JT's 3,000

Friday January 19th

Made it to Practice today….. much to the chagrin of our good friend JT I think…. She had sent me a note the day before that I didn’t get until after practice. It was informing me that the deal is …… We’re doing a 500 Yd Warm-up and then a 3.000…. DEAL WITH IT! So not knowing that, I walked into practice with a nice outlook on the whole thing then as I was talking to JenC one of the guys we swim with comes over and asks… do you know what JT’s plans are for today? I said …. “do about a million yards.” To which he responded with a chuckle…. and “yeah she’s doing 500 yard warm-up and then a 3.000, is that cool with you?”, “I guess, she’s the one that’s training hard for the Ironman, I’m in, can’t guarantee I’ll finish, but I’ll do my best to not hold things up.” As he walked away there was some discussion between him and JT and BOOM… off they went. I talk to Jen for another minute informing her of the “new” workout to which she replied “I’m out” and then off I went…. chasing them for the next hour. My arms are starting to get a bit over worked I think. I definitely need to NOT lift arms the day before a swim workout, but I pulled my way through the soreness. When the pain got out of hand I would do Breast stroke for a while till I could get my get m arms under me again. Then off to chasing again. I think I did about 2,600 yards with them, good day for me… having been LAZY for so long…. to be able to suffer through that was a good.

Week of January 15th......so far.

January 17, 2007

Week of January 15ht has been quite interesting… the true beginning of winter here in little ol’Cleveland. So the temperatures dropped and so has Steve’s ability to sleep. Sunday night I got to be at a reasonable time so as to get my butt out of bed on time to make it to Swim practice on Monday morning. My old man who happens to be staying with me for a while had quite the sleepless night… and therefore, seeing as how I’m a light sleeper… so did I. After waking up about 10 – 15 times over the course of the evening due to him moving around my house at who knows when AM in the morning, then my alarm went off. BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ I opened my eyes … barely and I tried to stand up and when I was wobbling and could barely keep my eyes open, I decided that I might want to sit back down… apparently 3 hours of “good” sleep doesn’t cut it anymore…. SOoooo no swimming for Steve on Monday.

Monday night…Did make it to the gym for some lifting….. so not a wasted day.

Wednesday….. very cold…. but I was able to pull myself up to get out of bed and drive downtown to swim practice. Walked my way up to the door…. LOCKED! there were a couple of other guys trying to get in the other door. They yelled down to me as I started to head their way… “locked up here too!” as I continued to move their way they started to bang on the door and one of the maintenance guys came over to open the door for us. Not very pleasant… it was COLD… I had to wrap my one hand in my dress shirt in hopes of avoiding frost bite…. when the temps are in the teens / upper single digits I need to remember to bring some gloves. COLD I SAY! So practice was nice… as with the last practice I made it to JT’s already in the water, I’m not sure what time she’s getting there but she was like 200-300 yards into her workout by the time I was jumping into the water. I guess I need to get up earlier. She makes me feel like I’m REALLY Lazy. So I’m getting ready to make my way to the water… and in come Jen. “Hi Jen” been a while since I’ve seen her. She was giving me crap via the blog as well about not partaking in practice. So that was a good work out. my bum shoulder was bothering me by the end… and I had to do the last 100 IM with free instead of fly. I felt like I was cheating myself over that. OH! So what’s the deal with everyone deciding I need to lead the lane most of the time again? I’m back for 3 practices this year and WELL out of shape to be leading a leaf across a pool let alone these peeps! I always feel “on the spot” when they say “you lead” I don’t think I’m back feeling good enough to be out front. I feel like I’m slowing everyone down. I guess it’s could be good…. force me to move as fast as possible and therefore getting me back as fast as possible, but boy don’t I feel like the spot light is on….. good practice though. very tiring.

Thursday….. Went bowling last night and did not get to bed as soon as I would have liked to. Felt pretty good in the morning though. I was thinking about getting up to spin this morning, but didn’t… as I lay there in bed, I was thinking… I should have just gotten up… I’m awake anyway…..

Monday Morning Swimming

As Gene Autry would sing.... "BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN!!!!"

So.... off to swim practice I went on Monday morning after a long weekend of good hard lifting... shoulders were quite sore going IN to practice, so you can imagine what they felt like coming out. So there I was trying to shower and having quite the hard time lifting my arms above my shoulders... which intern makes washing my face, shoulders, hair, etc... quite unpleasant.

Luckily I was able to not only wash my hair and face but shave as well. Taking two months off from practice is a definite no no. I will not make that mistake again. I am resolved to make practice at least twice a week. Speaking of which I should get to sleep soon so that I can get up tomorrow and have a reasonable amount of sleep.... since I have to present a sales forecast for the next nine (9) months to some VP's of my company.

Rub a dub dub see you in the tub.
~Steve

Stanley the Sty....

Stanley the sty has finally given me some reprieve from the "what happened to you ???", "is that a black eye??" comments... I actually after work last night found myself at the gym, (well done Steve... Friday night and you still got to the gym)....and after spending a half hour on the elliptical machine (still can't run.... really really really wanna run again) and lifted for a while.... I was in the locker room and pulled my goggles out of my bag... and then touched where Stanley had been living for the last few days.... Not swollen and didn't hurt toooooo bad... So I put the goggles on.... very acceptable amount of pain.... so off to the pool I went. had a nice swim... not too many yards my arms were already sore from lifting. BUT It would appear I have NO excuse to not make it to swim practice on Monday morning.... So there ya go... fish back in the water.

See you soon in the waves.....
~Steve

Back in the New York Groove

Well not exactly the New Your Groove.... Since I haven't been to NY in quite some time. So yeah false advertising.... What are you going to do.... I'm trying to bring in more readers. Probably would have helped to not have kept blogging instead of ignoring my web based friends huh?

Ok so spinning in the aerobars with the video games has been starving off the effects of boredom. I've also been spending 30 minutes a day on the elliptical trainer and then another hour lifting every day while I can. I had hopes of making it to USMS tomorrow morning... BUT... and I know some of you are going to say... "that's right cry baby wipe your eyes... and SUCK IT UP!" I have sty in my eye right now and it is REALLY annoying to put the goggles on. So I may change my mind tomorrow morning when I wake up and actually go... but not really sure tonight.

I need to start hitting the water again VERY soon however, so I might just SUCK it up and go.... we'll see. why does training feel SOOOOOO hard when you've fallen off the horse for a while.???

Hopefully I'll push myself and actually get to the pool tomorrow. I hope to see you in the pool tomorrow.