Friday, May 30, 2008

In over my head...

Before I get started on my analysis of my masters swim this morning, a quick recap from yesterday:
Trainer Turbo Ride: 90 minutes (20 min warm up, 20 minute Time Trial, 10 min.@90 rpm recovery, 20 minute Time Trial and 20 minute regular riding)
followed by: 30 minute run. Tested out my new longer distance running shoes and i'm thrilled to report, NO blisters. I had another pair of new ones that absolutely ripped up my heel, due to some defect in the shoe, my new ones are great so far!

This morning, I was so excited because once again, I was headed to an early masters swim--but, mostly because I went to the 7:30 a.m. class, not the 6:30 a.m. class. Thank god for small favors: no early clients today.

When I woke up this morning, I realized I was late already-I had set my alarm for p.m. instead of a.m. D'oh WHY do I keep doing this? Subconsciously to skip the swim? Who knows.


I ran out of the house, thankfully the night before I had already made my lunch for work and had my stuff ready to roll.

Made it to the pool in the nick of time, and to receive a text from my friend Juls wondering where I was. Oh, don't worry, i'm here.

Walked out to the pool and decided to move "up" a lane from last time, thinking it would be better to be dead last in a lane to keep myself moving quickly, rather than being in the middle of another lane. It started out well. My "lane mates" were super sweet, and got the whole "i'm deaf without my hearing aids, if you say something and I don't respond, I genuinely didn't hear you, i'm not ignoring you or trying to focus really hard on my swimming =0" They laughed and then they started......kicking my ass.

I was told that the lane was "on 1:25," ...so, I knew I would struggle a bit, I can do 1:30-1:35 consistently without a lot of pain, but something about that 1:25 just makes it a lot harder for me. So, we go and I stayed with them very well. We were doing ladders, so 5x100, 4x100 with some other 25's mixed in, then......I was swimming thinking about the woman in front of me "wow, she's already doing her flipturn, I am SO behind," then I was like "i'm really not going to be able to hold this the entire practice." I reached the wall, kind of gasping, but my lane mates were "oh, so calm," and not gasping, so I was trying to smile and not be the "gaspy one."

I thought it was really cool, all my lane mates were always making sure I knew what the next section was then,
the girl in front of me turns around and says and "ok, 4x25......fly." At this point, I knew my heart rate was super high, but still determined, I said "all set, let's go."

Butterfly? Something, surprisingly that used to be my strength, but there is a reason I used to only do the 25 and the 50. Surely I could handle a 4x25. Dead.....wrong....

The first one, no problem. Second one, eh, not great. The third one I was seriously questioning whether I was going to snap my neck from trying to breath every stroke, the fourth one I realized, this lane is probably out of my league for right now.

Not because of the butterfly, but because of the speed. I realized, I was second to last in the lane and if it was "my turn" to lead, or they wanted me to take a pull up front, I wouldn't be able to keep up and then i'd be "that" girl in the fast lane moving at a snails pace.

So......I decided I couldn't hack the 2600 meters of sprinting and did a "ok, i'm going to switch over to the next lane." The coach gave me a rather "ok...." kind of look-I wasn't sure if it was because he thought I was being wimpy, or if he was like "switch already what were you thinking in the first place."

The next lane.....was swimming on a 1:40. Can't I find a happy medium somewhere?? And this lane had a "leader" who for every....single.....lap.....did it as a "pull," meaning he had a pull bouy in between his legs--he still managed to lead the lane--but I was thinking 'why on earth would someone opt to do a 2600 meter pull?" Anyway, he let me lead towards the end and I don't even know what pace I was holding but I definitely feel the benefits from the swim overall.

I got out of the pool and said to the coach, "sorry I switched," and was really sweet about it, he pointed to the original lane I was in and said "eventually!! this is your goal.....we'll get you here." So, I felt better, it just wasn't my day to sprint all out. I'm ok with that, i'm enjoying swimming with strong people and finding my comfort zone!
Next on my list: 2 hour run later today. I think I have relatively decent energy and the run is supposed to be at an easy exertion so no sprinting =0.

I think this weekend I may die:
Tomorrow: 4 hour ride with time trial efforts followed by a 40 minute run with a hard effort to start tapering to an easy effort. (time trial efforts are pretty much hard effort, I usually sprint them).
Sunday: 3 hour ride easy with a 75 minute run with rolling hills

Seriously: if I don't have a good run at Vineman, I am going to be throwing my running shoes. I have been working SO hard on my runs, both solo and off the bike. I am *actually* hoping for hot weather this weekend because Vineman should be scorching and i'd like to get used to the heat.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm so impressed that you tried to up lane. Keep up the great work.

Anonymous said...

Hey Mer! Great Swim workout!!! Keep it up! Hope you are doing ok. Miss ya!!!

Lauren said...

I love that you gave it your all! I was tired just reading about how hard it sounded. Like the coach said - it's your goal lane. You'll get there - you always do. Have a great weekend riding!

Mer! said...

Thanks for posting guys and for your support, i'm hanging in there this weekend!!!

Nikee Pomper said...

Hi there. I found your link on Shannon's blog :) I can't tell you how many times I set my alarm for PM rather than AM.
Keep up the good work!

Shan said...

Nice work lady! Sounds like you're moving up to my lane - let's swim together!!! :)

WOW crazy weekend. All the bike riding and running will pay off at Vineman though. I would suggest doing some of your runs in Rancho Santa Fe, particularly part of the San Dieguito Half Marathon course - it's FILLED with rollers, very similar to the Vineman course.

I think you'll love Vineman - it was a hard course, but I had a really great time at that race. Except the run IS hot. Plan to do your long runs at noon, and you'll be ready :)

Hope to see you SOON! I'm finally feeling better (even got 50mi on the bike and a 5mi run this weekend despite some residual HACK, COUGH!), and would love to see you!

Hugs!!