11 March 2008

5 weeks out

till the Lanikai Triathlon. I'm starting to get a little nervous, only because I haven't been training as much as I should. I've been focusing on some other things and not necessarily running or biking. I have been swimming every week so that's good. But it's definitely time to take it up a notch.

This morning was swimming and for the first time in a long time, I was the shark. I've dug out my swimming workouts and today was my first one. Swim,kick,pull, fingertip, catch-up, right, left, it was fun. I have found that for me the mp3 player while swimming is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I am able to focus more completely on what I'm doing with the music in the background. I keep the volume kind of low as I don't want to blast my eardrums out.

There are the pool regulars every morning. There is the lady who swims almost every day and is unbelievable slow. It boggles the mind that someone can swim that often and not get any faster. Then there's the naked tattooed lady, but she swims with fins. There is also the swim instructor. She's good. Fast but not too fast. Then there's the new lady (new in that she's only been coming for about 6 months :). When I first started back in January I was just about even in speed with her. Keeping absolutely steady with her was a little challenging. So for a while she was my pacer (which I don't think she knew). I didn't pace with her often since for January and February I was really working on TI and getting really, really comfortable in the pool. But every once in a while I would find myself at the wall at the same time as her and I would push to keep up with her. I haven't done this in a couple of weeks because we hadn't been in adjoining lanes for a while.

This morning I got to the pool early because I wanted to get a good workout in. I did my warm up and towards the end the new lady got in the lane next to me. I did my first drill which was right/left and I noticed that I was keeping up with her. I thought that's because my right hand is my strongest pulling hand. On the way back I was using my left hand and she gained a little on me, but not much. I did this for 4 times then it was time to do 300 straight. I was taking my rest before starting the 300 and about 20 seconds before I left the new lady left the wall. Ohhh, game on!! In 20 seconds she got about halfway down the lane maybe and I took off. I did not go all out because theoretically I was supposed to negative split the 300. So I took off at a good clip but not all out. She hit the far wall and I was still behind her, but gaining steadily. About 1/2 back to the front wall I caught up to her. I pulled ahead and had to hold myself back. I kept steadily gaining ground leaving her further and further behind. By the time I hit the far wall for the last time I was a pool length ahead of her. I was so excited and happy!! I have really improved my speed. I did not time myself on any of my laps because I was doing so good I didn't want to drag myself down by seeing the time.

I felt so good swimming. I was rolling. I was pulling strong. I was reaching forward. It was awesome. I haven't felt that good in the water in a long time. Yea!!!

2 comments:

Vickie said...

Hey, you're doing okay! I don't think people realize how much time it takes to take off time on any event, but particularly the swim. Sounds like you are making great progress!

Irishcoda said...

Ah, I love to swim! Used to swim everyday and now I miss it so. Best wishes on the triatholon and thanks for visiting my blog! :)

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