Catching up....

in more ways that one!

Let's see - I've been a total slacker when it comes to running and pretty much all training. I don't know what happened to me last week, but I let it get away from me. Part of the problem was that I had many days where I ended up staying late at work. That just set me up with entitlement issues and feeling the need for 'rewards' for all the hard work I was doing. And of course, I convinced myself that I was 'too tired' for working out. Ugh.

The good news is that week is behind me. I'm pretty sure it was also the last week that I can afford to throw away with a looming tri next spring! On Saturday I spent the day running errands and cooking. I also did quite a bit of chores around the farm. Unfortunately, by the time evening came around I was exhausted and really just needed to sit down. We watched a movie and went to bed early. On Sunday we got up reasonably early and headed out for breakfast and then to join the pool.

After we forked over our six month membership fee, we headed for the locker rooms to change into our suits. We weren't sure where to shower before swimming, so we skipped it. Then when we went to swim, we weren't sure what lane we should be in...what exactly does 'slow', 'medium' and 'fast' mean? Luckily, there weren't too many people there and as we were trying to decide which lane to choose, the guy in 'slow' moved over. We opted for 'slow'. I jumped in and immediately started swimming. It felt good! For a bit...then I started to breathe harder...and then harder...and then I couldn't even swim freestyle anymore because I needed to breathe more often than my stroke would allow. All this happend in the time it took me to swim 4 lengths of the pool. Wow, I'm out of shape!

What is confusing is how I get in shape. Do I just keep doing this and just stopping when I get to the point where my form falls apart? Or do I then switch to breast stroke and keep going? I think my plan will be to try and hold back more on the freestyle so that I can go for longer...and then when I can't, switch to breast stroke and maybe alternate the two for a bit. I've also got a few form pointers that I can work on, so that'll help me get my mind off needing to breathe way more than my stroke allows! ;-) I also tried to time myself. I wanted to know how long it took me to swim 500 yards (the length of our tri swim). This was difficult to do. First of all, I'm out of shape and couldn't swim 500 yards. Secondly, the pool was set up in meters, not yards and thirdly, I kept losing count! Tonight I'll try to pay closer attention - I also know that 9 laps in a 25 meter pool is almost the same as 10 laps in a 25 yard pool so that'll be my timing goal (eventually). Right now, my goal is to have the ability to swim 500 yards in one session!

Yesterday I had to work late again, but when I got home, I had a light dinner and then forced myself to put on my running shoes. I did 30 minutes on the treadmill in an 8/22 run walk pattern. It wasn't particularly difficult and in fact, felt better than the 6/24 intervals because the whole thing seemed to go faster. What I think I'll do next time is try and change my intervals to 4x2min ones insead of 8x1min ones. This is because 1 minute really doesn't challenge my cardiovascular capacity and if I don't, I can't improve it. This will also mean longer walk intervals which is boring...but I'll live. I pretty much skipped the entire 6/24 week (only did it once), so I hope that doesn't mess up my progression. The 8/22 didn't feel too challenging and even though my hips are sore today, I think I can keep going with this level. I believe that this will still allow me to get to 30 minutes of straight running by the time the tri rolls around.