Finding Focus

Feeling slightly "out of focus" lately. I'm beginning to think it's not such a bad thing. I haven't been going out of my way to fill up every minute of my day with some kind of activity. The weather was so bad this past weekend in Austin and it literally forced us to relax and chill at the house. We actually watched our first movie in our new home over the weekend. It's hard to believe that we've been in this house almost four months and haven't allowed ourselves the opportunity to sit for two hours and watch a freaking movie. Sadly, we watched the old film "Team America: World Police" (America--F*ck Yeah!!) That shows are maturity level when our first movie is from the South Park dudes! We also went and saw Will Ferrell's "Blades of Glory" on Friday night! I think our lives are always so intense that it's nice to just disintegrate into brain mush.

In addition to wonderfully horrible movies, we were able to work on some wedding details--(which was just wonderful and not horrible) music for the ceremony, picking out who we want to do our readings, working on music for the reception. For the record, I'm having a BLAST picking out and downloading music for the reception. If it all works how I'm envisioning, it should be hysterical and incredibly memorable.

Workouts have been slightly out of focus as well as I've just been having a hard time getting up in the mornings.

MONDAY 4/9

Swim at Lunch: 1500-1700 meters with a couple of interval combos thrown in for good measure
10 x 50m (avg between :58 and 1:02)--still great for me
5 x 100m (2:02-2:03-2:04-2:04-2:08)-I could feel myself fading

Now, each of the above was an 80-85% effort for me. I was really trying to focus on form instead of effort. I was also breathing every 4th stroke so I wasn't in any real panic. I really need to practice my bilateral breathing, but overall am pleased with the marked improvement in my times. Still no Castle Hill Swim Ex Pools--BASTARDS.

After work, I was going to go to JAck and Adams core, but was running late. Plus, it beat me up so bad last week that I didn't want to start my "race week" feeling sore and drained. I ended up going to the gym and realized I forgot my damn shoes. Soooooo....I did my own version of core workouts with plank, leg lifts, medicine ball,etc. Plus, I did get on the elyptical and got the heart rate going for about 30 minutes. Nothing major, just a little fat burning zone action.

TUESDAY 4/10

2000s at Zilker Park.

We could only dodge thunder, lightening and rain for so long. I got up late so I actually drove to the park and basically had no warmup. Not good for this workout. I was tempted to go to the gym for a "slacker" workout, but talked myself into going to Zilker. Gilbert lined me up with 3 guys. One was Brian and I didn't know the others. Steady effort, quick turnover and focus on breathing for over a mile with each repeat. He also raised the bar a bit and moved the finish line further away from where it's always been. Therefore, I tried to look at my watch at the "old" finish line for comparisons. Every additional step takes that much more effort.


Repeat 1: 8:35 (old finish line: 8:15)
Repeat 2: 8:34 (old finish line: 8:13)
Repeat 3: 8:40 (old finish line 8:20)

I was pretty toasted after 3 repeats, which sucks because I usually can knock off four of them. Coach actually stopped us at 3 today because the thunder, lightening and rain were beginning to roll in.

I took the final 2000 lap as a cool down and then ran across the street to where I was parked on the South Side of Zilker and tacked on the 1 mile loop that we do in Zilker for Mile Repeats. So, I left the park drenched, but with the knowing satisfaction that I didn't skimp on the mileage today. My cool down was about 2.5 miles.

Call it a cool-down, call it guilt, call it self-mutilation. I call it Self-Actualization. I didn't want to leave the workout having cheated myself.