The past 7 days have comprised one of my biggest swim weeks ever.  All of the guys are tapering for their meet on Sunday, so that left me going about 20,000 of my 35,000 yards solo.  Swim training has its ups and downs, and I’m currently riding high on an upswing which feels exceptionally good after the big rut I was in for most of the winter.  It serves as proof that even when you think you are doing negative work (as in getting slower and slower) it all adds up in the end to make you faster.  About two weeks ago I was struggling through a set of 5 300s, doing the first 2 on the 4:00 before falling back to the 4:10 for the last 3.  I was more than frustrated, I really couldn’t go any faster.  Last night for the last set of my week I went 10×300 on the 4:00, getting about 15 seconds rest for each and feeling really smooth and relaxed.  Swimming that pace for almost double the distance of an ITU swim has me excited…I know I still need to take a lot more time off, but it’s a leap in the right direction and I know I can crank it up a few notches come race time.

This whole week was made easier by knowing that on Saturday I’d get an entire day off of training to rest up and get ready for another solid week before coasting into Mazatlan.  Thursday I hit my only tough patch, Jordan and I were up in the mountains spending the night and I had to get my second swim in at the rec center (the only day I broke it into two swims, which I was regretting!).  I was hungry and the night before I had cooked up some of Mollie’s Mac n’ Cheese and the leftovers were beaconing.  Luckily, Jordan was driving and pulled up to the rec center and booted me out of the car.  4,500 yards later I was devouring the best mac n’ cheese of my life.  Thanks Mollie!

[BTW: Mollie was another teammate of mine at BU and now has a great blog devoted to 3 wonderful things: eating, running, and reading.  Check it out at eatrunread.blogspot.com...but not before a workout.]

Swimming totally redeems itself!

Last night we got back into the Thursday night Riptide tradition of Team Goals: a bunch of all-out 100s, with an in-water start.  Swimming still hasn’t been going too well, 1:20s are usually a struggle, even with decent rest and I haven’t swam all-out since August, so I didn’t have incredibly high hopes for the workout.  The one “good” thing about Team Goals is that it’s a short practice, rarely over 3000y.  Last year I started off around doing these around 1:12s, then by Christmas I was hitting all of them under 1:10, and eventually got to a 1:05, but mostly hovered around 1:06/1:07.

Last night they were on the 4:00 (for non-swimmers, this means if you come in at 1:30, you get 2:30 rest).  Of course I got put in the lane with my fiancé/business partner/roommate/co-Gully owner/aquatic nemesis.

First one.  All out.

1:14.  There is no way I can do that again.  I am totally spent.  How can I possibly feel so awful and out of shape?

Second one.  I’m still sucking wind from the first one.

1:16.5.  I quit.

Third one.  Obviously I didn’t quit.

1:17.  Ok I’m done.

Fourth one.  I can tell that Jordan thinks I’m starting to feel sorry for myself and I want to prove him wrong.

1:11.  Yay.

Fifth one.

1:07.5.

Sixth one.

1:08.

Finished!

I needed that swim!  Maybe I didn’t reach my triathlon peak at the age of 24 after all.  And as for my aquatic nemesis?  He had a good workout and is now off to Texas this morning to race the Austin 70.3 on Sunday.  I think his Tweet says it best:

jordanj191 After a race season with a broken chain, broken tibia/torn meniscus, giardia, flat tire/crash I’m due for a good race Sunday!

October First was the day!  My glorious month of cinnamon bun eating and sleeping in has come to an end.  Now it’s time to get to work in the pool!

One of the best things about training with Riptide is that Sean gives us total control of our off-seasons.  When I told him I was feeling run-down after Tuscaloosa, he didn’t try to talk me into racing one more race.  He knows that all of us have been training hard long enough to know when we’ve had enough.  He let me disappear for two weeks before I had to be back in the pool, swimming just 2-3 times per week so I wouldn’t be starting from scratch later on.  I came up with the October 1st start-date for the real training to begin and when I started outlining my winter plan he pulled in the reigns.  I was getting froggy.  One step at a time…

So this morning I dragged myself out of bed at 6 and made my way to the rec center in the dark.  It wasn’t easy…I’ve gotten really used to sleeping-in and not doing much of anything.  I can totally see how people who don’t workout regularly have a hard time forming a routine.  The first few days are so brutal.  For me, it helps to think about how much I’ll enjoy it once I’m actually in the pool, and even more so how much more I’ll enjoy racing with all of the yards under me.

For now, it’s only singles in the pool, doubles will come later this month.  My big plan for the winter is to step it up a few notches and tag along with the guys on all of their rides and runs.  I will be the annoying little sister of the team, it’s a role I fill naturally.

Last week I was summoned back to the pool by Sean.  The first day of swimming wasn’t so bad, but each day thereafter got worse and worse.  I’m not ready to be submerged for 2 hours everyday, and really haven’t been too into the whole exercising thing for the past few weeks, let alone training several hours a day for a race season that is months and months away.  So yesterday I skipped swim practice, worked later, and then drove up Lookout Mountain for a run that turned into more of a hike….

I’m not sure if it’s the time of year, getting out in the fresh air, or reading my former teammate, Mollie’s running blog, but for the first time in awhile I feel like running again.  When I’m training for triathlon, running is my least favorite of the 3: it can’t take me far away like cycling can, and I don’t see the improvement I see with swimming.  Running always gets the backburner while I develop in the other two, and hopefully someday I’ll be able to come back and focus more on running.  I thought I might be able to do that this winter, focus on running for a month or 6 weeks, and go run some indoor races at BU (I admittedly have ulterior motives…).  After I got crushed on the swim in Tuscaloosa, it’s obvious that plan was not a sound one: I have to spend my winter in the pool.

…but it’s not winter yet, it’s cross-country season!*  I’m taking the next month or so to find as many XC races as I can.  It’s a little hard to do as an adult.  I could probably pass as a home-schooled high schooler, but I stumbled across this little gem and now I don’t have to: a Euro-style cross-country race in Addenbrooke Park!  Water jumps!  Mud!  Grassy field!

It’s less than 2 weeks away, but I’ve run twice in the past 3.5 weeks (both this week), so I’m ready to go.  I did actually get off my lazy rump and start training today though: 62 minutes from the new office, up into White Ranch — awesome!!!  Not sure if I mentioned how great our new office is?

*Clearly this does not mean I don’t have to swim…I just am not subjecting myself to 4-5000 yards/day right now, just a few shorter workouts per week so I’m not starting from scratch later on.

Tonight the Riptide team is heading down to Englewood to swim in the ACES swim meet.  What does this mean for me?  I’m going head to head in the 1650 against girls half my age who are crazy fast (I can’t believe I am old enough to use the expression “half my age”).

My only other experience in the 1650 was last March when I swam in the Colorado Masters Swimming State Championships.  I managed a 22:59 there, so hopefully I’ll improve on that.  Looking back, I am surprised I was able to swim that then, only swimming with masters a few days per week.  You’d think there would be no doubt in my mind that now, after a year of consistent swimming, that I would be able to go faster, but swimming is weird.  Somedays 1:20 pace feels like a walk in the park, other days it’s just doesn’t happen and I don’t know what it is.  The last 3 days (ever since I wrote the post about feeling good again) I’ve felt terrible in the pool.  It’s so up and down.

It’s a race though, and everyone knows that races are completely different than practice.

That being said…my plan tonight is to click off as many 1:20s as I possibly can.  If I can do that for 1650 yards I’ll have a 21:40 which I will be pretty pleased with.  It would also be nice to not finish dead last, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

Here goes!
EDIT: 1:20 pace for 1650 = 22:00 not 21:40 =)