October 15-16, 2005

This was a busy weekend! No doubt just the first in many. I trained on my own on Saturday (swim session and bike ride) and joined the group for an Iron University meeting on Sunday at Redwood High School in Corte Madeira. This was a mixture of pool-work and core training. The pool work was focussed on swimming drills which are supposed to help improve your form. Technique is everything with swimming, and I don't have much. Anyhow, despite swallowing a few litres of pool water, I managed to do all of the drills. Most importantly, I am not the worst swimmer, which is a big relief.

The second session was a review of core training, injury prevention and running drills. Core training is hard, especially as I haven't done any for a long time. These exercises are designed to strengthen all of the core muscles involved in swimming, running and cycling and will improve our performance as well as reduce the risk of over use injuries...so the theory goes...

Our coaches are big fans of foam rollers which was great to hear. I became a big foam roller user during the AIDS ride last summer. Foam rollers massage your muscles and help you to recover from your exertions. I swear that this is why I felt so much better on this years AIDS ride. The picture is one of me rolling at a lunch stop somewhere near Santa Barbara.

I spent most of the rest of Sunday setting up our new Tivo box, which after some initial problems, seems to be up and running. No more adverts!!! Lots more South Park!