Thursday, May 5, 2011

5/2 & 5/3 & 5/4 -- I hate the number 400

Well, I woke up Monday really tired! I was up from 3:30AM to 11:00PM on Sunday, racing and driving. And I had an evening masters swim. I wasn't soon to receive any rest.

The Monday masters practice was HARD. They are always tough, but this one really had my number. The number of the beast, perhaps... as you'll see below. It also caused me to hate the number 400. This workout was ALL 4s and 400s. Warmup was 400swim, 400kick, 400pull. Main set appetizer was 4x(4x50 varying drills/builds). Main set was several sets of 400s on different tough intervals... 16x25 on :20, 4x100 on 1:20, 4x75 IM + 100 IM on I forget what interval, I was so tired by that point. Add in 2x400 on 5:30. There were at least 2 other 400s that I can't recall. All I know is that I was hurting. Breathing hard and feeling a numb tingling in both arms, I didn't care what we were doing. I just went with it. Totaled like 4400y for the workout. But wow, it was terrible. I mean, I swam pretty well, but it definitely took me to my aerobic threshold and beyond.

Tuesday morning was a tough one to wake up to. A grand total of 16 hours of sleep over the previous 3 nights had to take it's toll at some point, and Tuesday was it! Fortunately the workouts were easy... but still, I wanted to just sleep. 35min easy trail run followed by a windy but recovery-level 74min ride with Michelle, and I made sure to stay in UTTER COMPLETE control over this ride. Stayed well under 200w and it felt nice. I slept well that evening...

Wednesday morning unfortunately I had to wake up early to swim at GISC. Second-t0-last swim there as they are conveniently CLOSED for the summer to paint a roof. I guess the heat and evaporation from the lava pool was too much for the ceiling paint to handle. Maybe they'd be best served to TURN DOWN THE TEMPERATURE BY 4019251285 KELVIN. Then they wouldn't have a paint peeling problem!!!!!!!! Ah, the swim was fine, fine indeed it was, longer sets and one 4x100 sprint set. Michelle was there. She would concur.

And then in the evening we reunited and rampaged through 270, River Road and Massachusetts Avenue to arrive at American University for GRC track workout. My prescribed workout was 6x800 at some pretty fast paces (2x2:24, 2x2:20, 2x2:18). Myself, Dave W, Pmurph and a new fellow named Matt Logan, who I wrongly accused of torturing cats, made up the B group. We hit the 800s almost all on pace, and ran strong, 2:24, 2:24 (my lead), 2:22, 2:20, 2:20, 2:17 (first half my lead, :67). I added on 2x400 in 74s, as a pacesetter for Michelle (see the Monkey Business blog for more information on my superior pacesetting abilities). I suppose my success surprised me, because my past 3 track workouts have been underwhelming and equally uninspiring, due to the fact that I'm tired and fatigued before each workout. I felt a lot better for this workout, so that was neat. I think an improved diet and taking it much easier on Tuesday helped make this workout better. My legs just felt a lot stronger! I slept really well afterward, indeed.

All this talk of numbers made me watch this video, the best music video of all time. GODZILLA MAKES SEVERAL APPEARANCES and they are amazing, of course. I'm surprised a certain Beastman wasn't included, but maybe it's for the better... of peoples' lives.

1 comment:

  1. Good post, love the part about the painting. Haha. Keep plugging away when you are not feeling it and when your rested you will fly.

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