The Little Things...

As this week is recover/TT week, the intensity during training have been slightly decreased. Tuesday and Thursdays were a sleep-in for most whilst others stuck to their marathon programs (event in 10 weeks). There were two sessions this week which have made a difference for my personally.

Swim Time Trials 
This happened on Wednesday 7th August. Before the swim TT, I thought my life ended....here is the story. I left my house at the usual time of 5:10am from Mentone to Northcote for my 6am swim session. I crossed the Nepean Hwy intersection (with South Rd) and a car who went through the intersection at high speeds and nearly took my car out.

Just to clarify, I was going through the intersection because I had the right of way, I was behind a car already in the intersection and we both had the green light. The car which took me out must have no seen/noticed that he/she had a red. It was like in the movies where you see a car heading straight at your car along the drivers side...I went through the intersection fine as he/she must have realised and drove around me very swiftly. I didn't stop after I had passed the intersection, I just kept driving and just thought to myself...shit, I nearly died.

So my swim TT was not at my 100%, I was still shaken up but I tried to ignore that and just went along with the program. The swim TT was 1km. I have no issues or hesitations in doing the swim TT (compared to run or ride TT). I guess with my anxiety, everything about the swim TT was controllable - I won't be able to hurt myself in doing so. The first few hundred meters I was trying to get my speed up and I found it hard as my shoulders were tight from my swim set on Monday (I ended up doing my own set at GESAC on Monday afternoon). I found myself spending too much time at the ends of the pool with stopping and turning - I must improve on this. I need to be more confident in doing tumble turns sans fins.

My swim TT ended up being 20:27 (still not as fast as my fastest time of 19:52) but it is 5 seconds faster than my previous time. The fast people in my squad swim close to the 17min mark and I know that I am no where near that calibre. I think there is one more swim TT left for the year before the racing season kicks off again and I will work extra hard to get under 20min.

Running with Core 
On Thursday, I went back to Essendon and ran with Coach Greg. I haven't ran with the North group in a few weeks due to bad weather when the session was cancelled, coaching at the Tan for a few weeks and I think there was one week where I was sick. As it was recovery week, we worked on our technique which was great. Greg asked us to run with our hands on our heads.

At first, I was just running without realising how much we have to hold our core to stop us from swinging from side to side. I have always been swinging my shoulders (my right) slightly and I have been trying to keep it still as much as I have started running with Tri Alliance.

With the whole running with hands on your head thing, you have to concentrate hard at activating the core to stop your hips and shoulders from swinging. After running about  8 or so km "on and off", my running became easier as I could feel how much of a better runner I am when my posture is correct and I am activating my core.

At work, I already sit up pretty straight on my chair as I don't tend to lean back against my chair. Why? Because my legs are too short and when I lend back against the chair, my legs don't touch the ground. I sometimes rotate my chair with my fit-ball too. In addition, everynight I pretty much go through my lower core floor excercises whilst I watch TV (and use the foam rollers on my legs and back) so I will just continue doing those movements.