I'm a Swimmer

This has been one exciting and educational week.

It's been educational because I took yesterday off: I wasn't feeling well. I felt terribly bad about not sticking to the program but I had a headache and felt tired and just "not right." Boy, did it pay off!

Today I went swimming. I got to the club via bike in a record time of just under 15 minutes (prior record was about 20 minutes). Boy did that feel good, but not as good as what was yet to come.

Facing a time crunch, I found I had about 1 hour to swim, so I chose a plan about midway between the Malibu (sprint) and Pac Grove (olympic) workouts and set to it. First was a 400 yard warm-up. I swam 472 (after converting from a 27-meter lane length). Next was 200 yards in drills: I did 236. Then came the biggie: 900 yards of straight-out swimming. At this point I also committed to seeing how far I could swim without stopping. I was hoping against hope that I could swim 300 (minimum needed for LA Tri Club swim practices).

So the goal was 900 yards. I swam 1,417. The sub-goal was 300 yards without stopping. I swam 1,417 without stopping. The high I felt after completing that was unbelievable.

Then another 236 yards of drills and 472 yards of cool downs.

Overall, the Sprint program called for 1,600 yards, the Olympic program called for 2,200 yards, I swam 2,600 yards (1.35 miles). In one hour. After a 3 mile bike ride.

The icing on the cake (as if there wasn't enough yet)? I rode home in 12 minutes - yes, 12 minutes! Also reached a personal best top speed of 38.3mph going down the big hill from the club.

What a great workout!

But at the beginning I said this was a great week. That's because on Monday I rode over 35 miles (another personal best) and on Saturday I ran 6 miles with stopping or walking (another personal best).

I can only hope this all repeats itself next Sunday at the Malibu Tri!