Workout notes: change of plans?

Today I took the day off from running and walking; I swam 3100 yards.

I did 500 warm up, 500 worth of drill/swims with zoomers.

Then I did a test set: 1000 yards free (no flip turns; my push-offs were sloppy): 4:19, 8:36, 12:56, 17:15 or: 4:19, 4:17, 4:20, 4:19.

Then 500 strokes, 500 of 50 paddle, 50 free, 100 cool down for 3100 yards.

That was by far my best swim of the year (yes, I know, I am NOT a real swimmer)

My lifetime PR is 15:37 in 2000 (8 years ago) and I was down into the low 16s in 2006 (with flip turns).

But this is a huge improvement over where I have been recently.

I do have about 8 possible training weeks if I want to focus on the Big Shoulders 5K swim this September.

Ever have a workout like this? Keep in mind that the guy that is writing this has finished 100 mile trail races and has qualified for Boston; he was on track to run a good Western States 100 miler this year. Keep in mind that this was a running workout and that a 7-8 minute pace should be no problem for him.

Read what happened at his last workout:

Anyway, the first lap of my warm-up went OK, but I was in some pain. The second lap was OK. On the third lap, it was pretty apparent that I wasn’t going to be able to run fast. Hell, I wasn’t going to be able to run slowly. On my 4th lap, I tried some accelerations. Tried. No go. On the far side of that lap, I noticed that my car appeared to be miles and miles away. I was hoping I could make it to my car.

I thought I was going to fall over. I started to imagine the high school girls freaking out when an old fat guy fell over on the track beside their practice. They wouldn’t know what to do. I would know that it was only sore muscles that had me stuck on the ground. But, they’d be thinking about the possibility of a heart attack that had put me there. “Who’s going to do CPR?” “Not me” “What about mouth to mouth?” “On him? Ewwwwwwwww!” “Quick, call an ambulance” “Wait, no, let’s just leave and all agree that we saw nothing at all”

After one mile, done in 10:23, I called it a day. I drove home and made myself a mojito and grilled some chicken for dinner. The second mojito seemed to dull the pain in my legs for a while, but it hurts again today. My wife and I are planning to run a few miles together this evening. She normally runs at about 12-13 mpm pace. I hope I can keep up.

I’ve had days like that as well; you seem ready but when you get out there, the first mile is HORRIBLE. In walking, it is as if I am laboring at 14, 15 or 16 minutes a mile, or in running, even a 10:30 pace seems impossible, or in swimming, a 1 minute per lap pace feels hard.

What I usually do (say, if I am running) is I do some light walk jogs, and sometimes, by mile 3, I feel better. If I don’t, I quit, go home, and blog.