The local pool I joined derailed my training calendar a bit when I discovered they didn't have any open lanes in the evenings during the week. Wha??? My current work schedule doesn't allow me to swim before work so I was planning to swim once a week after work as my cross training day.
Ok, Amber, roll with it (despite writing SWIM in red ink on Wednesdays in my old school calendar). Even though Sunday is supposed to be my rest day, I swapped it out for a swim day. It's low impact, so that's ok to do after a long run, right??
I met my buddy Lisa at the pool. She's new to swimming and asked if I could give her some pointers. I made it very clear that while I can swim and survived an Olympic triathlon (with a 1 mile swim), I'm extremely slow and there are probably better choices when it comes to a swim coach. She was ok with that I guess, so we took the plunge. We spent about 45 minutes in the pool and I showed her everything that I had been shown when I was a beginner. Like me, Lisa can swim, she had just never really needed to swim freestyle laps. She did much better than I did the first time swimming laps! And bonus, we had fun while working out.
The treadmill and I had another showdown last night. Remember last week when I wanted to quit and chew my arm off? Well, I was worried that my 4 miler last night would be miserable like it was last week. The Pilot tagged along and was trucking along on the treadmill next to me while I suffered through my first 25 minutes. I did a quarter mile warm up again and then busted out the run. I did take a random walk break when I started to get a little shaky (hungry!) but was able to run to the finish. Guess what happens when you run faster (and take fewer walk breaks)....you finish faster. I knocked out 4 miles in 54 minutes. That's 4 minutes faster than last week. And it wasn't anymore painful than last week either. While the average wasn't PR pace, when I was running, I was running faster than PR pace so that was encouraging. And bonus, we had fun working out together. At least I did. Having The Pilot on the treadmill next to me was sure better than a stranger. Strangers think it's creepy when you turn to them and make faces. The Pilot just smiles and makes faces right back at me.
This is such a fun post. Before I had our son I worked out with my dear friend at a gym and we swam and ran I miss it. I have a full gym at home yet can't seem to make it in there to actually work out - miss my workout buddy. I really need to use it instad of running the trails all the time.
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