Ryan Bickerstaff

After swimming around 102,000m total the previous four weeks, I felt like I needed a little reprieve, so I dropped down to 15,000m last week. I was going to keep running and biking as planned, but with all the late night Olympic watching, I felt fairly tired overall. So, midweek I decided to just give in and drop back in my biking volume, too, in preparation for a 1500m time trial today in the swim. I wasn’t sure how my swimming was progressing, as some of my key workouts were going better than others. With the various small differences in conditions and fatigue between those workouts, it is sometimes hard to track progress. In practice a couple months ago I had gone 18:58, and I went 18:59 a couple weeks ago.

So, I treated the 1500m long course time trial this afternoon much like I would a race. Going off the blocks, I went 18:21, splitting around 9:07, 9:14. That was a 37 second pr, so I’m definitely really happy. I circle swam it, but for the first 1000m, I had the lane to myself. Then, for whatever reason, someone decided it would be a good idea to jump in and swim 2:00+/100m backstroke while I’m going 1:13/100m. haha I ended up going around her twice, but I don’t think it slowed me down too much. If only I could pr another 37 seconds or so, I might actually be in the mix in some really big races!

I’ve done four 30 minute runs the past week, three on the treadmill and the last outside. My foot still feels a little tender when I first start out, so I go slower at the beginning. I definitely don’t feel confident in putting a ton of force on it, so I’m keeping things aerobic for now. The good thing is that my pace is very respectable given that I haven’t run a whole lot the past couple of months. It’s tempting to jump up the volume because running feels so great, but being careful now will make things better off in the long run.

Watching the Olympics on my brand new HDTV has been pretty amazing. Here are some of the highlights for me so far:

1. 4×100m free relay where Jason Lezak swam down Alain Bernard, the preious world record holder who was planning on “smashing” the Americans.
2. Michael Phelps winning by .01 in the 100m butterfly, taking a half stroke in the process, which usually is the worst thing to do, but in this case kept him in the chase for an historic 8 golds.
3. USA Men’s Gymnastics in the Team Final where Jonathan Horton stuck landing after landing and Sasha Artemev, originally an alternate, gave a clutch performance on the pommel horse to clinch the bronze medal.
4. Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson going 1-2 in the Women’s All-Around Finals, then 2-3 on the Floor, and then Nastia getting a silver on Uneven Bars, only missing gold due to a tie-breaker. That tie-breaker process seems pretty ridiculous…in a sport that’s already somewhat subjective, it makes the difference between gold and silver even more of a coin toss.
5. Usain Bolt setting a world record time of 9.69 in the 100m, coasting in the last 30m or so. I think he could have gone under 9.60. It’ll be exciting to see if he can break Michael Johnson’s 19.32 in the 200m. I got to see that race in person 12 years ago, and it was absolutely amazing. It was such a big drop in the previous world record, I didn’t think it would get broken for decades. It looks like Bolt might just have a shot at it.
6. Men’s Triathlon Finish - Jan Frodeno from Germany, Bevan Docherty from New Zealand, Javier Gomez from Spain, and Simon Whitfield from Canada. Four men outlasting 40+ others off the bike, battling for 3 medals. Whitfield looked like he fell off with 800m or so to go, somehow managed to bridge back up with 400m left, and then launched a ferocious attack. Frodeno responded and just stormed pass Simon in the last 100m to take the gold. Whitfield took the silver to go with his gold in 2000, and Gomez, the pre-race favorite, finished just out of the medals. Hunter Kemper of the USA battled back from injuries the past year and half to finish 7th, his best finish in 3 Olympics. It was an awesome race to watch, and I hope to be taking part in 4 years!

Filed under: Training