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December 7, 2006
School's Out!
I just finished my last class of this semester. And I couldn't be more happy. Thank God for getting me through it. I'm taking next semester off. I WILL finish this masters but I've already conceded the fact that it's not going to be pretty from here on out... :)
So now I'm back in my office (short class tonight) at work waiting for the pool to reopen so I can go run in the water for 1 hour and 15 minutes. And let me tell you how much I DO NOT want to go. It's freezing cold outside, snowing, dark and it will be 8:30 or 9 by the time I get home. I'm tired. It's been a long day and going home to curl up on the couch and eat a nice meal sounds like such a better option. But I'm going to the pool anyway because in my mind, skipping this workout here and now when I most want to skip it, is a concession that I'm not willing to make. It's one thing to skip a workout when your body physically needs a break. But it's quite another thing to skip a workout because that workout is inconvienent or I just don't feel like it. Will I gain a huge fitness benefit from my 1 hour and 15 minutes of pool running in COLD water tonight? Probably not. Indeed, going home and going to bed early might actually be better for me! But the fact of the matter is, it's times like these that I gain huge mental benefits. Because when I race and I know that I haven't given in one little inch in my training, I am much better able to handle the mental fatigue that I know I will face. I'm less willing to give in during that race too. We all know it's a mental game in endurance sports. And this, apparently, is how I play the game.
On another note, this morning I had another good swim workout that even netted me a compliment from my coach, a man that just does not freely compliment people. I guess that just makes his compliments mean that much more.
3500 meters total (900 meters warmup, 200 meters cooldown) - surprisingly the pool was long course today
4 sets of:
2x50 on 1:05
2x50 on 1
2x50 on :55
2x50 on :50
easy 100
all out 100
My all out 100s were 1:22, 1:20, 1:20 and...1:20. I was trying desperately to break 1:20 on the last all out 100 but I couldn't make it to that dang wall fast enough! Regardless, I'm pretty sure I've not ever swam a 100 in 1:20 so I'm not complaining too much! I've been excited about my swimming this week. I felt for a couple weeks like I wasn't making any progress in the pool but than all of a sudden I've felt great in the water! Now if only my foot would behave and I could do a little running... I suppose the life of a triathlete is always wishing one of the sports was doing better than it actually was! :)
And so it goes. I'm about to leave for the pool now. Have a great night all...
Posted by beth at December 7, 2006 5:55 PM
Comments
Yep, keep sawing wood. . Isn't that how your saying goes!
Posted by: dawn at December 8, 2006 1:57 AM
"Beth: you are such a SLACKER!!!! Damn it! go out there and run on that darn foot until it fixes itself!"...
Is this what you would like to hear? Anything, hard or painful, just as long as it works?
Chopping wood is fine until your axe is sharp.
But eventually the wood wears out the metal, the blade dulls. It is a law of Nature. And it needs sharpening. Unless the lumberjack wants to run "herself" into the ground trying to chop wood with a dull axe...
You write, you know the answer: "Will I gain a huge fitness benefit from my 1 hour and 15 minutes of pool running in COLD water tonight? Probably not."
You even speculate on what is better for you:
"Indeed, going home and going to bed early might actually be better for me!"
But the question is:
Do You Trust Yourself?
Sharpen your blade. Even if what you are doing were indeed a deathly duel, you would still benefit from having a sharp blade. And you know what? Maybe it isn't a deathly duel. Maybe you need your blade to slice, and slice, and slice some more, all sorts of things, all types of materials, on all sorts of surfaces... Over and over again. "Endurance slicing" if you will. So you need to stay sharp, longer: not chop, nor crush, nor hammer, nor scrape... slice... maybe...
Take care and keep your wits. It won't mean you are afraid. You are doing incredible stuff. That's courage in its purest form. Corrado.
ps. Are there any analogies with your early accounts of PF...?
Posted by: corrado giambalvo at December 8, 2006 5:13 AM
So I should take off my 8 layers of clothing and go swim?? NOOOO. But YEEESSS. sigh. :)
Posted by: Audrey at December 8, 2006 8:00 PM