Day 6: First AM Swim

Webb: Today was the first time we have done a weekday morning swim. Up at 6AM and in the water before 7:30AM. I realize that you swimmers out there have done this so often it has become routine. For us, well for me, it was a struggle to get up and move. By the time we were at the water's edge I was awake and ready.

Elle: I honestly didn't know if Webb was going to make it. I was up and ready, then waited around the apartment for Webb to get his act together. Which he did, and we were off. I think the newness of it all helped me to find the energy to get up and at 'em. Hopefully I can hold on to this for the rest of the month, and longer...

THE SWIM WORKOUT
W/U -   2x {100 swim, 100 pull-buoy, 100 kick w/fins, 100 swim}
Drill -  Elle: 200 catch-up as 4x50 drill/swim
           Webb: 200 mega catch-up as 2x100
Main - 200 at TPace

Webb: Quite frankly I was surprised how few people were at the pool this morning. We doubled the swim population and there were never more than four people total in the pool (for six lanes). I was sure the pool deck would be flooded with the water of hundreds of churning, flip-turning career swimmers. Nope. Just us and a couple of others and calm water.

The swim itself felt great. I love the mega catch-up drill. I picked it up from Glenn Mills and the GoSwim.tv website. Check it out. Anyway, back to the workout. One of my goals is to push myself without over-taxing my musculoskeletal or cardiovascular systems. In short, I don't want to injure myself or burn out. On the other hand, the point of this "30 for 30" is to become faster in the water. We do not want to train ourselves to go slow.

Elle: This swim went, uh, swimmingly. I felt good, it was nice outside, and the sun was streaming into the pool through the high windows above the pool deck. I timed myself this time doing my 200 meters at t-pace, and found that I've lost 11 seconds per 200 meters, woohoo! We'll get to see some real numbers once I finally get to do my swim test, hopefully later this week.
Oh, and one of the best parts, after the swim, I jumped in the car to head to work (yes, I drove. It's 20-degrees today. So shoot me.) And lo, and behold, our swim anthem was on the radio! Metallica's "Unforgiven". But instead of singing, "So I dub thee unforgiven", we sing,
"So I dub thee up for swimmin'..."

You can watch the video here:

Metallica - The Unforgiven

Webb: It started out with me singing to a grumpy Elle on the way to the pool a year or more ago, "I dub thee un-for-swimmin' ooo-eee-ooooo." Now she can't get enough.