10. My iron is at 10. Ridiculous. The test is wrong. It has to be.
On the bright side Taliano says its climbing, even if only a little bit and so he agreed to sign off on my swim. Christine thinks I am basically dying, but I assured her that I have probably been living with levels like this for a while, and I've never experienced any symptoms of low iron, so I'll really fine. So the iron pills continue. And just when I think I've gotten used to them, I get some liquid iron tossed my way. Liquid iron, unlike antibiotics, does not taste like pleasantly creamy bananas. Liquid iron tastes exactly like you would expect liquid iron to taste. Only hours later as you burp the stuff back up do you get that faint hint of cherry they advertise on the bottle.
Mileage: 18.6km Tapering :)
Saturday, April 25, 2015
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Training Journal #13
It's been a big week!
Mileage: 20.5 km. Essentially I can now swim the distance of my crossing over the course of a week.
On Monday I RAN FOR 30 MINUTES! Christine says I need to be able to run 5km by the time I do my swim, and I think I'm getting really close to that point! Also on Monday I did 100m in 1:21!
On Wednesday we did a test set again and I did 400m in 6:16 which is not quite the time I was hoping for but still faster than last time so I'm not even close to unhappy!
Thursday I swam 5.7km on my own in a pretty intense work out. I have this fancy swim watch my parents bought me that will count your laps for you as long as you're doing more than just kicking. This is very handy for me since I often lose count, and not at lap 134, I typically lose count at lap 6.
I've sent more blood work in so I'm waiting for those results to see if my iron levels are rising.
The interesting thing that will be happening over the next 2 weeks is I'll actually decrease my mileage in preparation for another Trial Swim (10km). This is called tapering. The idea is that since you're body is used to working harder you will have all this pent up extra energy (especially after 3 full days off) and this will help sustain you over a long distance activity. I'm cool with it. A little extra downtime? Suuuuure!
Mileage: 20.5 km. Essentially I can now swim the distance of my crossing over the course of a week.
On Monday I RAN FOR 30 MINUTES! Christine says I need to be able to run 5km by the time I do my swim, and I think I'm getting really close to that point! Also on Monday I did 100m in 1:21!
On Wednesday we did a test set again and I did 400m in 6:16 which is not quite the time I was hoping for but still faster than last time so I'm not even close to unhappy!
Thursday I swam 5.7km on my own in a pretty intense work out. I have this fancy swim watch my parents bought me that will count your laps for you as long as you're doing more than just kicking. This is very handy for me since I often lose count, and not at lap 134, I typically lose count at lap 6.
I've sent more blood work in so I'm waiting for those results to see if my iron levels are rising.
The interesting thing that will be happening over the next 2 weeks is I'll actually decrease my mileage in preparation for another Trial Swim (10km). This is called tapering. The idea is that since you're body is used to working harder you will have all this pent up extra energy (especially after 3 full days off) and this will help sustain you over a long distance activity. I'm cool with it. A little extra downtime? Suuuuure!
Saturday, April 11, 2015
Training Journal #12
I may be doing 2 swims this summer. Christine has asked me if I would swim a leg of the West Park Aquatics Club Lake Ontario Relay in August. I would be doing 3 hours of the night swim which is a whole realm of unknown for me, along with a whole new set of things to worry about. Mainly though I just need to keep concentrating on my own training and if it works out then great.
Still riding a bit of the high from Monday. On wednesday we did 5x100m and I held 1:28-1:32. No new records, but that's much closer to the pace Christine wants me to be capable of holding for longer.
Total mileage: 18.6km - which IS a personal best.
Still riding a bit of the high from Monday. On wednesday we did 5x100m and I held 1:28-1:32. No new records, but that's much closer to the pace Christine wants me to be capable of holding for longer.
Total mileage: 18.6km - which IS a personal best.
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Training Journal #11
7km in 2 hours 10 minutes!
I am happy.
Dad came to the pool to time me, and Anita's daughter was there too. Christine told me she wants me to be able to feed while moving so I had to kick on my back while drinking my water bottle. I think Dad was impressed with me and with how consistent I was. I feel strong! I was so surprised that I wasn't totally exhausted by the end of it, Anita said the same thing, like we could have kept going. We didn't, mind you, but we talk big. We both even made it to Masters this morning and I did an 18 min run this afternoon. I think a big part of my training is also proving to myself that I can do this, and I'm beginning to really believe that I can. 7 km is about a third of my total distance. I'm told pool swimming is easier than open water swimming because you don't have walls to push off of every 25m in a lake, and there are waves, so the two are not directly comparable, but lets say 1/3.
Here's some more math for you. Apparently the conversion between running and swimming distances is roughly x4. For example 7km swimming is roughly equivalent to a 28km run. So basically I just did a swimming half marathon and then some! Which is obviously crazy for me since I could never do the running equivalent, but I've been reassured that people are very rarely good at both running AND swimming.
I am happy.
Dad came to the pool to time me, and Anita's daughter was there too. Christine told me she wants me to be able to feed while moving so I had to kick on my back while drinking my water bottle. I think Dad was impressed with me and with how consistent I was. I feel strong! I was so surprised that I wasn't totally exhausted by the end of it, Anita said the same thing, like we could have kept going. We didn't, mind you, but we talk big. We both even made it to Masters this morning and I did an 18 min run this afternoon. I think a big part of my training is also proving to myself that I can do this, and I'm beginning to really believe that I can. 7 km is about a third of my total distance. I'm told pool swimming is easier than open water swimming because you don't have walls to push off of every 25m in a lake, and there are waves, so the two are not directly comparable, but lets say 1/3.
Here's some more math for you. Apparently the conversion between running and swimming distances is roughly x4. For example 7km swimming is roughly equivalent to a 28km run. So basically I just did a swimming half marathon and then some! Which is obviously crazy for me since I could never do the running equivalent, but I've been reassured that people are very rarely good at both running AND swimming.
Friday, April 3, 2015
Training Journal #10
Its Good Friday. I have 2 full days off before my 7km on Monday. I decided I wasn't going to eat any sugar this week in order to maybe give my body that little extra edge of nutrition on Monday. I however am an idiot and forgot that Easter is synonymous with chocolate. In order to avoid falling into a pit of despair however, I have decided that I will still hoard all the chocolate bunnies I want and consume them on Monday in celebration!
Mileage this week was 16.9 km. I know the mileage numbers seem random but they're based on an outline of me increasing my distance by 10% each week.
I had some interesting workouts this week. You may recall how I said that I cannot sprint and swim endurance at the same time. This remains true, however thats exactly what I was asked to do not once, but twice this week. On Monday we did Brock's version of a "Test Set" which is: swim 400m as fast as you can. At a comfortable pace I would normally come in just under 8 minutes, which is still faster than the average human (based on my several years of teaching Bronze Med). Monday is did it in 6:23! And I did a 25 minute run earlier that day, another new record for me! Then, not 12 hours later at my Tuesday morning practice we did 3 x 300m as fast as we could. I came in at 4:45, 4:51, and 4:50. I beginning to build a bit more of a sense of my speed. Like I can usually tell when its been a good 100m or not, and I can control more subtle increases and decreases in my speed.
I'm so nervous for Monday. 7km is 280 lengths of the pool. 280 flip turns. My goal is under 2 hours 20 minutes. Christine would love it to be closer to the 2 hour mark. We'll see.
Mileage this week was 16.9 km. I know the mileage numbers seem random but they're based on an outline of me increasing my distance by 10% each week.
I had some interesting workouts this week. You may recall how I said that I cannot sprint and swim endurance at the same time. This remains true, however thats exactly what I was asked to do not once, but twice this week. On Monday we did Brock's version of a "Test Set" which is: swim 400m as fast as you can. At a comfortable pace I would normally come in just under 8 minutes, which is still faster than the average human (based on my several years of teaching Bronze Med). Monday is did it in 6:23! And I did a 25 minute run earlier that day, another new record for me! Then, not 12 hours later at my Tuesday morning practice we did 3 x 300m as fast as we could. I came in at 4:45, 4:51, and 4:50. I beginning to build a bit more of a sense of my speed. Like I can usually tell when its been a good 100m or not, and I can control more subtle increases and decreases in my speed.
I'm so nervous for Monday. 7km is 280 lengths of the pool. 280 flip turns. My goal is under 2 hours 20 minutes. Christine would love it to be closer to the 2 hour mark. We'll see.
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