Monday, April 30, 2007

Recovery Week Numbers

... but first a quick story.

I’ve been swimming at this pool for about three months now and I’m getting more comfortable there. I see the same people, for the most part, every week and everybody is courteous about entering a lane. They’re supposed to have six lanes open for lap swimming, but for some reason they always leave the first two lane lines out. I’m assuming that this is to accommodate the “leisure” lap swimmer.

I usually get to the pool early enough to get one of the good lanes, but last week I was forced to swim in one of the first three open lanes with no lane lines. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem except for the “Runner Guy”. This name will make more sense in a second. Runner guy is about 70 years old by my estimate. He sticks to the middle of the lane and just slowly goes up, down and sometimes across the lanes.

On this day his lane was the only lane available so I waited until I could make eye contact with him and signaled my intention to share his lane. I entered the lane and began my warm-up. At this point he was now at the far end of the lane and was heading back in my direction. I tried to keep as far left as I could in order to give him plenty of room. As I approached him I noticed that he was not going to move over, he just kept on course. As I swam around him I couldn’t help but laugh, he was wearing a flotation device around his waist and ankle weights. His little legs just kept running like a hamster on a wheel. All I could think about was one of those National Geographic programs where they use an underwater camera to film hippopotamus’ swimming across a river. He never did move over!


Last week was supposed to be a recovery week for me. I was scheduled to swim 2750, bike 45 and run 15. I missed my swim the previous week because the pool was closed, so I added a few yards each swim to try to make up for it.

Totals for last week
Swim: 3250
Bike: 47 miles
Run: 12 miles

This week starts the speed work and quality phase of my training plan… this should be fun!

Schedule for this week
Swim 6000 + optional easy 1000 (yah right!)
Bike 95 miles + optional easy 20 miles
Run 20 miles + 60 min. walk

Five more weeks until Mooseman!!!

7 comments:

Steve Stenzel said...

Runner man SOUNDS like a hippo. Five weeks?!? Good luck!

Anonymous said...

I'm in the same place. I've got most of my miles in, but just need to get some seed work in.

I've heard that "aqua running" is actually a good workout, but didnt quite get it. Isnt that what the road is for?

Anonymous said...

Oh, and by "the same place".. I mean "your distances, but much less... haha.
I've gotta get out there and give you some competition! Geez.

John said...

I'm sure it's a good low impact workout, but the underwater view was hilarious... those little legs going like crazy!

jamie... I just read that "for the first time Mooseman will have wetsuit strippers to help you out of your wetsuit" ... sound like fun!

Trisaratops said...

Woo hoo! Strippers!

You should totally come out of the water and say, "I need me some HAWT strippers NOW!"

Okay, I'm having way too much fun with that.

;)

Robin said...

calm down, calm down there, john...

E-Speed said...

maybe it was too much effort for him to turn? Water jogging is rough! :)

Thanks for the well wishes for pig, I'll take all the speedy vibes I can get :)