One Day I'll Swim...But Not Today

January 7 , 2009 -

I can remember when I first started triathlon about four years ago, I had never swam for exercise. Once I started, it resembled some kind of a cross between a moose falling through ice trying to get out and some kind of broken boat motor making strange noise and spitting water everywhere. I swam that way for the first few years but at least got better at perfecting that style while building my endurance and getting my distance up.

Last summer before one of my 70.3 races a man swimming next to me offered some technique advice that actually knocked eight minutes off my swim time for the next race, same distance. Who knew a little know how from a stranger could change my outlook. I love the concept of swimming and few workouts rival a hard swim.

With that said, I hate getting in the pool to actually swim. That my be why I have not been in the pool since my last triathlon at the end of September. Now it is this built up act of having to get back into it that I am dreading. Plus it's the winter in Seattle; should those innocent swimmers really have to be subjected to this pasty moose drowning broken motor swimmer? I think not.

I will get back to the pool, and am considering joining a triathlon swimming class.....but not today.

Day 7 Training Log - Today was a gym weight workout day. I went for a total body conditioning style workout. It started with bench press so I can have at hot swoll chest (important for something, just not sure what yet). That was four reps of 10 adding 10 pounds each set. Next was medicine ball pushup jumpups. For this you get in pushup position and put a medicine ball on the floor under your (swoll) chest. You do a pushup lowering your chest down to the ball then you pushup and launch both hands off the floor landing them on the medicine ball. Then one at a time, you place your hands back on the floor in pushup position and repeat fast as possible. Of this I did four sets of ten. Next I did four sets of close grip pullups with sets of 10, 10, 9, 8. Rather than resting between pullup sets I moved directly into regular situps cradleing a 16 pound medicine ball. The situps were four sets of 40, 40, 35, 35 reps. So the set was pullups, situps repeat for four of each. Finally I did four sets of squat jumps cradling a 16 pound medicine ball mixing in a one minute plank rather than a rest between sets. The squat jumps were three sets of 20 and the plank was three sets of a one minute hold.