Woop

This ended up being a pretty good week as far as sticking to the plan.

Have been doing the PT. It seems to be helping, but it is sort of funny the places where it will hurt again. Doing breast stroke kick gets it to flare up. I have another appointment next week with David, but in the meantime might email Jason. I feel like David is treating me like a Chiropractor. Just keep coming back in. I really want to get a more holistic sense of what is going on. Lawrence suggested getting a second opinion. I know these exercises are helping, but should I be doing something to prevent this problem in the long term? Strength work, etc? I guess I will ask David these questions next week. Okay, sorry about that. Thinking while typing.

I committed to helping my sister, which wasn't super productive on my part, but Erik did a lot of work so I suppose that counts. However, on Friday night I made up for the missed ride on Saturday. We did an Alley Cat. Basically a scavenger hunt on bikes. It was really fun. Erik, Bender, Mike and I stayed together. Being a Bozemanite, I knew where everything was and they rode fast dragging me along from place to place. Not that this ride was about winning, but we were so close to being the first ones in. I got first female and I think Bender and Mike were 3rd and 4th male. Better cost to benefit ratio than most cyclocross races. We rode like crazy for a couple of hours, drank a couple of beers with everybody after the event and got home at 11pm. Woop, what a day. Alley Cat's are the best excuse to be total hooligans on bikes. Road rules forgotten. Oh, I also did the swim workout that day. The sculling was really interesting. I played around with it a lot. Slicing my hands through the water, scooping the water. After eight 25s I definitely had enough, but also the right amount to really get a good feel.

Sunday was also another really fun day. Swam with Masters in the am. The workout consisted of lots of 50's some fast, some slow, some IM, some diving off blocks. I think for where I am fitness wise with swimming this was an awesome workout. I tried with all my might to stay on Lawrence's toes during the fast parts and I was pretty happy for doing it. The harder efforts aren't killing me like they do the first time back in the pool after a while. After swimming we got coffee and lunch with the Masters and listened to Flora tell us all about the horror movies she owns and has seen. (she has Down's Syndrome, I think). Then Lawrence and I hiked to Second Hump above the M. It is probably 2/3's of the way to Baldy. We went straight up. It was a really good hike and great company. You are my rock and Lawrence is my anchor.

Swimming-
I would like to mention a few things that I notice while swimming and a few "epiphanies" that I have had.

1) When I do catch up drill, which I think is really good because it is helping my reach, I try and breath every three. When I breath on my left side, which is the side I like to breath on, I loose my balance and stop dead in the water. I can fix this while concentrating and I think it is because my right arm is crossing over to the left or that I turn my head too much not my body. What do you think?

2) Swimming with paddles the other day I got my roll to be more accentuated. I felt like it was much smoother and with a lot of thought maybe gave me a better catch. I felt like I was really pulling myself with my back all the way over to the other side. I try and emulate this without the paddles but it doesn't always work. Should I have somebody watch me with the paddles and without and see how it looks? Any other suggestions?

3) Kicking on side- What is the point of this? Head up or head down? I was putting my head in the water and just trying to take breaths when I needed them. I have a tendency to arch my lower back doing these. Should I concentrate on keeping my core tighter?