Swimming a runners new passion

New Year, new goals. I have gone back to school full time, on top of everything else I do, and haven’t had time to update this. I recently joined a gym with a lap pool. It wasn’t my sole reason for joining, but has become my new focus. I rejoined a gym, after not doing any weight lifting for a year and a half. It’s been that long since I have really tried loosing anymore weight. My world got turned upside down, and I lost focus. My life has turned out for the better (Romans 8:28) but I really need to get my body headed back in the direction it once was. Sure I ran a marathon last year, but I really need to drop, another 50, to 70 lbs, and I know that by increasing my muscle mass, I will increase my base metabolism. Well after going to the gym, doing a warm up mile on the tread, and pushing some weights around (you lose muscle mass very quickly btw), I decided to hit the pool. After thinking I was going to drown while doing a tri this summer, I know that swimming is my weakness. If I’m ever gonna be able to call myself an Ironman I have to improve. After swimming a couple of times, I have discovered I really enjoy it. I have found it a lot like running. I had to slow down, find a rhythm, and let the meters rack up. Unfortunately I have to keep track of the laps in my head, but up to now I have done my longest swim about .6 of a mile, and am looking for my first full mile this week. I love the muscle fatigue I am able to get with swimming. I never realized how awesome it was just to go for a 30 minute swim. I even got a calf cramp Friday night, after a seriously full day of other training.  We all need to broaden our scope of things we do physically. I love running, and it will always be #1 in my life of exercise, but I have found a new passion, and it’s in the water. Now I just need to get a good road bike. My hybrid is just not going to cut it past about 75 miles at a time. Oh well 70.3 I’m on my way!!!

insane running music, who's crazy?

So it’s 2012. Got my first run in for the year today, I love south Texas. 45, and sunny, can’t ask for nicer weather. As I was running today I was thinking if any non running person could get in my car and push play on my running playlist, I would be a little embarrassed. However thanks to Twitter, blogs, and running magazines, I am not alone in some of the crazy tunes coming through my ear canals. Honestly if it weren’t for afore mentioned groups, I might begin to wonder if I wasn’t just plain nuts. I mean come on I go out it the cold (yes 45 is cold in south TX) run for an hour all while listening to such chart toping  lyrics such as “aiyyo, Bo knows this, and Bo knows that, but Bo don’t know jack, cause Bo can’t rap.”. Hey it’s a great beat, and keeps the tempo up. Who can walk when listening to such contemporary songs such as Bonnie Tyler’s Holding Out For A Hero? I personally want to find an abandon warehouse and dance like Kevin Bacon. Come on you know you do to. Or perhaps you just might not have been born in the 70’s. So going into this new year I would like to thank all you in the running community for the assurance that I haven’t fallen off the deep end, and there are plenty more out there just like me. Are we the crazy one’s, or are they for not joining us in our adventure for negative splits? That is the real question.