Blahs

I feel fine. Just sluggish. Can't shake it. I don't feel particularly tired. Been sleeping okay. Eating like a champ. Not too sore. Okay, my arms are a little sore from all the swimming (~8,000 m/week) but nothing out of the ordinary. My training plan says I'm not due for a recovery week for 2 more weeks. Checked my volume and it's not too high. But I still feel blah. However, my training plan says the last several workouts I've done have felt sluggish. And my times have slowed down. Frustrating. I feel like I'm working verrrry hard for very little outcome. I swim as fast as I can and am sure I'm going to set a new WR. When I hit the wall, it IS a new record--STE (Slowest Time EVER). Same thing happening on the track. And on the bike...puh-lease. I don't even want to talk about it. I can't even muster the power to feign an attempt at speed. All I can do is spin. UGH!

I know I probably should take a day off. But I did that Monday! I know, I know. Another day off. (But I don't want to, she whines.) I almost skipped my evening bike ride yesterday. I couldn't tell if I was suffering from an afternoon slump or if I was really tired. So I decided to get on the bike and assess after 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, I felt great. So I hammered down the coast for 10 miles before turning around and hammering back into a headwind like it was nothing (20 mph avg out, 18 mph avg back). Guess I still do have the power. Sometimes. Course the cup of espresso might have helped too.

This morning, I hopped back into the pool for more. (Guess Terry's 3,000 meters yesterday didn't teach me a lesson). My arms were tired. But I had a breakthrough--she told me to keep my fingers closed during the pull part of the stroke and focus on keeping my arms straight during the first part of recovery (instead of swinging back over my back and twisting all about). All of a sudden, I was swimming faster with the same effort! So I hopped in the pool at 7:30 (late, I know) and began chipping away at Sickie's workout with tired, weary arms. I was trying my best to pretend I was Dara Torres as I crawled (bad pun, I know) down the lane. Extend from the lats, front quadrant, close fingers, arm up straight from hip, almost out, quicker turn-over, no, don't shorten stroke, twist from core...no wonder I was tired! All-in-all I felt pretty good, especially during the 600 meters (the longer, the better--I wish he would give us 1,000 m straight).

At the end, I introduced myself to a girl I didn't recognize in my lane. She responded by saying she remembered me from one time before. She then commented that I was faster since the last time we had swam together. That just made my day! I'm still grumpy but maybe not quite as much.