2 Swims, 2 Burgers and 30 Rocks

Thanks to netflix, I recently saw my first (and then 18 more) episodes of 30 Rock. In usual Sean fashion, I seem to have a knack for hopping on bandwagons EXCEEDINGLY late (e.g. Green Day, Dave Matthews Band, the list goes on...). In any event, a show that I thought was only a couple of years old ended up being about 4, maybe 5 years old. But that doesn't matter, because the show was still awesome. Jack Donaghy is my favorite.

Wednesday Swim - 3000m - Short Intervals
500m - warm-up
5 x 100m, 10 sec rest
100m easy
5 x 100m, 10 sec rest
100m easy
5 x 100m, 10 sec rest
100m easy
2 x 100m, 10 sec rest
6 x 50m, 5 sec rest
100m easy
100m - cool down

I'm so creative, huh? It was nice to depart from the usual routine and try something new. Plus, it was great being able to swim with SOLID form the entire time. This was a solid effort and I felt good the whole time.

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Thursday Bike Ride - CANCELLED

Yeah, yeah.. BUT BASKETBALL WAS ON TV!! And, I was invited to a co-workers house for a round of Peruvian chicken and really really good beer. To make matters cooler, he let us all try this stuff called Chartreuse VEP. This isn't any normal liqueur, no sir. This shit has been made by the Carthusian Monks since the 1740s...

According to tradition, a marshal of artillery to French king Henry IV, François Hannibal d'Estrées, presented the Carthusian monks at Vauvert, near Paris, with an alchemical manuscript that contained a recipe for an "elixir of long life" in 1605. The formula is said to call for 130 herbs, flowers, and secret ingredients combined in a wine alcohol base. The monks intended their liqueur to be used as medicine. The exact recipes for all forms of Chartreuse remain trade secrets and are known at any given time only to the two monks who prepare the herbal mixture. 
No one monk knows the recipe in its entirety.

Pretty cool back-story, huh?

Oh, and the drink? AMAZING. It was probably the most complex thing I have ever put into my mouth. (That's what she said.) If I had the bank-roll to drop $150 or so on a bottle, I'd definitely do it - and so should you!

But yeah, this took the place of Thursday's bike-ride.

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On Friday, I found myself in the gym again to run on the treadmill. Now, don't be too impressed, but I upped the rehab running to 1.25 miles instead of just 1.00 (still at 7.0mph, 1.0 incline). I was still "running tired" at the end, but it felt great to be able to do this pain free. In addition to easing VERY SLOWLY back into distance/speed/regularity with regards to my running, I'm also working on trying to improve my mechanics. Primarily, this means landing way more on the mid-to-forefoot, as opposed to the heal. Of course, this leaves my calves GASSED at the end, but overall I have a raised sense of confidence in my form.

After the run, I bused it up to the pool to do a few longer-distanced sets. In other words, the exact opposite of Wednesday's swim workout.

Friday's Swim - 3,000m - Distance Workout 
500m - warm-up
1000m - easy
900m  - easy
500m - easy
100m - cool-down

It's more painful to swim slow than it is to suffer while swimming fast. Geeeeeez. But I got it done... and I think it was because I knew that I would reward myself with a MAGNIFICENT burger from Rugby Cafe. (I didn't tell you about the first one which was from Five Guys at lunch that day.)

For some quick background, I got some really weird stomach/intestine infection almost three years ago that nearly hospitalized me and left me days away from having my gall bladder removed. Nobody could figure out what the problem was, but my body would just about shut down if I ate any red-meat, pork, fried foods or foods high in sugar. After a couple months, I could handle everything but the red meat. If I ever ate anything with beef broth or tempted myself with one bite of steak, I was presented with the feeling as if someone stuck their hand inside my abdomen and made a fist around my gall bladder. This continued on until just about 3-4 months ago when I started being able to digest it all again. (!!!!!). To celebrate my body rediscovering its digestion powers, I have been sampling the city's best burgers, and loving every second of it. Man, I've missed red meat.

Saturday was spent doing grown-up, life-planning-related stuff so unfortunately no working out.