The kids, of course are having a blast. My neighbor across the street made an igloo in his front yard and here's a pic of the Monkey hanging out inside.
After seeing the igloo (it took Oscar literally all day to make the igloo) I decided that my contribution to the kids fun was a ramp for the sleds. I piled the snow up against the light that is in the front yard with the ramp shooting the kids out into the street. I know it sounds dangerous for them, but really they need help getting the sled going down the ramp so there's always an adult to double check for cars. Besides, it's not nearly as dangerous as the kids being pulled behind the ATVs on their sleds without helmets on.
In that pic, the ramp doesn't look big, but remember that the light post you see is probably 3 1/2 feet tall where the light actually comes out of the base, so it's a decent size little ramp.
On the training front, I've gotten back into the full swing of things. Right now, I'm working on getting 3 Crossfit workouts in a week to rebuild the strength that I feel that I've lost from my time off. I'm also trying to get a min of 2-3 bike sessions a week in (2 hard and one endurance ride) along with the swimming and running. Which brings me to talking about the other 2 sports of triathlon.
I'll start with the running portion since that will take the least amount of time. I ran for the first time in over 2 MONTHS last week. I didn't realize that it had been that long since I ran any sort of distance (I don't consider the occasional 400m interval run that is built into some Crossfit workouts as a real run). Granted, I did have the vasectomy, and after that I had NO desire to attempt running for a while. But 2 months. Man, that was a long time. I've decided to ease myself back into running since it's been so long. I did an easy (8min/mile) pace for a 5k the other day at work. It felt really good, but reminded me how much I hate being on the treadmill. While on the treadmill, I loose all sense of time and space so I tend to look down at the screen every 30sec and get frustrated that I haven't gone nearly as far as I feel like I have gone. So instead, I need to just zone out into my music and not look at the screen until after each song, or every other song to help pass the time away. Of course, my right ankle has been a little tender here and there since the run, but that's to be expected. I'm just going to work on progressing myself back to where I was, and then build or at least maintain from that point on. Running is the least of the 3 sports to work on this season.
Swimming is going to be an entirely different story. I was in the pool today and was getting very, very frustrated over being in the water. I used to enjoy the pool, but today it was not fun at all. I feel horribly slow, and my mechanics are all out of whack. I've noticed several areas that I need to work on, but not sure where to start. The 3 main aspects that I need to work on are (in no particular order):
1) Form with good body roll
2) Gliding
3) Breathing
I feel like I'm getting a better high elbow catch in the water and not crossing my arms over the midline, I still feel like my form is crap. I noticed this with breathing on my left side. Every time I breath to my left, my butt sags down and so do my legs. My right arm isn't keeping the balance that it needs to and I'm forced to increase my kick cadence every time I breath on my left because of my crappy form. In terms of my gliding, I somehow lost all sense of gliding before going into the next pull, at least that's how it feels to me. The breathing is another issue entirely. When I start to get tired and try to just gut it out in the water, I fall back to my right sided breathing and breathing with every stroke. Why? Not a clue, it's like I'm in a race to see if I can blow all my air out during that one stroke cycle so I can roll and take another breath. I noticed that today, and I would try to slow my breathing down to force me to go to a 3 count breath (meaning breathing from both sides) or a 4 count breath. I would default to the 4 count since it would allow me to always roll to my right to breathe. While I would be able to do that for a couple of rotations, I would soon feel like I wasn't getting enough air and then would default back to the 1 count. Like I said, it's extremely frustrating.
My new Crossfit Endurance book has an entire chapter on swimming with a ton of drill that are sequential in building your form. My plan, until I can hire a coach or hit the masters swim class for some extra help, is to go through those drills and hammer out my form for the next month. I will try to get into the pool for a min of 2x week for 1+ hour to really get after my form. I think that with a better form, I will get # 1+2 doing a lot better. Maybe #3 will follow suit during this entire process as well??? So now through Valentine's day, I'll be hitting the pool as often as I can and will hopefully have a better report and ease of swimming. I'm not looking to be in the Olympics, but I am looking to get a sub 24min Olympic distance swim time this next season.
