Wednesday's Training Adventures (3/16/05)

Actually the title is a little misleading; there were no 'adventures' today, just a good, solid day of training.

First a 60-minute swim with some Total Immersion skate/sweet spot drills (I couldn't really remember what the 'skate' drill was so I improvised...) Then 5X100s and 8X50s trying to lengthen my distance per stroke and focus on efficient "front quadrant swimming." Finally, 8X25s, breathing only 1-3 times per 25 so I can feel my hips rotating without my focus being "interrupted" by breathing. Yep, that breathing is certainly an interruption.

After a short break for lunch, some phone calls, work stuff and a nap I hit the roads for 45 minutes of easy, Zone 1 running, focusing on maintaining a cadence of 21 right foot strikes every 15 seconds - which is feeling pretty natural by now.

Life is good: sunshine, 50 degrees and open pavement under my Nike's soles. Take THAT all you constipated corporate slugs!

Meanwhile the news gets stranger by the minute:

• A robot found life in the Chilean desert. Its next assignment is to look for life in the National Hockey League.
• Bernie Ebbers' "CEO as dumb-ass" defense fails and he's found guilty. Maybe they can find the $11 billion he stole somewhere in his really ugly beard.
• Robert Blake is found not guilty. Where's Baretta when you need him?
• Oops. The anthrax in Washington D.C. was a 'testing error.'
• According to a new report, obesity will dramatically reduce Americans' life expectancy. No mention of how that might affect Social Security.
• Billy Joel checks into a clinic for alcohol abuse. Maybe they can also address his addiction to 23 year-old women.
• Finally, scientists have discovered, in Idaho of all places, a carnivorous shrimp. According to the article, "In lean times, the mega-sized fairy shrimp -- which sports hooked arms, a forked tail and turquoise-colored reproductive organs -- clamps its fairy shrimp cousins to its abdomen to store for future dining." Shrimp cocktail, anyone?

Well, whaddya know? There were some adventures today after all.