Flipside

[The Breeders]

It hit me this morning that I left my shampoo and conditioner in the locker room at the gym last night. Blasted!

OH. Well.

How can I be upset [really] when we had such a good workout.

I mean, I swam 75m consecutively. 6 times!

Okay, swimmers, I give you permission to get in a good laugh.

Let us know when you get back to us...waiting...waiting...

I know it's not a great feat, but for me, it's a big, BIG improvement. In the words of Bob [aka- Bill Murray], "Baby steps."

Since we had to skip Master's swim this week to attend a nutrition clinic tonight we had to come up with our own swim workout.

As I looked online for recommendations, it occurred to me that I need to approach this in the same fashion that I approached running.

When I first set out to run a 5k back in 2002, I was completely clueless on how to get to running a 3.1 mile distance. To get there, I started to play games with myself. I'd tell myself that I had to run 1 mile this week, then 1.25 miles next week, and build up from there.

Swimming is the same way. But, why do I feel like I need to go 1500m consecutively today? I don't. I just need to get there by July 28th.

With that in mind, we decided to do ladders; which would help us keep up with our increase to 50m swim and push to a 75m swim. Baby steps.

Here's how it went:

6x	25 50 75 }all slow 50 25
	In between each of the above sets,  do one of the following drills: 1x25: side kick drill 1x25: freestyle with a float* 1x25: underwater 1x25: kicks

After the first 75m lap, I felt incredible. I did it! Of course, of the 6 sets, I had some rounds that were better than others, but overall, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. And in the end, I built up more confidence that I will get to race day prepared and ready to compete.

Now if only this half-marathon would be over so I can hit the pool more and improve faster.

*We made up the drill "freestyle with a float". This is how sad we are....this drill is to help train a resting period into an open water swim. You start with a freestyle swim and then half way through the pool you'd turn onto your back to float. During the float you would gather your breath and relax your muscles. Then once you felt recovered enough to continue then you'd turn back around to finish out the lap in freestyle. We figured this is a good talent drill stroke move trick maneuver gimmick to have in our back pocket in the case we run out of energy during the swim and need to take a break. Sad, right? But, the goal of this race, "Don't die". And I am ---not joking--- that really is my goal. If I need to float, I'll float, okay?

What tricks/games do you play to reach your goals?