Tuesday, December 11, 2007

While the coffee brews

I will just report that I am ashamed of myself for being in such a fretful mood last night, I had a lovely swim this morning...

It was not the kind of swim, we observed in the locker room afterwards, that gives you much to think about. (The Thursday workouts spoil us.) But this has its benefits.

For the first half, I had the lane entirely to myself; in the second half, I split it, but retained that sense of freedom and independence. Not a fast swim, I think (it's hard to do a great workout on your own in the lane--really in my ideal swimming world I will find a masters workout where I am really working hard together with three others in a lane, I seem to have had none of this recently, very frustrating), but the feel was great (the technique benefits of the Monday night-Tuesday morning transition are luxuriously and decadently excellent, my hands feel like huge bear paws after all that anchor drill!).

Warmup: 300 swim, 150 drill-kick (choice), 150 swim.

Main workout: 5 x 100 free on 2:00 (I regretfully observe that I still cannot do 100s on 1:50 or even 1:55, I did try though but it is not to the point, not enough rest!); 5 x 50 drill-kick (choice--really I don't know drills etc. on the different strokes that do not make me feel that I might possibly drown, can't for instance properly do that dolphin kick with double-arm back though I. showed it to me and I temporarily achieved it once or twice, so I did miscellaneous stuff, including some regular swim in the other strokes); 5 x 100 IM. In theory the workout then continued with another 5 x 50 drill-kick, and 5 x 100 free, but time was up, the girls were ready to get in for 7am practice, so I just did 100 easy to swim down.

Can I just say that my backstroke is, like, a different stroke than it was last week?!? This is amazing. I think in an absolute sense it may be a bit slower than what I've been doing, but on the other hand it only takes about half the effort, so this is a big step forward...

Bike #14, 30 mins, 430 mins. total.

It was interesting, I was on the bike at the gym and had a sudden revelation that I was missing my real actual bike, which I have come to feel relatively fond of--the broad cushiony seat of the gym bike made me long for my nice narrow bike seat at home, and everything fitting me so exactly perfectly that it's like an extension of the body. I feel that even aside from mild potential fitness benefits (but I have not really been doing it in a way that leads to much fitness!), the 30 in 30 thing has already earned its keep if it has made me feel this way...

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