Triathlon Training: Week 6 – Wednesday Swim – I Feel Good!!

(I felt good this morning in the pool and wanted to jam to this song from back in the day. Yes, don’t be surprised to have stuck in your head all day.)

I woke up this morning to get in swim #2 of the week. Last night I was exhausted. Getting back into the swing of teaching, coaching basketball, wolfing down dinner, and then going back to school for Lego Robotics left me depleted. I sat down and thought about eliminating the swim workout today and just doing the bike ride this morning. I was almost convinced to do just that, but then decided to just wait to see how I felt this morning.

I did not feel much better. I was tired due to Ava waking up a few times last night. She needs to get back to routine or else I might collapse. Anyways, I got up and decided to get the swim in. I am glad I did. I felt good in the pool. The workout was something fierce, but I felt at ease during the swims unlike the workout Monday.

Here is the workout

The fartlek section about made me puke. I was spent. The first 100 of each set I felt great, starting slow and then a nice fast one(well, “fast” is not how you would describe me in the water, but you get the idea). The third 50 of the set about did me in. Swimming slow after the fast swim I could not get my breathing and HR back down to a steady beat. Finally, the last 50 I felt good on. Weird that the slow set was hard, but the fast set was easier. I don’t know, but I survived with a gut ache of chlorine water, lactic acid in my muscles, and a sense of throwing up my coffee.

The sprint interval set that came next was not too bad. The last 3 or so I was going as hard as I could go, but I had nothing left and I felt slow in the water.

Being that I was tired by the end of the sprints, I use fins and the board of the kick set to not overdo it. I finished up swimming the cool down all at once and felt great.

This was  a good workout. I really had to push myself. Swimming fast for these intervals was a nice change of pace for me. I don’t like being gassed in the water, but I realize that I need to push.

While swimming today I had those voices popping up telling me I could not do anymore. I had to fight with those voices. I overcame them, but it was tough. If you let those voices stick around too long they slowly start to overtake your brain. I fought through them and succeeded. This reminded me of my little speech after our first day of basketball yesterday. I told the 8th grade boys that there is a whole another level that they can push themselves to once they learn to turn their mind off. It is hard to teach kids at this age that the body is capable of more than what the brain thinks. It has taken me 31 years to figure this out(sometimes I still don’t listen to the body). I am glad I have the chance to work with the mental approach with this age group. If I can get through to them about mental toughness, then it will benefit them their entire life in anything they do.

I need to get a bike ride in later tonight. My pecs are a little sore from the push ups from yesterday in practice. If felt good to get down and crunch out some reps. My soreness is a reminder that I left strength training for too long. GETTING IT DONE! is off to a great start today.