Getting Faster, Going Nowhere, Lost and Found

It was actor Val Kilmer in his role as Chris Knight in the finest comedic film ever made about lasers liquidating individual human targets from space—the 1985 classic Real Genius—who said "...sometimes you just need to take a little step back to take a giant leap forward. "

The last couple of weeks have been a dichotomy of sorts. On one hand, I have not done ANY running—except the visualizations in my head— since 20 September (date of the last triathlon of the season.) The break has been necessary in helping to recover from the damage I suffered as a result of not respecting the marathon distance nearly as much I should have. Note to self: weekend-warrior-ing a marathon, bad.

However, I have gotten in the pool nearly every day for the last three weeks. The result:

I have managed to take off nearly a minute and a half per 1000 yards from my usual swims. I am thinking less about my form in the water and things are just starting to happen naturally. I have noticed that I am really starting to roll my shoulders and get streamlined. I have also gotten myself back into strength training. I have not really done any since I dislocated my shoulder back in March. Certainly I am swimming faster in the water because of my consistency, but I have also been swimming faster to swim faster. I notice that the muscle density in my legs make them want to sink if I am going at a moderate tempo—or for you hardcore endurance junkies and triathlon nerds—an RPE of about 1-5.

I lost my wedding ring on Monday. I looked down at my hand after getting home from work for just a few minutes and told my wife "I think my ring came off my finger." Monday was a particularly cold October day—somewhere in the low 50's—and the ring must have just slipped off my finger without me noticing. I retraced all my steps over the last few days, both at work and at home. This was the proverbial needle in the haystack. Since I had no idea when it fell off, I really had no idea where to look. This afternoon while at work, I received a call from home. I answered and heard my wife say "tell daddy." All at the same time, my three girls said "we found your ring." Actually, my wife had found it. Yes, she found it somewhere in the middle of are yard in the grass. When I got home on Monday, I immediately started throwing the football around with my boys. It must have fell off. I was simply nauseated for days thinking that I lost the ring that had such sentimental value.

One more week of rest and stretching before I get out there for a run.