swimming?...yes please :)

that has been my gmail message quite a bit lately...and today it is: swimming twice in one day?... yes please :)

this week's workouts have consisted of the following:

Tuesday PM: RIDE
normal 24.5 mi route, this time with gnarly headwinds the majority of my circle. i felt like i was struggling pretty much the entire ride and towards the end i really buckled down, shifted to a harder gear and knocked out the last 5 or so miles like a jail bird trying to lose the hound dogs hot on his trail. this ride gave me trouble at the beginning and i had a hard time keeping my concentration. i kept giving myself excuses why it was okay to not go as fast as normal - i'm tired, the wind is too strong, it's getting darker earlier...my mind was not in it but what the hell do you know?! my body sure was and in the end, i came out on even in comparison to last week's ride: average 17.5 mph in 83 total minutes. not too shabby considering my initial pussy-itis attitude, all of the stops along the way AND the winds from Zues himself! body - one, mind - none

Wednesday AM: SWIM
1000M W-U
- 300M kick
- 300M pull
- 400M swim
2 X 600
- 300M paddles/LD
- 300M swim/LD
2 X 100 (2min/20sec rest)
= 2400M

felt great and there were no problems getting up, getting going, entering the water or completing the workout - WOOHOO! even score - no points awarded!!

Thursday PM: TRACK (UGH!)
3X400 at 70% max HR
4X400 at 80% max HR
5X400 at 90% max HR

track and i have bonafide a love/hate relationship. i love to hate it. it hurts so bad it feels good. its all very complicated and i don't want to bore you with the details but last night's session kicked my butt. i was sucking wind and producing carbon dioxide like it was my job. i was a tree filtering the worlds air through my lungs in such large waves that i just about resigned myself to the grass where i could plant roots and continue my exertion in a much less exertive way. alas, it wasn't meant to be and the lady i was running with just. kept. going. round and round. every time we'd finish, i'd swear it was my last to run with her and then she'd walk up to the line and i'd find my legs carrying my body up to the line to follow her, completely against the very loud, authoritative and somewhat ticked warnings of my psyche. there was a constant battle between my mind and my body each and every lap. i struggled in my head thinking that this could not go on. i could not finish this lap at this pace and to please God put me out of my misery and what the hell do you know?! i finished the damn lap. i finished the damn lap at the pace the fast lady set. i finished the damn lap at the pace the fast lady set AND THEN WENT BACK FOR MORE! how the hell does that work?! when it was all said and done, i was spent. i gave Luke the drop-in fee and crawled back to the salvation of my car. body - two, mind - none.

Friday AM: SWIM
1000M warm-up
- 400M swim
- 4 X 50M single arm
- 2 X 100M pull
- 2 X 100M kick
400M swim
600M paddle set
400M swim
= 2400M

i got up at 4:10. got dressed and ready to go at 4:15. this is where it gets dicey...it literally took me 20 minutes to talk myself into walking to and getting in the car. its not that i was necessarily tired, not that i necessarily didn't want to swim, not really anything i could pin point, i just wasn't motivated to get to the car. as my body and my psyche wrassled and wrangled for some sort of decision, i decided to check out until the verdict was in and just as i thought we were headed right back to bed, my legs carried my psyche to the dadgum car where i got in and drove to the pool. really?! how is this happening?! body - three, mind - none.

Friday PM: PLAN - SWIM
one mile at the cove in 35min or less (without wetsuit if its warm enough)

Saturday: PLAN - RIDE/MAYBE RUN
7 AM start time. Iron Mountain ride - first loop with the Pac Grove/Nation's Tri TNT Team for encouragement and camaraderie because as soon as we hit the top, we're doing it again for a total of 60 miles which = my longest ride to date. so far i've gone no longer than 40, way to do an incremental jump katie b! so you've decided to kill yourself and take your friends down with you...nice. and if are legs are still working after that, we will attempt a LSD run of 40 min, keeping our HR under 153. i know this means we will not be completing the traditional Iron Mountain Brick pulled from the recesses of Hades, but really, what do you expect after a ride like that?! we'll be lucky to be able to crawl after this workout so anything more than that we'll consider a miracle :)

Sunday afternoon: PLAN - SWIM/MAYBE RUN
two miles from the cove to the shores and back (let's pray for a washing machine-less day please) and take a 40 min jaunt along the coast if the run didn't get done the previous day, this time avoiding little yappy attack dogs hiding out in the store fronts of downtown La Jolla!

we're sitting at a 3 to 0 score right now in the body's favor...let's hope it's strong enough to continue the fight...