analyzing my stroke, and "stating the obvious"

Uh, huh huh......uh....huh huh huh........heh heh.....you said "stroke."

No, that's not Beavis and Butthead, two of my favorite cartoon characters. That was Adam and Matt last night when we were out to dinner laughing when I told them what in God's name I could possibly be doing at 6:50am on a Sunday morning.

Then they laughed even harder when I said I think I needed to pull harder.

I swear, I think I married a 16 year old trapped inside the body of a 31 year old. :)

Anyway, I think I have successfully kicked my own ass this week....here's what it looked like:

Monday: rest
Tuesday: 3000 yard swim (1:00), 1:00 weights and core
Wednesday: 1:15 run
Thursday: 1:30 bike, :30 run
Friday: 2:00 run
Saturday: 2:00 bike, :30 core
Sunday: 2:00 swim clinic (not much yardage though, but lots of drills)

Total: 11:45 hours for the week! This is a new record for me! Yay!

Geez....this summer I'm going to be pushing 20 some weeks....

Whoa. I guess that's why they call it IM.

Okay, a few quick things:

1. We caught Fat Bastard! (I named him that because he ate 3 pieces of peanut butter bread on THREE DIFFERENT occasions Friday night before we finally caught him) He has been released into the wild and hopefully our raccoon problems are OVER.

2. Blogfriends galore! CONGRATS to anyone that ran in the FROZEN TUNDRA which was Cleveland yesterday, and especially to Curly Su, Elizabeth, my kick ass MOM, and Daisy Duc, who PR'd!!!! Who the heck PR's when it's six degrees????!!! Amazing race guys! It was so fun to see you all! Elizabeth and Daisy Duc also got some hardware and Curly Su ran an awesome race in darn near unbearable conditions. My Mom did 11:35/min miles, which is AWESOME--I am so proud of her!

So I went to the swim clinic today. I was not sure what to expect but I do know it's been about 12 years since anyone has analyzed my stroke. I was a little nervous to hear what I looked like.

Eric was there as well as a few other Tri Clubbers. I was pretty tired just 'cuz I feel like I've done quite a bit of volume this week. But I was excited to have this really good coach check out my stuff and hopefully to learn some good pointers.

After seeing some drills, doing some drills, and swimming a bit, she looked at each of our strokes. I was a little scared to do my 50 and just tried to swim like I normally do. I got to the wall and looked up and she said,

"Good--good. Well, I can tell you're a swimmer."

For some reason that struck me as kind of odd. I guess it's been a long time since I thought of myself as a swimmer....but for so many years that was really a huge part of me. I guess I was worried that that part might have faded away. Maybe she had been replaced by the stuff that took swimming's place....like a fastpitch pitcher, a decent road racer, a teacher, etc.

But it made me feel really good.

She knows her crap and she said my stroke looked really good. She said her only suggestion was to work on reaching a bit more so I can grab more water.

She also said, "I can tell you're a sprinter." Guilty as charged. :) She said I was kicking way too much and could back off the kicking a bit, which I usually do for everything except a 50. (ha ha--old habits die hard) So I will try to concentrate on that for my longer sets, too, since as she said it does take a great deal more oxygen when you're kicking like a sprinter.

I got home and told my husband that I was a little surprised that she said these things, and his reply was, "But isn't that stating the obvious? You are a swimmer. You are calm in the water, and there's no WAY I ever would be."

So I am a swimmer. Sometimes I need to remember that.

Now for a well-earned rest day, and day off, to boot! Yay! We're going on a mini-getaway tonight and I can't wait.

Stay warm everyone! :)