Jul 25, 2008

Well Hello Dolly

Dolly gave us a little rainfall after all yesterday afternoon. Not as much as we'd like since the chance of rain for today has all but disappeared. With our highs in the 95-100 degree range, that little rain we got yesterday will be evaporated by tonight. The rain gauge in our back yard only shows a quarter of an inch of rain. But at least I don't have to water my yard one day this week. We have been in water restrictions all summer and can only water our yards two days a week on designated days only during designated times. Our days are Sunday and Thursday after 7:oo p.m. And it rained on our day which makes it even better.

I had a great swim this morning. I have been thinking about doing a full sprint triathlon at the end of September. Full sprint triathlons are 750m swim, 16.9K bike and 5K run. Just the swim alone scared me. 750 meters is .47 of a mile. Almost half a mile in open water with no lane ropes, no visibility, no transitions, no push-offs, no water breaks and no resting. Straight swimming for half a mile. That's 820 yards which means 32.8 links or 16.4 laps in the 25 yard pool in which I swim. Yikes! Then you get to ride 10.5 miles on a bike and run 3.1 miles.

But this morning, after doing my usual warm-up and drill set and the first 8 minutes of my main set, I decided I would see how long I could swim without stopping. And I was amazed at how long I swam, unfortunately I lost count of my laps. I seriously need an abacus. I got into a sweet pace that I think would be great for a race. Not too fast, but not too slow. I wasn't even exhausted when I stopped. I only stopped because I wondered how long I had been swimming since I lost count of the laps. So I decided to try it again and I did. I really felt like I could keep swimming at that pace forever. Now I think I could do a full sprint triathlon if I keep this training up. Just swim until I can't swim anymore.

I need to add cycling to my regular exercise and I'm hoping Roger will join me for that. I also need to start drinking more sport drinks to replace the electrolytes I am losing if I increase to this much exercise. I drink a lot of water because I need it but with that much exercise I will just flush out more sodium I'm already losing during exercise which isn't a good thing. You need a good balance of water and electrolytes in your blood, especially with lots of activity. Going to go add that to my grocery list now.

1 comment:

Amanda said...

That makes me want to go swimming! Think I'm gonna start to swim in the mornings before work :) Yay for swimming!

Keep it up!