4500 yards....after 3.18 miles

3.18 mile run, dreadmill
4500 yard swim, 1:19 (with rest periods)

The swim went well. I was planning on 5000 yards, but 4500 was definitely my limit for the day. I swam it in strange sets. I planned to do 10 by 500. I quickly got bored. 500 splits: 8:07, 8:07, 8:03, 8:02, 8:04, 8:12, 8:21, 8:21, 9:04. That last one is slower because I threw in a bunch of stroke as a cool down. I swam these in weird sets and took splits at the 500s. So I swam a 1000, then 500, then 1000, then 1500, then 500. I was just trying to pound it out as I was getting SOOOoo bored. I was just plain bored. I need to break up these longer swims better, but because I combined it with a short run beforehand, and K. was waiting for me, I didn't want to make this into a two-hour workout.

5000 is probably the longest swim workout I'll do in the next several months, and I'm close now. Just need to pick up the pace a little bit. At today's pace, I was on for about 1:14 pace at Ironman. I did 1:07 at Ironman Wisconsin in 2004. I'm hoping to hit just about exactly that same pace this year. I'm close. I wasn't pushing today. I won't be pushing at Ironman Wisconsin, either, for that matter. But the fact of the matter is, the last time I did this race, I sat down and worked out where I'd come out of the water, and I told my mother I'd be out between 1:07 and 1:10. I also came to terms with the fact that I probably wouldn't be able to push much faster than 1:07 and stick to my race plan. I'm planning on the same thing this year.

The run
Pet peeve time. At our Y, they have a room that's set aside for women only during certain hours. I hate this room. They ask that women check the treadmills there first before going to the general room. There are a couple of problems with this. First, the room is wired for this 30-second circuit deal, and they play this techno music that, every 30 seconds, beeps or pauses or does something crazy like that. It's loud. Second, the treadmills are crap. They just are. The good stuff is out in the front room. These treadmills are loud, difficult to program, squeak, have no place for my water bottle to sit without rattling, and are generally just annoying. I decided that if they want me to check those treadmills first, they ought to put the good ones in the women's room.

When we got to the Y today, shortly after 1:00, there were a couple of treadmills open in the general room. Sweet. I got changed and walked back to the front of the building. As I stopped to fill up my water bottle, a guy passed me in the hall and went into the general room...and took the last open treadmill. Two were being used by people actually running. Three, and this is what kills me, were being used by people who were actually walking at pace that is slower than I even normally walk on the street. GEESH. I had hope that these folks would be the kind who would be on and off in about five minutes, but I didn't have the patience for it. SOooo, I was off to the women's room.

After trying out two other treadmills, I found one that seemed to work. By the time I got everything running, I was 2:00 into my "run", but I was still walking. This, too, was frustrating. BUT, I had committed to 30 minutes of running and then my long swim, so today's run was what it was. I'm trying not to hammer too hard on the run right now. Just building some decent base, I hope.