hello BT!!! i'm at the inlaw family compound but we didn't bring out bikes this weekend because we are doing other things this weekend, so i'll try to work in a run today.

miche033 asked what i did with my catch thursday, and i put it as an inspire in her blog but i'll put it here too, just in case anyone else is curious. not that i'm a huge expert or anything, but these are the articles/videos/etc that inspired my change and it seemed to work for me.

Check out this video:

http://www.nyhoff.net/swimcity/Crawl-SwimcityMediaCentre-IanThorpeSloMo.mpg

The main difference, verbally, that I can say is that i started the catch earlier. I know things like TI say you should make your strokes as long as possible and take advantage of glide, but I do get a smidge of glide in before I start catch. And to *do* the catch, I basically just bend my elbow, so that my hand moves towards the centerline of my body, and shove downwards, like grabbing a rope of water and pulling myself over it. if you watch thorpe's video a bit you can kinda see what i mean.

this is also sort of the article that inspired me to try modifying my catch to begin right away:
http://www.slowtwitch.com/Training/Propulsion_in_the_water_249.html

and I do think he's right, in that TI is great for someone who basically can't swim to get to the point where they can swim a lot and not run out of breath, and great for fundamental body balance, but if you can swim already (reasonably well) and are thinking about pushing your speed, then you should consider what this guy is saying.

and i do have pretty good body balance (except when i breathe on my left, then it's not so good) but even when i had a ti lesson or do all these "balance check" drills, all the red flags never went off.  so it drove me crazy searching for a balance issue, an efficiency issue, something, to find what was wrong with my stroke.  but the article above inspired me to think about my propulsion problems instead of balance problems, because whatever my balance problems are, they're not very big at all.  and it did make a big difference.  PROPULSION!!  and arm turnover.  that's what i'm going to work on now, instead of finding my "freebie" stroke issue to gain 5s/100.

just found out biking will be a no go this weekend, for family reasons. so, i will just go for a nice LSD run instead. then next week, it's back to work!

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going to swim today. i'm excited to try these drills because i know i'm stalling in the water, just like it described. i would totally describe it as a "hitch" in my stroke, i am gliding so smoothly along, and then there's a little hiccup, and it costs not a LOT in speed, but it adds up over distance. so, i am going to give those a shot. i am actually going to TIE my feet together with a big elastic headband, woohoo! maybe i am kind of masochistic, but i am not scared of doing it, so maybe i'm not.

on a totally unrelated note, i got a haircut today, and i like it. probably because i hadn't cut my hair since november and it was getting a little gross, so anything is better than that!

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i was inspired by DMW's inspire. when i say this past april was a banner month for me, i mean it! check it out:

new month! how exciting :).

goals for may:

1) retire my shoes

2) do several bike courses several times to assess improvement

3) start doing some hill work in both run and bike

it just hit me that i just went out and ran 5 miles. wtf? ME???? that's insane!!! this is awesome. i've never taken 5 miles so lightly, and now, here i am. 5 miles is a walk in the park!

incidentally, i just noticed myself in the mirror. i look like a crazy woman, my hair is ALL askew and i think i look pretty funny. no wonder people looked at me weird on my run :).

check this out - a history for the route i ran today - BOOYAH:

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omg, my mom has entered the world of text messaging. i've gotten 2 from her in the last 2 days. hahahahahaha!

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ok, today i feel kind of normal. even yesterday i was still totally beat, and today, i'm not. so i will do my workout, i think i'll do the run i was supposed to do yesterday, and possibly hit the pool for a little while. it's a recovery week so i don't think it's such a huge deal.

last night i was soooo sleepy, i don't get it. usually when tom gets up in the mornign i am stirred into awareness and get up a few minutes later. this morning...i totally was not. apparently he washed all the dishes and i didn't even hear that, and barely realized that he took a shower, whcih is crazy because the shower is loud. this is unusual, i must have been in a deeeep sleep. i guess i really was tired. who would think a bike ride would take you 2 full days to recover from????

looks like i am going to be a slacker today and not work out.  oops.

on another note, i'm kinda craving chocolate.

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disgusting dreary rainy day here today! wooo! ha.

still feeling kinda beat. i'm not sure if i should go for run today, i might swap tomorrow's workout for today.