Saturday Morning Swim: Ugly

It wasn't my intention to write about this, but this morning's swim was such an ugly slog that it feels like it's left a mark.  If you've ever had one of those days when you feel like you're swimming in jello, when your goggles fog, and the world closes in to just the two feet to your immediate front and the pain you feel in your chest and shoulders, well...  That was me today.

Swimming this morning was like a long, slow uphill march through a haze of fog and pain, and even the echo of the effort I left in the pool feels like a part of my soul lost forever.

I haven't felt like that in a long, long time.

It wasn't my plan to do a workout that was gonna leave me feeling like that today.  It's just that this has been a Hell of a long week, and when I hit the water this morning, I knew I didn't have my best stuff.  But I also knew what goals I'd set for this morning's workout, so what are you gonna do?  The only thing you can do on those kinds of days is to put your head down and work through it as best you can, holding your form together as much as possible.

Truth is, I think we get the most training effect on the hard days.  That said, pushing through on a day like this has left me feeling mentally and emotionally exhausted and physically sore.  I hate to be like that, but that's the way it is.

So.  I know you're wondering what the workout was.  Well, here you go:

200 SKIPS warm-up (200 x Swim/Kick/IM/Pull/Swim)
2 x 300 free (aerobic) @ 4:15
3 x 200 free (aerobic @ 2:55
4 x 100 free (aerobic) @ 1:30
 --- All of that sucked hard.
8 x 50 kick, alternating fly/free @ 1:05
50 easy
2 x 50 fly (sprint) @ 1:30
 --- That wasn't too bad.  I went about :32.5 & :33.0.
300 pull
50 warm down
Total: 3500 yards

And now I feel like ten miles of bad road.  Hopefully  it'll pass, but right this instant, I'm wondering if it's too early to have a beer.  I could certainly use one.