Just a good week

How often do we fail to appreciate weeks that are simply… good? Like drops of dew sliding along a web, they are simple and commonplace, but beautify life if we take the time to notice them. And if we catch them in the right light… diamonds.

I made solid progress in all of my target areas this week – pool, open water, and getting ready to live in England. It was hard, and there were hiccups (there always are), but good. A big ol’ checkmark in the books for this one.

Open Water – August tedium pays off and rock musicians play out their stereotypes

I’ve gotta say, there are some things about swimming in 75+ degree water and air that don’t suck. This weekend was a real pleasure – I swam with Melissa for the first time and we had a lot of fun; dinner at the Oceanic never fails to make me happy (and good company makes it better); and a great follow-up swim with Sam and Melissa on Sunday put a satisfying cap on the weekend.

We changed our plans considerably after the swim portion of the Wilmington triathlon was cancelled due to bacterial levels in Banks Channel. Instead of swimming the loop each day with some bonus ocean work, we ended up just doing a bunch of pier to piers (Or should that be piers to pier?). It was less good for my short term plan of racing Swim the Loop, but great ramp-up English Channel training. The chop on the way back on the second day was a perfect chance to try out the stroke I’ve been carefully honing to swim in rougher conditions. I was very satisfied. That was a lot of tedious stroke work in August so… yay!

And a huge shout out to JP for helping me with the stroke! – his coaching meshes really well with my learning.

I have stories to tell about the rock musicians in the campsite two feet from mine, but alas, most of them are not appropriate for this blog. Let’s just say, fellas, if you find yourself embarking on a defense of “rape jokes,” maybe you don’t have to wonder why none of the (expletive) girls at the bar were lining up to go home with you. They proceeded to discuss their views (if you could call them that) on women until 5 in the morning. Oh, and the fact that the lick from Smoke on the Water “changed the world, man!”

I forgot to bring any charging cables (and my campsite did not have electricity as advertised), so I don’t have any tracking from Sunday. Instead, here is an image of what I learned.

I was trying to ride the breakers with the push like the WB pros do (and get a half mile ahead of me) and I finally realized what’s been holding me back (besides my swim buoy). When a wave comes at me, instead of riding it sideways and continuing to swim, I assume a position that is best described as “defensive frog.”

Thanks to Dan for looking up why I am unbearable itchy from dozens of bites received over the last two weekends – he is sure that jellyfish larvae toxins are my problem. Sounds right to me and I’m just glad I didn’t tangle with their progenitors. I’ll be swimming in a lake or river this weekend to assure myself some non-itchy nights of good sleep… unless of course lake critters get me.

Joke of the Week

A shark could swim faster than me, but I could probably run faster than a shark.

So in a triathlon, it would all come down to who is the better cyclist.

(In honor of my friends whose triathlon swim leg was cancelled this weekend due to bacterial levels in Banks Channel.)

England Business

9/20 – Talked to Marcus in Bournemouth today for 40 minutes. I was glad to learn that their open water training group is stronger than ever. He is so enthusiastic about the swimming and the area – and it seems like it checks all of my really important boxes. Well, except, of course, that “Bournemouth Tales” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

9/21 – Looked at flats in Bournemouth – there’s a perfect one available now. Hopefully something good in March! Finding a place where I can walk both to the beach and to the pool may be difficult. I guess I can run to the pool – it will toughen me up. It’ll be like Rocky IV.

9/22 – I had great meeting with Principal Sherry today – she was very helpful (as always) with suggestions about how to make homeschooling and re-entry easy. Even a pandemic has a silver lining – there are online courses available that will cover all of the NC learning objectives. I don’t know how much they cost, but it sounds like the way to go if our aim is to make sure that the kids get what the need to know in the most efficient way.

9/23 – Working on meeting with someone at the middle school to nail down homeschool/re-entry details. And going through my notes from my meeting with Sherry and tracking down the homeschool information at the well-acronymed sites.

The Week at the Pool

Summary

It was really just about putting in the work this week. There’s a cool photo at the bottom.

The Gory Details

Monday 9/20 – Theme: Coach had a phone call – 60×100 main set as written. We made 51. (~7000)

10×100 fr kick w/board 2:00

10×100 free (buoy) 1:45

10×100 free 1:30

10×100 bk kick hands at sides 2:00

10×100 back (buoy) 1:45

1×100 back 1:30

Tuesday 9/21 – Theme: Breath Control (~5700)

10×100 IM kick 1:56

10×50 25 drill/25 fast (i did 3/4 and really put some power into it) :50

26×25 12.5 u/w dolphin / 12.5 sprint :30 (legs so tired)

5×100 w/paddles on 1:45 – 1:16, 1:14, 1:12, 1:12, 1:11 (85% effort?)

10×100 w/fins on 1:30 – # of breaths – 2/3/3/2 (I miss you, oxygen!)

Wednesday 9/22 – Getting short cool-downs the last two days did not do me any favors. Those 300’s and 400’s from last week were really helpful. I should definitely think about starting to cool down at 5:20 PM

Theme: Practice was hard enough that I hallucinated an extra thousand yards when I was adding it up. It was “only” 6500

500 free 

100 back

400 free

2×100 back

300 free

3×100 back             Don’t tell – I did NOT breathe 3/5/7/3 on the free

200 free

4×100 back

100 free

5×100 back

All free swims were on 1:20 base, all back swims on 1:30. If left to my own devices, I think I would have held 1:15 or 1:16 pace throughout the free and 1:23-1:25 throughout the back. The people in front of me paced it very differently (and we mis-counted the 500), but that was basically how it worked out. It was comfortable, if tiring

1000 free lowering stroke count (we went slowwwww)

10×50 drill R arm down L arm back; odds free, evens back on 1:00

200 CD (I did more)

I felt like doggy poo poo in warmup… started feeling better somewhere in the middle of the 3000-yard set.

Thursday 9/23 – Theme: Macon’s house of fun

Drilly things and speed things – I honestly have no memory of it. It’s 9:30 PM and I haven’t been home since 3:00 and I swam for 2 hours and coached for over 3 hours.

Friday 9/24 – Rest day, mystery photo shoot – remind me to tell you someday what it was for