Thursday Night Swim

My goal for Thursday night was to get into the pool at DSU as early as possible and swim every yard I could. 

But.

You probably think I'm a whiner, but I am. This is my forum to moan and complain and get it out. You still don't read a fraction of my frustration.

I had to take my truck to the shop Wednesday and when they called Thursday, I literally ran the 2.73 miles to pick it up. Then I drove Mom's car back to her house and ran back to mine. I packed my stuff and made it to the highway before I realized I was out of gas. No early entry this time either.

To make a short story long, I started stroking around 6:15 and managed to make 1,300 before practice started. When I saw Cagri move to the starting blocks, I knew he was ready to begin so I stopped at the wall.

"This is what we're going to do," Coach said as he always does at the start of session. "We are going to start at the top and go down. Do 800, 600, 400, 200, 100 and rest 30 seconds between."

I did the math in my head and realized the total was shorter than usual. "That's only 2,100," I moaned. 

"But you already did 1,300."

"I have to be ready to swim 21 miles by June 4. I need more."

"You need to swim more often."

"What time can I get in tomorrow?" I asked, ready to start my Friday swims.

"You can't. Swim meet."

You are best not knowing what I did next. All I want is to have an honest shot at training for my charity swim. Why must every training cycle be the hero's journey? Why must I slay the dragon twice? thrice? four times or more? Last year it was two falls on the Yazoo River Trail and some weightlifting that hurt my shoulder three times. Dragons. The year before it was something else and something else and a couple of more things. The year before that it was whatever and whatever and whatever. Why can't I just train? Why the drama? I am not a drama queen or king. I am not. But it always finds me. Maybe I should just relax and take things as they come without stressing so much over circumstances I have no control over. By the way, I am NOT running on the Yazoo River Trail this year. I have been down there on the paved part, but I am avoiding the trail in the woods so I won't fall and land on my shoulder again.

To make a short story long, I didn't do the practice Cagri gave. I swam the first 800 and took the 30 seconds rest. I decided instead of dropping to 600 to do another 800. Then I did another. And another. My whole practice looked like this:

1,300 warm up (23:45; 1:49)
4 X 800 r :30
   1 - 13:39; 1:42
   2 - 13:18; 1:39
   3 - 13:38; 1:40
   4 - 14:22; 1:47
2 X 600 small paddles
   1 - 10:31; 1:42
   2 - 10:44; 1:47
700 cool down 13:19; 1:53
total - 6,400 yards = 5,849 meters.

Notice the drop off on the fourth 800. That shows my endurance is not there yet, and these numbers will serve as a standard in the upcoming months. I liked this practice, and my body told me this is what it needs. I will probably use this as a template for my training this spring. I think I'll consider 14:00 as failure. I need to build the 800s, as many as I can, aiming to keep them all under 14:00. That will be a good measure of my endurance. Next week, maybe I can do four under 14:00 and then five and so forth.

It was a good swim, the kind I need to lay the base I have to have to go crazy when the spring comes. But I sure wish I could swim today. The ponds are cold, and even with a wet suit, I am too much of a sissy to do it. The weather is supposed to warm for the next few days. Maybe by Monday the water will hit 60. I can do 60 in a wet suit.