I Can Do Anything You Can Do Better... Yes I Can!

I'm back from Boulder and my 3 day trip was a success! All three days saw me at the Newton Running lab having impressions for orthotics on day one, picking them up for testing on day two, and day three, attending Danny Abshire's run clinic. I found the clinic imperative for visualizing, executing and receiving the correction I needed in changing my run form.

TGP and Danny-follow the leader

Having another pair of eyes evaluate your form and make corrections made all the difference so that I could take it back home and continue on my own. I learned a ton and I'm ever so grateful for the time spend with me by both Danny and Jennifer Abshire as well as Paul at the Active Imprints lab for making me superior custom orthotics.

I've been super smart in taking the required time to break in my Newtons and I'm happy to say I'm up to 45 minutes with no calf tightness and my new run form is coming along nicely. Gone are the days when I head out the door and let my mind wander as I run but I'm hoping one day, I won't have to continually be engaged with my brain with every foot strike and constantly making slight corrections.  It's supposed to be "natural running"  and damn it, I'm sticking to this until it does. I've signed up for a 10k in  June and I'm looking forward to seeing where I am at that point. Think SLOW but with GOOD form!!!

In other news, you'll notice my Team Water. org logo  up at the top  and I encourage you to
click on the link and poke around the site.  It is a true eye opener in the sense that we take clean,
clear, safe and abundant water for granted and that is truly an understatement. I hope to join up with fellow Team Psycho team mate Kyle Damon ( yes, Matt's brother) in being a tiny voice in this worldwide crisis by becoming a team member and doing what I can to support this great cause.  There are a lot of charities in need out there and it's hard to pick just one but if I do race this year, it will not only be for Margaret Nervegna as it always has been since her untimely death but now too for a chance to change a village or a save a child by helping support the basic need of  clean,safe water.


Cheers!

CHANGE: A simple concept that requires commitment and tenacity for SUCCESS!

Athletically I've made some MAJOR changes this year and I'm proud to say I'm sticking to
them like flies on a fresh steamy pile of Golden Retriever poop.

I started TRX late December/early January and I've stuck to a 2 x a week 1:15 of strength and conditioning "HELL" like those flies would. I'm starting my third installment of 10 classes so this proves it! Dede, Todd, Laura and hopefully Shannon will all be TRX slaves with me as I've somewhat inspired them to take the challenge, do something different, get ROCK SOLID.
It comes with a price mind you. I still leave every session sweaty, completely spent and wondering how I'm going to hold my arms up wielding sharp instruments all day. I know I'm only complimenting my swimming, biking and running with this and staying INJURY FREE
so therefore, I'm not givin' it up. IF MD, my Semper Fi, Drill Sargent up and leaves me, I am DOOMED. Who else is going to tell me "IT SAYS ZERO" when I complain about how I swam 4000 yesterday and I don't know if I will be able to work hard today. I get this look of 'Your kidding me, right' smirk on his face along with the comment, "Let me look at my *Give A F@ck meter* and see what it says"
I LOVE YOU MD!!! Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

Ok so what else have I committed to besides insanity? My run form. Oh boy.. this is a big one folks and I'm not going to go too much into this because all ya's gotta do is scroll down to my previous post and my mini video says it all. I need to follow up with my next video of me dancing around with my new run form. This is FAR FROM EASY and every run is nothing but paying close attention to:
keeping a slight forward lean
staying relaxed
keeping my chicken wing arms close to my body
maintaining a high cadence (90)
landing on my forefoot

This is a rather large POOP PILE to contend with each and every run but like the flies, DAMN IT I'm sticking to it in hopes that someday before my 79th birthday celebration,It quite possibly will be a HABIT.

Last but not least.

My freestyle swim stroke. It needed some tweaking as everyones could. We won't even go into how  horrible
my flip turns really are, so that got overhauled too. MAJOR POOP HERE. Yikes! For the last 3 weeks, I have not felt snappy and fresh in the pool. All I do is concentrate on my elbows and keeping my hand placement where It's been POUNDED into me. As for the flip turn, my biggest flaw is not letting my head lead in conjunction with my hand on the entry to the wall and I loose all my momentum going in with a sloppy ass lead in stroke so I've got nothing coming off  that wall. Think feathers poofing out of a down pillow. HORRIBLE....
And get this!!!!!! I am swimming the 1650 free this coming Saturday at Harvard somewhat verkclempt on if I should just swim it my old crappy self way or suck it up and swim it paying close attention to every last stroke and flip, not concerning myself with my time.


Think steamy pile of poop and those flies again...


Change is good!