Internal Mono(b)log

In case you can’t tell, I’m pretty excited about my swim this morning.

I’d hit the pool planning on just a long, easy effort. 4k, no drills other than watching technique. 1.5 hrs.. Did tempo drills on Wednesday and am going for VO2max testing with Ian MacLean on Sunday morning, so I figured a nice leisurely swim before my Saturday rest day would be a good way to end the week.

It was not to be the case, but I couldn’t be happier.

You see, on Wednesday, when I was doing my tempo drills, I had a few lengths (short short intervals) where, I felt like I was just flying through the water. That as fast as my arms and body could move, that’s how fast I’d go. I just getting faster, and faster and faster. Until I slammed into the end of the pool, lost the rhythm and had to start over again. (Have I mentioned how much I’m looking forward to swimming outside?!). Not really knowing what had happened, or what I was doing differently, I just accepted the fluke, marvelled at it a bit, and continued swimming.

Well, today.. about 1km into my swim, I think I figured out what was going on on Wednesday and managed to string it together. OMG! I was flying! I discovered that I was, in essence, doing the equivalent of a “heel strike” in the water. I have had a deadspot in my stroke during the recovery, where I was just coasting through the water, essentially negating any forward momentum I’d built up with my last stroke. This morning on figuring this out, I started working on making my stroke consistently paced throughout the entire stroke/recovery/stroke/recovery cycle and the difference was intense. My speed jumped almost 2x: swimmers who I’d normally outpace in 3/4 of a lap, I was catching in less than a length (< 18m). I even know how I got to the "in water heel strike" problem. You may recall me touting Total Immersion swimming technique. It’s great! Very efficient and there’s a lot of youtube videos and stuff on their website to help you sort out your technique. One of the drills is basically working the recovery, extension and rotation aspects of the technique. I think I latched onto that drill to hard and never strung each side of the drill gracefully together (until Wednesday and now today). Hurray!

This discovery is also, a little (but not much really) bitter-sweet. I’m already, typically, the fastest person in the fast lane (and I’m not fast), so when there are 3 or more swimmers sharing a lane, I’m constantly in someone’s toes. If they don’t let me pass and the end of the length, I either have to move through my stroke very slowly (which re-enforces the poor technique I’m trying to fix), change to a breast stroke (sure it’s exercise, but not particularly useful for my training meh) or just wait for them to get a length ahead of me so that I can catch them again and repeat. (Have I mentioned how much I’m looking forward to swimming outside?!).

Also, the lack of the “coast” section of the stroke raised my perceived effort a bit, makes sense I guess: no little micro rest built into each stroke. So I’ll have a new effort hurdle to break-down. No problem, kinda fun actually.

I hopped out of the pool after 2km (40 minutes, a lot spent waiting), while I was still pretty fresh and had been working my new-found technique pretty consistently for several lengths. I wanted to stop before I got fatigued so that my body would hopefully develop some good patterning from the discovery.

I may head back to the pool later today to do another few 2-4km just to better ingrain my new discovery. I’m so psyched! Can I balance this, with my need for some downtime prior to Sunday’s testing. I guess we’ll see… I guess we’ll see. 🙂

Whoa! These look like some seriously cool wheels: http://triathlon.competitor.com/2010/12/gear-tech/introducing-madfiber-wheels_17696

Almost 2x as expensive as my street bike, but pretty innovative use of carbonfiber!

When my swim lap counts started to get into large double digits, I found too much mental effort was being spent trying to keep track of the current count, and not enough was left to focus on technique. I also found that if I got distracted I’d loose count and over/under count laps. Kinda dumb I know, but frustrating too.

My initial solution was to use my Timex Ironman watch – it has a 50 lap memory, but will count over 100 laps (never exhausted it to see where it stops counting). So at the end of each lap, I’d reach over and hit the lap button, spin around and keep swimming. Cumbersome, but it worked.

I recently had the opportunity to pickup a Blue SportCount Combination Lap Counter/Timer. This is a smart little device that sits on your index finger and has a super simple interface that allows you to click-up laps with your thumb and not lose your rhythm or flow.

The SportCount is great! It does exactly what you’d want, it’s so light and well positioned you can’t even really tell it’s there. The lap button provides a nice click response to let you know it’s pressed. I’m generally pretty happy with the blue model, but, in hindsight wish that I’d grabbed the red model. There’s a comparison chart here.

The red provides you with a “pause” function, which when you need to run for a bio break or some other extended stop, doesn’t artificially extend your times.

Definitely worth every penny.

As my swimming training sessions started getting longer and longer, I started to find the silence and wooshing of water, while generally calming, to be somewhat monotonous and, on a bad day, boring or tedious.

Knowing that some smart person out there had likely solved this problem, I started looking for waterproof mp3 players or waterproof headphones and cases for existing players I may have.

My research led me to the Finis Swimp3.1

The Swimp3 is a 1G mp3 player that delivers sound to your auditory nerve via bone conduction through bones in your skull. Compared to many other solutions in the space, the swimp3 is pretty small and streamlined. There is no arm-band or big clunky tube that you hide behind your head. Everything is contained in the 2 pods that attach to your mask-strap. In the air, with all the other sound pollution, they’re virtually inaudible. However, with earplugs in and your face in the water, the sound is surprisingly good. Bass response is, perhaps, a little less than would be desired (I tend to listen to dance music when swimming and some of the driving beat is missing), but still very listenable and enjoyable.

The only negative thing I’d say about the swimp3 is that the user-feedback for commands is a little weak. Different flashes of a single green led imply power-on/off, playing, standby, charging, charged. A multi-colour led or more distinctive flash patterns would help the user ensure that the unit was actually turned off (and not in standby-draining the battery). Some way to check the charge status, other than plugging it in to charge, would also be a great addition.

Generally, I’m pretty happy with my swimp3. I’d definitely buy it again having found nothing better on the market.

It’s unfortunate that triathlon rules prohibit use of mp3 players anytime during the race. I understand why, but since the swimp3 doesn’t plug your ears (and many swimmers swim with earplugs anyhow), it seems like a rule that needs review 😉

I recently had the opportunity to pickup a pair of Yurbuds. I saw them advertised on some a tri training site (sorry I don’t recall which), but the link took me to Yurbuds page where there are youtube videos of people trying to shake the buds out of their ears (without success).

This seemed pretty compelling to me, but before I parted with my money, I’d have to try it myself. Well, the ads are true, these buds ROCK! They are everything an athlete would want from an earbud: they’re comfortable, they don’t fall out – no really!, they’re water/sweat resistant and they sound great!

I’m so happy that I found these and had the chance to try them out. I’ve run, cycled and weight trained in my yurbuds and they’ve never even wiggled in my ears, never mind falling out. I imagine they’d be good bouldering too.

Thanks Yurbuds! These earbuds are amazing!

Jonathan Schwartz (Sun’s CEO) has a great blog entry on the power of the brand:

I spent a good portion of a weekend a few weeks ago with a customer that was having a quality problem. There’s no point in going in to the nature of the customer or the problem, but suffice it to say it was a bad problem, and by far and away the most expensive kind: one that put the customer’s brand at risk. For those that deliver service via the network (or free software), brand is all you’ve got. It’s not an asset, it becomes the asset.

The whole blog entry is great and [available here](http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/entry/what_service_means_to_me)

Those of you who know me know that I’m somewhat of a geek, a ham radio operator, and definitely a lover of toys.

For my birthday, [Kim](www.eyecanseethat.com) got me a [RC Helicopter](http://www.e-fliterc.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=EFLH1300) and it’s great fun and a big challenge. I’ve only put about 3 hours on it trying to get a hover going in my dining room – suffice it to say, I’ve spent more time repairing the Heli than flying it due to my space restrictions. I’m either going to have to grow some patience or find a large indoor place to play.

Anyhow… 🙂

Found this on the net today: a great convergence of remote controlled aircraft, radio technology and virtual reality goggles.

Check out [this link](http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9091545735215129742).

I haven’t rented apartments for over a decade, but [Kim](http://www.eyecanseethat.com/) and I are thinking that at some point our current home (built as a duplex, but currently a single family dwelling), may someday become an income property.

[O’Reilly Radar](http://radar.oreilly.com/) [posted](http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/10/rentometer.html) a link to the [rentometer](http://www.rentometer.com/) which is a pretty nice mashup for seeing if the rent you’re paying is higher or lower than the comparable rents in the area.

Pretty sweet.

I’ve always wanted an RC airplane or RC helicopter. I had a COX airplane when I was a kid, but never got the chance to fly it – my Dad took me out to show me how it was done – the plane left the ground and came down hard, never to fly again.

Anyhow, as a teen, I pursued my pilot’s license and glider license, but that’s long past and still I have the desire to fly by wire.

[This](http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7239242995971908820) guy has it all sorted out – fly by wire but see from the perspective of the RC airplane. NICE!

The new reality of server co-location is that electricity is the tightest commodity going. More precious than bandwidth or floorspace.

Sun has been meeting this challenge head-on, and more power to them for the effort.

Now [California offers rebates for deploying coolthreads servers](http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/jonathan?entry=putting_a_chill_on_the).