was going to take a few hours or more, I was going to have to wait till my next swim day. Songs are also loaded onto the SwimP3 by dragging and dropping songs onto it as an external USB drive.
So the next time I went swimming, I took my new SwimP3 mp3 player. I wear silicone earplugs, so I inserted those first. Then I put on my goggles. The SwimP3 has two little “speaker” parts. These are tucked under the goggle straps on either side. I turned the SwimP3 player on. I could hear the music. It got louder as I was in the water. I was able to swim and listen to my tunes. Interestingly, when I get out of the pool, and take my earplugs out, the music gets much quieter. So I think it helps to wear ear plugs. My Finis SwimP3 V2 mp3 player really helps the laps go faster. I did find one song on my mp3 player that probably does fit with swimming; Bob Seger-Like A Rock. On the other hand, Life in The Fast Lane by The Eagles works very well. The sounds quality is good. Not as good as wearing headphones. But pretty good considering you under water.
Read more…
Sunday:
I wanted to take my bike out for a long ride. When I got up in the morning, the temps outside were in the 40’s! Ack! The forecast had the highs being in the mid-70’s. So I figured it would be warming up. So I waitied for it warm up. Finally it started getting warmer. When it got up into the 50’s, I started getting my stuff together. By the time I was ready to leave, it was almost 60 degrees out. I did a 37 mile ride on my tri-bike. This was the first long ride since I got my bike fitting redone. The aerobars were more comfortable. I managed to stay down on the bars for most of the ride. I stopped at McDonalds at about 15 miles. Then I stopped at Subway at about 31 miles and got a couple subs to take home. I just shove then in my jersey pockets. I managed to do about 2000 feet of climbing over the ride. As always, my ride ended with a 300 foot climb as I live on a hill.
In the afternoon, I went and did 2 hours of karate class. Man, were my legs tired!
Monday:
Normally there are classes at the pool, and I have to wait till 7:30 before open swim starts. But due to Columbus Day, there were no classes, and it was open swim. So I hit the pool right after work and swam a mile. I could have swam more, but I had a running race the next day, and didn’t want to wear myself out. One of the lifeguards who had been seeing me since I started swimming, commented on my improvement.
Tuesday:
I ran a 3 mile race (actually it was close to 5k). I finished in 21:13 and tied for 1st place. Me and the other guy intentionally went for the tie. We finished 2 minutes ahead of the next finisher. I went to normal karate class after work.
Wednesday:
I rode my bike to the community center and swam for an hour. I swam 45 laps, or close to 1.3 miles. I alternated between front crawl (Freestyle), and back crawl (back stroke). Then I rode my bike home. The bike ride was only about 6 miles, but had about 600 feet of climbing.
Thursday:
Ran 6 miles: 1 easy mile (10:00 pace) and 5 miles at 7:30 pace.
Friday:
I normally go swimming after work, and before karate class. But I didn’t have time, since I stopped at the bike shop for a 30% off sale. I bought some new tires for my triathlon bike. Then I went to 2 hours of karate class.
Saturday:
I ran 13 miles. Then I spent most of the rest of the day resting, and working on repairing an old Schwinn bike.
Aqua Sphere Vista Goggles
SUMMARY: Very comfortable, seal well, but fog up quickly.
I had some Speedo Sprint goggles that seal well, but are tinted blue, and I get double vision when looking at the bottom of the pool. I also had some clear Tyr goggles that I see very well out of, but they don’t seal vey well. I started researching new goggles and masks. I read that goggles don’t give the greatest peripheral vision for open water swimming. I read that some people use swim masks. I have seen Aqua Sphere masks and goggles at my local sporting good store. I tried both the Aqua Sphere Vista mask and the Aqua Sphere Seal Mask. Both style of masks fit and sealed very well. The Vista mask lenses were a little smaller than the Seal Mask lenses. But the Vista were supposed to be the better mask (according to the packaging). I ended up buying the Vista swim mask.
I was excited to try them. I was scheduled to swim the night I bought them. As I said, they sealed very well. They had a very good field of vision. Much wider than the other regular swim goggles that I had. One thing I noticed was that mask fogged up quickly. I tried spitting on the inside of the lenses, but this didn’t help much. I called Aqua Sphere customer support and they sent me some anti fogging drops. I tried these, and they helped some. So instead of fogging after a lap, they fogged after about 5 laps. I contacted the Aqua Sphere customer support and they offered to replace the Vista mask. I also have a Aqua Sphere Seal Mask and I haven’t had the fogging problem with those. So the issue may be unique to the Vista, or maybe I got a mask with bad anti-fog coating.
Read more…
Sunday:
I was scheduled to run for 15 miles. But it was a long weekend with a long driving trip to Pennsylvania. Got home about 7:30, so I managed to get in 10 miles, and called it a night.
Monday:
A new PB! I swam 1.2 miles in just under 58 minutes. That’s the farthest I have swam. I am still working on swimming smoother. At one point I was doing front crawl and realized I was taking way too many strokes. I slowed down and started doing better. I worked a little on regular backstroke and made some improvement. But I ended up going back to modified backstroke.
I had planned to ride my bike to the pool. I got home from work and decided to take a short nap. I set the alarm, but ended up sleeping through it. So I slept longer than I planned. So I drove to the pool instead. Maybe I will take my bike Wednesday.
Tueday:
I squeezed in my quarter mile intervals before heading off to karate class. I was supposed to do 400m rest intervals, but due to lack of time, I just rested for about 2 minutes between each.
Wednesday:
I just got home from swimming. I swam another 1.2 miles tonight. I started off mixing it up. But settled into a length of freestyle (front crawl), and doing a length of backstroke (back crawl). I have been doing modified backstroke (like breaststroke, but on my back and with a flutter kick). But I decided to work on the backstroke. I started off very weak at it. But I was really starting to get the hang of it. I manage to finish the 1.2 miles in about 57 minutes which about a minute faster than Monday night!
Oh, and I got my new goggles. They are a Aqua Sphere Seal Mask. I had very little problems with fogging on these.
Thursday:
Ran 8 miles. One easy mile (10:00 pace) and 7 miles at 8:00 pace. The run actually felt pretty good.
Friday:
Did my swim tonight. I left work a few minutes early to get more swim time. I did a straight combo of one length front crawl, one length back crawl. I am getting better at both of these strokes. I did 1.2 miles (42 laps) in 53:34. That about 2 1/2 minutes faster than my previous best time for that distance. I am feeling much better in the water!
Saturday:
I was scheduled to run 20 miles at 8:15 pace. I got up in the morning and procrastinated starting. When I finally did start, I felt kind of stiff, but I loosened up. But I just wasn’t into it. But I managed to slog through the 20 miles. This was my last 20 mile day before my upcoming marathon in New York City. But I finished it, now I am in taper mode!