'ike loa » Swimming

Final long swim…

paul_ikeloa — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:04:08 +0000

Sunday morning at The Shores

Met up at The Shores at 8:30 am for one last long swim since we are now starting our taper to Vineman. The day started out as what it has become typical of late — overcast skies and coolish temperatures. Only a few of us showed up to brave the morning after the long 4th of July celebrations.

The conditions were pretty good. Not very much chop and gentle swells. We made our way to the water and initially it felt a bit cool. Soon we were making our way to the 1/2 mile buoy as our goal as to swim at least a mile.

I was able to get into a decent rhythm and it was nice to be out in the water. Though I am not a fast swimmer, I as able to keep a decent pace all the way to the marker. Once we reached the 1/2 mile marker, we decided to go to the 1/4 mile marker — which is 1/4 mile out from The Cove — for a distance out of 3/4 of a mile or so.

The sun came out just as we started on the leg back and it made the swim very pleasant. 700 or so strokes later and I was back on The Shores. With that extra 1/2 mile of distance, we ended up swimming longer than race distance and I was happy that I felt pretty good overall.

Strength spin. Weak swim.

paul_ikeloa — Thu, 21 May 2009 07:29:32 +0000

Coach Trent had a strength spin on tap tonight, which I was ill prepared for. I was expecting the normal ILTs, cadence, and standing drills. Instead, we had some large gear drills, some standing, “bursts” and in the middle, we did two rounds with medicine balls, running steps, and then two laps around the track. Spin was just over 38 minutes and track drills were about 15 minutes. Tough session.

I neglected to bring my running shoes, so I did the track drills barefoot. Fortunately, the track was rubberized so my feet didn’t get abused that much.

The strength drills left me wiped out for the swim. My shoulders were sore and tired from the medicine ball drills and I struggled to get into a groove. I ended up only doing about 1100 yards before I felt I was close to drowning.

My HR profile for the spin is getting better. During one of the early bursts, I was able to get up to 160+ rpm and my HR didn’t jump extremely. However, towards the end of the drills we were doing standing drills while increasing gears and cadence. My HR climbed because I was getting really tired.

Cadence vs HR

Practice Tri and Coast Ride

paul_ikeloa — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 03:11:08 +0000

It is a week until Wildflower so we held a practice triathlon for the teams at La Jolla Shores. This is the opportunity for everyone to run through what race day is like and to nail down everything so they can have the best race possible. Racks were setup, race numbers applied, and the course was laid out. The Olympic distance team was doing a long “Sprint” triathlon, while the Long/half-ironman teams were doing basically an Olympic distance event (except for the swim was limited to about 500m). The practice tri started at 7am sharp and teammates began arriving as early as 6am to get setup and to get into the right zone. As I was taking pictures, I didn’t do this practice. I already have a number of triathlons under my belt and I decided I will do a ride later.

Getting ready

Time for the start

Out of the water

Transition to the bike

Run transition

Strong finish!

After everyone completed the practice tri, we all had a nice breakfast put on by the Coaches, mentors, and support staff!

Post-tri breakfast and pre-Wildflower talk

Around noon I decided to head out for a ride up the coast. I did 28 miles in 2 hours, going from La Jolla Shores to Encinitas and back. I wanted to go to Carlsbad, but there was the Encinitas Street Fair going on, so I cut my ride short.

Another double-header: Spin and Swim!

paul_ikeloa — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 05:31:18 +0000

Wednesday means spin and swim night. I missed last week, so I really needed to make it to this one.

Coach Trent wasn’t available for spin and Mentor Alan filled in and ran the drills. 50 minutes later and I am glad it is over! I just loaded up the data from my Forerunner and the Spin profile is very interesting. My HR really tracks the speed which mostly changed when we shifted gears as part of the routine. Max cadence tonight was 140 rpm at around 10 minutes in.

Spin Profile

Only had a 15 minute break and then it was time for the pool. It was cooler out and the water didn’t feel warm enough, but after a while it was comfortable. I got through 1100 yards of drills and laps and it definitely hit me pretty hard. My shoulder didn’t hurt like it did after the ocean swim, so that is good, but my body is really tired now.

Tomorrow will reveal how hard the workout was on my body when all the soreness hits…

Another perfect ocean swim

paul_ikeloa — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 04:31:47 +0000

It was another picture perfect day at La Jolla Shores, making for a spectacular ocean swim. I have been really looking forward to these lately. The water was relatively calm, decent visibility, and the water in the low 60s. With the bright sun and the 85° air temperatures, it would be hard to ask for anything better!

Swim Coach Robbie (who is part fish)

As we are two weeks out from the Wildflower race, the goal today was to go as far to the cove as possible. From The Shores to The Cove is approximately 1 mile each way, making for a long 2 mile swim. Some of us weren’t quite up to that distance yet, so our target was about 1/4 mile out from The Cove to give us a 1.5 mile swim.

Clowning around...

It was a long swim for me. I started out fairly strong, going about 300 yards or so before getting my bearings. There was a gentle swell and current and I quickly got into a groove. 35 minutes later or so and I was nearing the turn around.

The way back in seemed much longer and I had to stop more often to catch my breath. I know that I need a lot more work on my swim, so I wasn’t surprised I was feeling tired. What concerned me more was that my right shoulder was already getting sore and I still had another 1000 yards in… Another 40 minutes and I was back to the shore, feeling generally good, but with a sore shoulder. Talking to Robbie, it is clear that I am powering my stroke much more with my right arm than my left — this is happening when I rotate to breath on the left. I don’t do bilateral breathing but I am going to have to conquer that someday soon. Maybe next season.

The water looks so perfect!

Go Team!

Easter Swim

paul_ikeloa — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 00:01:20 +0000

Today was much nicer than yesterday. Sun was out and it was warm — very much the weather that San Diego is know for. And with the water temp at 62°, it was looking to be a great day in the water.

Coach Sam asked me to kayak today as the turn around point for the swim. I would have enjoyed the water, but kayaking was still a good day!

The workout was to practice swim entry and exit by running into the water simulating a race start, swim out to me (250 – 300 yrds off shore), swim back in, exit as in a race, run out to the seawall, and do it again for a total of three sets.

Ocean Swim

Once I was settle off shore, I kicked back and tried to maintain position as best as I could — there was a fairly decent onshore current and a moderate breeze kicked up the chop a bit. Even with the swells, the visibility was great and you could see the bottom 40 feet below. Mentor Brian brought out Tony’s camera, so I took the opportunity to take some great ocean swim shots.

Tony bobbing in the waves

Such a lovely day to be in the ocean!

Brian almost swam into that seagull!

Fun in the sun at The Shores

paul_ikeloa — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 01:22:37 +0000

It was a much different scene at The Shores this week. The sun was out, it was warm in the mid-70s, only a gentle breeze and not a cloud in the perfect blue sky. No marine layer to dampen our spirits.

The lifeguard station listed the water temperature at a cool 58° but with the warm sun, the water felt much nicer. The workout for today was to swim out to the kayak, then swim south as far to the sea wall as possible, then swim back to the original kayak and then into shore. In all, it would be around 1500 yards or so.

The water was clear and there was a minimal current which it made for a pleasant swim. I felt 100% better on this swim than last week. I was able to get into a nice rhythm and just go. In all, I managed to get about an hour of great swimming in. I didn’t feel overly tired nor did I feel chilled to the bone like last time. I am looking forward to many more weekends like this!

La Jolla Shores

Work-training-life-balance

paul_ikeloa — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 23:01:11 +0000

There has been a major clash with work and training this week. A number of high priority issues consumed much more time than they should and everything else suffered, including training and sleep. The nature of my job means that when things are going well with production operations, then I can keep a fairly “normal” schedule. But when we have to address customer issues or perform maintenance operations, it often turns a 9 hour day into a 15 or 16 hour day. A few days of that and I resemble a zombie…

I missed swim on Monday due to work and up way too late.

I was going to make it up on Tuesday, but more work issues and up even later.

I am heading into today with about 9 hours of sleep since Monday. Tonight I was planning on spin and swim, but due to lack of sleep I neglected to take my packed tri-bag with me. I did put my bike on my car and have my shoes, shorts and jersey, but no goggles, no tri-suit, and no swim cap… Looks like I can spin but there won’t be swim for me tonight.

Rough waters at The Shores

paul_ikeloa — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 02:03:53 +0000

Another ocean swim today at the shores. Weather was nice at the house, but when I arrived at The Shores, the marine layer was moving in. It made for a cool afternoon and not such a pleasant swim. Water temperature was about 58°, but still a bit colder than I like. I am really happy when the sun is out and the water is in the mid-60s.

There was a decent on-shore breeze that was chopping up the surf a bit. It was definitely going to be a struggle today…

Squeezed into the wetsuit and we all practiced a race entry — being huddled together as tight as possible and then all running into the surf together. A bit intimidating for the newbies, but fun for us already familiar with it. I got to shove a few newbies around to give them a real taste of a race start.

Damn! The water felt much colder than it should have and diving into the wave was a total system shock. A few minutes later my hands and feet became numb and I was getting into a a sloppy rhythm which resulted in me sucking too much water. Breathe, gulp…

Back and forth between the kayaks for what seemed like an eternity. Stopping much more than I should have, I got tired quickly. About 50 minutes of swimming and treading water, I made the turn to shore. Dragging my self out of the water, I tried to “run in” to our setup area but I couldn’t even feel my feet. Stumbling for a minute or two, I elected to walk.

I am a bit disappointed in my swim performance and I am going to really have to step that up.

Not looking as pretty as it normally does..

Another double header: spin and swim

paul_ikeloa — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 05:12:26 +0000

Tonight was spin followed by swim. The Lavaman team has already shipped their bikes to Kona and most fly out tomorrow, so tonight it was just a few of us working up an intense sweat.

Coach Trent pulled out all the stops and threw in some new intervals, which was great as it kind of changed up the routine, but it was bad because the new intervals really worked me hard.

My training profile is interesting and got over 90% of max heart rate towards the end. We started out with a normal spin warm-up where we increase the cadence every 30 seconds or so. Topped out at 135 before we relaxed and spun easy. Then we had ILTs on each leg. Then for a twist, we did a pyramid interval where we had to spin at 110 rpm for 30 sec, then recover for 30 sec, then spin for 45 sec, then recover for 45 sec, then 60 sec, then recover for 60 sec and so on up to 2 minutes at the end. I was getting up in the high HR zone near the end of the interval. We ended the spin with standing intervals. Stand for a few minutes, sit for 15 seconds but keeping the cadence, and so on. Then move to a harder gear while maintaining the cadence and repeat the interval until rubber legs…

1 hr of spin took its toll and I was dragging in the pool. I got a decent workout in, but I am going to have to spend much more time in the water. I am looking forward to the ocean swim on Sunday and maybe the weather will cooperate.