Florida

I'm in Florida right now, and I am definitely loving it!

I arrived here the night of Dec. 18th. It was really late- about 1:30 in the morning, before I finally arrived at my grandparent's condo (which I am staying at for the duration of the trip).

While here, I have been able to open up the rest of my Christmas presents (I got a digital camera, money, some books, and a few other things), go shopping, and enjoy the Florida sun. I was also able to see an old friend from elementry school and visit with her for an afternoon.

I have definitly been loving the Florida sun. It is probably about 70-80 degrees here, as opposed to the freezing temperatures at home. I got to miss a couple of snow storms and a day where the temperatures dropped into the single digits. I am definitly happy about missing that!

I have also been going to the pool everyday, and have still been working out. My foot is still not recovered, so I have been doing lots of swimming, weights, and work on the exercise machines. I think I may go see a doctor about my foot if it is not better by the time I get home. I have no idea what happened to it!

With the small pool at Grandma's apartment complex, I have been spending a lot of time working on stroke technique. I have been working on bilateral breathing (it makes my stroke feel so much more balanced!), not breathing in and out of my turns (I get so much more momentum that way), and some stroke drills.

I have been doing something called a "catch-up drill" that helps a lot with extending your reach per stroke. I am really trying to get my stroke count down. It takes me almost 30 strokes to cover one length of the pool, which is not very good. I have also been trying to get my head up more when I swim freestyle.

I learned from one of the coaches on my swim team (she is a new coach, and I hope she stays around because she has really been a huge help to me) that I am swimming with my head too low, pretty much burying my head into the water everytime I take a stroke. When I tried lifting my head, it makes me feel a lot more like I am floating on top of the water when I swim (as opposed to just sinking into it).

There are also SO many other things I can do to improve my freestlye stroke. For one thing, your fingertips are supposed to enter the water (not your whole hand). I have been told by my swim coach before (not the new coach) that I "slap water". Having my finger tips enter the water first is one way I can fix that.

There are also many things I can fix to help me go faster on all my other strokes. On breast stroke, your legs are supposed to come together after every kick. On backstroke, you are supposed to rotate your hips. On fly, you are supposed to keep your head down.

This is really encouraging to me to know that I can get better at swimming. I got some books from the libray that helped me expose many of my stroke flaws (such as the ones listed above). I also got a book from the libray that has 100 different illistrated swim drills. I am going to try at least a couple of them.

For the next couple of months I am going to see how much I can improve at my swimming if I dedicate myself to it. Not only can I change my stroke, and swim faster in practice (like I mentioned before), but I can also improve my nutrition, start a good weight routine, etc.

I'm not ready to give up on a sport I have invested so much time and energy into over the past couple of years. I know my swimming is terrible, but I would really like to see if I can improve it if I work hard enough. I would really like to see how much of swimming is hard work vs. talent. Can hard work overcome lack of talent?

If I don't improve, I will start investing all my time and energy into running. Right now though, as my foot is healing and my swim season is in full swing, I just want to see how much I can improve my swim times. If I improve, that would be awesome! If not (which is highly unlikely), at least I will see the results of dedicating myself towards something. Nothing bad will happen either way.

I have always worked hard at swim practice. I go to practice almost every night, never missing a day unless I have to. I also "sprint" when the coach says "sprint", etc. Just by reading a little though, I have discovered that there is so much more I can be doing.

Swimming is not a sport like running where you get better just by doing it more often. Swimming is more technique driven than fitness driven. I completely have been ignoring the technique part of swimming because I found it so "boring".

I want to be a good swimmer though. I am sick of getting lapped every practice and sick of being ,like, 6 minutes behind everyone else when I race the mile.

My new years resoulutin (one of them, anyway) is to dedicate myself towards swimming as much as I possibly can. I found a good article about a 90 day experiment (where you dedicate yourself completely to swimming for 90 days) here:
http://www.usms.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4229&page=10

Since I don't have 90 days until the last meet of the swim season, however, I am going to have the experiment run from Jan. 1 (giving me a week to figure out exactly what I am going to do in this swim challenge) to Mar. 8 (the day of my last swim meet).

I hope to make some significant improvements, especially in my favorite event, the mile. Yes, this is the same race that I finish 6 minutes behind everyone else in.

I don't know though. If I stuck to the 5K challenge I set for myself (and will probably start once swim season is over and my foot heals), I only have to take 4 and a half minutes off my time. To feel satisfied with myself in this challenge, I would have to take 6 minutes off my mile time.

I don't know. Now I am just yammering. I'll figure out a goal soon though. Either way, I am SO fed up with being the slowest on my swim team!

P.S. You got to love Blogger's auto save feature. I accidently tuned the computer off by flicking the power button with my foot (don't ask how) and was afriad that this entire blog entry disappeared. That was not the case. Every single word was saved.

Thank you Blogger!

P.P.S. I'm still in Forida for a whole 'nother week. Gotta love winter break!

Happy birthday to me...

Some highlights of things I got today:
1. A Garmin! (I've wanted one forever! Now I can actually make a running training program because I will finally know the distances I am running.)
2. An alarm clock can play my iPod.
3. A subscription to Runner's World and Triathlete magazines
4. A Hinder CD
5. A warm sweater
6. Some accessories for my Garmin (i.e. a thing that connects the Garmin to my bike).
7. A biography of Barak Obama (I wasn't really expecting this, but it looks really interesting).
8. A new pair of running shoes.

I still have some more nice things waiting for me to unwrap in Florida too!

As for my foot, it feels like it is finally starting to get better, but it still isn't 100 percent yet. I can't wait until it is finally better though. I have been unable to run for the past two and a half weeks. I am never going to run in non-motion control shoes again! (I injured my foot by running in the wrong type of shoes).

Another good birthday present I got today was a two hour delay for school this morning. It was snowing and raining ice last night, meaning the roads were terrible this morning. I loved this delay because it meant I got to open my presents in the morning, right when I woke up. If I didn't have this delay, I would have been forced to wait until the afternoon when I got home from school when I opened all my gifts.

You voted!

From the results of the poll I put up a couple of weeks ago, it looks like you all like the large pictures on this blog.

Three of you voted. Two of you liked my large pictures. One of you didn't care whether or not there were large pictures on this blog.

Since three people is about the entire readership of this blog, it looks like I got a pretty good sampling of what my readers want on here. If you don't like the huge pictures on this blog, then too bad: you should have voted.

Here is a gallery of large random images to support your votes.

P.S. To whomever voted, thanks for your opinion!

Good morning!

I haven't been doing much running this week, for a reason directly related to losing my shoe last week (but not directly related to losing that sock at Payless- I still have about 50 other pairs of socks!).

Since I don't have my normal motion control Brooks shoes, I had to wear a pair of some of my mom's old sneakers. They didn't fit her because they were too small- but they do fit me. The only problem though is that they are not motion control. I always wear motion control shoes because of my flat, overpronating feet. Without motion control shoes, my flat feet flop all over the place, and tend to get injured.

Such an injury happened this Monday while I was going for a quick 45 minute jog around my neighborhood. My feet were flopping all over the place, and felt a little sore when I returned home, but I didn't really think much about it until the next day (Tuesday).

On Tuesday, I woke up and felt a dull ache in my foot. This ache was on a bone on the side of my right foot. It wasn't extremely painful, but I felt this ache every time I took a step. This dull ache didn't go away on Wednesday- and it stayed with me the entire rest of the week. This is even though I didn't run a single step after Monday (for fear of making the injury worse).

My foot hasn't been feeling much better- but the injury hasn't gotten worse either. I hope my foot feels better so that I can go running tomorrow. I'm going to be extra careful though until my new pair of shoes that I ordered online (the same model I was wearing, just a different color) arrives in the mail. I don't want to hurt myself again!

Despite not being able to do much running, I have still been able to get in some pretty good workouts this week. Some of my swim practices have been killer!

An example of this is my high school practices. I go to my high school practices every Sunday (which means I have a practice with them today!). A lot of the sets we have been doing have killer (at least for me!) intervals. Try swimming 4 X 200 on 3:30, 10 X 50 on 45, and a couple fast 500s (all in the same practice!) and see how you feel!

I also have been having tough practices with my club team. One of such practices was 5 X 100 sprint. By the second 100, I felt really nauseous and out of breath- and I still had to do 3 more! You can imagine how the next three felt! I could barely move at the end of that killer practice!

Although these practices have been really tough, they have really been helping my fitness. An example of this is the meet I swam in yesterday.

In yesterday's meet, I swam the 500 free, and two relays. In one relay, I swam a 50 free. In another relay, I swam a 100 free.

The 500 free was my very first event. The weird thing about this 500 was that it didn't feel as hard swimming at maximum speed as it normally does. I wasn't dead tired, yet I was still working pretty much at maximum heart rate. I thought my time would be really slow, since it didn't feel like I was working that hard; however, I ended up getting a 2 second PR! I couldn't believe it!

I am also recovering a lot better between hard efforts. My coach was kind of evil, and put me in a relay that came pretty much right after my 500. I only had maybe 10 minutes rest. The lucky thing about this relay, however, was that it was only a 50- meaning I would only have to complete one lap (as opposed to 10!).

Despite this lack of recovery time, instead of being dead for the 50, I was able to put out a pretty good amount of speed. I was also able to put out a good amount of speed for my 100 relay about half an hour later. I could have even swum another event if I was forced to!

I had no idea speed work would help so much. Last night was the best I ever physically felt at a meet. I was still pretty tired, but I wasn't dead and exhausted like I normally am.

I thought I could do absolutely nothing else to improve my swimming. I thought that I have reached my potential and should move on. I guess that is not the case. Although I was probably still last in all or most of my events, and didn't take off very much time, it is great to know that I can still get in better shape for swimming. I will definitely appreciate all the speed stuff we have been doing at swim practice a whole lot more now!

This speed work idea will be great for my running also (once I build up a good base of fitness!).

Socks

I will not stop carelessly loosing random things anytime soon.

Yesterday I lost a sock- yes, just one sock- while shopping for shoes at Payless.

I didn't notice I lost this sock until I was about to leave the store. I was about to put my regular shoes back on (my feet were barefoot from trying on so many shoes) when I realized I only had one sock.

I did a quick look around where I was sitting to see if the other sock would turn up. I thought a quick look through the aisle would produce this sock; boy-was I wrong!

This quick look through turned into a 20 minute searching ordeal. I looked under many chairs and through the shoe boxes of every shoe I tried on that afternoon (thinking I might have left it in one of them). No missing sock was found. This sock was also part of one of my favorite pairs!

After much frantic searching, I finally gave up and spent the rest of the day only wearing one sock. Let me tell you, this lopsided feeling was VERY strange. One foot was all nice and cozy, while the other foot was slipping and sliding all around the bottom of my shoe.

I have a theory: Some one-legged thief really loves my choice in footwear. He loved my Brooks shoe I lost the other day, so decided to take it.



This same guy realized he would need a sock to go with this stolen shoe- and what better place to steal it than when my feet are bare (while I am trying on shoes at Payless)!

I'm going to catch that thief one of these days, before he steals another shoe!

Missing shoe

I had a great swim practice yesterday. A lot of people were gone for the Thanksgiving holiday, meaning there was a lot more lane space. Instead of 7 people trampling over me as they lap me, there were only 3-4 other swimmers in my lane. I really enjoyed this calmness.

Despite this great practice, I did two really stupid things.

1. I twisted my knee while doing a breaststroke kick. It popped and really hurt for the rest of the night. Thankfully, it feels perfectly fine today. I could barely walk last night and was worried it would compromise my running today.

2. (The dumbest thing I did)! I lost one of my running shoes. I just lost one running shoe- the right one. I brought my running shoes with me to swim practice last night; however, they were hanging off the edge of my swim bag and one must have dropped out sometime after I left practice.

All I know is that I came into swim practice with two running shoes; however, by the time I came home and went to put my stuff up, I noticed I only had one running shoe. After looking all through my bag, retracing my steps outside to my dad's car (my ride home) and looking through my dad's car, I realized that I could not find this other shoe! I completely panicked. I only have one pair of running shoes!

After calling the Rec center where I had swim practice and hearing that no shoes were found, my mom drove me back to the Rec center so that I could look around.

While at the Rec center, I looked outside.



I traced my path back to the locker room.



I looked in the locker room.



I looked on the pool deck.



I looked in the lost and found box.



I asked the people at the front desk again to see if they saw any shoes.



No right Brooks Addiction 7 Women's running shoe size 6 narrow was found.



I saw plenty of other shoes (especially in the lost and found box), but none that fit the above description.



After leaving the Rec center discouraged, my mom decided to take me to the local running shoe store this morning to see if I could purchase another pair of these shoes. After asking the sales guy about the Brooks Addiction brand, it turned out that the smallest size the store carried was a 6 and a half. They also could not order me the correct size because the Brooks store will not be open until Monday.

Defeated, I left the store and decided to order the shoe online like I have done in all previous years. The interesting thing this time about being able to order online is that Mom said she would let me spend $100 on shoes. If I find shoes cheaper than this amount, then I would be able to keep the change.

After about half an hour of digging around on the internet, I was able to find a pair of Brooks Addiction shoes for $43.98. This meant I was able to keep $56.02. Because of Mom's awesome idea (she wanted to teach me the value of money), I was able to get a new pair of shoes, and make some cash.

Not a bad price to pay for losing a shoe...

As for my running tonight, I guess I will just have to run in a really beat up pair of shoes that I normally use for when Dad forces me to do yard work. They used to be my mom's shoes, but they ended up being too small for her.

They are probably not the greatest shoes to be running in, but they will work for now. According to the website I ordered the shoes from, they should be arriving no later than Christmas Eve. I really hope they arrive sooner than that. I also hope that my right shoe turns up. They have been really great shoes so far!

Thanksgiving weekend

The vacation turned out to be not as fun as I thought it would be, but it was still nice to get out of the house and see a different state. I have only been to Indiana a couple of times before.

We left to go to the hotel Wednesday around noon. We arrived around 2:30 and checked in. The hotel was absolutely in the middle of nowhere. It was about 15 miles just to get to the nearest Wal-Mart. I didn't end up doing anything special during this vacation- I pretty much just ended up staying in the hotel room the whole time.

My parents didn't even go skiing. My mom has bronchitis, so obviously that option was out. My parents wanted to go hiking instead, but the nearest state park was 30 miles away. They ended up walking around town instead. All that this "downtown" consisted of was a pawn shop and a bike shop. I declined on this "trip" to the middle of nowhere. I guess I could have gone. I just didn't really feel like it.

The rest of the night, my parents spent watching TV while I was in the middle of a good book. I ended up going downstairs to run for an hour on the treadmill as well. When I came back from this oh-so-fun treadmill run, I took a shower and pretty much just read for a while and attempted to go to sleep.

I say "attempted" because I didn't end up actually going to sleep for a couple hours after I put my head on the pillow. My parents go to bed a lot later than I do, and they had all the lights on, the TV going, and they were talking. It was pretty much impossible to sleep. When I ended up finally going to sleep, I was awoken several times by my dad's snoring. Surprisingly, I didn't wake up tired at all despite this lack of sleep.

After finally waking up the next day (Thursday), the rest of the morning was spent in the hotel room. After check out at noon, we had a Thanksgiving buffet at the hotel. Then it was time to go home. We arrived home at about 2:00. The rest of the night was spent just reading, playing on the computer, and going on another hour run on the treadmill later that night.

Today, my mom and I are going to do some Black Friday shopping. I hope there are some good deals!

Happy Thanksgiving (almost)!

Yeah! It is oficially Thanksgiving break for me. School is now out for 5 days! For Thanksgiving, I am going down to Indiana for two days. My parents and I just felt like getting away for Thanksgiving (and didn't feel like cooking), so this is the reason we decided to go to Indiana.

We are staying at a really nice hotel with an indoor pool, casinos (for my parents), and a Thanksgiving buffet. There is also a ski lodge down in Indiana, but I am not sure if it is going to be open yet, or if I am even going skiiing (I don't really enjoy skiing. I hate the cold too much).

We are leaving for the hotel tomorrow morning and are coming back Thursday evening. It is about a 1-2 hour drive to this hotel in Indiana. I'm not sure yet about everything we will be doing there. I hope there is a mall there. I love to shop!

Template?

Is it the new template of this blog that is making the pictures so big? I never had any problems on my old blogger template? Can templates do that: magically change the size of pictures?

I really don't know if templates can do that or not. Either way, I am keeping this template. It is a lot nicer than my previous template, and it is about 10X nicer than my original blog template.

I like blue. Blue is my favorite color. This template has lots of blue...

...and huge pictures. I'm not too crazy about the huge pictures (as you can tell... this is my second post about the issue).

Maybe I shouldn't post pictures on this blog. Then again, pictures make this blog so much prettier. I'll put a poll up shortly on the sidebar of my blog and get input about whether or not to keep posting huge pictures onto this blog. I think the more amazing thing than the answers to this poll would be whether or not I get any answers.

I'll be putting up the poll now. If you want to testify that this blog is not pathetic and that people actually read it, cast your vote. You could be the decider of the way pictures get loaded onto this blog (Wouldn't that decision make you feel important? Well...it should.)

Go on now! Vote!

Makeup of a champion

Oops! Wrong kind of makeup!

Anyways...

I read a really interesting chapter yesterday in a book called "Runner's World Complete Book of Running". It was a chapter about the ways successful athletes think about their performances. It also told of ways you can get the most out of yourself physically, by changing your outlook mentally.

One thing I would like to share from this book is a list (of course...you know how I love lists) about the characteristics of a champion. I know I will never be a "champion" and win the Olympics, or something; however, this list has ideas that can apply to any athlete, no matter what their level of performance.

The characteristics of a champion:

1. The courage to risk failure, knowing that they will learn from their mistakes.

2. Using a race to gain greater self-knowledge as well as feedback on physical improvement.

3. Training thought processes as well as the body to produce a total approach to performance.

4. Understanding their athletic weaknesses, and working to improve these weaknesses.

5. Creating a life of balance, moderation, and simplicity- values that help improve running and life.

6. Understanding that they have both good and bad running performances, and learning to accept them both.

7. Enjoying running just for the fun of it.

8. Having vision. A champion dreams of things that haven't been and believes they are possible. A champion says "I can".


The book also explained some ways that you can tell if your thought process needs improving. I'm just going to paraphrase this list though. I don't like copying lots of stuff out of books. It feels too much like schoolwork.

Anyways, here are some ways you can tell:

1. You look only for external improvements, such as new PRs, as opposed to internal improvements.

2. You base your self-worth only upon these external improvements.

3. You focus on being perfect, instead of just being the best that you can possibly become.

4. You look at mistakes as failures.

5. You blame others or uncontrollable circumstances when things go wrong, leaving you feeling helpless.

6. You have unrealistic goals that only result in frustration.

After reading through this chapter, I found many positive things that I am doing right; however, I have also found many things that I could use some work on. One thing I found that I am doing right is having goals that are tough, yet achievable. (I.e. finishing an Ironman triathlon by 2010). I also do love to run (and work out in general) just for the fun of it. I never go on a run where I am not enjoying myself.

An example of a way I could be better, however, is that I can do a better job focusing on the internal improvements that have happened to me since I have begun this sport (i.e. I'm a lot happier and more confident than I used to be), instead of focusing mainly on the external things such as PRs. I always compare my times to everyone else's and feel bad about myself for not measuring up. I need to think more about all the positive things I have gained from participating in sports.

What are characteristics of a champion that you poses? What are ways you can find to improve your weaknesses?

A few quick updates

I don't have time to make a whole huge post on this blog, but I still feel like making a small one.

1. I like making lists. You have probably seen (and will continue to see) many lists on this blog.

2. It is snowing tonight (Already...ugh) which means there is no swim practice tonight. That is the only reason I am sitting at this computer and not swimming 10 X 100 IM or something.

3. I have had so much homework this week. Can anybody say three essays in a single week? My teachers are insane!

4. Remember the thing I talked about a couple of posts ago about getting left off the swim team T-Shirt? It turns out that actually was not deliberate and my name was not crossed off a list Someone just simply forgot to write my name down on the list. There was not a list already pre-made.

5. I'm joining the track team this spring and am really excited about it! It will be something really different and fun to do. Every year since middle school, I have wanted to join the cross country and track teams, but never really acted on that desire. I always regretted my decision. As another benefit, the track team should give me extra leg speed in my quest for a sub-22 5K.

6. I officially got accepted into National Honor Society. The induction ceremony is in December. I am so glad I got in because the application process was really tough. We had to fill out this huge application about all our volunteer activities, extracurricular, etc. We also had to write an essay (yet again with the essays- I am becoming a professional essay writer at this point). I thought my application was really bad, and that I wouldn't get in. I was really surprised when I made it!

7. I had a really great run today in the snow! Normally I think of winter weather as really, really gross, but the snow shower I ran in today was actually very beautiful.

8. I ran two other times this week in the cold weather. It has never gotten above 35 degrees this week. I'm going to have a fun time training this winter (or not…)!

Huge pictures

I have no idea why the last two pictures I have put on this blog have turned out so HUGE. Just to let you know, I didn't delebrately make the pictures that big. They just decided to grow themselves. I'm just hoping that future pictures turn out smaller. Large pictures bug me. Actually, the large pictures don't bug me. It is just the REALLY large pictures like the one on the previous post that bug me.

Do they bug you? Does anyone know how to shrink random pictures that just decide to have growth spurts right here on my blog?

Okay. I will stop rambling right now. Maybe I'll stop. I don't know. I'm procrastionating on the Spanish test I have to study for. Guess I better go study so I don't fail the thing. Maybe all my blog pictures will shrink in the meantime. I hope so

This runnin' thing

In my quest for a sub 22 minute 5K, I am becoming completely addicted to the sport of running. I was already addicted to this sport before, but my new goal is giving me so much motivation that I am starting to love every step I take.

This whole 3 day weekend was almost completely devoted to running. I went for 2 runs this weekend. One run was an hour on the treadmill yesterday. Another run was a 45 minute jaunt outside in the 35 degree weather. I just now came back from this run. I still have the sweaty face and red glow on my cheeks to prove it!

The rest of the weekend has been devoted to reading everything I can about the sport. It is just my personality that when I become excited about obtaining a goal, I devote myself fully to it. Sometimes the pursuit of this goal is all I can think about. Ever since my 5K, I have been thinking very hard about all the ways I can improve in this sport. Here are all the books I have read within the past couple of weeks on the subject of running:

Run Fast- by Hal Higdon
Daniel's Running Formula- by Jack Daniels
The Competitive Runner's Handbook- by Bob Glover
The Cutting Edge Runner- by Matt Fitzgerald
Runner's World Guide to Road Racing- by Katie McDonald Neitz

...and the two I still have yet to finish:

Runner's World Complete Book of Running-by Amby Burfoot
Training for Young Distance Runners-by Larry Green and Russ Pate

If you are interested in learning more about running (Yes- There is more to it than left foot, right foot for all you sarcastic people out there) I would highly recommend any one of these books. They all have GREAT information.

Just a sample of the things I am learning:

1. When you are running up a hill, it is easier to lean back than to lean forward. I tried this tip on my run today while jogging up a relatively big hill. This tip definitely seemed to decrease the effort needed to climb the hill.

2. I learned all about the different types of speed work such as fartleks, tempo runs, intervals, etc. I also learned how long and for what paces you should be running these workouts. I also learned how much speed work to incorporate into a running program for best results.

3. I learned that more mileage is usually better and will normally help you run a lot faster in races. There is only one catch to this rule though: Don't run so much mileage that your body can't recover and get stronger. This will hinder your running performances- not help them.

4. I learned that the recovery between hard workouts is more important than the hard workouts themselves. This is because the recovery period is when torn up muscles rebuild themselves and become even stronger.

5. I saw many very good training programs in these books- and online- that will help me reach my goals. It's still too early though for me to decide on a specific one though.

So as you can tell, I am getting a little bit excited about this new goal. Once time passes and I get into a regular running routine (I am hoping to build up to at least 6-7 days of running per week) I will probably calm down tremendously. Hopefully by this time, I will still stay just as motivated as I am now. I am SO excited right now about the prospect of being able to succeed in a sport.

I am also starting to love running for a completely different reason as well: just being out there feels SO good. I love having the road to myself. I love not having to worry about people constantly on top of me, trying to get around me, and running over me like I do during a crowded swim practice. I also never have to compare myself to other people, since I am usually the only one out running in my rural neighborhood.

I also love just being outside in the elements and the huge endorphin rush that running brings.

As for swimming, I'm not going to let a few members of the swim team's opinion affect how I feel about the sport. I'm still going to swim as hard as I possibly can during the meets. I'm still going to go to practice every night.

Then again, if track season rolls along and I still feel the same way about swimming, you KNOW what I am going to do...

Just venting...

Okay. I've been sick all week. I woke up with a sore throat last Thursday and continued to feel sick on Friday. I thought I was well enough Saturday to swim at a meet last weekend. I felt fine on Saturday, but when I came back on the second day of the meet and swam on Sunday, I started losing my voice. My voice was completely gone on Monday, and it didn't start coming back until Wednesday. Last night I finally felt well enough to go to swim practice. I got a wonderful welcome back.

Right after the warm-up set, the coach had us all gather in one lane at the far right side of the pool so that he could talk to us. He started off talking about a meeting that would take place for all members of the team planning to go to a swim meet in Indiana next weekend. (I'm not going to this meet- I don't feel like traveling to the next state over just to swim). He said a couple things about this meet, and then he started talking about team T-Shirts.

At this point, I was only maybe half paying attention. My mind was wandering between many random things such as what the coach was going to give us for our next set, and what I would do on my three day weekend (I got the day off from school today. Wahoo!). Then the coach said something about a person on the team deliberately leaving someone's name off of the Team T-Shirts.

Of course you know where this discussion is going. Why else would I bring this incident up? Apparently, someone on the team thought it would be a wonderful idea to leave my name off the team T-Shirts. I don't know who exactly decided to leave my name off. All I know is that the action was deliberate. I knew this by the way the coach was yelling, saying things like "We don't exclude anyone from this team!”

I didn't find out that I was the person left off the T-Shirts until almost the very end of the coach's speech. I heard him say something at the beginning of the speech like "Why would you exclude Amy from the list". I thought I was mishearing things though until towards the end of the speech, he stated this question again.

The second time the coach said my name in reference to this act, the words struck me like a blow to the stomach. It was all I could do not to burst out into tears right in the middle of swim practice. Apparently the people who excluded me from being on the T-Shirt don't feel like I'm good enough to be part of the team.
I know that I am a terrible swimmer: I am the slowest swimmer in the slowest lane. I get lapped every 200 yards by all the other swimmers in my lane- most still in middle school. Sometimes in practice, the coach will make separate intervals for me because I am too slow to keep up with the rest of the team.

I have frequently felt like I didn't belong on this team. My parents pay the same annual fee for me to swim on this team as any other team member's parents. I go to practice just as often and work just as hard as anyone else on the team- yet I never feel like I belong there.

It's mostly the frustrating feeling I feel when everyone in my lane laps me 5 or more times during a 1000 yard set. It's the feeling I get when no matter how hard I work, I can never place better than last at any swim meet I "compete" in. It's the feeling I get when I do a swim event such as the mile and finish 6 minutes behind the second to last person. It's the feeling I get when I have (according to my training log) devoted over 240 hours of my life-this year alone- to swimming and realize I am still as terrible of a swimmer as the day I started this sport.

This feeling is incredibly frustrating to say the least. That is what made my running victory I mentioned in the last post so amazing- I was actually able to work hard, improve, and get a respectable time that puts me in the middle of the pack.

So now you know why not being good enough to even get my name on a T-Shirt is such a crushing blow. I already feel like I am not good enough to belong on the team; however I thought this belief was like one of those irrational beliefs I had as a little kid, where if I didn't sleep with a nightlight, monsters would come and eat me. (I actually didn't believe that- I'm just using it as an example).

Don't get me wrong. Most of the people on my swim team are VERY supportive and nice to me. A couple of them approached me after the coach's lecture and said how bad they felt that someone would try and do that to me. Like I said, I don't know who exactly on my team would do that. It was probably someone I don't know very well (obviously!).

I have just been getting SO frustrated with the sport of swimming during the past few months. I am mad that I put this much dedication and hard work into something, yet still never improve and end up being so far behind everyone else. Every day, I think about how great it would be to quit the swim team and focus on my running- a sport where hard work and dedication actually pays off.

...Maybe if I did track and cross-country, I wouldn't be the joke of the team anymore. I might actually be good at those sports.

I do have dreams of making varsity cross country next year. If I can train hard and get my 5K time under 22:00, I definitely have a shot at making varsity cross-country. I have no idea what I would have to do to make varsity track. I'm going to train hard all winter though. I'm going to get my mileage up to at least 30-40 a week this winter. I am going to start adding speed work in the spring. I will further increase my mileage to maybe 50 this summer. I will put my heart and soul into running and I will ACHIEVE something.

The odd thing about my frustration with swimming is that though I am really starting to hate swimming, I love it at the same time. I love getting in the pool every night. I love the feeling of water against my skin; I love the smell of chlorine. I love the electrical feeling in the air at a swim meet. I love PR'ing in a swim meet- even if only by a few seconds. I love the calming monotony while doing long distance sets that almost lulls me to sleep, yet keeps me so awake at the same time. I love swimming IMs. I love the feeling of a heated pool in the middle of winter.

No. I am not ready to give up swimming just yet. I am just SO incredibly frustrated right now!

Yes. I did still end up getting my name on the back of the T-Shirt.

And no. You couldn’t pay me all the money in the world to wear that stupid shirt!

5K suprise

I used to think I was terrible at every single athletic event imaginable. I completely surprised myself though on Nov 1 2008. I cut 3 minutes off my 5K time, going from a PR of 29:31 to a 26:28. If you want to read all about this race, I have the race report located at the side bar of this blog. All I can say about the 5K was that it was SO fun and I had no idea that I would do so well.

The thing that surprised me the most about this 5K was that overall, I finished 16th out of 83 people (but this placement also includes walkers). I also finished first place in my age group (out of three people) beating two people on the cross country team!

This race happened almost two weeks ago, but I am still incredibly proud of my accomplishment. This made me realized that I actually have potential in the sport of running, and that if I work hard in this sport, I can achieve many more great things.

I decided on a goal that I am extremely willing to work hard to achieve: A sub 22 minute 5K by (hopefully) August 2009. The reason I want a sub 22 in this time period is because I think it would be so neat to make the varsity cross country team at my school. To make the varsity cross country team at my school, you need a 5K time of 21minutes or under.

I have never been good (or even average) at a single sport in my life. To make the varsity cross country team would be an amazing goal that would completely change my entire perception on who I am as an athlete- and who I am as a person.

I already love the idea that I am actually improving as a runner. This kind of improvement never happened to me in a single sport before. I know I was able to improve my bicycling over the summer by a large amount- but definitely not enough to make me middle of the pack!

So this is my new goal for the upcoming season. To work hard at my running and cut my 5K time down as much as possible. I realize I have written about other goals before in this blog (i.e. a self-supported half-marathon) but I never really had enough motivation to actually accomplish them.

For this goal, I am willing to do whatever it takes to achieve it (except steroids, lol). I will build my mileage to at least 30-40 miles a week, I will start doing speed work sometime in the near future, and I may run on my school's track team this spring. I'm not quite sure about the track team yet though. I will just have to see.

I revived this blog to keep a record of my journey to a sub 22 minute 5K. I want some way of keeping myself motivated and accountable. I am willing to do whatever it takes though. Varsity cross country sounds likes a dream now, but maybe in another year it will be a reality.

A quick update

Okay. I guess I will write a quick update about how my week has been going (if you really care...).

As you may have inferred from my previous post, I took an SAT today. The test was sooooo looooonggggggg. I arrived at the test center (a high school about 10-15 minutes away from where I live) at about 7:45. I thought the test would begin at 8:00 and end at 12:00. I told my dad to pick me up at 12:00- but made a huge mistake by telling him this.

The test actually did not end up beginning until about 8:40 (it took a while to get into the rooms, and the proctor had to read all the directions before we started the test). The test didn't actually end until past 1:00. My dad waited for over an hour for me. I felt so bad, but I couldn't contact him because I forgot to bring my cell phone. It wouldn’t have even made a difference if I brought the phone, however. The rules were that you could not use phones during the test.

So while my dad was waiting, I was furiously trying to answer math, reading, and writing questions. There were about 10 sections on this test (one 10 minute section, two 20 minute sections, and seven 25 minute sections). I also had an essay to write.

I can't tell specific details about the test questions until I get my official scores (talking about the questions is apparently against test center rules), but I can tell that the test went a lot better than I thought it would go.

I took a practice SAT in March, and ended up not doing so well. This practice test was at the end of a week of standardized testing at school and I didn't study at all for this test. The one I took today, however, I have been studying all week for. The studying helped tremendously to get me used to the question types on the test. I have no idea how well I did on the test today, but I know I will have done better than I did on the practice test in March.

Next up:
PSAT- Oct. 18
ACT- Oct. 25

I hope I do okay on those tests as well.

Another major thing that happened this week is that I got my braces off on Wednesday. It was so nice to get those things off! Now I don't get pieces of food stuck in my teeth after I eat (I had to clean out chunks of food stuck in my teeth after every meal when I had braces.). I also have straight teeth now instead of crooked ones.

Here are my weekly workout totals. For some reason, I have been feeling like posting them a lot lately. I have no idea why. Maybe to give me motivation?

The week ended with a nice, long bike ride today to blow off steam after the test. It was such a great ride! I love riding my bike!

Weekly totals: 9/28-10/4
Swim: 6h 50m
Bike: 3h 10m
Run: 1h 30m
Yoga: 57m
Total: 12h 27m

SAT tomorrow

I'm taking the SAT tomorrow!

Wish me luck.

Can I count this test as an endurance event? The test is 3 hours and 45 minutes long, not including breaks.

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).

First day of school

My full race report is finished! You can view it here:
http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=129760

Yesterday was also my first day of school. I'm glad the triathlon gave me something to look forward to (so that I wasn't worrying about school the past few weeks). The summer went by way too fast- and school started again way too soon!

There is not much I can really say about my first day of school. I was given a pop-quiz first thing in the morning in U.S. History (me and the entire rest of the class failed this quiz!). I hope the quiz wasn't counted for a huge grade. I'm very relieved we are having a bonus quiz later in the week to be able to make up some points we lost from that pop quiz. I hope all the teacher's quizzes and tests aren't as hard as that first one I just took!

I was also given another quiz in chemisty. That quiz was pretty easy though. It was over the names of the elements in the periodic table (which I studied this summer). I only missed three questions out of about thirty on that quiz.

Yesterday, I was also given a ton of homework in math. I was given 6 sections of the book to complete, every section has about 50 problems. I'm incredibly glad we get two weeks to finish this assignment!

My study hall was really nice though. It gave me plenty of time to get some of those math problems done. I am so greatful for that study hall this year!

I think the funniest thing that happened yesteday was during third period spanish. I am taking Spanish 3, and throughout the entire class, the teacher thought that we were in the Spanish 2 class. She didn't realize her mistake untill the end of the period when someone pointed it out to her. That was definitely intresting!

My second day of school today was pretty much as uneventful as my first. It went by a lot easier though, now that I know what classes I have and where they are all located.

Just 178 more school days untill next summer break!

Some photos from the race

Remember when I said I would have race photos up soon? Well, here they are. These pictures are only the ones that my parents took. I think the race organizers took photos as well. I'll have those up soon too.

I think this is the first time I posted photos on this blog. Now you all get to see what I look like. I'm sure you were dying to know.



The start of the swim. Just me and 750 of my closest friends.



Coming out of the swim. I am the one in the black swimsuit (not the wetsuit) just barely out of the lake.



Still coming out of the swim. In case you still haven't found me in the black swimsuit yet, I am the one with HUGE tan lines on my legs.



Running from the lake to the transiton area.



Running to the finish (this is when I picked up my pace from a walk to an almost sprint)!



Still running to the finish (now I'm sprinting- well, as much as I can after 4 hours of exercise)!



FOOD! (Yes, I look like crap after 4 hours of exercise in the heat. I think everyone does!).

I think the race orgainzers are going to have a lot more photos from between the swim and the finish. My parents weren't at the race site the whole time, so those are the only oppertunities they had to take pictures. Sorry if it seems like there is a huge gap in this photo-story!

Today's race: A brief report

I finished!!! I did my first olympic-distance triathlon today and I finished!!!

The race was really fun, but pretty tireing. I enjoyed every moment of it!

Some highlights of the race-

The swim: I accidently swam the half ironman course. Oops. Oh well, the lake was nice anyway. Apparently when I saw some people turning, I was supposed to follow them toward the finish line. I wasn't supposed to keep going straight!

The bike: My new road bike made the 25 miles fly by. At the end of the ride, I felt like I could have actually went farther! I even ended up passing a couple people during this bike ride (all on road bikes!) even though maybe 20 or so people passed me. I never passed anyone on a bike before! The hills also felt SO much smaller and easier to climb on the road bike!

The run: Whew! This was when I was starting to get tired! I pretty much ran/walked the entire course. The race also finished in 85 (ish) degree heat. I kept myself plenty cool with the water at the aid stations, but the run was still pretty tough. My next goal is to be able to run the entire course (without walk breaks) next time I do an olympic-distance triathln.

The finish: Wow! The finish was amazing. I couldn't believe I just did an olympic distance triathlon. I did a huge sprint to the end, followed by much eating, drinking of water, and when I got home- a shower, nap, and more food.

Today's race was great! I love this sport SO much!

Full race report (with pictures!) coming soon.