Filling The Holes

As soon as I got in the water this morning I knew I felt great. It's actually uncommon for me to feel that good right from the first 100, but I did, so I went with it. I always time my 1000 w/u just to see what it is. When I'm swimming well it tends to be in the 15:45 range and when I'm tired it can be as slow as 16:30. Today I checked my watch at the 500 and saw 7:42 (what?) so that was confirmation that I wasn't imagining that I indeed felt fast today. 7:30 on the nose next 500 put me in at 15:12 and I don't think I've done a 1000 like that in years. Like at least 3 years. So that was fun!

Lectie was there this morning which was awesome b/c it gave me someone to chase on some fast 50's off :50 (my favorite, ha!). We went 6x50's all fast off 50" followed by an easy 100 recovery. Originally I thought maybe we'd do 5 rounds of that but after the first round I was like how about we just do 4? I swear, swimming fast on short rest is just so much harder for me than swimming steady. It's that hole in my swim fitness I was talking about yesterday. I mean, you figure I was warming up at 45-46"/50 continuously and feeling fine/good... but bring that down just a few seconds to 39-41" and I feel like I'm just gonna blow (or throw?) up! After the 3rd round between the huffing and puffing I told Lectie I felt like a rag doll, and that was true. It's just a different energy system that got worked today. To be honest, this kind of work isn't something (in my opinion) that needs to be done that often... do mostly long steady base type work then sometimes blast yourself with hard as you can go fast short intervals and it gives your swim a bit of a pop. Prob better reserved for closer to a big race day than some random day in early March... but then again I thought maybe a bit of a boost to swim speed would help with the longer/steady stuff when I go back to it, so we'll see if I'm right about that.

I cooled down with a straight 1000 w/ pads super relaxed and called it good. 3600M.

Maia was stoked when I got home and put her harness on her instead of the collar. She knows what that means... we are running! She was pretty bummed/confused I think though when we turned around 1/2 mile in at the end of the street vs heading up for our normal loop... So we only went ~1 mile today but I did jog the bulk of it (super easy/light). We stopped a few times for cat sniffing and peeing (her not me) and while my hip didn't feel perfect, I wouldn't say it was painful. I came home and did my hip openers and core work (prob should have done that first), spent a bunch of time answering emails, then got ready to ride.

I'm so wimpy but yikes it felt chilly to me today! Because of that I chose a real bike kit to ride in vs my standard Coeur Sports try kit that I tend to train in most often. That was a mistake! I tell you I am so spoiled by my Coeur tri shorts because they don't have seams. The Squadra shorts I wore today were simply not ok! I spent much of the ride shifting around in my saddle and wishing I was wearing one of my better pairs of shorts.

Goal today was to not use the same energy system I used in the pool... instead just steady aerobic riding for an extended period of time was what I was looking for. I rode by HR while watching power... just tried to keep HR 140's for the most part and I did that. Max HR was 152 today so no big efforts at all. Avg HR143, avg power 153w for 3+ hours, so pretty standard aerobic ride. One of my goals was to find a few CO2 cartridges that Kelly left here when she was here for camp (since she was not allowed to fly home with them). She left them ~30 miles from my house... Her directions were good and I did indeed locate them behind a bush at a bus stop on the north shore. :)

I haven't been riding long very much recently and I felt like I ran out of fitness somewhere around 50 miles. I'm sure a few Girl Scout cookies would have helped by I didn't have any of those with me (grrrr). Power was falling for sure there in the last 30min or so but whatever. I think I got the benefit that I wanted out of the session and it highlighted another hole in my fitness that I need to fill (long ride endurance/strength). Finishing this ride today I had the thought that I wanted to ride 60 miles or so 2x/week. I bet if I manage to do that my long ride fitness will come right back. It's really just about making myself do it.

Should I admit that I took a hot bath after that ride b/c I was so cold? It's true. I think it was "only" ~75 degrees today, no sun, north wind. Brrrrrr! It's insane how wimpy I am. I mean seriously.

Anyway. I'm tired now! That was a long training day. Feet up.