Time Change

No, I'm not talking about day light savings, although that time change messes with me as well. Today is day 1 of my new life as a second shift employee. This is actually something I have wanted for most of my professional life, and here I sit today. It's 10:30 and I'm having breakfast in my backyard with the sun shining on my back. We'll see how happy I am at 10pm just leaving work for the day but so far so good. For this to work I won't be getting up at 5am for a workout any longer. Today I was in the pool for 9, and it felt very odd. Even on the weekends a 9am workout seems too late for me. I will admit I'm a tad worried for when I am allowed to return to my running shoes, the weather is typically better for runners in the early morning hours rather than mid morning or even afternoon. Running after work doesn't make sense, even for me it would be too late. As odd as this feels today, I'm trying to picture it with a little one and get even more concerned. Rather than overwhelm myself I'll focus on the here and now.

Yards swam today: 1650

Spit out yer gum!

My thinking is not always clear before a morning workout. Today without realizing it I climbed into the pool with my gum in my mouth. Why I was chewing gum at 5:30am is unknown to me, I don't remember popping it in my mouth. I realized it quickly, not even halfway down the pool. Now I have run with gum and never had a problem, when I get sick of it I spit it out. I've been on the elliptical with gum and again no issues. I was suddenly disgusted by the fact that my gum was covered in pool water. It completely skeeved me out. Again makes no sense, pool water is always in my mouth, it's part of having to breathe in the water. For some reason I didn't have it in me to swallow this gum that had now been contaminated by the pool. I was into a 20 lap series so couldn't really climb out and find a trash can and there was no way this toxic piece of gum was going to end up neatly placed on my flip flop at the end of the pool. I toyed with the idea of spitting it out in the pool but thought that would be a ticket straight to hell, if I was going to do that I might as well just start peeing in the pool! This distraction lasted my entire workout, at times causing periods of panic. If nothing else a distraction to the workout it's self. And I will admit to the most disgusting part of this story when the workout was finally complete and I walked by the trash I realized that my gum was gone. I have no recollection of swallowing it, nor did I intentionally "loose it" in the pool but it was gone. I'm completely grossed out and learned a valuable lesson: no gum in the pool.

Yards swam today: 1600

Just a granola bar

I'll admit, I had pushed off getting back into the pool this week. After our last work out I felt pretty terrible afterwards. Being so new to swimming it was hard to figure out why, if it was related to just the length of the workout or something else. But the stubborn ass in me has decided that unless instructed otherwise by my mid-wife, I'm finishing the mile. I think it was a pretty easy fix though, a granola bar on the way to the pool. We got right in and took the workout easy and the aftermath was much more pleasant. No nausea, no dizziness, no feelings of complete exhaustion and the workout itself felt better. Starting with an easy 20 laps, followed by 4x100 and 4x50. One more swim tomorrow then we begin the final week, granola bars in hand! Would it be too much to ask for a crowd with sparkly signs to be present for the mile?

Yards swam today: 1600

Now with a rotisserie chicken...

There are now only 5 workouts between myself and the elusive mile. Tonight's workout started with 20 long laps. And surprisingly things felt good, that was the beginning of the end. Following the 20 was 4x100 then 4x50 and those last 2 parts were hellish. The hardest part of the 20 lapper was keeping track of where we were. My concentration sucks at baseline right about now and counting to 20 over a 30 minute period is nearly impossible. I did feel better after realizing Joe was as unsure of our count as I was. After an 8 breath break we started in on the 100's. All I can compare these swim workouts is to imagine going for a nice 3-4 mile run, feeling great. You finish the run and are accomplished, things are working like they should be. You want to stop but then you climb onto the track and do half a Bob/Jon workout. It's brutal, just brutal. Now add 30lbs and a rotisserie chicken in your belly, you get my point. I do understand the madness, those 100's and 50's have helped each week when our larger swim gets longer and longer at the start. I keep reminding my self 1 down and only 5 to go but man it's getting tough.

Yards swam today: 1600

Watch out now!

After a week’s vacation from the pool and other forms of exercise, we dragged ourselves into the water this morning. I found that swimming like running, feels good after a bit of a break. But I really think today’s awesomeness was less about the break and more about my brand spanking new goggles. I had a pregnancy moment last week before we took off and my old trusty pair are now missing. It was a hidden gift. These new ones have transformed me into the female Michael Phelps. I’m not kidding; I cut through the water like a hot knife going through butter. The tinted lenses make me look cool even in my tent of a bathing suit. People were stopping to stare, well not really but they are really nice. It did hit me though that we are close to the mile and I’m starting to believe that we are going to be able to finish it!

Yards swam today: 1550

End of an era

We are getting close to this all coming to an end. For years now Joe and I have gotten out of bed at 5 am and embarked on some kind of workout. Before the running club and marathons there were gyms and weights, now there is the pool and lap after lap. It was this morning where we discussed this is the end, the 5-6:30am babysitting shift will be a hard one to fill. Yeah, there are always the weekends with the kid in the jogging stroller but that won't be the same. It's hard to think back about all that we have trained for together in the mornings. The gym in Attleboro that neither of us can remember the name of followed by our very first attempts at running in Pawtucket. There was Maureen's Boston Marathon, those were the months that lead to our own marathon endeavors. Training for 5k's 10k's, half and full marathons. The triathlon bug followed after that. Now we find ourselves in the pool reaching for a mile before parenthood begins.

Most of the time just the 2 of us, we've always enjoyed company although are likely known for cancelling at the last minute. We have some strange morning rules, there can't be too much talking. We won't drive further than Providence for a morning workout. It has to start no later than 5:30 and Joe won't allow anything earlier than 5am (although there was that one real early 14 miler). If we can hear the rain from our bed we are out and low wind chills make us cry. It better not be too hot or humid. Regardless of all of this we have been getting out there in one way or another for close to 10 years.

There are those who have seemed to take joy in telling me our workout days are over come Junior's arrival. I want to tell them to shove it, but rather I smile and say we'll see. I have no doubt that it will be different but that said I don't expect the training to end. That said, I will miss these morning workouts, just the 2 of us.

Yards swam today: 1250

A taste of what's to come?

I preface this with I have no idea what we are in for when Lil Macedo arrives, nor do I pass judgement on those who are up at nights with their own little ones. I think last night and this morning was a minor, a very minor, peek into what life will be like. We had a very eventful night leading to little sleep at all. Things kicked off around midnight with Joe falling down the stairs. Why was he up? It's not clear, he tells a story about hearing the cat arguing with a neighbor but I'm not sure I believe him. Regardless we were both up for a while, and that was the end of it. Filled ourselves in on the end of yet another terrible Sox game, the birds begin to chirp around ten minutes of 2. At 3am I had a fit about the hour and turned on a sound machine, that was the last I remember. The alarm buzzes at 5 and I thought I was going to die. This can't be happening. It was the kind of wake up where I had to get in the car as fast as possible. If I even became slightly aware of what I was doing I would have talked myself back into bed and skipped the whole workout. Low and behold, somehow for reasons unknown to either of us, we landed in the pool. It might have been due to having little sleep the night before or the workout being just a tad longer than last week but it was brutal. Every stroke took effort, there was a moment I thought I might be in the pool until lunch time finishing up this workout. 35 minutes later we were in the locker room, bad night and brutal workout behind us. I sit here with coffee brewing and toothpicks in my eyes, and remind myself that this was only a taste of what's in store for us. Yards swam today: 1100