Musical Morning Train

800 warm up slow mo
2 x 200 warm up moderate
6 x 25 on :30
4x  { 25e, 50e, 75 fly on :30, 1:00, 1:20 }
4 x 300 free w/ fins on 4:00   KDS
4 x 25 on :30   free easy, fly fast
6 x 125 pull on 1:45
9 x 100 on 1:30, 1:20, 1:10
150 swim down

5000 TOTAL - somewhere, I missed a couple hundred, but this is mostly accurate.   

I accused James of raiding his parents' music collection for the songs he played for us during today's practice.  I'm pretty sure he didn't find Rip Hop band Hed PE in the collection.  When I hear music in my head, it ranges from Taiko drums to Punk.   Hed PE is a great band for motivation, but don't play it for the kids...   I've opened for Hed PE a few times with a rock band and with my ensemble Tampa Taiko, and have even gotten to spend quality time with their leader Jehred Gomez.   Here's a clip of Hed PE doing one of their better known songs, "Renegade" performing in SoCal.

 

 This next track was one that I recorded from the audience and the clip is just my friend Ian Tarrant swimming at North Shore Pool in St. Petersburg.

Here's A(k)NeW doing, "Beowulf" featuring Tampa Taiko's big drums.

Here's about 20 minutes of Tampa Taiko in early 2020, performing for about 1200 students at Tampa Theatre for our annual Chinese New Year Celebration Concert.  I sincerely hope this will happen again someday soon.  It's not possible even now, a year later, but maybe this will happen again in 2022!

 

 

So that's a couple examples of taiko and rip hop, but I certainly listen to (and play) many other types of  music.  When training for the English Channel, there are coaches that teach you to prepare with, "Total Body Confusion." What that means to me is there are many ways to take your mind off the long hard grind that it takes to become a better athlete.  Music is one way to do it, playing songs in your head while you do endless training in the pool, on your bike, running, paddling etc.