1st Masters Swim

Joined the local masters swim program and did my first workout with them this morning at 6 AM. I'm really excited to have a coach watch my technique and monitor my workouts for me. I have really spent a lot of time figuring out what I need to do in each workout and now I can just get up...go to the pool...and follow someone else's plan. The group is pretty small (just 3 of us) and the workout is solid. Worked on a few new drills and strokes and really like the variety. I am at the point where I can swim 1700 yds without stopping, but I know I need to work on my technique to get more efficient. Hopefully the group workouts will help. Planning to workout with the Masters on Tuesday and Friday mornings...

My New Project

Weekends are great when you get new toys. This weekend I was out at a friends birthday party when all of a sudden a friend arrived a bit late with a puzzled look on his face. I asked: "what's up" and he went on to tell me that he found an old bike on a Washington DC side street in a pile of rubbish and wanted to take it home desperately. Unfortunately, he knew that his wife would kick his A$$ if he collected another bike because he already has 3 bikes stored in their one and only spare bedroom. His wife was at the party too and fortunately she knew nothing of the fact that my boy had picked up that broken down bike, took it home, and stared at it in his living room for a good 15 minutes; envisioning himself stripping the bad boy down and putting it back together with fancy new components.

He knew it would be just the project to get him through the rest of the winter weeks.

Intelligently, he put the bike back in the pile where he found it so he could go on living as a happy married man!

So here he was standing at this party appearing that he had missed out on a great opportunity. He had that look of defeat written all over his face. Seeing an opportunity I said: "I could use a bike like that...and you and I could work on fixing it up in my basement!" After lots of begging, he and I really needed to do some convincing, his wife allowed him to pick that sucker up at close to 1:00 AM (after the party) and store it in his house for up to 24 hours. I went to pick it up at his house the next morning!

Now I am super psyched because it is just what I need to get around the city. I am thinking about turning it into a fixed gear bike, but we'll just have to wait and see how the project materializes. But one thing is for sure. It is really nice to have friends who can spot an opportunity. So here's a toast to my boy Sir Lancelot!

Missing But Active

To my one loyal visitor, I owe a major apology. The past several weeks have been very challenging on the Blog front and a little challenging on the training front. Several weeks ago, I decided to stop posting training log entries on the blog and started to keep the journal on an excel spreadsheet. That way I can tally info up a little easier. Unfortunately, with my lack of posting came a decline in training. I am still active, but base period 2 did not look anything like base period 1. There shouldn't be excuses, but I did have several factors that slowed me down a bit. One good factor was the New Job that started last week. After several interviews and a bit of anxiety I got the job! Hopefully after the last week of exercise down time and work ramp up, I can kick into high gear tomorrow in the AM. I am planning to hit the road on the bike and do a solid workout. If you want to view my plan for this week, it is posted as a googledoc on the "My Training Plan and Diary" link. Once you open the file, check out the "DTP" worksheet and scroll down to week 9. If you want to check out my workout log, you can click on the "Diary" worksheet. Enjoy and please comment!