Still not a fish

We did some hard swim intervals (100 yards) at triathlon practice last week, and I had 1:50 repeats when everyone else seemed to be under 1:15. Even if I'm slow, it's still exciting for me that I can even swim 100m at a time. I'm proud of myself for participating, even if it was slightly embarrassing.

This week I actually finished the whole beginner workout, over a mile of swimming. Usually I run out of pool time. The way swim workouts are structured is a little bit different than running or biking workouts. It is believed that the biggest improvements in swimming come from doing drills (exercises focused on improving form) and short repeats. Below is what tonight's workout looked like, for reference 25 yards is one length of our pool. I did backstroke for the cool down, just for some variety, but everything was freestyle (crawl).

Warm up: 200 yd
kicking w/ kickboard: 5 x 50 yd
drills: 5 x 50 yd
3 x 200 yd
6 x 100 yd
Cool down: 100 yd

We worked on flip turns a lot during my swim class this week. I'm pretty terrible at them. Watch the video to see how it should be done:

Shamrocks & Shenanigans

The race was right in downtown Ann Arbor, and didn't start until 11:30am, so we didn't have to worry about an early race morning. It was a multiple loop course, with lots of turns, and hills. The worst part was dodging walkers and slower runners that either started ahead of you or whom you were lapping. There was one hairpin turn right in front of the house Greg and I lived in towards the end of our undergraduate careers.

Greg and Cedric hung out at Borders while I ran. Afterwards we went to Ashley's (a local pub).

Results:
Time: 24:09.6 (7:47 pace)
Place: 196 of 1687
AG: 11 of 216

Registered - 50 Mile Ultra

According to the special Cosmopolitan horoscope section I found in the seat pocket on my flight home, I would do something challenging, "like run a 5k," this September. They were only off by an order of magnitude. I now have until September 24th to get ready for my first 50 mile race.

I've had two cold, wet long runs back in Michigan so far. I was spoiled by the sunny 60º weather I had in San Diego last week. Thanks Michigan, for bringing me back to reality as quickly as possible.