500 km and counting

Today my bike turned 500km! It's only one month old, I'm pretty impressed with it and myself! I know I'm not setting records, but I've gone from 0km/month to 500km/month!
And saving big on gas!!

I love my bike!

3000m

Warm-up:
600s/600p/450k/50s

Sets:
4x100 on 1:30 alt sprint 1st/2nd/3rd/4th 25
8x25 IM order :40-50
4x100 IM
100k

Cool Down:
200s

Total: 3000m 1hr. 15min.

I wasn't excited about the sprint set, it was Linea's idea! But afterward I wanted to keep going. So we did a few more sets. Nothing super crazy, but it kept our heart rates up and kept the attention of the guys in the lanes next to ours.

Getting over that initial warm-up hump is the hardest. If I can do 1500-2000m warm-up, I can usually do more. If I'm lazy and quit before that, I can barely finish 2000m.

Now Linea and I need to get serious and get our butts in gear!!!

29km

I sat in my apartment working ALL day. Finally, at 5pm Linea and I dusted off our bike helmets and headed to the beach. Yesterday I was at Linea's birthday bbq at the beach from 2pm-10pm. Lots of fun, lots of food, lots of fireworks. But we left a big mess. Linea and the others did a fabulous job of cleaning, but we thought we better make sure in the light of day....oddly enough there had been a beach clean-up this morning so whatever we missed was picked up and tossed by someone!

There and back, plus a side-trip to find the Brazilian bbq party, we did 29km today in about 90 minutes.....nothing strenuous!

It was pretty cool today, and overcast.

Total: 29km 90min.

25 km

Cycling/Biking is a great sport because you can run errands and get excercise. I love multi-tasking and saving time/resources/money. So today I rode to and from school and went to Kurobe to pay for my SUMO tickets! Hurray! I've been wanting to go to sumo for awhile. I can't wait!

But I think the rainy season might be starting. It was sprinkling on and off on my ride. It's grey and cloudy. Looks like Portland weather--depressing. But great for studying!

Total: 25 km 40 min.

2350m

Warm-up
500s/400p/450k

Set
8x100 pull/IM alt

Cool Down
200s

Total: 2350m 1hr.

Linea and I headed to the pool right after school. I opted out of biking because my schedule is tight on Tuesdays. It's been about 2 weeks since I've been in the water since the pool was closed last week. It was nice to stretch out after all the biking! Although I didn't notice any improvement in my kicking! Hmmm? Aren't my legs getting stronger?

Apato Feva

I've essentially locked myself in my apartment this weekend to work on the paper. Yuck! But it has to be done. I worked all morning, heard the 12noon bell and hopped on the bike for a cruise downtown to run some errands. Then I worked until 7pm. I finished coding my last interview and I was stir crazy...and going crazy. I jumped up from my computer and decided to run. I grabbed the MP3 player and ran out the door. Okay, it's almost not even worth blogging about...it only lasted 10min. But it's the longest run I've done since last July. I was running slow, more of a light jog. But even then, it's the legs that kill me. I either get a pain in my right hip. Or today, I could feel pain from my arches up to mid-calf on the inside of my legs. What is that??

Okay...it is time for new shoes. But I'm too cheap to buy them unless I know they'll help. The major benefit of running, once you have the shoes, it's free! And you can do it anywhere anytime.

Regardless, I have to run on the PTA relay team again next month. I was the first leg of the team last year and came in last behind all my students! Pathetic!!

Once upon a time, I ran a marathon. I haven't a clue how to get my body back to that again. I'm not sure it's possible!

Back to the paper!

Beach Cruisin'

I didn't have any classes today, I didn't ride my bike to work because I brought my computer in and I made chocolate chip cookies with some students....all in all it was a lazy chocolate day! So, after work Linea and I cruised down to the beach and up along the "boardwalk," if you can call it that. I wasn't in the mood for much, but I had to get my blood movin' and I haven't missed a day biking yet, today wasn't going to be the first. At our turn around point there was this cute little old grandpa sitting out about 15 feet from the shore in a rubber raft. He was wearing the cone hat that's so typical of rice farmers in Asia. He was so cute. We tried to get a picture with Linea's camera, but he moved out of view of the setting sun just as I went to take a picture! Zannen!

Total: 40 min. 15km

P.S. I posted the frog picture below! Check it out!!

Too Early!

Linea and I were up again and on the road by 6am. It was another ride up towards the mountains and back by 7am. If I wasn't meeting someone at 6am, there would have been NO WAY I would have gotten out of bed. I think I was grumpy about it for the first 30 minutes of the ride. Sorry Linea!

We managed to get a little further today. In 55 minutes we did 20km. Plus I rode to school, although that barely counts its so close.

Total: 1hr. 24 km

I want to do it again, but maybe not tomorrow!

Early AM ride

The alarm went off at 5:40. I'm not used to that. I usually get up at 6:50. But the sun was up and it looked like a beautiful day. So I made it out of bed and got me and my bike down to the parking lot. Linea and I took off at 6am. We rode towards the mountains and up the Kurobe River for about 30 minutes before heading back. It was a bit windy and chilly, but a clear sunny beautiful morning! No traffice, just a few farmers picking vegetables and checking the level of water in their rice paddies. I think we startled more than a few of them.

Going up we mainted a steady 20km/hr. On the way back down we averaged 28km/hr.

Total: 50min 18km (broke 300km on the speedometer today)

42 km

This afternoon Amy, Linea and I got on our bikes and followed the coast up into Niigata. We had a few detours around rivers and little harbors. But it was a beautiful ride up the coast. It's so fun to see the little fishing shacks, community gardens, and old traditional houses that dot the coast. We even saw some Russians or maybe they were British in speedos after their swim. We saw a skinned rat littering the sidewalk. Amy caught a frog on her rim somehow. It was dead when we found it. And we ran into a cloud of allergy inducing pollen. My eyes got red and swollen and were unbearably itchy. Amy started getting a similar reaction. Luckily, I had an anti-allergy pill in my bag. And once we got back on the road it was fine. On the way back into town we stopped picked up some salad fixings, pasta and sauce. And we ate another huge meal followed by endless desserts from last nights feast!!

Good times on the bike!

When's the next ride ladies??

Wet'n Wild

This is a picture of the pool building. The pool is under the big dome to the right. I've been meaning to take a picture of the inside, but haven't gotten to it yet. It's pretty impressive for a rural pool. I think there are 8 lanes! That's bigger than my college pool. Two lanes are always dedicated to walkers. And there is almost always some team or another practicing in at least one of the lanes. But luckily, there is NEVER open swim. It is always a lap pool. They have a little baby pool for the kids. But kids don't really do recreation swim like they do in the states.

Today Linea and I decided to brave the rain and bike to the pool! We were drenched by the time we got there, but what did it matter, we were getting in the pool. We just did a warm-up. It was getting dark and we didn't want to bike back on wet dark streets! The bike ride is exactly 10k each direction. About 30 minutes each way. Luckily, the rain had stopped by the time we got out. Wearing wet clothes home wasn't much fun!

Swim:
700s
8x25 fly 1:00
400k (fr/brst)
200s

Swim Total: 1500m 40min.
Bike Total: 20km 1hr.

I've had my bike for 13 days, I've ridden every day. I've clocked 200km!

Funami Chu

I was up an extra hour early to get to work on time by bike today! Wow, that sucked! But there was no yawning when I got to school, only sweating!

Round-trip: 21km 1 hr!

My legs and knees are starting to react to this new sport. I may need to take a day off this weekend, but then again, I'm lovin' it so much...maybe NOT!

2000m +bike

Warm-up:
500s/300k

Sets:
800RIM (linea style)
2x100IM

Cool Down
200s

Total: 2000m 1hr

Plus 13km on the bike today. I felt it in my legs a little bit after school today. I've ridden my bike for 10 straight days! As long as the weather is good, I plan to bike to my mountain school tomorrow. I think I'll give myself 40minutes to get there. It usually takes 20minutes by car.

Three Masters swimmers were at the pool tonight. They all commented on the video and watching my "kirei" strokes! I'm so glad I wasn't there for the viewing! But they said I could borrow it and watch it. Hurray! I tried coaching two of them in breastroke pull tonight, but with the language barrier, there is only so much demonstration you can do.

My chlorine allergy combined with hayfever is out of hand! I was sneezing under water tonight. And it's gotten to the point where it's just the constant nasal drip...drip, drip, drip! All the time!

Kurobe roundtrip

I biked to work & then to Kurobe with Linea to book our ferry tickets to Hokkaido! Round trip=24km.

Yep, it's happening. Amy, Linea & I are taking our bikes on the ferry to Hokkaido for 5 days at the end of July! Well, Amy's staying! But Linea & I have to come back. Zannen! We just need to figure out a few logistics, like getting three bikes on Bertie, and we will be ready to go.

So, it's Monday night and the Masters team is in the water as I type this. But because I already biked to Kurobe once today and I didn't want to bike back after dark, I decided to skip out on practice. Plus.....the paper is calling my name!

Back to work!

Unazuki by bike

Wow! It was a beautiful day with a beautiful bike! I love my new bike!

Today was my first ride without a big back-pack carrying either lots of books or clothes. It was amazing! Having a good bike and nothing on your back makes all the difference in the world. I thought I'd do about 20k, but after getting to the red bridge at the base of Unazuki, I decided to do the whole thing! I'm not sure what the difference in elevation is between Nyuzen and Unazuki, but it's a steady climb for about 16km. I braved a tunnel going up and riding on the side of a mountain looking at the river a few hundred feet below coming down. On that down slop my back brake decided to freeze up. That was a little scary. I think it needs adjusting.

Oh, and I like my new Polar Bottle. It does keep water cool for the duration of the ride. It doesn't heat up and taste like bathwater by the end. Well, it's still June. Maybe in August it will. But maybe in August, I won't be able to ride my bike at 3pm either! It was light out at 4:45 this morning...gonna have to start getting up early and biking!

I was able to maintain mid-upper 20km/hr. And I got a few bursts of up to 38km/hr! There are some great roads for riding along the Kurobe River! Which just makes me want to get an intertube or small raft and go down it. I think it's manageable. I think we should try it! Our next adventure!

Who wants to ride to Unazuki with me?? I want to go again!

Total: 35km 1hr. 45min.

Bike'n Swim'n Bike

10km bike to the pool
~1000m swim
10km bike home

Total: 21k 3 hours

Today was video day. So I did about a 700warm-up, 4x25 IM to tape our starts, 3xturns, 100 cool down. The team is off to Himi on a bus so they can start drinking early!! They're crazy! Anyway, they are going to watch the video tonight before/after/while they drink! I can only imagine the requests for freeze frames to make fun of people and criticize! I'm kinda glad I'm not going! But I hope I get to see the video one of these days. They had an underwater camera going for the turns!

The bike rides felt good! 30 minutes there and back again! I'm still figuring out gears and shifting. But this area is great because it's so flat!

Warm-up

500s/500p/200k/50ez

Total: 1250m 25min.

Yep, that's it! It was a long week, and a LONG friday! I barely made it to the pool at all. This was my first week of biking everyday. My schools aren't that far...but I managed to accumulate 60km! Yahoo. My goal is to bike to the pool tomorrow! Yikes!

Time to sleep!