Signed up for a 10k..

Just too busy to keep doing much here besides logging my runs. Thanks to all of you out there in runner-blog-land for your comments. 

I've done 3 swims in the last two weeks. I'm trying hard and I think it's getting better but I really need to work on my upper body / neck flexibility. 

My fitness has been improving, here's the  by-weekly summary for the last 90 days:

Date	Miles	Pace	BPM	WHR%	Elev+	Elev-	YPB
2013-06-03 Mon	12.0	10:34	115.9	57.3	183.9	180.4	1.435
2013-06-10 Mon	33.2	11:09	127.6	66.9	1639.3	1635.6	1.257
2013-06-17 Mon	33.3	11:30	124.5	64.3	1286.0	1275.3	1.228
2013-06-24 Mon	6.8	10:03	122.0	62.3	44.4	47.8	1.438
2013-07-01 Mon	8.0	9:29	127.0	66.4	91.6	89.9	1.462
2013-07-08 Mon	30.6	9:31	124.1	64.0	152.4	162.7	1.489
2013-07-15 Mon	25.3	9:44	123.9	63.8	430.6	438.2	1.483
2013-07-22 Mon	30.2	9:33	125.6	65.3	255.5	258.6	1.471
2013-07-29 Mon	43.0	9:34	123.4	63.5	490.6	496.9	1.493
2013-08-05 Mon	33.0	9:31	122.7	62.9	394.9	363.3	1.513
2013-08-12 Mon	18.4	9:20	125.1	56.6	72.5	41.4	1.524
2013-08-19 Mon	28.5	9:21	124.1	64.1	417.4	432.8	1.525
Summary	302.3	9:58	122.4	62.6	5459.1	5422.9	1.423

The ypbs are improving steadily...the 1.2X ypb numbers are due to the Sun/Mon marathon double..now 9 weeks in the past.

Low miles the last two weeks due to other things going on but this coming week should be better I hope, sigh.

In other news: I have a race in 4 weeks(!): the 29th annual Harvest moonlight 10k run here in Palo Alto.  It is held on places I run all the time so even though it's moonlight lighting I think I'll be ok. 

It's unlikely to be a PR, since I think the start will be pretty crowded and the beginning of the race is a bit narrow..I'm not sure yet since the course map is not published. But, it will be fun! I have 4 weeks to do some speedwork.  Today (Sat) I did 4 miles with 2x7:40 pace with 3 min rest between. Fun to do some fast running after just doing MAF stuff.

I will be doing mile intervals like that and a tempo run at a somewhat slower pace (8:15 or so) once a week.

Swim video....oh dear.

Monday I had another lesson from Laura, the swim coach I have been using.

After 6 sessions or so, I was not doing well. I have a smidgen more fitness so I *thought* i was doing better, but in reality my form had regressed. How do I know? I brought my video camera and Laura took some videos of me and I looked at them during the session after each drill.

I'm convinced after this that the only way to improve in swimming: be checked after every few practice sessions  so that you are not spending your time reinforcing a crappy form.

Video is key. If a picture is worth a thousand words, when it comes to learning a complex set of motions like swimming, a video is worth 100 thousand words.

Here's an 18 second video of my last lap during the 30 minute session. I'm trying REALLY hard to keep my left ear down on a very extended left arm during the breath.

Everything else is a mess as I focus on this: my legs are all over the place..there's a little scissors kick, like MANY people, when I'm on my side breathing. My elbows aren't high enough, etc. 

You'll notice I didn't show you the first video in the session....a bigger horror. Hopefully in a few months I'll look a better. I (and you) shall see...