June 22, 2009

Not So Horrible Recovery

I was dreading how my legs would feel after HHH so I got into my Zoot recovery tights ASAP and wore them for about 13 hours straight. I ended up sleeping 9.5 hours, something I haven't done for months. It felt amazing. When I woke up I was surprised by how good I felt. I was a bit tired, but didn't have any pain or stiffness.

Robert and I decided to meet for a swim in Lake Wingra at a blissfully normal start time of 11:30. I was late, of course, but I blame it on not having a clue where I was going and then having to search for a place to park.

I'm an ocean girl so I'm really creeped out by lake water. Within a minute of entering the lake I sunk ankle deep into the mucky, squishy bottom because I walked out too far. Lovely. I could also see there was a forest of weeds to swim through and could feel my chest constricting at the thought of it. Whenever I'm in a lake I think about that 80's movie Swamp Thing and imagine all sorts of creatures lurking in the shadowy water. Imagination is a good thing but not during an open water swim. We picked a focal point and got started. Getting through the weeds left me a little breathless, but once I cleared them I was able to settle into a nice rhythm. I have finally learned how to sight without lifting my head totally out of the water and this makes a massive difference in how I swim in open water. There was absolutely no chop or current so it was almost like pool swimming. It was actually really nice aside from the weeds and a slightly off taste in the water. We did 15 minutes out and back and then another shorter out and back for a total of 50 minutes.

It was boiling hot outside by the time we finished and I needed to run for an hour. There is an arboretum right by the lake so I brought my running gear and got started immediately after the swim. This is when I realized my legs were a little fried from HHH. I could tell it was going to be a long hour out there between the high temps, humidity and my dead legs. Plus my iPod was dead so the only sound I heard for an hour was my labored breathing and the incessant beeping of my HRM. My pace was a little slow, understandably, but I got it done. Afterward I spent the afternoon relaxing with family and my precious little nephew, one of the highlights of visiting Madison. He'll by far be the cutest member of my Ironman support crew in September.


Mondays are usually rest but today I had the option to do a 20 minute swim so I jumped on it. I have to start work at 8 a.m. due to the time difference so it required me to get up earlier than I would have liked. I was definitely still dragging a bit and had stayed up a wee bit late to watch a friend finish Ironman Couer D'Alene on the live feed. I swam in Lake Monona where the Ironman swim takes place. The water was a bit choppy and I've been hearing about the high algae content so I immediately noticed it coating the surface and could only imagine how much more was hiding beneath. Yum. There was also a big dead fish right where I walked in. Swamp Thing. But time was of the essence so I got in and got going, pushing through the weeds (what's with all the weeds???) and getting to deeper, less creepy water. This swim was harder than I thought it would be due to the chop and lack of anything easy to sight. I drifted pretty far out and had to really work to keep moving in a semi-straight line. The return was easier since I could sight the shore to my left. I couldn't taste the algae and this lake certainly tasted better than Wingra, but there was so much stuff in the water it looked like there were little pearls everywhere. It made it hard to relax my jaw like I normally would due to the desire to keep my mouth firmly clamped shut. But little by little I'm going to conquer my lake water fears so it will be second nature by race day. Today was a good start.

Swimming (Sunday)
Distance - 2,300 yards
Time - 49:02

Running (Sunday)
Distance - 6.87 miles
Time - 1:00:00

Swimming (Monday)
Distance - 1,050 yards
Time - 20:00

1 comment:

  1. I'm okay in the lake - I need to work on my ocean swimming fears!

    ReplyDelete

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