Turns Out I DO Remember How to Swim

As I said in my last post, my last swim workout was a nightmare. It was an exercise in mental fortitude to just finish the damn thing. I felt like I had lead weights tied to my shoulders the whole time. It was one of those swims where, as soon as you push off the wall for that first warm-up, you know it's going to be a long day. And then it went down from there. Although, despite the fact that it felt terrible, my times were (surprisingly) not terrible. Which was a nice surprise, since I think that means I am getting faster, because I can feel pretty crappy and still not have terrible times.

But. That was 4 days ago. This is now. Today's workout was much better. I had been dreading this workout, given my crap-ass last swim. So after oversleeping (yes, today is Thursday, how did you know?) I dragged my ass to the gym and got in the pool. I figured if I just put myself on autopilot I'd be in the water and moving before I knew it. And it was true. The workout was:

6 x 50 (1:30 rest)
100 easy
4 x 50 (1:30 rest)
100 easy
2 x 50 (1:30 rest)

I felt great. Seriously. The whole time. It was awesome. Part of this may have been that during the rest times, I was watching the woman who got into the lane next to me. I've seen her a few times before. Every time, she leaves her big-ass transition bag on the deck at the end of the lane, and takes out her kickboard, pull buoy, flippers, and snorkel. She was in the water for ~20 minutes (okay, maybe more. I wasn't really paying attention to how long she was there, but she got in well after I had started my main set and got out before I was done). She does her laps, each with a different apparatus. When it comes to the snorkel/flippers set, she puts them on, pushes off the wall, and rockets her way to the other wall. Imagine this: she's flippering her way down the lane, with her snorkel on, head down, with her arms at her side the entire time. It's like a cartoon. Anyway. I think that's why the time went quickly.

But enough about her. I felt great. My times were not spectacular, and were slighly higher than the last time I did speedwork, but that's okay because I also doubled the number of intervals I did this time. My times were:

6 x 50 (47, 45, 45, 44, 44, 44)
4 x 50 (43, 43, 43, 42)
2 x 50 (43, 41)

So I was pretty consistent with dropping my times with each interval, which is good. I probably went out too easy because I didn't want to fly & die. But I felt great. And today, that's what mattered.