Dirtbag Powered Travel (plus MEGA Links and Shilling for Louis CK)

Run/Swim Day
Run time- 45:18
distance- 4.91mi
Swim-
1 x 500 yds
8 x 25 dolphin kick (1 breath or less)
1 x 50 dolphin kick (underwater)

Yesterday was my first day off of school for Winter Break. (It's not Christmas break because there are actually people in this country who celebrate something other than Christmas, and its not Holiday Break because often those other holidays don't fall during the so-called Holiday Break. Living in Hawaii even calling it Winter Break is a stretch. Where was I?) As I've stated before in this space, having time off from work is both a blessing and a curse when it comes to working out. On one hand, I'm completely free to work out any time I'd like. On the other I have no set times when I must work out. Too much freedom! My training plan is based around get up before school/train again after school timing. To be able to just wake up whenever or go run whenever is troubling. Too much opportunity for "I can play another 30 minutes of Uncharted 3, then I'll head out." But I've started out strongly this time.
As I've gained endurance and confidence I've been trying to do more and more things Dirtbag-powered. If something is close enough to ride the bike to, I will try  to do that. And now the gym is close enough to run to. Actually, its just as close as its always been, but that distance doesn't seem nearly so far anymore. So with a coaching session with Dirtbag the Grey planned for 2:30, I set out at 1 for the gym. I wore my zoomers under my running shorts, tucked my goggles and cap into the trunks, strapped on my heart rate monitor and Garmin, threw on my glasses and visor, tried not to think about how non-minimal I was being with all this crap, and set out. No water because Google Maps told me it would be just over five miles and that's not too bad and because Super Awesome Wife might have gotten me something to help for Christmas.
It was a decent enough run. According to the fanciness I averaged a 9:07 pace, which isn't too bad since I wasn't pumping at all. Not that there will be much pumping in the near future from my runs. I'm looking for strength still, not speed. Speed is so much less important to me right now.

And when I got to the pool the Grey hadn't arrived yet so, in an act of extreme trusting, I gathered all my stuff on a kickboard, put the kickboard on a chair, and put the chair right next to the lane I was swimming in so that I could see in on nearly every breath while I swam. Then I cruised a nice and easy 500 to stretch the muscles out. My core has been feeling a little weak in the water and that's the reason for the dolphin kick repeats. Nothing strengthens the core like a good dolphin kick set. And the anaerobic additions? Why not? It's only 25 yards (enter Sean laughing and arguing with me that its shorter) and that's an easy underwater to make. Hence the double at the end.

Race Update: In other Dirtbag-related news the Honolulu Triathlon is open for early resident registration. Since this will be the big tune-up race before the Honu I got in early. As of right now it's the only triathlon on my plate for the year aside from the Honu and I'm really looking forward to seeing my time drop since I'll be prepared for a much longer race and this should be shorter than many of my training sessions.

 Completely Unrelated to Fitness Thing: Louis CK is hilarious. If you don't already know that you need to find it out right now this minute. Warning: SOOOOO NSFW.




If you did laugh your ass off at these (the story 2:00 into the second one is one of my favorite things ever) then you should support the man. And here is how-go to this website and buy his special, Live from the Beacon Theater. It's $5. So even if you hate it you only spent five bucks. He's being completely upfront and honest about where the money is going and how he's going to use it. He made it, literally, the easiest thing on the internet to steal. But why would you do that? Buy one. Buy one for a friend. You can! You can gift this thing for $5 from his website. And you can burn it to a DVD. You can, like I'm going to do, download it and move the file onto a different device, my Nook Color, to watch it on a plane. If enough people support him he'll keep doing stuff like this. Grantland.com has a great interview with him (BS Report links, 2 parts, you can't miss it). Ok, I'm done now. But seriously, Louis CK.