Big Swim

After a day of no swimming and no upper body weight training, I was ready to smash some swimming muscles Thursday. But first things first. First I had to drink coffee, blog, and hang out with cats. After that, I did a small shuffle, 3.2 miles. Then I mowed the front lawn, went to the bank, and ate lunch. 

I was in the pool about 2:00 o'clock. I did another straight swim, but this time I did the pickups in a more systematic, balanced way. At the end of each 1,000, I would throw in a pickup. For the first 1,000, it was 100 yards. At the end of 2,000, I did 200. When I finished 3,000, I busted out 300. Some unfortunate swimmer got in when I was completing 4,000. What did I do? You guessed it: a 400 fast.

The young guy swam well, but I lapped him twice. He stopped, leaned against a wall, and just watched me. I sort of felt sorry for him, and I certainly did not want to discourage him. He was probably wondering, how can this old man do this to me? I stopped after 5,100 (no, there was no hard 500), and he spoke, "I guess you swim a lot."

We chatted some and among other things, I told him he would swim better if he started on the correct end of the pool. Everybody who gets in wants to start on the west end of the pool. "You are going to start a fire in North Greenwood doing that," I lectured him. "East is the symbolic direction for life because the sun rises there. West symbolized death. Don't start with death. The Egyptian pyramids are on the west side of the Nile because they are about death." The pool is oriented east and west.

"That makes sense," he said and came down to my end. I gave him some pointers, timed him in a 50, and told him to swim 50s leaving the wall every one minute and fifteen seconds. He did that, and before I left he told me that it is easier to breath on the east side. Really. I did three 50s with medium paddles and left. That gave me 5,250 yards. Maybe I should have stayed and swum more.

I went by Monroe and picked up a couple of blocks and a few rocks. At the Hideout, I re-hydrated and rested. Still to come was Plate City.

I went to the gym l little after 6:00. It was push day so I benched and pressed

11 X 100
  8 X 115
  6 X 125
  5 X 135

I did three sets of Viking presses, two sets of face pulls, a whole lot of rotator cuff work, and three sets of neck extensions. It was a good day. Thank you, Jesus.