Swimming in the gutters; 50 mile Benchmark!!

SWIM: 70 mins for 2300m (or 1.4 miles!)
RUN: 66 mins for 6.8 miles at 9:42m/m average

Today I crossed the 50 mile benchmark for swimming in 2011!

This is my longest Monday Master's swim in some time. For once I showed up on time and started the swim at 5:20am. And wouldn't you know it, CHG was out of town for it.

There is finally a break in the heat. Yesterday was 95+ in the AM and only 82 by the afternoon. So while the water was still 85F, it was certainly a more pleasant swim than last week. At least you could stand up to cool off.

The sets were good today: 4x300, 1st 300 as 6x50 kick/drill/swim/kick/drill/swim, 2nd 300 as 3x100 descending 1-2-3, 3rd 300 as 2x150 descending in each 150, and 4th as 1x300 steady.

I was a slop fest today. My mind was buzzing about IM CdA, I was tired (even though I rested yesterday), and I kept hitting the stupid lane lines!!! As in really hitting them!! You know the rule that your body follows your eyes? That if you look at something on the road your bike will follow and then hit that something? Well it turns out if if I think about something, I'll hit it. Once I started hitting the lane lines, I got focused on hitting the lane lines, then all I did was hit the lane lines. For all the smacks I gave the lines, I'm surprised I still have a watch. And that I'm not missing more skin off my right hand. OW! You know what I say to that....

Oh HTFU!

Not sure why I was swimming in the lane gutter. I'm still working on an earlier hand entry, and that seems to leave me lower in the water. So I was gasping for air a bit. I'm getting so much better at not panicking when I inhale water. Just blow it out and get the rhythym back. Still sucks, though.

Regardless, the waning moon was beautiful to swim under, and watching the sun rise over the pool is always a treat. And although I wasn't a smooth or fast as last weeks PR swims, my lane mates have noticed my increased speed. Yeah!!!!!

LC and I ran over lunch again, it was "only" 96F degrees out. It was hot but oh so much better than last week! The Rx for the run was 3 Art Hill climbs but the high sun drove us to more shaded hills. Not as good of a workout as it could have been, maybe I can throw in a climb on Weds run? I'm glad LC was there today, I think left to my own devices I would have tried the hill climbs and really cooked myself. Did this run in the Kinvaras, I'm finally getting some long miles in those shoes! I can remember being able to do only 3-4 miles before my legs called for quits.