Dr. Kathy's Training Blog

I just returned home from a 3 day brain drain of an AWESOMELY educating seminar; lower extremity Active Release Technique recertification, in New Jersey! Thursday I missed my workout entirely, due in part to being pooped out from travel and jumping immediately into the learning circle of my peers, and mainly due to a migraine that hit shortly thereafter. Friday, however, I skipped 1 hour of the seminar just before lunch and got a one hour run with 4 sets of 5 minutes hard. During the run, (I had no idea where in NJ I was flying into, I didn’t care, I just had to get there!) I discovered that the seminar was being held right across the river from NYC and I was running directly towards the Statue of Liberty, it was an AWESOME sight! After the seminar I swam in a very small pool for 20 minutes just focussing on technique, the water being slightly over 50 degrees I am sure. I was very brave to get in that glacier fed pool. Saturday I ran with this really fit looking lady whom I met at the seminar the day before. I then discovered she had gone to the Olympics for the 3000 and 1500 meter distance in 1988 and 1992 at the BEGINNING of the run. We were planning on doing an “EASY” pace…….What an inspiration this lady was for me, fit, awesome attitude, a mom, a motivated individual who wanted to learn more to help patients as a massage therapist, and a 2x Olympic athlete, just amazing! Well, I returned home happily last night. This morning after playing non-stop with my beautiful girls and sharing a Starbucks moment with my hubby and children (yes, they are learning early!), Pierre and I went on a bike-date and rode the wonderful trails of Fountain Head. I did 2 sets of 15 minutes hard over the period of a 1 and a half hour steady ride, it was just GLORIOUS out!

My tip of the day I learned from the Founder of Active Release Technique, Dr. Michael Leahy, a brilliant 60 year old success who just did Coeur D’Alene Ironman and is doing Hawaii Ironman in a few weeks. “If you just don’t feel like exercising, then that is when you need it most, and afterwards you will feel SO MUCH BETTER!!!”

OK, Coach Melissa thought I should see for myself how awful my form is.  So here is video proof!  I’ve got less than a month before Xterra World’s in Maui… think I can get my swim together before then??

Dr. K Swim

What a GREAT DAY to swim!  This, by the way, is me being highly sarcastic.  SWIMMING and GREAT don’t often go in the same sentence for me.  BUT, after I adjusted my last patient before lunch, I grabbed my goggles, cap and suit and off I went for a darn good workout with Pierre.  Melissa Dalio, Posi Chiro’s exercise physiologist and endurance coach, joined me for the swim and afterwards told me 2 things:  1)  I don’t rotate through the center of my body, rather I swivel when turning from side to side, creating a whole lot of water resistance.  2)  I “lead” the stroke with my hand, not my elbow, which throws my entire balance off making me have to work even harder to move in a straight line.  So I tried to adopt these 2 things in my next 100 meter set and swam it faster than all my previous sets preceding it, a 1:35  100!  So perhaps there is hope for me in the water?  Felt great afterward, grabbed a bite and back to treating my wonderful patients smelling a little like chlorine!  I hope you don’t mind if you are one of them…