Confessions of an Active Parent-To-Be

 
Active.com has just posted another article from your favorite Dirtbag. It dates itself right away, but that's ok. Confessions of an Active Parent is a series I plan on semi-regularly running. As in, when I have time and energy and something to write about. Please check it out.
Confessions of an Active Parent-to-Be

Christmas Biathlon Race Report

This was an impulse race for fun. I have been feeling like I hadn't raced in a long time and once you get used to doing something like that you need to keep doing it. I'm addicted to racing. Which is funny when you think about how nervous my stomach gets before even the smallest and easiest of races.
So, even though training had been slim I decided to fork over some dough and knock out the Waikiki Swim Club's Christmas Biathlon, a 5km run/1km swim low pressure fun event. Anyone can run 5km, and doing the swim after the run for once sounds like a great idea. Then I can make up time on all the damn runners who can't swim. No surprise this event was thought up and hosted by a Swim Club.
The other reason for doing the event was Super Awesome Wife was due on the 11th of Decemeber. This might be my last chance to race for a while. Please keep the above date in mind for later.
Hanging around before the race was fun because I meant a person I knew only from the internet who was doing her first multi-sport event (and who placed in her age group!), a guy I meant at the swim meet and open water swim I did over the summer, and Team Bloody Mary (now Team Tri-Rita), who are at nearly every event hosted on the island. All great people, all really nice to see.

Tim swims and Anne run and neither care about racing. Good people

The race started with a 5km run around Ala Moana Beach Park. I purposely did not bring a watch of any kind to reinforce the idea that this was only for fun. Time didn't matter. Of course I had a goal time in mind, I know about what I can do a 5km in and what I can swim 1000m in, but I wasn't planning on sweating it. Haven't been running enough to sweat it. In fact, I was unsure of just how my knee would tolerate the race. Would it tweak and I'd hobble around for three miles? Would I get to run a fraction of it?
Turns out I ran the whole thing, went out a little too fast at the top and paid for it at the end, but overall a nearly pain-free experience. Well, knee pain free. You can't not run at all and then try/not try to race three miles without some pain. But that's more of a Bad Training Dumbass pain.
One thing I spent time thinking about was transition from the run to the swim. You never go in that direction. I needed to put a cap on, and I wasn't about to wear one on the run. So what to do? Stop and put it on? Do it while running? I went with the latter, tucking my goggles and cap into the waistband of my suit. And with about 100 yards to transition I took off my visor and glasses and popped the cap and goggles on without breaking stride. Easier than I thought. Then all I had to do was take off my shoes and drop the visor and shades and into the water I went.
The run-to-swim transition wasn't too bad. Slowing down to take off the shoes helped the heart rate adjust. The hardest part was pulling all the blood out of my legs and into my arms and shoulders. I'm not happy with how my swim went. It's not really fair because I haven't been swimming too much either, but expectations are high. There was no rhythm or smoothness in it. I just got it done. Was able to do decently compared to most of the other racers, but not what I wanted. It is fun to do my strength at the end of a race for once. Meant I got to swim from person to person. I'll catch you, now I'll catch you, now I'll catch you. That's a nice change.
The return was directly into the rising sun, making sighting difficult. I basically swam towards the sun. I sighted by blindness. Where can't I see? I'll go there. Which meant I didn't see the exit buoys until I was almost on top of them. Think I went in a straight line. Normally do.
Pro Tip for multi-sport athletes (and I know a lot of you need this): Swim as far in as you can. Seriously, until your hands scrape the sand. Because if you pop up too early then you're trying to run in hip deep water. That's slow. Swim until you're scraping bottom then when you pop up your in shin deep water and you can easily high-step out.
Times:
Run- 27:31
Swim- 20:16
Finish- 47:47
Age Group- 5th
Overall- 37th

47 second off my very own mug!

Bwah!

 Any normal day that would have been the big event. But when I got home Super Awesome Wife had a much more important event warming up. You can read all about it here.Want a hint? I wrote most of this post like this-

The Grey's Law (OR Join The Parade!) And MORE!

Ride
time- 2:56
distance- 40mi

Another ride and some swimming and running also

It has once again been forever since I've written anything. It has not been forever since I've worked
out, I just have fallen off the blog train pretty hard of late.
Like I've been saying for a while I'm struggling with motivation and injury prevention. Some runs still end in knee pain, some swims end when energy flat lines, and rides happen mostly when friends drag my lazy ass out the door. It comes, I think, from the proximity of Dirtbag Fetus making his/her entry to the world and no events on the near horizon. A dip was expected after the Honu, but this is ridiculous. I need to be better.
The last rides have been pretty good. On Labor Day the Grey and I hit the road for 40 miles, during which he shared what is now Grey's Law.

The Grey of Grey's Law

 Grey's Law states that Whenever the Road is Narrowest, This is When Vehicles Will Absolutely Have to Pass You Right Now. This is especially true on the short bridges which speckle the landscape here in Hawaii. If it will take me on a bike fifteen seconds to get across it odds are the car behind me will need to get across in ten seconds. Which means he'll pull into more of the center of the lane and jam on the gas, blowing by me. And nothing is more fun than the draft of a car and the wizz of a rear view mirror.
Also, when you ride with the Grey he will quote his Law at you every time it happens. On a bike this is done by shouting at you over the wind.
We got to the bottom and Kaena Point, rested, then turned around. This was basically the same route the Grey, Diesel, and I did this weekend.

What was unusual about our Labor Day ride was what happened on the way home. We have to ride through Wahiawa to get home. Apparently, Wahiawa holds a Labor Day parade. Who knew? And said parade was crossing the road right when we got there, stopping traffic. You may think to yourself, "But you are on bicycles. Surely you can easily cut through the parade without disruption." That's what we thought too. However, let me present Officious Guy in Orange Vest:

You have met him. You know him. He has An Orange Vest. This makes him Important. And he decided we could not possibly cross the road. We needed to wait. You know, in case we ran over a marcher or something. Which is completely true. Look at how close each group is to the next. There is no way we could possibly make it.

There's NO SPACE AT ALL

So we walked our bikes five feet away from Man In Orange Vest, then sprinted across the street. Suck it, Man In Orange Vest. Which led to some of the best riding ever. The road was completely empty. We may or may not have ridden right in the middle of both lanes, exulting in the openess. It might have been awesome.
As for this weekend's ride, the biggest note I have was that Pineapple Hill was the hottest it has ever been. Seems crazy to say in November, but we set out late so the sun was higher, there was absolutely no wind, and it just was beating down. I was melting. I don't know that I've ever been hotter during a training ride. It was pretty brutal.
Having the guys does do so much for getting me out on the bike. I struggle to find motivation to get in the pool. I feel good to start, then the wheels come off more often than not. And I can run for a while but eventually my knee beings to hurt, even with the rehab I've been doing. It's a process, and I'm trying not to get frustrated. Well, too frustrated. Sometimes positive is hard to come by. It's a weird time right now.
The biggest workout coming up isn't mine, it's Super Awesome Wife's. It's been on my mind quite a bit. I get to be active support, which will be fine. My struggle is not having a start time. We don't want to induce, we want to be natural. But that means I need to learn patience. Not good with that. I like to know the race starts at 6am on this day. Ready go. This whole it starts when it starts and even when it starts it might start and stop and hurry up and wait is messing with me pretty good.
...anyway, that's probably a post for another time.

Tom Cruise Hard

(I can't wait to see the kinds of searches that title kicks up)

When someone asks you how hard you ran, tell them you ran Tom Cruise Hard.
When you go for a run, your goal should be to run Tom Cruise Hard.
All running is measured against Tom Cruise. He is our Greatest On Screen Runner.
Greatest. Movie Runner. Ever. You wish you ran this hard.


 Seriously, look at the intensity as he gets rolling. You want to run like Tom Cruise.

Mean to Myself

(Yesterday)
Ride
dist- approx. 16.5 mi
time- approx 1hr

(Today)
Swim
1 x 200- warm-up
10 x 100- 1:30
1 x 100- cool down

Knee rehab

Today in the pool I was mean to myself. And that was a good thing.
You see, dear readers, when I'm not totally feeling it I leave myself an out. I say to myself, "Listen, I promise to push these on the time standard. But if I miss one I get thirty seconds on the wall to rest and recover before getting back to it." That's a good deal.
Except I don't like missing my time standard and I'm a stubborn ass in the water. So for the 10 x 100 set I made the first few easily then started to slip, my poor training habits catching up with me. I was getting less than five seconds rest by number five and less than two seconds for eight, nine, and ten. Yeah, I'd hit the wall, look at my watch, it would read 12:28 and I would get a breath then hit it again. I spent these 100s thinking it would be so easy to fade juuuust a little. Just enough, Then I'd had thirty whole wonderful seconds to catch my breath. But it had to happen organically. I wasn't going to let myself miss. And I never did. Made all ten on the 1:30, getting barely any rest for the last three or four.
Swims like this are frustrating because I know I can do better but make me happy because I fought through a mentally tough workout, and I can draw on that the next time I get in the water without feeling it.
Been getting back out on the bike too. Knee gives some twinges still, right on the inside, but it's lessening. Hopefully the rehab is doing its job and I'm getting stronger. Haven't tried to run yet, but I was talking to a friend today who is thinking about doing a marathon soon and I started to get the itch. I got the itch to run. Triathlon has made me broken.

Dirtbag Fetus' First Workout

 I have been doing some reading on birth, since that is what teachers do. Something coming up? Read a book about it! Super Awesome Wife has been thrusting Penny Simkin's The Birth Partner at me for a little while (SAW Note- SEVEN months! Seven! Five weeks away and just now you're reading it. Grrr.) and I've been doing my homework. Turns out there are exercises pregnant women can do to help labor! Hey, this is a thing that I can help with in a direct way! I am the Dirtbag of Dirtbag Fitness. I got the exercise thing down. Woohoo!

 She wants to labor as much as possible in the squatting position, which makes a ton of sense to me. I understand how gravity works (SCIENCE!) and I understand from which end the baby will emerge. Pushing down seems a lot easier than lying on your back and pushing out and slightly up. Yes, up. Take a look at the direction the Magic Baby Door (for the actual joke go to about 13:20, but watch the whole thing if you have an hour) is pointing. That, sir, is up. But squatting is not easy. That's some killer quad work right there. It needs practice.
Instead of going to the gym to swim and rehab today after school I came home, changed into workout shorts, and worked out with her. I did my four sets of single leg squats and during my rest time I sat on the foot stool we have with my legs wide and she lowered herself into a supported squatting position for a minute at a time. She said she felt stable and wasn't putting too much pressure on her legs. Which is good, she needs to be relaxed.
 Next I did three one minute planks, and between each plank she did three sets of ten squats with me holding her hands and helping spot her as needed. She started out going nice and low but by the end they were shorter and not so deep. Still good efforts, still making her stronger and preparing those muscles.

From The Birth Partner (Hey, there are two of us, who was going to take the picture?)

The last thing the two of us did was a set of ten Cat-Cow poses. On hands and knees, backs flat, we inhale and slowly rotate our hips beneath us as far as we can, arching our backs, and hold for a slow five count, then back to level exhaling through the move. Ten of those. At the end of that she was feeling done with baby workouts and I needed to shower and change to get to the theater to watch V for Vendetta because Remember remember the fifth of November.

From The Birth Partner

 I look forward to helping her workout and prepare for labor as much as I possibly can.

I'm Internet Famous!

*Post Not Fitness Related In the Least Warning*


About two weeks ago I posted a YouTube video that I made in this space. The video was created out of frustration with the lack of respect Hawaii's teachers are being shown by Gov. Abercrombie. The short short version is we have been teaching without a contract for a year and a half, he continues to offer us deal which are regressive at best. The problem is because he is making offers it looks like teachers are being greedy when we turn them down and when mediation breaks down, when in fact we are saying no to offers any sane group would laugh at.
Still, public opinion has swung hard against us recently and I wanted to try and inform people of the teachers' side through an open letter to the governor. So I spent a few days drafting one and then put it out there. As of today that video is sitting at 1,800 views. Which is crazy, since I was hoping for about 1,700 less than that and had decided after it started getting popular that I'd be happy with 1,000.
A big part of why the video continues to spread is social media. I tweeted and Facebooked that thing at every single person I could think of, including local news media in all forms. Well, KHNL Hawaii News Now picked it up. I talked a few times with a producer there who loved the story and pushed in the newsroom for some coverage. I made it very clear this was not about announcing a strike but announcing my willingness to strike and giving clear, thought out reasons why. If it comes to that public support will be paramount, and this seemed like a great way to start building that. Also, some teachers are feeling the same way I am but not willing to make the sacrifice a strike would call for, so I wanted to try and help them understand this isn't going to be a want, it is going to be a need.
I thought the story came out well and this is my space, so here it is.
Teachers question Governor over lack of contract - Hawaii News Now - KGMB and KHNL
Hawaii News Now - KGMB and KHNL