03 February 2009

On a Roll

Last Tuesday night, our regular master's swim night, Tim and I got our bottoms handed to us by the coach. It was a swift, hard set. I should have known when coach said "are you competitive?" that we were in for it. Tim laughed when I was asked this question, he doesn't consider me the competitive type...I'm just not on his level of hard core. So the last 600 were 6 x 100 sprints, well really a race among the three different speed groups in the class. Two of us were doing 100s, two of us doing 125s and one lucky lady (not me) doing 150s. He was trying to have us finish the specified distances around the same time as to make the race closer. I will happily admit that he put me in the 100y lane. The winner of each set was held back by the margin of victory at the start of the next set. I won the first 3 hundreds! I was held back 10 seconds on the second set and 20 seconds on the third set. I came in second in the next 3 hundreds as I was out of gas from hauling my big body through the water.

After the cool down, coach asked me if I had been sand bagging on him in the other classes. My response of course was "no, that's really as fast as I can go." I am not fast...my fastest 100 during said sprint set was 1:34. Which at this point is not a sustainable pace for me for more than 300m...I'm more comfortable around 1:45. Any way, it got me thinking about how much effort I put into workouts. Friday I did my own swim and it became apparent how much I slack when I'm on my own, I never really get into uncomfortable or labored breathing. Then I seriously starting thinking about my training. After reading some of your blogs and these two swim sessions last week, I decided I needed to be fair to myself and start committing to my training. Make myself work, breath hard, sweat more, feel the pain kinda commitment. Not just the "let's be in shape" commitment.

So Saturday was a really good 45 minutes bike session followed by a hard 65 minute bike effort on Sunday. Monday I decided I needed to run but didn't have the interest in doing anything over a 5K, so I was determined to do that 5K as hard as I could. Running in my neighborhood is sort of hilly and given the lack of running over the last few weeks, I didn't have high expectations...aiming for 9 minute or slightly under. At one point, a lady walking her dog yelled at me "you're getting a serious hill workout in there." I replied that the hills were across the street, then looked down at my watch, I was around a 8 minute pace for that half mile interval...unheard of for me. Normally seeing that I'm going that fast causes me to slow down because I get scared that I can't hold it. Instead, I just kept trying to push. Realizing that I could hit a PR for a 5K, I was getting excited. 3.05 miles in 26 minutes flat! 9:00 mile 1, 8:38 mile 2 and 8:22 mile 3. Where did this come from?

I'm ecstatic! 3 solid training days in a row. Unfortunately my knees were a little achy today and fortunately Tim was tired tonight after work, so we skipped swim class. Oh don't worry, I'm on a roll now so Thursday night we'll get our master's swim in. As for tomorrow, I'm not sure if I'm in for a bike, a run or both. I guess I'll have to wait and see how long Brayden sleeps in the morning to see what I can fit in.

4 comments:

N.D. said...

Wow that swimming session sounded intense. It makes me kind of drool and want my real masters team back or to find a better one. Right now I'm totally floating along in my own lane swimming so slow- rightly so for now, but I know what you mean about giving your hardest when alone. It is HARD!! great workouts when you are thinking about it recently!!

I was laughing at your post. No I haven't lost the plug yet! I was reading that labor is usually the next few days when that happens so wow, you had to wait a while!! I think it is so different for everyone, but I'll totally wait 3 weeks!!!

Angela and David said...

Congrats on the 5K PR! Doesn't it feel great to push yourself in training? I love that after workout feeling when you know you've just given everything you had.

BriGaal said...

Great job, Angela! A lot of people will slow down when they look at their watch and see a time they weren't expecting, which is why sometimes I don't wear a watch at all while racing - I just GO! A 5k PR in a hilly neighborhood bodes well for the season.

Mnowac said...

Congrats on 3 good workouts in a row! I used to go to master's and they cancelled the one by my house, I need to find a new one.