Okay, that last sentence is a bit misleading. It’s not like it suddenly just reappeared out of thin air. I'm pretty sure it had been there for a while, and well, I knew it was coming – I guess I had just avoided looking too far ahead in my calendar, as I didn’t want to know exactly when it was coming.
So, last Saturday, I finally confirmed what I knew. Tuesday would be my “swim fail” do-over day.
While the prospect of doing this workout again gave me a few nerves and pre-race style jitters, thankfully, I didn’t psych myself out to the same level of cRaZy as I did previously (and I managed to sleep on Monday night). I’m still not 100% sure I truly believed I was going to go out and smash this workout and hit all the times with ease, but I knew I was going to get through it. All it would take was a decent amount of effort and a little composure.
And you know what, I feel like this swim was moderately successful. Sure I wish I could say it was amazingly successful and that I was swimming so fast and with such ease that I could have beat Ryan Cochrane in a 1500m sprint (yes, I'm pretty sure he sprints the whole thing), but well, that wasn’t the case. That said, I didn't leave the pool in near tears and I completed the whole workout only having to adjust the times slightly. So, you know, small victories and all that good stuff.
Also, I’m pretty sure I did better than Rick Mercer (although our flip turns do look very similar, haha).
So yeah, while I felt pretty relaxed through most of the workout (while still putting out a HARD effort - "relaxed speed" was my mantra for the day), unfortunately I didn't make all of the times. Close, but no cigar. I was able to roll with the punches though and not get too stressed about it. If I missed a time by a second or two, I went on the next :00 or :05 and just continued to work hard at it.
In the end, I left the pool feeling like I had a nice strong 3800m workout – both mentally and physically.
I am stalking you through your blog and as always, I am so impressed with your level of commitment and success! Thanks for reading "CountessLV" and I hope you know that my yoga pant rants are just my special form of crazy and don't apply to my friends. I thought of you last night when I looked down at my quads and realized my running quads are shrinking away and I must get back into some sort of routine. Miss you and promise to be in touch when I am back from Paris. Happy Training!
ReplyDeletemoderately successful is a huge improvement on fail! and it's all work, it all counts, right? oh ironman training, you are such a roller coaster....
ReplyDelete