swim wagon

I'm on, then I'm off, I completely forget to swim for a week.. it's bad. Last night I went to Oahu Club masters, partly because I chose to run over going to 5:30 am UH masters and partly because I thought Oahu Club would be easier. I was wrong. I rode my bike out to Hawaii Kai into yet another crazy rain/wind storm that came out of nowhere, and almost kept going right past the pool just because the thought of the ride home after seemed miserable. But I made myself turn in.. and I was early. Early enough to have 1k in the bank before the warm up started. It was a big crowd, with lots of fast swimmers, and Joe threw me right in with them, chasing Lou and Dean in the fast lane. Oh boy. 

Right off the bat it was a series of 200s. My lane was going on 3:00. Which is funny, because I can't swim 200 meters in 3 minutes. But what do you know, with the fear of Dean lapping me looming, I came in at 2:50. A new world record! For me. I didn't feel fast, I felt discombobulated and like I was floundering around.. after lots of 200s came the 50 m sprints. After four of them, I climbed out at the hot tub end and told the gang that I was at 3500, my pool max. They booed me and lured me back in with promises of a ride home.. and then made me dive in for the next sprint. I don't understand the physics of diving in with goggles on.. but magically, they stayed on my face. For the first time ever in a pool, and only the 5th time in my life, if you count the four times I had to swim it in an ironman, I swam 4k.

I got out knowing that in less than 10 hours, I would be running intervals. Todd called the workout when I showed up at 5:45 am this morning: 16 x 400 on 1:45. I like going in blind - it keeps me from worrying about the workout in advance. My quads did the evil lactic acid buildup thing in the very first interval.. and then totally came around. The rest interval was shorter than I've ever done, but it paid off because the miles flew by. TI in the tights was gone in a heartbeat, but I kept him within yelling distance for every interval and made it all the way through, which often feels like an accomplishment in itself.

An evening of rest (read: I should be on the trainer but I'm tired) gave me time to catch up on a stack of magazines - and I found this very short story that I have to share: Mouse Au Vin. I was sucked in at the end of the second paragraph with I did a pretty solid forward roll. This is why I love the New Yorker. I totally look all edumacated while riding the bus, but really, I'm laughing at mouse jokes.

The camera cord is lost. I'm very sad. Stay tuned for my first ever poll - who gets to keep my new Oakleys. They're very gold, and very girly, but R has a point when he says they make him look like Elvis. He wants to keep them. Photos to follow..