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July 1, 2009
BAM!!
I cannot believe I was so distracted by my crazy day that I have not written about my awesome BAM experience yet. OMG BAM (Boulder Aquatic Masters) totally blew my mind. I had gone to Masters once before, with my friend Jen. That was a fun experience and I learned how amazing college swimmers are! However, that did not blow my mind like BAM. And let me tell you why. It all comes down to one drill and to an awesome coach. But I will start with the whole experience because it was kind of funny and I am proud of myself in a weird way.
So I ran with Cathy Sunday morning and that was awesome. Cathy is a friend I have run with for years - we both started out in the Boulder Striders club maybe six years ago, we both moved up to Running Republic (another more intense club with the same coach), and there we really bonded because we liked to run slow during our warmups. Cathy is one of my personal heroes because she is just awesome. She is a great runner, she always has a fun and positive attitude, she has a great career, and I just admire her a ton. She also gives me great advice on my life which I appreciate because I am always a mess! I was able to run 9 miles with her which I was super excited about. So overall I was having a great morning (oh, and we had a triathlon/running star sighting as we saw a Lovato and a Torres).
I went to the pool and I was going to wait and see if there was a free lane after the Masters group started but I got there just in time for them to start another session or whatever they call it so I decided to be brave and ask if I could join to check it out. Note that I may seem outgoing but I am terrified of new people. Especially Jane Scott who is a legend. But I went over to her and asked her about it and she was SO NICE!! She said to jump right in and give it a try, no I would not even be the slowest person in the pool. I love her! She was not coaching the session but she introduced me to the coach and she was so nice too. I jumped in the slow lane and warmed up.
When we got ready to start I realized that I actually knew two of the other three people in my lane, so that was funny! One girl is in my cycling club and the guy I knew from the bike shop. See, I am meant to live in Boulder, I know everyone! Ha! Anyway right away I felt more comfortable. We did some swimming and some drills and whatever, it was fine. But then we did this CRAZY drill. We had to pull a 25 with someone hanging off our legs and that person would kick. I ended up pulling a man who must weigh 160 pounds at least. I felt like I could barely move! At the 25 we switched and that was fine, I was not really frazzled by that at all. After we did the drill the coach told me that was a great drill for me because I have way more power than I use. And I swear a light bulb went off in my brain! I do have power, my lats are strong! Why do I flail around in the pool and not use them? The whole workout was different after that. I PRed in the 50 twice! I felt awesome! And it was SO FUN. It is just nice having people in my lane to chat with during breaks. So I am hooked on BAM. I am hoping they are training on July 4th so I can go again! I swam yesterday and I did feel a difference in my stroke so I think the gains I made at BAM are here to stay.
So that is the BAM story. This week is driving me crazy with my insane amounts of free time. I asked my coach if he would set up my plan between Lifetime Fitness and Timberman and he said no! It was kind of funny. He was like 'Barb you need to focus on this race. Stop looking past it.' Good advice really. So I am trying to do it! I am so excited for a long weekend without bike shop, it is going to be amazing. I am just excited in general which is good because I think I am over the crash! I am ready to RACE! Bam!! (and now I think I just sound like Emeril, so with that, I say, kick it up a notch people!!)
Posted by barb at July 1, 2009 4:09 PM