2 days of Swim, Bike

How do you people do this? I'm sitting here feeling exhausted and thinking tomorrow is a rest day because I've already logged 2 big workouts (big for me folks), but I still have to run tomorrow!

I'll start with yesterday and my intro to freestyle swimming. I need to stop saying "swimming lessons" because I sound like I'm 5. I guess I should say I'm working with my trainer or my coach or something that sounds more adult, since I do indeed know how to swim I just don't know how to do it without looking like a fool. My coach was incredibly kind and I got a rest to discuss technique and my form after every length of the pool lap. Trust me, I needed it to catch my breath. So far his advice has been great and makes total sense, and is precisely what I was looking for. Swimming involves a huge amount of multitasking, which I like to think I'm good at, but I find it difficult to apply in the pool. Once I got the breathing rhythm down I needed to focus on my hips, then pushing my chest down, then bringing my elbows higher. I was doing my best to pull it all together and had a few laps that felt really good! Then he pulled out this toy...

I told him he would need to demonstrate the use of this strange object to me. Wait, you don't want me to kick? Okay, I'll give it a go. I can see how this was really helpful in keeping my hips up and making me focus on the stroke, but let's just say after several laps of using this little apparatus I started to fatigue. I was relieved when he handed me a kick board so that he could observe my kick. Um, hello, I think I'm swimming in place! After a few tips, I was motoring down the lane of the pool at a faster speed. Just when I thought I was going to have to demonstrate my foot cramp release technique from SCUBA he wanted to watch me pull it all together. Let's just say that being fatigued in the pool equates to me being lucky to not drown myself in my effort to pull it all together. As my tired arms can barely reach out of the water I start to loose focus on my breathing, oops. "How'd that feel?" I wanted to say like a cluster fuck, but I left the profanity off, this was our first meeting after all.

Even though I could barely lift my arms last night and my shoulders and abs were so sore this morning I walked away feeling really good. If I can work on all of this stuff, I will hopefully be starting off on the right foot and won't embarrass myself at  lap swim.

Lucky for me, last night was date night! I indulged with the following:

Pink Metro Martini

Gelato Sundae

Yes, there was also an amazing past dish in between the two as well as a salad!

This morning we had planned on a bike ride I need to get more time on the new bike and lots more practice with the clipless pedals. Scott kept looking at me thinking I didn't want to go because I was still sore, but I had really been looking forward to a ride with no kids! (Although, let's be honest, Kylie rides her trike faster than I ride my bike). I took some Advil and sucked it up. I was nervous about getting out of our driveway and immediately heading downhill, but somehow I made it. The plan was to ride out the Lafayette-Moraga Trail (my usual run route) and on the return stop and grab some breakfast before heading home. I only had 40 minutes of cross training on the calendar but based on how slow I am and the fact that I'm just trying to get comfortable on my bike, I went well over that. I did reward myself again with some Cheese Blintzes and fresh fruit for breakfast, sorry no photos of that. As we all know running up my 1 mile long street has been a long term goal of mine, let's just say for a new cyclist getting up it on a bike is also tough. I'm thankful for that very last gear on my bike because I used it today! I was pretty sure I could make it to our driveway but given the amount of vehicles in our driveway my best guess was that I would fall in the street in front of the driveway or crash into a car. Since neither of those seemed like great options, I rode to the court below our house and dismounted and walked the short distance to our driveway. Which meant I didn't fall today! There was maybe one less than graceful dismount, but I didn't fall! Pretty good for my second time out.

I'm spending the evening hydrating and resting for tomorrow's big day of a long run and volunteering.