I hit the window!

Depending on how you read my blog, you might not notice I've added something to the top left corner. Periodically I'll ask a question, or suggest a topic, and let you guys comment on it, and comment on each other's comments. Generally I'm not trolling to get anyone upset, I'm just asking a question. It might be provocative, but you get lots of room to respond. They will be labeled as Discussion in my Labels section. Imagine that. Here's a link to the first one.

Monday was cold and rainy. The plan called for a swim but the City pools are closed on Stat holidays. Or, if they're open, it's not lap swimmer friendly. The plan called for an easy run with some strides. So I did. It was sort of a heavy mist, or light rain, and about 2 or 3 C. Warmed up for about 1 K, then started strides, short and not too hard at first, building to longer and faster as I went along. Jogged easy between them, and as soon as I had a minute of fully recovered jogging, I was off again. It felt really good. Forty minutes.

I also notice a small triangular patch on my right ankle where I missed putting sunscreen on. It's about the size of a toonie, and quite red. That makes me glad I got sunscreen everywhere else.

The Tuesday swim was total shite. It was weird. I felt fine, reasonably well rested, I had the regular breakfast, but once in the water I felt weak and feeble and FRIGGING SLOW! Right from the first strokes I knew I'd be slow, but I figured I'd warm up and things would come around. Five laps in 5:15. Ten laps in 10:30, and feeling no better. Not winded or tired, just weak. Did a bunch of drill work hoping to work it out. Tried a fast lap just to see what would happen, and was appalled at how slow it was, and how hard I was working to get even that. Did some more drill, then some laps where I was really concentrating on my stroke to see if I was doing something wrong. It seemed fine, but to quote Ruby Rhod "It was BAD! It had no fire, no energy, no nothing! "

What's interesting is that I didn't feel bad about the swim. I accept it as an off day for one of the disciplines. Next time will be better. I was supposed to go an hour, but cut it back to half an hour, rather than practice bad stuff. I remember some golf pro being asked about how much he practices, and it was a much smaller amount of time than anyone expected. He said something like "Too much practice might make things worse. What counts is perfect practice." I figured, why practice swimming slow and poorly, especially if I don't know exactly what's wrong.

I dropped off some DVD's on the way home, and considered stopping in at my fave breakfast restaurant for some comfort food. But there was nothing I really wanted there, but I wanted something. Then, on the way home, I was going past my fourth fave breakfast place, and one of their menu items popped into mind, and I WANTED IT! Not sure what you'll think of this. Take a nice cinnamon bun, slice it in half horizontally, and then treat it like a slice of bread being made into French Toast. With their variant of hash browns on the side, and some fruit. Oh! Yummy! That hit the spot. And of course, coffee, though it isn't as good as I remember.

At this point it's still cloudy and cold. Once home and puttering around, I'm keeping a weather eye out. I was taunted by some sunshine about 10, but it clouded over again. At noon it warmed up and cleared off a bit, so I dressed and went. The plan called for hill repeats. I didn't want to go a long way for these, since there was still lots of cloud, and things change fast here. I rode down to Fish Creek and when up and down the hill to Bebo Grove. The hill portion is almost exactly .5 K, and going up easy was usually 3 minutes, and going up hard was 2 minutes. I got 10 repeats in, with it getting colder, windier, and cloudier each time. The gusts picked up. One of them nearly stopped me on the way up. I was hoping to get 12 done, but ran for home and made the 1 hour mark. Less than an hour later it was raining again. For once, I timed that right!

As of this writing, it's two hours till massage time! ooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh.