mwz: Injury Day 5

I feel like I cheated. I went to Frances' swim class. I didn't do any real swimming, but I was in the pool. You can read about the experience here.

mwz

mwz: Injury Day 4

I carried some heavy boxes down from the attic.

mwz

mwz: Injury Day 3

I didn't exercise so that my abdomen can heal. Do you suppose letting Frances jump on my stomach is really resting?

mwz

mwz: Injury Day 2

Today, I didn't exercise. I did put on my swim cap for a while to stretch it out a bit and get used to it. I haven't yet worn it to swim because I want to have a little better stroke before I don all the gear. I don't want to look like I'm getting ahead of myself.

I can't believe it but not exercising sucks.

mwz

mwz: Injury Day 1

Since I can't exercise, I don't really have anything to write about. So I thought I would answer J-Funk's question that she posted in the comments of my last post.

How do you pull a muscle in your abdomen?

Well, this is how I think I did it.

I think I first injured it in playing high school tennis. When I would serve, I would arch my back and swing the racket forward with my whole body, including my abs. I had a pretty decent serve but I think that's how I pulled the muscle in the first place.

I played through a lot of pain which probably wasn't good. I might have done some real damage to it. I don't know.

Recently, it started acting up again when I was doing "Knee / Hip Raise On Parallel Bars" exercises. Basically, I hung on a thing and pulled my legs up repeatedly. That re-aggravated my abdomen.

I'm hoping that these hip exercises will help me from re-injuring it again. I guess I'll find out when I get to start doing them...

mwz

mwz: Injured

I saw my doctor and my faith in her diagnostic skills was well founded. She's reasonably sure that I have a strained muscle in my abdomen (no more crunches for me). She gave me some exercises that I can do to strengthen the muscles around the strained part to help protect them.

The really sucky part is that she told me to not exercise for a week. Then I can only swim for a week. Then I can add biking for a week and then finally I can start running again.

So that means I won't be training for a little while. I can't even go to my swim lesson this week. Hopefully, though this will solve my problems.

mwz

mwz: Day 57

I ran on the tread mill this morning. I went 3 miles but I actually walked the last quarter mile because I started my sprints too soon and wore myself out. On the tread mill, that's the only way to keep my interest is to vary my speed.

mwz

mwz: Day 56 Rest

I rested today. Woo hoo.

mwz: Day 55

Spin and weights today. The spin instructor asked how long we should go (45 or 60 minutes). One lady said that she would like 45 minutes but that everyone else probably wanted an hour. I jumped in that I wanted 45 minutes and so did the lady next to me. So we did 45 minutes and I had time to add a couple weight exercises.

It's really a pain to spin in my oversized, old running shoes. I think I'm going to go back to using my running shoes for spin class.

This is just a story about someone who annoyed me in the weight room. I like to go back and forth between related machines, like I alternate sets of leg extensions and leg curls. I think this is pretty common. Well, I was into my second set when a lady jumped on the other machine (which she knew I was using because she saw me get off of it). I was fine with that. I've alternated with people before but then rather than use the machine, she sat and talked to someone. I did 2 sets in a row on the machine I was on and by the time I was done with those she had just started. So I had to stand around for a while waiting for her to finish, which kinda sucks since I'm under a time crunch to get Arial the car. When I was just about to give up, she finished and I got to do my 2 sets on that machine.

Today, I added weight to a lot of the exercises. That made it a bit more challenging but not bad. I also added three exercises (and removed the new one from last week). I found the equipment that I had been searching for. It turns out that there are weight machines in the cardio room. So I added the Seated Leg Curl, the Thigh Adductor (or as I think of it, the "chastity machine") and the Thigh Abductor. I need the Thigh Adductor to help with my kick in the breast stroke. It turns out that those muscles are pretty weak.

I got rid of the Knee / Hip Raise On Parallel Bars because I didn't have room for it in my schedule. Maybe I'll try to work it in next week.

Here is what I lifted this week:

Lying Dumbbell Tricep Extension: 15 lbs each hand (EH). 10x4
Dumbbell Flyers: 15 lbs EH 10x4

Straight Arm Pulldown (lat machine): 40 lbs 20x3
Wide-Grip Pulldowns Behind the Neck (lat machine): 70 lbs 20x3

Side Lateral Raise: 15 lbs EH 10x3
Dumbbell Bicept Curl (but sitting): 20 lbs EH 10x3
Seated Dumbbell Palms-up Wrist curl: 20 lbs EH 10x3

Leg Extensions: 70 lbs 20x3
Seated Leg Curl: 70 lbs 20x3

Thigh Adductor: 5 lbs 20x3
Thigh Abductor: 6 lbs 20x3

Links from BodyBuilding.com.

mwz

mwz: Day 54

Today, I ran 4 miles. This is the farthest I've run since my last race (many years ago and no I wasn't competitive then either). I went that far for two reasons. I was pretty sure that I could do it and wanted to test that theory. I was also trying to aggravate my injury so that when I went to the doctor, I would still have the symptoms (it didn't work, I felt fine).

The run went pretty well. I felt reasonably good the whole time (tired but good). It felt a little daunting when I finished my first two miles and was starting the last two miles. But eventually those miles got finished too. I was out there like 45 minutes, which is a long time to be running. I guess I should get used to long runs...

Last night, I mapped out the new 2 mile course to run. Here are my notes on the new course.

• Driving at night, I didn't notice that a large stretch of sidewalk was torn up on the side I wanted to run on. The first time I didn't realize that it was going to continue for more than a block, so I ran on the gravel and mud (until crossing over). The second time I crossed much sooner.
• Even when there are side walks, there is still a lot of mud on them in that area.
• There is a big hill at about mile 1.75. It is steep and had to do when you are towards the end of the run. But I figure that the more varied terrain will be good for my training.
• 2 laps of a 2 mile course is a lot of running.

mwz

mwz: Day 53

Today, I skipped my morning swim do to the injury that I mentioned in my last post.

I did go to the swim lesson though. I asked about kick speed and I was told three kicks for each arm stroke. That is way faster than I have been kicking. It's really tiring but it does keep me up on top of the water better and I think I'm going faster.

I also asked about the breast stroke since I've heard that is a good stroke to rest with. Like everything else, I found out that I had been doing it completely wrong. Well not completely but I wasn't timing the kick right. Oh, and I was kicking wrong too. I'm not really sure how it is supposed to be restful though. You get to breath more frequently, which is nice and you use different muscles than with the crawl but it is still tiring. Maybe it gets easier after you do it for a while. I had problems getting the coordination down initially.

mwz

mwz: Day 52

(posted late)
Okay, this requires a little back story. Ever since high school, I've been battling an injury thing. I'm not really sure if it actually is an injury because no doctor has been able to tell me what causes it. Basically, sometimes when I exercise (like play tennis or run) I feel pain. It feels like someone is kicking me in the nuts over and over.

I used to play through it because what was I going to say "Stop the match. Some invisible guy keeps racking me." Not to mention, I wasn't about to tell anyone anything that would disparage my manhood. Of course now, I have fathered two children so I figure that I've proven my manliness (enough to tell the world about my invisible enemy).

So far during the triathlon training, I hadn't had any problems with this particular injury. But on Monday, during my run, I felt the pain again. The swimming on Tuesday didn't bother it but on Wednesday when I was getting ready to go to spin class, I realized that it still hurt. I couldn't face an hour of pain, so I skipped class. I was almost out the door when I made the decision. So I got up at 5:30 to get dressed and then go back to bed.

I'm going to my doctor on Monday to see if she can work it out. She is more enthusiastic about diagnosing things than any other doctor I've seen so hopefully she can come up with something.

mwz

mwz: Day 51

I swam today. 22 laps, 0.5 miles ~30 minutes.

mwz

mwz: Day 50

Due to the holiday, I couldn't be bothered to drag myself out and run this morning. Instead, I ran on the tread mill in the evening.

3 miles in 30 minutes with a varying pace between 5.5 - 6 mph for most of it and some sprints of 7, 8 and 9 mph.

At the begining I had pretty sharp shin splints but they stopped hurting before the first mile was up. Is that supposed to happen?

mwz

mwz: Day 49 Rest

I rested today. Actually, I painted but that is sorta like resting. Arial let me sleep in this morning (we skipped church), so that was restful.

I can't believe I've been training for 7 weeks. That's a long time.

mwz

mwz: Day 48

Today, I spun and lifted. Here are my notes:

Cycling:

• The spin class went for an hour but she warned us before class so that was okay.
• Now that my running shoes are broken in, I've stopped wearing them to spin class. Instead, I'm wearing my old running shows. Now, I can't believe that I used to run in those. They're big and clunky. The only problem I have with them in spin class is that there is about a half inch of room in the toe. This means that I can't get my foot into the pedal cage thing as far and my foot doesn't feel securely on the pedal. That's kind of a pain.

Lifting:

• I was doing my work on the lat machine and it was going really easily. I thought that I had made a lot of improvement. Unfortunately, I soon discovered that in the past, I've been reading the weight wrong. There are two 5 lb weights that can be added on top of the main plates (to allow the machine to be set to any weight in 5 lb increments). I had assumed that those weights were factored into the weight markings on the plates but apparently not. Today, the 5 lb weights were off and it made a huge difference. The take home is that I'm pretty sure that the weights that I've been reporting on the lat machine are all probably 5-10 lbs off.
• aside from my lat debacle, I think I am going to start upping some of my exercises because some of them are starting to get easier.
• I added Knee / Hip Raise On Parallel Bars because it looked fun but I really need to figure out something that will work my hamstring.
  

Here is what I lifted this week:

Lying Dumbbell Tricep Extension: 10 lbs each hand (EH). 10x4
Dumbbell Flyers: 10 lbs EH 10x4

Straight Arm Pulldown (lat machine): 25 lbs 20x3
Wide-Grip Pulldowns Behind the Neck (lat machine): 70 lbs 20x3

Leg Extensions: 70 lbs 20x3
Knee / Hip Raise On Parallel Bars: 20x3

Side Lateral Raise: 10lbs EH 10x3
Dumbbell Bicept Curl (but sitting): 20 lbs EH 10x3
Seated Dumbbell Palms-up Wrist curl: 15 lbs EH 10x3

Links from BodyBuilding.com.

mwz

mwz: Day 47

I swam this morning, even after my swimming lessons last night. It is extremely hard to get up in the morning to go swim when you still smell of chlorine and you know that your suit is still wet. Last week I failed that test but this morning I managed to do it. At least the water was warm today (unlike Tuesday).

I have to say though that the training and/or the lessons are really paying dividends. This morning I swam 22 laps (half mile) but I only swam on my back for 1 in 4 lengths. Before I was "resting" 1 in every 2 or 3 lengths but today, I did the whole thing doing the three crawls to one backstroke ratio.

Surprisingly, it didn't save me any time but that might be because I stopped and stretched some after 2 laps. Who knows.

I have been getting better about remembering to stretch after each work out. It makes me feel all athletic to do that.

mwz

mwz: Day 46

I ran this morning. 3 miles. It was beautiful out. Probably about fifty degrees. At mile one, I took off my wind breaker and tied it around my waist. At mile two, I took it off completely and threw it on the steps of my house. I was running with just a sweatshirt and sweats in January. Oh, it took me around 35 minutes.

This evening I attended my swim lesson. There were only three students, so I got to ask some questions about breathing and kicking. It turns out that with my new stroke I have been breathing correctly. Yea.

While I was taking a breather, I sort of heard one of the other students calling to me. I couldn't hear very well because there was water in my ears and I couldn't see her very well either because I don't swim with my glasses. But eventually I figured out that she was calling to me. After I apologized for not hearing or seeing her, she asked me how my hands enter and exit the water. She told me that I didn't splash much and she wanted to know how I did it.

I was amazed. Since I can't watch myself swim, I've always assumed that I'm just splashing up a storm. But I guess not. That made me feel both proud and self conscious. I tried to explain what I do, while telling her that I have gotten most of my information off the internet. That was the weird part. I'm don't really feel qualified to give swimming advice since that's why I go to the lessons in the first place.

mwz

mwz: Day 45

1 hour spin class today. Nothing interesting happened.

mwz

mwz: Day 44

Swam today. The water in the pool was really cold. It took a bit more to get used to it and it made me think that swimming across a cold lake might not be as much fun as it sounds.

Anyway, I swam 22 laps trying my new form. I think I started to hard because after 3 lengths, I was exhausted. For a while I swam a length freestyle and then swam on my back for a length. Then about lap 12, I started doing three lengths freestyle, then a length on my back.

I may be completely wrong about this but it got a little easier when I imagined myself trying to reach something far away with my leading hand. For some reason that imagery made my body work right with itself.

Well, gotta get up super early tomorrow.

mwz

mwz: Day 43

I ran 3 miles this morning. I think it took me around 35 minutes. I really wasn't feeling it this morning. Some days it seems that the greatest idea in the world to go work out. Today was not one of those days.

The weather was actually pretty decent for January and the wind wasn't as bad as it was last time (plus this time I wore sweats and a windbreaker).

I'm thinking about signing up for the clydesdale division. I'm not losing weight and even if I do, I doubt I'll drop below 200. It's just a thought for now.

(I still haven't heard back from them about when registration opens. But Arial doesn't think that it will fill up since it hasn't in the past.)

mwz

mwz: Day 42 Rest

Just marking the time and making sure that the number for today (Sunday) is divisible by 7 (meaning that I didn't miss a day number in there).

mwz

mwz: Day 41

(posted late)
Yesterday, I did spin and weights. The spin class ran long, so it was an hour. It prompted me to post this on my other blog.

I added leg Extensions to the list of things I did because that really felt weak when I changed my swim stroke. I wanted to add some sort of leg curl too but couldn't find a machine to do them on.

Here is what I did this week:

Lying Dumbbell Tricep Extension: 10 lbs each hand (EH). 10x4
Dumbbell Flyers: 10lbs EH 10x4

Straight Arm Pulldown (lat machine): 25 lbs 20x3
Wide-Grip Pulldowns Behind the Neck (lat machine): 70 lbs 20x3

Leg Extensions: 70 lbs 10x3

Side Lateral Raise: 10 lbs EH 10x3
Dumbbell Bicept Curl (but sitting): 20 lbs EH 10x3
Seated Dumbbell Palms-up Wrist curl: 15 lbs EH 10x3

Links from BodyBuilding.com.

mwz

mwz: Day 40

I didn't do anything today. My legs are sore from the running and swimming. Tomorrow is spin and weights. I think I might add some leg lifting too.

mwz

mwz: Day 39 Run and Swim lessons

This morning I ran my 3 miles outside. I did three laps of my 1 mile course. It took me a bit over 30 minutes.

For some reason it was tough today. I don't know if it was the cold, the head wind or the spin class yesterday but it wasn't nearly as easy as it was on Monday. My left leg felt really tight for the last 1.5 miles. It doesn't feel bad now. I'm hoping that a little stretching will help it.

I started my swim lessons today. It was me and 4 ladies and I was the best swimmer of the group.

The instructor (a woman who couldn't be out of college yet) asked our experience levels. Then later, she asked me to swim the free style so she could see where I stood. When I got back, she said I was "awesome"...

That's not what I was looking for. I asked her what I was supposed to be doing under water with my hands. She told me about the "S" thing that I had read about and then she demonstrated. I learned a quite a bit watching her swim (as well as I could without my glasses).

Apparently, I've been doing everything wrong. I didn't realize that you should bring your back arm out of the water before your next stroke. I've been doing them simultaneously (like you pedal a bike). Once I started doing this, I discovered that it is easier to breath when you are bringing your arm out, before the next stroke. I had been breathing during a stroke (on the opposite side of the arm that is under water).

While practicing some of that, I actually had a few strokes that made me feel like I was a swimmer. I still have a lot of bad habits that I need to break. Maybe all that pre-lesson swimming wasn't a good idea.

I don't know if I will swim tomorrow. I put in a fair amount of distance tonight and I'm pretty tired (sleepy). I don't know if I'm going to want to get up super early and swim. We'll see.

mwz

mwz: Day 38

This morning I drug myself out of bed at 5:30 and went to spin class. I wasn't quite alert today. I forgot to my sweat towel and clothes to change into. Then, right at the beginning, I dropped my water bottle and now it doesn't close very well.

The actual spinning went well though. It was a 1 hr class.

mwz

mwz: Day 37

We got back home last night at 11:30. After unpacking and stuff, it was late. I thought my time was better spent sleeping than thrashing around in the pool. Plus, I'm starting my swim lessons on Thursday, so there's no point in continuing my bad form another day.

I did email the race coordinators asking about registration. I haven't heard back. I'll let you know when I do.

mwz

mwz: Day 36

(posted late)
Yesterday, I had a chance to run with Matt. That was kinda fun up until we had a disagreement where his house was located. I thought it was a right and I was pretty sure that he was telling me that we had to go straight for another half mile or so. It turned out that his house was left (which is what he was trying to get across to me). It was about as far in that direction as I thought it would be in the other direction, which was good.

It was nice to run with him. It wasn't as boring as running by myself (on a treadmill) is. He said the route was a little under 3 miles, which is good because, I want to run 3 miles as my short distance now that it's January.

Matt let me set the pace and was kind enough to tell me that it wasn't that much slower than he normally runs. I finished feeling pretty good. I guess I am getting into better shape.

Too bad the Hawkeyes lost.

mwz

mwz: Day 35 Rest

(posted late)
Sunday was my rest day.

I don't have anything to say about that but I did read something interesting in the Slow, Fat Triathlete. It said that one week a month, you should do lighter workouts. You still work out the same days but just run/swim/bike less. I thought that was interesting.

mwz