Off the Cliff

Friday mornings are made for coffee drinking and blogging. That's why my sister had me pick up Ollie this morning. Life is tough.

This week's training has been like a yo-yo. That's not accurate. It has been more like a cliff. I scaled the walls then fell off the rock face. Monday started with me getting in alone and just swimming. John was out of pocket and I didn't feel up to my Beetsdown set with him gone. It really does help to have him there when I swim hard. He usually watches when I am putting the hammer down and that gives me that little extra humph I need to pull off tough sets.

So I just swam, up and down, down and up. I figured I would come up with a practice while I warmed up. After 2,000 meters I was still working on a workout scheme so I just kept swimming. Then I realized I could get more distance in if I just swam and didn’t have the down time between sets so I just kept swimming.

After 3,000 I was doing the math and realized that if the kids came in at 4:00 I would be very close to my biggest swim of last week which was 7,200. So after 4,000 I just kept swimming.

For some reason, when I do a straight swim in the pool, everything seems to speed up after 4,000 so I just kept swimming. When I hit 5,000 I was still doing mental math and was hoping the kids would be a little late. Maybe they wouldn’t come at all, so I just kept swimming. When I hit 6,000 I tried to pick the pace up so I could break 7,000 before 4:00 but that didn’t work so I just kept swimming.

I hit 7,000 right around 4:00 with no kids in sight. I decided on 7,500 but when I got there I just kept swimming. Then I decided on 8,000 but when I got there, I just kept swimming. I was sure by then that the kids weren’t coming and neither was John, so I just kept swimming.

At 9,000 meters I did not just keep swimming but got out and went home. The swim was nice. The swim was long. The swim was nice and long. The kids were gone. Thank you God.

Comp I that night was very pleasant. Normally night classes are better than day classes. The students who sign up for night classes usually have jobs and families and are not there to play around. We are writing our second paper on diabetes. I rode my bike to school, further Beetsdown training. When I got home I went out for a Beetsdown run. Poor Randy, he can’t catch a break.

Tuesday John was back with a vengeance and said I had to beat yesterday. That's what he told me on the phone. When I got to the pool, he had already been in for thirty-minutes. I swam three hours and fifty-three minutes straight without nutrition or water. When I got out with 11,000 meters. John piddled around and got another ten minutes in. After I got home, we had to make a trip to the hospital in Grenada, so I didn't get to run.

Wednesday Johna and I met up at the pool and my right pec was pretty sore. I stopped after only 1,400 and after work I just couldn't make myself go out for a run.

Thursday I was headed out the door for the pool when my phone went off. I had to attend to some business and when I finally was able to make it to Twin Rivers, the sky had filled with dark clouds and lightning threatened to kill unwary swimmers. Disgusted, I went home and ate four Nutty Buddies, and three Oatmeal Cream Pies. Then I warmed up some sloppy joe mix and ate it like soup. All of that wasn't enough so I ate a sandwich and a loaded potato. Then I found the cookies my wife had hidden and I murdered a handful of them. Jeez Louise, I was grossing myself out, but not enough, so I ate some pecans and crackers and mayonnaise. I ran out of mayonnaise so I licked the spoon clean and finished off the crackers with half a jar of peanut butter. I hate myself. Did I mention all the candy I ate at work? Like I said earlier, I fell off the cliff. John and I are supposed to train today if I can waddle my fat butt out the door.