Lazy Laps, Laundry Intervals and Local Legends

Awww crap! I forgot to make a couple of deposits on the blog here as of late - my bad! Lots of cool stuff going on here though so lets get the stats out of the way...

 More chilly, orphaned bicycles.

Wednesday Swim - 3000m Ladder
500m - warm-up
300m - 5:09 (1:43 min/100m avg.)
300m - 5:08 (1:43 min/100m avg.)
300m - 5:14 (1:44 min/100m avg.)
300m - 5:10 (1:43 min/100m avg.)
300m - 5:19 (1:46 min/100m avg.)
300m - 5:17 (1:45 min/100m avg.)
300m - X:XX (un-timed)
300m - X:XX (un-timed)
100m - cool-down

Summary:  I felt good starting up the workout (physically), but started to HIT THE WALL (mentally and physically) about halfway through. Boo hoo... Instead of giving in to the grumblings inside my head while I watched the lap times steadily increase, I just turned off the watch and put in a solid effort the rest of the way through.

The Torture/Laundry Chamber!

Thursday Bike Trainer - Laundry Intervals
add laundry
25 minutes on trainer
change laundry load
35 minutes on trainer
remove laundry load

Summary: Definitely not my proudest trainer-workout. I had a friend coming into town on Friday mid-day and had to get my laundry... well, wait a second... I'm making excuses for not sitting on the trainer for another 20-30 minutes. I could definitely have made the time. Bad Sean! Bad! But wait, I went to the gym first for 45 minutes so maybe that redeems me? Maybe just a little??

This is after LOTS of melting/shoveling.

Friday Swim - 3000m Ladder
500m - warm-up
300m - 5:01 (1:40 min/100m avg.)
300m - 5:16 (1:45 min/100m avg.)
300m - 5:16 (1:45 min/100m avg.)
300m - 5:20 (1:47 min/100m avg.)
300m - 5:09 (1:43 min/100m avg.)
300m - 5:12 (1:44 min/100m avg.)
300m - 5:13 (1:44 min/100m avg.)
300m - 5:10 (1:43 min/100m avg.)
100m - cool-down 

Summary: I felt better today than I did on Wednesday. Plus, I had a friend with me which always makes things 1 million times easier. This is what we call bad progress, though - I improved on a bad workout (monday) but not back to where I was two weeks ago before that f-ing blizzard. No matter though, b/c I have a small token of satisfaction to take with me from this workout. I managed to go balls-out waaaaay too early in my workout and accidentally PR on the first 300m, clocking in at 5:01 (1:40 min/100m avg!).  Sweet!... I guess... right? 

 Attempt 1: Fail.

Attempt 2: Oww... sun in my eyes!

Attempt 3: Ah well, at least I'm smiling this time, right?

I also happened to have a very unexpected surprise at the pool on Friday. There was this dude in the lane next to me who looked suspiciously familiar. No wait, more than that... his WORKOUT looked suspiciously familiar. There was not only all sorts of swim-enhancing equipment, but the creativity he expressed via the breakdown of his swim-sets would've made Picasso blush. There were 50s, 100s, 150s, 375s, 437s... you name it, he swam it!

But in all honesty, I got really suspicious when I saw his "flip-turns"...

That's about when I realized I was drinking the same chlorinated water as the one and only Dirk De Heer. A giant among men, Dirk finished 11th at the ITU Duathlon World Championships last Fall (!!!!).

It seems as though Dirk and I both started "getting serious" about swimming (i.e. started sucking less) at around the same time last fall. It has been a blast following his progress and I can't wait to see him in action in some TRIs this summer. Nice to finally meet you Dirk!