Master's Swim

Reason number 709 that I love the YMCA: Master's Swim.  It's free.  It's 90 minutes but the coach will let you do what you want since it's free.  It's offered three times a week and, while two of them do take place in the wee hours of the morning when swimmers seem to come to life, Saturday morning practice is at the much happier hour of 7:30.  It's free.  They hold at least 4 lanes for master's swim workouts.  Did I mention it's free?  I finally tried it out this morning and it was so SO awesome.  It'll probably not happen too much because I also love the cycling class on Saturday mornings, but hopefully I'll get myself there from time to time.

Anyway, the coach had no problem with me cutting each set in half because while I do try to cap my exercise at 90 minutes I prefer to have a variety of exercise in those precious minutes.  For part of one of the sets I threw in some butterfly to mix it up more (the rest of the workout was all freestyle).  Butterfly is something I do because I know that a lot of people swim it and don't die, so I keep persisting at it hoping that perhaps I can figure out how to be one of those people.  On the first 25 I often feel like this:

Hey, it's optimistic, yes.  But it only lasts that first 25.  I only ever do sets of 50's in butterfly because by the second 25 I wish I had some of these:

That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed, but that our ability to do has increased.  Right?  I still think I'm missing something with the butterfly, though, because it's still not easy.  Maybe I'm not doing it right because I don't look like this: 

My other thread of thought from my morning at master's is this: I've been a swimmer for almost as long as I can remember.  While I had a short stint as a backstroker in my early years, I quickly moved to freestyle and only freestyle.  And only freestyle sprints, with the exclusive exception of the swim leg of a triathlon because those don't come any short than a 300.  Let's just say in my very amateur swim life I've done a lot of freestyle.  After seeing my stroke for a single 50, the coach suggested I tighten up the angle of my left elbow ever so slightly. I did so on the next 50 and the difference was AMAZING.  Night and day.  Immediately I felt so much more efficient and fast and smooth...and it was easy to maintain for the rest of the workout, giving me great hopes of making it a habit.

Once again I'm reminded that often having some outside perspective and making minor corrections can result in some big improvements.  I should get out of my tunnel vision more often.  And practice butterfly more.

Pull-ups

It's probably safe to say everyone has a nemesis exercise.  Bishop really dislikes ab and core work, Tony Horton seems to whine with any exercise using balance on his DVD's, my mom cannot do yoga because she lacks the proper mindset (according to her, anyway).  For me, even though calf raises make me nauseated, I'd have to say pull-ups are one of my top nemesis exercises.  I've always wanted to be able to do them.  Back in elementary school when they were part of the Presidential Fitness Challenge (what? They still have it?!  Awesome.) and a friend of mine could bust out at least a dozen while I had to resort to the static chin hold I resolved to learn her secret.  Her answer?  She mowed the lawn.  Perfect, I thought, so I started mowing my lawn without thinking that perhaps having a gas powered mower wouldn't help my upper body strength like my friend's push mower helped hers (little did I know then how big a part of my life lawn mowing would become...).

Anyway, mowing didn't help one bit.  With the addition of strength training in late high school I worked up to 1, maybe 2 unassisted, but that was a huge stretch.  When I started P90X I resorted to either using a chair as demoed for support or doing the band modifications, neither of which I thought were really great substitutes for me.  P90X2 comes and Tony is still obsessed with pull-ups.  I took to skipping his back and base workout altogether because it simply alternates between a plyometric exercise and some death form of pull-up.  ENTER: pull-up max (thanks mom).  I'd known about it for a while but just hadn't thought it would be worth it or very helpful.  However, today I used it for the first time (on base and back - I couldn't resist) and not only was the workout totally exhausting and effective, but it was FUN and I'm confident I can up my reps.  And if I can't, I still get a really great workout doing pull-ups.  The world of pull-ups has opened up to brand new vistas of possibility.

Moral of the story?  Sometimes help is good.  Sometimes that help has been right in front of you while you were floundering about trying to build upper body strength mowing the lawn with a gas powered mower.  And, unlike a crutch which only helps bring you back to baseline, help can push you forward to actually make progress.

Now if I could only leave it out for use without having E try to dangle her little self on it...

Cycling Express

During undergrad I taught a lot of indoor cycling. Honestly, it's another one of those exercise things that I maintain a love/hate relationship with. I would so much rather be outside on my bike, traversing some awesome mountain (oh wait, I sold my mountain bike...darn...) or riding along the Shoreline trail (oh wait, I moved to Houston and there are no mountains...darn...). However, indoor cycling is not only more convenient but I must admit it's a better workout because you can keep that resistance cranked the whole time. It's safer, too, with the whole cars vs. bikes thing that happens sometimes while road biking (not to mention DOGS - both Bishop and I have been wiped out by a rogue dog while biking). Bishop won't let me ride my bike while pregnant, also, because I had a minor crash while pregnant with S (it was on my way to my OB appointment - everything was fine) so, seeing as baby B is only 4 months old, I haven't been biking here yet.

I digress. My biggest issue with indoor cycling is that they are an HOUR LONG. That is way too much time for me to devote to any one form of exercise unless of course it's a run, yoga, hiking a mountain, or an outside bike ride. Way too long for sitting on an indoor spin bike (though I do love the Kaiser bikes the YMCA got - the gym I worked at in L.A. had those and they are SO lovely). Typically I hash out 45 minutes then bail the last 15 to do a short, fast run and call it my 'transition run' for maintaining my triathlon training. Today, however, I did only 30 minutes because that was all the time I had before S&E's swimming lessons. And 30 minutes was AWESOME! Even better than 45! Maybe the Y wants to hire me to teach cycling express classes...but then again, maybe I'll just keep going to half of Julie's classes because I love her music (another benefit of indoor cycling: BLAST that music).

Running with friends

Today I'd like to begin with a story. Once upon a time I decided to do a small, local 5k. It would be a great re-entrance into racing after having baby B, I could tack on a few extra miles after to get in a long run for the half marathon I'd do the next week, I love 5k's, etc.

As often happens, I go to the race by myself. How well I realize how lovely a sleeping child is...waking them up early for a race could set me up for some serious tantrums later in the day. I mosey to the starting line after the gun went off (chip timed...no rush, right? It's a self-imposed exercise in CHILLING OUT as I tend to be too uptight) and start running, realizing this could be the last hospitable morning run Houston has to offer me until November when the inferno begins to wane (and not caring too much since I'd be leaving for Utah in a matter of days). Soon I find I settle into a pace a mere 10 or so yards behind a girl probably my same age, which slightly bothers me as I realize there's only one girl ahead of her. And I can't seem to close that gap. At all. We stick with that distance the better portion of the 5k and finish, contenting myself that she beat me. Only to find out on the results that because of my lolly-gagging at the start line I had actually beat her by a matter of TENTHS of a second based on our chip time. I feel equal parts guilty and pleased (this same thing happened to me last year at one of my triathlons - only I was the one who came in second after accounting for chip time).

I leave the race to do my additional 6 or 7 miles where I run into the girl again. She's also tacking on more miles to get a decent long run in. We stopped to chat for a bit and decided to meet up for a run sometime as we obviously have similar running dispositions. Weeks pass as I go to Utah, survive a call week, and struggle to find motivation to get out and run in the Houston heat, when fate strikes again and I run into her at the YMCA pool with our kids. So we finally went on a run this morning.

Running with friends is so awesome. Even if I tend to talk their ear off (it's the trainer in me...most of my clients liked the distraction). Thanks, Laura, for the fantastic run! Looking forward to many more - maybe we can get each other to that sub-20 5k!

Time Crunch

Yesterday we started one of my favorite summer traditions: swimming lessons! Teaching swimming was probably the job I've loved the most in my past but, as expected, my kids don't perform well when mom is their instructor. So we enrolled them at my own haven, the YMCA. S went in the beginner class, E in the parent/child (she surprised me and was okay with this...guess she does well with some peer pressure). So far they've loved it, and it's extra convenient I can stick baby B in the child care AND we can stay and play in the family pool after. We just might survive summer #2 here in Houston (2 of 4...but who's counting...)..

What does this have to do with exercise? Well, in my attempts of late to NOT exercise during naptime I decided to strive and get to swimming lessons early, workout at the YMCA, then pick up S&E for their lessons. I must have forgotten that arriving early anywhere is almost beyond my capabilities. Yesterday was okay; I made it there to do a 30-20-10 run again, though not enough time to complete my full 4 rounds of interval happiness. I knocked it down to 3 rounds but bumped up the incline to compensate. It still kicks my trash, but I plan on persevering until either it gets easier or I get bored and try out another interval method. This one is just SO EASY to remember...so, yeah, day 1 I was able to squeeze in 26 minutes of death intervals before lessons. Don't be too impressed with my restraint - I had done P90X2's P.A.P. Lower DVD that morning also (which is also death, but oddly fun...P.A.P. will require it's own post at some future date).

Day 2 of lessons (today): I aimed to swim a few laps this morning because we have visitors (YAY!!) coming this week and wanted to get my weekly swim out of the way. We were even later than yesterday. By the time we stopped and got stickers from Mr. Marvin, checked in to the daycare, pried E off my leg, and I got in the pool I had exactly 20 minutes before swim lessons. After an inordinate amount of self-talk during my warm-up, I decided to make myself be okay with that. I busted out 20 minutes of hard swimming: 8x75 of my personal favorite, going all out the first 25 and slowing slightly the last 50 (mimicking the panic that is a triathlon open water start...if you've done one you know what I'm talking about), 8x50's mixing in different strokes, a couple 200's working on pulling then kicking, and even a cool down. I guess I waste a lot of time usually, because that wasn't much less than I normally do in my 45 minute swims (do you blame me?? I have 90 minutes free child care at the Y...makes it hard to rush).

Sometimes all we need to be effective is a little PRESSURE.