I want to start adding some weight training to my swim workouts. For a while I was only lifting and not swimming. After a few months I started swimming in the morning (weight lifting was at lunch). I haven’t done any weight training for 5 or 6 weeks now. I think it’s time to add it back in. It was that exact desire that forced me out of bed this morning.

It was really cold when I stepped outside. My car said it was 42 degrees. That’s pretty cold for this time of year. It took my car the whole way to the gym before the heater was very warm.

The usual group of aqua-cows was nowhere to be seen. In fact, the lights in the pool area were turned off. This isn’t something a non-employee can do, so I went back to the front desk to ask if the pool was closed. It was open. The only lights were the lights under water. It reminded me of morning swim practice in the outdoor pool at Cottonwood Heights in my high school days. Of course, I didn’t swim anything like I used to, but it was still fun.

500 Free warm-up
10 x 100 Free @ 2:15 (coming in around 1:15)
250 Free warm-down
———-
1750 yards (about 1 mile)

Saturday. My new goal for Saturdays is to swim at least 3000 yards. Saturdays are good days for a longer workout, because I get a day off before swimming again on Monday. I also want to do sets of longer distances on Saturdays. Today I wanted to do a set of 10 x 200 yards. I ran out of steam after 8, but I’m still pretty happy about it, since it was my first time doing any 200s.

500 Free warm-up
8 x 200 Free @ 3:45 (coming in between 2:35 and 2:40)
100 Free easy
4 x 100 Kick @ 2:30 (coming in at 2:00)
100 Free easy
200 Free
100 Free easy
———-
3000 yards

I did get up this morning and go swimming, but it was really hot. The pool area of Gold’s Gym isn’t exactly well ventilated, and it wasn’t a pleasant place to be after the aqua-cows finished their “workout.” I don’t know the exact temperature of the water, but it had to be over 85 degrees. It was horrible.

I didn’t swim well, but I swam. Charmaine came with me this morning, so I couldn’t just bail out. Once again, it’s great to have someone to push you harder.

500 Free warm-up
10 x 100 Free @ 2:05 (coming in between 1:15 and 1:20)
100 Free easy
6 x 50 Kick @ 1:20 (coming in at 1:00)
200 Free warm-down

Today I made sure to get Alex before heading to the pool.  He also made sure I got him before leaving.  It worked out pretty well.  As we walked in, we saw Jeff and Steve coming out of the locker room.  They have previously said that they do cardio on Wednesdays.  I asked them if they were going to swim.  They declined.  They are watching episodes of Firefly while they run on the treadmills.  I could never deny someone that experience.

The pool was empty when we got in, but halfway through our warm-up a lady got in the slow lane and started swimming.  She was pretty fast for a girl, but never swam more than a 50 without a taking a break.  She probably only swam 600 yards before getting out.

We decided to mix it up today.  We did some IM instead of the usual freestyle.  That turned out to be pretty fun, but it definitely gets my heartrate up faster than freestyle.  Maybe that means I need to find a way to push myself harder on freestyle?  I’ll have to experiment with that idea one of these days.  Alex kept up fairly well on the IM, but fell behind on kicking.  Kicking was last, so maybe that played into it as well, but I think Alex needs to work on his kick.

500 Free warm-up
5 x 100 IM @ 3:00 (coming in between 1:25 and 1:35)
100 Free easy
5 x 100 Kick @ 3:00 (working from easy to hard per 25, coming in at 2:00)
150 Free warm-down

I didn’t sleep well last night, which made a convenient excuse to stay in bed and not swim this morning. When I did finally get up, I decided that I better take my gym clothes to work. It was Monday and on Monday we usually do a chest workout during lunch. As unusual as it was, Joe didn’t bring his gym clothes. I saw him in the kitchen around noon, firing up the microwave. I had 3 options. I could go lift with Alex. I could go Swim with Alex. I could blow the whole thing off and work through lunch. I decided to let Alex decide. I asked him if he wanted to go lift, thinking that if he wasn’t going, I wouldn’t go either. I think this is why you get people to go with you regularly. He was ready to go. He even had swimming stuff with him. Swimming sounded better than lifting weights, so we cruised past my apartment and grabbed my swimming stuff.

Alex is a good swimmer, but hasn’t been swimming regularly for a little while. I decided to modify the workout to something he would be able to do it. He pushed himself very hard and did quite well. Hopefully he’ll keep coming back.

500 free: warm-up
10 x 100 free @ 2:05 (coming in at 1:10 x 5, 1:15 x 5)
100 free easy
5 x 50 kick @ 1:20 (coming in at 0:55 x 5)
150 free: warm-down
———-
2000 yards