Better late than never

I may be a little late in updating the blog here from last week, but I suppose it's better late than never. It felt really good to finally start running again this week after giving my blister time to heal. It probably ended up being for the better cause my knee was feeling good throughout the week while running as well. I had a couple good runs just over 6 miles which is how far I'll be going in Havasu, and I also got a longer one of about 10 miles in on Saturday. I went hiking on Friday and while going up some steep stuff my foot slipped and I fell straight on to my knee cap. Pretty sure the elk across the canyon hurting me yell and grunt, and if there were any cougars nearby, I'm pretty sure I scared them off too. It hurt and resulted in a bruise bigger than a silver dollar on my kneecap. It didn't hurt real bad walking around on it the next day so I continued on with my plans for my 10 mile run. I woke up Sunday though and could barely go up and down the stairs to my room cause it was so stiff and sore. It's already Tuesday and dang thing is still purple. Haven't put it back to the test running yet but it's pretty sad that my last two injuries preventing me from running didn't even occur from running. A stupid blister while walking home from school and a monster bruise from the non-contact sport of hiking. Oh well.
Saturday we opted out of our morning ride/run to have professional triathlete Heath Thurston who hosted a 2 hour swim clinic with us. He's usually one of the first swimmers out of the water in his races, and his signature move is finishing that last 20 or so yards with the butterfly so his wife can identify him coming out of the water. He helped us out a lot, and of course the margin for improvement is maybe a little greater for me than for some of the top guys on the team, but I really took a lot out of the clinic. He started us out first with sinking to the bottom of the pool and blowing our breath completely out and staying as long as possible so that we'd get it in our minds that we can stay under without any breath. Then he had us do a deadman's float, from there we started kicking with it, and then we started breathing as we did it longer distances. Eventually we started streamlining, then pulling and arm recovering. The premise of Heath's methods is to teach you to feel the water and your body positioning in it. From there, you don't have to fight the water, but can let the water do work for you. It was pretty amazing cause I actually felt for the first time like I was gliding in the water. I'm actually a little slower swimming with these little corrections, but I feel so much more efficient in the water and that will pay off in the long run. I'm gonna keep working with that form and hopefully I'll become faster and more fluid in the water.
Well with the swim clinic and a canceled spin class during the week, I didn't get any time in biking but I did get my highest mileage run week and an awesome swim clinic which has me excited to keep improving there. 2 weeks til Lake Havasu and I can't wait!
Week 9: S: 4 mi; B: 0 mi; R: 22 mi