Swimming is good for you

 

  Monday is the start of the new week. This is the last week of my 3 prep weeks and then on to Base 1 building. All of this can be found here:The Triathlete's Training Bible if anyone is curious about periodization training.
  Today was a swim day down at Big Stacy. I did a 200 warm up, 2x400 pull (with a buoy) at a moderate pace, 200 cool down for a total of 1200. It was right at about 30 minutes total pool time. Everything felt good, all in all it was a solid swim.
  I picked up this old tractor tire, pictured up above, at GCR Tires.It weighs about 150 lbs and is about 3.5 feet in diameter. It was marked as scrap and they gave it to me for free but I tipped the "yard guy" 20 for helping me find it and load it in my truck.
  The point of this is that I am incorporating it into my core workout. I flip it. Without Oskar in it of course. You squat down while arching your back and lifting with your legs you pick up one side with an underhanded grip. Once you get it a over 45 degrees you switch your grip overhand and push it over. I did it 6x10 times and man I was whipped. I like the Rocky Balboa style workout. If anybody has any other ideas like this feel free to let me know.
  p.s. Oskar was safe in the middle of the yard chewing his new bone.

Busy couple of days

It's been a busy few days starting with Sunday at the Austin Marathon. I did not run this year although I kind of wished I had run it. It seemed to be near perfect weather and a lot of my friends had a great day of racing. Congrats to Kelly Harris for her Boston Qualifying time. It was great to see all of my Rogue Running friends out on the race course. My plan is to run with Rogue starting at the beginning of March for about 6 months for my Saturday long runs. After seeing my friends March can't come soon enough.
As for myself, I have fully recovered from my sick days and have got all of my workouts in so far this week. These include a one hour spin session on the trainer yesterday. I have been focusing on the trainer to try and improve my turnover speed and form. I followed it with a 15 minute core workout that I have been doing. It went pretty well and I am happy with the workout.
Today I finally got to swim. It feels like it has been forever since the last time I swam. I also used today's workout to improve my swimming form. I was in the waqter for about 36 minutes and swam 1200 by doing 12x100 intervals. I rested for about 10-15 seconds in between each interval so I could maintain enough focus on my form. I am trying to take less strokes per lap and glide for a bit longer. I can't wait to get out in the open water. I am excited to train with the Guppy Max group in the spring if they'll have me. Now all I have left is a round of strength training and that is my day.