Triathlon: Off the Wagon
By kate on August 24th, 1999
The lost week
I’m embarrassed to admit I skipped a whole week of training. Sure, I have excuses – sore from soccer, busy weekend, packing for trip, traveling – but really I just got out of the habit. It’s such a mental obstacle to be out of the habit like that. I think physical obstacles are much easier to overcome. Once I start making excuses, it gets easier and easier to keep making excuses.
What finally got me going again was my big mouth. I bragged to everyone (including my website readers) that I would swim and run every day in Greece. I may be able to make excuses to myself, but when it comes to other people, I’m a real stickler for meaning what I say and living up to my promises. So I started training again.
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Triathlon: Apathy
By kate on August 16th, 1999
| Current totals: | Other: | |||
| Running | 28.9 mi / 46.51 K | Hiking | 8 mi / 12.87 K | |
| Biking | 151.8 mi / 244.30 K | Canoeing | 40 minutes | |
| Swimming | 4.6 mi / 7.37 K | Soccer | 9 games | |
Somewhere in the past week or so, my excitement about doing a triathlon has waned. It’s now a real willpower issue to keep going, although I’m doing okay. For a long time, I was excited to be doing something new, excited about my new equipment and my progress. I’m still seeing progress, but it’s not new anymore. Because of this, I skipped two days in a row this weekend. Other than that, I’ve managed to work out at least every other day, if not every day. It’s a struggle, though.
My last swim was an improvement – I did as I promised and didn’t grab the wall and push off while swimming laps. It was more of a grind, but I did fine. The total number of laps is 21 and I swam the following intervals: 5-5-11. It was better practice for the reality of open-water swimming. During the intervals, I let myself grab a few breaths if I needed it, but only while dog-paddling (not stopping or touching the bottom). I did the last half-lap on my back and realized that the backstroke is also a good way to rest and get my breath back. I still have only done eleven laps without resting. Hopefully I will be able to raise that soon.
Running is becoming much easier for me. Both in soccer and jogging, once I’m warmed up I can comfortably run without any soreness or breathlessness. This is interesting to me, and I feel like seeing how far I can go someday; just keep on running until I wear out. So far, though, I stop at one soccer game or a three-mile run.
The warm-up, however, is still tricky. While I’m in it, I’m out of breath and tired and feel like there’s no way I can finish the entire jog. It takes a good five or ten minutes of difficulty before I feel comfortable. I don’t know what I can do to improve this. For the triathlon, I’ll have to suffer my warmup during the swim, which is already going to be the hardest part.
I’ve been noticing changes in my muscle tone, especially in my thighs and rear. My weight has still not changed, which I find odd.
After reading the previous entry on my swimming woes, my mom advised me, “Part of your problem is your use of that crude term ‘suck.’ If you drop that, you’ll see how much better you do.”
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Netscape Bugs Me
By kate on August 11th, 1999
Netscape has just lost my last shred of respect. Let me start by saying that I was once a die-hard Netscape user. I resisted even trying Internet Explorer for a long time, but finally one of my Microsoft friends made me take it for a spin. Since that day, I’ve used IE for all my browsing, although at first I thought the differences between the browsers were mainly cosmetic, look-and-feel variations.
Then came some work-related Netscape frustrations (which I don’t think I’m allowed to discuss, suffice it to say Netscape crashed a lot) and I began to form a negative opinion of Netscape. Still, I didn’t cast any aspersions on Netscape users… I respect their anti-Microsoft stand even though I don’t believe in it myself.
But I can’t do that anymore because I’m too tired of all the things that are wrong with Netscape. Here is a list of my specific complaints:
Style sheets don’t entirely work. I got all excited about how easy style sheets can make web site design when I recently redesigned this site. I used a cool font (specifying a generic alternate, of course) and color, and it looked goooood. In IE, that is. I discovered later that Netscape only displays half of my tags properly. The “H1” tag works fine; font, color, size, and all. Tags like links and “H2” work partially: the links are not underlined, which is correct, but they do not change color properly. The “H2” link, on the other hand, gets the color right but does not italicize like I want. The most vexing is the “body” tag. The background color is set properly, but nothing else is. Not my font or color, not even the generic font type! (I want sans-serif, but serif is displayed.) It makes my web site look uncohesive and poorly designed, and there’s nothing I can do!
Netscape is too picky about tables. I have two beefs here. First, if you leave the “border=0” attribute out of your table tag, the grid of your table will be visible as if you had been using cellspacing. My website looked hideous (in Netscape) for over a week as I tried frantically to find out what was causing this. Here is a sample of such a table, without and with the “border=0” attribute (view with Netscape to see the difference):
| cell | cell |
| cell | cell |
My second table-related complaint is that if a table cell contains no text, it will not be displayed with the background you specify. I often use tables to position things, which uses empty cells a lot. And I have found no other way to keep those cells from being displayed wrong than to put a character in that cell that has a font color that is the same as the desired background. What a pain! Again, here is an example:
| cell |
| filler | cell |
General pickiness. IE is much more forgiving than Netscape of HTML mistakes. Forget to close a table cell, leave off the lower right cell of a table, things like that, and IE figures out what you meant to do. Netscape does not and goes strictly by the code.
Caching irritation. Netscape has a very powerful cache. By this, I mean that even after hitting “reload” (or even shift-reload), changes to a page are often still not displayed. (The cached version is displayed instead.) This makes for much added effort when one is trying to perfect a web page. I have to go in and manually empty the cache every time I want to see my changes. The only workaround to this is to set the cache to zero – but then, of course, everything loads much slower and it defeats the purpose of having a cache at all.
For all these reasons, I have stopped giving Netscape any benefit of the doubt. If you are viewing this page through Netscape, it looks nothing like I intended – do you think I would choose plain black serif text? Please, take a look in IE and see how nice my site can really look.(Update 2007: My main browser is now Mozilla Firefox.)
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Triathlon: First Lake Swim
By kate on August 9th, 1999
| Current totals: | Other: | |||
| Running | 25.9 mi / 41.68 K | Hiking | 8 mi / 12.87 K | |
| Biking | 143.3 mi / 230.62 K | Canoeing | 40 minutes | |
| Swimming | 4.1 mi / 6.60 K | Soccer | 7 games | |
I Suck
Last Saturday, I decided to get it over with and do my first open-water lake swim. (Previously, I had only trained in a pool.) My expectations for the experience were pretty low. I still have a very vivid memory of camp in fifth and sixth grade, where we were forced to swim in Hood Canal, a body of water so cold you went instantly numb and started hyperventilating. I was bracing myself for that level of cold, plus ooky seaweed, so I expected to not swim very well.
I arrived at the lake at 8am with my friend Shaula, and we met up with some other crazy people who are in a local triathlon club. They proceeded to take off and leave us in their wake. Shaula and I donned our gear and waded into the water.
At first, it was cold, but not nearly as bad as I expected. After a few minutes, it felt like a pool, temperature-wise. The “lakeness” was also bad at first, because we had to wade out on slippery stones, then swim through some seaweed that brushed the surface (and our bodies). However, once we got out a little way, the seaweed descended. At that point, it was just us and the water. The water was a bit wavy, so we’d get the occasional unexpected mouthful of water, but conditions were okay.
And I sucked. I had used my inhaler before starting out, but once we’d swum a little while, I began having asthma-type breathing problems and couldn’t catch my breath. A dock was nearby, so I climbed out of the water, walked back to where we had begun, and used my inhaler again. Shaula swam back to meet me, and we set off once more.
I never got any better. The whole time, I felt like I couldn’t catch my breath. I couldn’t sustain a swimming pace for very long before having to stop and dog-paddle to get enough air. It was miserable, and I felt like I was holding up Shaula, who was very nice about it, but could have easily swum circles around me. We ended up turning around much earlier than planned, and swimming only a little over a quarter mile.
It was a very demoralizing experience, just when I felt I had the running and biking under control. I question my ability to swim a half mile in a lake at all, let alone without resting. Now I’m afraid of the swimming segment.
I think, though, that I chose a good time to do my first lake swim. If I had done it toward the beginning of my training, it would have been bad enough that I would have seriously considered giving up. At this point, with some training under my belt, I know I just need to work a lot harder to get myself up to par. I’m glad I got it out of the way, though, because I was feeling just a little too confident in my swimming ability. I have enough time now to redouble my efforts and try to get in some more lake swims.
To punish myself for the poor swim on Saturday, I pushed myself harder than ever at the pool yesterday. My longest between rests was three laps – yesterday I swam ten laps at a time, which is half the entire distance. I did it without much trouble, but now I know that pool swimming is very different from lake swimming so I didn’t let it get to my head. My strategy now is to do a lot of pool swimming (more often than I used to), until I’m simply a stronger swimmer. And hopefully, that will have a positive impact on my lake swimming. One thing I didn’t do yesterday was lessen my dependence on the wall at the end of each lap – I still used it to grab a breath or two and push off. I really need to stop that.
I also ran 2.5 miles yesterday, which makes it my first swim/run workout. I did okay, and even added a sprint at the end of the run (something I don’t usually do).
Equipment-wise, I found a Speedo swimsuit at Costco for $21! It retails for $46, so it was a good bargain. It worked well yesterday when I swam in it for the first time. I also bought some clear glasses to wear when riding my bike in the evening. The bugs can be very thick and I have been squinting to keep them out of my eyes.
(Check my cost entry to see what I spent.)
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Triathlon: Sixth Week Review
By kate on August 5th, 1999
| Current totals: | Other: | |||
| Running | 23.4 mi / 37.66 K | Hiking | 8 mi / 12.87 K | |
| Biking | 128.2 mi / 206.32 K | Canoeing | 40 minutes | |
| Swimming | 3.3 mi / 5.38 K | Soccer | 6 games | |
Equipment trouble and brain training
I had a very frightening experience last week. I went swimming with a brand-new pair of goggles, and when I got out of the pool, one of my eyes had hazy vision! Apparently, there was some gunk that was on the inside of the goggles, and when it got wet, it got in my eye. I called my company’s nurseline and the nurse advised me to rinse my eye with water. Twenty unpleasant minutes later, my eye was still hazy, and I was afraid the haze was permanent. On the nurse’s advice, I went to a local Urgent Care clinic and saw a doctor. He examined my eye and put in some ointment, which helped. He told me it didn’t look like there was any real damage. The next day, my eye was mostly better, and was fine by the day after that. Still, now I’m going to stick with the old (safe) goggles for the time being. I still need a new swimsuit, with a racer back, but I am balking at how much they cost.
Because I’m so bored by jogging, I bought a tune belt and brought my CD player along on a jog. I was surprised to hear it skipping like crazy, despite its 10-second buffer. I was very annoyed! And, I had already started on my jog, so I had to complete the (3-mile) run with this useless piece of hardware strapped to my back. I’m going to exchange my tune belt for one that fits a tape player and try that next time.
Upon the advice of some friends, I bought road tires for my (mountain) bike. I had been told that riding with mountain wheels adds up to 15% extra required effort. I doubted this, but decided to get the wheels anyway, and was pleasantly surprised! It really does significantly reduce the amount of effort it takes to ride, and now I’m riding faster and easier.
Last week, I attended a seminar for first-time triathletes. It was very helpful, and gave me a good, concrete idea of what to expect on race day. There will be a big “transition area” where you get a spot to put all your stuff. You return there after each section, and begin the next section from there. We were told about how the start of the race will be staggered, and got tips on how to survive the initial rush.
At the seminar, I learned that a “brick” is a bike/run workout, and had my first two this week. I found I actually enjoy putting those two sports together, because they work different muscles (for me, at least). Biking works my quads the most, and running works my calves. When I bike before running, it warms me up well and stretches my calves, which makes running easier. I have started to get used to running a 3-mile distance. I’ve used the same section of trail three times now, and each time it seems to go by faster. (My actual time is about the same, but mentally it’s easier.) My muscles are adjusting to the amount of effort it takes and not getting so tired. I’m trying to do some of my workouts with people since I have realized it makes a big difference. Not only does it make the time go faster, but you push yourself more than you might alone.
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Eye Surgery: Entry Five
By kate on July 25th, 1999
The first two days after the surgery were a haze of blurriness, tired eyes, and light sensitivity. I could only do things for a short amount of time before my eyes got tired. It was difficult, because my mind was restless and there wasn’t much I could do (read, use the computer, etc.) because of my eyes. Steve bought me some cassettes of old radio shows that helped to occupy my mind during my recovery.
Three days after my surgery, I went to my eye doctor, who removed the bandage contacts. That was a relief because they had contributed to eye fatigue and dryness. I could see for the first time that my vision was very sharp, although some blurriness remained. I took an entire week off of work and convalesced at my parents’ house, enjoying homecooked meals and loving care. By the end of the week, the blurriness wore off and I thrilled at my new 20/15 vision.
My vision stayed at 20/15 for almost a month before settling somewhere between 20/15 and 20/20. I didn’t mind the slight decline because I don’t think I had even 20/20 with my contacts, so everything still looks sharper than it used to. I experienced a few fluctuations, days where my vision would get a bit blurry, but that has stopped now and I have consistently sharp vision.
In addition to visual acuity, another gain is my improved night vision. With contacts, I saw big haloes and starbursts around lights. After the surgery, it didn’t go away immediately, but by now it’s almost completely gone.
Since the surgery, I have been on an eye drop regimen. At first, there were three different kinds of drops that had to be taken several times a day. It tapered down, and now I take one kind of drop twice a day. It may be a few more months before I can stop completely, but I don’t mind.
I was surprised at how anti-climactic my new vision was. I was anticipating it so excitedly, but when I finally had good vision, I felt very calm about it. I think that a lot of that is because during the day, I’d have been wearing contacts, and so it just looked like I was wearing them. I had moments of excitement, though, in places where I usually couldn’t see: the shower, getting out of bed in the morning. I was, of course, always very glad I did it, but on a day-to-day basis, it was less exciting than I expected.
As the months go by, though, I find myself more jazzed about it. I’ll look at a distant treeline and admire the sharpness of each branch. I enjoy the extra time each morning that I no longer spend on my eyes. When I do things like swimming or river rafting, I’m very grateful for my new vision. I’m looking forward to ending the eye drops so I can completely forget about my eyes.
Since my surgery, I’ve noticed the prices are dropping. People ask if I’m mad I didn’t wait. Honestly, I’m not mad; I’ve already gotten a lot of benefit out of my new vision, and when I think that $2100 gave me good distance vision for the rest of my life, I don’t mind at all.
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