Training continues to improve. The head cold is kind of hanging around and making me feel generally sluggish, but not so bad that it kills me.
Today I used the base pool for the first time – Man, was it cadillac! Kind of soft, squishy walls, crystal clear water, a degree or two warmer than the Y, beautiful building with lots and lots of natural light through opaque glass bricks, and possibly the best showers I’ve ever run into in a gym. Nice, clean, warm locker room, too, though it had wet/dry carpet, which always kind of creeps me out disease-wise.
The actual swim was good, too – 2000 yards (goal was 2200, but I’ve come to realize that the alltriathlon.com projected workload is a bit more than I can tote; since I’m not training for an event, I’m shooting for 80-90% of the scheduled workouts). Breakdown as follows:
250 yds Breast – Warmup
500 yds – Moderately hard
100 yds Breast – recovery
1,000 yds – easy, but the goal was the distance – all but one turn was a good flip; the other was a hand on wall turn
100 yds – hard, practicing breathing on both sides – kind of screwed me up setting up for turns, but I felt like I was really cutting through the water; nice strong strokes
50 yds Breast – cooldown
And I was shot at the end.
No major insights today, though I have finally learned how to swim at a moderate pace instead of having to thrash to keep my head above water. I was much quicker to start breathing every stroke on the left instead of every other stroke, and I think that helped me avoid oxygen debt. But I’m sure I looked like a wuss.
Tomorrow – An hour on the bike! I am so completely pumped I cannot express it in words. I may even actually go to bed early tonight!
how awesome is that? you can’t beat a clean pool and nice locker rooms.
sleep well and enjoy your ride tomorrow!
You’re doing so great! Good for you!
have fun on your bike!!
Your pool stands in stark contrast to mine…I can’t even begin to descibe the horrors that have been seen in the locker rooms. On the plus side, the water is toasty warm. That is the ONLY redeeming quality. Once I’ve used up my 6-visit pass, I’ll switch to the pool here at work, which is sparkly clean.
Great workout – something for me to be inspired by!
Nothing better than a warm pool. Our gym pool is freezing. Not that I’m swimming in it because I suck at swimming.
Good job on improving your form. Are you just kinda making it up? Running seems to be a natural thing but swimming isn’t and I wonder how people figure out what to do without getting instruction.
Nice.. Working on swim form is so hard. I did masters swimming for about a year and it really did wonders for my efficency.
How did your ride go????