Last evening I was tired and actually somewhat disoriented. I was scheduled to go spin and do a swim, but I really just wanted to lay down. I ended up going anyway. I needed to get a good swim in so I figured, if I’m going out, I should just go for it. By the time I started on the spin bike I felt much better. We had a substitute instructor, and I would qualify this class as an easy recovery ride. It hit the spot because I’m not sure I had an all out ride left in the tank.
At any rate, when I finished the spin, I moved to the pool and tried one more time to have a good swim. I was a bit more organized in my swim. Ok what I mean to say is that I didn’t feel like I was floundering, but I didn’t follow through with the proper breathing. As the swim got longer I feel back on my old habits. The result is that I swam solidly, but slowly, really slowly. It took 13 minutes and change to swim 11 laps. That is without a break. I feel like I’m going backwards in terms of performance.
In hindsight I realize that there were a number of factors that contributed to the slow speed. The first was that I was deliberately moving more slowly than usual, at least at first, so there’s that. In addition, my stroke is a mess, I am using energy to push myself up instead of forward. I need to work on that. I’m hoping to get one more swim in before this weekend’s YMCA triathlon. We’ll see how it goes.