Reach the Beach- done & done

Wow, after five years of waiting I finally did it, living in Seattle and family obligations have consistently kept me from being able to do it.. Of course I waited too long to sign up and just made a donation to the American Lung association as my penance.

As centuries go, not easy.. Hills to start in the first 50mi and then wind over the last 50 miles.. I'm sunburned, tired and still recovering today after managing a little swim earlier this evening.

This year of "doing what I haven't done yet" on the sporty-non-competitive front is fun.

Swim myths

Well, I had something more philosophical planned but I did have this one on tap.. So here we go..

First off, I was going to attempt to articulate all of it from various posts Gary Hall Sr. has made over the last year or so on the Slowtwitch forum... Low and behold I'm searching the archives for something else and Mr. Hall has started a "ten swimming myths busted" topic (link below) as it applies to the freestyle stroke.

In a nutshell he says (among other things): Focus on a strong efficient pull & don't get hung up on stroke rate.. Makes sense since at least 90% of the propulsion is derived from the entry/catch/pull phase..

The kick is tricky to get right, so much so that it's mostly a low ROI function of swim training, I'm not saying it's a poor use of time, heck, I've had some instruction on my poor "wooden" kick and it helped, I'm swimming easier & slightly faster for my test sets, for example I did a broken 1200 holding 1.25/100y- that's close to where I was last season and I was on 2/3rds more yardage for months and months- relative to now, that's a great improvement.

And frankly in Tri circles where the swim is concerned at least one prominent coach (Rich Strauss) preaches that once you're at 70min/IM swim fitness the best ROI in terms of race performance, (where IM racing is concerned) is spent on the bike and run.

Implicit in this line of thought is that you're mostly limited by your pull strength and your limits are pretty finite, you'll approach some performance threshold that's not worth getting beyond via incremental improvements not related to a pull. Further, your speed is your speed, and that's kind of depressing because as that applies to shorter racing, you'll just have to deal with the gaps as 70min/IM'er racing Sprints and Olys once on the bike and run.

However, I think there is still something to be said about maintaining proper front quadrant mechanics via a pull that is finished properly and getting body position right, after all, as in my case those two pieces have helped me go mildly quicker with less effort.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/2g5azhc

Intelligence

"Education is no substitute for intelligence. That elusive quality is defined only in part by puzzle-solving ability. It is in the creation of new puzzles reflecting what your senses report that you round out the definitions."

• Mentat Text One (decto)

Chapterhouse: Dune

Whining sucks and somebody you know has it worse

Or will.. People don't feel compassion toward others who whine, they feel compassion when someone struggles against a set of circumstances that are pretty darn tough.

Holy Moly. I have two people in my life, one I know socially and and another I consider a good friend. One has a life-threatening illness in the prime of their life and the other experienced a life-altering change in social circumstances. Not small stuff, big stuff.

Ok, that's pretty vague. I don't know if they read this and I'd prefer to keep their business private here.

On the other hand..

I have people in my life who are immature whiners. And, not calling anyone out but seriously, if you've had your way paid to one of the top ten universities in the nation, have a decent job and you "can't figure out what to do with your life" and figure this gives you license to abuse the living bejesus out of folks close to you, abuse your body, etc. all in the name of "finding yourself" I have news for you:

Wake up. It's time to get real, you have the whole world right in your hands, commit to that big, scary dream, whatever it is and start down the path to making it happen. If it doesn't happen you'll know it and then it's time for Act II in life. And don't worry if you fail because life is pretty darn long.

Or, is the alternative sauntering around in a fully self-masturbatory life-style that may please friends, family and a few loser hangers on? Whilst whining of course.

You know who I (and everybody else) roots for in life ?

People that pick themselves off the ground when things are rough and get on with the business of living. Live like they mean it.