Friday (Almost) Fun Swim!

I've been following the blog of the ridiculously hard-working Dirk De Heer and his swim workouts had just baffled me. I don't know that I've seen any one swim workout the same as any others, EVER. Part of that makes my OCD side freak out, but then the other part of me (the part that's in the pool) relishes the opportunity to break out of the mind-numbing repetition that my swim-workouts are becoming. With that in mind, I present you my first ladder swim-workout!

Ladder Workout - 3000m
500m - warm-up
100m - 1:42 (1:42min/100m avg.)
200m - 3:42 (1:51min/100m avg.)
300m - 5:46 (1:55min/100m avg.)
400m - 7:41 (1:55min/100m avg.)
500m - 9:42 (1:56min/100m avg.)
400m - 7:30 (1:53min/100m avg.)
300m - 5:36 (1:52min/100m avg.)
200m - 3:29 (1:44min/100m avg.)
100m - 1:33 (1:33min/100m avg.)
No cool-down

I got caught up again in the first half of the ladder trying to worry about times and ultimately under-performing in my mind, as opposed to focusing on technique. I felt a lot better in the second half, but I also felt like I was pushing myself harder.  Oddly, or not, improvement per-100m from the first half to the second half was quite low. I felt like death on the last 100m, but was also intrigued by this feeling of chaos happening in my body.

As stated above, there was no cool-down b/c I had to quick rush home and get showered so that I could meet my fiancee at the airport. Thus began an awesome weekend full of long walks on the beach in the freezing rain, a 40-man bar crawl and the best bleu cheese to ever enter my mouth (Saint Agur, from Cheesetique).

First of all, there were f-ing Santas EVERYWHERE... very strange.

The 2nd shirt-concept adopted in t-shirt form. Concept #1 would have had a manger scene on the front with the words "one-night stands aren't always a bad thing" on the back. Classssssy!

What night is complete w/o doing a "bucket stand" at a bar with no windows and not even enough permits to mix your drinks for you - yes, they handed you small travel-sized bottles, a can of coke, a bucket of ice and a plastic cup.

I followed up the weekend by hitting the gym for an assortment of weight-training exercises and jumping-rope. I then parked my trainer in front of the TV for Eagles vs. Giants on Sunday night football. (GO EAGLES!!!!!!). 45 minutes on that and my knee was telling me to get the f*** off. So I did, then iced and aspirined... then ate Chicken Ala King over white rice. It was heavenly.

Tomorrow: Swimming