My inner shark approved

Into the pool today, missing a horrible accident on Glenmore that had traffic out of the SW tied up for hours. Even when I was going home at 9am, 90 Ave was backed up from 14th St to 24th St. I'm pretty sure I could see steam coming out of some of the driver's windows.

A few minutes after getting into the pool my inner shark joined me. He deeply approved of this mornings swim. 1500 m in 28 minutes flat. The time at 100 was 18:40, and I didn't notice at 500, it came and went too fast. After the first couple laps I settled into an even pace and kept it there the entire swim.

What's interesting was that I wasn't trying to swim fast. I was trying to swim smooth, no bubbles, nice and relaxed. One thing I'd noticed recently is that my head was going side to side a bit during my stroke, and today it was straight. I could feel myself being straighter. I could feel my hands and arms catching the water and my body sliding along. It seemed like I was hardly breathing at all. My flip turns were strong and fast, except for the one that I blew. Only at the very end did it feel like I was breathing, and starting to work my arms.

My inner shark cruised along, even though there wasn't much prey for him, and was feeling a bit chatty, even. Inner sharks are normally the strong silent type, you know. He's excited by me signing up for Chinook. Even though he doesn't talk much about it he loves the mass swim start at races, thinking it's a big shiver.  Training in the pool is ok for meditation and relaxing, but a race is where it's at for excitement. He wants me to be swimming at the same time as the swim clubs, so he can check them out for preyness. He also wants me swimming faster so I can keep up to them. I don't know about that. Some of those kids are rockets in the water. Still, I'm back to about the same speed I was a year ago, though my endurance isn't quite there. This is all good.

The rest of the hour swim was lots of kick and pull, and a long bit of backstroke at the end. I tried 50 m on 60 sec, aiming for 45 seconds. The 4th one I hit 47 seconds and stopped.

After a few errands I was on the bike for an easy 1 hr spin, mainly to flush out my legs. I watched "The Perfect Runner" on DVD. That's a new documentary, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I paid for the DVD since I don't get CBC. There was a segment about the Canadian Death Race, and I think there is short bit where my buddy Shannon is in the background. Just watching that reaffirms two things. I'm not doing that. The mind can drive the body to amazing things.

After the spin was a nice stretch, especially working my heel with the ball. I even ran outside, very very briefly, just to the end of the block and back. Because. After watching that film I had to go run, just a little bit.