A very decent one, nothing earth-shattering but I felt strong in the water and it also made me feel normal for the first time all day, because I am having devastatingly inconvenient insomnia this week. Catch-22: must finish big job and get through other upcoming ordeals (knighthood-type ordeals, not suffering-type ordeals--everything is fine, just very busy!); too stressed out to sleep; working well below capacity!
I really like digging in and working hard, I feel cheerful at the thought of finishing this manuscript this weekend and getting it out by the end of the day Monday, but the way I was feeling yesterday and today due to sleep deprivation was making it fairly impossible to execute the plan at desired intensity levels...
Intersection of Monday deadline, sleep problems and a family obligation Sunday has led me to do some drastic cutting/streamlining of the workout schedule in coming days. Now is the crunch, got to just get through it, no point worrying about shortfall from training plan. (Lack of sleep means body unlikely to absorb anything much in any case.) No bike before swimming today, because I need to do a couple more hours of work this evening and I couldn't spare either the late-afternoon work time or the later-night energy. And--this is a test for me, I must not always be skipping the bike!--I think I have to skip the projected eight-mile run Sunday, alas...
This seems to me best bet for the next five days in terms of meeting various commitments and maximizing work hours:
Saturday evening: 120 mins. bike plus 2-3 miles run off bike, but run only if it is not too late at night
Sunday: off (non-family hours desperately needed for book, cannot spare time for even the nicest run in the world...)
Monday: 8am workout with M. at gym; optional pm bike/run workout, but only if I can email the book manuscript out by 6pm or so, I need to switch over to reading and teaching prep for Tuesday by mid-evening Monday
Tuesday: swim
Wednesday: 4-6 miles daylight run, plus 120 mins. bike, but bike as higher priority
In other words, two real bike workouts plus one extra if I can fit it; one gym workout; one swim; a couple very short runs squeezed in as it seems possible.
All will be possible if I can get some hours of solid sleep tonight. A friend appealingly (glamorizingly, really it is less exciting!) described what I have been doing this winter as "fighting dragons," and with a large grain of salt it is indeed an apt notion. I sort of love the part where I am actually whacking the dragons with my sword. But I am not so keen on the 2am racing-thought situations where I consider for the fifty millionth time which dragons I might want to whack and which want to whack me, what I will do with them once I have whacked them into submission, etc.
Details of tonight's workout as follows...
Warmup: 3 x (100 swim, 50 drill, 100 swim) - I did 100 free, 50 hodgepodge drill stuff (some catchup, some thumbsies with evil salute, some double-arm back), 100 IM for all three
First set: 16 x 25 in sets of 5 plus one extra: choice, build, 12.5 sprint 12.5 easy, build, choice. Did each stroke in IM order over the three, then a final 25 of free.
Second set (which I only got through the first third-and-a-bit of, frustrating, that workout is too long for me to do in an hour, I was not late starting today):
300 smooth free
3 x 100 75 free/25 kick
2 x 50 hard effort free (this was focus of set)
1 x 50 recovery
200 smooth free ...
and then I had to stop because it switched over to regular pool swim and I just needed to go anyway. Would have been 2 x 100 IM, 2 x 50 hard effort stroke, 50 recovery, then 100 smooth free, 100 IM, 2 x 50 hard effort free, 1 x 50 recovery.
So: 2100, not bad. I guess that's what I can swim in an hour, with rest...
I actually did the first 300 pretty hard effort, it is not really to my credit but the fellow on the other side of the lane line started at the same time as me and we were neck and neck the whole time! Enjoyable race-like feeling... maybe it was 5:35 or 5:40? Forgot to look and register time at the end, I was catching my breath! (And a fast open turn really is pretty much the same speed as a flip turn...)
4 comments:
Glad you had a good swim -- looks like a solid schedule revamp. Good luck putting the book to bed!
I must beg to differ on your final point, though. Much depends on the athlete's level of prowess with the skill. Quality flip turns are always faster than quality open turns.
Wendy is quite right, and my language has introduced inaccuracy into the situation by presenting a specific point about two swimmers with a general claim that is false! A reasonably focused open turn with a really good kick off the wall, done by someone with the bit in her teeth as far keeping up goes, will keep said swimmer level with a next-lane swimmer of roughly the same speed whose flip turns are only adequate...
It is my goal to get a quality flip turn! But it is going to take a while, I will settle for an adequate one at first, it was just reassuring to me to see that it would be that INSTANTLY I would be so much faster, it would have to wait till I got good at them...
That was meant to say "would NOT be instantly"! Must caffeinate fully before posting blog comments...
I know what it is like to finish a book and how much mental acuity/attention to detail is required--I'm cheering for you! I find it paradoxically physically exhausting to have a big work push like yours--my muscles hurt, I'm barely able to walk around for stiffness, etc. Your limited workout plan seems like the perfect counter to book related strain on the body. Good luck!!!!!
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