As much as I love the swim, and I do, it is often the area that I feel that is hardest for me to get around to doing, the easiest work out to skip. First of all, the closest pool is 20 minutes away. And, with the hours they have open for lap swim, it either leaves me with 5 in the morning (which is my normal work out time, but it takes extra time when I have to plan 40 minutes of driving there and back all BEFORE work) or 9 pm at night. I had originally put it into my training schedule to hit the pool twice a week, Tuesday and Thursday night for that 9 pm time. Who the Hell was I kidding? Anyone that knows me knows I have NEVER been a night person, and asking me to be awake that long is laughable at best. I know, I know, it is pathetic that a 33 year old fit and healthy woman can't stay up past 8:30, but it is what it is. I just desperately need my sleep, at a minimum of 8 hours a night. And when your internal clock gets you up at 4:30 regardless of the day of the week or the time you went to bed, you get my point.
I thought that if I had someone to go and swim with it would create an accountability that would make me go. However, in reaching out to to my TriBuddies, no one took the bait. They all have other schedules, swim arrangements, whatever. I then decided to suck it up and go in the morning a few times a week, and find a way to make it work. So I did this past week. I met some people there who I have seen before, and the introduced themselves and said that they are simply a group of friends that meets up on MWF mornings and they take turns planning the work outs. They invited me to join them. PERFECT! Finally some accountability for me! Since this was at the end of my work out, I agreed to meet them the next time, which was this past Wednesday.
I showed up and they told me that the work out always started with the same 600 m warm up. 200 swim/200 pull/200 kick. No problem! I finished that and then they were doing 4x100's swim with 25 easy, 50 sprint, and then 25 easy. A little tougher, but still, no problem. Then they did the same set of 4x100's as pull with paddles. Um...your kidding, right? My shoulders really can't handle more than 100-150 pull at the most, and they were already feeling like lead from the day previous strength work out. I tried anyhow, and it wasn't pretty. I was pathetically slower than the rest of them when I had been able to keep up or even stay slightly ahead in the other parts of the work out. Humbling to say the least. I have always taken pride in the swim as it is the one thing I generally do very well at of the tri sports. Well, there is obviously work to do!
But, this is going to be good for me in so many ways. One, it will get me to the pool now that there are people expecting me. I have learned that I can make it work with my work schedule, and it spares me from staying up late. It is also a chance to meet new people in the sport, and they are getting me out of my comfort zone on the work outs. And did I mention that part of the work out was to do any stroke other than free style? Well, fly was most definitely out, my attempt at breast stroke barely had me moving in the water, thank heaven I still am decent at back stroke. Yes, I was humbled to say the least.
On a positive note, I haven't missed a single work out all week! I usually end of slacking on at least one, but not this week! And I have only missed 2 since the New Year...and they were both swims ;P
My training schedule for now is following a 3-3-2 model...three bikes, three runs, and 2 swims a week, with daily strength work in the form of 15-20 minutes of planks, push ups, crunches, or whatever else I can come up with. With that many work outs and working full time and being wife and Mom, only missing two in the past 18 days makes me quite happy!
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