Masters swimming so far

I first started swimming with a master's program on October 3.  After some initial confusion the first week I settled with the DU Aquaholics.  I like to call it DU Masters so it can be abbreviated as DUM, but that's probably why the official name is something other than that.

In three weeks with DUM I've already noticed some serious changes in my swimming.  The yardage per workout is longer than I was swimming on my own.  I was surprised how hard the last 1,000 yards were feeling. I'm starting to get on top of that now, and reaping the benefits as well.  I managed 45,000 yards in the last 3 weeks, which is an all-time high for me.  That's also called an "easy week" by hardcore swimmer standards.

Another huge change from the solo swimming of the last two years is the effort.  I thought I was pushing myself before but my times had been slow to improve.  With DUM I am pushed so much harder than before.  Hard, as in eyes closed, grunting underwater type of swimming.  I am determined to get the most of these workouts and I've been paying dearly.  In the first week it was not uncommon for a 4 x 200 set to get turned into a straight 800 because I wasn't making the sendoff in time for even a brief rest.  This has started to ease, though, as the fitness is improving, which leads to the next point...

My swimming has already improved.  A lot.  I'm holding splits I never could before.  Maybe I could but just didn't because there wasn't anyone pushing me.  But for whatever reason my swimming has made a big jump in just three weeks.  Awesome.  Just in time for some easy weeks over the winter.  I'd better attend those stroke clinics they offer during that time.  Corollary to this is that swimming seems to have good days and bad days a lot more dramatically than other sports.  I can feel great one day and like absolute crap the next.  Fortunately there are more good than bad, but for whatever reason things can go poorly despite my feeling reasonable.

Some other things about DUM that don't warrant a paragraph:

• Long course swimming is fun.  It is easier for me to get back into a good rhythm after turns.  I feel like I'm off balance coming off the wall and in short course, by the time I'm back on kilter it's time for another turn.
• They actually let you dive into the water.  My first dive in nearly 20 years was, of course, a belly-flop.  Very smooth.
• The facility at the University of Denver is so nice.  A real pool explicitly for swimming is so much better than what the local rec centers can offer.  Cold water.  Wide lanes.  Versatility with the movable bulkhead.  Banners on the wall documenting the success of the inhabitants.  The whole place inspires thoughts of greatness.  Probably acts of greatness, but certainly not by me.
• Previously I only did breaststroke when paddling a cooldown.  How hard can breaststroke by, right?  Well, that thought is haunting me now.  Pretty hard, it turns out.  At least my backstroke is reasonable.  Don't even ask about butterfly.
• Good swimmers come in all shapes, sizes and ages.  I've been repeatedly spanked by a skinny woman that is at least 50, probably close to 60.  Ditto by a "big boned" dude and a scrawny kid.  I think it's cool that swimming has this diversity.
• I keep my triathlete status a secret, or so I think.  I probably give myself away when I move to the front of the lane for free sets and the back for everything else.

In summary, I am really enjoying DUM so far.  It's a totally new experience and has renewed my interest in swimming.  I'm motivated by the many excellent swimmers around me and hope to close the gap to them.  The group has a reputation locally as arrogant or unwelcoming.  I have found this to be 100% untrue.  Everyone has been very helpful, even when I totally screw up the set, get in their way or ask novice questions.  Even if gains realized in the pool don't translate directly to open water, it will be a new and fun way to stay fit through the colder months.

Maximizing the reliability of the Polar RCX5

This really stands true for any Polar product.  The first and last stop of every workout I do is the sink.  On the way out I generously wet the heart rate strap before putting it on.  After a workout I thoroughly rinse the strap.  I used to have issues with the HR signal intermittently dropping but since I started doing these two simple things I haven't had any more issues.  Simple!

Running With the Buffalo 5K race report

I've done some posts stemming from the book Running With the Buffaloes, (Lesson 1, Lesson 2, Lesson 3 and Lesson 4) however this is not one.  Instead this is a short bit about a local 5K race.

Running with the Buffalo is put on by Rocky Mountain Triathlon Club coach and all-around awesome guy Charley Perez.  It's objective is to raise awareness of running and fitness to the community of Commerce City, a primarily blue collar part of Denver.  There are groups of kids from local schools that come to participate and it is great to see them excited about running as they may not have that influence elsewhere.

The race starts by Dicks Sporting Goods Park and does a loop through a large open space area on a cinder path before finishing back by the Park.  I ran the race last year and the weather was unseasonably cold.  I didn't think it could be worse this year but I was proven wrong today.  It was 37 degrees and raining as I dropped off my warmup clothes to head to the start.  The race itself was fine.  I got into a good rhythm but wasn't going to be setting any great time due to the wind and rain.  I ran about even 6:00 splits throughout.  After I finished I ran the course backwards to cool down and cheer on the other runners.  It was disappointing to see so few.  There were just 53 finishers.

Polar was awesome and donated two RS100 units for the race as well as some bags and water bottles.  People stayed around despite the weather to get a shot at that and the other great raffle items.  Luckily the festivities were moved indoors to get out of the rain.  I was really happy to see how genuinely enthusiastic people were about the prizes and I hope they inspire folks to embark on or continue a healthy lifestyle.

More thoughts on the Polar RCX5 and Polarpersonaltrainer

Thanks to the folks at Polar I've been able to become more familiar with the RCX5 that I was sent to try out.

Recently I had a workout that seemed like perfect opportunity to ty out the programmable workout functionality that is offered in polarpersonaltrainer (PPT). In PPT you can enter a phased workout, with the phases being warmup, work, recovery or cooldown.  For example, the workout at the right starts with a 10 minute warmup, 5 x 1 mile at 5:45-5:50 pace with 3 minutes of recovery between each.  A 10 minute cooldown follows.  Click on the picture to see a larger version.  Once synced with your RCX5 you can let it do the remembering while you focus on your workout.  For my own test, a portion of the intended workout went like this:

• 3’ warm up at your recovery pace
• 1’ moving into zone 4
• 30” recovery pace
• 2’ into zone 4
• 1’ recovery pace
• 3’ into zone 4
• 1:30 recovery pace
• 4’ into high zone 4
• 2’ recovery pace
• 5’ into high zone 4 and 5a
• 2:30 recovery pace
• 6’ into 5a
• 3’ recovery pace
• 10 minutes cooldown

A pretty straightforward ladder but a good test.  As it turns out, PPT only allows for 4 phases.  They can be repeated but when the phases varied in length such as in this workout it didn't work so well.  I can see how this would work well with a track workout of sorts that had a set length rep and a set time recovery, such as Yasso 800s with, say, 90 seconds of recovery between each rep.  PPT lets you enter the effort of each phase as pace, elapsed time, or heart rate.  The versatility to commingle distance-based intervals with time-based recovery is pretty neat.  For more straightforward intervals using the PPT phased workout functionality is a no-brainer.

Another issue I've discovered with PPT is that the training load algorithm seems to base load solely on heart rate.  I did the above workout without the HR strap, instead relying entirely on pace.  The workout does not show up in the training load chart at all, or anywhere except the diary view.  On the flip side of the issue, this disassociates the training load determination from, say, poor GPS connectivity or dead batteries in a footpod, so there are definitely two sides to the issue.  

Despite the above issues, PPT is definitely a powerful web-based tool for analyzing performance, fitness and recovery.  For example, the Running Index metric.  Running Index is based on HR and pace data collected by GPS or the footpod.   Running Index can be very useful.  As one picks up the pace, the index drop in the beginning and as  conditioning or fitness levels improve, the index will go up at that pace. So a 10K at 7min/mile in 90% max hr will be lower than a 10K@7min/mile at 70% max hr.  The 70% runner is just in better condition so he is more efficient and will have a higher Running Index.  I am not the most diligent about wearing all the accessories for each workout or getting things uploaded so I am missing out on a big piece of the puzzle.  I have recently been playing with other fitness analysis software like WKO+ and Golden Cheetah and it is definitely as capable as those when viewed in the context of heart rate and pace data.

I was having problems exporting data from the watch into Polar's desktop software, Pro Trainer 5.  This seems to have been resolved by updating the software from Polar.  To do this, there is an option to check for updates under the Help menu.  This also had a lot to do with user error.  DC Rainmaker's in depth review of the RCX5 addresses these issues directly and I'm not having any more issues.

Here is a brief list of little tricks I've learned that have been very helpful:

• When in an exercise mode (running, swimming, biking, other) if you press and hold the top left button (light) you get a menu that lets you do any number of sport-specific things on the fly.  For example, if you just ran a 800 on the track you can update the footpod calibration without stopping the workout.
• If you hold the watch close to the HR transmitter you can show any number of things.  I set this to time of day so I can warm-up for an event and make sure I'm back to the starting line before the gun goes off.  This is most useful in running races where there is not wave after wave of starts.
• When exercising, you can press and hold the upper right or lower right buttons to zoom into the top or bottom row, respectively.  This is useful to me because I have the bottom two rows as total time and lap time.  I can press and hold the bottom right button to make lap time occupy the entire bottom two rows.
• You can adjust the volume of the noises the watch makes.  I have mine as loud as it will go.

There will be more updates on this as I continue to learn about it and the software that it was developed with.

Looking for a Masters Swim Program

To reach my triathlon swimming goals I've decided I need to up my swimming game in a big way.  To that end, I've decided to join a masters swimming group.  I've been researching several in the area.  One of my biggest considerations is the schedule.  I can't be gone 4 evenings every week.  That eliminated several groups right off the bat.

The first candidate I found was the DU Aquaholics.  They are the premier masters group in Denver and have 13 practices each week.  They have several coaches and many athletes.  I know several people who swim with them.  The main downside is that it is expensive.  Membership is $52/month, which is not that bad.  What stings is the facility entry, which is published as $8 per visit!  The facility is extremely nice but I don't care about their treadmills, ellipticals, fancy sauna or classes.  I want to swim and nothing else.  Assuming ~12 practices a month, that is almost $100 additional each month.  I later learned that a facility pass is not necessary, making it much more affordable than I initially thought.

As I looked for something more affordable I found out that a local athletic club has a masters program.  They had extended a generous offer to my tri club, the Rocky Mountain Triathlon Club, and dues for the group were only $30/QUARTER.  That's right, $10/month.  I talked to the coach and discussed my goals in swimming and was assured that the group would be a good fit.  I went to the first practice on Monday.  The coach said some people came in early or late to start but this was a bit of an understatement.  Nobody came at the scheduled time but me.  There was a workout on the board so I started in on it.  The coach was poolside but because everyone there was on a different schedule there was no organization at all.  No sendoffs, no people to pace off of.  What it really turned out being was not much different than swimming on my own at the rec center.

What I realized through this is that I don't need just a swimming coach.  I already have a coach.  What I need is people to swim with and push me.  I am not going to get that at the athletic club team.  There were a couple people missing from the group but the coach there said they are my speed or a little slower.  After attending a couple DU practices, I found that I fit smoothly into a lane and we all rotated around well as different sets suited our respective strengths differently.  Throughout the workouts I've been pushed to swim my best and get more out of the workout than I would doing it on my own.  I am definitely looking forward to improving with them.  There is a lot of work on my part to make that happen but but it will be a lot easier with the group to work with.

What I learned from Running With the Buffaloes, Part 4

This post should really be titled 2011 Rocky Mountain Shootout Race Report.  I've run cross country races at the Buffalo Ranch before but it has been a while.  After I read Running With the Buffaloes I decided it was time for me to try again, but as part of the Shootout, the big race for CU.  There is an Open category for punters like me to run in so we aren't totally munched by the young bucks at the start.  We had our own box and everything.  The men ran 8K, or actually 8,030 meters.  The course record is 24:09 by none other than Jorge Torres.  Women's record is held by another international standout, Jenny Barringer (now Simpson).

The course is really rocky and I knew pretty early on my feet were going to take a beating in my Brooks T6 Racers.  I love those shoes but they are flimsy.  I went through the first mile in an overly-ambitions 5:40 considering it has "Jawbone Hill" in it.  The second was rolling and went at 6:07.  Around this point I was starting to pass a lot of people that had started too fast.  The diverse terrain made for a lot more passing/repassing than races I typically do.  It was fun to try to hold people off or chase people down.  The third mile was 6:00.  About this time I noted I was feeling pretty whipped.  The hills had thoroughly taken the snap out of my legs so I felt like I was in damage control mode way too far from the end.  I didn't die but I was not passing people like I was before.  The fourth mile again went up Jawbone Hill and was about 6:07.  The 5th mile was a bit of a debacle.  I was very fatigued after just 4 miles.  I knew I was still running because I could see my legs moving but I could barely feel them.  I could, on the other hand, feel the rest of my body and it felt like shit.  My arms hurt, my lungs were on fire and my hands were numb.  I kept pumping away and ran the last mile in 6:00.  My final time was 29:53.

It was unlike any other race I've done.  The last mile was harder than I can describe.  I wore my Polar heart rate monitor but was afraid to look at it during the race.  When I downloaded the data later the graph told the story.  My average HR was 177, which is waaay above normal.  Much of the last mile was above 180.  The field was super fast.  I was 92nd out of 164, so the bottom half of the field.  If fields were always this tough I might not be very enthusiastic about racing!  But it was a great experience.  That is a serious racing crowd.  The spectators were all crazy about running and very helpful, yelling out splits and gaps to other runners.  It was a great change of pace and a completely different race dynamic than road and tri running.  There are a few more XC races I'm looking at for the fall.  None as competitive as they are for old people and the collegiate kids don't come for those.  I am definitely looking forward to those and the rest of the running races this fall.