I WENT TO THE POOL!!

RUN 5 miles in 46 mins, easy but bound up the hills
SWIM 800y in about 30 mins, just whatever

OMG I went the pool! And it was nowhere near as bad as I though it would be! Lots of funnies with it though, see if I can capture how this went.

First off, I just looked to see when I last swam. Scroooooolllled through trainingpeaks.com, I thought it was February but it turns out it was January 26. And the post I'd prepped in my head to type out for today could almost be a copy/paste of that post! Edited for space:
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Well it's about time I saw a pool again

SWIM just under an hour, 2050y

I didn't realize that I haven't been to the pool since Dec 19th! Had to scroll back through TrainingPeaks to find that.

I almost didn't go. Of course it's so easy at 430am to think "oh what's another week" .. 

I did mostly pulling towards the middle of the session because my back wasn't happy. 

The pull buoy didn't make it any happier though! I could feel a tight 'ping' under my right shoulder blade.

But otherwise the swim felt good. 

Didn't time anything, didn't want the pressure after having not swam for so long. 

Even though I didn't realize just how long!

I bought new goggles...oh... a few weeks ago now? Finally tested them. 

SOOOOOO much better than the previous, but a bit too tight.

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Today's swim came after a cold (YES COLD, it's 65F!) rainy run. I stopped by the Y desk to check my membership. I had called on the 29th to inquire about suspending my membership for injury since I knew the first of the month would bring another monthly charge. But I didn't cancel, I knew that if I did it would only  give me more excuse for not swimming. My hands were cold and it took awhile to fill out the form. 

Grabbed a towel, headed to locker rooms looking for what's new and different. Not much it turns out, except the locker room now has a 'wood' floor instead of that carpet. Nice! I unzipped my big old swim bag and started pawing through it, thinking it would be like a mission of rediscovery. It was. I honestly forgot I had a purple swim cap, what race was that from...unroll... B2B!! More pawing, found my swim suit, yellow and black I knew but not the brand. Tyr. Pawed for goggles. Found a pair in a nice case, for got I had! They must be the ones I mentioned in January? Didn't use those, couldn't get the dang box open and I was already moving too slow.

Finally get to the deck, still acclimating. Each lap lane had a swimmer, but one was staying to sides and looked serious. I wasn't big on putting myself next to a fast agressive swimmer to highlight my own feeling of weakness, but I did it anyway just because of that. I probably knew this swimmer, she had nice tattoos and was pounding away on a long steady interval. 

Grabbed a kick board. Putzed around some more. Hung my legs into pool -- cold! Putzed more...finally hopped in and pushed off. To my complete surprise, freestyle felt good. Immediately I was reminded of water bubbling over my face, splashing into my ears, the feeling of creating a small wake as I move forward. Oh my, I'm swimming!

25y then 50 y. Mixed up the kick board, then grabbed a Finis yellow/black pull buoy (I think I owned one of these at some point? A yellow/black one?), and focused just on arms for the next few laps. I was careful to pause as needed, be mindful of pains and imbalances, yet didn't really sense any. Things were certainly weak, lots of slipping and problems that were obvious even to me, but oh my I'm swimming!

Somewhere around lap 11 I remembered this thing called backstroke! LOL! So I did a few of those, also felt good. I had a few moments of short and sharp pain but that was in both arms. I hit my goal of 16 laps and hopped out. Dashed to the shower (cold!) and pawed through my bag for the shower stuff. I had water in my ears but my EtOH tube was empty. Mixed up the bath gel and shampoo. Marveled at how much stuff I kept in my swim bag, when I finished 2014 swimming was such a habit, I was spending so much time at the pool that I was happy to invest in a nice towel, toys, and shower gear. The habits came back, the little things I did to make a pool trip quick and slick. Maybe it will soon become a habit again?!

NUMERICS
10 hours, not counting my commutes
SWIM!!!! 800 yards in 30 mins
BIKE  none this week
RUN 45 miles as per goal
COMMUTE all bike, 53.5 miles
STRENGTH 2 hours