Let The Challenge Begin

So the Endurance Corner Swim Challenge started today. 2 weeks to swim often and see if my swim fitness might come back? My plan is to play the game according to the rules and score as many points as I can without truly compromising my ability/energy to bike and run. Given the way today went, I'm not sure how well that's gonna go...

Basically, I need to swim 2k nearly every day, and I'll score a bonus point if I swim 5k. Well, 5k is a hell of a lot more than 2k, so on my "off days" I'm only going for 2k. That said, my plan is to add drag on my short swim days so at least maybe they'll be worthwhile? I started with 5k today.

2k straight w/u as descend 500's. I started super slow/easy 8:30 then went 8:16, 8:07, 8:07. So didn't quite make the descend there on the last one but kept with my goal of not overworking this session. Then I did a 3k main set all with paddles as:

500; 2x250's
400; 2x200's
300; 2x150's
200; 2x100's
100; 2x50's

Did those all off 1:40 base just straight through blah boring swimming. It was probably good that I was alone this morning b/c I didn't have anyone pushing me and making me feel like I should go harder or swim faster. Honestly just getting 5k done was a HUGE leap for me. I haven't swam 5k since early October. Even though none of this was 'hard' it nonetheless kicked my ass and I felt like a zombie for the rest of the day. It's weird how swimming leaves me fatigued in a way that biking and running do not.

Eventually I did manage to get my ass out the door for a run in the afternoon. Ran ~7 miles and while I didn't feel as bad as I anticipated I might (based on how limp my whole body felt when I was home working between sessions), I felt frustrated at how I don't have any flat options for running from my house, AND how it's freaking winter and yet afternoon runs still make me feel like I'm melting. I guess it's only like 82 or whatever but the sun is strong and it feels warmer than it should for winter. I have memories of feeling genuinely cold during wintertime here but that hasn't really happened this year. I know I know, cry me a river. But it would be nice to maybe like for once be able to run without my heart rate being sky high due to heat or hills. I feel like my option if I run from home in the afternoon is either to run with a HR higher than I want... or to walk... a lot. Sometimes I handle the walking thing okay but today it irritated me. I opted to not walk but instead to wait at the top of each hill until my HR came back down to a reasonable level then continue on my run. Not sure if that's a better option than walking up the hill to keep my HR low? I'm just over the walking up hills at this point. That's all.

Part of my current pissiness might be that my hip hurts. I've felt this pain before (~3 years ago) and I ran through it... until I couldn't run through it anymore... Then had a few weeks off while I tried to figure it out and let it heal. It feels like a bruise at my iliac crest. My right glute is full of spasms and that TFL hurts like mad when I lay on a lacrosse ball, so I'm sure this is related. I think last time I fixed it by loosening up my upper quads and glutes. Tight upper quads seem to be the root of all my problems... That's what caused the pain in my left knee (which mysteriously disappeared when I ran that marathon, only to be replaced with this hip pain on the other side, go figure)...

Anyway maybe tomorrow I'll be back with some fun pictures instead of just words? Last week I drowned my phone in the washer (whoops!) and I finally got it replaced today... Trying to set it up now. It told me it couldn't back up from the iCloud or whatever but for the last hour it's been stuck and telling me it's "Updating iCloud settings" so we'll see what it does. The only thing I've really missed is being able to take pictures though I guess texting with my athletes would be a close 2nd to that. Anyway, 5 days without a phone really hasn't been that bad. Anyway, I'll leave you with this...