It’s getting hot in here

The good news is that I didn’t have to run.  The bad news is I still had to bike…on the trainer…without a fan…indoors.  And thus was the start to my birthday, a nice 65 minute trainer ride on little red sweating bullets.  Though it was only probably in the mid-80’s inside, with no air circulation I quickly made a small puddle in the shoes.

This particular workout’s highlight is a 25 minute high cadence set, starting at 105RPM and doing five minute blocks up to 125RPM, all staying within Z2.  It’s not a hard workout per se, more just one about focus.  It’s easy to ‘slack off’ and spin lower – but that would defeat the purpose.  You can see the slight jumps in the green line at each five minute block, up until the cool down sections.

After that I went downtown for work related stuffs.  I lucked out this week in that all my presentations were on Monday afternoon.  Anyone who presents at conferences knows the best slot is a Monday afternoon slot (sometimes also Tuesday morning) – and the absolute worst is a Friday afternoon.  I originally had a Friday 4PM slot for one of my sessions, but I’m in good graces with the organizers, so they moved me to Monday.  Sweetness.  Double-sweetness was getting one of the highest ratings of the day…  Oh, but back to Wednesday.

After work I still had a swim to get in.  Given the outside temperatures predicted, I decided an outdoor pool was appropriate.  Better than being stuck indoors.  And what were the outside temperatures?  Well, here’s a little snippet from one of the local TV stations sites:

Yes.  The hottest day EVAH in Seattle.  In the history of the world.  Well, Seattle’s little world since 1891 anyway.  And on my birthday no less.  Again, all signs are pointing to my new Chipotle hot cycling shorts as the cause of this heat wave.

I got to the pool around 4:45PM, with lap swim scheduled for 5:30PM.  I figured I’d be able to hang around the pool deck and just laze about in the sun.  But…apparently not.  So instead I found a tree in the nearby park and just hung out under it instead.

After about 35 minutes I wandered back over to the pool and went in.

There were signs up for Slow/Medium/Fast and another Fast lane (though, not in the kiddy wading pool).  I did a quick 30 second survey on lap speeds, and then made my decision for the fastest of the two fast lanes.

At first it wasn’t too bad, with folks mostly in line speed-wise.  Anytime you have 6-7 folks sharing a lane circle-swim style, you’re going to get some backups on occasion.  No worries, usually they sort themselves out at the end of each lap.  I actually enjoy swimming with this many people, as it can on occasion force you to push it a bit more than by yourself.

But…then sometimes you get some ‘misinterpretation’ of ones swimming ability.  Now, first off – I’m hardly a ‘fast swimmer’ by any college or competitive HS standards, but by casual pool standards, I can hang with most folks who show up.  But, I think if you’re going to jump in a lane marked fast – you need to be realistic about your swimming skillz.

Somewhere along the way a women got in the lane (sans goggles)…and somewhere along the way I got stuck behind no-goggle-lady.  No worries I figured, I’d pass at the flip.  So I slowed down and just converted to fist swimming.  My general order of swimming slower while still getting a workout is to fist swim, and then swim one armed if required.

But…that wasn’t solving the solution.  She was slower than that.  Because…she was doggy paddling.

I then switched to one-armed fist swimming.  But, that still wasn’t enough.  And my kick was long since abandoned.  No worries though, we’re coming up on the end of the lane.  She’ll step off to the side given I’ve tapped her toes to let her know I’m there.

<Insert end of lane here.  Insert no-goggle-lady not giving up here.  Insert six swimmers stuck behind her here.  Insert annoyance level growing here.>

Now, Seattle folks are very polite by East Coast standards, so we all kept on dealing with it…for 20 minutes.  The six of us would find creative ways to get speed in, like waiting until she was almost all the way back to us, and then going in a massive 6-person train – giving her effectively a 50y head start.  But with us swimming 2-3 times her pace, that didn’t last long.

After a while and a rock-paper-scissor session at the end of the lane between the six of us, I volunteered to go ask the life guards to give her a polite nudge.  After all, I wouldn’t be back at the pool and didn’t have to risk any ‘pool relations’.  A short bit later the problemo was solved, and I was able to get into my final 3x350 interval sets – without no-goggle-lady.  Workout complete, exactly as the lap swim ended.

And we certainly didn’t want to get in the way of all the inbound pool users.  There was a massive line down the street to get into the pool:

I meanwhile headed off to have dinner with my parents at a great little Italian place downtown, and then eventually have some German Chocolate Cake made by my Mom, at home.

The heat was playing a bit of havoc with the cake though…but, it was still good!

Thursday morning brought my usual bike-track-run brick.  I had wanted to go to my high school, but it was all closed off, including a sign hung just about the whole in the fence. 

So instead I went to my middle school, located right next door.

I got setup and ready to roll.  I choose in the sun versus the shade, as it would more realistically replicate a hot race day.

The workout would include a 34 minute bike section that quickly escalated through Z4B heart rates in five minute chunks.  I was a little concerned about my ability to get into those higher HR’s on little red (the trainer), because it just can’t hold high enough resistance.  So I suggested to my coach that I could use some hills nearby instead.

I voted the above hill, which has a grade of 19% and is about .7m long. 

He explained through silence that my vote didn’t really count in this matter.  Well, actually he said “Hill sounds a little more daunting than I had in mind”.  And thus I was still on the trainer.

So…instead I cranked the living crap out of the trainer to really tighten it down.  Hell or high water I was going to find a way to get into Z4B.  When I was finished turning up the resistance, I couldn’t even turn the crank-arm on the bike with my arm.  Check…done…and ready to roll.

The bike went well, and with only a touch bit higher RPM’s required I was able to keep it up in zone.

From there, it was off to the track for a nice run.  I had my little camera all setup to record every 20 seconds, but somehow the wind tipped it off my backpack after only 2 shots. :(

So I got about 15 minutes worth of pretty blue sky..every 20 seconds:

But eventually my Mom came along to see if I was still alive and took a few pics:

And after 7 miles of loop-de-loops, I was done.

Speaking of my Mom, later on last night we went out to the lake near the house and did a bit of open water swimming in preparation for her first tri in two weeks.  Just a nice half mile triangle – equal to the distance in her race.

The above was with my Garmin 305 in my swim cap in a plastic baggie.

That’s her swimming below…

As we finished up our swim, one of the Boeing Dreamlifters (modified 747 that carries pieces of the 787 to assembly) cruised overhead, on final approach for Paine Field (where they build 747’s, 767’s, 777’s, and 787’s), just beyond the lake.  I noticed it as it made it’s slow turn around the lake towards final, so was able to snap off a few good pics.

So, with that, I’m on the plane myself now, headed back to DC.  Though, that was nearly a non-occurrence due to some issues finding the pool this morning.  I set a new all-time SeaTac airport PR for arrival, at 28 minutes prior to my flight…in a different terminal…with a rental car…at rush hour on a Friday morning.  My all-time best ever is JFK at 16 minutes prior to flight.  All times are from the point of vehicular drop-off at the airport.  There was a LOT of very fast running involved.  Would have loved to have my HRM on this morning.

Have a good weekend all!

Tour de Seattle

It’s getting hot (in) here…perhaps my new bike shorts has contributed to the record temperatures here in Seattle.  Either way, it hasn’t stopped my training.  Though this is a recovery week (well timed to a travel week), I’ve been busy with all the usual activities, swimming, biking, running and going to baseball games.

Monday brought a nice little trainer ride on little red.  Well, technically the bike is also red (the Fuji Newest I keep here in Seattle), but the little trainer I have is little red.  The only problem with little red, is that sometime it doesn’t quite put out (it was cheap).  I’ve found that its practical limit is about 250-275w.  Though I don’t have a power meter to test that, that’s kinda what I’m guessing based on knowing my HR’s at various cadences and what it takes to get there.  So I have to get a bit tricky with my cadences to stay up in zone on some of my workouts. 

As you can see, my speeds were kinda jumping all over the place as I worked to nail down some of the shifting to keep in various zones.  No worries though, I got the job done.  Given how rarely I use little red (a couple of times every few months), it works out just fine.

Anyway…the more exciting was the baseball game on Monday night.  My Dad and I decided to hit up the Mariners game (the baseball team I normally root for…sorry Nationals).  It as just a quick ride from both where he and I were working downtown, to the game.  And, given Seattle just opened the light rail two weeks ago – we decided to take that to the game.

It’s pretty functional, though a bit slower at rush hour than later on when we returned from the game.  That said not a bad deal and a good start, it’ll certainly be a lot nicer once expansion completes.  Anyway…we got off at the Stadium station and walked the short distance to the ball park.

Once there we had to go visit grandpa.  Back a decade ago when the stadium was first built they offered the ability for folks to buy bricks in the stadium.  My grandpa was a massive baseball fan (though, naturally a Red Sox fan given he grew up in Rhode Island).  So we got him a brick in the stadium.  Now, the brick has a view of the bullpen, but on a more funny note, it actually sits right at the entrance to the women’s bathroom.  So watch your step there little women’s!

(For those curious, my middle name is different, so no numeric's after me…)

Oh, we picked up some super cheap bleacher seats (and peanuts) and just enjoyed the really nice night in Seattle.  Here’s a few pics of the game:

The game was against the Toronto Blue Jay’s, and I’m relatively certain there were more Canadian fans than American ones there.

And the sunset was awesome.  You can see we moved around the stadium quite a bit…especially after we left a large contingent of peanut shells near our original seats.

All in all – good times at the ball park!

Tuesday morning brought some Forest Gump running time.  In place of a usual 2h30m minute run, I had a bit more entertainment in the form of a three-part run:

30 minutes Z2
30 minutes Z3
30 minutes Z4A

Now, I’m never really sure what this will net me distance wise, so I try and do out and back segments for each chunk.  I decided to start from the waterfront near the piers, and then head up north a bit following one of the major bike/running trails in Seattle, and then head inland.

It’s amazing how much hotter it became once you headed away from the water and went inland.  As I ran through a rail yard, the temps immediately became hot as all heck.

Oh, see the train?  Yes, the Canadians are invading.  I’m sure of it after last night’s ball game.

After deciding I was tired of the rail yard heat, I headed back towards the water.

It’s incredible how much cooler it was, almost ‘cold’ actually.  This despite the fact that the temperatures were climbing into the low to mid 90’s (cold compared to today’s 100*+ temps).

Along the water, I swung by one of the fishing piers:

And then continued back towards all the major piers along the waterfront:

Here’s the view using Bing Maps – my route is the blue line in both pics (check out my full route here):

As you can see, I passed by the ferry boats, and then kept on chugging south along the waterfront past the Coast Guard base, where one of the Polar Ice Breakers was chillin’.

After that I hung a left and went to go visit Safeco Field (baseball stadium):

Which was immediately followed by Quest Field – the football and soccer stadium:

Finally, I went back over to the waterfront to run along the old trolley lines back up to my car.  Speaking of cars, one thing that sucks with rental cars is the keys are massive (so you can’t lose them), and they don’t fit in my running shorts, so I have to hold them. :(

Finally, I finished up.  Exactly one half-marathon – 13.10 miles later in 1:30:00 – plus the cool down on top of it.  Didn’t even mean to run exactly a half-mary.  Nice!

Later on I swung by the 24-hour fitness on my Mom’s guest pass to knock out a 3,000 or so yard swim, plus give my mom a few little pointers on her swim.  Her swim is coming along quite nicely – she has nothing to worry about for her first tri in a few weeks.

Well…except perhaps changing a flat.  But practice will make perfect.

We had a family flat changing fiesta last night to go over the basics.  Good times. 

Oh, I leave you with this place I saw yesterday morning in Seattle.

If you put up a ‘Sidewalk Sale’ sign out front, you better be darn sure you mean it – otherwise someone just might just take you up on your offer…and remove your sidewalk.

Catch ya later!