I was always very proud to say I learned to swim before the age of two (thanks mom!).
I remember, kicking on that board as hard as I could and all those drills that everyone who has been to the standard swimming lessons is familiar with. For many years I swam using those skills that they taught me and what I considered to be the 'universal truth' about swimming.
When we moved to Singapore we landed at a very nice condo that had an awesome pool. We started swimming some laps with my good friend Rob. It was already too long since I have swam on a regular basis so 4 or 5 laps was good enough to get my heartbeat going like on a rave party. I was able to get a little better and do 10 or 15 laps. This was a 25 meter pool so it wasn't bad but it wasn't great either.
One day Rob, who found himself getting pretty exhausted after every workout, found this post from Tim Ferris about how he defeated his fear for swimming and how he learned a method developed by Terry Laughlin called Total Immersion. I didn't pay too much attention at the time since, I already knew how to swim!
Months later somehow I bumped again into the Total Immersion deal. This time I dug into it and it really caught my attention. There are a few videos out there on youtube that I found pretty illustrative. I decided to give it a go and it was the best thing I've done since I discovered cheesecake! Well, not really, I've luckily done quite exciting things since but anyway it was a pretty cool discovery!
I went through the process of relearning what many years of swimming classes have built into my muscle memory. It was not that hard for the most part and even though I am not quite there yet I saw huge improvement within a few times at the pool.
In a couple of days I will be taking part of my third triathlon this year, second Olympic distance, and even if I haven't trained as hard as I could I feel pretty confident that I will enjoy the 1.5km swim.
(Note to myself: I am taking the risk of posting this before the race starts, so don't you dare to drown!).
2010 is for Triathlon
Note: I haven't kept up with my promise and this post has been on the draft section of my blog for quite some time now. The guilt was growing bigger so finally here it is.
After quite some time (years) of playing around with the idea of doing a triathlon I have finally done it! To date I've done an Olympic and a Sprint. In 7 weeks I'll be doing another Olympic.
Last February 2010 I finally decided to sign up for a local triathlon (OSIM international triathlon Singapore 2010) along with a few friends from work. I haven't been as active as I wanted to be so this was a great opportunity to force myself into it. I've read many times that the best way to force you into training is to sign up for an event. Then fear will help you with the motivation to train. My friends were inspiring all the way and made it a fun process.
I had 10 weeks to be ready for it. I needed to be able to:
1. Swim 1.5km in less than 50 minutes (before the cut-off time)
2. Cycle 40kms - which I knew I could do although I didn't own a bike and,
3. Run 10km - hopefully pain free
The only bit I was a afraid of was swimming that distance. I haven't been swimming long distances. Jumping once in a while and swimming 5 or 6 laps in a 25m pool didn't feel like a big starting point. Nonetheless it was a start. My technique was somewhat good and it would be just a matter of time to increase the distance... or so I thought.
I started hitting the pool 3 times a week. I bought a city/path Trek FX 7.2 bike and I did not train for running that much. Most Sundays I play fútbol anyways. My only concern was to run injury free for all the distance.
I was most worried about the swim. I was getting tired way fast and 1.5k was looking hard to achieve within the time I had before the race. So I did some more serious research and talked with a few friends about training and skills. Not that I was thinking to go very serious about the sport but I needed to be prepared enough to at least complete it.
A friend of mine once told me about Total Immersion when he was trying to improve his swimming. This time I dug into it and it was gold! I learned to swim at age two but thirty one years later I started to unlearn a few things and learn how to glide through the water! I saw progress quite fast and my biggest fear was vanishing the more I trained.
I cycled 21km to work twice a week. It was not easy on certain days but I enjoyed it so much. I felt it will go slow but steady and I was not worried.
Finally, running was less of a worry except for a common running injury called Iliotibial band syndrome that I was suffering every time I hit the 7k or 8k. I went to the doctor, practiced yoga, did strength training, bought a strap that went around my knee, but noting worked. Then I found about bare feet running. This saved my life. No more pain and I love to run more than ever before.
So after 10 weeks race day came. It was tough! The cycling was the toughest for me but I partly - a very small part - attribute that to the 35ºC and 98% humidity!
Overall it was fun and a good challenge. I did pretty good for my first event. The next week I signed up for the Tribob Triathlon which was held in April. The one coming up is October 3rd. I think I'm a bit hooked now!
After quite some time (years) of playing around with the idea of doing a triathlon I have finally done it! To date I've done an Olympic and a Sprint. In 7 weeks I'll be doing another Olympic.
Last February 2010 I finally decided to sign up for a local triathlon (OSIM international triathlon Singapore 2010) along with a few friends from work. I haven't been as active as I wanted to be so this was a great opportunity to force myself into it. I've read many times that the best way to force you into training is to sign up for an event. Then fear will help you with the motivation to train. My friends were inspiring all the way and made it a fun process.
I had 10 weeks to be ready for it. I needed to be able to:
1. Swim 1.5km in less than 50 minutes (before the cut-off time)
2. Cycle 40kms - which I knew I could do although I didn't own a bike and,
3. Run 10km - hopefully pain free
The only bit I was a afraid of was swimming that distance. I haven't been swimming long distances. Jumping once in a while and swimming 5 or 6 laps in a 25m pool didn't feel like a big starting point. Nonetheless it was a start. My technique was somewhat good and it would be just a matter of time to increase the distance... or so I thought.
I started hitting the pool 3 times a week. I bought a city/path Trek FX 7.2 bike and I did not train for running that much. Most Sundays I play fútbol anyways. My only concern was to run injury free for all the distance.
I was most worried about the swim. I was getting tired way fast and 1.5k was looking hard to achieve within the time I had before the race. So I did some more serious research and talked with a few friends about training and skills. Not that I was thinking to go very serious about the sport but I needed to be prepared enough to at least complete it.
A friend of mine once told me about Total Immersion when he was trying to improve his swimming. This time I dug into it and it was gold! I learned to swim at age two but thirty one years later I started to unlearn a few things and learn how to glide through the water! I saw progress quite fast and my biggest fear was vanishing the more I trained.
I cycled 21km to work twice a week. It was not easy on certain days but I enjoyed it so much. I felt it will go slow but steady and I was not worried.
Finally, running was less of a worry except for a common running injury called Iliotibial band syndrome that I was suffering every time I hit the 7k or 8k. I went to the doctor, practiced yoga, did strength training, bought a strap that went around my knee, but noting worked. Then I found about bare feet running. This saved my life. No more pain and I love to run more than ever before.
So after 10 weeks race day came. It was tough! The cycling was the toughest for me but I partly - a very small part - attribute that to the 35ºC and 98% humidity!
Overall it was fun and a good challenge. I did pretty good for my first event. The next week I signed up for the Tribob Triathlon which was held in April. The one coming up is October 3rd. I think I'm a bit hooked now!
I think I'm back
It has been a while since the last post. Two years or so since I last wandered around here. Facebook and Twitter have taken my blogging time. But they are not the same.
It is true is that time flies when you are having fun. I've done so many things and, yet, there a many that I'm still want to do. I guess one of those was to write again this lonely blog. I figured that is a good tool to keep some thoughts handy. I like the idea of going a couple of years back and see what I was up to. Hopefully it will also let me share with friends some cool stuff I've ran into my life lately.
Today I feel like blogging once again. The plan is to post once a week at least. Let's see how that goes. There are many updates to write about and perfect subjects for the next posts. The next one in a week.
It is true is that time flies when you are having fun. I've done so many things and, yet, there a many that I'm still want to do. I guess one of those was to write again this lonely blog. I figured that is a good tool to keep some thoughts handy. I like the idea of going a couple of years back and see what I was up to. Hopefully it will also let me share with friends some cool stuff I've ran into my life lately.
Today I feel like blogging once again. The plan is to post once a week at least. Let's see how that goes. There are many updates to write about and perfect subjects for the next posts. The next one in a week.
Milestone
Today I realized that I had completed 250 kilometers since I started logging my runs. I got this poster thingy which is of course is more a marketing tool than a motivating thing but here it is anyway.
The race is 2 weeks ago and for some reason I am not feeling very confident about it. But according to the program that is supposed to be happening since the peak period should happen at the race and not weeks before.
After that race I will be running a half marathon. It is just a week after (Sept 7th). This one I am a bit more nervous about.
one hundred
Being back from the couch is feeling good so far. Running is going good but now I read about a website and I thought I should use the momentum and try to follow a training program for doing one hundred push ups. I think it is an interesting concept of just throwing a challenge in the web and see what happens. Apparently there has been a good response. I made the initial test and was able to do fifteen. Not bad for a couch potato but then again not even close for what I want. Give it a try if you want. Yesterday was only my second day into this and I can already see it is not gonna be a piece of cake. Will see.
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