Get Fit Durham

or as I like to call it, sticking it to Bill Bell. The mayor of Durham has initiated an 8 week fitness contest that I decided to participate in, sponsored by the LA boxing where I train. Participants take a free fitness evaluation, have 8 weeks to "get fit", and then take another fitness evaluation. The winners are those whose fitness scores improve the most over the 8 week period. Being that I already do my fair share of exercise (like the pope says his fair share of prayers) I didn't think I had any chance of winning. But the evaluation contains a lot of free, valuable information so I decided to give it a shot. My results fell into 3 categories:

Excellent:


Overall, my initial fitness score was the highest out of all the contest participants and also higher than anyone who had taken the test at my boxing gym since it opened. My results in many of these areas were off the women's charts.


Pushups (not the girly kind): 40 in 1 min
Crunches: 80 in 1 min
Situps: 49 in 1 min
Bench press: 145 lbs
VO2 submax: 48 milliliteres per minute


Average:
My body fat was 28%, well within the healthy range for women, but I was told it's a little high for "someone as fit as me."
My pulse was 67 beats a minute. Again, not a bad number, but a little high for "someone like me."



Scary. Why aren't I dead yet?:
Blood pressure was not part of the fitness score, but it's something that the contest monitors to make sure that participants are getting fit safely. My blood pressure was a whopping 164/104!! Holy Hypertension, Batman! Why on earth was it so high? I've been eating healthily and my job is pretty peachy. True, my dad and grandma developed hypertension later in life but not at the ripe age of 28! What was going on? Would I even be able to pass a physical to get clearance to swim the channel? I knew that this was something I needed to get under control ASAP.


**** Warning - the following section mentions "ladies issues" and may not be appropriate for male readers not in touch with their feminine side****

I wondered if my blood pressure might be artificially high due to a visit from my reliable Aunt Flow. See, I can usually tell when I'm about to get my period because I'll gain about 4 lbs all of a sudden. Sure enough, such was the case the morning of the evaluation. Wouldn't all that extra bloat increase my blood volume and therefore my blood pressure? I'll be curious to see what my blood pressure is like the next time my annoying relative makes a visit.

Bloat nonewithstanding, I knew my blood pressure shouldn't be as high as it was. I bought a home monitor and started reading the book The Blood Pressure Cure: 8 Weeks to Lower Blood Pressure without Prescription Drugs. A lot of the advice in my book was things I was already doing - exercise, not smoking, avoiding stress, not acting like a raging bitch, limiting saturated fat, etc. But, I found out, there was a lot more I could be doing, especially in the area of diet. After reading the book, I made the following changes:

- Cut out diet soda (I went from about 7 a day to 0, overnight). This temporarily made it hard to follow other blood pressure lowering recommendations (namely not acting like a raging bitch). But, after staying clean for 3 weeks now, my caffeine cravings are subsiding and I'm no longer acting like someone who might eat babies.
- Balance my electrolytes. I cut way back on sodium and increased my intake of the other electrolytes. I'm taking calcium and magnesium supplements and sprinkling potassium chloride on food.
- Take enough supplements to recession-proof GNC. I have added the following supplements to my diet, all of which have been found to lower blood pressure by several points: Fish oil, coenyme Q10, folic acid, melatonin, arginine, grape seed extract, and tomato extract.


The result? After 3 weeks, but blood pressure is way down. I've been checking it at different times of the day and it usually ranges from 115/75 to 139/90. Still a little higher than I'd like, but I shouldn't keel over anytime soon.


More scary news - Jason and I hosted our annual Halloween party last weekend. Here are a few of my favorite costumes:

Amie, the swine flu

Yogi, a skunk

Karen, a skull set. The scariest costume by far!

Me, a boxer. Not a successfule boxer, but a boxer nonetheless!

Week 44: Recovery
Mon: swim 4500 yds, 1 hr kickboxing, run 3 mi
Tues: swim 4800, 1 hr boxing
Wed: swim 5600, 1 hr kickboxing, run 4 mi
Thurs: swim 5300, 1 hr boxing, run 4 mi
Fri: 1 hr kickboxing
Sat: rest
Sun: 3200
Total: swim 23, 200, 5 hrboxing/kickboxing, run 11 mi


Week 43:
Mon: swim 5200, run 5 mi
Tues: swim 5100, 1 hr boxing, run 3 mi
Wed: swim 5299, 1 hr kickboxing
Thurs: swim 5000, 1 hr boxing, run 5 mi
Fri: swim 4700, 1 hr kickboxing
Sat: run 4.5 mi, 1hr boxing
Sun: swim 4000, run 5 mi, 1 hrboxing
Total: swim 29,200, 6hr boxing/kickboxing, run 22.5 mi


Week 42:
Mon: swim 4500, 1 hrkickboxing, run 3 mi
Tues: swim 4800, 1 hrkickboxing
Wed: swim 5600, 1 hrkickboxing, run 4mi
Thurs: swim 5300, run 4 mi, 1 hr boxing
Fri: 1 hr kickboxing
Sat: rest
Sun: swim 3200
Total: swim 23,200, 5 hr boxing/kickboxing, run 11 mi

Feeling nipply...

These past few weeks have been light on swimming, heavy on fun. Since open water season is now over and I don't have any races for a while, I've let my yardage slip a little. There have been lots of other fun things going on like:

A white water rafting trip...

Karen Fritchie and me

Me, Billy, Jessica, and Josh

Me

Jimmy and Whitney's wedding...

Sarah Hoffman, me, David Hoffman

And a visit from my mom:






With fall upon us, I've also begun my cold water training. (Ok, so far, it's only really been cool water training, but close enough). The best news is that I've found a cold water training buddy! I absolutely hate to swim alone, and I was dreading that even more than swimming in the cold. But, it turns out my teammate Sean George is training to do an Alcatraz swim in San Francisco next summer and needs to start cold water training as well. Jason is also pleased with this arrangement, since now that I have company that means he doesn't have to come to the quarry every weekend to make sure I don't get hypothermia.

Sean checking the water temp

Last weekend, I swam 4,000 yards in 67 degree water (air temp 50). So far, so good. My core stayed warm, although my skin felt a little cold the whole time.

Week 41:
Mon: swim 5300, 1 hi kickboxing, run 3mi
Tues: swim 5100, 1 hr boxing
Wed: swim 5200, 1 hr kickboxing, run 6 mi
Thurs: swim 3300, 1 hr boxing, run 5 mi
Fri: swim 5600, 1 hr kickboxing
Sat: swim 4000 in
Sun: rest
Total: swim 28,500 yds, 5 hr boxing/kickboxing, run 18 mi


Week 40:
Mon: swim 5200, 1 hr kickboxing, run 3 mi
Tues: swim 5200, 1 hr boxing, run 3 mi
Wed: swim 5200, 1 hr kickboxing, run 3 mi
Thurs: swim 3100, 1 hr boxing, run 5mi
Fri: rest
Sat: 1 hr boxing, run 4 mi
Sun: 1 hr boxing, swim 4000, run 6mi


Week 39:
Mon: swim 2000 yds, 1 hr boxing
Tues: swim 5300, 1 hr boxing, run 4 mi
Wed: swim 5700, 1 hr kickboxing, run 3 mi
Thurs: swim 4900, 1 hr boxing, run 4 mi
Fri: 1 hr kickboxing
Sat: 4 hr white water rafting!
Sun: run 7mi
Total: swim 17,900, 5 hr boxing/kickboxing, run 18 mi

Smith Mountain Lake 5K

This weekend was my last open water race of the season, the Smith Mountain Lake 5K. The weather couldn't have been more miserable - cold, wet, and very rainy. When we left Durham, the weather was sunny and pleasant so I packed for warm weather -mostly shorts, t-shirts, and sandals. So when Virginia greeted us with very cold rain, I was unprepared. The one sweater, towel, and pair of jeans that I packed were very quickly and thoroughly soaked! With nothing to do but stand around in the freezing rain, I got in the water early for an extra long warmup.

Maybe the extra warmup paid off because I swam what might have been my best race of the season. For most of the distance, I swam in a pack of about 12 fast, buff, and very aggressive high school boys. I don't remember ever swimming with a group so willing to wack and be wacked. The boys were fast, but they were clearly pool swimmers without a lot of open water experience. Navigation is generally a weakness of mine, but not today! For once I felt like I was cutting a straighter line than my competitors.

I ended up placing 2nd out of the women. Even better, my time of 1:05 was my 5K PR. Heidi also swam a very fast time of 1:08 and checked with the officials to see how accurate the course was, and they assured her that the course had been measured by a laser.

I'm a little bummed that this was my last open water race of the season, especially since this means it's time for me to start phase 3 of my channel training - cold water swimming. Yuck! (Phase 1 was building a base, phase 2 was building speed, and phase 4, beginning in January, will be building mega amounts of endurance). All this racing this year has been fun and a good way to guage how my training is going. It's been a few years since I've raced in a pool, but I'm tempted to do some pool meets this winter to tide me over until open water starts again!

Week 38

Mon: swim 5700, 1 hr kickboxing, run 3 mi

Tues: swim 2200, 1 hr boxing

Wed: swim 5100, 1 hr kickboxing, run 3 mi

Thurs: swim 5000, 1 hr boxing, run 5 mi

Fri: rest

Sat: swim 7200

Sun: swim 4200, run 5 mi

Total: swim 29, 400, run 16 mi, 4 hr boxing/kickboxing

Pier 2 Pier swim

Last weekend was the Wilmington Pier 2 Pier race, a 1.71 mile race between 2 piers in Wrightsville Beach. This a big, fast race, one of my favorites each year. There are always a couple of college teams there as well as very fast local age group teams, so the field is generally fierce. I was very happy with my time of 35:35 even though I did not place over all.

I won my age group, and Erik Crankshaw, Kacie Wallace, and Billy Su won age group awards as well. Here are some pictures from the race:

Me

Kacie and "Tom in the morning"

Billy and Kacie

Erik

Today, I borrowed Erik Crankshaw (above) from Duke Aquatics, in order to attempt Danielle's infamous test set of doom. As with walking into creepy old attics, swimming this set is not something that should ever be done alone or, for that matter, on Halloween. Thankfully, Erik proved to be good, fast company.

The set is composed of 40x100 yds, swum continuously on rotating intervals. Danielle has a very nice, colorful interval grid to go along with the set, but I lack the technical know-how to post that in my blog. But this was the gist of the set:



4x100 on 1:25, 3x100 on 1:20, 2x100 on 1:15, 1x100 on 1:10
1x100 on 1:25, 4x100 on 1:20, 3x100 on 1:15, 2x100 on 1:10
2x100 on 1:25, 1x100 on 1:20, 4x100 on 1:15, 3x100 on 1:10
3x100 on 1:25, 2x100 on 1:20, 1x100 on 1:15, 4x100 on 1:10



Erik made the set without a hitch (he might disagree with me, but he didn't look very tired afterward). I was able to get through the first 27 without a problem, but thereafter I was just a little too slow on the 1:10 intervals (usually coming in around 1:11). I want to try the set again in a few months and hope that I will be able to make it then!



Week 37
Mon: swim 4800 yds, 1 hr kickboxing
Tues: swim 5000, 1 hr boxing, run 5 mi
Wed: swim 5600, 1 hr kickboxing, run 3 mi
Thurs: swim 5200, 1 hr boxing, run 3 mi
Fri: swim 4600
Sat: run 5 mi, 1 hr boxing
Sun: swim 6600, 1 hr boxing, run 5 mi
Total: swim 31,800 yds, run 21 mi, 6 hr boxing/kickboxing



Week 36:
Mon: swim 5300, 1 hr kickboxing, run 3 mi
Tues: swim 5000, 1 hr boxing
Wed: swim 5000, 1 hr kickboxing, run 4 mi
Thurs: swim 5500, 1 hr boxing, run 3 mi
Fri: rest
Sat: swim 4200
Sun: swim 5200, run 5 mi, 1 hr boxing
Total: swim 30,200 yds, 5 hr boxing/kickboxing, run 15 mi

Nuclear swim

Last weekend was the 3rd race in the inaugural Triangle Open Water series, a 1 mi swim in Harris Lake (near the nuclear plant). While the water tasted midly of uranium, it was a fun, well-organized event. It was a big race for a first time event and it reached its cap of 250 entrants.

With so many people, the race organizers split us into 2 waves, with the men starting several minutes ahead of the women. I didn't like not seeing where the male leaders were or having to weave through the pack of men as the female leaders caught up, but there was a bright side to starting behind - there was always plenty of feet ahead of me, so it was nearly impossible to get lost!

I came out of the water first out of the women. Heidi Williams finished very soon after, placing 3rd. We didn't know how we placed overall, until they posted the results. I was very surprised that I had placed first overall! The rest of DAMA did very well too - Jessica Proud, Matt McElwee, Matt Davis, Mary Anna Hovey, and Sandra McKinnon all placed in their age groups.

Game face

Heidi's finish

Heidi and I cooling down

In other news....

Yes, the summer is now over for me and it's back to the real world. While I didn't sell any sea shells, I had almost unlimited time over the summer for channel training. Now it's back to work for me and squeezing everything in is going to be much more difficult!

Week 35:

Mon: swim 5600 yds, 1 hr kickboxing, run 4 mi

Tues: swim 6200, 1 hr boxing

Wed: swim 5500, 1 hr kickboxing, run 4 mi

Thurs: swim 5000, 1 hr boxing, run 4 mi

Fri: swim 4200, 1 hr kickboxing

Sat: 1 hr boxing, run 5 mi

Sun: swim 4500, 1 hr boxing, run 5 mi

Total: swim 31,000, 7 hr boxing/kickboxing, run 22 mi

Week 34:

Mon: swim 6,000 yds, 1 hr kickboxing

Tues: swim 5200, 1 hr boxing, run 3 mi

Wed: swim 4000, 1 hr kickboxing, run 3 mi

Thurs: 1 hr boxing, swim 4700

Fri: swim 1900, run 3 mi

Sat: run 5 mi

Sun: swim 4500, run 5 mi

Total: swim 26,300 yds, 5 hr boxing/kickboxing, run 19 mi

Week 33:

Mon: swim 6500 yds, 1 hr kickboxing, run 5 mi

Tues: swim 4000, 1 hr kickboxing, 1 hr boxing

Wed: swim 5100, 1 hr boxing, run 3 mi

Thurs: swim 5300, 1 hr boximg, run 4 mi

Fri: swim 3500, 1 hr boxing

Sat: run 5 mi

Sun: swim 7000, 1 hr boxing, run 5 mi

Total: swim 31,400 yds, 7 hr boxing/kickboxing, run 22 mi

Lake Gaston Crossing

Last week was the Lake Gaston 1 mi swim/crossing, a very fun event every year. DAMA put up a huge showing, as shown in this picture:

We all wore DAMA tattoos, very intimidating to our competitors:

I was the overall winner of the race. My time of 20:45 was a good time for an open water mile, and faster than my time last year. I treated the race like a sprint and kept up a strong, fast turnover the whole way. My new emphasis on swimming faster instead of longer for the rest of the year seems to be working. I'm starting to make 1:10 intervals in practice, something I haven't done since high school!

The nice thing about racing in a small town is that since there is not much real news, open water is a big deal! I got interviewed by several area newspapers:

http://www.rrdailyherald.com/articles/2009/08/10/features/doc4a80189dc8034111810619.txt

http://www.vancnews.com/articles/2009/08/13/lake_gaston/news/news50.txt

http://www.littletonobserver.com/#The_Crossing_another_succedful_event_for_the_lake_and_osail

Week 32:

Mon: swim 6600 yds, 1 hr kickboxing, run 3 mi

Tues: swim 5900, 1hr kickboxing, 1 hr boxing

Wed: swim 5400, 1hr kickboxing, run 4mi

Thurs: swim 5400, 1 hr boxing, run 5 mi

Fri: swim 4700, 1 hr kickboxing

Sat: 1 hr boxing, run 5mi

Sun: swim 7000, run 4 mi

Total: swim 35,000 yds, 7 hrboxing/kickboxing, run 21mi

Week 31:

Mon: swim 6500, 1 hr kickboxing, run 3mi

Tues: swim 5200, 1hr boxing, run 5mi

Wed: swim 6100, 1 hr kickboxing, run 3 mi

Thurs: swim 5800, 1 hr boxing, run 5 mi

Fri: swim 4400,1 hr kickboxing

Sat: swim 3800, run 5 mi

Sun: swim 500, hike 2.5 mi, 1 hr boxing, run 3 mi

Total: swim 32,300, 6 hr boxing/kickboxing, run/hike 26.5 mi

Tricks and stratagems

Last week was the 10 mi Kingdom swim, in Northeast Vermont. The swim was in beautiful Lake Memphremagog (say that 10 times fast). The roughly triangular course took us right up to the Canadian border and back, so I guess that means I can say that I swam to Canada! Despite the high latitude, the water temperature was pleasant, right around 70 degrees.

I finished 2nd overall and the person who beat me was also female. The 10 mi swim took me 4 hours, 20 min, a time that I was happy with. I felt like I held a strong, consistent pace the whole way and did not bonk at the end the way that I had at Key West. It's amazing how much better 70 degree water felt than 88 degrees! While there is big difference between 70 and the 60 degree water of the English Channel, this trend bodes well for my cold water channel training.


For the vast majority of the race I swam alone, with the 1st place swimmer several minutes ahead of me, and 3rd place several minutes behind. This got lonely, since I prefer that bumping and jostling of swimming in a pack. The first few miles were more interesting, however, so I'll write about those.


The race started with a cannon shot and we all ran into the water. After a hundred yards, we all swam to our kayakers and the pack began to separate. Here, one guy latched onto my feet to catch a draft. I didn't worry about it because I thought we would split up soon enough. Before I knew it, thirty minutes had passed and my mom was signaling from the kayak to give me Gatorade. Lo and behold, the guy was still on my feet! I thought I would lose him at the feeding, but he stopped right behind me, gulped his drink, and started again right when I did, without missing a beat, or more accurately, a stroke.



Now I was getting annoyed. I did not want to pull this guy the 10 miles to Canada and back only to have him sprint past me in the last 100 yds. As a distance swimmer through and through, I do not have a lot of sprint speed and was pretty sure that he could take me in a short distance, especially since he was saving energy by drafting. I did not want this to happen! It is one thing to lose to someone because he is a faster swimmer, but another thing entirely to lose because I was outsmarted. I knew this was a critical point and wanted to use race tactics wisely.



I tried swimming ahead but I was unable to break away. Then I had another thought. I stared breaststroking, which for me means I was barely moving. With the drafter frozen in indecision, I tried to act like I had gone out too fast and needed to breaststroke to catch my breath. Reluctantly, the drafter passed me. Finally! Now I was going to draft off of him!

I did so for 30 minutes. It was nice to catch a little ride, but when he took the lead, he slowed his pace down and I wound up going slower than I wanted to go. I knew that I needed to pass him, and pass him for good. When he stopped for his feeding, I broke into an all-out sprint. I spun my arms and kicked my feet like I was in a 50 yd race. It was time for me to have my Gatorade and my mom motioned for me to stop, but I yelled, "Stop me in 10 minutes!" I wanted to make sure to have a good lead on the drafter before stopping for my drink. By the time I did stop, I was about a minute ahead and I knew I had broken away once and for all.


Thank you to Matt for practicing draft and drop drills with me in the quarry. I knew this practice would come in handy! No amount of tricks and stratagems would have helped me catch the lead swimmer, however, who was just plain faster.


I wan't the only DAMA swimmer in the race. Gretchen Van de Carr swam as well, completing her longest swim ever. She also won a special award for enthusiasm and persistence (or as they called it, being a "stubborn cuss"). Great job, Gretchen!





Overall, the trip was very fun. We toured the Ben and Jerry's factory.

And we took a gondola ride to the top of the highest mountain in VT.

We bought only a one-way ticket, so we then hiked down.

We toured the Bread and Puppet museum, which was quite literally the creepiest place I have ever been.

Lastly, we went to Montreal for some very yummy French food.

Week 30:
Mon: swim 3100 yds
Tues: swim 3600(rained out), 1hr boxing, run 4 mi
Wed: swim 4800, run 4 mi, 1hr kickboxing
Thurs: swim 6300, 1 hr boxing, run 3 mi
Fri: swim 3800, walk 5 mi, swim 3800
Sat: run 5 mi
Sun: swim 6000, run 3 mi, 1 hr boxing
Total:swim 27,600 yds, run/walk 24mi, 5hr boxing/kickboxing





Week 29:
Mon: swim 6100, run 5 mi, 1 hr kickboxing
Tues: swim 4600, run 3 mi, 1 hr boxing
Wed: swim 2200, run 5 mi, 1 hr kickboxing
Thurs: hike 3 mi
Fri: rest
Sat: swim 19,000
Sun: swim 3200, walk 2 mi
Total: swim 35,100 yds, 3 hr boxing, run/walk/hike 18 mi





Week28:
Mon: swim 6000, run 3 mi, 1hr kickboxing
Tues: swim 5800, 1 hr boxing
Wed: swim 5900, 1hr kickboxing, run 3mi
Thurs: swim 5900, 1 hr boxing, run 3mi
Fri: swim 4900, 1 hr boxing, run 5 mi
Sat: rest
Sun: swim 5000, 1 hr boxing, hike 2.5mi, run 6 mi,
Total: swim 33,500 yds, 6 hrboxing/kickboxing, run/hike 22.5 mi