Thursdays are nice at the pool. The lanes are lengthened by 5 metres (to 25m), the swim club kids are swimming which I always find immensely cheerful--all those kids getting up at 5am!--and today there were way less people than on Monday or Friday. I swam in the same lane with the woman I used to swim with (she did her fourth Ironman this summer) ... and I've gotten way faster. She used to lap me regularly, but today I was gaining on her by increments until about 1000m when I must have slowed slightly and she started to gain on me by increments. But then she left and I had the lane to myself for the rest of the hour. I didn't swim for quite an hour, but did swim 2600m. I added the extra 100m because I don't think I've ever gone longer than 2500, and I'd like to work my way up to 3000. The running work is definitely paying off in the pool in terms of endurance gains. I didn't feel fatigued until that magical number of 2500, and then it seemed like my stroke deteriorated, which is why I didn't push it. Also because the pool was getting busier and a bunch of people were coming into the leisure lane, where I swam today--but not because I felt leisurely or slow, just because it was empty.
So this week I swam 4800m. I've also gone to one 90-minute hot yoga class, which was, frankly, blissful. Those classes feel much less challenging than they used to, but the stretching feels immensely good, and the stillness and quiet are something I look forward to all week. But I haven't done quite the same amount of running this week. I felt pretty tired after that long week on Sunday evening. According to the training schedule I'm following for the Toad, I should do two 12.5km runs this weekend in place of one long run.
What I'd LOVE to do is drive over to my favourite trail spot and run tonight, but it's meet the teacher night. No running going to happen. Will have to get up early tomorrow to fit in a run. I'm feeling pretty tired by the end of the week, though. Also trying to fit in some small moments of socializing. Went out with my siblings last night, and plan to have friends over for a drink tomorrow night. And go out with my husband on Saturday night!
How to fit everything in? Don't know. And I also feel like I need another goal to work toward, to keep me motivated, though signing up for classes helps: I'm sure to go to spin class when it starts next month, because I'm going with friends and I'm paying for it. Beyond that ... not sure. But it definitely is motivating to sign up for a race and work toward it. It might be worth it just for that.
(I'll admit that I got a little bummed recently reading this short piece in the newspaper written by a marathoner--she's giving weekly exercise tips to aspiring marathoners, and she posted Canada's ninth fastest marathon time for a female runner. So last week, her tip was to stick with your pace and not go faster at the beginning. Her pace? She planned to run her very first marathon in under three hours (!!!!!) so her pace was approximately 2:55/km, except she mess up and ran her first kilometre in 2:45. Did you read that correctly? 2:45 and 2:55/km. When I'm running as fast as I possibly can, for those 12km runs, I'm averaging 4:55/km, maybe running a few of those kilometres at 4:40. So she's running her first marathon TWO MINUTES faster PER KILOMETRE. Anyway, the moral of her story was that she should have stuck to her plan because she seized up around the 34km mark, and staggered to a time of 3:10, I think it was. Good grief. I'll never be anywhere near that fast, no matter how hard I work. So that was a bit discouraging to contemplate. And yes, I realize that my goals are impossibly grandiose, and I'm never going to be Canada's xth faster marathoner, but gee, it would have been nice to think I could run a bit faster than I'm running now--okay, a lot faster. If she can do that for a marathon, just imagine what her 5km time would work out to!).
That was a long tangent. I must be sleepy. Very short nap this morning to refresh brain. Must get to work.
No comments:
Post a Comment