These are a few of my favorite things.

Some things I love:

1) Driving to the Y with no traffic.

2) Watching the full moon while swimming in the pool.

3) Getting my swim done before 7:00 a.m.

4) Going to Starbucks with wet hair and people thinking I just rolled out of bed when I've actually been up for hours.

5) Being an ATHLETE!!!!

So yesterday I signed up at the Y after my run in with the moray eel. They were open this morning, in spite of the holiday, so I planned on going this morning. Now there were a number of things going on mentally here. First, this is something new and outside my comfort zone, hence very, very scary to me. Also, I don't swim in pools, I swim in the ocean. I don't know how all that lane sharing and circle swimming stuff works. What's the etiquette there? Do I ask first? Do I just jump in? What??? This was weighing on my mind so much that I didn't get anything ready last night, nothing. When the alarm went off this morning I said to myself, "ahhh, I'll go tomorrow morning. I have nothing ready." But my inner Action Hero jumped up and said, "No way!!! You're going now!!" So I jumped up and ran around like a maniac getting everything ready. The poor dogs had no idea what was going on. I made it out the door 15 minutes late; thank god it was a holiday. Got to the pool and walked right up to the lifeguard and said, "So how does this all work???" He explained it and I jumped in and started swimming. It was great.

Umm, so yeah, not as good a swimmer as I really thought I was. Managed to do 500 meters and was sore and tired. Need to work on my breathing, my aerobic capacity, and clearly my upper body strength. I think I have pretty good form though. No problem with my legs sinking and I roll when I breath, I don't "turn" my head. So that's good. I have lots to build on, I also have lots of work to do. But I feel good and I'm looking forward to Wednesday.

So this leads to the need to really work out a training schedule. For the last couple of weeks, I've been just been flowing along. No set plan, just get up every morning and do something. Tonight I set up a structured plan. I'm thinking of swimming and running in the mornings and biking at night. Rest days will be Friday and long runs/bike on the weekends. No swimming will be Friday. Maybe that's all I'll do Friday. Oh, clearly I need to work on this.

Well, unlike the rest of the country, I'm at work today. I expect it will be very quiet. I have some paperwork to do and I'm hoping to get out of here early. Hope everyone enjoys their holiday...