Swim Workout: [too many] x [too far]

I met Steve H, Kelly, and Julia at the Y yesterday morning for a nasty swim. The plan was to do 60 x 50 yards. (From Jen Harrison, of course.) Gross.

The workout consisted of some “warm-up” intervals, and then multiple sets of 15 intervals as the main sets. And one of those sets of 15x50 was all about kicking. That meant fins. I’d never used fins before, so I was a little nervous. (But my kicking needs a LOT of work, so I knew it’d be good for me!)

I found the “best” fins the Y had to offer. This was it:

Torn in the back and cut off on the front. Just like me.
(Butt-crack in back and circumcision in front, FYI)

The fins were an experience. I tried to focus on my kick, and I think I did a pretty good job of doing that. (I need to do kick-drills and maybe more fin work.) The 3 middle sets of 15x50 I had to cut down to 14 - I fell too far behind Steve H, Kelly, and Julia in the first 2 sets. And in the final set, I was too far behind with 5 left, so I took a mid-set break. I’m not proud of cutting those short, but I was happy to be TRYING to keep up with 3 swimmers that are all miles better than me!

So in the end, I did 57 x 50 in the same time that the others did 60 x 50. Here’s “the gang” after our swim:

Steve H, Julia, me, and (most of) Kelly

After the swim, I stopped into Andrea’s office - Andrea is the “Piranhas” swim coach at the Y (the middle-school swim team). I told her that I just did 57 x 50. She said, “Oh yeah!? Sometimes the Piranhas do 60 x 100 yards!” I gave her a stern look, turned to walk out of her office, and said “...well I don’t like talking to you anymore.” She gave her typical “Andrea laugh.” (But later she noticed my haircut and said it looked nice, so we’re cool again. Ha!)

Thanks for the swim, you 3!! And thanks (I think) for the workout Jen!

p.s. Here are 2 recent articles of mine:

- Have you heard about the Ride of a Lifetime cycle class coming up in March? It’s an indoor ride at the Target Center with 1,000 people! Pharmie and I are signed up to do it! Click here for more info.

- And you’ve probably heard all about it by now, but if you didn’t, check out the details from Lance Armstrong’s and Chris Lieto’s head-to-head Twitter Time Trial that went down last week. Thanks!