fighting uphill to swim downhill

Tuesday: Swam 8x50m; 4 sets (25xkick, 25 breathing; 25 pull; 25 regular); 2x25 sprint; 25X4 cooldown.
Wednesday: Ran 25 min (5 min warmup at 5.0; 5.4 for 20 mins, HR 160ish; 10 minutes cooldown)


This week is a constant battle to get to the gym. And it's not even that I don't want to go. It's that I'm having priority clashes with work. I want to work out. I need to be at my desk. And so the struggle continues. It's so utterly boring that I can't even talk about it, but for example - I just worked for two hours. It's now 10 to midnight, I should be in bed, but I want to write before I fricking forget what exercise I managed to slip in while apparently holding up the entire future of the wind industry in the United States (it's this funny trick they pull on you to make you feel important - telling you your efforts are vital. You know how you know when you're really important? When you can go home at six pm and tell someone else to do it).

Anyway, in between working like a dog and neglecting my goals at balance and nirvana, I did manage to get in two fairly solid workouts and throw away some cold hard cash on the internet.

The swim workout was by far the hardest. I hadn't been in the pool in a week and I could tell immediately. I was trying out some new drills that I had read about and a technique or two I heard about from Ms. MD (merci beaucoup Coach Joe). I tried visualizing "swimming downhill" and that actually really made a huge difference. I could feel my feet popping up to the surface more and my chest getting down in the water (which strangely enough seems to free your arms more). I'm also working on breathing every other stroke - thinking of my arms like windmills - one, two, three, four and breathe. The problem is that I either have really small lungs or I'm just not in shape because it takes a huge amount of effort *not* to breathe when that right arm comes up. I had this moment in the pool where I got grumpy about it. I mean -- I like breathing. So sue me. I'm a mammal. I'm into breathing every thirty seconds. I get to breathe whenever I want when I run. And even - at the possible risk of inhaling insects - when I bike. Stupid water. Swimming is my crux at the moment. It's also the hardest one to schedule because the hours are so much more restricted than running or biking (which you can pretty much do anytime anywhere with gear and reflective tape). And as we are all learning the hard way, tight schedules and my work do not play well together.

On the other hand, the running is going well and I'm feeling stronger and stronger. I pushed myself a little today, bumping up a level from where I was running last week. I was going to throw in some 30-second sprints at 5.7 at the end, but my knees were feeling crunchy (I don't know how else to describe it. Like I can feel it pop very slightly when I put my leg out).

As for the cold hard cash, I am now going to be the proud owner of my very own trisuit.

http://brandscycle.com/itemdetails.cfm?catalogId=39&sort=pricedesc&id=8270

Thank you to my sister (the professional one) who told me about the website. I would post a picture of her here in her trisuit, kicking ass at her 1/2 ironman, but I think it would embarass her.

I also ponied up 40 bucks to get a basic, no frills heartrate monitor. It's good in water up to 50 meters, so I can drag it into my little thrash sessions at Marie Reed. It's made by Oregonian Scientific - who are the same people who made my amazing self-setting clock with weather forecasts on it.

http://www2.oregonscientific.com/shop/product.asp?cid=3&scid=9&pid=785

Here's why I really bought it: a) it's red. b) it's cheap c) the little alarm that beeps at you when you reach your target heart rate can be turned off.

BrandsCycle popped that baby in the mail the same day I bought it so I may even get it by Friday. HR monitor is TBD (which is kind of the way I picture the company. "Oregon Scientific will be happy to mail your package as soon as we return for our three-week company glacier climb in Alaska. Please leave a message after the beep."