Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Tuesday Pep Talk + Last Night's Swimming Workout

I haven't really been feeling like my normal merry self lately (see what I did there?)  For some reason, I just haven't been getting the joy out of my activities, like I used to.  I've been spending a lot of time on my couch trying to figure out why running even 3 miles sounds like the last thing in the world I want to do.  I think I'm mostly frustrated because I haven't really found the running support system here in Vegas that I've had in my previous locations like Knoxville and Memphis.
However, yesterday afternoon I was reminded that, even though I don't have the in-person running buddies that I used to have, I have the online community of runners and fitnessistas, about which I was largely oblivious to until approximately one year ago.
Everyone has days or weeks like that, I'm sure.  That's why training partners are such beautiful people.  When you're feeling defeated, they show you that your next run or your next workout may be the one that makes you feel victorious again.  Even though I don't have a training partner here in Vegas, all I need to do is read about the latest running adventures of Gina or Lisa or Jill and I feel ready to hit that pavement again!  And that's more or less what happened tonight, except rather than hitting the pavement, I decided hit the pool.
To write last night's workout, I followed the same outline that I discussed in last week's swimming tip.  I started with a Warm-Up that made up just under one-third of the total yardage, followed by a Main Set that is slightly less than one-half of the total yardage, and then a kick set and a cool down.  

Warm-Up
     300 Swim
     150 kick (I did this on my back in streamline position, but you could use a kickboard instead)
     4 x 25 build (first 25 slowest - fourth 25 fastest)
Main Set
     300 Swim (50 hard / 25 easy)
          50 kick
     200 Swim (75 hard / 25 easy)
          50 kick
     100 Swim (25 hard / 25 easy)
          50 kick
Kick Set
     4 x 75 fly kick on your back (GREAT ab workout!!)
          - I changed this from 6 x 50 to 4 x 75 to make it a better ab workout
Cool Down
     200 easy swim

I felt so great when I got out of the pool; it was about as close to feeling like a new person as I could imagine.  I haven't been doing nearly enough running lately and this is going to have pretty disastrous effects on my upcoming Chicago Marathon.....but, I don't want to think about that now.  I just want to keep riding this post-swimming high into today's run and beyond.  I'll worry about the Chicago Marathon later. (isn't denial the greatest? haha)

2 comments:

  1. Your posts make me want to go for a swim, Alaina! After this Chicago marathon I plan to get back in the pool 2-3 days a week. I really miss it. And I've been experiencing similar feelings of just lack of motivation to go running. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if all the swimming works to your advantage in Chicago. I worry that my complete LACK of cross training over the last 16 weeks is going to hurt me. I just hope my body doesn't decide to break in these last few weeks!

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  2. Alainapants, I swam for the first time in over 2 years this morning, and I did 1650 (basically your workout you posted last week...totally stealing this one for next Wednesday's cross training, FYI), and I realized: (1) I miss swimming with you; (2) I am really out of swimming shape; and (3) I'm in good cardio shape overall! It was nice to get up and still exercise but give my poor knees a break from pounding Houston's roads. And part of my motivation to get back in the pool (which requires joining a gym...hint: you can get free passes to all the gyms, swim for free a bunch, and then pick one) is because you started blogging about swimming!

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