I finally got back in the pool today after several months away. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be. I was able to swim fairly quickly still, but I didn’t string together anything more than 200 yards at a time. I’ll get back into the swing of things eventually (if I’m still in San Diego).

It was really crowded at the pool today. Really crowded. Every lane had multiple people in it and there were hundreds of kids swarming the deck waiting for the waterslide to open. While trying to figure out which lane to squeeze into, a couple people got out of the same lane. I jumped in. They were speaking French to each other and to about 8 others in the pool. One of them got back in the lane with me and spoke perfect English with almost no accent. I didn’t expect her to swim very well, based on how she was built, but she turned out to be surprisingly fast. I was faster, of course, but she could swim for 10 minutes without slowing down. I can’t do that right now.

I think they must all be here for a swim meet somewhere, because there were far too many of them to just be traveling around together. And they were all swimmers. I’m guessing they are an age group team from Canada, but I resisted the urge to ask any questions. I just did my thing and then got out of there.

5 x 100 free
5 x 100 kick
3 x 200 pull with paddles
4 x 5 IM order with fins
6 x 50 free
—–
2100 yards

It’s absolutely amazing outside today. I wanted to get out there all morning. When I finally got out there, I didn’t want to come back inside. The pool was fairly crowded today. Almost everyone was already sharing lanes when I arrived. I split a lane with a guy that seemed to know what he was doing, but really didn’t. It worked out pretty well though, because two girls got out of a lane two down from us and I got to take it for my own. Swimmers kept coming and going the whole time I was there, but nobody ever asked me if they could split my lane.

The pool is getting pretty gross. There’s all sorts of stuff floating in the water these days. It doesn’t make me happy to think about it. I even saw a band-aid on the bottom today. It made me think I should try swimming at the beach instead. It’s an interesting idea, but I doubt it will happen. It’s just too much work to get myself all the way down there and back again (especially back again when I’m covered in salt and can’t really walk or jog it due to the salt).

500 free warm-up
5 x 100 free under 1:15 on 1:55
5 x 100 kick under 2:10 on 2:30
500 pull with paddles
3 x 100 back kick with fins
200 IM with fins
300 free warm-down
—–
2800 yards

Other than a perfectly sunny day outside, I had no motivation to go out and swim. But I did it anyway, and I’m glad I did. There was almost nobody at the pool when I arrived and most of them were on their way out.

500 warm-up
100 free
100 kick
3 x 200 pull
3 x 100 kick
3 x 100 free
2 x 200 IM with fins
200 warm-down
—–
2500 yards

It’s a beautiful day outside today. It’s a little breezy, but close to perfect for swimming. I got to the pool and it was very crowded. There were several people already sharing lanes. It was the exact opposite crowd as had been there just two days ago. Gone were the fast swimmers. Some of these guys were taking as many as two minutes just to complete a 25 yard freestyle. It was ugly.

I took my time walking around the pool and getting my fins and hand paddles out of my backpack, not knowing which was the least-bad lane to share. As luck would have it, lane 2 opened up and I got it to myself. That seemed great at first, but it wasn’t. The kids area is open from lane 1 and there were a bunch of grandparents in there that obviously didn’t shower before entering the pool. I could literally taste their perfume in the water. It was terrible. I didn’t last long.

200 warm-up
4 x 100 kick
4 x 150 pull with paddles
400 free with fins
100 kick
100 warm-down
—–
1800 yards

Every now and then there’s someone really fast at the pool. Today was no exception. When I arrived I saw a girl standing in lane 4 that I’ve seen before. She’s really fast. I can swim faster than she can, but only if we’re both swimming freestyle and I’m sprinting and she’s not. I haven’t ever seen her sprint, but I wouldn’t be too surprised to find out she’s faster than me. But maybe not. We’ll probably never know.

The pool was fairly crowded, but I managed to get lane 6 to myself. There was a slow guy in lane 7 and a fast guy in lane 5. He wasn’t as fast as I am, but he was pretty fast. I started going through my usual routine when a bunch of girls started showing up and sharing lanes with people. I was pulling with my giant hand paddles, so I got to keep my lane to myself.

It didn’t take long to realize these new girls were sharks. They were the fastest swimmers I have ever seen in that pool. I couldn’t keep up with them. The girl in lane 8 was obviously a sprinter. She was barely even touching the water as she flew down the lane.

I was on somewhat of a compressed schedule, so I just got out and went home. I don’t mind losing to a girl every now and then, but when there are 3 girls so fast it makes me feel like I don’t actually know how to swim, that’s too much for me.

500 free
5 x 100 free under 1:15 on 1:55
5 x 100 kick under 1:30 on 2:00
500 pull with paddles
200 free warm-down
—–
2200 yards

For a while there it was looking like I wasn’t going to do anything outside today. That would be a shame because it’s so nice out. I’m working with some folks in England and they were staying up late to be online while I was working, so I couldn’t just leave while they were still online. It all worked out in the end. I felt pretty slow today, especially on the kicking set. My legs are still toast from the last two days activities.

600 free
5 x 100 free under 1:15 on 1:55
4 x 100 kick under 1:10 on 2:00
500 pull with paddles
2 x 200 IM with fins
100 free
—–
2500 yards

It feels like summer. I already have plans to ride bikes with Charmaine tonight after work, so I figured I wound’t go swimming (to save my legs for the ride). It was 77 degrees and sunny when lunch time rolled around. How could I resist swimming in that kind of weather? I couldn’t.

The pool was fairly crowded, but I was able to get my own lane at first. It didn’t last long. In the middle of my 5 x 100 free, a guy showed up and asked to share my lane. I think he chose me because I was in lane 4 and may even have looked like I knew what I was doing (based on the gear I had piled at the edge of the pool). He was fast, which made me push harder than I originally planned, but that’s probably a good thing in the long run. Let’s see if I feel the same after we ride tonight.

500 free arm-up
5 x 100 free under 1:15 on 2:00
5 x 100 kick under 2:00 on 2:30
500 pull with paddles
5 x 100 IM drill with fins
2 x 200 free
100 warm-down
—–
3000 yards

I had a meeting scheduled for 1:30 today, so at 12:15 I marched myself down to the pool. I couldn’t stay long, but there was no chance I would skip swimming again; the weather is just too beautiful for that.

400 free
5 x 100 kick no fins
2 x 250 pull with paddles
4 x 50 IM order with fins
200 free
—–
1800 yards

If you told me last year that there would come a time in my life when I would call 66 degrees “cold” I would have laughed at you. But that’s exactly what I did today. We’ve had a bit of a cold streak the past two days and it’s dropped down to 66 degrees outside. They say it will be something like 85 tomorrow and through the weekend (which sounds down right hot), so it will be a huge change. I’ve been wondering if I would like to live somewhere warmer, but I’m not sure I can handle the heat. If it really does get to 85 tomorrow, it will be a good test.

So it was 66 degrees and not extremely sunny, but I decided it was the right thing to do, so I went swimming anyway. To my surprise, the pool was fairly crowded. That made it sort of fun.

500 warm-up
5 x 100 free under 1:15 on 1:55
5 x 100 kick
500 pull with paddles
100 free easy
2 x 200 IM
100 warm-down
—–
2600 yards

I’m actually not feeling all that sore from the big ride on Saturday, but for some reason I had no energy in the pool today. My triceps are pretty sore, but it’s not from the bike ride. I’ve started doing sets of 15 push-ups from time to time during the day, trying to get in at least 100 each day. I think that probably has more to do with my poor performance today than anything else.

The sunshine was the only thing keeping me in the pool after the first thousand yards.

300 free
2 x 100 kick
2 x 100 pull with paddles
2 x 200 IM with fins
3 x 100 free
3 x 100 kick
300 pull
—–
2000 yards