Nice Surprise

Today I surprised myself. My time in the pool has been extremely limited. But today with the help of my friend I went for it! No base or real idea of what to expect but know willing to try. She was prepared (she always is) with a workout. So we had our workout pool side in a little zip lock bag. We shared a lane and we were off. We did "catch ups", "thumb slides" and all sorts of fun moves. I worked really hard on my breathing. In the past I have always blown my air out as I was swimming and then popped up for a breath. Today I tried to not let my breath escape and when I was out of air I would them come up for air. The idea behind this is that muscles need oxygen to work. The workout ended with a 200 timed meter swim. I tried to time my 200 but couldn't remember when I started and I was unsure on time. I guessed and thought maybe it was 6 minutes. Then my friend did her 200 and hit 4. I knew this was going to bug me "not knowing". I really wanted to to get some sense of where I am "today" when it comes to speed (or lack of speed). So even though I was tired I did another 200 timed swim and was happy to KNOW my real time. 4:20!! I have no idea really what that means but I'll take it. I was definitely surprised and loved how the time flew by! It was similar to running. Having a plan and following it. But as with anything new it did not all go as planned. There were a group of hairless, speedo wearing boy swimmers swimming in the next lane. So what you ask? Well I tended to hug the divider as I was scared I was going to take out my swim buddy. So I managed to more than once rub my hand along some "body part" of some guy in the next lane. Ooops! I also was smooth enough to while I was bringing my arm over my head my arm to get karate chopped by the guy in the other lane doing some crazy stroke. My back kicks were peaceful but took a lot of focus. While doing this I also ran into the divider and practically scraped my goggles off while being engulfed with water over my face, more than once. So not the prettiest sight but still made me feel so much better about that MILE swim at Rev3 Portland!!! I am also heading over to the Dilettante Tri next weekend. It is a Sprint but will be my first open water experience! Excited to have borrowed a wet suit. Took some pics but let's just say you should be happy for some reason blogger is not letting me download pics. Wow...wet suits keep it real! Tomorrow I am hoping for a LONG run as I am also gearing up for Seattle Rock N Roll. Can't wait to see some of my running buddies. It has been way to long. Who is running Rock N Roll Seattle? Anyone going to the Online Shoes bloggy meet up?? Hope your weekend is off to a great start!