Child's Play

I just returned from my second official swim workout, first official task to complete as given by my coach. As you may recall, I about drowned myself doing laps of mixed strokes on Saturday. Surprisingly, I wasn't too sore later in the day or the day after. I rode 6 miles on the stationary bike that afternoon and the next morning I walked/jogged 2.5 miles on the treadmill and 4 miles on the bike so maybe that helped with any soreness.

So today, I asked my coach what he'd like me to work on tonight and he challenged me to do 20 lengths, legs only, with a kickboard. I thought to myself, "child's play.....no problem", fully convincing myself that I would breeze through it. Isn't it amazing that as we get older, our body knows that it can't do everything it used to but our brain refuses to listen? Must be some kind of defense mechanism or survival tactic. It's so easy for me to overestimate my physical abilities and underestimate my limitations!

Back to the workout.......20 lengths with a kickboard in front of me at arms length, focusing on bilateral breathing and leg strength. First lap wasn't too bad, harder than I thought, but not bad. By the 5th lap, I took a 30 second break (or more) to catch my breath. By the 8th lap, I stretched after every second lap as I could feel my thighs tightening up. By the 14th lap, my feet were cramping so badly that my toes were curling up like monkey paws!
After that.......it got a little better! I must have finally warmed up. I finished out my 20 lengths and decided to swim a few more with the full use of my arms. AHHHH.......much better! I was able to complete ten more lengths, 4 breaststroke and 6 freestyle.

All in all, not too bad! I may need help getting out of bed in the morning but right now I feel pretty good!

I still have a very, very long way to go but I think I'll get there!