I didn't really want to get out of bed this morning,. I didn't want to get in the pool. I found myself hoping that the pool would be closed for some strange reason and I would have a good excuse to skip my workout this morning. I forced myself out of bed and into my stretching routine and then out the door and into the cold. I scraped the ice off my windows for hopefully the last time this year and drove down the mountain to the fitness center. I arrived and found the doors unlocked and the pool open. Darn!
So, with no excuse to skip, I dragged my body into the pool, warmed up, stretched a little, and started swimming. As usual, the first 100 yards were torture. Well, the first 50 were easy, the next 50 were hard, and I didn't think I was going to be able to make myself turn at the wall and keep going after the first 100, but I did and I settled into a rhythm from there. I was scheduled to do 1X600, 1X300, 4X100, and 4X50 so I just took it 25 yards at a time. After I made it over the 100 yard hurdle I was able to keep going by telling myself I would just concentrate on making it to 200, once I had done 200, I knew I could do 400 and from there it was just 200 more until I had finished the first set of 600. The cool thing is, at the end of 600, I felt like I could have kept going for awhile. After the 600, I knocked out a 300 yard set, then the 4X100s and the 4X50s. It was a great workout, and I'm glad I forced myself out of bed this morning.
I started focusing a little more on swimming efficiency this morning. I learned that if I drop my head, actually tilting my chin slight towards my feet as if I were looking slightly down (if I were standing up) and tilting my pelvis up towards the sky I can reduce my strokes per 25 yard length of pool by about two to somewhere between 18 and 19. Right now I'm averaging just over 2:30 per 100 yards. That's pretty slow, but I'm not too concerned about it. I figure once I get my endurance up to where I want it to be I'll start working a little harder on speed and efficiency. I'm fine with being one of the last ones out of the water in my first tri, as long as I finish.
Next up: I'm going to concentrate on getting some good sleep this weekend. I'm scheduled for a long run tomorrow if the weather allows it. If it's pouring and/or storming, I may have to get to the fitness center and spend some really dull time on the treadmill. 90 minutes is on the schedule but I'm not sure I'm actually going to go that long. I want to do at least an hour. Monday I will swim a repeat of today's workout.
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