Don't Forget to Mental Floss

As promised, I'm making waves at Aquatic Park. Last week, I lived the dream and did my first open water swim of the season. I'll spare you the fluff, aquatic park is not for the weak. While the guy in this picture looks happy, my interpretation is that he recently lost his job, his wife, his money, everything. And so swimming in Aquatic Park really doesn't seem so bad to him. The pictures make it look all beautiful and sunset-y (that's Alcatraz in the background, btw), Pedro and his damn positivity talks about how lucky we are to live in such a place...but man, that water is more unpleasant than getting a root canal.

And I'm only being a little sarcastic.

Temperature was 54 degrees. The current was in a strong flood. We went just outside the lip of the park and once you leave the protected area, you can feel how powerful the body of water really is. Did I mention that humans are not, by nature, aquatic creatures?

But these are not the things I will think about as I continue to train for Escape From Alcatraz. This swim is all about the mental conditioning, and the one thing Pedro is right about is that we're lucky to be able to train for this race in the actual environment because there's no way I could do that swim for the first time on race day. I'd be praying for a shark to come and put me out of my misery. My goal is to be so used to the water conditions that by the time race day rolls around, I can view the swim as a somewhat unpleasant, but surreal experience. Kind of like going to the moon.

Going Broke And That's No Joke

I am convinced that one of the appealing qualities of the triathlon is that it gives people an excuse to buy gear. The chics can go shopping for over-priced shrouds of polyester (just like underwear, why is it that the less the material, the greater the cost?) and guys can geek out on tools and gear.

Every season, I accumulate a few more articles myself and I can't say I don't savor the excuse to go shopping, in fact, sometimes it serves a dual purpose as I will actually use the shopping trip as an excuse to skip a workout.

Last night was one of those nights, I carved out time in the evening so I could make the trip to Sports Basement without any time constraints. I even turned off my phone while I was shopping (note: this isn't actually true, but I thought it added to the dramatic effect. The truth is, if only my phone actually rang enough for me to need to turn it off...)

Sports Basement, like all basements, is a dangerous place. You think everything is a deal, and that, coupled with the TNT discount card, therein lies the mindf*ck. So, I started with a new backpack, which I actually needed. The next thing I knew, I was buying a camping pillow, trying on Ugg boots (wouldn't they be nice after swimming in Aquatic Park?), some cool cargo pants and a jog bra.

I'm feeling pretty good about my selections and I saunter up to the check-out and give the ultra-cool-rugged/hip-shower-once-a-week-work-to-live cashier my TNT card, my ticket to material acquisition *and* finacial freedom.

He scans it all in and tells me I owe the Big SB $275. That's half a ticket to Belize, a cruiser bike, or a new camera...not to mention the numerous impovershed families I could feed. But let's not dwell on the guilt. I am now $275 poorer, but properly accessorized to compete in another season of triathlon.

Do Not Look Directly Into The Tongue

Now that I have hypnotised you with my tongue flicker, you are falling...falling...into a deep sleep...under my command. Go to the fridge. Pick up the leftover chicken. Leave the entire contents on the floor. When you wake up, you won't remember a thing. You will dispose of the chicken bones without any question. You will have a feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment. And you will know that I am your master.

Are You a Pool Pee-er?

I cannot decide if this story makes me want to laugh or cry.

Back at Koret tonight, I swam 2400 meters...and swimming laps in a pool is kind of like running on a hamster wheel. My mind tires far more quickly than my body does, and I am often at a loss for creative mental games with which to occupy myself. Here's a highlight of one topic I was pontificating on tonight:

How much pee is there in the water? This may be a shock, but the thought had never struck me--until tonight, that is--that people pee'd in the water. This is a concern that escaped my conscious mind circa age 12. Tonight; however, I happened to be swimming while a bunch of kids, probably ranging in age from 9-12, were having a lesson. I was at about lap 3 when the banner started to scroll across my head: those kids are peeing in this pool. GROSS! And the more I thought about it, the more I could taste the water tasting like, well, pee (not that I know what that tastes like).

The story gets worse. I manage to stay in the water for the full swim, focusing instead on the chlorine and other toxic agents that might have been in use to keep the water hygenic (see, positive visualization DOES work!). But as I'm leaving Koret, I run into my teamate, who has asked to remain anonymous. We're chatting in the parking lot and he asks how my swim was. I tell him that it was good, and I also share with him my realization about the urine samples knowingly left behind. His flippant and immediate response was, "Well, I pee in the water. Everyone pees in the water." I soon realized that he wasn't joking. As we parted, he even said, "Gotta go pee now."

Is this true???? He challenged me to survey swimmers and see if they pee in the pool. Yes, I mean ADULTS. So, be a coward and use the "anonymous" feature on the comments, or be brave and admit it to the world.

I really hope he's wrong, because that's just gross. Maybe you can all just lie to me, cause I'm not sure I even want to know.

Aquatic Park

It won't be long before I'm back at Aquatic Park.

The water is clean as a whistle and getting warmer every day, today's temp is a balmy 55 degrees.

While I'm here, a quick training update as I missed a week, highlights of which included a great run from Ross Commons, and another rainy bike ride among other things.

Sat, Mar 3: 60 minute run in Corte Madera, followed by a swim. It was tough swimming after the run, my legs (if legs could talk) were like, "wo, wo wo. what the fuck is this, Schwartz?"

Sun, Mar 4: Paradise Loop. Followed by a trip to Mike's Bikes to see why my bike computer wasn't working. Turns out, I put it on backwards so the sensor wasn't sensing the signal. I remember when I got the thing, Brian offered to install it, but I insisted on doing it myself thinking: How hard can it be? Lesson learned.

Mon: Rest Day

Tues: Ummm, another rest day as I intended to swim but time got the best of me. Damn that job.

Wed's track workout was good, it started misting heavily about half-way through, so we ended up getting pretty wet, making the rests a bit chilly. I felt pretty good throughout, did the steps at Kezar and running about 8-9 min/miles. Went to Papalote for an excellent burrito after with Annie & Peter.

Tonight's visit to Koret, resulted in my first FULL PRO swim workout, without cheating. I swam 2800 meters in 51 minutes (including rests). My goal was to build up time in the water, which I find challenging as I get bored easily. It wasn't so bad, since a lot of the workout was drills. Also, was sharing the lane with a faster swimmer, which made me push harder.

The Tropics

Feb 24, 07
The Bay: Water Temp

Water temperature around 50 -51 deg F
Air Temperature: 55 deg F

Pedro's comment: It's warming up.

YIKES.

Still Got it?

Feb 20, 07
After my recent CPK test scare, and subsequent testing which shows that I do not have any life-threatening diseases, but instead, am severely out of shape, I'm pleased to find the first few weeks of the season I am adapting well to the increase in physical activity.

Recap of week 2:
Sat 2/10: Swim 26 laps in the 12 min time trial, I think this is about the same as LY. Then we biked 20 miles in the pouring rain. Welcome back to Wildflower season.
Sun 2/11: I skip the run in favor of a short jaunt to Tahoe for the day. It's snowing, what can I say?
Mon/Tues: A series of unfortunate social events prevents me from training. Seriously.
Wed: 2 mile Time trial at Kezar, I am embarrassed by my time...10 min miles. Granted, I was chatting most of the first mile, but the second mile was going at what I thought was a decent pace (for me), only to find it was a 9 min. mile. Oy. I remember back in the day when I was knocking on the 8 min mile door.
Thurs: Yoga class. Ouch. I can barely walk home after.
Sat: Good swim workout at IVC followed by a ride up to Big Rock. It is an absolutely gorgeous day. I am asked to drop down to the elite group because I am slow. A true low moment in my career as a TNT participant.
Sun: a bit hungover (shouldn't of had that after-dinner armagnac) but drag myself out for a run through GG Park. I run about 3 miles. Total distance traveled: about 4.
Mon: Weights and swim at Koret. Koret is a TNT magnet, I bump into Menekse & Jen in the locker room.

Damn the Ironmen

Feb 7, 07
At koret tonight, I do some weights and then head for the pool. Find a lane where there's a woman who looks like she's a pretty strong swimmer, so I figured she'd be a good person to share the lane with, and try to keep pace.

About 20 minutes into the swim, I notice a piece of paper attached to the wall at the end of the lane and I take a look at it and realize it's her training routine. I sneak a closer look and see the workout for tonight..."1000 meter WARM UP"...and I was like: holy shit! Warm up? That was followed by 1500 meters "maintain avg pace" and then a bunch of drills (like 15x 100 meters).

The rest of her week was more of the same, with runs & bikes (I think Sunday's was something like: ride 5 hours unless it is absolutely pouring rain)...so I figured, obviously this woman is doing an ironman. Sure enough, she stops and sees me looking at her sheet. I ask her "what are you training for?" She says, "Ironman, Lake Placid". I say, "Wow, that's amazing." She says: "it's only my 3rd one." And she says it in a genuinely modest tone. I was like, wow. You just rocked my world. Then she says, "I'm almost done with my workout, do you want me to leave the sheet there for you?" ha ha ha.

What in The World?

Me, perhaps the world's biggest critique of blogging, here...in this open-forum. I am a total hypocrite.

After some soul-searching, I've realized a few things:
1) I need a creative outlet
2) Archiving your life via a journal is a grand idea (having it published in a public forum = potentially not so kosher...will get back to you on that one)
3) I am doing some cool stuff and blogging is really the best way to share the experience.

So I have fallen off my high horse (it wasn't so high anyway, more like a pony) and joined the throngs of bloggers who seem to think the world is interested in their trivial banter.

I suck.