Flip Turns and Junk

Check this crap out. I've been doing flip turns. Ok, I've known how to do them since I was 12, but refused to do them out of principle. Until now. When I was a kid, I swam in a summer swim league. My folks kept me ridiculously busy when I wasn't in school. The goal, I'm guessing, was to keep me out of a youth home. Summer swim league was one of those activities. I liked it though. It gave me a new group of friends in the summers and it was pretty fun. I was a sprinter. My stroke sucked but I could muscle through it fast enough. When my coaches made me race anything over 50 meters, I took it as a personal affront to my liberty and well-being. No Joke. There was more than one occasion where I false started on purpose or was otherwise obnoxious to show my displeasure. I certainly didn't do flip turns on anything over 50 meters.

Needless to say, I didn't like practicing either. That makes my new dedication to the pool seem a bit ironic. Here's a kid that used to get creative in thinking of ways to shorten his workouts. I don't do that any more. Some of my old Loyalsock Gators teammates would be shocked.

I swam two miles today. With flip turns. WTF? It's Thursday night and that puts me at 5 miles on the week so far. Oh and get this, I taught myself how to breathe bilaterally too. Tomorrow is a day off. I am ready for it.

My Two Months in Jail Sucked, But They're Over.

Alright, maybe I wasn't really in jail. Life's just been messing with this blog. We're now less than nine months out from the Rev3 Ironman this September. It's time to quit playing grab ass and buckle down a bit. That's what I've been doing. Kinda.

When Katie and I got back from our honeymoon, I was doing pretty good with the weight. My fitness was a different story, but at least I hadn't porked up too bad. And that's in spite of all the wine and beer and crazy fried Spanish food we gorged on. So that was good. While it lasted. Between the middle of November and the New Year--well just look at my photo.

The good news was that I was hitting the bike trainer pretty hard and running a good bit. Mostly, I was just trying to build a bit of a base before my 36 week IM training plan kicked in. So far, so good. Fat but somewhat fit, I'll take it this time of year.

I haven't been training too much with Katie though. Anyone who knows us knows that Katie hates training with me. I won't mince words. She dogs it when we run or bike together. And the second I open my mouth about it, HOLY shit. I'll say something like "honey, I think you could pick up the pace just a smidge. You're doing great though. Keep up the good work." Katie's response is usually straight from Full Metal Jacket. That's exactly how it goes usually. Problem is, Katie can dog it all week and then still hammer it home when she decides to. Long story short, I got Katie a coach for Christmas. Now she doesn't have to train with me. And she probably won't yell at Coach Sean when he tells her to quit screwing around. What stinks about the whole deal though is that I probably sealed my own fate. I'll no doubt be getting chicked soon. Crap.

Last weeks training summary:

Swam--5700m
Biked--3:20
Ran--20mi