Did I Miss Something?

I had to prep for work this morning so I didn't have the luxury of strolling to the pool and back with no regard to time. So I set my alarm for 6:45 and dragged myself out of bed for my fourth consecutive day at the pool. Before I get into that, let me share how exhausted you sometimes feel while training. While yesterday wasn't a particularly strenuous day, I swam in the morning, worked nonstop throughout the day and then ran at night. By the time I went to sleep, I was tired to the core, an unexplainable tiredness that makes you sleep as if someone beat you over the head with a heavy object. It's the kind of sleep where you don't wake up a single time in the night and you feel cheated when the alarm goes off. I had fleeting thoughts of sleeping in, but I pushed them aside and got up for my final swim this week.

When I arrived at the pool, I had a momentary panic. You have to walk past glass doors to the pool to get to the locker room so you get a little preview of how busy it is. The pool was dead empty and the water was smooth as glass so no one was even in it recently. I immediately thought I had missed something, that perhaps the adult lap swim wasn't happening on Fridays or that I had the times wrong. I haven't yet been on a Friday. I went to the locker room and got ready, and by the time I made my way to the pool, there was one lone guy. It was really nice to have the place almost to myself, and to my surprise it forced me to try harder since the lifeguard had no one else to watch.

I swam well again today, but still with limitations. I'm able to do more without stopping and I'm slowly finding my comfort zone in the water. I am feeling motivated to keep pushing because the elusive breakthrough must be just around the corner. If not, I'm enjoying it and it's a great way to spend the morning.

And I'm pleased to report that my new goggles were incredible! How can a pair of goggles called "vanquisher" fail you? They are a little tinted so that took some getting used to, but at least it dulled the image of someone's purple bandaid floating around under the water, still looped in a perfect circle. It's moments like those where I'm thankful for the burn of the chlorine.

Tomorrow morning I'm running in a women's-only 10K in the park. I plan to spend some time on my bike on the trainer, then will reward myself at the Big Apple BBQ Block Party in Madison Square Park. What better reason can you think of to get up early to run and bike?

Sport - Swimming
Distance - .5 miles
Time - 35:00