Back to the Pool

Surprisingly, I woke up on Saturday feeling pretty darn good. I had a bit of trouble falling asleep Friday night. One reason was that I had too much coffee in the late afternoon and evening. I don't usually drink more than a cup a day, but after swimming on Friday, I was pretty tired, and wanted to be awake to hang out with my friends. Thus, I had a diet Coke and 2 cups of coffee over the course of the afternoon and evening. The other reason that it was hard to fall asleep is because my shoulders were feeling tired and sore. It was an unusual feeling, and neither "tired" nor "sore" is the right way to describe it, but it's the best that comes to mind. I eventually got everything to calm down and I went to sleep, waking up Saturday feeling great.

Instead of going to the gym yesterday, I ended up putting my bike on the trainer and pedaling in front of the TV for an hour and change. I'm not sure why, but I didn't feel like going to the gym, but I wanted to workout, so it was a nice alternative. Also, I hadn't touched my bike in awhile, so even though putting it on the trainer isn't the same as really riding (especially since I barely used my right hand on the bars), it felt nice to use it, show it a little love.

Inspired by my good workout on Friday and my goal for the week to get into the pool twice this week, I went swimming this morning. I had planned to do Friday's workout again, that is "workout 2" from The Fit Swimmer (150 yards swim free, 75 yards kick, 75 yards pull, 150 yards swim free). As with Friday, I ended up doing something different. Today's workout was:
300 swim free
75 kick
75 pull with buoy and hand paddles
Rest 1 minute, then repeat above, then rest 1 minute.
300 swim free with hand paddles
75 kick
75 pull with buoy and hand paddles
Rest 1 minute, then repeat above, then rest 1 minute.
50 kick
50 pull with buoy and hand paddles
repeat above twice more
Total distance: 2,100 yards (1 mile + 300 yards)

I was getting tired by the end, but not feeling "dead" so I figured I should probably stop before overdoing it. As with Friday's workout, my toes started cramping, but nowhere near as much as they did on Friday, and my fingers didn't cramp up at all.

Things I learned:

• Getting into the water before 8 a.m. on a Sunday is a good thing. The pool started filling up as I was ending my workout, but for most of my swim, it was only myself and 1 other person in the entire pool.

• I need to be fairly well-hydrated before I start swimming. I have good intentions of drinking water in my rest periods, but I barely touched my water bottle. I had to keep myself from chugging my water after I finished.

• Eating a banana on swim days (before the swim) is probably a good idea. I had a banana with breakfast before I went to the gym, and I think that helped keep me from cramping up towards the end of my swim. I suppose I could see if there are any of the water varieties that have potassium, too...

Now to figure out what to do with the rest of my day...