Catch up on the week or so...

Well, there is a lot to catch up on over the last week or so. Let’s see what has happened. I am convinced I have runners knee. At this point, I am afraid to run because of the pain. Luckily for me, I have an appointment with Dr. Greenapple’s staff. More specifically, Dr. Clay who also taught the swim clinic I attended today which was an awesome clinic but I will talk about that later.

I took the new Cervelo P3 bike out for a ride and nearly wrecked it 5 times! It is totally going to take some getting used to. Riding on that bike made me feel like cycling was new to me. I don’t feel stable enough to even fuel myself on this bike right now. If I were to do the half Ironman today, I would have to stop every 45 minutes to eat and put more fluids in the aero bottle. That would amount to about 4 stops on the route. It is my prayer that the weather warms up for a lot more training rides so I can feel more comfortable with the ride.

More exciting news! We have tickets in-hand! We are definitely going to Cozumel! I just hope that when I arrive I am healthy enough to participate in this event! Now as for my bike, I have no idea how it is going to make it to Cozumel! If I were to ship the bike on the plane with a bike case, it would cost me $600 total which about $200 more than I paid for my plane ticket! I am considering shipping the bike with DHL.

Swimming

Two nights ago, I went for a swim. I felt so lazy this day! I didn’t want to do my workout. I went to the pool and decided I wasn’t going to “push it.” I was going to swim and work on my technique and whatever my time was, I didn’t care! It turned out I was seconds faster in the pool! My times were also more consistent and there didn’t seem to be signs of fatigue! I guess because I was more relaxed (i.e. lazy) and focused on my technique, I was a little faster and more consistent. I couldn’t believe it! I went to the pool not expecting to push it and came out with better times!

Today I went to a swim clinic held by Greenapple’s staff as I mentioned before. It was a sighting clinic that also covered technique. What I failed to mention about Dr. Clay is that he holds, or at some point held, the fastest swim times at University of Kentucky. I think it is safe to safe this guy knows what he is talking about! His big deal was hip rotation which I know I don’t really do well with! He showed us the fist drill, which we did, followed by a 100 yard swim. This really forces you to drive your hips and WOW! What a difference!

I learned some pretty important things to improve my stroke. The clinic was 2.5 hours long and only 20 bucks! I walked away with at least three things to improve on. In addition, I learned several different ways to sight in the open water! This is important considering I never swam in the open water. Swimming is quickly becoming my strongest discipline.

Over these last few weeks I have also encountered “skeptical looks” from people in the sport. I will talk about that in the next post.