Day 219: The Week Begins

I started counting lengths in the pool today. I finally figured out a way to keep the numbers straight in my head. Instead of thinking in terms of distance travelled, I just counted the lengths: one, two, three, four, until I got to 100. One hundred and seven is where I stopped. If my math is correct, that's just slightly more than 2km. That took me 50 minutes. I used alternate breathing almost exclusively, but got a bit bogged down in the middle, worrying about how long I will have to swim in the lake, and finding that the stroke requires my body to use oxygen more efficiently. So I turned to the same-side breathing for a length here and there when I felt like I needed some recovery. I'm still not swimming without pausing at the ends--well, to be accurate, most of the time I pause to turn around and push off, and that doesn't feel like stopping. But there are other occasions when I pause for longer, for a couple of breaths, to catch my breath, and that won't necessarily be practical in a race situation. My goal, eventually, is to swim the full hour without stopping, and to use the alternate breathing exclusively. So it's a lofty goal. That's my kind of goal.

After the swim, I showered and changed, and ran on the indoor track. I also drank some sports drink in between. It made me burp. Kevin says that could be the fructose. (On a side note, Kevin's nutrition textbook has a recipe for making homemade sports drink, which I'm going to try out. It's very simple. I'll give you the proportions when I make it: water, fruit juice, salt). Anyway, onto the run. My goal was to run 6km at a 5-minute pace, and I did it! I wasn't sure I'd want to run another kilometre at that pace, but was pretty sure I could have, if I were being chased by hungry lions or something. Which is to say: it was challenging, but I didn't suffer. I used the motivational language that the spin instructor uses, telling myself that the extra kilometre was where the good work would get done, building endurance and speed. I'm not sure that's factually accurate, but it kept my legs going. My goal for the post-swim indoor run is to add a kilometre every week til I reach 10km, and to keep the same 5-minute pace. I'd like to be able to run 10km in 50 minutes. That seems doable, though I'm not there yet. And once I get there, will I want to keep shaving time off, or adding kilometres? Probably. That's just how my brain works.

Also, I've heard back from the triathlon people, and the online registration should be working by the end of the week ... at which point I will sign up and pray.