1 Swim, 1 Bike - 1 Bad, 1 Good

Monday was my first time back in the pool since sometime in the 'teens of December. I had planned on skipping the pool until Tuesday b/c I thought it would have been the most crowded day of all time, being the first workday of the new-year... but I didn't. I knew I was going to suck and that my endurance would be shit so I figured it didn't really matter how busy the pool was. And with that breath of motivation, off I went.

Recognize this place? Hmm, i need to come up with some more creative photos.

I did a 500m warm-up and that felt... ok. I then proceeded to start a 500/400/300/200/100 set and quickly realized that I wasn't about to turn in a remarkable performance, time-wise. I think I clocked in the first 500m at around 9:30 so at that point I just decided to stop keeping time and go out and do the distances for quality rather than racing against myself. Good call on my part, because the next 400m was already hell enough. Things felt heavy and awkward, but I pushed on. I threw in some drills, one of which included racing (and beating) a friend of mine - I was using a pull buoy and he was using FLIPPERS... sucks for him!

All in all, I accomplished my goal of getting back into the pool and loosening up the arms in hopes of getting back to the regularly-distanced program either on Wednesday or Friday.

Tuesday - NO KNEE PAIN TODAY

I took about two weeks off over Christmas because of traveling and having family visit. In that time, I had no workouts and did minimal walking so my knee got A LOT of rest. So much so that I failed to realize that the pain was slowly subsiding even more than expected. I was very cautiously optimistic about getting on the bike trainer... more so on the optimistic side. After 45 minutes at the gym doing core and light-weights, I came home and hopped on and cranked out 35 short minutes of absolutely PAIN FREE training. No tweaks, no weaknesses - just lots of sweat. At the end of the short session I felt great. I wanted to stop while I was ahead and give it another GO on Thursday to see if I can get the same results.

That short stint did yield some other minor discomfort, which reminded me of this...

DANGER! DO NOT RUB ON ANYTHING BUT BALLS!

What you're looking at is my specially marked stick of body glide. It is to be used ONLY on areas that are furiously and continuously rubbed against the saddle of my bicycle... namely the ball-region. Note how the special marking could deter any friends from grabbing it and using it themselves.

Back in the pool tonight!