Practice What You Preach

Swim Day

1 x 150- Warm-up
5 x 100
3 x 200- 100-5, 7, 9/100- fingertip drag
1 x 500
3 x 50- Sideline kick
1 x 100- Cool down
total- 2000 yards

There was nothing intense, hardcore, or difficult about this workout at all. It was my first swim back in a few weeks and the very early start to building a big strong base for Honu training. And the best place to start base building in swimming is with technique work.
The only way to be fast over long distances is to become strong enough that when you're tired your stroke doesn't deteriorate. This is not a new claim in this space, but its going to become Mantra in the coming months. Drills, distance work, and extended speed sets will all play a roll in my preparation, but I see drills and technique focused workouts in my nearest future. In my own head I have a pretty freestyle. I ought to, I've worked hard on it. When it's clicking its long, smooth, and efficient. And when it isn't it feels like a thousand pieces of mismatched joints grinding together in disharmony, all working to create as much drag and headache as possible. This morning was not like that. It wasn't like the former either, but that's to be expected. Instead there are dozens of niggling little problems to be dealt with. My elbows are dropping on my catch, my hands aren't entering the water in a solid line, but are wavering slightly, my core is weak, my head position drops too low when I'm not paying attention, and I'm not finishing as strongly as I'd like. But the minor things are the hardest to fix. So that's what the next few weeks and months will be about: smoothing the rough edges and searching for that hydrodynamic happy place where speed, economy, and efficiency meet like happy forest creatures in a Disney movie...ok, I admit that last metaphor wasn't the most Dirtbag thing in the world. Let me try again. I'll be working on making speed, efficiency, and economy blend into a speed metal mixture of Slaytanic  proportions. 

Running With Al

Today I decided some tunes while running were in order. It happens every once in a while, though I try not to get used to it because very few races are cool with mp3 players on course and I don't want to link music to my runs. Normally, when I go from a run with music there is a very specific type I'm pumping into my skull at full volume.
Something like this:

Or this:

Today, however, I decided to mix it up. I was looking for a fun run. So I went with this:

That is correct, ladies and gentlemen. His Weirdness himself, "Weird Al" Yankovik. Because if you want to feel goofy and enjoy yourself during pretty much anything it's hard to do better than Al.
As a rule, when I run with music I don't sing along. It's not that I'm worried people around me will think I'm crazy, it's just that I don't have the air to spare. Tell me though, how am I not supposed to sing along with this:


Impossible, I say!
The album this song is on, the album I was rocking out to today, is called Running With Scissors. How freaking appropriate is that?

Songs about Jedi, Grapefruit Diets, and the great city of Albuquerque got me through the run with a smile on my face. Did I bust a few moves? I may have. I may also have spun my visor around during my first listen through of All About the Pentiums to be more gangsta. Because around here at Dirtbag Fitness HQ we are nothing if not gangsta.
Oh yeah, I ran for 48 minutes, I have no idea how far I went or what my pace was, because I didn't care. That wasn't the point. Getting on the road and trying to enjoy a run was. And I think I succeeded. Booyah.