November Update

It's been a busy month and a half since beginning to work with Shawn Skene. The focus has been on swimming and running. My running is going pretty well and I'm feeling good while running despite a little resurgence in my hip and back pain which I'm managing day to day. We'll get a test of where I really am this next weekend as I'm planning on running in the Seattle 1/2 Marathon next Sunday. The more troublesome thing lately is tendonitis in my hamstring tendon. I've got the go ahead to train through it from my PT but it's still painful particularly when I swim.

My swim is really improving with the drills and workouts that Shawn has me doing. I feel much more comfortable in the pool water and I might just turn that swim leg from a "lets just get through this" to "let's set the tone for the rest of this race". A few weeks ago I would have been ecstatic with doing 100 yard intervals comfortably in around 1:40. This week I was comfortably completing my 100 yard intervals in 1:28 - 1:30 which is very encouraging given that we still have 7 1/2 months until Coeur d'Alene.

Looking at heading south this spring for a camp with Peter Reid in Tuscon which will kick off the serious bike training. More to come....