Felt a little better in the water yesterday

It's been a long week. I don't want to grouse too much about this Metro-North thing, but it's made my already long commute much, much longer, and that hasn't been fun. Granted, I finally managed to get back on my foldie yesterday for the part of my commute that's actually in New York City, and that helps, but it's still been a bunch of long days strung together.  On top of that, Sally called me yesterday afternoon to let me know that I had to meet her at the YMCA last night to pick up the kids while she herself attended a meeting.

So, bottom line, I capped the day with some swimming.

- 5 x 100 warm up @ 1:30

- 10 x 100 tempo @ 1:25 (held ~1:10)

- 200 kick

- 50 easy

- 5 x 50 alternating fly/free @ :55

- 50 warm down

The 100s tempo were really good. There was a guy in the lane next to me holding about 1:28/100 (constant swimming), so I wound up pacing off of him for most of my tempo set. He'd leave maybe :10 or :15 in front of me, and then I'd chase him down over the course of each interval. I could tell it was pissing the poor guy off--he wouldn't even look at me after we got out of the water, having just been chased down from behind and passed ten times in a row (!)--but what was I supposed to do?  I had my workout written up beforehand and needed tempo work. He just happened to be next to me. Granted it was nice to have someone to pace off of, but I'd have done the exact same workout if I'd been by myself. 

Anyway, after the tempo work and the kicking, I started the 50s fly, and for once I felt good. I did three and went :33, :34, and :35. That's not blazing fast, but I also never felt like the piano fell in on me, so I'm calling it an improvement. Who knows?  Maybe there's some hope for this butterfly thing after all. 

Then I got home and was exhausted to the point where Sally and I had a stupid, stupid fight. I know she thinks I'm a madman now, but again, what can you do?  Life is demanding, and I'm doing the best I can.  Sometimes I fall short. However, putting even more pressure on myself to somehow force relaxation isn't actually going to be relaxing. Really, that's just more pressure. 

What I needed was a little quiet time to get my shit together after a very, very long day, but if you're married with kids, then you know that sometimes life doesn't afford you quiet time. Yesterday was one of those days. 

Hopefully today will be better, but frankly, I'm not counting on it. After yesterday, I'm determined to be ready for anything.