Pee Wee the Bro Scientist

So I was telling Pee Wee about Monday. He not only gave me a kiss, but he smiled. I know some people claim dogs don't smile. But those are the same people who say there is no Santa Claus. Boo on them. But I get ahead of myself. Let me back up to the beginning of the day.

Pee Wee whispering in my ear, telling me training
secrets to help me beat my competition
at my next swim meet.

First, I slept in way too late. That's what I've been doing on spring break. Oh well, I will be back to work soon enough and having to get up early. I did drag out and go to the pool a little after 10:00. Vicki came and we swam

  1,000 (she only swam 600 and waited on me to finish)

  7 X 50 @ 1:30

  350 easy

  7 X 50 @ 1:30

  200 easy

  6 X 25 no breath (after this we did our own thing, stroke work mostly)

  4 X 50 back with small paddles

  650 25/25 free/back

  150 medium paddles

  total: 3,400 yards

That was a good practice and Pee Wee not only smiled when I gave him the rundown, but he got so excited that he ran a loop around the yard. 

I ate lunch and took a nap. Then I went for a run not knowing how far I would go. Sometimes I let my legs decide. They decided to go for 8.65 miles. Yeah, after yesterday's 6.4. Finally I am back to running shuffling. 

Then I remembered what I was supposed to do before going to the pool. There was something I had planned, but I could not pull it up in my memory. I even made a list trying to get the thing to the front of my brain. It wasn't 

•           going to the bank
•           going to the cleaners
•           getting gas
•           paying a bill
•           mailiing something
•           going to Walmart

I gave up and went to the pool. On my run out Money Road, I found out what it was. I ran across a set of wheel rotars out there on the shoulder of the road. I had found some a couple of years ago and forgot to pick them up before they disappeared. I took this as a sign that God was saying, "Get those rotars." I know, you're questioning why. It has to do with a potential gym project.

So I asked Penny if she wanted to ride a little way out Money Road with me. Actually she wanted to ride way out Money Road with me. After I picked up the rotars, we drove to the McIntyre Scatters landing. Have mercy, we must have seen fifty deer on the way, the most ever in my life. Not only that, but we saw a big fat rabbit lie down in a green patch when we stopped to look at it. We saw ducks like crazy, and we saw a flock of about thirty turkeys. We also saw an old cemetary in the woods before you get to the Scatters that I had never noticed. It was an incredible drive.

Back home, I went to Plate City and told Pee Wee all about it. At first he got a little pissed that we didn't take him. Then he settled down and got happy when I told him about all the training. While I was out there, I did my pull workout. It was good. It was solid. It was good and solid. Pee Wee has taken to giving me training advice. He has a good mind for it. There is science and there is Bro science. Don't ever look down on Bro science. Real science originates in Bro science. That is where the idea for the studies come from: is the Bro science true or not? Most of the time, it is.

Sometimes Bro science is better than men and women in a labratory wearing white coats. Example: American marathoners (the world-class variety) used to run 120 to 130 miles per week. Then real science came along and said that no one should ever run over 70 miles per week. Science proved that there were no benfits from running the kind of mileage the marathoners of the day were doing. So, not wanting to be science deniers, American marathoners slashed their weekly training mileages. The result? American marathoners disappered from the world scene. Eventually, they went back to their tried-and-true training (Bro science) and re-emerged as world contenders. 

If something works, you don't need a scientific study to prove or disprove it. What exercise science has been good at is telling us why something works. In other words, science, when applied to exercise, has been better when viewed descriptively rather than proscriptively. Don't ever forget that. When you have a feeling about something you do in the gym or in the pool or on the road, don't go searching for a scientist to tell you it is okay. Just do it.

Pee Wee is a Bro scientist, and I listen to him. One thing I learned long ago is that good advice is where you find it. Don't ever forget that either.