Just Keep Swimming!!

Welcome to the Spring 2012 semester, aka my last semester of college! As many of you know (I say while wondering if anyone is reading) my schedule is pretty relaxed this semester, especially compared to some of the crazy semester in the past. This relaxation includes taking yoga and advanced swimming  which serve Operation Sexy Dress very well, more on that later.

Unfortunately, my yoga instructor is a little misguided so that won't be terribly beneficial but swimming is awesome! I have some exciting swimming goals and I will outline some pretty awesome adventure plans.

In swimming today we did the Swim Cooper Test, which is a fitness test originally designed for runners. The goal is to swim continuously for 12 minutes then use the distance you swim as a measurement of your cardiovascular/swim fitness.

FITNESS LEVEL SWIM-COOPER-TEST
AGEGROUP M/F		7-9 years		10-12 years		13-19 years		20-29 years
FITNESS CATEGORY		METERS	NO. LANES (25 M.)	METERS	NO. LANES (25 M.)	METERS	NO. LANES (25 M.)	METERS	NO. LANES (25 M.)
VERY POOR	M	< 200	< 8	< 380	< 15	< 460	< 18	< 380	< 15
	F	< 180	< 7	< 280	< 11	< 380	< 15	< 280	< 11
POOR	M	200-240	8-10	380-460	15-18	460-560	18-22	380-460	15-18
	F	180-220	7-9	280-380	11-15	380-460	15-18	280-380	11-15
MEDIUM	M	240-320	10-13	460-550	18-22	560-660	22-26	460-560	18-22
	F	220-300	9-12	380-460	15-18	460-560	18-22	380-460	15-18
GOOD	M	320-460	13-18	550-620	22-25	660-760	26-30	560-660	22-26
	F	300-420	12-17	460-560	18-22	560-660	22-26	460-560	18-22
VERY GOOD	M	> 460	> 18	> 620	> 25	> 760	> 30	> 660	> 26
	F	> 420	> 17	> 560	> 22	> 660	> 26	> 560	> 22

I started the swim and I planned to swim 100 free, 100 breast, 100 back and just repeat that until time was up. I ended up swimming about 625 yards and felt really good. I hit my stride after the 300 yard wall, for some reason after about 299 yards it is just really tempting to stop. After 325, things are better. According to this test, women my age who swim more the 560 yard are in the very good category.

With all this in mind I have some new swimming goals. I want to swim a mile, continuously. That is 70 lengths of a 25 yard pool. Today I only did 22 lengths in 12 minutes, good place to start but plenty of work to do. Apparently, some (crazy) people aspire to swim a mile in 30 minutes. Right now, I have no time goal, I just want to swim a mile before May 1.

My swim class will help with this goal but I also decided to do the 2012 Iron man Triathlon Challenge through the Texas Tech Rec Center. You have 21 days in February to complete all the Iron man distances: swim 2.4 miles, cycle 112 miles, and run 26.2 miles. The swim will not be terribly difficult. In addition to the yards I swim in class I am required to swim 1500 yards outside of class. The bike will be a more of a stretch. I ride around 2 miles per day now and to ride 112 miles in 21 days I would need a little more than 6 miles each day. But indoor spinning counts, so I am going to sign up for the 40 minute afternoon spin on Mondays and Wednesdays. Yes, this means I will go to Italian on those days a little bit sweaty (maybe smelly). That is a fair trade off right?

So swim, easy. Bike, doable. Run... uh oh. That will be hard, thankfully walking counts. I will try to run most of it, and I honestly don't have a more developed plan than that. To run 26.4 miles in 21 days I would need to run 1.5 miles each day. Not an unmanageable amount, but in combination with everything else... yikes. I will make a plan, and do my best! I am kinda pumped. Anyone want to be an Iron man (over 21 days) with me?

Oh, and Operation Sexy Dress is pretty simple. I get to wear a pretty awesome dress on May 26th and I plan to rock it.

Return of the Adventure Blog-- Kreuzeck Climb

Hello all,

I do sincerely apologize for the lack of adventure posts for the past several months. To put it lightly, the past semester was CRAZY. I hope to bring many more posts to you in the coming months. To kick things off I would like to share the story of my final Deutsch adventure.

Kreuzeck Climb 1651 m. (5400 ft.)
Time: 6 hr
Estimated time: 2 hr 45 min (hahaha)

We started this morning after I went to WN Alpin to rent snowshoes and poles. The night before we did the gear checks and re-checks. But after we went out to pick up the snowshoes I came in and swapped out for a warmer layer and added one. It was a clear day, but man was it COLD. When we got all loaded up and were about to start it was 6 degrees Fahrenheit which is -14 Celsius. It didn't warm up very much throughout the day, but is amazing what good gear will do for you.

We started walking and saw the signs, Kreuzeck- 2.5 hrs. We were feeling good, then we saw the arrow on the sign was pointing up a hill that did not look like a trail. Time to strap the snowshoes on. AJ, our awesome guide Martha, Victoria (AJ's girlfriend not the baby), and myself were excited and ready to get moving and get warm.

All smiles as we put on the snowshoes.

We had about 1000 meters to climb, over about 18 km of trail. The first 500 meters were fairly relaxed. It took us about 2 hours and it emerged onto an idyllic field with perfect untouched snow and rolling hills. You could see the mountains all around and the very faint hum of the Alpsptizebahn in the distance. Our canine companion Penelope was happy as can be running around in the snow field. Aj was drooling at the potential for building jumps to snowboard off. I was just trying to soak it all, as it started to hit me this is my last trip to Germany in the foreseeable future.

Not bad, right?

My favorite views by far are the ones you really have to work for. We never would have experienced this beauty unless we walked up that path that didn't look like a path at all. However, the easy part was over. We still had 500 meters left to go up and it would take us 4 hours. Things started to get steeper, my goal was to hang tough with Martha.

Martha, I should mention, is a superhero. She has climbed Kilamanjaro, she was on the varsity swim team at the Air Force Academy. She competed in triathlons for the Air Force, not to mention the fact that she was a fighter pilot in a few wars. She led us on the Kramer climb, and she was strolling today. But I was still proud of the fact that I kept her in my sights.

I looked at these for a long time thinking about what is in my data bank.

I took a layer off and we continued going up. I never got any muscle soreness, but man was my heart pounding and my lungs were burning. In tricky parts, the snowshoes would slide and you would fall into 3 feet of snow. In one particular tough spot, once we all were caught up Martha talked to us about the experience of climbing mountains. She told us about an 11-year-old track star who joined her group up Kilamanjaro. She said that he was an extremely good athlete, but he didn't have any experience in his data bank to count on when things got tough. He hadn't been through a more difficult experience to lean back on when he thought he couldn't take another step. That 11-year-old made a huge deposit into his data bank that day. Today, Victoria, Aj and I made a deposit into our personal data banks. We will be able to call on the frustration we all felt at stepping into snow that would immediately slide out from under your feet and put you back further than you started. We will be able to remember how teams works, and how it is important to work together.

Walk-sweat, wait- get cold. This was the pattern as we kept going up. Until about the last 50-75 meters we had to climb that were TOUGH. I slipped and fell every 3 or 4 meters. I spent about 5 minutes trying to dig myself out of hole that just got bigger whenever I tried to take a step. I just could not get out. At the same time Victoria had dropped her water bottle and was about to fall down a cliff trying to reach it. Aj, the image of neutrality, stood there not knowing what to do. We were so close to the top, Martha was standing there waiting for all of us, laughing only a little as I fell over and over again. Finally, I reached the top and had that instant feeling of success. I woo-hooed and cheered AJ and Victoria on as they finished up. We walked across and got on the bahn, victorious. We had a delicious victory meal at the bottom.

Overall it was a great final adventure in Germany. I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to do and see all these amazing things. They have contributed significantly to my data bank and I can't wait to add more.

The last, and hardest, switchbacks.

Our ticket down!

Quote of the day: "The quickest way down is to keep going up." - Martha

I tri!

This morning I competed in my first triathlon as an adult. Dunte and I drove to Midland after I got off work last night, we arrived around 11:30. A big thanks to the Shahan family for hosting us.

So here is the story:

Dunte and I settled in to go to sleep and I was gittery and excited and couldn't go to sleep. To pass the time I was bothering Dunte, which he wasn't thrilled about. To settle down I decided to visualize the race. I imagined jumping in the pool and swimming a smooth relaxed 500 yards, then I imagined getting out of the water and going... where? I didn't know. And then it hit me that I didn't know the setup at all. I didn't know the bike course, I didn't know the run course. This didn't help me nerves but I finished a general visualization and fell asleep.

5:30 came early, but I got right up and was excited, sort of. Dunte and I ate and chatted with Patrick and his dad. Before I knew it we were in the car, and my nerves weren't too bad yet. I was as prepared as I could be, now it was time to do it. We get there, and setting up was more rushed then I thought, and then we waited forever!!

They had a staggered start because it was a pool swim, so with 172 competitors, starting every 30 seconds: it was time to hurry up and wait. Waiting in line I had butterflies, but when I got up to the front I took a couple deep breaths and was ready to start.

Ready. Set. Go.

I jumped in the pool and was ready. I love swimming, I was relaxed and taking it easy. A couple people passed me (which happened a lot throughout the morning) but I was okay with that. 500 meters and 10 minutes, 10 seconds later I jumped out of the pool feeling really good.

I jogged to the bike and put my got all of my stuff, I wasn't terribly disoriented. I spent 2:03 in transition and then was on the bike for a good ride. It was a steady pace, with a steady cross-wind. The landscape was as flat as a crepe, you know those little thin pancakes (hehe). I kicked it into the big ring and stayed there the whole time. Several very encouraging competitors passed me, and I loved all of the support. It really helped, and if I ever pass someone I will be sure to shout my own variation of, "Looking good! Keep it up!" My favorite cheerleader passed me going almost twice as fast as the others and from behind shouted, "Looking good babe!" Before I could even question who this over-friendly stranger was, Dunte flew by me. Check out his story (after the weekend because he is racing tomorrow) at www.thefitlife.me He kicked some serious tail. I down shifted and spun to loosen up my legs before the run, after 54 minutes 54 seconds on the bike this was necessary.

Getting off the bike I felt pretty good, tired for sure. I wasn't completely out of it, but I was wishing I had invested in some bike shorts. I only spent 1 minute 27 seconds in the second transition. Now was the run... the dreaded run.

I got started and things were going well. I ran for 3 or 4 minutes feeling good, and then I found the big ugly wall again. It smacked me right in the face. The run took me 43 minutes and 47 seconds, which is a really long time. I walked a lot, especially in the last mile. I really wanted to run across the finish line, and I didn't think that was going to happen if I ran too much in that last mile. I almost puked, but I didn't.

I did finish, I did run across the finish line and I did finish in under 2 hours. The final time was 1 hour 52 minutes and 22 seconds. I really enjoyed it, Dunte ran with me for the very last part of the run and I enjoyed running with him right before I finished. I wouldn't have done this if it wasn't for his craziness, I am in better shape for it, and I really loved it.

Side note:
You should do a triathlon! You can do them in teams, so find a friend or two and pick the least of the  three evils (for you personally) and do it! It is really rewarding, and not a bad way to spend a couple hours on a Saturday morning.

I want to climb mountains.

Dunte and I just finished watching the movie '180 Degrees South' it is about the founders of the company Patagonia, and their awesome adventures. I highly recommend it, the scenery alone is beautiful and the message is icing on the cake (or ice on the peak).

Now I am itching to climb mountains, RIGHT NOW! This is a major problem because we live in Lubbock, Texas, which I am convinced is as far away from a mountain as any place in the world. We also are short on disposable income, so long trips are not reasonable. Finally, we have a 14 month old. While Tori can walk she isn't quite ready for climbing anything but stairs.

My thirst for adventure sent me to internet, so I could plan future adventures and read in envy about other people's adventures. This search lead me to a great website: the site has every mountain in Colorado above 14,000 feet. The site seems to have everything you could want to know about each peak: maps, pictures, tips, and personal accounts from climbers.

When our Zugspitze climb fell through my dad suggested we climb Pikes Peak when they move to Colorado next year. This peaked my interest (haha) and then I learned that there are 52 peaks in Colorado over 14,000 feet, aka 14ers. I want to climb them all. I have no deadline, I just want to climb them all.

Pikes Peak-- The first of many 14er ascents?

Finding a job in Colorado after graduation is looking more and more appealing, because I want to climb mountains.