Shoulda Gone in the AM

Swim

1 x 200- Warm-up
5 x 200- 3:00
1 x 50- easy
5 x 100- IM
1 x 100- Cool down

I was going to swim in the morning. I normally swim in the morning. It's a nice way to start the day and right now, since I'm doing one-a-days, it means I'm done after school rather than having to change and get back out. But this morning I wanted to sleep, so I packed my gear and headed to 24 in Pearl City after work.
Bad Idea Reasons-
1) Traffic going that direction starts to suck and the right turn takes at least two lights to make.
2) More (old) people at the pool in the afternoon.

This, but unsmiling and less working out

3) Traffic on the way back is even worse, especially getting on to the freeway.

*beep!*

So now I've learned my lesson and I'll bite the bullet and go in the morning.
The swim its self went well. I'm starting to feel stronger again and, to be completely honest, I'm using the Olympics to power my swims. I picture how strongly the Americans nailed their walls and try to fake that off mine. I'm feeling the water again and better able to grab good solid chunks to pull myself over. The 200 set felt good to start and started to get messy at the end,  but I made all of them with at least ten seconds rest.
The IM set is a direct result of Olympic inspiration. That and the swim meet I did a few weeks ago. I forgot how much I love fly and IM. And the stress they put on my muscles will make me stronger faster than just doing freestyle. And the fly came together nicely mostly. Back and breast are meh. I did notice that the ceiling of the pool has a blue line painted where the flags would normally be so stroke count to the wall isn't a guess. That's a nice touch by the designers that I didn't expect.
I was going to get a 500 in to finish, but the old ladies decided I had swum enough and I didn't need one of my my walls anymore. So instead I swam around them for my cool down and bailed.

Olympic Inspired

Swim

1 x 200- warm-up
5 x 100- IM
5 x 50- sideline kick
1 x 500- odd/even hard/easy
1 x 100- cool down

I'm obsessed with the Olympics. I get home, get my workout in, and then park it on the couch for all the swimming, diving, beach volleyball, gymnastics, skeet shooting, whatever else I can possibly handle. I love the Games. I love the drama. One of my favorite things in the whole world is a champion crying on the medal stand as s/he listens to the National Anthem. This is also the only time I don't mind the incessant playing of the National Anthem. The tears after the women's gymnastics team waited for their final scores were so sweet.
Though I hate it when they shove a camera in the face of the fallen. When the male gymnasts struggled so badly I felt bad enough. And then they go and get right in the guy's grill? Back off. He just had four years of work washed away by one stumble. Give him a minute.
Anyway, the Games mean I need to be doing more IMs. And, and I know I've said this before but this time this time I mean it, mixing up my strokes will make me a better triathlon swimmer. Butterfly wears me out and swimming tired is good. Forcing a strong proper stroke after a good IM set leads to better freestyle sets. Hence the IM set this morning. I plan on trying to put one in once a week.
My body feels soft and loose, a consequence of being lazy all summer. I know in a few workouts everything will start coming together again but right now it's hard to be patient. I've been through this cycle, I know the sucktasticness that is early in the rotation, but I don't have to like it. So I spend time kicking myself for letting it get this bad and then I spend time kicking myself for kicking myself for taking some well-deserved time off.
There is the North Shore Challenge this weekend, 2.4mi, but I'm not going to do it. I missed registration and it would cost $50. I'm not willing to drop that much on something I won't do well in, or well for my standards. It's a bummer I let myself miss half of the Swim Series, but I have good reasons. Now I'm looking for a race. Tradewinds is coming up too soon and I don't think I'll be doing Ko'Olina this year. Hmm....

Rx for EgoCheck- Swim Edition

 
I'm slowly getting back into training, but gently. Not too gently, since I did a race last weekend, but I think you know what I mean. My rides have been short, mostly flat, and low intensity. The first time I ran was today, and we'll get to that. And my swims were going easy.
But now I've registered for the Great Aloha Games Swim Meet. Their website is awful so here is the link to the home page. And here is the link to my specific event (which does not itself link to the active.com registration page). While registering for this I forgot two very important things. 1) Never let Ego dictate event choice. 2) The only thing that makes you better at swimming is swimming.
My alter swim-ego, The Tattooed Wake, signed up for the 100 free, 200 free, 100 butterfly, and 200 IM.  The Tattooed Wake is kind of a jackass.
100 years ago, when I was a pure swimmer, the fly and IM were my specialties. I did them all the time. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, butterfly is that really hard one where both arms come out and around at the same time and you kick like a dolphin, and the IM stands for Individual Medley, so I swim all four strokes in one race- butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle, in that order. Real swimmers, I used to joke, swim the IM. Because you have to be able to handle everything. It's the triathlon of swimming. A quadathlon...

 Anyway, after filling out the forms and sending them my $25 I thought to myself, "Dirtbag, when was the last time you did 100 yards of butterfly?"
I don't know.
"Don't sweat it!" the Tattooed Wake called, "You have a huge engine right now. You just did a half ironman. You can handle 100 yards of anything!"
"Oh yeah," I said, "Thanks, man. That makes me feel better." And it did. Until this morning.
I got up and ran to the pool. We live a mile and a half from 24 Hour Fitness right now, so there is no reason to drive, and I haven't run since the race so I figured it was about time. Oof. I think I strained something out on that golf course. Every morning my right foot had felt a little sore, but it stops after a while, and right after the race my right hamstring, directly behind the knee, got super tight. But it's been what, two weeks? I should be fine. Meh, not really. Hamstring was in various stages of complaint the whole run, and my foot eventually felt better, but not enough that I want to go on any longer runs right now. It isn't the problem from right before the race, it feels like a arch muscle issue. I don't know. It's always something right now.
I hit the water, warmed up, and then tried to crank 100 yards of free. Oh yeah, I haven't been working fast twitch at all for months, have I? I don't have a higher gear right now, do I? Nope, not really. It was about then I started thinking about the mistake I may have made. Then I cranked 2 x 200 IM. It kind of sucked. It isn't fast, I feel like I'm sucking wind by the time I get to breaststroke. The real issue is that I'm not swimmer fit right now. I'm triathlon fit. It's way different. The only way to get good at swimming is to swim! Having an engine isn't enough. Those muscles, especially the fly ones, aren't really there.
Ohhhh, fly. How I used to love thee. I was the ass in practice who would ask for fly sets. I killed butterfly in my own little swim-world (Water World? Mr. Costner, you're needed on the set.). But I forgot how much work it too to get that. I did two 100s of fly. By the 75 I was hurting. The last 25 yards had to be ugly as hell. I'm dragging my hips, my triceps and failing so I'm not finishing the stroke, my lats don't want to give me a clean out-and-flat-and-long recovery/reach. It's...bad.
I know I should go into this with no expectations and just have fun with it, and I think I will. I'm not going to be stressing or sweating any of these events. I'm going to go do something I haven't done since freshman year of college (Christ....1999? 2000?*  13 years!!!) and I'm going to suck at it. And it will be good as long as I keep a positive attitude. There was no 500 free, or I would have signed up for that. I'm betting it will be a small meet, with how poor the advertisement seems to be, which might play in my favor as far as medals go, assuming I cared about medals, but will totally play against me if there aren't very many heats between each of my events. Assuming I swim as hard as I can each time out, and why wouldn't I, I'm going to need a breather. At least I didn't sign up for the 50 free. That event is for tossers.