Just Keep Swimming...

Mark showed up to swim this morning and it was good to have a partner. Hopped in for the new standard 2k warm up... came through the first 1000 in 15:54 and felt really smooth and solid. Started the negative split and at 1800m saw that I was at 28:25, which meant that a 3:05 last 200 would put me right at 31:30 which is the goal I set for myself for the end of next week! But ta-dah! Knocked it out today. 31:30 on the nose! Another 40+" drop from the day before! Woot! I think I'm gonna have to avoid the 2k warm up for a few days though b/c I know myself and I will just keep racing myself on that which isn't really ideal. The effort on that 2k hurt me and I paid for it on the long main set.

I often tend to make up the main set while I'm warming up... sort of based on how I'm feeling that day and who else is there and what I feel like doing... Based on the fast warm-up I got cocky and thought I'd knock out 10x300's pull as 4 off 4:50, 3 off 4:45, 2 off 4:40, then 1 fast. Ha! *Maybe* had I taken a break after the first 4 and not tried to do them straight through it would have gone a little better, but I bet I still would have faded b/c that is a hard set and I was tired. Mark and I did the first 7 off those intervals but I wasn't getting faster- started at 4:35 then as slow as 4:40 before bringing it back down to 4:36-4:37. Mark had to get to work so he stopped at 7... at that point I swam an easy 100 then tried to get after 2 more but couldn't do them every fast. Another 100 easy then one more shot at it but was slowest one of the day at 4:41. So part of that fatigue was 3rd day in a row of long swim when I'm not quite fit, a warm up that was too hard, and just too much paddle work- it was a muscular fatigue that I just couldn't seem to overcome. Anyway, no worries. Got 5400m in today. That ranks me currently 4th in the EC Swim Game rankings. There are 4 of us who appear to be going after 5k/day and now I feel the need to keep it up for the next 11 days. #peerpressure Plus, now I have this little thought in my mind that it would be possible for me to win the game if I gave a little more each day... I'm not that far behind (only like 500meters behind). Contests that come down to who is willing to do the most work make me salivate, so there's a possibility that tomorrow I will just keep swimming and knock out 6-7k. We'll see.

In good news, as tired as I was at the end of that swim, the fatigue didn't last all day. By afternoon I felt ready to head out on my bike. It was such a gorgeous day seemed a shame to stay inside working all day! I mean seriously. It was like postcard perfect.

Maia was dying to get out and run as well so when I got done riding I took her out on a short jog around the college. I've been working hard on loosening up my glute med and TFL, which I feel confident are the root cause(s) of the hip pain I'd been feeling. Hip didn't feel perfect today but it didn't feel too bad and I feel like if I'm diligent about rolling often with the supernova + lacrosse ball that I can control it. The issue with rolling is that it needs to be done on the floor. And when I'm on the floor I am clearly fair game for the animals to climb on. #triathleteproblems