A taste of Night Riding...

I went out to fight the "skin-walkers" solo around 7pm. It was a bit chilly, 35 degrees and it seemed darker than usual. I jammed to the tunes from my iPod to drown out my fears of blood-thirsty coyotes or other sharp-toothed mammals looming in the dark. All was good until Michael Jackson's thriller song kicked in...(I had a buddy tell me the "skin-walkers" come out after 7! eep.)

I had borrowed different night riding lights from a buddy to compare the difference to what I already own. The differences: First, I had two lights this time, one mounted to my helmet with a second on the handlebars. My original setup only had a helmet light. I think I like this dual light setup and will have two lights for next years 24 hours of Moab.

I just took a few minutes of the video from the entire ride( I don't want to you to die of boredom so don't expect anything thrilling). When your watching the video, the camera is mounted behind my helmet light (you will notice the off/on green light). Take note of the two lights moving around and some of the few snow spots on the ground!!

Winter swimming: Form drills.

We re-started our swim training; however, we are focusing initially on swimming drills. The below video focuses on 5 basic form drills. Over the next month we will focus on more advanced drills. (stand by for those videos!)

I plan on working on form once a week while slowly increasing our distance. Early spring we will work in our speed training.

I took the drills from the Total Immersion philosophy. Feel free to check out the site: www.totalimmersion.net

Drill 1
Float on your back, head back, water-line along the side of the goggles, chest and hips up, and a smooth yet quiet kick.

Drill 2 (also called the "Sweet Spot")
Here it is important to turn the body as one unit keeping the knuckles on the hip and at waterline,one goggle partially submerged with a smooth kick, and continuous breathing.

Drill 3 ("Sweet Spot" with extending arm)
Same as drill 2 except for extending your arm keeping the arm below water at approximately 3-4:30 and midline.

Drill 4 (also called the "Fish")
Start on your back, move to Sweet Spot, but this time turn your head underwater while kicking smoothly. When breath is required roll back to the sweet spot. This underwater head position is also the same position when doing the crawl.

Drill 5 ("Sweet Spot/Extended Arm" then underwater switch)
Basically, the same as drill 3 but performing a underwater switch of arms then back to the "Sweet Spot".

Enjoy the video of Tyler learning the drills.

Cruising November 7th

Today, we woke up and Brianna, Rebecca and I did a 5k near the hospital. It was Brianna's first race and did outstanding. We took no pictures!

After we got home, Rebecca and I took the cruisers out and headed downtown to a ski swap meet. I needed a new pair of AT Boots, Tyler needed a helmet and goggles.

Chica got to sit in the front basket!



Beautiful day in Durango.