Friday, August 21, 2015

It's not personal, it's just business

Yesterday Josh posted his thoughts on gps assisted goggles.  I thought it was well thought out and expressed and I agree.  I especially think his remark:

I think you are much better off spending your money on a good coach who can teach you how to correct and balance your stroke and help you with open water skills like sighting.  That is an investment that will last much longer than a pair of goggles, and will also help you to get faster by getting to the root of the problem and not just putting a bandaid on it.
I met one of the founders of iolite and he's a nice guy so it's nothing personal against him, but the product instead of making the athlete a better swimmer, gives them yet another crutch which in some cases can propel him ahead of another swimmer of the same skill level without really overcoming the weakness of failing to swim straight.

Last night I was in the dog-house with Cathi and ended up sleeping in my car at Jordanelle.  The plan was to swim with Chad this morning, but not so early, but since I made a bad move with my woman the swim was early.  We got up early (0350) and started our swim at 0430.  I swam 3 buoy laps (3 miles) and met up with Josh who swam one more lap with Chad and I.  The water was glass the whole time.

I was cold getting in.  The air temp was 55, but the water temp was 68.  The water felt practically warm and the first three laps each buoy seemed to come really fast.  I was surprised how "untired" I was.  However half way into the third 1 mile lap my shoulders were feeling a little sore so I figured I'd stop at 4 miles.

I'm getting really excited for Chad's swim.  Yesterday I put together this contest to generate a little support from the online community.  It's always nice when people recognize an athletic achievement in the making.  Observing the effort that Chad has put into his training has been inspirational and he deserves a little attention as a role model of dreaming big, putting in the hard work and making his dreams come true.

Total: 4 miles in 2:17:38 (a good 10 minutes of socializing with Chad and Josh)

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