Swimming and Paddling

Thursday 7/8

500 warm up at 8.30
200 random strokes
200 pull free
100 pull back
50 free

During warm-up felt a twinge in my left ankle. something similar to a needle sticking out of it. tested it out for 200 just to be sure. Then did pulls since I couldn't kick.

Still feeling it at my desk, guess i gotta take it easy for a little while.

Friday 7/9

Took the day off from working out to eat at Chick-Fil-A

Worked from 6 to 3 today so I could start heading south to drive with Zoey to the river so I could demo boats.

Saturday 7/10

I did 12 runs of the falls. I Demoed 4 different boats: LL Jefe, LL Remix, Dagger Mamba, and a Small Fluid Solo. I like both the Mamba and the Solo (but this may be partially due to the fact that they both got me into Micro [a small eddy that you catch in the middle of the rapid on river left])

I went back to the garage at Brian Aubin's place and picked Zoey up. Then we drove to the lake where I swam across the lake, then to one end and back again. I did this twice, which worked out to about forty minutes of swimming.

Sunday 7/11

Got up early today thanks to Zoey standing next to the door of the tent and scratching at the door. I didn't want her to tear up the tent so I decided to get up. (an hour earlier than I had my alarm set for, but I guess I better get used to that if I ever want to have kids one day.)

I then drove to the lake and did the same thing I had before. We had the place to ourselves and Zoey was attached to a tree by the side of the lake: a 15ft cam strap attached to her leash.

The water was soooo warm, the same temp at 7:50 in the morning as it had been at 4:00pm the previous day. There was a sort of mist/fog hanging over the water, due I guess to the difference in air and water temp.

I swam for about 30min this morning. I would have swam longer, but as I was swimming from one end of the lake to the other I could hear Zoey whining, which just broke my heart. On my second lap when I was clear across the lake I could hear Zoey barking, so I stopped treading water and booked it back to her in case something was wrong, but it turned out she was hung up around a tree.

My confession about lakes: they scare the bajesus outta me. It totally just creeps me out how I have no idea how deep the water is. As I'm swimming and can't see anything though I have on goggles. It probably goes back to my hometown Elizabeth, IN where someone told me once that in this old abandoned quarry that everyone used to swim in, there was a crane at the bottom. And ever since that now all I can think about as I'm swimming across and doing laps is that I have no idea what's lurking below the surface.

I then went and signed up at Endless River Adventures to demo boats. Boats on tab for today: Medium Fluid Solo and the Wavesport Habitat 74. They said to come back around 11:30 to demo the boat...it is a 2hr demo free of charge.

They had a Small size Fluid Solo for 699 with a warranty on the porch...I really wanted to buy it, but the Medium is closer in volume and length to the Hero that I've paddled a few times.

I took the Solo down the falls six times today. I ran into a guy after my sixth run and got to talking to him about the boat...after the conversation I had basically talked myself into buying the boat.

I ended up telling the owner of the store that I loved the boat and he told me that maybe we could strike up a deal. He sold me a brand new Medium Fluid Solo for 825.00. It comes with a 3 year warranty and for a creek boat, I felt like the 200 dollars over my price range was worth the security of having a warranty to fall back on.

Monday 7/12

Swam at lunch today. 1300M

500M 8.40
100M free, 100M back, 100M breast
4 75M sprints with a 10sec rest in between
200M cooldown 3.20

ankle felt fine today and this weekend too. It was soo weird today though, I just felt like I couldn't get enough air.

Probably will swim tomorrow too...I know I'm training for a triathlon, but I just love swimming too much to have to give it up to do the one thing I hate more than anything...running.