Break-through!

After my noon hour workout Wednesday, things kinda got out of control. A work project flared up with some technical issues. I absolutely love, love, love open source software - but - at the same time it can be a pain when silly bugs get released in new patches and there is no official support for it anywhere.

Anyways, it was a stressful afternoon and I was unsuccessful in fixing my project issues. And of course this thing needs to be up yesterday. I worked a little late before having to jet off to the mall to try and get some new eye glasses picked out. Went to two different stores and was unsuccessful in picking something out. Not that there wasn't any to select but I am useless in this department without Mel...that is why we are a team!

During my second eye glasses store visit, I notice my left hand feels bare.

"Oh fu@k!"

My wedding band is missing...Mel is going to kill me if I lost that. Quickly retracing my steps I believe I took it off when I was using hand sanitizer and placed it on my desk at work. So then it is a trip back over to the office to retrieve it before catching the train/bus home. My run for tonight looks like it is slipping away.

I get home late, eat quickly then plunk down for 4hrs straight on my laptop to work on this project. 11:00pm rolls around, I am exhausted, missed my run, are super grumpy but at least have done everything within my ability to rectify most of the issues...the others are minor and I can deal with them on Thursday.

I wake up this morning for swim and are eagerly awaiting to get in the pool for a suffer-fest. So much pent up frustration from inconsistent workouts the past two weeks that I need to channel it somewhere..and soon!

Today is my day.

I stroll out onto the pool deck and survey the lanes...looks like the "fast" lane is empty today...I feel fast enough this morning to warrant hopping in there. I line up at one end of the lane and go through my shoulder/back stretches. Years of playing hockey have given me super inflexible shoulders - thanks in part to scar tissue.

So I am there stretching and humming away to some dance tune when a gentleman in an adjacent lane pulls up and says:

"Wow, you look extremely fast. I bet you are going to put on a show for us any minute now".

I wasn't expecting that from a stranger so I stuttered a bit until I could finally reply"

"I wish I was as fast as I looked..."

Then I think to myself, "dude that totally sounded conceited...you are an idiot."

To try and save face, I tell the guy I am not much of a swimmer - I am a triathlete who does a little bit of swimming, biking, and running. He tells me a bit about his past and how he just recently taken up swimming and are struggling with it. I tell him what I always remind myself on a daily basis:

"Everyone has to start at the beginning".

The past couple of workouts I have been doing a dive start into the pool...no reason other than I don't know how to dive properly and would like to learn. Most times I end up doing a belly-flop but today was my first time I dove in clean! And to add to a terrific start, I flipped-turn for the initial 400m in my warm-up! That is epic for someone who gets motion sickness on the kiddie rides or while riding in the back seat of a car.

Part of the main set of the workout was 5x 200m timed sets with 45 seconds rest in between each. These are one of my favorite workouts all week! So I started the first set at 3:16 and descended from there - 3:13, 3:09, 3:03. Last set is up and I thought I had reached my limit - but than I thought what if...so I fired out the last set...really pouring it on in the last 100m.

I ended up finishing with a 2:50 which is a new PB for me. I have never cracked the 3:00 minute mark on a time 200m so I was pretty pleased this morning! All the pent up energy waiting to explode out sure paid off today. It is one of those workouts where you walk away with a little badge of honor in your back pocket.

Happy Trails!