Lifting heavy things and a short leash

If I have this facial expression at the Y, now you
 will understand

This past weekend was epic and not because I ran and PR'd the Carlsbad 1/2, in fact I am still not running, but that is ok not really but it makes this story better if i say it is. 

 I hope to be running soon,I also hoped to win the lottery and we know how that went down but I am working toward that in many ways.  last weekend  my coach (Mike Ricci)  and a good friend and coach as well Marilyn Chychota came to Encinitas for a 2 day session in Strength/Injury Prevention.

Marilyn is super athlete, ex pro triathlete, elite equestrian, elite gymnast... all around badass etc and since she retired from triathlon has become an elite Olympic Weightlifter.  Some could say she has a lot of talent and that leads to her success.  True she surely has good genes to work with but knowing her I understand that her success is due so her hard work, education and commitment.   She is all in- weather it be how she coaches or how she is coached. She is not afraid to learn from the best and take the time to formulate a plan.  

There is no secret I have had a year of injuries.... why is that?  lots of reasons and I am not going to do a self analysis here, but one of the fundamentals in aging is losing strength. As a coach I know and understand the value of strength for maintain power and preventing injury.  But I know well that I need a coach to guide me as I lose perspective when I am guiding me.

So Mike and I hired Marilyn to teach us. It was two- fold 1: understand how she programs strength for triathletes and 2: a custom program for me.  She knows me well, how I move has seen my clutzy style and how 20 years of swimming forms a body.  She used this in formulating a plan based on my life as a swimmer, watching me bike and run and understanding my injuries.  Weak posterior chain #1 as well as many other imbalances.  

Soon I will look like this

We did 2x 2 hour sessions to understand the moves, proper form and progression in the gym, followed by table sessions with background information, QnA and a lot of laughing and fun as well.   To say she identified my weaknesses is the understatement of the decade.  After both sessions I was sore all over and some of the exercises I was not able to fully execute.   It was funny Marilyn would demonstrate and it looked so easy and my effort was clumsy and not fluid.  She makes the weight look light and I pick it up it nearly pushes me through the floor.  She is strong!

So I did  my first week... the email I sent to M this am was titled "APOLOGY.  I am sorry for the numerous times I used your name in vain while swimming masters"  Holy cow I am sore!  

The program is simple, not easy, but 2 days a week.  4 dynamic warm up exercises which I can mostly do followed by 4 key lifts each day.  One day is push and one day is pull.  Heavy weights low reps,  There are a few core exercises that look so easy, "I am thinking", really 3x1:00 is all, let's just say I can hardly do 3x30 seconds.  

My goal is to learn from this, practice the moves and than add into my programming for athletes looking to get stronger, avoid injury and add that top end fitness. 

So where does the short leash come in....different topic, but having 48+ hours with your coach opens up a lot of conversations and seemingly witness all "behaviors" first hand.  Bottom line is Mike is on to me. Onto the fact I may once in a while go from 0-100 too fast, I may push a little hard and I do have great self harming ideas.  I was chatting with John saying you know I pay this guy every month, I chose him as a coach for his years of experience, success with other athletes and wanted to put my trust in his.   Yes here I am asking for something different and well I can be kinda persuasive, 25 years of sales in me for sure.  So we have a new relationship Mike is the BOSS!  Got it. 

I googled "on a short leash"  here was the definition... 

have/keep somebody on a short/tight leash  to have a lot of control over someone's behavior and allow them very little freedom to do what they want

this was NOT my intention