Beating the weather and a Swim practice

Ask anyone who knows me personally and they will tell you I am obsessed with the weather. My Dad is my biggest "critic" but I think it takes a weather obsessor to recognize another. I pay attention to everything from what it's like outside right now, what it will be like when I go to bed, what it will be like when I awake, how humid is it, what the UV index is, to what kind of rain we are going to get over the next 10 days.

However, yesterday was a different story. The sun was shining when I left summer school at noon, and it was a beautiful 83 degrees with barely any wind. Two hours later I left my tutoring session thinking the sun was still shining and not a cloud in the sky. That, my friends, was not the case.

I left the library and noticed it had just rained. The sun was shining but there were clouds rolling in from the South, again. And they weren't pretty. I hauled a** home, checked the weather, changed into my cycling gear, and left for a 10-15 mile ride. There was only a 45% chance of rain over the next couple of hours.

Two minutes into my ride it started sprinking. I knew I could handle the sprinkles and possibly more than that. But, mentally, I wasn't ready for a down pour. I chose to go north and stay away from the storm as it was passing through.

The weather was nice and cool. Everything else about the ride was so-so. I think I ate about 3 bugs, and they weren't small. Towards the end of my ride, as I was coming to a red light, I wasn't able to get my left foot out of the clipless pedal. This is the foot I usually release first. I had to think fast, as I was breaking, and was able to get my right foot out instead. It was close. I had to pull off to the side of the road and tighten that bottom piece on my shoe. It was scary and I was glad I knew what caused the difficulty. Thankfully, I only had another mile before getting home, because I was done.

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This morning it was beautiful and 63 degrees outside when I hit the pool. I was really dragging and kind of had a bad attitude about swim practice. But, after getting in the water, warming up, and slowly watching the sun rise throughout practice, I felt much better.

Today's Swim workout:

1000M Mix: Exactly that. We were able to do whatever we desired for the first 1000M. I chose to just do freestyle, trying to build my speed. However, I started to think about the triathlon that is two weeks from now, and the 1000M I will be swimming in the Damn and I started to get anxious. That will be my first open water swim. Am I ready for it?

12x50M: During these 50's, Coach M wanted us swim freestyle, starting out slow, and building speed as we finished, and then take a 15 second rest break. About 1/2 way through I thought I was going to be naseaus from pushing myself so hard. I have never had that feeling in the pool, but when all was said and done it felt good.

4x200M: On the odds we were using the pull bouys and the paddles to swim. On the evens we were swimming freestyle. This was supposed to be 6x200M but I ran out of time. I really like using the pull bouys and paddles. I think it helps me focus on my form and how I pull my arms through the water.

Total Swim: 2400M

When I finished shortly after 7am, the sun was starting to share some heat and I was wishing we had later practice. But, it sure was a great way to start the day! There's a "Under the Lights" swim meet July 8th, that I am contemplating doing the 50M freestyle. I think it would be fun and something different to try. We'll see.