swimmer's high! 100x100 yd swim report

much to my surprise, i was able to finish the 100x100 yesterday and my shoulders have not yet fallen off! i had been feeling pretty sore the week before so had spent a pretty lame week aqua jogging with my fellow grandmas and grandpas at the chelsea pool. i accidentally let it slip that i can (barely) speak chinese so now they are fascinated by this young person weaving around them in the slow lane. haven't yet told them that i understand about 40% of what they're saying and just smile and nod!

i got a much-needed but painful massage on my off day on friday in hopes that all of the icing, icy-hot and other lovely-smelling patches and creams that i'd been using all week would make my shoulders better. then a short swim on saturday that i was hoping would be easy, so was intimidated (to say the least) when aaron wanted to swim with matt d and oscar. their "easy" set was something like 15x100 starting on 1:30 and moving down.. so i just swam next to them and did a straight up 1500 and finished a little bit after they did. that must have been my most painful swim and i was truly wondering if i should actually do the 100x100 the next day. but it was so helpful to get some good (actually unsolicited!) tips from the coaches.

by saturday evening, after 2 days of tapering and a carbo-loaded morning and afternoon, i wasn't feeling on my A-game, just very tired and sore, whereas last year i'd be pumped for the tri two days in advance! i guess there is a lot of other stuff going on that's taking up brain space. i still wasn't sure if i could finish the 100x100 but decided to just give it my best and my ego would have to forgive me if i couldn't finish. i would bring my B-game and cross my fingers that it would be enough.

the next morning i woke up pretty pumped, confident and relaxed. the shoulders were much much better but i packed a couple of advil just in case, picked up aaron and arrived at rutgers where i was very happy to see bob and even happier that we were putting ourselves in the same interval lane. there was a 2:00 lane and a 1:40 lane that changed to a 1:50, so bob and i went into the 1:50 lane and i think aaron went into the 1:15 lane with the other psychos. the way the swim works is that you do a set of 2500, w/ different numbers of 100's on different time intervals. we had a decent group of some triathletes and one very nice math teacher who was thankfully very good at counting intervals. i had thought that the swim would be a long run but it turned out to be more like a century ride where you go for a bit, get out and chill out and eat and chat (unless you are in aaron's lane where you stretch for 1 minute) and then get back to work. the first 2x2500 were decent, i was worried that i was going too fast b/c an old lady was yelling at me (but then i found out she is always like that) and b/c i ended up leading the lane. my "not trying to push it" intervals were from 1:25-1:27 and the last time i had swum in a yard pool was at columbia where my pr was 1:26. i think i should have put myself in a slightly faster lane b/c the rest times were a little long..but i was too chicken to do it this year. halfway through my shoulders were really starting to hurt so i took some advil and then just stopped using my arms but threw my hips around to focus on rotating instead.

by the time we hopped out of the pool after doing 7500, aaron was already done and changed and ready to go. one of these days...!! i was excited about the last 2500 and not so sore, although my times were going toward the 1:27-1:28 range. for most of the swim, even when i was sore, i kept thinking, i really love swimming! it was weird to swim in a yard pool where you save a lot more effort(proportionately) doing flip turns but i was glad to have been doing them more or less right and saved a bunch of strokes. counting the last 10x100 i was thinking, i can't wait to finish! and then on the very last 100 i did a 100 i.m. i felt strong and happy and i think it was the best 25 fly i've ever done (meaning it wasn't just the first two strokes that were decent). we finished! i was so excited even though we were the last lane in the pool (the one slower lane had switched from 100's to 50's) and the coaches were asking when we would be done. i hopped out of the pool and did a few crunches, contemplated going running but decided that it wouldn't be the best idea and went to aaron's for post-swim festivities. bob did a a fantastic job, finished strong and it was so reassuring for me that we were in the same lane. the absolute best part of that event was inhaling delicious pancakes that aaron's girlfriend made. i think i melted at their house and almost fell asleep with warm food in my tummy.

so today i am feeling much better than i did last week but am playing it safer and smarter and actually resting.

hooray for swimmer's high!