This is a little old lady.

THIS is not.

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I haven't been given the official green light from the doc yet. BUT - after spending four hours on my feet making my lawn beautiful yesterday with no aches or pains I can tell that it's coming. I'll be very surprised if I get anything but a clean bill of health.

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My swim today consisted of ten 50 yard repeats and I hit the weight room again after school. I love what this tri training is doing for my fitness already. I can' wait to start putting all of it together.

Happy Sore

Yesterday I lifted weights for the first time in quite a while. I had forgotten how much I love the push and pull of lifting heavy things. I told my wife how much fun I had.

I’m a little bit sore today but I’m going back for more tomorrow.

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I swam a half-mile today.

I got a very nice compliment from a little old lady.

I did four hours of yard work.

And...I had my follow up bone scan to confirm that my stress fracture has healed.

Zipper de do BLAH

I warmed up with the swim fins in today. I did a couple hundred yards of drills to remind myself how to swim this new fangled way. Then, I took the fins off and tried to swim the new and improved TI way.

I suck. (That's not a typo for I sunk...)

I didn’t move forward in the water without the swim fins. I couldn’t find a rhythm for breathing. It was MORE work swimming a length, A LENGTH!, than it was before I started this TI stuff.

I didn’t have any trouble balancing. I was skimming right along the surface, my hand was down in front of my head, I could roll and breath in my sweet spot, I just didn’t go anywhere.

I have gone backwards as a swimmer.

So…just out of spite I said a naughty word and swam a length without caring how balanced I was or that other stuff. Here’s what I noticed:

-I rolled naturally and easily to breath.
-I had rhythm (but I still can’t dance…)
-I didn’t exactly have the balance that I would have liked.
-I got from one end of the pool to the other with less effort and much more quickly than before.

So…what’s the point of TI?
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I did 9 miles on my bike last night. My butt is sore.
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I had a very nice weekend in Traverse City with my family. My kids had blast swimming in the hotel pool. I, however, could barely stand being in that pool. That water felt absolutely disgusting to me. Yuck. It felt slimy. It was so nice to get back to the high school pool this morning.
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We toured a vineyard this weekend and had the opportunity to taste a few of the local wines. I tried a Cherry Port. The wine taster guy handed me a piece of dark chocolate with the glass. Hallelujah! I have seen the light. It was absolutely incredible. What a fantastic treat for the taste buds. And….a glass of red wine and a little bit if dark chocolate once in while is good for you too!
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There’s nothing better in this world than coming home to your own bathroom.
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It was really hard to watch people run and finish the marathon I was supposed to run this weekend. I remember getting all bundled up and running in subzero temps this past January. I ran 7 miles that day. Why? To earn another stress fracture?

I was really jealous of the people I saw wearing their medals around town the rest of the day. I wanted that medal. I would have earned that medal.
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Now that the weather is warming up my oldest daughter, Emma, keeps reminding me that I promised to run a 5k with her sometime this summer. My seven year old wants to run with us. I guess we get to go shoe shopping!

Zipper de doo dah

Where were these zipperskate and zipperswitch drills when I was trying find balance last week? OR…maybe it’s just so much easier for me to balance now. It really does feel like I’m floating along on my lungs. It really does feel like I’m moving down hill. It really does. I’m very surprised that the info in this books works. I have to admit that I didn’t think it would really work for me. How about that?

I’m still a little bit concerned about still using swim fins. I took them off and did the zipperswitch drill at the end of my swim today just to see if would move forward.

Did I?

I DID!

It wasn’t as fast as with the fins on (duh!) but I was moving forward. Now, do I have enough time to build the endurance to finish a half-mile swim with enough energy left to bike for 18 and finish with a run of 4.5 miles?

Now I need a training plan…

Actually, I have one. I read a book about triathlon training for beginners a month or so ago. I’ll just dig that out and review the beginner plan and get to work. Official training begins Monday. (No, I’m not going to forget about the TI stuff I’ve learned so far. I’m still going to keep working my through the book.)

Speaking of Monday….

I’m taking the family to Traverse City to cheer on some people running the marathon I was going to run this weekend. Oh well.

Enjoy the holiday weekend! (Did you know that Memorial Day dates back to the Civil War? It does. Look it up.)

It's Official

I registered for my first triathlon today. I'm eight weeks out from race day. I think I'm excited.

Underswitch

I did more underswitch drills today. I was having a little trouble maintaining balance on my right side after I would switch and roll to that side. So, I took my time and did length after length after length of underswitch. I’m really beginning to see how all of these things come together. I found myself wishing that the pool were 100 yards long so that I could just keep going. It just seems like I don’t get tired or out of breathe while I do these drills. I should be swimming by next week and I’m to realize that even though I haven’t been swimming laps I have actually gained more than I have lost by taking the time to make this change in how I swim. I’m becoming a TI convert.
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I’ve never really liked the Rolling Stones. I just don’t understand what people like about them.
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10.5 days until my students escape for the summer. What am I doing to do with myself?

The List
1. read
2. swim
3. run
4. bike
5. play my guitar
6. coach t-ball
7. read some more
8. finally make up my mind about whether I want to pursue a Phd or a second MA

Flipper Addiction

It’s easier to breathe while doing the underswitch drill.

It’s kind of a fun drill to do.

Relaxing.

Rolling from side to side.

Reaching forward and letting my arm drift back to my side.

Taking a breath.

I took off my flippers to see how it would go without swim fins.

Not so good.

I suspect that I have become addicted to the swim fins because I do not move forward with out them. Even though I thought I had found balance I sink like a fricken rock while not wearing them. So I put the fins back one.

Do you think I can wear them during the triathlon?

Nobody is likely to notice the fat guy with big yellow flippers lurching toward the water at the beginning of the race. Are they? I mean, the way I swim, they will hardly be an advantage.

I gotta breathe too?

Drills, drills, drills, drills, drills, drills…

Not wanting to get too far ahead of myself I sort of started over today. I began with the balancing on your back drill for a couple of lengths. I moved on to the finding my “sweet spot” drill. I eased forward into the “sneaking my hand in front of me drill”. I finished with laps of the “now turn your head and put your face in the water drill” and realized immediately that, while I really do feel like I’m gliding down hill, I have no idea when to breath. So I struggled with figuring that out for a couple of lengths. See, I couldn’t just turn my head and take a breath. I was underwater. I reminded myself to roll back to my “sweet spot” and take a breath. That worked. I don’t know if it’s right. There was nothing about remembering to breathe in the book. Silly huh?
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Busy weekend

Friday night my oldest daughter, Emma, had the first of her three dance recitals this weekend. She and my wife went to that while I stayed home and watched a movie with our other three kids. It was almost 10 o’clock when they got home.

Saturday morning began with a parade for my son (Jacob), my seven year old (Hannah), and me. The youth baseball league in which they play has some opening day ceremonies and they always kick it off with a parade of all of the kids playing in the league that year. It was our first parade since it’s Hannah’s first year playing softball and I’m coaching Jacob’s t-ball team. Even though there were a few drops of rain at the beginning the parade turned out to be a lot more fun than I thought it would be.

Even though I had to wrangle my team together during Hannah’s game later in the day, I got to see a good portion of it. She played pitcher (it’s at the coach pitch level), second base and left field. She made a few plays from the pitchers mound and second AND she got a hit during her last at bat. I could tell she had a lot fun and she was really excited about getting a “real” hit rather than having to hit off the tee. I couldn’t have been more proud.

Running to dance recitals swallowed up the rest of the day. Emma (10), Hannah (7), and Rebecca (3) all had to dance in the afternoon recital. Rebecca was so cute. She even remembered to dance a little bit. Hannah always looks stronger than the other dancers to this very partial observer and Emma floated across the stage during her ballet number and shined during her jazz dance. At the end we were pleasantly surprised to hear the announcement that Emma had been awarded the “Runner- Up” scholarship award for her hard work, dedication, and example to others! Again, I couldn’t have been more proud.

It was a pretty good day for the Olson family.

Floating

I woke up too early yesterday. I stayed up too late last night. I lay in bed this morning staring at the alarm clo...Oh to heck with it!

I did it! I did it! I did it!

I did everything right today. Every drill was effortless. I skimmed along the top of the water with ease. I completed length after length after length quicker than I thought I could. I wasn’t ACTUALLY swimming but I was kicking my way across the top of the water. It literally felt, at times, like I was only half submersed. It was so much fun that I was even laughing OUT LOUD at the end of each length.

I can’t swim again until Monday. Now that I know how this feels I can start from the beginning each time and “find” it and continue to improve.

WOW!

Sinking

Today I began my drills with the floating on my back thingy. I did that for a few lengths and figured I had the hang of it. So, still on my back, I tried swimming on my side. It’s trickier than it sounds, at least for me. I really tried to rotate my body while keeping my head in the same place. It took some practice. I noticed that when I rolled onto my right side I would scoot along pretty well. While I was on my left side my feet would slowly start to sink so I would roll onto my back, my feet would come back up, and I would try again.

I checked the clock. It was time to hit the shower BUT I wanted to just swim a lap. One lap. Fifty yards. Down and back.

I kicked off the end of the pool. I sank like a rock. I couldn’t keep my head above water. I didn’t even make it halfway across the pool before I stopped, turned around, and DOG PADDLED back. I left the pool disappointed and deflated. After two days of drills I am now worse than I was before.

I’m getting anti-results. Awesome.

Still, I am undeterred. I will move forward. I reread the book and it mentions that individuals that slightly more dense (muscular) will have difficulty until drill four. I think I fit that category so I’m gonna push forward until I get to drill four and see what happens.

One thing that concerns me: these last two days have not felt like I’m doing anything in the pool. From my perspective I really need to be able to swim a half-mile by the end of July. I don’t really feel like I can take much time away from “putting in my time” at the pool and continuing to build my endurance.

Total Immersion

I bought the book Total Immersion this weekend and I’ve decided to put those words into action. As if I wasn’t self conscious enough I, ever fearless, entered the pool this morning with the intention to do something different. I’m breaking the “rules” before I even learn all of them. I really hope it works.

This morning I spent a half hour floating on my back, arms, at my sides, flippers on my feet, goggles over my eyes, water up my nose, hiding my head and “pressing” my buoy into the water all with the intention of trying find balance in the water. Did I find it? I found something. I’m not sure it was balance. This may sound really simple but if I kept my face parallel to the surface of the water and pressed my air filled lung back into the water my hips would naturally pop up out of the water and I didn’t have to work at all to stay a float.

This sounds easy. It was made difficult by two things. First, the pool was busy. Everybody was sharing a lane today so I kinda tucked myself next a lane marker and skidded my way along the marker to make sure I didn’t get in the way of the real swimmers. And, because the pool was busy, there was a lot more wake and splashing today and that sent water up my nose more than a couple of times.

Tomorrow I’ll spend more time on balance and try to find my “sweet spot”. (Get your mind out of the gutter!) { Alright, I thought of it too…}

I wasn't kidding

“Leaving so soon?” the lifeguard asked.

“Yeah, I figured it was time to stop embarrassing myself,” I answered. She laughed because she thought I was kidding.

What’s the point of continuing bad practice? So I shivered my way to the shower and called it a day.
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Yesterday I swam 800 yards. It still feels like cheating to me. You know, the 25-yard front stroke followed by the 25-yard elementary backstroke thing. Repeat as needed. It feels like cheating. I won’t feel like a real swimmer until I can swim the entire distance with my face in the water, still, 800 yards is almost a half-mile and that kind of sounds like something…finally.

I also went for a short bike ride last night. I rode six miles. I rode six miles in 26 minutes. Is that good? Is that slow? I don’t know.

I’ll say one thing, during that first mile the only thing I could think of was that there is NO WAY that I’ll be able to complete a triathlon. I thought that the bike ride was supposed to be the easy part. The ride got better. By the time I was done I was sorry that it was ending so soon. After I climbed off my bike I walked to the end of my street and back (about .2 miles) just so I could try to imagine what it would be like during a race to finish the bike and head off on the run.
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I just want to say one thing about my son’s t-ball team. That thing is this: Thank God I don’t teach kindergarten.

Every single player has made a noticeable improvement since the first practice. I’m so proud of them already and we don’t even start games until next week. The games should be a special adventure. I can’t wait.

500 "faster"

I swam 500 today. I did it in 50 yard bits. I really focused on breathing and effort. That means that I tried to swim faster than I normally do while not swallowing mouthfuls of water. I also did this using only the front stroke. I would swim a lap and rest about 20 seconds. By the end I was really breathing very hard and I had to fight with myself to finish each lap without rolling onto my back. Even though I didn’t swim as far today when I climbed out of the pool I felt like I had an even better workout than the one I had yesterday.
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No bike ride last night.

I got home and noticed that my wife had set a basket of dirty laundry at the top of the stairs. So, after hanging my wet clothes in the bathroom, I started that load and emptied the drier and lugged those clothes upstairs and threw them on the bed. Then I filled the kitchen sink with hot, soapy water and did the dishes that were waiting for me. My wife and kids came home from dropping my oldest daughter off at dance class so I dried my hands and hugged and kissed them all. I offered to help with dinner. After dinner, I did the dishes and pulled out my beer bottling stuff. Once I got the beer into bottles, caps on the bottles, and did the dishes again I gave my son a bath and helped my wife put the kids in bed. Having accomplished all of this I looked outside and noticed, with sever disappointment, that the sun would be setting within the half hour.

Rats!

Maybe tonight?
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Great Presidential Wit (...I wish I was in this book.) by Bob Dole

Read this book only if you enjoy stale anecdotes and lackluster glimpses into that which makes our list of presidents laugh. For some reason the book concludes with Al Gore. There's some debate so to who REALLY won the 2000 election. I just don't understand why Bob Dole (Republican) would put him into a book about presidential wit. Anyway, read at your risk.

Mango Peach Wheat

Today I did a 100 kick warm up and a 150 kick cool down. In between I swam a full 750 yards nonstop for the first time ever. I did my usual front stroke for a length and elementary backstroke for a length. I think I could swim like that forever. I think I will continue to use this method as a way to “rest” until I’m completely comfortable swimming with my face in the water the entire time.

I think I felt so much better about my swim today because I reminded myself that I have only been swimming for six weeks. Since I have 10 more weeks (72 days) until my first tri I shouldn’t be all that worked up over it yet. Right?

It’s an absolutely beautiful day. I can here a robin sing outside my window as I type this. I’m really hoping to go for a short bike ride this afternoon. I’ve got my fingers crossed.
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I get to bottle my latest batch of homebrew later on too. It’s a mango-peach wheat. I’m hoping that it will be perfect for taking the edge off of those lazy summer afternoons that I’m so desperately longing for right now.
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My seven year old daughter is in her first season of softball. She has a ton of athletic ability but she lacks confidence. You know? I watch her run and play and she just has an effortless stride. She picks up things very quickly too. Anyway…she came home from practice last night just beaming with pride because she was picked as the MVP of practice.

How cool is that?!

It’s so much fun watching her turn into an athlete. Hopefully this gives her that little boost of confidence that she needs.

No swim today

I was awakened by the low rumble of thunder in the distance. I rolled over and peeked at my alarm clock. It read 4:30 am. I reset my alarm so that I could sleep until 5:40. My pool closes every time there is a thunderstorm. I guess it's a safety precaution.

I wasn't sure if I would be able to fall back to sleep. I did. But, just like every other day for the past month, within an of hour of waking I feel completely wiped out and exhausted. My wife wants me to go to the doctor. I think it's just the culmination of a tough school year.

So, no swim today.

Thank a teacher

In honor of National Teacher Appreciation day I thought I would take the time to tell you about a few of my favorite teachers…

Mr. Adams – I had Mr., Adams for German 1 and 2 my freshman and sophomore years of high school. Not only did Mr. Adams help me get gum out of my pants but he also taught me that it’s OK to take school seriously even when I don’t take myself so seriously.

Mr. Greendonner – He was my high school US and World History teacher. I’m a history teacher today because of him. Mr. Greendonner was what my students would call a ‘Tootsie Pop”. He was hard on the outside but soft on the inside.

Ms. Gephardt – My 4th grade teacher. She welcomed me as the new kid part way through the school year. She helped me find my place and feel special when I thought I was sticking out like a sore thumb.

Mr. Bernier – My 2nd grade teacher. He taught me how to use my imagination and showed me how to put it to good use.

Mrs. Dorato – My 7th grade Language Arts teacher. She’s not a favorite of mine. She did everything she could to make a short, chubby, prepubescent, and shy little boy feel smaller than he already thought he was. I am a teacher today because of her as well. Nobody should treat children the way she treated me and I hope that I never have and never will.

Most of my teachers made a special effort to push me beyond what I thought I could do, to make me consider others, wheedle and cajole me into looking beyond my present and fully consider my future. I didn’t thank them then. I feel kind of guilty about it now.
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Insight

With only 22 school days left on the calendar this is how I feel…

-I feel 10 years older than I am.
-I seem to have lost my ability to problem solve and think creatively.
-My sense of humor went out with last week’s trash. The trashman returned it though and now it smells like moldy banana peels and week old coffee grounds.
-I have no attention span.
-I have no attention span.
-A weekend does not refresh me.
-An eight-hour span of sleep does rejuvenate me.
-The smallest things annoy me

You may say that teachers are over paid and under worked. I will happily trade places with you for a year. Then we'll talk.
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I swam this morning. It sucked. No rhythm. No flow. No fun.

50 Bucks

I handed the check I had just written to renew my pool membership to the guy at the desk. As he looked at it a slightly quizzical expression flashed across his face. He handed the check back to me.

"You wrote this for $180," he said.

"Yeah," I replied ready to argue that I had the proper amount. I was confident that's what the membership schedule had read.

"You only need to pay $50 to renew," he informed me.

"Oh! Can I bring a new check tomorrow?" I asked.

"Sure. Have a good swim," he said.

Fifty dollars for an entire year is a steal. That's only four bucks and change per month. It's only ninety six cents per week. That works out to fewer than twenty cents per swim this week. Wow. It's my lucky day.

100 yards

After two days away from the pool I arrived this morning with the intention of testing myself. I wanted to see how far I could swim without stopping. Now, when I say swim, I mean front stroke. I wanted to know how long I could do the front stroke. I was secretly hoping to do about 500 yards.

I consider my test to be a complete and utter failure. I only completed 100 yards.

Two stinkin’ laps!!!!

BUT…I then swam 650 yards nonstop by doing the front stroke for a length and an elementary backstroke for a length. Nonstop. What’s the difference? It’s gotta be mental. It has to be.

Progress. I know. I’ve made tons of progress since the last week of March, I want more progress faster.

Patience. I know. I have a lot of time until July 21. The latent perfectionist in me tends to come out of hiding when I’m not happy with my progress.

I know. I know. I know.
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You have me to thank for the world not coming to an end yesterday. I mowed the lawn. Without my wife’s friendly encouragement I might not have accomplished that and something catastrophic would have happened. So, I guess, you really have my wife to thank. Though, as I write this, I just realized I may not have picked my socks off of the floor so…I’d watch out for a super volcanic eruption or a cataclysmic asteroid or something.

You may as well know

I love hockey. I follow the Detroit Red Wings religiously. I live and die with the Red Wings success and failure this time of year. I hope you will find a way to forgive this obvious character flaw.


What a great game today. Wow. I sure hope they can close out the Sharks on Monday. If not...I feel sorry for my students. I'll be a little bit grouchy.

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My workout today consists of four sets of driving kids around, one set of coaching t-ball (80% of max), one set of making dinner and doing the dishes, and a single set to failure of getting the kids bathed and ready for bed. How's that for a multisport event?

Finally Friday

I meet some friends from work for breakfast every Friday morning. That means that today’s workout was light and brief. I chose to only do the kickboard thingy for about 25 minutes. And that is all I have to say about that.
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Clarification

The new suit I bought is a Speedo brand jammer. It’s still not pretty. I imagine that the women will hide their eyes, the men will form a Committee for Decency, and management will revoke my membership the first time I wear that thing to the pool.
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Little Miss Runner Pants makes a very good point about celebrating our accomplishments and bragging about our selves a little bit. So, in the spirit of celebrating accomplishment, here’s a brief list of things that I have accomplished:

-I ran my first marathon last October.
-I can swim more than a length of the pool without gasping for breath.
-I have a Master’s degree in Education
-I won a Young Authors and Illustrators contest in 3rd grade.
-I taught myself to play the guitar.
-I make really good fried chicken.
-I brew my own beer.
-I was told recently that the writing assignment my students completed illustrated a “profound level of engagement”.
-I have taught a group of five and six year old children how to field ground balls.
-The last year I coached varsity football my team won a share of the conference championship. (I was the offensive and defensive line coach.)

Of which accomplishments are you most proud?

Speedo, part 2

Speedo Update

I tried on my new suit for my wife last night. I asked her what she thought. She said it didn’t look that bad. (For those of you who don’t understand “woman speak”…when a woman says something doesn’t look “that bad” they mean that it looks horrible but since they aren’t stupid enough to wear something like that it doesn’t look “that bad” to them.)

I was so filled with the confidence that I didn’t look “that bad” that I wore my old suit for my swim today.
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My swim

I have no organized training schedule. This is what I came up with today.

100 kick – This was just an easy warm up.
250 easy swim – All of this was front stroke. This is a minor accomplishment for me.
450 hard/easy return – I would swim 25 hard, slightly less than maximum effort and do an easy backstroke on my return length. I gotta tell you that I thought this was really fun.
200 kick – Just a cool down really.

For some strange reason I find it easier to find a breathing rhythm when I’m trying to swim faster. I have no idea why this is.

Speedo

I want to thank everybody who has been stopping by and visiting my little corner of the WWW. I'm extremely flattered that you take the time to read and comment. I’ve been a little bit busy and just haven’t been able to steal time away to author an update. Until now...
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Yesterday I arrived at the pool to find the doors firmly locked. You know, when I make the effort to wrench my behind out of my delightfully comfortable bed at 5am just so I can splash around like I know what I’m doing (I don’t), I think that the people who are getting paid to be there ought to give me the courtesy of being there too. That’s not a too much to ask. Needless to say, I wasn’t in the best mood yesterday.

I did get a swim in today. I swam 700 and kicked 300. One thousand yards. That’s a nice round number, 1000. Look at all of those zeros. Nice. Round. Number.

I did something else swimming related today. I bought a new suit. I felt SO stupid. See, I bought a Speedo. Only a real swimmer wears a Speedo. I’m not a real swimmer...yet.

When I asked the sales clerk where I could find them she looked at me with what I interpreted to be shock and horror. It was probably boredom. (Why did it have to be a she? Why couldn’t it have been some sort of uber-tri guy that I could have asked some of my annoying newbie questions to? ) Anyway, after she helped me find my likely size (double extra whale) I got the pleasure of trying it on.

People, and when I say people I mean me, should not go out in public dressed like that.

I bought it anyway.

Now, how long will it be until I can get in good enough shape to wear the darn thing in front of other people?

(If you are astonished by the irony of a MAN obsessing about trying on and wearing a new swimsuit, thank you, I’m glad I could be your first.)

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I have realized that I haven't mentioned which tri I'm training for. It the Great Lakes Triathlon/Duathlon on July 21st. I hear it's a very well run event.

I would also like to do another on September 8. That one has me a little bit worried because there's a time limit for the swim and another time limit for the swim/bike. Is this common? I've heard that you have to be injured to not make the cutoffs. Still, I'm not experienced enough to know if I can make that cutoff.

I want to finish my racing season with a local half marathon at the end of October. I plan on running a few 5ks as well, but I don't which ones they will be yet.
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I'm SOOOOOOO ready to run. I feel like I'm just wasting all of this beautiful weather. Stupid stress fracture.