Swimming, Swimming and more swimming

Wow, what a week so far! I am not sure how I have managed to survive it yet. But I am still here.

My goodness have I swam this week!

On Tuesday after a lousy day at work I went to the pool all by myself and swam the prescribed 2200 yds. There were some hard sets but was ok overall. The toughest ones were the ones where I was suppsoed to sprint. Talk about a burn in you lungs! That is one sensation that I cannot get used to and to this day it still makes me a bit panicky. Truth be told I had to stand up during some of those sets because the “ugly” sensation became too much for me to handle. I kept thinking about Liz’s words of wisdom, the ones that she shares with everyone in her blog and how we are always our own limiters; and that made me push harder and harder. I was still not very satisfied about the results but I do have another 2200 yards under my belt. And that has to count for something, right?

Wednesday was an interesting day. I was super busy at the job and wasn’t even able to break properly for lunch. I ate at my desk and got caught up reading about some of my new blogger friends… I even managed to find some new inspirational people. After the regular 8-5 day was done I headed out to do my run. This was my first run outside in a while. Since I started working with Liz, she has me training on HR zones. I was used to running fast, going places; and having to considerably slow down has not been an easy adjustment. It almost feels unnatural as I shuffle along trying to keep my HR in the zones that coach wanted me too. The town I live is not exactly flat, so an “easy” run is populated by little hills that can throw your HR out of the place you want it to be. So there was a lot of walking involved, which of course I do not like to do when the workout prescribes an easy “run”. But, since Coach know what she is doing and why she is doing it, I was a very good student and played by the rules. Then came the hill repeats. Hills are my nemesis… they have the power to defeat me, every.single.time. This year, I am going to fight them teeth and nails and I am going to prevail. I am going to learn to not be scared of the stomach aches that happen when I run fast uphill. And once I do I am going to get to the top of the hill and I am going to smile victoriously. These hill repeats were of the not so hard kind. I had to do five of them. Run up the hill at a considerable effort, and run down it easy. The good thing I discovered is that all of this HR training is working. By the time I was about 75% into the descend, my HR was already on the recovery zone. And Coach says that is good.

After the run I headed for an easy swim with my old tri group. It was a mere 1000 yds, but were very focused on from. There was an instructor present and she was able to watch my stroke and give me some pointers to improve it. Very productive. I got home last night at about 8:45 pm. I left at 6:30 in the morning. Long day!

This morning I went to my first session of Masters Swim. After having swum the noght before I do not think it was the best of ideas. My arms were already tired and I do not think I got enough rest. I was scared/nervous about Masters, but it turned out to be ok. I was on a lane all by myself; which I think kind of defeated the purpose of me attending the group sesssion, but maybe once the instructor gets to know how I swim she wil put me on a lane that has people on it. The workout was quite challenging, and honestly I am glad I went and I am done for the day.

My body is tired, but I am still going to do everything that is on my schedule. I will give it my all, and then when rest day comes around,it will be even more enjoyable.