Finally a good swim

BIKE: 18 miles in 65 mins
SWIM: 2400y in 60 mins

The bike was unremarkable. I rode abt 18 miles. Short for a Tuesday! And in the Tuesday morning meeting at work, I was awake for the first time. Usually I'm tired, stretching my legs in the chair, and eating my second breakfast of the day.

The swim, however, was remarkable. I usually dont' swim all that great in the afternoons, it's harder to focus on technique after a long day. But the goal was simple--follow today's plan: WU=800y with every 4th length as non-free. Main set=3x400y as #1 swim, #2 pull, #3 swim all at 60-70% heart rate. CD= 8x50. Easy enough.

I was going a bit fast in the warmup, and changed the plan to every 4th lap do some non-freestyle work. I don't do much in the way of non-free anyway, unless you count my doggie-paddle-like breaststroke as an off stroke. I had another swimmer in the lane, and I kept working to pace her in my laps. So the WU was harder than it needed to be.

I had quit timing my swims a few weeks ago, after getting discouraged by my slowing times. For some reason, my swim technique was faltering and the last think I needed was one more thing to worry about. But tonight I was feeling good and decided to time the 400's. To my surprise, I did the 1st 400 in 8:12, or about 1 min 1-3 sec/lap!! I was expecting 8:30+.

The second 400 was with a pull buoy. I don't swim all that great with the pull buoy, which is funny because it's supposed to help you improve your swimming. My side-to-side rolling is awkward and unbalanced with the buoy. So even though I'm swimming faster, I'm swimming poorly. Go figure. But, this time I slowed it down and worked on what was wrong. I found that my right arm was curling under me, instead of staying under my shoulder. Once I fixed that, things improved. I visualized the "arm over a barrel" and "scrape the edges of the pool" suggestions. Didn't time the 2nd 400y, as by now there were 3 swimmers in my lane.

And getting to this 3rd swimmer. I have a pet peeve about people who just come up to me and say "we are going to circle swim. OK?" I have to wonder, are you asking me or telling me we are going to circle swim. I like to ask people "would it be OK" and not say "we are going to". It's the assumption on the part of the other person that I would agree to share the lane (even though I always do). whatever. But then to really top it off, she swam sssslllloooooowwwwwww and wide. Big sweep of the arms, big scissor kick with the legs-- she took up over half the lane. Even more, there's a rule that when another swimmer is ready to pass you, you hang on the wall for a few seconds and let them by. Instead, she just pushed off the wall without letting the rest of us pass. It created a continuous traffic jam. Hey, I'm not perfect or fast myself here, but if we're wanna share then you gotta follow the rules.

She kicked me 3 times and hit me with her arms once, and this really fired me up. Suddenly I wanted to swim and buzz by her as fast as possible, to make a stupid point I suppose, about her poor "we are going to share" mentality. So I swam fast. And competitively. I was pushing the pace, looking to pass, and all aboard the Get Out of My Way train. haha, I was probably the jerk in the lane that I complain about. But I never got in her way, I never hit her, and she never had to wait for me.

But I have to give her credit for one thing. Even after stopping a few times to get around her, I did a 7:59 400y swim!! 13 seconds faster than the first one!! I've had this happen before--my best swims and fastest times come after a challenge that gets me riled up. I thought about thanking her once I was done, but she was so absorbed in her scissor kicking that she never looked up. haha, wouldn't that have been funny. "thanks for being an a$$hole, I just had one of my best swims in weeks".