Heavy breathing in the morning

I was reluctant to get out of bed for Friday’s Master’s Swim. Four thirty in the morning still comes by awfully early. I was not the only one having trouble. Everyone at the Friday session got their own lane. Now, normally in Friday we do a lot of drills and stuff. This session proved different. We got one of the hardest workouts yet. The main set consisted of 3 x 10 x 50 on 1:15 with 60 recovery.


Does that make sense? The main set consisted of 10 x 50 on 1:15 repeated 3 times with 1 minute rest between each group of 10. These were done at an all out pace – there would be 30 50’s all out (Coach Steve put me on 38 – 39).

The first 50 I did in the high 36’s. That would not be sustainable. I recovered with the 30 seconds rest and repeated the effort. Next was about 37 seconds and then they settled into the appropriate range. This was a demanding workout. At one put Coach Steve remarked on the panting that was taking place in the pool. He said, ‘I love the sound of respiration in the morning.’ This was an obvious reference to Apocalypse Now. I replied, ‘It smells like VICTORY!’ Yep – I will use this in the future.

The campus was closed to students for Fall Break and we were having a Fall Festival in my IT department. I am on the committee that helped to organize the event. We had a couple of games of flag football. Late in the day we played a lot of Bocce and threw the Frisbee around. I also got an hour of racquet ball in – there was not any run training but a lot of game playing.

I ended up not getting home from work until 1 AM – I was at campus from 5:30AM – 1AM. It was a long day. I woke up just in time to get dressed for the Sunday group ride. There was a good group of us and we did an easy 35 miles. After the ride I took a warm bath (I was cold) and then took a nap. We went to a friend’s house later that night for good food and drink. I had too much of both. This was another late night.

On Sunday I had planned a hard 12 mile run with 10 miles of the run fast. I headed out for the run at 10AM. I ran the first easy mile without trouble. When I went to pick up the pace I could not bring it. I was off of my paces. After half a mile trying to sort out the speed I turned around. It took me about another mile to screw my head back on straight. I decided to jump off of the trace and onto a trail. I was going to salvage the run. Although I did not meet my initial goals I did not shut it down. I ended up with 6 miles of trail running. I was able to turn the corner and turn a negative into a positive.

Sunday afternoon I had a meeting with the running club. I met up with Charles on the trace and we rode our bikes the 12 miles to the meeting. There was, once again, more good food and drink. However, this time I did not over indulge with the drink.

It was a busy fun weekend but now it is time to get back on diet and more diligent on the training.


UPDATE:  Boston Bound! 
Boston Athletic Association
Dear James:
Your entry for the 115th Boston Marathon has been received, and your spot in the race has now been reserved, pending verification of your entry and qualifying information.