I haven’t been feeling 100% the last week. I’ve had a bit of a cough that has kept me mostly out of the pool and in front of a computer screen. Ok, the cough doesn’t have much to do with sitting in front of the computer, but maybe sitting in front of the computer for so long has something to do with having the cough. At any rate, I haven’t been doing much swimming lately, but all that changed today.

I normally harass people at my office about going to the gym with me. A few years ago there was a good-sized group that would go and lift a few times each week. In fact, at the peak there were almost too many to be able to do the same workouts. Times have changed. There are very few people with a membership to Gold’s Gym these days. Some of the old gang have moved on to other jobs, but most of them (including some that left for other jobs) have just stopped going… and let their memberships lapse. So when I question people about going to the gym, I expect to be turned down 9 out of 10 times.

Sandi has been increasing her rhetoric about wanting to train for a triathlon next spring. She’s been running a lot and swims from time to time. Today was one of those times. She said she would go if we went at 5:30. Well… 5:30 came and went and I wasn’t at a place where I could leave my office, so she went without me. That’s the type of behavior that needs to be rewarded, so I did my best to get their quickly.

I pushed her harder than I usually do and she really took to it. I was impressed.

Charmaine finished up at her office and came by as Sandi was finishing her 1000 yards. So we swam another 1000 or so. It’s been a long time since Charmaine has been swimming with me. I pushed her pretty hard as well. We were both tired by the end.

300 Free warm-up
4 x 50 Fly stroke-drill
25, 50, 75, 100 Free negative-split
100, 75, 50, 25 Kick negative-split
2 x 50 Free fast
100 Free easy
4 x 100 Free negative-split
100 Free easy
2 x 50 Free pull – no paddles
8 x 50 Kick negative-split
100 Free easy
2 x 50 Free fast
100 Free warm-down
————
2500 yards

As I was driving home at 4:00 last night (this morning?) I wondered aloud if I would be able to swim at all today, knowing that I had a new employee starting and that I would need to be back at work by 8:30. I didn’t actually get to work until about 8:45, and I did manage to hit the pool… but it turned out to be a poor excuse for a workout.

300 Free warm-up
2 x 200 Free
2 x 100 Kick
100 Free warm-down
————
1000 yards

When the losing team has the ball in the final two minutes of a football game they go into something commonly known as the hurry-up offense. I had an extremely small amount of time to swim today, but I made sure to go. I don’t know that I got much out of it other than sticking to my commitment to swim. Like many teams that resort to the hurry-up offense, I didn’t win today.

300 Free warm-up
4 x 100 Free
2 x 100 Kick
100 Free warm-down
————
1000 yards