Monday: I Was Given the Ditch by Hop the Visiting Swimmer

Ivan and I were up at a reasonable time this morning and were out the door to swim at 8:04 AM. I dropped Ivan at the nursery and was positioning myself to dive in at 8:33 AM. I was pretty thrilled with myself. NOW, the reason I got there early was because Hop the Visiting Swimmer swam with us on Friday and had promised to swim with us today (Monday). He was totally hard driving, and I got in a tad late and still swam 3700 meters with time to spare. So, as you can imagine, I was pretty psyched that Hop was going to swim with us today. I just knew I would get in 4000 meters. Anyway, VERY DISAPPOINTING, I arrived at the pool to find that Hop had taken up with another swimmer (a very competitive woman swimmer, who is so competitive that she does not swim with us) and was just freestyling his little heart out with her.

I was crushed. It is so nice to have someone to swim with, who pushes you just a little bit, but against whom you can be slightly competitive while swimming. Anyway, just to show Hop, who totally ignored us (though I felt personally ignored), I got in on time and swam on interval the whole workout. I was a lone soldier marching on through my disappointment. Anyway, I ended up with about 3500 meters, which is reasonable. Work out as follows:

• 200 swim/ 200 pull/ 4 x 75 kick-drill-swim
• 4 x 150 swim-drill-swim
• 4 x 100 kick @ 2:15
• 4 x 150 @ 3:00
• 4 x 125 @ 2:30
• 4 x 100 1:45
• 4 x 75 @ 1:30
• 4 x 50 @ 1:00

So, it was a good workout and a hard workout. I was starving when I got home and made the very poor choice of eating Ivan's uneaten mini-corndogs. Why is a corndog so delicious?

I then put Ivan down for a nap and did all kinds of phone errands like booking a doctor's appointments. I also cleaned and worked on reports. Ivan woke up way too soon and way too grumpy, so for work today, I had to pack up and park myself at the Starbucks to get anything accomplished. I ordered my decaf soy latte (this is the ONLY coffee drink I EVER get at Starbucks) and sat down to work. At the Starbucks in Cool Springs, you have to PAY for the internet. Was my overpriced coffee beverage not enough for you, Starbucks? Really?

So, I could only get half of my work finished based on my refusal to use their internet on the PRINCIPLE OF THE THING. When I talked to my brother on the way home, he encouraged me to always go to Krystal to work. The internet is always free and you can always get a Dr. Pepper. I will take his advice from now on. I will not be duped again by you, Starbucks. Anyway, I made Chris Carmichael's health Salmon Penne Alfredo recipe, one of my favorites, and had a mini-pack of peanut m&m's to melt away the cares of the day.

Friday: Hop the Visiting Swimmer

Today, I made it to swim on time, for which I cannot quit patting myself on the back. I was there early today in fact, because I took Ivan in his Halloween costume. He was so irritated at me for shoving his into the dragon fat suit and asking him to wear a ridiculous dragon-head hood on top of his head. He was super adorable and I was able to get him into the nursery and me to the pool ON TIME.

Today, we had a visiting swimmer from Arizona, or maybe New Mexico, it was somewhere that is dry and hot. Anyway, he was determined to get us through the workout. We stayed on interval the whole time and I got in a 3700 meter workout with time to spare. See, our morning swim group is mostly older women that swim 2500ish meters. Jaime is always there and she is a fast swimmer, sometimes John Maple comes and Nick is there on Wednesdays. We each have our own lane, and we often talk about books and such. We sometimes miss the start of the interval and let the clock roll around again. So being on interval the whole workout happens pretty rarely.

Hop however was having none of this. He pushed the whole time and worked really hard. While Hop was rather more hard driving than I am used to in morning swim, I was just thrilled to get in as much swim as I did. This gives me mixed emotions about Hop's return. I like to get in a good hard swim, but I also like to talk about books and such. Hop will be there on Monday as well, and I will be interested to see if I can get in early and get in 4000 before the end of practice.

Today's workout as follows:

• 400 swim/200 pull
• 4 x 200 @ 4:00
• 4 x 200 @ 4:00 (50 swim/ 100 fast/ 50 recover)
• 4 x 200 @ 4:00 (100 fast/ 100 recover)
• 2 x 300 pull @ 3:30
• 200 cool down

After practice, Ivan took a nap that was way too short. When Ivan woke up, it was as if he had had a hit of speed or a triple espresso or most likely, two dum dums. Can two dum dums really make a toddler that wired? He was rushing about the house in circles like a madman. It was necessary to find an outlet for his energy, so I took him to practice his swim skills at the pool. This went reasonably well, until Ivan began hurling himself into the pool and fighting, AS IF FOR HIS LIFE, to get to the steps and sprint out of the pool so that he could run, AS IF FOR HIS LIFE, to get away from me. I felt like I grabbed his little pipe cleaner arms about 50 times to stop him from hurling himself into the pool or hurling himself down the steps. I finally gave up and strong armed him out the door. I took him to McDonald's and let him play in the germ pit.

I always feel that the McDonald's play yards are germ pits. I felt that H1N1 was lurking on every surface. It was one of those days however, and I risked certain disease infestation to let my child get his energy out. Ivan, of course, hit his head and will certainly have a black eye tomorrow from running into every piece of play yard in the germ pit. There were a few other kids there, and one mom said to everyone in the room, that she could be "truly happy here if they served wine". Except that it goes against every code of good sense in existence, it could be kind of a good idea. You just sit there, watch your child and occasionally say something like "stop that" or "play nicely". I bought Ivan a Happy Meal, which I promptly ate myself. It seems to be my way around food. I am trying to think that my Superfoods lunch and breakfast cancels out my McDonald's mistake.

Pics of Ivan in the Halloween costume we didn't choose.

Double Swim Wednesday!!

Today, I took the day off of running so that I could rest my first-in-my-age-group legs. I thought that I would sleep a bit late, but that rarely works out and today was no exception.

I was up before 6:00 drinking green tea like a mad man in hopes that it would prop my eyelids open enough to stagger into the kitchen and fix Ivan some breakfast.

Ivan and I headed out to swim, we arrived late as is our habit, but I did get in 3200 meters of Dennis's workout, as my friend Nick was there to spur me on. Workout as follows:

• 400 swim/ 200 pull with paddles
• 5 x 150 swim 2:15
• 5 x 200 swim (first three on 3:00, last 2 on 3:15)
• 5 x 150 2:30

It was a pretty hard-core workout, after which I got Ivan home for his nap and called Splish. You see, I am up a creek as I lost my superstar bikini top. How do you lose a bikini top? I am assuming there was some locker room mishap, or the baby ate it. Anyway, the girls at Splish are going to send me another, because they are champs.

When Ivan woke up, we sprinted in town to have a meeting at work, where Ivan did not even remotely behave. I turned my head at one point and he had pulled open a file drawer and was tossing manilla files onto the floor. I hit the grocery on the way home and grabbed some of my new favorite Sweet Leaf Tea. It is delicious and 60 calories per serving. It is sweetened with honey. Also, I had a cookie and I might have eaten Ivan's kiddie cookie after he threw it on the floor. Maybe.

Came home and worked for a couple of hours, before heading out to swim. On the way to swim, I went to McDonald's. I NEVER GO TO McDONALD'S. I did not have time to squeeze dinner in between work and swim, so I had a desperation dinner. I meant to order a cheeseburger and small fries, but the vile McFlurry led me astray.

Swim workout went as follows: 3,050 meters

• 200 warm up
• 12 x 100 on 1:45 (evens IM, odds freestyle)
• 4 x 25 swim
• 6 x 50 backstroke
• 4 x 25 breast stroke
• 40 x 25 pull with paddles 0:50
• 50 butterfly cool down

No Yoga, No Gilad.

Friday Workout: Swim, Gilad, Yoga, and Chocolate Cake

Ooooh, I got a fabulous night's sleep last night, and I missed my run. So worth it, however. SO WORTH IT. I am so thrilled over a great night's sleep. It was almost as good as the back seat of the Hood to Coast van!!!

Anyway, I did get to swim and had a great workout. I tried to keep up with Jaimie and Annie. Jaime and Annie are master's level swimmers and they swam in high school and maybe college. Long time age group swimmers are way out of my league. They have Phelps-like grace in the water. They can dolphin swim off the wall, they can dive off the blocks like champs, and you should see their butterfly. It took everything I had to make their intervals, let alone get to the wall at the same time they did.

Here is Dennis' workout for today:

• 200 swim/ 200 drill
• 3 x 200 swim (no interval)
• 12 x 100 (odds IM/ evens swim) 2:00
• 400 pull 7:00
• 6 x 100 swim descend 1:50

3200 hundred meters in all!! Water was cold, but it was a great swim. My dive is not improving at all, I think I panic and look up at the last minute. My summer goal was to dive off the blocks, but the summer is over, sports fans, and I have not reached my goal. Maybe I will get there by Christmas.

By the way, is everyone familiar with IM. IM stands for Individual Medley, and it means that you start out with the butterfly stroke for the first 25 yards, then go on to 25 backstroke, then go to 25 breast stroke and finish with 25 free style. The butterfly stroke is really hard for me and I have no fluidity. It sends my heart racing out of my chest and I am always so relieved to get to the backstroke so that I can breathe easily.

I do the IM with fins on, because I pretty much can't make three yards of the butterfly without fins. Fins also help with the backstroke and the freestyle. Fins DO NOT help the breaststroke. You have to dolphin kick with fins instead of breaststroke kick, and it is like a train wreck in the middle of your IM sequence, or mine anyway.

So, I picked up Ivan from the nursery, and he was in baby time out. BABY TIME OUT. He apparently turned over the baby snack table, was told "no", then ran to the baby snack table and turned it over again, was told "no", then turned over the baby snack table for the third time and had to sit in Ms. Glenda's lap, which apparently constitutes baby time out.

Got home, and did Gilad and Yoga. Yoga was a lot of balancing and upward facing dog. Felt great. Headed out to my parents' home for dinner. Fabulous chocolate cake for dessert. Two pieces!!