The training week in review

Well, this was my first week of training under Liz's guidance. I can't tell you how much difference having a plan, a goal make when thinking about training. All of the sudden this week I found myself full of energy, and willing to get up extra early in the morning, just so that I could get some quality workouts in. I was even looking forward to going to the pool! Now that's strange!

On tuesday after getting everything ironed out, my coach gave me my workouts for the rest of the week.  I was so excited about seeing the schedule! For the longest time I had been working out just to work out and was getting kind of burnt out; and seeing the variety on the calendar made my heart start pumping extra hard :) (in a good way).

Wednesday morning I got up and headed to the gym for my 45 min run. It was an easy run with some 30 sec pick ups mixed in. I woke up with a really sour stomach that morning (something I ate the night before was just sitting way wrong with me) and that mixed in with the pickups made for a challenging 45 mins. I also think that I got a little too carried away with the pick ups and be the time I hit the last one I was ready to be done. Not because I was extremely exhausted, but because my insides were screaming for me to run to the bathroom! HA!

On thursday I had the dreaded swim test. Now, to be perfectly honest... I do NOT like swimming, not a single bit. Maybe it's because I am not good at it, maybe it's because I keep thinking that I will not be able to take the next breath and that scares me, maybe it's because it is extremely hard...Well, maybe it's a combination of the three... Anyhow, I planned on doing this test during my lunch break at work. I went to work and the clock kept ticking slowly...Finally at 11:30 I thought: I might as well get there and get this over with. So I headed out... It is a 5 minute walk from my building to the gym, and I can not tell you how nervous I got during that 5 minute walk! I thought I was going to barf! I got to the pool and there was an open lane. Bingo! I warmed up as suggested... 500 yards that seemed to take forever! And then i got ready for my timed 500.  I was highly doubting myself here. I tried to keep a somewhat fast pace, but I don't think I have a somewhat fast pace, so I just swam the best I could. And you know what? I managed to finish the set! And I wasn't as slow as I thought I was going to be... It was definitely an ego booster. It gave me what I needed: knowing that I COULD do it.  Thursday evening I did some core work and I was done for the day.

Friday I had my run test. I like running, I am fairly decent at it. I have done a couple of 1/2 marathons and I have enjoyed the training process. The hard part for me here was going to be finding the right pace. See, I tend to go really fast during my first mile and then progressively slow down. I needed to find a pace that I could keep for a while, something that would make me work, but would not leave me totally breathless. I think I managed to do it fairly well, but I could have gone a bit faster perhaps. There is always next time.

Today, I had another swim workout. This time I was to swim a total of 2000 yards. I have NEVER swam that long this early in the season. Last year, my first couple of workouts were at the most 1200 yards... that is a bit of a difference, don't you think? The main set was the most intimidating of them all. Some 4x300's. I had to talk myself into just focusing on the task at hand... Tackle each 300 just thinking about that 300, forgetting about anything else. I was surprised at how well it worked! I was able to finish the sets just fine. I was a little tired towards the end, and I definitely felt my stroke deteriorate; but I thought it was a great workout. I got out of the pool feeling confident, chest puffed out and a big grin on my face.  I am pretty sure the people swimming masters in the contiguous lanes stared at me kind of funny, but I don't care. After the pool I did an easy spin on one of the indoor bikes and headed home.

This was my first week, and I can already feel the difference. Not in my level of tiredness, but in my sense of purpose.

 This is going to be a great year...