9/29 - 10/1 - Life in the 'fast (swim) lane'

Catching up…

It was quite a satisfying long weekend here.  The weather brightened up and got (much) warmer, there was swimming and sleeping, wod-ing and beaching… all good times.  From the beginning…

Friday night I got a text from Shonelle asking if I wanted to meet up for some swimming and the bright and early Saturday morning time of 9:30am.  I love sleep so making a choice to voluntarily leave my bed on a long weekend to workout of all things is generally a big deal.  But I did it and it was fun.  Firstly I got on my bike again (after a week of freezing).  As I was uncovering it I realized that my lovely little mailman had hidden a package I was expecting (too big for the mailbox) under the cover.  Even though I knew exactly what it was (a necklace and print I’d ordered from my darling friend Robyn) – I still had to run back inside to open it up and check it out.  Christmas in September.

I met up with Shonelle and Challenge Stadium (and actually remembered my swim goggles and cap this time) and she told me the boys were all still asleep (slackers)… so it was just us girls (rockstars).  We proceeded the long and winding journey to the 10 lane outdoor pools (not the 8 apparently) – seriously if Shonelle hadn’t met me at the front desk I likely would have never found her out there.  We got ready and in we went. 

It was life in the 'fast lane' for me.  We were smack dab in the middle of the pool which was in fact marked 'fast' which I am in fact not.  We were however the only people in it and it worked well.  On my last two laps two girls jumped into the lane so I made sure to stay out of their way and get done fast(ish) while avoiding back stroke where I can't go straight at all (more on that below).
 
It was quite amazing how quickly everything went without the boys  for both good and bad.  The good – we had our workouts done in an hour, the bad – there was much (much) less rest for me without the boys.  I warmed up with some lengths to focus on my bi-lateral breathing.  I finished three and then she let me play around with some backstroke as well.  In my head I figured at least with backstroke your head is above water which makes breathing easier – I was so wrong about the easy part on so many levels.  First, I continually splashed myself in the face as I was inhaling which meant choking on water and secondly if anyone was watching from the sidelines it would have looked like I was drunk – no ability whatsoever to hold a straight line – I was all over that lane.

It should be noted that for every 50m’s I did, Shonelle did 150m.  We met up at one end and she gave me my workout – 4-6 lengths of alternating front stroke and back stroke.  Working on my bi-lateral breathing on the front stroke and trying to go as far as I could – matching or going beyond the previous rep each time.  And off I went.  It went pretty well.  I managed at least 25m on each of the 4 lengths of front stroke I did which for me is great.  I would then finish off the rest of the length with really ugly breast stroke because the pool at Challenge is too deep in the middle for me to stand up in (good thing Shonelle warned me of this in advance).  The backstroke was fun and also challenging.  Lots of focus on keeping my hips high which definitely helps. 

Now here’s the funny story.  In my head I thought I’d done 800m after the warm-up and lengths.  Wishful thinking, apparently I suck at math.  I did 200m on the warm-up and then (in my head)_proceeded to count those 6 laps in the middle (3 front stroke, 3 back stroke) as 600m.  Um, ya, not so much.  It was actually only 300m  But there was a good part to this story – because I thought I was so close to 1000m (in my head) I did another two laps before calling it a day (and I wouldn’t have if I could actually add)… so – all good.  But in the end I managed 600m for the day (not the 1000m I initially told people I did)… still a significant effort for me since it’s technically only swim lesson number 3. 

Sunday was spent being lazy.  Sleeping in, walking around and drinking beer and it was awesome.  There is no guilt here.  Totally worth it as summer slowly starts to ramp up.

Monday was a public holiday here.  We had one Crossfit WOD on the books at 8am and the boys (Jack and Tim) programmed it.   There was a wicked turn out and it was both hard (extremely) and fun (when it was over).

WOD

25 burpee buy-in

5 rounds

Run to KB (at back of building) – approx. 75m

15 KB swings

Run back to box and around to tires – approx. 450m

15 tire jumps

Run back to box – approx. 75m

15 pull-ups

Repeat

25 burpee cash-out

26:58 (14kg KB, Rx pull-ups)

It was the first decently hot day we’ve had this year and the workout was mostly outside which I think affected a lot of us more than we’re used to.  It was hot.  I kept a fairly steady pace throughout but the pull-ups definitely slowed me down.  I managed them all Rx though and loved that I don’t need to find a specific band so I can just jump on the bars where there is space.  I had Jane looking over me for the last round of burpees which helped me push through them with very little rest which would have been harder to accomplish otherwise.

We followed up the WOD with coffee at the Kiosk at Floreat followed by a dip into the ocean and a bit of a lie on the beach.  Good times though the water was FREEZING.  It felt glacial cold.  I’m pretty sure I’m going to get my Canadian status revoked at any time given my inability to deal with cold temperatures now.  Oh well – I love it here more anyway.  Ha.

Busy week this week with Crossfit tonight and Thursday and some SUP thrown in after work tomorrow, and a pairs chipper WOD on Saturday with Jane...  looking forward to it!