You know the old saw– that which is rewarded persists and vice versa. Persistence is repetition and what you repeat, improves or at least becomes easier to do and/or more entrenched as a pattern. The primary examples of this process at work in my world tell the story of what’s been going on as well as any other approach.
Running or lack thereof. The Friday after Tobacco Road Half Marathon, I finally caved and saw the Doc to see how chemistry and medical expertise could carry me through a month and a half of training and racing before I had enough of a break to properly heal the obnoxious hip problem. I’m pleased to say that I managed running mileage in the mid 30′s for the past two weeks. This is thanks to high doses of ibuprofen. I’m not pleased with the side effects nor the knowledge that I’m doping the system and likely causing unseen other problems if I were to persist in medicating for an extended period.
Swim and bike improvements. When running drops off the map, it leaves room for more swimming and cycling. Prior to February, my cycling mileage trended lower than my running mileage and my swimming was nonexistent. Thus, it’s not hard to see improvements when I bump the volume up. By bump up, I mean swim twice a week and bike 5-8 hours a week in most cases. The surprising part was how quickly I’m seeing results and a return to “pretty well fast enough to get by and not embarrass myself in coming races.” I’m not so convinced about my run speed, but two out of three ain’t bad. We’ll see how well two weeks of decent running bring out the work I did through the winter.
From the pool to the lake. In olden days (i.e., before baby), I was a tough and determined nut that opted to swim open water as soon as that wet stuff was up into the balmy mid-50′s. These days– not so much. Serendipitously, we’ve had a ridiculous early April warm spell that have driven lake temps up into the mid- to high-60′s in record time. As such, I’ve done two whole open water sessions (with a wetsuit, duh), one of which was an organized open water swim this past Saturday for which I won my new age group.
Everything’s a cat. By happenstance, Remy was testing out the word “cat” and mis-applied it once or twice when the proper answer would have been “dog.” I believe I mentioned this in an earlier post. Since then, the habit has only accelerated each time we or other people laugh in response. Which is every time. Now every type of animal is a cat. Dog, turtle, what have you. Doesn’t matter. He’ll willingly get into a test of mettle with anyone who argues that a dog is a dog and reply with a well-enunciated cat each time. How persistent is he? Just ask my Dad. I suppose we’ll have to stop laughing at this antic if we ever want it to change, but it’s still funny every time.
You need to get the cat antics on tape!
Congrats on the open water win. I can’t believe you guys are already swimming in open water.