Winter

Feeling sort of depressed. Lots of immoral things like jealousy but maybe more clinical things like lack of daylight. Keep getting distracted by skis. Alpine touring skis. However, the cost is pretty big and the time etc.  Ran on Saturday 12/22 in the sun. Felt much better and got some things worked out which I should be honest with.  I want to try my hardest to qualify for the world championship this year at Wisconsin. Do you think I can get at least 30 minutes faster this year? Hopefully it will happen. If it doesn't happen I am okay with that because I have lots of other dreams. Note: not trying to make excuses, just put a "race" into perspective.

Swimming- I thought about it and do feel stronger in the water. The Swim Center is a couple of degrees too warm and I used to feel like there was gelatin in the water. I haven't felt that in a while. Also, I think backstroke is getting easier. The swim can be so demoralizing though. Friday (12/21) was pretty miserable. I felt slow and like I couldn't get my right arm to work. i guess i sort of feel like i keep working and working at it but nothing changes. Sort of like beating my head against a wall. My body felt really tight. Not wanting to move. Maybe I need to think about doing some more stretching.

Schedule- we are going to Kalispell for the new year weekend. Leave Friday and come home Tuesday. You can hike up at big mountain and ski down, for free. That sounds like fun to me. I can swim in a pool up there, either in kalispell or whitefish. The state swim meet is in the summit pool in kalispell.
Monday- Went for a run at lunch. It was pretty cold and windy out and I wasn't a super happy camper. I was ready to be done at 30 minutes, but still had to get home. Oh well. Got it done and it doesn't always have to be pretty.

Lots of blog for you to read if I just keep writing each day. Followed the plan. A few questions/comments about gift. You overestimate my power of a pull up. Only 2 the first time and only 1 the rest. He bar is really high and I was completely hanging. Then this buff guy comes and does multiple pull ups with kettle ball attached. Demoralizing.
Explain the wide jumping back and forth? Not sure if I was doing that right.

Tuesday- 30 minute run followed by gfit.

Wednesday- Stumbled out of bed and down to the garage for a roller ride in the am. Rode and hour and got off. Got some new music which makes it more fun.
Swim was good, good, good. I could actually start to feel slip when my right hand wasn't working right. It probably took 3 sets of paddles to no paddles to figure it out, but I really felt like I had a breakthrough with it. Yes!!!

Thursday- Got in 35 minutes of a good run in and then did gfit. One legged plank nearly killed me. We do a lot of one legged plank (called plank torture) in the Amy/Megan workouts, but only hold each side 30 seconds. One minute was a lot.

Friday- Good swim. Staying on time with those 1k efforts isn't working. I can do the first but the 2nd, 3rd, 4th get slower and slower. I was surprised, but I could generally do the 2/3 breathing for the fast swimming. I might have cheated a little and done more on the left coming into and out of the wall. Definitely felt my form completely fall apart though. Next filming session, I am going to have Lawrence film me trying to go fast.

Saturday- Went up to Bozeman Creek with William. Skied for a couple of hours. Went a couple of miles past the bridge. Felt really good. Felt like I got to blow out the pipes, a lot. Skiing was pretty awesome too. Good base and nice fast snow. Did a little bit of concentrating on my right leg. I definitely am not as stable on it as my left. The glide is usually shorter. Maybe work on some stabilizing muscles in my right leg too?

Sunday- Couldn't resist getting back on the skis. Also, it was cold and windy in town. Didn't feel like running or riding my bike. Skied to the cabin. Around 9-10 miles up. So probably got in around 20 miles. Pretty much devastated myself. Felt really good. I needed a devastation. I looked at some picture of my gluteus medius so I could think about it when doing gfit, biking, and running. Skate skiing really works the gluteus medius. Hard to walk down the stairs this morning.

Saying goodbye

This was a sad weekend. My dad's dog of14 years had to get put down. She had stage 4-5 lymphoma. My dad didn't tell anybody that he was taking her to the vet and we all knew she had lymphoma, it just wasn't confirmed. None of us (mom,me,sister) got to say goodbye. I wasn't ready or prepared to say goodbye. Sweet, sweet Kia. You were a good friend and you will be missed. Very missed.

Feeling a little unfit. This week wasn't all that hard but I sure was tired. Regardless i felt like it was a good solid focused week of getting the workouts in.

Schedule I have a meeting on Thursday. I missed it last month so better go this time. Not sure about work. Probably not much on the agenda until at least late next/t week.
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Wed-got up in the am and rode the rollers. Rode pretty hard. Broke a good sweat (in the garage,it was cold out there). Went to masters swim in the pm. Breathed 2/3 most of the time. Even had some stroke maker paddles that I used a bit. Got in 3400. Was pretty tired this pm. This was kind of a big day compared to what I have been doing.

Thursday - ran on the treadmill for ~ 50 minutes. Legs didn't want to turn over too quick. Seems harder to run fast on the treadmill. Did your gift workout after. Good hard workout. My back was tired the next day.

Friday-tired this day. Yawning big at work. Did I mention I stayed up late sitting in Marta's hottub and drinking some wine. Came home after work and rode the rollers. Nothing special just got the workout in.

Saturday- Erik's brother stayed with us after the football game. He and his friend stayed up late and woke up early. It was also pretty cold and really gray outside. Finally got motivated and did the run outside. Swam right after. The swim was harder than I thought. It looked fine, but the key word there was continuous. I haven't swam that far continuous in a while. Good focused workout though. Felt it was good for my swim.  Question-using fins when I start to get tired and lose the form I am trying to get or have? I have zoomers. A good swimmer suggested it. Thought I should get your input.

Sunday funday- masters- I think I did about 1500 fly. Fly day. Fly drill and fly swim. We did most of it with fins. Actually felt a lot like yesterday but with fly.
Met and had coffee and lunch with a bunch of swimmers to talk about our new pool options. I just love the community here.  Really great people. Got a lot of Christmas shopping done.
Rode the trainer to Dexter. Do you like Dexter? So weird that I kind of like him even though he is a serial killer. Good workout. Legs got a little tired after about 4 each time.

Please excuse the typos. Just typed all of this on a tablet.

Missoula weekend

Swim clinic- First, thanks for organizing that and motivating me to do something. Jen definitely told me what I already knew, but was better than anybody at trying to help me fix it. It was fun to see you too. I think the number one thing that Jen said that will help fix my problems is the bilateral breathing. Breathing every three is too difficult for me, so the 2/3 breathing will hopefully help. Nobody has ever suggested that and it seemed to work.  I am excited to get in the pool and do a workout breathing 2/3. I am going to order those paddles today too. I was thinking that I would try the bilateral breathing and using the paddles and then maybe in a month get Lawrence to film me again and see what has changed. Who knows a whole new list of issues will probably pop up. I talked with Jen too about how much to actually think about my technique. She said for about 800 a workout. That way I can incorporate working on this with Masters as well as on my own.

Think I am getting sick. Scratchy throat and a little achy. Think I am going to skip Monday swim and try and kick this cold. Will update this on Tuesday morning. I might just be tired from the weekend. Socializing wears me out and then last night Erik made us salad since John, Lisa and I were all feeling fat . We then  drank a couple of beers and started playing a game we made up called Pass, Fail or Booze. Pretty funny. That lasted later than I would have liked so again maybe I am just tired today.

Schedule- Not much going on for work in the next week or so. So pretty open to lunch time swimming or running. I am staying home this weekend so no special plans there. Made plans to meet a friend and talk about what we as Park and Recreation Board Members want as a new/remodeled pool. Basically, I would like to go to Masters on Sunday morning and then get coffee and breakfast with him after. Maybe one Gfit workout for the week and I will try and meet the girls for the Tuesday workout.

Wednesday
Swim-Went to Masters after work. It was the only thing I could do to get the swim in with my work schedule this day. Started work around 7:30 had a 30 mouse takedown and finished at 6pm. Actually went really well for how many mice we had and the results turned out good too. Good week for work. Anyway, back to swim. Sort of combined your workout with Masters. Did your warmup and the first set of kicks. Then do 6x200 IM / free. The IM was kind of nice. I can get 50 fly in a lot of the time now.

Thursday- Met Lisa at Megans and did your workout with her. She was in a time crunch so we did gfit first. Afterwards I went on a run. It was dark out and I almost got run over my another runner. 45 or 50 minutes of a really good run. Weather was nice and legs felt good.

Friday- Got the swim and run in. I need about 45 minutes to get in a 1500. Maybe more like 35 so I was a few 100's short. Tried as hard as I could. The pool closed at 1 and I got in at 12:30.

Saturday- Kind of a bust. With the rain we just went back to John's moms and sat around for the afternoon. I did hike up a little past the M that morning before we met for swimming though.

Sunday- Kind of a bust as far as bike riding too. We did a little hike up behind John's Mom's house in the am and then went and climbed the steep way up Mt Sentinel in the afternoon. We ran down the switchbacks on the side where the trail pops out on the Kim Williams trail. It was a good workout. We hiked hard up and ran fast down.

Monday- Feel like I am getting sick. My throat is scratchy and I am kind of achy. Think I will go home early and try to get some rest.