But with the season starting to change, the colors are also starting to turn to fall. Leaves haven't really started to fall yet, but the colors are starting to change and it's beautiful. It's funny the things that you notice while you're running. I didn't notice that the trees were starting to change colors before the run, but when I'm not zipping past those trees at 35+ while behind the wheel you start to notice the little things like that. It's the same way on the bike too. I've noticed different smells while being outside. The smell of the mint fields or onion fields as I ride past. The smell of the cows, or of the freshly cut hay. The smells that you don't normally notice while in the car. You also notice temperature and humidity changes as well. You don't realize how much cooler the air can be in the shade until you are roasting in the sun and hit a shady spot to go through. The humidity of a freshly watered corn field totally through me for a loop the first time I rode through it. All of a sudden, the humidity hit me like a while. I've experienced humidity while running when someone has their sprinkler's on, but the corn field was another thickness all together.
With the fall, the days are getting shorter, and that means that I'll have less and less of a chance to get out and ride. Even if I can get a ride or run in outside, the smells will be gone while old man winter comes resting his big cold butt over my corner of the world.
I've continued to get at least one, if not 2 swims in a week. I'm still just working on keeping good form, and building the muscle memory to allow it to be natural for me. It's frustrating at times, because I want to just dive in and do a 500 or 800 and call it good. But I know that doing that won't be beneficial for me at this time. I need to be patient and continue on my 50yd repeats and occasional 100yds. Instead of focusing on the long stuff, I need to worry about the right stuff. Swimming is such a technical sport where form is crucial and speed comes from strength and form. I have a friend who was a collegiate swimmer and former SEAL. He describes the proper swim form as the sensation of swimming down hill. I didn't know what he was talking about until the other day. The other day something clicked for just a couple of the repeats and I felt like I was swimming down hill. I felt effortless and speedy. Like I said, it only happened for a couple of the repeats, but it was awesome! Now I'm trying to get that feeling back. This morning in the pool there was a guy in the next lane over who looked painful. You could tell that he was working very hard, but not moving very fast. His hips were dragging below the water with his legs sinking down, he had very little rotation and pulled his head up to breath, with his arms constantly crossing over the midline. I didn't get a chance to talk to him much, but all I know is that he was swimming just for health and not for competition. He left before I could even offer some friendly advice.
All my cycling lately has been on the trainer, and all of that trainer time is at work. I've still been doing lots of Spinervals videos just to keep me entertained and doing something creative instead of the steady state rides for an hour. I've been averaging 3 rides a week with 2 of them just cardio/base rides, and the other a strength ride. Tomorrow will be the one year anniversary of having my bike, and while I haven't checked the numbers yet, I'm pretty sure I've logged over 1500miles in this first year. Not too bad I don't think for my first year of actual cycling. But that's nothing compared to my Capt who will have logged 6000miles before the end of November. I'm still reading the Time Crunched Cyclist book. I'm now at the chapter that actually talks about the programming and what it entails, but I think that I'll give it a go in January (maybe) and use that as my base for the cycling training.
Running is still about a twice a week occurrence for me right now. I'm trying to get a long run (10k) and some intervals done each week. Nothing too hard or pushing the limits right now, but enough to keep the blood flowing and the muscles reminded of what to do. I'm also trying to keep the strength and conditioning up, but there are good days and bad days of getting that accomplished. Ideally, I'd like to get 3 of the S&C days a week in, but that's pushing it I know.
Tomorrow is the REI garage sale, and I'm hoping to score some good stuff. Last year when I went, I got my Cycleops trainer for $52 and the Yakima luggage pod for $150. I hope to get some other great deals, but at the same time we don't have a lot of extra cash to spend on the deals. The big thing that I'm hoping to score is a Garmin GPS. I've been using my buddy Gabe's and it's worked ok, but I'd like to get one of my own and give his back to him. Ideally, I've I could score a Garmin 310, then I'd be stoked! It's a mutlisport GPS that can read a heart rate monitor and a cadence sensor for use on the bike
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