I'm back

Yes. I realize I haven't posted in here in a while. I have many good reasons.

First of all, two Sundays ago, a really bad windstorm came through the area. This windstorm was the remains of Hurricane Ike. I didn't get any rain or thunder that normally comes with a hurricane (and the winds weren't quite hurricane-force either), but the storm did knock down several trees in our yard- it also knocked out the power in our house for about a week and a half.

Life was pretty rough without power. The only good thing that came out of having no power was that I also had no school for two days (it took a while for the school to get power back as well).

During this time with no power, I had no running water, no computer, no ability to eat hot food (I ate a lot of sandwiches), no ability to see in the dark (I had to use a tiny flash light after the sun came down), and many other annoying inconveniences. I also had yet another week of not having swim team practice. The first week of practice was unofficially postponed until last Friday (due to the rec center not having power either).

The reason it took so long to get power back was that the power station caught on fire. I have no idea how, but for some reason the whole station caught on fire. I think there were over 400,000 people in our area without power.

With all the power and electric people hard at work, I finally got my power back this past Tuesday. Since then, I haven't really felt like writing in here, but now I finally do- so I am back.

The other interesting thing that has happened this past week was that I finally got to get behind the wheel of a car! I took Driver's Ed this past July and August, but haven't had a chance to actually drive a car until this past week. I haven't done anything fancy yet (just laps in a parking lot) but it was still pretty fun. So far, I have gotten to drive a car twice and will practice driving many more times to come (I am hoping to get my license in January).

I'm not really the greatest driver yet. On my first lesson, I drove onto a curb and gave my driving instructor (my dad's friend's son) a flat tire! I am definitely starting to get better at driving though. I can't wait to be able to take the car out on to the road!

I have another driving lesson scheduled today as well. This lesson is one with the driving school (so, a different instructor), but it should be fun too. It is a two hour lesson, and I think I might be getting on the roads today. Watch out Southern Ohio!

I guess I should update on my workouts too, since this is a triathlon blog. To sum up my workouts for the past two weeks: Last week I wasn't able to swim that much, so I did lots of running and biking. This week I was finally able to swim again, so I did lots of swimming.

I can post my workout totals for these past two weeks, if you really care at all:

Last week (Sept. 14-20)
Swim: 1h 33m
Bike: 6h 07m (my biggest bike week yet!)
Run: 3h 42m
Total: 11h 22m

This past week (Sept. 21-27)
Swim: 9h 16m (my catch-up week to the lack of swimming over the past month)
Bike: None (shame on me!)
Run: 2h 17m
Yoga: 50m
Total: 12h 23 min

P.S. I so badly hate the fact that autumn (and thus, winter) is coming. I looked at the extended weather forecast for this week, and it is supposed to get down to 38 degrees Thursday morning. Yucky!

Back in the pool

As you may know already, my swim team has been on a three week break. I was able to swim at a health club for one of these weeks, but since the health club membership expired at the end of August and it was too expensive to renew, I have had no pool access for almost two weeks. That is a really long time to be unable to swim. I am used to swimming almost every day!

The swim team break was originally supposed to last until Monday because of pool construction; however, the construction finished early- which meant we were able to get back into the pool yesterday.

I was originally planning on not going back to practice yesterday since I would have to endure a long discussion about pool rules (never be on deck without a coach and lifeguard on deck at the same time, no running on the pool deck...). After almost two weeks of no swimming though, that plan changed. I missed swimming so much that the chance for some water time was worth having to endure the long pool rules discussion!

The pool rule discussion turned out not to be that bad. The coaches found a way to make the discussion interesting by talking about the upcoming swim season (I am SO excited for our first meet in October!) and by throwing in some jokes. The whole discussion only lasted about twenty minutes, then I finally had a chance to get back in the water!

It felt SO great to be back in the pool again. The time we were actually in the water was really short- only about 40 minutes- but I loved every minute of it!

I also loved how, since it was the first practice, that the coach made all the sets on really easy intervals (i.e. 10 X 50 on 1:00 instead of 10 X 50 on :55). I was actually able to keep up with these easy intervals! Normally I can never make the intervals, and I am always getting run over as people lap me. I am the slowest person in the lane by far (and I swim in the slowest lane available)! I am always getting lapped!

Speaking of being such a slow swimmer, I am really going to try hard to improve this year. It is so frustrating being the slowest person in the lane and always getting lapped. I haven't really improved my speed at all this past year. All I was able to do was to take off a few seconds on some of my swim times at meets. I was also able to keep up with some of the harder sprint sets the coach had us do in the pool this summer.

The only reason I was able to keep up with these sets though is because I would be pushing myself so hard I was literally gasping for air after every single set. I noticed everyone else in my lane was barely breathing hard to keep up the same pace.

To get faster this year, I have decided that I am going to work a lot on my stroke technique. I think there is something wrong with my stoke that is slowing me down so much. I know it is not a fitness issue, because I have been swimming at least 4-5 days a week (usually more) for the past year!

I know for a fact my stroke needs work because it takes me 30 strokes to get across the pool. I found this out during a stroke counting drill the coach had us do one night at practice. It took everyone else somewhere between 13-17 strokes to get across the pool!

My coach has stoke clinics that you can attend twice a month. There is a total of six swimmers in each of these clinics and he gives each of us personal feedback about what we can do to improve our stokes.

I attended some of these clinics last year, but I only went to maybe three or four the whole year. I was pretty busy with school and everything last year, and didn't realize the importance of these stoke clinics. Now I do and I am definitely going to discuss my concerns with my coach and go to as many stroke clinics as possible.

Don't think I am being really negative in this post. I would just really love to be able to reach my potential in this sport. I am obviously doing something wrong to prevent myself from reaching this potential if I am swimming 5 times a week and not getting faster. I'm not saying I want to be the next Michael Phelps. I just want to be the best swimmer (and the best triathlete) that I can possibly be.

13.1 Independent Run

13.1 Independent Run.

The self-supported half marathon I am doing finally has a name. The "13.1" part comes from, ovbiously, the length of the race. The "Independent Run" part comes from the fact that it is completely self-suppoted, much like the Independent Duathlons I did a couple of months ago.

Here are all the details of my next event:

Who: Just me is all that is paricipating. No other participants, no entry fee, no T-Shirt. That is why the race is called "Independent".

What: A Self-Suppoted half marathon (I think I've already said that a couple of times!).

Where: The streets in my neighborhood I always train on. There will be no fancy course for this particular event!

When: I am planning to do the race Oct. 17. This date is not set in stone and may be moved due to weather conditions and/or how ready I feel to tackle a half marathon by that date (it may be moved to an eariler date, it may be moved to a later date. I have no idea yet).

Why: I have no transportation to get to an actual half marathon this year; but I made it my vow for 2008 to run this distance. A self-supported half maraton sounds like a fun idea too!

Self-supported half marathon

I guess I won't be running an official half marathon this year.

As you may or may not know, I am learning how to drive this year. This means I can't drive on my own yet (I don't get my liscense untill at least January) amd thus, still have to rely on my parents for transportation.

My parents never really feel like taking me to races. They do take me sometimes, but not often (they will take me to all my swim meets, but outside of that, my only other races this season were two triathlons). I don't blame them. It is not much fun for them. From their prespective, all they get to do is wake up really early, and go on a long drive to sit around for two or more hours while I complete the race.

As you might have already inferred, my parents don't feel like driving me to any half marathons this year. I have no other option for transportation. That is why I am bringing the race to me. Within the next coming months (when I feel like my training has been going well and I am ready) I will do a self-supported half marathon.

I will make the course exactly 13.1 miles in length. The aid station/restrooms will be located at my house. The only challenge to this "race" besides finishing is finding a way to measure the course length accuratly. I will have to buy a bike computer or a Garmin for this purpose.

All I know is that I made it my vow at the beginning of the year to do a half marathon in 2008. I WILL make my wish come true, whatever the obsticles may be.

I should be able to run an officail half marathon next year in 2009. I will be able to drive (all by myself!) to a race by then!

Speaking of driving, I can't wait to get my liscense! The freedom of being able to go wherever I want, whenever I want sounds incredibly amazing.

No swimming = Sad

The year-round club swim team I train with is currantly on a three week break. The break started Aug. 22 and continues untill Sept. 15.

I am also no longer a member of the health club I would normally swim at (which is only about 5 minutes away from home and very convienint). The membership dues were getting really expensive and my mom decided to cancel the membership to save money.

This means I have no pool to swim at- for two whole weeks.

I really hope I can find a pool around the area to swim at in the mean time. I feel weird when I don't swim for more than a day- let alone two weeks!

This was my litte rant for the day. Time to sign off now-

With no pool to swim in (tear).