Swimming In A Bubble

I needed as much sleep as I could get yesterday. So instead of going to the pool at the Middle Tyger Y in the morning, I went to the Caine Halter Y in the evening. This way I was also able to spend some time with Terry - at least so I thought. Swimming is not a very social sport to start with (head in the water and all) and on top of it, I ended up in the outside pool and Terry opted for the inside pool.

Outside pool hmmmm? I guess you wonder, what happened now, since I sometimes even chicken out with the competitive pool at the MTY. It's an outside pool alright, but in the cooler months, they put a bubble over the pool... So nothing has really changed and the water temps are actually pretty comfortable. People told me about the bubble, but yesterday was the first time that I actually saw and swam inside.

It's fascinating how different it felt. It's the same pool, but it looks 10 times bigger now that it's surrounded by the bubble than it looks when it's surrounded by the open deck. Also the sound echos completely different from an outside pool or a regular inside pool. I was startled a couple of times by people talking at the other end of the pool. It is also so much darker than regular inside pools, since they just put up a couple of construction site lamps on each side of the pool. That also reminds me that I won't need my shaded goggles for the next couple of months, but I do enjoy that it is darker.

Luckily, the pool wasn't very busy and I got a lane all by myself for the entire time of my swim. In total, I did 3,000 yards in 1h 10mins. When I am not working out with a swim plan, I break my workouts down in sets of 500's. Yesterday looked pretty much like this: 500 freestyle, 500 kicks with fins and kick board (alternating 50 on side and 50 straight), 500 freestyle, 500 with paddles and buoy, 500 alternating kicks with kick board and breast stroke, 300 alternating freestyle and kicks with fins and 200 freestyle. I haven't used the fins in a while and this was maybe a little much to get back into it, but I feel fine today.

It was a good workout, I really enjoyed it and I sure slept like a rock last night.

On other news: I made a decision about the weekend workout plans. Currently, my bike fitness is pretty much not existing and I also didn't find a buddy to come along with me on the Leaf Tour ride. Therefore, I decided to sign up for the XTERRA Paris Mountain Trail 11K this Saturday. Some of my Blue Ridge Relay team members are going to do the race as well, so that's going to be fun.... And tough... I have no idea on which trails the race is going to be and honestly, maybe it's better not to know. My race strategy is: don't burn myself up on the uphills, don't burn myself up on the downhills, if it's too steep there is no shame in hiking the section and DON'T twist an ankle!