With life settling into a new normal, working at home, hosting additional housemates, and working through a global crisis, swim training is starting find its regular routine. The weather has been favorable, access to open water, while limited, is still available, and I am ready to get at it!
Workouts for the Week of March 30 - April 5, 2020
Monday, March 30
While visiting and caring for my best friend who recently underwent surgery (non-COVID-19 related), we decided it was time to get outside and go for a walk. She and her family have a land lease at a local lake, so we drove over to the property to visit with the cattle they run on the property. Having done this before, I wisely grabbed my OWS bag.
We got to the property and walked out to the lake. The conditions were absolutely stunning. The weather was 70F, the air was calm, the water was clear, and there was not a single person at the lake. No boats! So, in I went!
Distance = 1,453 yards
Time: 29:51
I didn't go all the way across the lake simply because I didn't have enough time. I had a call on my calendar that I needed to get to, so I had to turn back before reaching the other side.
The little jog over was me contemplating a trip to the island, but it freaked out the birds and they started flying in circles over me, so I decided to head straight across.
Tuesday, March 31
Amazing! Two swims in two days! It feels so amazing to accomplish this. Today I met up with some fellow OWS people and we jumped in for a mid-morning swim at Avila Beach. It was a cool 55F with warm, clear skies and a mild breeze that kept some surface texture on the water.
Distance: 2,464 yards
Time: 49:28
The current kept pulling out to sea so there was a pretty consistent aim toward the beach in order to maintain any semblance of a straight line.
The water itself was beautiful. It was a little fishy at the end of the pier, probably because of the low tide. On the way into the beach I could see the ocean floor remarkably well from pretty far outside the break.
Wednesday, April 1
Today was a heavy work load day, so I was head down and grinding all day. I did get twitchy and decide that I needed to go for a run. After my run last week, I was a little nervous about running this week. My foot was a little cranky after last week, but seemed to recover well. So, I taped up my feet and went for a run.
5 minute warm up
4 x {4 minute run; 1 minute recover}
4 minutes recovery
4 minutes run
Cool down
Total Run Distance: 3.3 miles
Total Run Time: 45 minutes
Thursday, April 2
Swim day! It has been wicked windy the last two days. At dawn there was a 14 knot wind coming from true north, so a difficult swim was expected. It turned out that, while there was surface chop and small white caps, the water movement wasn't there. It was just surface wind.
Distance: 2,160 yards
Time: 43:05
It turns out that the water was quite cold. The lifeguard station reported 50F. The ducky reported 55.2F (ducky is 3 degree optimistic). Garmin picked up 53F. It was probably 51-52F. It was cold.
The swim itself wasn't terribly difficult, but the temperature was hard to ignore. I lost my mates several times, but we always seem to find each other eventually.
Friday, April 3
After 5 days in a row of working out, I decided to take a rest day today. I was quite tempted to get out for another swim with rain in the forecast. However, I decided that I would spend that time gardening and beautifying my outside office space. That was time well spent and it left me exceptionally sore through my hamstrings, back, and shoulders. I don't do any strength work and it shows.
Saturday, April 4
After so much time sheltering at home, it was time to get out in public and do my grocery shopping. That took far longer than I anticipated, so my day was spent in lines. I wanted to do some yoga or stretching but just couldn't muster up the initiative to do it.
Sunday, April 5
The rain is back today. I had hoped for another jump in the ocean or lake today, but the rain was quite substantial today. Sadly, that will keep me out of the water for at least 72 hours.
Totals for the Week
Total Swim = 6,077 yards
Two hours and two minutes
I did 1 bike session for an hour, and 1 run session for 45 minutes. It was a light week with quite a bit of variety.
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