Saturday, January 10, 2009

a very little bit of walking... and lots of swimming

Today we did have a TNT workout (6 miles). I was very good and did not walk much at all. I hung out at the water stop and talked with all the team members as they went by; it was actually a great way to touch base with everyone, and we had good attendance (24+) at the workout today. I did walk a little bit - about 0.5 miles of racewalking (very very easy - my new Garmin said about 12:00-12:30) and about 1.2 miles of regular walking. I got cold and just HAD to do SOMETHING anything so I wouldn't freeze. Bev (one of our team captains) is nursing an ankle sprain (or maybe a fracture) from slipping on some ice, so we hung out together, and it was great to have the company. All in all, a pleasant morning.

Yes, I did say I had a new Garmin. I got a Forerunner 305 and it is SO amazing. When I got home I downloaded the workout and checked out the graphs - it automatically graphs heart rate vs. pace, but with a touch of the mouse it can do heart rate vs. speed, or vs. elevation. Or speed vs. elevation, pace vs. elevation, etc. - you get the idea. As for accuracy, there were 0.25 mile markers on the trail we were on today (Porter Rockwell trail in Draper), and the Garmin agreed with them within 0.01 mile. Not too shabby. I can't wait to get better so I can try out all the other features - courses, virtual training partner, etc. Oh, and it also put my workout today on a map, automatically. Very cool.

After driving home, going to Costco (for the THIRD time this week... sigh) and feeding the family lunch, I went for a swim. I decided to see how far I could go in an hour, inspired by my SIL Erica's recent 1 hr postal swim (she was shooting for 4000 yds - she's quite good). I actually didn't really go all-out; my HR was about 150 for most of the time, and if I racewalk I could easily keep it at 170ish for a really hard hour's effort. I guess I just wasn't in the mood to push that hard. I did 2600 yds in the hour, more or less. I am lousy at counting laps but did try to keep track. It works out to 1:09 for each 50 yds; pretty slow, but that's OK. I did do one 50-yd in :57 when I was really pushing it, that was not bad, for me! It was good exercise and I enjoyed it more today than the other days I've done it; I felt like I was improving a little. One funny moment - the woman in the lane next to me was using a kickboard and was going just as fast as me. I thought that was pretty amazing kicking and then I realized she was wearing fins :).

My left leg did hurt a bit though on several of the turns at the wall. I wonder a little if this really is an IT band injury or if it something else, because I don't think it should have hurt from the swimming. Hmmmm. Well, I'm just glad I am getting it checked out on Wednesday. I confess to a bit of anxiety about it, but hopefully it will be very helpful.

Tomorrow - I am not sure if I will swim or do some biking. We'll see. Stay tuned.

1 comment:

Hunca Munca said...

Someday we will have to go swimming together, and you will be FLYING next to me. I am the slowest swimmer there is. 2600 yds in an hour would not only be impossible for me, I would drown before I could stay afloat for an hour even if I cheated and hung on to the lane markers. :-) You go girl!