That's what the pool at Bally's feels like. It's 3 "lanes" wide but has no lane plastic do-dad separators that keep the waves down. They have the lanes painted on the bottom of the pool but they didn't put any anchors in the walls for lane separators. Wild stuff. I was only one swimming laps this morning at 5am so I was creating my own wake. I wasn't moving very fast more of a slow tugboat wake than a speed boat wake. I guess it'll get me ready for sloshing of open water. Every so often I'd breath in some water because of the extra turbulence.
The facilities are definitely just older at Bally compared to the relatively new LA Fitness. I'm going to swim the rest of the week to see if it gets crowded then cancel my LA Fitness membership and start the Bally one. It's about 5 minutes from my condo walking. Even with the older stuff, it's just too convenient to pass up. Although, there was a big thread on Slowtwitch that the Endurance Nation coaches recommend just biking and running in the off-season and no swimming. Of course this was there recommendation for an hour Ironman swimmer. I guess they say it should be easy enough to get to an hour. Oh my, I really do suck then..argh I swam my butt off last year and just pulled out a 68 swim. I must still be doing some technique thing totally wrong or a bunch of little things just slightly off.
I'm heading over to vote at about 10ish with the hopes of avoiding the lines. The news is talking about all the long lines and Orion said he was waiting in a long line in Florida. Crazy stuff...I wonder if there were long lines last presidential election. I was in Oregon which is a total vote by mail state so no polls and no lines at all. Definitely more convenient and easier in that respect but tougher on candidates as there is no climax to build for TV ads and such.
So has anyone changed their spending habits due to the economy? Christmas is just around the corner and I wonder how many people will cut back big time this year. I'm cheap year around so I really haven't changed anything. I am buying chips again so the Frito Lay line item in the Pepsi quarter results will continue to be healthy. Google says Frito Lay in North America accounts for 30% of the Pepsi revenue. Not bad. I may cut back a little because I've been waking up for the last two mornings with a stomach ache from the previous nights junk food binge. Luckily, the junk food from the infamous Costco run has been slowly diminishing.
Well back to it..
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yeah, funny story; last night, 4:30, dark and rainy, driving I-84. Not only are the supporters of Allenby or whatver his name is standing on the bridge over the freeway waving their signs...they were shining flashlights down into traffic to attract attention. Slowed trafrfic to a crawl.
ReplyDeleteThen, on my way to work this morning...more of the same. They stood on the same bridge waving their signs. At least this time, no flashlights...but they did slow traffic. Once we got past their bridge, it kicked back up to 50 mph, but leading to their bridge about 10 mph. I swear, if I had time to deal with the situation, no jury would have ever convicted me.
Hi Al,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments. A few things:
I've found that pretty much everything slower than about a 1:15 IM swim is all technique. Meaning, the difference between a 1:30 and 1:15 is better technique, not becoming more fit.
Getting below 1:15...fitness starts to become more important, requiring a larger time investment, but still not crazy until about 1:08. Going from 1:08 to about a 1:05 usually comes from 1-2 technique breakthrus + a big fitness investment. Sub 1:05 is just a LOT of time and work for the age group swimmer. In the end, you've invested MUCH time to go from a 1:15 to a 1:05, when there are much easier places to find that 10' race day. 10' is walking a mile, slowing down by only 1' per mile in the last 10', etc.
We recognize this diminishing ROI so it's a matter of telling people when to make that investment to swim, not just if. In the off-season, investing 3-5hrs a week in your swim comes at a high mental and logistics cost, and just does not pay out on race day. Better to bank that time, keep your training volume low, and spend that swim time closer to the race, about 12-20wks out. We have a data set of 100's that says you won't give up anything on race, may even be faster, with this approach. Most importantly, you are keeping your time committment as low as you can for as long as you can, making the months and months long process of training for an IM much less onerous.
Hope this helps!
LOVE the vote by mail... don't have to worry about time off work, lines, hanging chads, etc.
ReplyDeleteOh, and all holiday drinks are now in the Starbucks nationwide, so YAY! Gingersnap latte, here I come!
Economy... blech. We're having to cut our Christmas budget by a third this year... sigh. On a positive note, it's past Halloween, so I can bust out the Christmas music! I'm a sick bitch, I know... ;o)
Happy Voting!
-Jen