If I could only walk on water?

Woke up this morning to my greatest fears...??

Yes! I'm in pain! I could barely walk to my bathroom this morning. I'm back to square one with my left foot, and my right foot isn't any better, they are all swollen, and hard to walkon in or out of my orthotics.

I popped a few pain meds and headed out to the pool, I just wanted to get in the water an swim. Swim I did!..getting into the pool was difficult walking across the deck, but once I was in the pool I was fine.

I swam 2000m in sets of 250m warm up, then 500m race pace, another 250m easy, then 1000m straight tempo pace.( tempo pace being just under race pace and over easy pace)

The pool was busy today, but mostly hot swim chicks today so that's ok! LOL..

After my swim as I was fiddle farting around, a guy who I've seen in the pool before and noticed is really trying to train hard and improve his swim, said something to me from his lane, I said back what? he said again, I've been watching your swim and you are real smooth and fast, your swim stroke looks effortless. I said thanks. then he went on telling me how he has been researching swimming and all the different techniques, telling me how he was told to pull down the center of his body, yada yada yada....then he tell me he noticed how I don't do that? That my stroke is more off to the side, not down the middle, but it seemed so effortless for me. I told him not everyone can have the perfect stroke, everyone has a slight variance on where the pull comes down, but the main thing is to have a good pull though, all your forward power is between the belly button and mid thigh. everything else is just balancing your stroke with a good reach and catch keeping your elbow bent at 90 degrees through the stroke, if my arm is out to the side a bit that is ok, as long as the 90 degrees bend is in tact and that I get a good push though is all that matters, the arm doesn't have to come down the center of the body . think of it like a paddle boat, each rudder pushing the water through beneath you.

Then we start talking about Brad the Rec center director which he also knew. I told him how brad is one fast swimmer around and as we were talking Brad comes out to the pool deck to talk to us, like his ears were burning from us talking about him.

Now Brad is an awesome swimmer and one of the best swim instructors around, so we get talking and Brad is giving us his opinions on our strokes. he said my stroke isn't the best or the most effective, but it is effective and effortless for me, and there isn't much I should do to tweak it for more efficiency, it's just the way I learned and I can do. Then he went on telling the other guy some things he can do to become more efficient with his stroke.

It's nice to get complemented at the pool on my swimming. But sometimes I wonder if my swim is all that good? But on the other hand? I do get a lot of complements on my swimming? is it really good? We will see at Lake Placid?

Did I mention my foot hurts?? ......

Needless to say, after my swim I didn't have it in me to go to Holly wood pool to meet up with the Director, my Diving career can wait a few days, maybe I'll see her on Monday when I can walk better.

Shock and Ouch! Pain, BIG PAIN!!

I didn't get a chance to get out to the rec center today to meet up with the rec director, I forgot I had 2 doctors appointments today and didn't have time to to get out to the rec center to talk with the rec director, so I'll get out there tomorrow if I can. In the mean time......

Ooooooooooouuuuuch!!!.....I went to see the PT today and got my shock wave treatment done....$1200 for the 2 feet paid up front, and if the treatment doesn't work ( no guarantees) it's money out out of my pocket. I will submit the bill to my benefits plan at work and hope they cover it so I can get my money back, I had my mom spot me with a cheque for $800. and the other $400 I paid out of my LTD cheque that came yesterday but is needed money to pay my mortgage later this month. If I don't get the money back? I will be short on the mortgage!! Plus my mom will not get her money back for a long while.

So I get to the clinic and the PT checks me out, wants to here my story, has me fill out questionnaires, then runs me though what this shock wave treatments all about, basically he tells me, it re injures the PF area that is injured and breaks up scare tissue with a shock wave pulse, something like ultra sound that hits the area directly hard like a jack hammer, even sounds like a jack hammer, to break up the scare tissue and to creates blood flow into the injured area so it can heal on it's own over time. Man does it hurt!! ... it feels like one of those joke hand buzzers that zap you but a lot lower frequency sound and 1000 more times intense.

He did my left foot first, shocking the area of my pain the size of a 3 inch circle for a total of 2min and 15 seconds, and it felt like an eternity, I was gritting my teeth, yelping taking deep breaths shaking and by the end of the 2min 15 sec, I was sweating like I just ran a 5K, then he did my other foot a few mins later when I was ready.

He started my right foot and after about 1 min I just couldn't take it the pain! I had him stop which was OK, he said I could stop if I need to, but then it would have to start up again until the whole time was used,( 2min and 15 sec.) When I was ready to go after my 10 sec break from pain, he continued and I bared down again until he was done. OUCH!

I have to go back 2 more times over the next 2 weeks, I am not looking forward to it. Right now my feet are achy and red( lots of blood flow) puffy and hot. The PT said I could ice if I wanted, so I am.

Hopefully tomorrow I wil be able to walk enough to get to the pool and have a nice easy swim. and of coure talk to the Rec center Director about the Diving program.

Diving Cross training??

I went to check out the new Holly woods rec center across town, yes that is the name of the center because the area of development is called holly woods.

Man, the place is big! it has 2 ice rinks, fitness center, gym, meeting rooms and pool. but everything is open to glass, as you walk in you can see through to the pool, though a huge wall of glass, on the other side you can see the ice rinks though walls of glass, up in the fitness room you look down on the rinks though glass, or out side on the other wall.

But the best part was the pool was open to the public and they had the diving board working, as I said the other day, I was told the boards weren't fitted right, well that was partly right, it was the 3 meter board that wasn't fitted right and they had to send back the board to be fitted right, the 1 meter board is up and running. Yay!!

So I tested it out. Man it felt good to be diving again, my form was a little off but with practice I will get it back. I totally amazed the lifeguards with my dives, they didn't know the difference what was a good dive or a bad one, but I sure could. I kept it simple, with front dives in pike and layout, front flips and twists and front 1 1/2 flips, but the problem there was I couldn't grab my knees!! my belly is too big, so I had to do them in open position, then i went on doing back dives and flips. I did this for a full hour!! Do you know how tiring that is?? I had the whole pool to myself for diving too. Boy did I have fun!! : )...but boy, my foot is sore! : (

I chatted up the lifeguards in between dives and the head lifeguard who knows me was amazed at what this OLD FAT guy could do on the board? ... You know how it is when you tell people stories of things you used to do and can do? but they never see you in action? and the person your talking to just says Ya, right? that's nice? ...

So when she saw how good I really was she asked me if I was still interested in teaching diving? I said yes, I still considering it. She took my number down and left a memo for the rec centers director who wasn't in yet, to give me a call tonight to see if I'm up for and to discuss a diving program.....

I talked with the rec director this evening and I will be meeting with her tomorrow to see what type of program we can set up! and if I'm interested in starting a Diving club? I'll bring my credentials and my dive programs that I still have, to sell myself to run the dive program and teach the ONE AND ONLY BARRIE DIVING PROGRAM for the city of Barrie.

Sweeeeeet!

Oh ...and after My hour of diving I went up to the fitness center and it is huge too! with a lot more weight machines, free weights area, a separate aerobics training room, 6 treadmills and elliptical, about 25 training bikes, (good ones with aero bars nice seats, the whole nine yards) and those sit down and peddle bikes and lots and lots of room to move around in nothing like my rec center I have been training at.

So I ran and hour on the mill and did a bunch of weights trying out all the new machines. cool!

Maybe tomorrow I'll bring the camera and post some pic's if I remember. : )

OK enough of the funnys for now.

Time for some serious training stuff....

I had to do some major surgery on my running shoes today...... one of the plastic rubber thingy on the bottom of my shoe was coming off, so I got some contact cement and re-glued it back on, I used the second best thing next to duct tape to hold it in place, that is of course? a vice grip.

What pisses me off is these shoes are only a year and 2 months old and they are falling apart already! ....it's not like I have over used them since I haven't really been running over the last year and a bit because of my foot problem. Damn! I am not happy with these shoes, very poor workman ship. I would buy another pair, but money is short and I'll have to use these shoes as long as they hold together for Disney and IMLP. But the next pair I buy won't be these 1024's I really like the 833's but they discontinued them up here.

I'm seriously considering sending these photos to Newbalance with a letter to tell them what crap shoes these are!!

As for training today,I swam 2000m doing sets of 500m. I guess I should record it in my spreadsheet befor I forget.

Sport related, intense training

I know it's hockey,.... but I use the same techniques for my Ironman training, Cat included. lol

Tricks are for Ki..Parents

Just trying new things, have a laugh.

Finally??

finally!! hopefully ?? there will be no more interruptions in my training from here until Disney!!

Melissa is back at school with her freezer full of food.

It was a mild day today and the weather is calling for more warm temps in the double digits for the next 2 day with lots of rain, so all the snow is starting to melt...Yay!! ...But we will be back into the freeze after that. ....Booo!

Like i said no training for me today, I'm not in the mood. Tomorrow I will start the new week with a solid swim, and go form there to get the ball rolling. My wife went down for a bike this evening for a 30 min sprint on the bike, good for her. : )


A few of my friends had a good race today in So-Cal, Congrats to James, John, and Renee, you all did great!! John with a 1:40:52.....James with a 1:59:01 both doing the half Mary. and Renee doing the full Mary came in at a great time of 4:47:32...... Great job!!!

Well time to hit the hay, big day planned tomorrow. : )