Blissful Thursday run-swim

Quiet day at home of book work, then a really super-enjoyable run and a swim. The swim was perfect, I loved it--the run was good too, very nice afternoon for it, but my legs were a bit tired...

(I was idly thinking that I must have done a good job with last night's bike-run workout--and then I was, like, oh, wait a minute, it is only Thursday and I did run a half-marathon on Sunday, it is not really surprising that my thigh muscles are feeling on the tired side...)

It was a good day to bring my camera with me and take a few shots of most scenic bits along the usual Riverside Park run, and indeed I did exactly that--only I am too ravenously hungry to deal with them now, I will save them for a day when I've got nothing else to post about! These double workouts are a strain on my refrigerator's ability to provide me with suitable things to eat, I think I must go out and find a real dinner somewhere that is not swarming with Valentiners...

Due to camera handling distractions I accidentally stopped my watch halfway through the run: in any case I still have not gotten around to recalibrating distances!

Part 1: 22:56, 2.448 miles, avg HR 143, avg pace 9:22. Part II: 25:06, 2.753 miles, avg HR 150, avg pace 9:05.

I want to start doing my runs faster, I have been pretty tranquil about doing all lowish-HR running but I think it's time to speed up a bit!

Then an absolutely lovely swim. My freestyle felt great, and in fact the backstroke felt very nice too today, I suppose it is the reward for slogging through quite a bit of it on Tuesday with very low morale. Today it was very dancey, it really is out of all the strokes the most like doing a waltz (not that I really know how to do a waltz--but I know how the music goes!)--I was very vividly thinking of my late lamented swimming teacher Doug Stern waltzing around on deck as he tried to get us to imagine the proper rhythm of the freestyle kick...

Warmup: 700 (200 free, 200 drill-swim back/breast by 50, 100 free "4-3-2-1 catchup by 25" [i.e. four strokes on each side on first 25, then three, etc.], 100 drill IM, 50 free, 50 back)

First set: 20 x 25 (1 underwater, 3 swim free) on :40, :35, :30, :25

(Got a bit mixed-up on times on a couple of these, one of the pace clocks wasn't working and it was also a mental challenge to really keep track, but by the last couple I was good... can't yet swim more than half the length underwater, though!)

Second set (it was a 5-4-3-2-1, but I only had time for 5 and 4--it was lovely, though--so the bits I missed [I have stolen the sheet with the workout printed on it, I would not be able to remember this part!] were 3 x 150 kick-drill-swim free, back, breast, 2 x 200 free, 1 x 300 IM, and then one more set of 6 x 75 with a mix of freestyle drill and swim--I would need it to be an hour and a half in order to get through that whole workout...): 5 x 100 free on 2:00, 4 x 125 IM (with the extra 25 coming on each stroke in IM order, i.e. start with 50 fly, 25 back etc. and so forth--don't know what my times were on these...)

So here's the thing that put me in such a super-good mood, I was imagining I would really have to swim the 100s of free on 2:10, a couple weeks ago I was definitely swimming 1:55ish. But I guess I just got mental focus and kind of regained swimming energy and fitness over the last few weeks of regular workouts--I did my first one and it was a definite 1:45, hard work but sustainable, and I did all five properly on 2:00 and came in 1:44-46 on all of 'em.

Oh, I must start practicing those wretched flip turns, the open turn is so slow in comparison, I would be able to take off a number of seconds if I could just do a proper flip turn without oxygen debt and without veering off into the lane line! All right, there's a goal...

So--2200 yards? Very respectable.

Now to refuel...