Swim, speed, sick

1.  Swim:
On Thursday I finally dragged myself out of bed at 4:45AM, got dressed, and went to the pool.  I like getting up early to swim because A) There are usually very few people swimming that early and I rarely have to share a lane and B) It's nice to be able to go swimming, shower, and be back home before my husband and kiddos wake up.  I was hesitant to do an actual workout because this was the first time I had been swimming in months...Yikes!  I don't know what my problem is with swimming.  It is the hardest part of a triathlon for me, yet it's the one discipline that in the past I put the least effort into.  This year it's going to be different though.  One my goals for the new year was to improve my swim. One way I'm going to do this is by taking some private lessons.  I just need a set of eyes to tell me what I'm doing wrong and what I need to do to improve!  I'm actually really excited about it!
Anyways, I got to the pool, got in the water and did a 100m warm-up.  I had forgotten how much I love to be in the water.  I actually really enjoy swimming, but I get frustrated with the lack of progress I make (again, here's where a coach would be helpful!).  I decided to just do 100m repeats and believe me they were not easy.  I have lost so much of my swim fitness since my HIM in October...it's not even funny.  I was sucking wind after every 100m and had to rest for a minute or so just to get my heart rate back down.  I was just going to do 1/2M, but when I reached that point I figured I could do a little more to round it out to an even 1000m swim.  I'm so glad I did!  Although it is going to take awhile for me to get my breathing/fitness back, I realized I hadn't lost it all and I know that I can only get better from here!

2.  Speed:
I did my first speed workout this week as part of my 1/2 marathon plan.  The weather was actually pretty decent (45degrees) yesterday so I decided to take my boys with me to the local middle school track.  I gathered a bag full of sand toys for the boys to play with in the long jump sand pit, got them and myself all bundled up, and headed out the door with my Garmin!  I didn't know if the track would be empty or not, but I definitely was not prepared for what we found when we got there.  There were literally hundreds of geese all over the track and field.  Worse yet was their poop ALL OVER the place.  It was so disgusting, but we decided to stay.  We weren't going to let a little (alright A LOT) of poop ruin our plans!

Obviously, my boys couldn't play in the sand pit b/c it was filled with poop, so I didn't know how they would do while I did my laps.  However, they did great and even ran with me during some of the cool down laps between my sets which was awesome! After I finished I took the boys to the school playground to play and they had so much fun! Poop and all, it ended up  being a great time!
 Here's how my speed work went:
1M warm-up  (8:21 pace)
1*400 @ 1:38 (6:37 pace)
1*400 @ 1:38
1*400 @ 1:33 (6:12 pace)
1*400 @ 1:32 (6:07 pace)
1*400 @ 1:32
1/2M cool-down  (7:52 pace)

I had a blast doing this workout!  I was supposed to do the 400s at my 5K pace (which is roughly 7:30), but I felt great and decided to push myself a little bit more.  I didn't realize how fast I was doing my sets until I got home and uploaded my Garmin data.  I'm pretty proud of myself for pushing past my comfort level (maybe the brooks shoes really do make you faster!).  One of my other goals this year is to become a faster runner. I know what my comfortable pace is and for some reason I have a hard time pushing past it.  This speed workout made me realize that I can push past it and I'll be O.K.

3.  Sick:

 I am definitely sick.  In retrospect I probably shouldn't have done that speed workout outside b/c the cold air made my chest cold double in intensity later that night.  It's funny that my legs weren't sore from the workout, but my chest was from coughing so much!  I have decided to take a couple of days off to try and get over this cold.  Medicine only does so much and doesn't really stop the coughing fits.  The lack of sleep is the hardest part though.  I thought about getting up early to swim again, but I just couldn't.  It really sucks b/c I was mentally getting back into training mode and I was so excited about it, and now I have to stop and wait for my body to be o.k. with it too.  I know this will pass and I'll be able to continue my training, but I just hope it passes sooner rather then later!   Now...for some nice hot tea with honey....