TRI Week 06: Wednesday 3/8 - Swim March 8, 2006
Posted by Amber D. Evans in : Swimming, Chico CA, Training Stats , add a comment"OMG! The water is COLD!"
Context
City, State: Chico, CA.
Location: Chico Sports Club.
Course: Pool.
Terrain: 25 yards; 65 degrees.
Distance & Time: 1500 yards, 00:45:00 minutes
Pace: Avg 00:58.93/50y, Fast 00:46.75/50y, Slow 01:32.82/50y.
RPE: 6 (somewhat harder.
HRR: 154-174 (Aerobic High).
HR(avg.): 165 bpm.
Wednesday, March 8, 2006
The Swim
- 250 yards - free easy.
- 250 yards - 50 kick, 25 free right, 25 free left, 25 kick right, 25 kick left, 50 kick, 50 free.
- 5 x 100 yards - 50 sprint, 50 free easy; 30s rest.
- 250 yards - free.
- 250 yards - free easy.
Synopsis
- Upshot: It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, but the grumpkins inside my head were trying to convince me otherwise.
- Downside: The water was COLD COLD COLD!
- What I'm most proud of: At 1000 and 1250, I wanted to quit, but I told myself each time, "Just 250 more."
- What I would do differently: Wear a wetsuit in the pool?
Overall
OMG! The water is COLD! The pool is getting a facelift tomorrow, so apparently they turned the heater off in the pool today. No wonder it was so darn cold. I seriously thought that that I've swam in warmer water in the Pacific Ocean. Brrrrrr. If I had had a skinsuit, I would definitely have worn it. Besides that, it was good incentive to keep moving! I really didn't feel like swimming today, and I almost backed out of it on three separate occasions, but I made my ride drop me off at the gym so I'd have no choice but to do it. Once in, I realized that I didn't have a plan for the workout for a change (I left it at home), so I was either going to have a LSD or just wing-it.
I winged-it. I know that's not the best use of time and practice, but sometimes I just don't care. I was there, I was going to count that as effort enough. 
So, I swam easy, I swam sprints, I swam easy, and I tried to work on my mental game. I had a hard time with that yesterday. The mental part was tough because I wasn't focused and I was thinking about my evening plans, my bike, my Master's Project, my seemingly-never-going-to-happen graduation, my missing husband:dog:cat:stuff, and how not having a car is much easier in Blacksburg than in Chico. I was everywhere except in the pool.
Paging Amber's brain. Paging Amber's brain. You are needed immediately in the cold recesses of the raining pool. We have a possible drowning in progress.
Ugh. Sucked in lots of water. It was tough, but somehow I survived it. (I didn't drown, but my lungs did try their hand at playing gills.)
I guess, some days you're "on," some days you're not and you just go with it. I felt fine afterwards, and did spend 15 minutes in the hot tub pondering my water intake. I'm much, much more relaxed about recovering from water-in-lungs than I used to be. I used to suffer such severe panic. Now, I still feel the twinge of it, but am able to fight it long enough to get my head up and out of the water before I start hacking and coughing. And I don't get that scary wheezy-lung, pass-out-can't-breathe reaction anymore either. (Or maybe my water intake has just not been that bad as it was in the past?) Despite all this scary talk, it was fine and ended up being a good workout. It definitely worked out the kinks in my back and hip.
I always feel so much better after swimming.