It is going to be 75 here next week! That means one thing....more outdoor riding time!! Thanks for all the compliments on the bike, after I rode her the other day I noticed that the cockpit is aptly named "salsa" so with names like salsa and tequillo(a) I'm going to have to contemplate a while before naming her. Bubble bike seems a little too obvious, although it's a handy nickname. Bubble bike is seriously fun, (an oxymoron as Hyphen girl would point out-aahhh life sublime when you arrive at a level of compelling conversation about grammar and word usage with your kid-but then I'm a geek in more ways than tri) So, why not contemplate bike names while enjoying the beauty of an extended fall. The bike is the first step in working and training smarter. It was good for me to wait through a season because I altogether did not trust my biking skills to attempt a tri bike. Having spent the summer on the modified Frankenbike, near death experiences and all, I realized biking isn't so difficult, particularly when you have one well fitted to your frame.
So, now on to step two-swimming
I taught myself to swim last January, not starting from scratch, but almost. I hadn't had a swim lesson in 30 years and I've never swam more than a length at a time. To my benefit I have a friend who was a PAC 10 champion swimmer, so I dragged her to the pool a few times and she helped immensely. My current stroke allows me to cruise through 2500-3000 yards in a workout at about 55 seconds per 50. My race times improved over the summer and that was satisfying, 
but there are times when you just know you need help, actual, hands on help. So, I enrolled in Foss swim school for swimming lessons. Did I mention I haven't had a swim lesson in 30 years? I met my instructor, Joe, on Tuesday. Joe is cute in a "would you like to meet my daughter (in about 10 years)" sort of way. (spare the hands on comments :), I'm a happily married trimama) He kindly informed me that my entire stroke is ineffecient at best and downright hideous at times-hideous being my word. So we drilled and drilled and drilled some more. I've done about 30 bazillion crawl strokes breathing to the right, which explains why my left side is considerably weaker and also explains why my bilateral breathing hasn't progressed so well. Each roll to the left is roughly the equivalent effort of getting Anne Coulter to approve a tax increase. I wonder if Al Franken can breathe to the right? But we were talking about smarter.
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6 comments:
Swim lessons sound great! I'm thinking of them after I get done with NYC Marathon.
I need to shop for some cold-weather cycling gear, too! We don't get a ton of snow down here, so as long as the shoulders of the roads are open, I don't want to have any excuses!
I agree, my biggest challenge is swimming, I need to get lessons as well. I get so mad in the pool when people swim by me who shouldn't be......almost want to yell "Oh yeah, well let's get out and run and see what happens."
I have issues.
Enjoy the weather, it's suppose to be nice here as well, I'll be outside as well.
There's a masters team forming out here, I need to join it. Swimming on Sunday night around 8:00 is about the last thing in the world I want to think about, right now, though. I have a feeling that swimming is going to be your strong suit - hell, I think you're going to kick ass at all of it.
best help I got was 1 on 1. the group master swims for me was just about staying out of everyones way. So now its just a tune up once per month with my 1 on 1 coach, lots of yardage one day, recovery swim another day and my lake swim on Saturdays to break my mental struggles.
Thanks for the encouragement. I've been grinning all week.
I love reading your thoughts on training! Your bike sounds terrific!! Enjoy the Indian Summer riding. I hope to get a big ride in today while it's still pretty out. My bike's sitting in the corner staring at me with big sad puppy dog eyes begging to be taken out before the winter!! *lol*
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