Round 5 - Day 85

I only ran 9 km on Sunday. Kind of talked myself out of it, but my legs were really aching after a Legs & Back on the Friday. I'm still confident about being able to do the 15 km on Sunday, but I have to shut the voice up when it gets hard. I've been able to do it every other time, but Sunday I had to agree with it when it said "Ow, my legs hurt. You should stop. 9 km is plenty, etc." Apart from that, I've enjoyed this round a lot. Again, the shorter workouts are great, and I'll continue to do these in the next round. At this stage I use my ipod to listen to the warmup of the workout I'm doing, mainly just for timing's sake, then turn it off and refer to a sheet I made with 12 or 13 exercises on it while I listen to an audiobook or watch something else. It probably still takes 40 minutes to do, but that's because I have a lot of rests. I think that next round I'll completely ditch the videos, make some kind of warm-up routine for myself, and eliminate some of the exercises I think are a waste of time and put in other stuff. I'll also do two short runs of 8 km a week instead of one really long one. I was thinking of just maintaining until P90X 2 comes out, and then do that full-on.
Swannies! I love beating Essendon. I didn't think we would, because they are the glamour side going in, and I didn't think we would win in the third quarter when we are getting rolled after hitting the front for a couple of seconds, but as usual, Jude Bolton inspired the team to victory. What a player. It's only round 2, but there have been heaps of great games already. It was a shame to see the Gold Coast Suns get pumped by so much. Everyone says Gary Ablett is "underdone". Was he injured during pre-season? I hope they win a few games. Richmond haven't won anything yet, but just like every year we all have to agree that they've improved. I don't think so. I picked them for 10th, and that's probably where they are right now. Collingwood are awesome, and I hope they pump the Blues this week. We've got West Coast. Another thriller? Surely not.
I watched "Limitless" on Sunday night. Good movie. Moral of the story: Drugs are great. Coming down sucks, so make sure you don't come down. Actually, I've seen a few good movies the last couple of months. The trick is staying away from movies you know are going to be shit, like the Green Lantern, or a Nicholas Cage movie, anything with Nicole Kidman, anything animated (except a Toy Story movie). With Limitless, it was a bit disappointing to see how quickly the guy ditches making art for making money, like finance is the pinnacle of human endeavours, and writing books is for losers. But then he ditches both for politics. Wow. A movie for our times, for sure.
Well, it's that time of year. The Masters. Again, the question is, just like last year, what will Tiger do? Phil Mickelson won last week, and he is a form player, so he is definitely the favourite. But Tiger? He has played some good tournaments, but also some awful ones. He's come close a couple of times, but lately he has been playing pretty badly. Why he is attempting a swing change during the most turbulent time in his personal life is beyond me. His swing looks terrible these days. Cramped, stiff. He appears to have fallen into the trap of becoming too analytical about his swing. If you are worrying too much about the angle of your left wrist at impact or stuff like that, you just can't get any feel. I read about how in 1983 when Seve was at his peak, he had someone film him hitting the golf ball and measure everything about it - distance between him and the ball, angles, time, feet positions, hand positions, etc. His theory was that if he wasn't playing well, it was because he somehow gotten out of whack, and all he had to do was go back to the data he made when he was playing well and make sure he was doing everything the same. It makes sense, but of course this didn't work. Things change over time. Your body loses flexibility, you lose or gain weight, your back feels lose or stiff. He ditched it after a couple of years and concentrated on doing what felt comfortable or natural, and he had two or three years as the dominant player in the world and won a heap of tournaments. This will happen with Tiger, too, I hope. Golfer's swings tighten up naturally as they get older, but Tiger's swing when he was twenty is so different than it is now it's amazing. He is physically different, too, from all the growth hormones he has taken over the years, probably. He hasn't lost any mass since the downfall. He is still huge. I doubt this is helping him hit good golf shots, either.
Still, it all comes down to putting, so if he can putt well at Augusta, then he can win it. In fact, I will state here that the winner will be the person who putts the best. Not the person person who hits it the furthest or hits the most fairways or greens, or gets up and down the most from bunkers, but the person who misses the fewest short putts. Tiger has putted poorly the last few Masters, and would have won a couple if he had putted well.