Monday, January 14, 2013

On Swimming... And Cleaning House

I have lived in this condo for 8+ years now and finally, for the first time ever, hired professional cleaners to come clean it today.

I've been wanting to do this for some time but never actually followed through. I think just the thought of having someone else in my home going through my stuff and cleaning just made me a bit uncomfortable? And let's face it, I did feel a bit inadequate allowing these women to come in and see what a dusty mess I've allowed my house to become over the years. Like, shouldn't it be my job to make sure this house is clean?? That's up for debate I suppose... and while I can (and do) straighten up, and I do a decent job of keeping my kitchen clean, I do not often ever launder the bathroom rugs or the shower curtains... and now our screens are clean, etc. So it was worth every penny. I will not wait another 8 years before I have them back. :)

And plus, let's face it. I'm too tired right now to clean my house. I am not, however, too tired to train like I'm on fire! :)

So in other good news, I am swimming out of my brain right now! Coach seemed to recognize that with my swimming background I could swim often (and hard) and that it wouldn't really take much energy out of me to do so... so I've upped my swim frequency to 4-5x/week (from 3) and avg weekly volume is up to 16-19K/week (still not huge but bigger than the 10-12K I have been complacent with for years) and it is working! I have never felt better in the water... well, not since I've lived in Hawaii anyway.

In November I blogged about a swim w/o I was super happy with... main set 3 x 1000's pads/buoy/bands descend 1-3... I remember being thrashed and DIGGING to get that 3rd one to be my fastest and was so proud when I did it... I remember thinking that took some serious strength and I remember how much I had to focus. So this past Sat I had a 3K 'aerobic' swim on the schedule... my choice of how to do it and I was too brain dead to think up anything creative so I figured I'd just put my toys on and swim 3K straight. I was alone though so to keep myself occupied and engaged I thought maybe I'd try to descend each 500. I'll spare you the details but suffice to say that my effort was never more than moderate but I rolled through that whole 3K solidly descending every 500. Last 1000 was 28" faster than my 3rd 1000 in November (when I had rest!) and I never even felt winded. Amazing. So. Lesson of the day- swim more frequently if you want to get stronger in the water. And use your paddles like all the time. :)

For today I pulled a set off Andy Pott's FB page. He posts some solid ones fairly often and since instructions for today were "HARD" (and I'm still braindead) I figured I'd find something good there. Main set went like this:

3 x 500's HARD @ 30" rest
300 easy pull
2 x 400's HARD @ 20" rest
300 easy pull
1 x 300 HARD
300 easy pull c/d

Great set! 2600 hard meters and all of it done faster than my best ever tested t-pace. I'd like to say I was over the moon stoked about this and maybe I would have been had I done this set alone, but seems no matter how well I swim, Nalani is always one lane over absolutely kicking.my.ass. So while I'm swimming faster than ever, so is she. So I guess that's good for keeping me humble. ;)

5 comments:

Run Gunn Run said...

You and Nalani are so ready to tackle Cabo! Exciting stuff!

Ange said...

you motivate me!!!! I am not swimming 4-5x week..but always think in my head that if I DID, it would definetely help. I totally agree with this. People try to say you don't need to swim much At ALL to just maintain and do 'well enough' but..who wants that?? Maybe I'll add an extra day next week. :) going to check out mr. Potts! Good job! I'm impressed!!!!!

mmmonyka said...

Wait! Should not that be kind of obvious that swimming more will make you faster? :)

And no, it should not be your job to keep the house clean. Unless that's how you have divided house tasks with your husband. Then it is your job.

Anonymous said...

I bet you'll fast get used to having your house professionally cleaned and won't go back. Why clean if you don't have to?

Glad you're on fire and I can tell your attitude is too. I have a good feeling about you for Cabo!

Unknown said...

We also very recently hired a deep cleaning service for the first time. OMG, it was amazing what can be found behind furniture that has not been moved in a few years! So glad we got that done!