Thursday

I screwed up today by not double checking the pool hours prior to heading down there. Summer programs mean lap swim hours are different (more limited), which is fine, I just need to be cognizant and work around them at times. Today I neglected to do that and worked all morning then showed up and realized that I only had ~40min left to swim. Well, ok! A short swim is always better than no swim, so I hopped in, did an 800 easy warm up, then onto a short 1200M main set that was quite polarized.

4x50's MAX @1:00
100 easy @2:00
200 MAX @3:00
100 easy @2:00
4x50's MAX @1:00
100 easy @2:00
200 MAX shooting to hit same as first round.
100 c/d

I gave that set to several of my athletes this week and it looked like a good one which is why I chose to do it today. Actually the set I gave included another round of the 4x50's fast but pool was closing and I ran out of time to do that part. On the 200's I hit 2:54, which was slower than it felt, then 2:53, which was faster than it felt. Go figure.

My hip has been fine (no pain) so I decided it was time to bring back my jog commute to/from the pool. I used to jog down there every time I swam (it's only like 3/4 mile), but then when my hip started hurting I started driving, then really just got pretty lazy about it and found myself driving every time. Well, back to jogging it is! And my goal with those is really going to be about focusing on actively keeping my hips stable and strong (no collapsing!)... light feet quick cadence core engaged... Seemed to work today so am going to try to make it a habit. (And yes I promise Monika- every step of every run I will focus! #stronghips)

Later I went out for a ride. Included main set: 5x7min hill reps. Why 7min? Because that's the longest hill I can easily ride to that doesn't involve driving to Tantalus. I wore my HR monitor today but didn't use power. HR was pretty low across the board, but my legs felt strong enough. I did most of the climbing at HR155-159, up to 162 max. Pretty fun session actually- I alternated and did #1/3/5 as a combo of sitting/standing strong effort, and #2/4 I stayed seated and used a gear that had me at times pushing ~50rpm. It rained off and on throughout the whole day so I knew I'd get wet out there but somehow today I didn't mind. My mojo is back! Woot!

In other news, Maia discovered the joy of chasing a tennis ball today! I kind of feel like a bad dog mom for not giving her one before, but I tried several other dog toys and she clearly had a giant fear of them(?) but it never occurred to me to try a tennis ball. But today (while Moana was at swim team) we found one in the field and I threw it for her... Took her a few minutes to figure it out but eventually she got it and then she ran herself silly all over that field with her ball. Pretty impossible to not smile while watching that! A dog and her ball. #purejoy