5-12-08 (71 of 92)

Got up very early this morning, and went to the pool. I've had really bad luck with getting a lane in the evenings, so I think it's time to officially adjust my training schedule. I'm going to try swimming 3 days a week in the morning (when the pool opens @ 5:30). Then on Tues, Thurs, and Sat, I'll do brick workouts. I'm hoping this will free up some time during the week as well (not having to workout on Monday, Wed, and Fri nights could give me more family or LS.net time. I may still run with Steph on some of those nights, too. I'll need to sit down and do some figuring on the days of the week for each activity.

I hate having modify this close to race day, but if I don't, then I may only get 1 swim a week until the race, and since the swim is going to be my weakest leg, I think that'd be a bad idea anyway.

I was out of the house by 5:15 this morning as was a little apprehensive about being at the gym @ 5:30 - I guess I didn't really trust them to be open and have the pool ready @ 5:30am. I was pleasantly surprised that when I got there, there were already people working out in the weight room and others already in the pool. There were lanes open, so I didn't have to waste time before I got wet. I wore my swim suit under my shorts, and I was in the water almost as soon as I got the the gym. After I'd been swimming for a while I sensed someone in the lane next to me, and we were on the same lap rotation, I figured that I needed to use him as some motivation and not let him pass or swim away from me (even though I was already about 12 laps into my swim). I struggled to keep up with him for several laps, then I saw it - A SNORKEL!!! He was cheating in our imaginary race - how dare he ;). Anyway, I still held him at bay, and eventually gained length on him and pulled away after he'd fatigued a little. But I did get a little chuckle out of the fact that I was concentrating on breathing at the right times and stroking and he could breath as he wanted.

I didn't count laps (besides the 1st 22), but I did time a few of them and I was doing about 30 sec per length. I swam for 30 minutes, so that should be about 60 laps, a few of the laps were definitely faster, so I figure a total of 65 laps ( 1625 meters).

WOW, I just googled the meter/mile conversion...I swam a full mile this morning.!!!!!

1 625 meters = 1.00972819 miles

That's a training first and a milestone. I swam a mile, and I didn't die when I got out of the pool - - Ironman - here I come (in a couple of years).