Thursday for Three

What a day. The fun started with a text message from the school announcing the closure all campuses due to weather. Huh? At 11:20 a.m., Moorhead was dead. My film class got wacked, but I was free early. I made good use of the time.

The first thing I did after getting home was to change clothes and head to Wade Road for a run. I was off running for two weeks and the only shuffled once last week, so I am essentially starting over. Again. Two days ago I did a few squats and shuffled 1.16 miles. Today I determined to go a little further. Not only that, I decided to shuffle in 7:00 minute blocks due to that being my 500 swim time. In other words, I want to develop my cardio vascular abilities for that length of time. In short, I am taking seriously the goal of getting faster for a possible shot at the National Senior Olympics. Thus, I shuffled

.59 - 7:11
w - .11
.58 - 7:12
w - .12
.56 - 7:13
w - .17
total: shuffle 1.72, walk .4

Workout one, done.

That is a little farther than I shuffled in my last two runs. Now, I knew I needed to lift some weights. But is was beginning to rain so I didn't have the fire to do Plate City. Consequently, I did what I do only once or twice per year. I went to Twin Rivers and worked out in their gym. I did bench presses, one-armed bent rows, some rotator cuff work, lateral raises, some leg presses, and calf raises. On the bench, I did

12 X 45
12 X 95
10 X 100
10 X 100
10 X 100
10 X 100
10 X 105

Workout two, done.

Then I was off to home for nutrition and to rest for my third workout of the day, a swim.

At the pool, I swam 

1,200
1,300
10 X 150 9 with medium paddles
4 X 50 @1:12
500 small paddles

Then my students showed up. Debbie, the Director of Twin Rivers, approached me a bit back about teaching stroke lessons and giving the money to the Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi. The response has not been overwhelming. I have two students and we met for the first time last night.

I didn't even ask how old these boys are, but I'd guess twelve or thirteen. They can swim, but they need some work, hence the lessons. We worked on mindset: practice, balance, and comfort; we worked on stretching; we worked on the deck rehearsing stroke technique. Then I had them in the water pushing off the wall working on balance. We made some progress there. After that, we used a kick board to have them start implementing the changes to their stroke. Then we swam, first one stroke cycle, then two, and finally three. I saw small improvements. We finished with a swim from one end of the pool to the other. I got another 25 here bringing my total for the day to 4,750 yards.

Workout three, done.

They both swim stiff armed, don't rotate, and lift their heads to breath when they fatigue. If they keep coming, however, we will get them there. They seem eager to learn, which is always the hallmark of a good student.

Thus it was a full and productive day. Thank you, Jesus.