Do you know who she is? ME!!! SHE-RA!!! One of my nephews used to call me this when he was quite young. So did one of my former boyfriends. OK so I don't have her boobs, and my hair is short, not long, but man I felt like She-Ra this morning in the pool. Alas, where is He-Man? I'm still looking for that dude.
I slept oh-so-well last night, even though I had a little bit of the Ultra Violence during yesterday's highly successful bike session. I had a great massage in the evening, took a nice, hot shower, got into my jammies, snarfed down a big bowl of pasta (with a beer), looked through the Inside Triathlon "Gear Review" issue (unfortunately, I don't really need anything except some new rubber this spring), then fell into a deep, peaceful sleep.
I woke up just before the coffee pot clicked on, and I waited until I could smell the coffee before bounding out of bed. Even though my massage was great, I looked forward to some good stretching before heading to the pool, since my calves were still a little tight from the beating I gave them yesterday. But overall, I felt really good, even breaking into a smile thinking about what I had accomplished yesterday, and for some reason, I figured I didn't need to complete my full swim workout today. I've been working damn hard on all fronts, so something like 2500 yards would be fine for today.
I drank my coffee and ate my breakfast, and then I did my stretching. The calves certainly needed it! I headed to the pool with a smile on my face.
The suit I decided to wear is relatively new, and it is quite tight. When I first received the suit, I had ordered a size 32, which normally fits me just fine, but this past 6 months or so I'm closer to a size 30. The company had told me the polyester suits ran a little smaller, which is why I ordered a size 32. Then I received it and tried it on, it was just a teensy bit too big in the middle, so after trying it on over the next few days, I decided to return it (and another suit I had ordered) for a size 30. When the size 30 arrived, I tried it on and was like, whoa, now this is a challenge! But I kept it, figuring that if I wore the suit enough, it would eventually stretch out a little.
So I put the suit on, and it's snug, but not constricting, and when I began my warmup, I felt strangely more hydrodynamic. Was it the tight-fitting suit? Who cares. I could tell from my warmup, even though the pool was a warm 85, that I was on deck for a good swim.
Everything just felt good--my legs, arms, lats, shoulders, body position, and I thought to myself, "Finally my swimming is going to start coming together." And it did. Big time. While I'm still not a fast swimmer, I regained my 200 speed that I had towards the end of last season, and now I think I can surpass it. Woo-hoo!!! She-Ra is back! And of course, I did the full 3,300 yards in the workout. It felt so good, there was no reason to cut it short!
Of course, now I sit here wondering if I can go for the hat trick and really nail my tempo run this afternoon. All signs point to it.
This is just an outstanding week. Key bike and run workouts are all harder than last week (the bike is by choice; the run is planned), my strength sessions are longer and harder, and I'm swimming faster. I think that a little more attention to ensuring I get plenty of calories is making a difference--I'm not letting my glycogen stores become depleted. And that little bug my coach put in my ear keeps telling me I can do better.
Stay tuned!
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