The Viking Training Method Can Handle Speedbumps

In case you hadn't heard, the Viking swam pretty well at the KMSC Pro-Am in December.  I was actually only .11 away from my lifetime best from 1996 in the 100 breast with 57.13.  My 200 was also my best since college at 2:06.4, although that is still about 2.5 seconds away from my college PR of 2:03.8.  I made three A-finals and got to march out in my new costume so it was worth the trip to Texas for sure.  Yup, that's made from a full body mountain goat and a little bear.  The necklace has wolf teeth as well.  It don't get much more viking than that.

The meet director said "it looks downright satanic."

My swimming was a little spotty leading up to the meet, but honestly I just don't even pay much attention to that anymore.  Like I tell the kids, "it's all mental."

After the pro-am I made it a point to get back in the water as often as possible, which is always hard considering my insane work schedule.  This time though, I had a little help.  We recently started a Masters program through my club, and in an effort to promote it I offered a discount to a local triathlon group called Rufus Racing.  Rufus has a mileage contest that goes from January to March in which they have a spreadsheet set up online.  As you complete miles, you log them on the sheet to earn points for your team.  The entire Rufus crew is divided into several teams, with over 100 adults participating, and every biking mile is worth one point, compared to running miles at three points and swimming miles at ten points.  They have a lot of fun trash talking each other on the facebook and stuff, and it has really been a cool contest.

Since January 1st I have not had a single day without some kind of exercise.  Normally it is an awesome week if I get in a third workout.  This streak is by far the longest I have consistently got work in, even though some of it is pretty low quality just to log the points for Rufus.  I have been running with my wife to help her get past IT band issues, and some of the days are easy runs rather than swims.  I have also not been able to do as much USRPT as I would like, partly due to time constraints since if I only have 15 minutes I sometimes just jump in and do a warm up so I don't have a zero day on the Rufus spreadsheet.  The lack of USRPT is also due to the broken hand.  Some of you might have seen my tweet.  For reals-- I duct taped it and went a 59.7 and 2:09.0 breaststrokes unshaved.  Gotta set a good example for the kids, right?

The worst part about having a finger that plays dead like this is that it becomes a lot harder to cut into a steak.

My hand is still swollen after almost two weeks, the finger still hangs limp, and it is still really sore. It kind of flaps around when I swim so I sometimes tape it if I think I am gonna try to swim with any intensity at all.  It is hard to concentrate on technique when you have a rogue finger.  The x-rays made it look like I chipped a small piece from my knuckle, but I am starting to think I partially severed a tendon since it doesn't seem to be getting any better.  I thought I got off free with no surgery or cast, but that may change if I make a follow-up appointment.  I am debating waiting until after spring break but that may be too long depending on the true nature of the injury.

Breaking my hand finishing a relay lead-off 50 free is a great way to transition my team through the name change from Jasper County Killer Whales to BERZERKER Swimming.  You can't get more 'berserkergang' than that.