Go Cathy!

Dad's response, "oh there could be sharks"  sounds a little like "you may fall and someone will run over your fingers".  Somewhere in the back of Cathy's mind she must have heard me saying, "F the sharks!"  It's true I was being the logical one, when I reminded Cathy to stick to the 10% rule.  But she had asked me for advice; I found myself in the position of coach rather than competitor.  We talked about her heart-rate, core strength, and the importance of hydrating and fuel with the longer distances.  I even told her to work on her game face, to which she replied  >:(    Hopefully a few of my pointers helped along the way, I'm so proud of Cathy and her Nantucket Tri!
Having the ability to practice open water swimming must have been useful, and I will surely ask her for advice should I attempt one.  She cut her foot on a shell but kept going, biked through rain and hail and managed a great average speed, and still had gas in her tank for the run.  I think I even saw a 'game face' in one of the pictures.  As consigliere, my biggest concern for Cathy is some kind of 'overuse syndrome' with all of her training, hence my logical response to her asking me if she should do the Nantucket Tri.  It's as simple as Clemenza.. "leave the gun, take the cannoli" use common sense.  Working in a PT office, we see our share of these - mostly in teenage athletes who go from one sport to the next without giving their body sufficient recovery time in between.  Last year Derrick played around 40 games of D1 college baseball, then roughly another 40 for collegiate wooden bat league in Oneonta NY.  He had maybe 2 weeks in between that and going back to college, which he determinately spent doing cardio and in the batting cages to prepare for fall ball.  After playing nearly 80 games in a row, he was worn out and should have been forced to take a break; but rather some of his college coaches said he should have worked harder in the fall.  It's no surprise that the majority of injuries we see in high school and college athletes are largely due to overuse.  When he finished his senior year of college baseball, he took 2 weeks off for the first time in about 6 years, he needed it!
Cathy, I hope you were smart enough to take a week off after Nantucket :)  I'll be calling you to talk about interval training!  What have I been up to?  Well I'm working out at the YMCA, where the 25 year old desk attendant looked at the birthdate on my card and said, "that can't be right"!  He thought I was trying to use my mother's card or something.  When I informed him I have kids close to his age, he was rather surprised and said something under his breath about aging well.  Also I've come up with a new advertising campaign for EZ Pass while watching a Godfather marathon this weekend.  If Sonny had an EZ Pass, they never would have shot him on the causeway.  Show that scene from the Godfather, and then just the words EZ Pass on the screen.. enough said.