* For those who come here looking to see photos of fluffy dogs, I apologize at the lack of them lately. I have been supremely lazy about taking and/or uploading photos and the ones I have taken don't seem worthy of going online. However, I PROMISE you that will change in just a few days. Starting this Saturday, the beardie boys and I will be attending the Bearded Collie Club of America National Specialty and I hereby commit to blogging daily throughout the weeklong event, including photographic evidence that we attended. Hold me to it, please!
* Speaking of the National, I haven't even begun to pack and we leave in just a few days. I still need to organize my supplies and complete all my paperwork for the National agility trial on Monday. I have to cram my car with gear for the whole event (crates, tent, food, water, bowls, treats, etc), show (grooming table, grooming bag, suits and show clothes), herding (mostly a positive attitude!), agility (agility leashes, computer and printer and paperwork to run the trial), obedience (different leashes and collars), plus of course my own stuff for a week in a hotel, and a bike and running stuff and swim stuff... I have faith it will all come together...somehow.
* Tuesday marked the first day I was expected to swim without a nose clip at masters. I've always had a hard time with "nose control" when it comes to water. When we took the course for scuba certification years ago, the one test I had difficulty passing was the one where you take your mask off and breathe through your regulator - I could not, no matter how many times I tried, do this without holding my nose shut. So anyway, I was a bit nervous about taking the next step on Tuesday. The good news...slowly I got comfortable and was able to make progress swimming (or flailing depending on how you look at it) back and forth across the pool while exhaling through my nose. The bad news...that was the moment our coach chose to whip out the torture devices known as swim snorkels (where you are expected to keep your head underwater and inhale through the snorkel without sucking water up your nose). Let's just say that was a bit too advanced for my little brain at this point. Anyway, I continue to be optimistic that the comfort will come and this will all support the bottom line - my goal to improve my swimming.
* What happens when you combine a scientific type who loves numbers (better known at my college as a quants jock) with triathlon training? Nerd, party of one! These are the kinds of things I do with my training data. Doesn't it look so pretty?
The tracking spreadsheet came from here if anyone is interested.
3 comments:
Thanks for the link - I was just boring Jeff the other day by reading him my weekly/monthly training numbers, and he said...ya know, it would be so much easier if you'd graph it!
Snorkels at masters? That's a new one on me. Not sure what the purpose of that would be. And there's no way you'd get me to put one in my mouth that had been used by who knows how many other people. Gross!
Not sure why it's a problem for you to swim in a nose clip either unless it's something you want to rid yourself of. Does USAT not allow them? It's not like a nose clip gives you an advantage.
Good luck at your upcoming competitions! I've found the dogs fall right back into their activities fairly easily after a break, pretty amazing creatures. I'm sure they'll do great.
It's a swim snorkel supposedly designed by Pablo Morales to correct any poor head position - it curves around the front of your head (straight up your face) in such a way that any turn to the head sends water down the snorkel and chokes you up. Is that negative reinforcement or positive punishment? I don't remember ;p
USAT allows nose clips, I've raced with them the last 2 years. I'm being told that I'm breathing funny though (way over-rotating my body) because of it, as well as just not relaxing in the water. So we're going back to kiddie basics to see if we can fix things the hard way.
Post a Comment