Big Day at the Pond

I went to the pond Friday with the determination to do a really long swim.The Suck is drawing near, and I am still behind on my training in part due to the shoulder injury and in part due to my increase in running this year over last year. Big swim weeks and big run weeks are hard to pull off and even more difficult to string together. There is only so much energy and I'm finding that, just like with money, I have to plan on how to distribute it.

So I went to the fish farm with the idea that I would not run a step until I had a 10K or more of swimming. Being alone, I waded into the water with some doubt in my mind if I had the inner fire to stay out there long enough to get the work I needed to advance my fitness.

The pace wasn't that good, but I.m still coming
 back from an injury.

The water was 80 degrees, which felt amazingly cool to me. Twin Rivers is downright hot this time of year. I started stroking away. Round one consisted of three laps that measured 1.85 miles on my Garmin that I had taped to the strap on my goggles. After a little nutrition, I climbed in for three plus laps which turned out to be 2.16 miles. Round three was 1.46 miles followed by 1.33 for the fourth swim, then .8 for the fifth. Notice the trend? As I tired, the swims got shorter and shorter. However, I didn't tap out until I had swum 8.27 miles in almost five hours of lonely lapping the pond. That's the kind of work it's going to take to beat Beets' butt, and I was proud of myself for having put in the time and effort. I did do a very slow 1.71 mile shuffle after the swim. 

I started the week with the idea that it was time for a drop back cycle. Consequently, I only ran 3.02 miles Monday and did my usual weight lifting session. Since it was labor day, I didn't even attempt a swim. Tuesday I only ran 3.52 miles and got in 4,300 meters at the pool. Out of that, I did a 20 X 100 set with medium paddles and a 5 X 100 set with small paddles.

Wednesday has morphed into my mid-week long run day, and I shuffled 12.54 miles running all over Billy Whittington's turn rows before going back to work for my film class. After work, I drove to the pool for a short and easy 1,700 meters of straight laps in the dark. Thursday I did no running, trying to budget some energy for Friday's big swim and to give my over trained legs a little break. I did go to the pool and hammer out and even 4,000, doing some sprints interspersed with slow, easy swimming.

With the Great Noxapater Journey Run looming a little closer on the horizon, I felt like it was time to start putting in some 20-milers. They do the trick for building raw, low-end endurance. Being still a bit fatigued from Friday, I didn't get out the door Saturday until around 10:00 am when the sun was high and so was the temperature. I'm not fit enough now to run 20 miles, so I set a 2.5/1.0 run/walk schedule which is similar to what I will probably do on the journey trek. I managed to run 13 miles and walk 7 on my journey to Money, MS and back. I hope next week to hold pace longer and run more of the route.

For the week, I

ran 33.81 miles,

lifted weights twice,

swam 23,306.43 meters, and

walked 9.38 miles.

For the year, I have

run 912.45 miles (+501.98 over 2012), and

swum 569,394.43 meters (behind last year, but I don't want to run the numbers).

Randy Beets and I have already made plans to swim next Saturday. It's getting pretty close the Suck and usually we get hostile with one another as the race draws near. I guess I should invite Robin because her presence makes us both more civil to one another. Women often have that soothing, civilizing effect on men. And maybe I should also invite Jay Unver although I'm still ticked at him for rubbing it in on how Randy whipped me at our last pond swim and also for intimating that I might be getting too old to compete anymore. But if he and Robin both show up, Randy and I will probably have a tremendous training swim with no fist fighting. That sounds good to me. YeeHaa.