4th of July happens to fall on a Thursday this year and as I write this blog I am at the airport awaiting my flight to Columbus, Ohio to spend time with family. Anticipating the holiday, it is indeed a rare occasion to have Thursday be an off-day at the pool. Actually, Thursday night AGUA Masters practice is my favorite practice of the week. It's a hard practice to begin with, but the team usually goes out afterwards and being the social butterfly that I am, I very much look forward to spending social time outside of the pool with my team mates.
It has been quite a challenging week, still actively recovering from the pulled calf-muscle from last Thursday, and also starting a very exciting new job with SheSpeaks, Inc. as the new Director of Marketing. So aside from the injury recovery, continued training - I am adjusting to a new routine and absorbing a lot of information. Add to that the pressure of the Ithaca meet, which has been causing me all sorts of anxiety and crazy nightmares. It's my first long-course meet, I have some pretty agressive goals and am swimming in two new events - 200 IM and 100 Freestyle. Okay, writing all this out does make it sound like a lot... But the pressure is typical in my world. = ) LOL
I admit though that I have been very frustrated at practice this week. I am walking the fine line of pushing my body to sprint and get faster, and also mindful of my calf injury. I've also been quite tired, I haven't been sleeping well partly due to my recurring dream/nightmare about swimming the meet and not hitting the wall, and also my mind has been racing sorting through information and ideas that have kept me up at night.
I'm most worried about the 200 IM and just having enough energy and stamina to get through the whole event. The 200 IM starts with butterfly - I don't even have to say anymore - it's painful! The next stroke is backstroke which I like because you can breathe throughout the entire stroke, but I use this as an opportunity to power through and gain speed. By the time I get to the breast stroke I'm trying to catch my breath, but because this is a stroke I have been working to perfect technically this stroke requires intense focus for me - timing from snapping arms and legs, and making sure I whip kick and not plie. I'm quite tired by the time I get to freestyle and I know I just have to sprint, leave everything in the pool and head to the other wall and touch. Swimming IM is quite difficult, and I've written about this in more detail. Check out my old post on The Individual Medley (IM).
The 50 Free and 50 Breast sound like fun, all-out swims and I'm not quite worried. But the 100 Free sounds long. Long course is definitely a psychological thing - the pool is so long and it's not that I've never swam the length of clocked-in the hours and yardage/meters in the pool. I guess when you're standing on a swim block looking at the entire length of the pool, there is a bit of intimidation. Okay 3000+ workouts also make you feel dead afterwards.
As I head to Columbus and enjoy my rare Thursday day-off, make no mistake that training still continues. I have my swim gear packed, my workout sets in my e-mail and lane reservations made at the Ohio State University Pool. Training continues, even when you're out of town - story of a swimmer's life. Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to letting my body rest today, being a bum at my favorite place in the world - a pool, and enjoying time with family and friends. Whatever you are doing this 4th of July weekend, hope you're having fun and being safe!
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