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May 6, 2006
Fix This!
So O and I attending a bike maintenance workshop today. It was pretty good. It was right at the level I needed it to be at - meaning very basic. I learned a lot. I don't have a mind of a mechanic at all, so it was nice to have somebody explain how some of the stuff on a bike works. But truthfully I'm really not sure if this class made me more or less willing to try to fix something on my bike or tinker with it when something is wrong. If there is one thing I learned, it's that my bike is stubborn - stubborn tires, stubborn getting the back wheel back on, stubborn this and stubborn that and it might almost be better for me NOT to play around. But at the same time, if I never play around, I'll never learn. I get frustrated with myself with things like this. I want to know how to do everything and I want to know how to do it NOW, but I think I just need to be patient and understand that with time, I'll be able to do more and more with it. Either way, both O and I agreed that we were glad we went. I'm still praying I NEVER get a flat tire again, but I think I'll always pray for that. :)
Before the bike class I slipped in a quick swim at the YMCA this morning. I didn't have time for much but this is what I ended up with:
400 yd easy, 200 yd kick easy, 200 yd easy
8 sets of
50 on 1
100 on 1:50
50 on 1
100 yd kick easy
That was 2500 yds and good enough for me! I usually do my 100s on 2 minutes but I tried the 100s on 1:50 today and boy did that 10 seconds make a big difference! I've had a big swim week - because my schedule was a little off and I swam Sunday as well as my usual Thursday and Saturday, I got in 9500 yds total. On the other hand, it's been a dismal cycling week as I only rode outside on Monday and took a spinning class inside on Tuesday. I was going to go for a ride when we got back from the bike class but I was tired, cold, and felt like I didn't have enough time considering all the other things I wanted to accomplish today. No biggie though - it's supposed to be nice tomorrow so I'm hoping for a nice 25 or so mile loop after church.
While we were at the bike clinic I started talking to a guy that was also just getting into triathlons. He was telling me about a masters swim team at Pitt that he attends. It never occured to me that Pitt would have something - I had just thought about my local YMCA, which does have a masters program, but a pretty small scale one. When we got home I checked the Pitt program out online and it seems pretty serious - they have 8 different sessions a week, they have sample workouts that look killer, they compete, etc... I don't know if I want to get into all that and I don't even know if they would let a slow-I-can-only-swim-freestyle swimmer like myself in. But I emailed the team coach (who was a collegiate swimmer for Pitt) and asked what she thought. Logistically it could work out very well - where I park for work is literally right next to their pool and their early morning sessions are at 5:45 am which would be perfect in terms of getting to work around 8 am or so. I'll be interested to see what the coach thinks about me taking a stab at it. Part of me really wants to try it, but part of me also wants her to reply and tell me that I'm too slow so I can just do my usual thing at the YMCA with the 70 years and older crowd. :)
Summary for the week:
Sunday - 3500 yd swim w/5x100 yd, 5x(4x50), 5x100 yd, core/feet exercises
Monday - 24 mile bike, weights
Tuesday - 1 hour spinning, 35 minute run (14 min before, 21 min after spininng), core/feet exercises
Wednesday - weights
Thursday - 3500 yd swim w/3x(300,200,100), 6x50 yd and 2x25 pushups, 2x100 crunchups
Friday - 42 min run w/5x3 min hard, core/feet exercises
Saturday - 2500 yd swim w/8x(50,100,50)
Posted by beth at May 6, 2006 3:15 PM
Comments
Join the Pitt masters team, then come down to George Mason at the end of the summer to swim the LCM zone championships. My brother and I are idly discussing going down, since I missed the SCY meet (too much schoolwork) a few weeks ago.
After all, you're doing a lot more yardage than I am, right now.
Posted by: pjm at May 6, 2006 4:47 PM
Ha! I'm too scared to even go to *practices* let alone an actual race! :) You are brave PJM! But thanks for the encouragement. The swim coach already emailed me back and said it would be fine for me to come. She said I would be right in the middle of the pack, and they do have lanes for slower swimmers anyway. :) I'm already nervous, but I think I might try it out this Thursday...
Posted by: Beth at May 6, 2006 5:58 PM