Sports Medicine and Coaching Workshop

So yesterday I went to this amazing multisports clinic in Freehold. It's the first one, and it was put on by the Training Bible guys and Geraldo Goldberger, an orthopedic surgeon and a super nice guy. So, despite warnings of snow, yesterday morning I drove the hour and a half to check it out, and it was well worth it.

They had physical therapists, trainers, people from running stores, coaches, sports medicine doctors, bike specialists, nutritionists, everyone! You could walk around to different stations and get checked out and there were lectures as well, so it was a lot of fun. I was most psyched about a PT and the swim trainers at the pool nearby.

The therapsit put me on the table and within 5 minutes, had stretched my leg so my knee stopped hurting, and showed me a bunch of stretches to do. He said my knee is probably because my knee joints and hip flexors aren't geting stretched enough, so I'll have to work on that.

Then, I went to the pool, and oh god it was cold! I was freezing since we had to stand around and wait our turn and only swim a bit to get analyzed. I loved the two coaches, a father daughter team. Ed Foeri was the father and they run a coaching business not far from me, so its tempting to spend even more money... I found out that what I thought was the proper swim stroke really isn't- I'm not bad but I definitely need tweaking, so they showed me what to do for good form and had me practice for a while- my head kept moving so the woman had me go to the side and held it in place underwater until I got it right! (luckily, this came before I passed out) I need to focus on keeping my hips lower (apparently I'm really really buoyant, which surprised them!) and straighten my arms more on entry, which honestly, I used to do but I taught myself what I thought was the correct way to do it, which is more bended. So after that, a hot shower felt really really good....

I did some running on the treadmill, found out about some shoes I should get, talked to a lot of people, and attended some gret and some generic lectures. A couple were trying a bit too hard to stick with the Training Bible by Friel, but since I've already read it a few times, it was nothing new. Still, hearing someone talking about some of it made me realize that I should reread a few parts. Then a lecture on nutrition made me worry more about raceday nutrition- as an athlete with IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), the idea of eating while racing is scary.


So in all, what I need to do:
1. Work on race nutrition (try more gus and a high carb electorlyte drink)
2. Swim technique (again, Master Swim would help if I can make practices)
3. Stretch! (in the morning, before workouts, after workouts, at night)
4. Get 2 news pairs of shoes (one lightweight for racing, one moderately cushioned for training)
5. Register with the USAT (too many one day passes this season are adding up... I know I didn't learn this at that conference but it's been on my mind.)