So I moved the blog over to it's own domain. You can check it out at www.robaquatics.com! This page will stay up (yay free blogspot hosting) but everything here is at the new site. If you're subscribed to the RSS feed check out the new site and grab the new feed.
Thanks!
Rob D.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Lost in Thought
So tonight I went to the pool and started warming up and well... never really stopped. I lost track of how far I had swam and I decided to just keep going. My mind started drifting and thinking about the blog. I'm going to move it over to my own domain. I started working on it and frankly it's going a little poorly at the moment but in the next day or so I should have my own dot com set up.
So my workout was basically 30 minutes of uninterrupted swimming mixed with 10 miles on the bike.
I'm going back to trying to get my web situation worked out. Hopefully in the next day or so this is all transferred to my own domain!
So my workout was basically 30 minutes of uninterrupted swimming mixed with 10 miles on the bike.
I'm going back to trying to get my web situation worked out. Hopefully in the next day or so this is all transferred to my own domain!
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Hair of the Dog
In theory when your hung over you're supposed to revisit what caused all your problems the next morning to stave off the possibility of a gnarly hang over. Well I applied the same idea to my workout today. Despite spending entirely too much time on a bike yesterday I decided to take an extended ride today to keep my muscles moving. I added a few miles to my route to the gym and swam a little bit while I was there.
My workout wasn't very high in intensity, it was more about stretching out my back and spending a little time in the water this weekend.
Warm Up
200 free
100 kick
400 free
100 kick
400 free
100 kick
200 cool down
1500 yards plus 13 miles on the bike
I'm working on picking out some events tonight for Santa Clarita on the 8th of November. I've learned my lesson about picking events too close to each other so I'm going to be a little more strategic in my set up this time!
My workout wasn't very high in intensity, it was more about stretching out my back and spending a little time in the water this weekend.
Warm Up
200 free
100 kick
400 free
100 kick
400 free
100 kick
200 cool down
1500 yards plus 13 miles on the bike
I'm working on picking out some events tonight for Santa Clarita on the 8th of November. I've learned my lesson about picking events too close to each other so I'm going to be a little more strategic in my set up this time!
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Candy Corn Classic Wrap Up
This morning I participated in the Candy Corn Classic in the 35 mile ride from San Luis Obispo to Morro Bay and back. It was a lot of fun and everyone we ran into on the road was really nice... well I think one lady growled at my friend but besides that it was cool.
The route took us through a whole bunch of places I've never been before. All kinds of rolling country roads, farms and other stuff like that. I really liked riding up Turri Road. It doesn't have a bike lane but it also doesn't seem to have any car traffic either. Both sides of the road were full of bikers which was cool.
We didn't ride super fast but we did keep a pretty decent pace through the whole thing. Once we got to about Cuesta College my legs starting thinking this wasn't such a great idea and a little while later my back was thinking the same thing. But we finished just fine and I'm feeling good now that I'm done!
When we finished there were some folks eating and cheering, and once we de-helmeted we joined in. We got some free tri-tip sandwiches from Downtown Brew who was grilling on site, and there was some free beer in the mix too. I'm not much of a drinker, especially after a 35 mile bike ride, so I passed on the free beer. There was also live music, a bounce house for the kids, and they even handed out free sunscreen which was cool and highly necessary in my case. I think San Luis Sports Therapy put on a really good event and hopefully I can come out again next year!
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Riding, Lifting & Remedial Billiards
No aquatic adventures tonight kids. I went to dinner down in Pismo and played a few games of pool down at Hot Shots. Turns out I have become awful at shooting pool.
I got home kinda late but I still had enough time to ride out to the gym and lift some weights. I was in the gym by about 9PM and out at 9:30PM. As an added bonus, the ride was semi-exciting though. On Hwy 1 between Grand and DT Pismo it smelled like the aftermath of a hardboiled egg eating contest that was held in a very small room. Not sexy. It was reminiscent of the hot springs in Avila, except there aren't any that I know of in Pismo so I'm guessing a septic tank exploded or something really gross like that. uck.
Anyways... I worked on my upper shoulder-y region, if you want to get technical about it. I focused on my traps, lats and triceps. I think this was the first time in over a month that I did any lifting. I've had so many swim meets in a row recently that I haven't really wanted to do any lifting in fear of upsetting my shoulder. I'm in week 1 of a 3 week break before the next meet I might want to do so I'm ok with doing a little lifting right now.
Today I set up my plans for Saturday morning for the Candy Corn Classic bike ride. Me and my friend are going to toss our bikes in the truck and be up there in SLO around 8:15 - 8:30. Beyond that we are going to go not too fast up to Morro Bay and back down to SLO town. If you want to sign up I think you still can... I recommend you check it out.
I got home kinda late but I still had enough time to ride out to the gym and lift some weights. I was in the gym by about 9PM and out at 9:30PM. As an added bonus, the ride was semi-exciting though. On Hwy 1 between Grand and DT Pismo it smelled like the aftermath of a hardboiled egg eating contest that was held in a very small room. Not sexy. It was reminiscent of the hot springs in Avila, except there aren't any that I know of in Pismo so I'm guessing a septic tank exploded or something really gross like that. uck.
Anyways... I worked on my upper shoulder-y region, if you want to get technical about it. I focused on my traps, lats and triceps. I think this was the first time in over a month that I did any lifting. I've had so many swim meets in a row recently that I haven't really wanted to do any lifting in fear of upsetting my shoulder. I'm in week 1 of a 3 week break before the next meet I might want to do so I'm ok with doing a little lifting right now.
Today I set up my plans for Saturday morning for the Candy Corn Classic bike ride. Me and my friend are going to toss our bikes in the truck and be up there in SLO around 8:15 - 8:30. Beyond that we are going to go not too fast up to Morro Bay and back down to SLO town. If you want to sign up I think you still can... I recommend you check it out.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
A Bag of Popcorn and a Handful of M&M's
I probably need to think a little more about what I am eating. My lunch today consisted of a bag of homestyle popcorn (the salty buttery kind) and some M&Ms... as it turns out I am an excellent chef. One of my friends reminded me that my lunch is in line with what Michael Phelps would eat, but I have a feeling he trains a little harder than I do. I really only eat lunch and dinner. I know I need to eat in the morning but I suck at waking up in the morning and I am kind of anti-cooking. I'm trying to turn it around but we'll see how that goes.
Anyways tonight was my first night in the pool since Saturday. I rode my bike out to Pismo and swam 2000 yards.
Warm Up
500 free
100 kick
10x100 (5 free, 2 breast, 1 back, 2 IM)
100 kick
50 free sprint
250 cool down
2000 yards total plus 10 miles on the bike
My left shoulder is still a little crunchy which isn't cool. I think I'm going to start working in more fast kicking sets. I've got really strong legs and I think I under utilize them when I swim so I'm going to try and spend some time focusing on kicking.
Anyways tonight was my first night in the pool since Saturday. I rode my bike out to Pismo and swam 2000 yards.
Warm Up
500 free
100 kick
10x100 (5 free, 2 breast, 1 back, 2 IM)
100 kick
50 free sprint
250 cool down
2000 yards total plus 10 miles on the bike
My left shoulder is still a little crunchy which isn't cool. I think I'm going to start working in more fast kicking sets. I've got really strong legs and I think I under utilize them when I swim so I'm going to try and spend some time focusing on kicking.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Swimsuit Upgrade!
I keep seeing people with these various "technical" suits at the meets I've been to recently. Fancy jammers, long john type things, full body suits and short johns. I decided to give one of these suits a try. Luckily since it's winter in most of the country there are some deals to be had out there for us Californian swimmers (BTW how nice is it to swim outside comfortably in late October?). I picked up a TYR Aqua Shift Zipperback Short John from swimoutlet.com. The retail on the suit is around $220 and I bought it for $109 with free shipping... not a bad deal. The only thing I am apprehensive about is how it's going to either fit or not fit. I'm built kind of weird so I'm not sure how this is going to go. The biggest size they had was 38 so I got that. They only had a blue/white suit in stock... I wanted black, but hey what are you going to do? Looking around the rest of the web no one seems to have one of these in a size bigger than a 32 which isn't going to work on me. I can't wait to get this thing in the mail so I can try it out.I'm hoping to get back into the pool tomorrow after my weekend out and about in LA. I got home Monday night and I had a meeting tonight that kept me from getting to the pool. I need to keep focusing on butterfly and building up my endurance. I also have the Candy Corn Classic on Saturday so I have to make sure and spend some time on the bike!
Saturday, October 18, 2008
UCLA SCM Meet Wrap Up
**Update** If you're looking for results from UCLA on 18OCT08, they can be found here.
Speedo Jammer, flip flops, t-shirt and a Fedora... ahhh swim meet fashion
I swam at UCLA this morning and it was a good time but my body is aching! My last 3 events were in a very rapid succession and I almost couldn't get myself out of the pool after my last event. The pool at UCLA was a lot smaller that I had expected and thanks to the excitement of parent's weekend it turned out to be much more difficult to find than expected. The nice part about it being all walled off the way it is is that it had enough shade for everyone that wanted some to hide from the sun. So hopefully I shouldn't be all crispy tomorrow like I was after the Davis meet.
My first event was the 100m fly and I was really apprehensive about swimming this race. It used to be my go to event in high school but I haven't actually swam a continuous 100 fly since high school! I've been doing a lot of work on my fly when I practice I just haven't been doing any distance over 50 yards. I feel I did really well in this race, I lead my heat the whole time and finished in 1:13. The last 25m was incredibly hard however. My muscles in my upper chest felt like they were on the verge of failing on me! I was very glad to be done when I hit the wall and pleasantly surprised to see that I beat my seed time and won the heat. My friend Robin served as my official photographer today and got a lot of great pictures of splashes. Taking pics of butterflyers is kinda hard. She got much better as the day went on :)
My second event was the 50m free. It went well, I hit basically the same time as I did in Davis of about 30 seconds. I really want to get that under 30 soon! The 100m free didn't go as smooth as I wanted it too. I was really running out of juice at this point. I was shooting for 1:05 but came in at 1:08. I know I can do a lot better, I just couldn't get those extra couple of seconds out today. The last event was the 50m fly which was literally minutes after my 100m Free. Everyone was super tired because I think everyone in the 50 was also in the 100m free. I lost about .5 to 1 second off my time in Davis on this one and almost couldn't get myself out of the pool afterwards. They were a little behind on results toward the end of the meet so I won't have my exact results until they get posted online somewhere. I was also supposed to do the 100m IM but I just didn't have the energy to do well in it so I dropped it.
After the meet me and Robin went and explored Westwood a little bit and had some well deserved lunch. Tonight were off to get some Korean food and then try to find some metropolitan excitement for this evening.
If you can't tell which one is me in the pictures, look for the bald head and the farmer's tan, apparently I'm the only person in South Pacific Masters without a luggage quality tan
The pool at UCLA
50m Butterfly
Making a Turn during the 50m Fly
50m Freestyle
Trying to keep up during my 50m Free
A little more butterfly
I swam at UCLA this morning and it was a good time but my body is aching! My last 3 events were in a very rapid succession and I almost couldn't get myself out of the pool after my last event. The pool at UCLA was a lot smaller that I had expected and thanks to the excitement of parent's weekend it turned out to be much more difficult to find than expected. The nice part about it being all walled off the way it is is that it had enough shade for everyone that wanted some to hide from the sun. So hopefully I shouldn't be all crispy tomorrow like I was after the Davis meet.
My first event was the 100m fly and I was really apprehensive about swimming this race. It used to be my go to event in high school but I haven't actually swam a continuous 100 fly since high school! I've been doing a lot of work on my fly when I practice I just haven't been doing any distance over 50 yards. I feel I did really well in this race, I lead my heat the whole time and finished in 1:13. The last 25m was incredibly hard however. My muscles in my upper chest felt like they were on the verge of failing on me! I was very glad to be done when I hit the wall and pleasantly surprised to see that I beat my seed time and won the heat. My friend Robin served as my official photographer today and got a lot of great pictures of splashes. Taking pics of butterflyers is kinda hard. She got much better as the day went on :)
My second event was the 50m free. It went well, I hit basically the same time as I did in Davis of about 30 seconds. I really want to get that under 30 soon! The 100m free didn't go as smooth as I wanted it too. I was really running out of juice at this point. I was shooting for 1:05 but came in at 1:08. I know I can do a lot better, I just couldn't get those extra couple of seconds out today. The last event was the 50m fly which was literally minutes after my 100m Free. Everyone was super tired because I think everyone in the 50 was also in the 100m free. I lost about .5 to 1 second off my time in Davis on this one and almost couldn't get myself out of the pool afterwards. They were a little behind on results toward the end of the meet so I won't have my exact results until they get posted online somewhere. I was also supposed to do the 100m IM but I just didn't have the energy to do well in it so I dropped it.
After the meet me and Robin went and explored Westwood a little bit and had some well deserved lunch. Tonight were off to get some Korean food and then try to find some metropolitan excitement for this evening.
If you can't tell which one is me in the pictures, look for the bald head and the farmer's tan, apparently I'm the only person in South Pacific Masters without a luggage quality tan
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Leaving for LA Tomorrow
So tomorrow after work I'm making my way towards LA so that I can swim at the master meet at UCLA on Saturday. I've made plans to couch surf again but this time with a known quantity. I know my friend Robin's place has a couch bigger than my brother's whole apartment turned out to be so there shouldn't be any emergency hotel reservations going on this time around.
Tonight I just swam, no real distance on my bike besides just going back and forth to work. In the pool I mainly focused on turns and going fast. I did a whole bunch of 25's from the middle of the pool as a sprint with a focus on the turns. I alternated between freestyle and butterfly. My flip turns are feeling really good, I just have to fight the urge to breath right off the turns. I think I sufficiently pushed myself in my workout seeing as I felt like I was going to have a stroke by the time I was done.
Hopefully I'll be able to swim a little bit at my friend's place tomorrow night to stay loose. Apparently her condo micro city has a olympic size pool somewhere. I'll try and update the blog on Saturday with my meet wrap up.
Tonight I just swam, no real distance on my bike besides just going back and forth to work. In the pool I mainly focused on turns and going fast. I did a whole bunch of 25's from the middle of the pool as a sprint with a focus on the turns. I alternated between freestyle and butterfly. My flip turns are feeling really good, I just have to fight the urge to breath right off the turns. I think I sufficiently pushed myself in my workout seeing as I felt like I was going to have a stroke by the time I was done.
Hopefully I'll be able to swim a little bit at my friend's place tomorrow night to stay loose. Apparently her condo micro city has a olympic size pool somewhere. I'll try and update the blog on Saturday with my meet wrap up.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Helmets, Bike Shorts and Burger King...
Sunday night I got about 3 hours of sleep so when I got home from the pool I pretty much fell asleep on the spot. Hence a blog post in the morning as opposed to my usually late night blogging...
Over the weekend I pretty much just took it easy and gave my body a chance to recover a little bit. I've been really busy and just needed to take a little time to chill out, plus I'm racing at UCLA this weekend again already! I did a little bit of shopping to get ready for my bike thing coming up this month. I picked up a new pair of mountain bike shorts (I don't find it particularly necessary or aesthetically pleasing to wear skintight clothing on my bike) and a helmet. Despite being disturbingly expensive I've found bike specific shorts to be entirely worth it. If you ride a lot and have never tried them, do it. Your balls will thank you. (there's a sentence I never thought I would write...) I was also required to buy a helmet for this event... I've seriously never owned one, they kind of bug me. Plus I have a big melon and it's kind of hard to find hats that fit me so I figured a helmet would be worse. The kid at the bike shop helped me pick something out and amazingly with enough adjustment it fit right on my dome. Later I went to the Bell website to read up on my purchase and the first line of their sales copy is: "Finally a good looking helmet for the extra large of head!" I'm pretty sure that they're making fun of me now... jerks :)
Anyways, despite being tired out of my mind and having a belly full of Burger Kingly goodness I made my way out to the pool right after the sun went down. I would go earlier but a big piece of my ride is straight west towards the beach and into the sun... it's a good way to get run over by people that can't see out of their windshields. Once I got to the pool I got down to business with a short workout. Normally I'd breakout my workout but I can't remember the whole thing. I made it up on the spot. Basically the important part was I made sure to mix in some butterfly action. I have to make my way through a 100 meters of it on Saturday!
So ultimately there were 10 miles on the bike and an undetermined number of yards in the pool.
Over the weekend I pretty much just took it easy and gave my body a chance to recover a little bit. I've been really busy and just needed to take a little time to chill out, plus I'm racing at UCLA this weekend again already! I did a little bit of shopping to get ready for my bike thing coming up this month. I picked up a new pair of mountain bike shorts (I don't find it particularly necessary or aesthetically pleasing to wear skintight clothing on my bike) and a helmet. Despite being disturbingly expensive I've found bike specific shorts to be entirely worth it. If you ride a lot and have never tried them, do it. Your balls will thank you. (there's a sentence I never thought I would write...) I was also required to buy a helmet for this event... I've seriously never owned one, they kind of bug me. Plus I have a big melon and it's kind of hard to find hats that fit me so I figured a helmet would be worse. The kid at the bike shop helped me pick something out and amazingly with enough adjustment it fit right on my dome. Later I went to the Bell website to read up on my purchase and the first line of their sales copy is: "Finally a good looking helmet for the extra large of head!" I'm pretty sure that they're making fun of me now... jerks :)
Anyways, despite being tired out of my mind and having a belly full of Burger Kingly goodness I made my way out to the pool right after the sun went down. I would go earlier but a big piece of my ride is straight west towards the beach and into the sun... it's a good way to get run over by people that can't see out of their windshields. Once I got to the pool I got down to business with a short workout. Normally I'd breakout my workout but I can't remember the whole thing. I made it up on the spot. Basically the important part was I made sure to mix in some butterfly action. I have to make my way through a 100 meters of it on Saturday!
So ultimately there were 10 miles on the bike and an undetermined number of yards in the pool.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Not My Best Work
I was dragging ass tonight... I just wasn't all there. I think I've been really dehydrated this week between sitting in the sun all day in Davis on Sunday and the mini heatwave we had here in town. I just couldn't drink enough water.
On the upside I did manage to talk one of my friends into coming out to the Candy Corn Classic with me later this month. The plan is to sign up for the 35 mile ride that runs through San Luis Obispo up to Morro Bay and back. It should be a good time. I'm still trying to recruit a few more people to join team Rob... it's ultra exclusive, there'll be tryouts later.
Tonight I hopped on the bike and rode out to the gym without much of a plan. My workout was pretty haphazard because I was feeling pretty crappy. I did a few 25 yard sprints that felt strong though. Now that I've finally done some short races I've gotten my feel for how "fast" feels.
Warm Up
200 free
100 breast
3 x 200 free
4 x 50 (25 kick 25 sprint)
200 free
1300 yards plus 10 miles on the bike
On the upside I did manage to talk one of my friends into coming out to the Candy Corn Classic with me later this month. The plan is to sign up for the 35 mile ride that runs through San Luis Obispo up to Morro Bay and back. It should be a good time. I'm still trying to recruit a few more people to join team Rob... it's ultra exclusive, there'll be tryouts later.
Tonight I hopped on the bike and rode out to the gym without much of a plan. My workout was pretty haphazard because I was feeling pretty crappy. I did a few 25 yard sprints that felt strong though. Now that I've finally done some short races I've gotten my feel for how "fast" feels.
Warm Up
200 free
100 breast
3 x 200 free
4 x 50 (25 kick 25 sprint)
200 free
1300 yards plus 10 miles on the bike
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