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May 18, 2006
Say What?
I have today off work which is most excellent because I'm very tired and I will now have the perfect opportunity to take a nap this afternoon. Life does not get much better than this. :) My day off today is also good for several other reasons:
1) I have Friday, Saturday and Sunday off. As O likes to say, the only thing better than a day off work is several days off work! :)
2) I'm not actually using vacation time. Today is techniquely a "conference day", which are days (obviously) alloted for time to be away at a conference. Notice I'm not currently at a conference but rather in my house typing on my computer. The sneaky thing is, I am going to a lecture tonight that my is put on by an organization that I happen to be on the Board of Directors for. My boss (being the awesome boss that she is) decides that I need to have today off for organizational time to get ready for tonight's lecture. Truth of the matter is, all the work for putting this lecture on is complete - was done weeks ago, so now I'm just hanging out. I love it! And tomorrow is not vacation time either, it's just my day off for working last Sunday.
Anyway, I still drove down to Pitt this morning for the master's swim workout. I was tempted to go back to sleep and just swim at the YMCA when my alarm went off at 4:45 am, but I really do like swimming with this group and swimming in that pool and I knew I would get a better workout than if I did it by myself.
And then, about halfway through the workout, I was really wishing I was home in my bed, nice and warm and snug! :)
Seriously, today's workout was R-O-U-G-H! Here's what it was supposed to be: (the pool was set up short course today)
20x100 as so -
2x100 on 1:50
4x100 on 1:40
4x100 on 1:35
4x100 on 1:30
2x100 on 1:25
2x100 EASY
2x100 on 1:22 (or 1:25 if you didn't make the first 2x100 on 1:25)
(800 yd warmup/400 yd cooldown - 3200 yds total)
Um yeah. I was probably swimming in a group a little over my head but the problem was that the next group down would have been too slow and the coach put me in the faster group. That's definitely what I wanted, but let it be known - on the 3rd 100 of the 1:30s, things started to get ugly! For some reason there were only 3 other woman today, one not doing a workout at all, one slower than me and one much faster than me (as in she was so much faster I couldn't even see her lane from where I was ;). Anyway, I was in with 3 other guys that I hung with fine on Monday but whom apparentely like shorter, faster stuff much more and therefore dusted me today. :) Like I said, I was doing fine up until the 1:30s when I was literally getting about 4 seconds rest and tiring quickly. Then the 1:25s came and the wheels came off. I didn't make those intervals - as in I probably did more like 1:35s or 1:40s on those. Then thankfully the easy 100s came and I caught up with my group again and got my breathe back. I was bound and determined to do the last 2x100 in 1:25. So we go and I swim the first one in 1:19 - OH BOY - 6 seconds rest! And then I started again and my arms protested like they've never protested before and I swam a 1:26. :) Oh well. It was definitely the hardest workout I've done and I gave it my best effort.
The coach told me afterward that swimming hard on very little rest is the hardest part of swimming and that it comes with time. I think it's equivalent to the fact that any high school kid can run an :80 for a 400, but can they do 10x400 @ :80 with only 1 minute rest? Quite a difference - as I learned today... :)
Anyway, I was really happy about the fact that instead of going to work, I just changed and headed to my car to go home! When I got home it was raining (surprise, surprise!) and so I set my bike up on the trainer in the living room. Had I any hope that it might not be raining at some point today I would have waited so I could ride outside, but there is a HUGE green blob over Pittsburgh on the radar and I knew waiting wasn't going to do me any good. I keep telling myself - some day it will be sunny again!
I rode my bike for 1:30, all while watching Golden Girls repeats. I love that show. :) I rode hard at times, but mostly easy, which is fine by me considering I was still trying to recover from the swim! One thing I did do on the bike was try to stay down in my aerobars for long periods - like 35 minutes without getting up - so as to teach my body how it feels. It's hard to do that out on the roads because you are always stopping for cars, turning, etc...
And now it's seriously time for a nap. I am so sleepy! I don't have to leave for my lecture until around 4 so I have plenty of time...
Posted by beth at May 18, 2006 11:04 AM