Monster Week

I didn't accomplish the monster swim I sought the last six days, but I did find a monster. For the week, it was one of my all-time best when you add swimming and running together. Still, I feel like I need another really long swim, longer than my best this year of 6.6 miles. Although I am inside the two week window before the event, there is plenty of time for recovery, and I think a long swim would add some to my fitness even at this late date. Even if it didn't, a long successful swim would do wonders for my confidence. Looking at my training diary from last year, I saw that on Tuesday the second week before the first Chicot Challenge, I did a 10,000 meter pool swim. So tomorrow I plan to search for the monster one last time.

Friday I went to the pool and swam

1,500
500 stiff (8:27)
600
Total: 2,600 meters (recovery day)

Saturday I once again chose the pool over the pond because we planned to go to Penny's mom's Saturday afternoon to help her out. Her health has been failing for several years, and increasingly we are having to care for aged parents. Thank God we still have them. Overall I was pretty much shot which is anotherr reason I picked pool over pond. All I did was

1,200
10 X 150 medium paddles R:15
600 small paddles
Total: 3,300

After lunch we headed to Carroll County to help take care of Penny's mom. I got out in the delta and ambulated for 4.22 miles of shuffling and 2.53 miles of walking. As you can probably tell, my legs were shot. I'm not recovering very well right now. I think it is the total volume of training  I've been doing that has pretty much overwhelmed my entire system. Next week, I will run a little less and swim a little less but still do a substantial  amount of training. Then the next week will be a radical drop off that should leave me with fresh muscles and bundles of energy for June 1. That's the plan any way.

For the week, I

The shores of Austin 58
where I plan to be Monday morning.

swam 32,410.4 meters
ran 24.37 miles
walked 8.02 miles
lifted weights 1 X.

For the year, I am at
324,094.58 meters swimming (+18,324.48 meters over last year)
446.48 miles running (+275.84 over last year).

The difference in my training this year and last year has been a lot more running and a slight increase in volume swimming. However, I am a bit insecure about my endurance because last year I did more long swims. At this time a year ago, I had done three 10,000 meter or longer swims with a longest of 8.5 miles. This year I have only two 10,000 meter swims with a longest of 6.6 miles. Last year in one week, I did two swims of over seven miles. Time has run out. If I don't get it done tomorrow, it's not going to happen.