The end of March is here. I started the month with the hope of becoming stronger, a stronger lion of sorts. I am happy to say I am seeing improvements. My running is definitely stronger and my swimming has improved as well. In keeping with stronger, I did increase my weights for lifting this month too. I upped my goals halfway through the month. I set a personal best in my five mile race and I am pushing it a bit more in my running. In swimming I wanted to swim all my workouts with flip turns. Not only am I doing that, I started flipping with the pull buoy yesterday. That is a bit of challenge, but I like it. I am pushing through with my swim distance and speed. I hope to see an improvement and I will know soon enough when I do my time trials for April next week.

April will be here tomorrow – time is flying by. My goals in fitness for April are three (rather fitting for a triathlete). I have a ten mile race at the end of April and I hope to set a personal record. It is very likely I will, so I am going to kick it up a notch and hope to break 1:43. I tend to feel under pressure when I put a time goal out there, it just may be what I need to make it happen. My second goal is in cycling, I want to get back on the bike. I have missed it so. I plan on riding on Saturday mornings beginning April 7th. If the weather is bad, my gym has two morning spin classes I can substitute riding outside with. My active rest day will morph into only one swim on Friday. The third goal in swimming is to keep improving my pace. This is going to be challenging and I plan to look into specific workouts to improve my endurance. Time goal? Well, I want to determine that after I see how my 100 and 1500 meter time trials go this week. I would like to be at 1:45 or less on the 100 and 30:00 or better on the 1500. This week will give me greater clarity.

I was reminded this week that life is not linear. I will make progress, sometimes in leaps and bounds and sometimes in baby steps. I also will experience momentary stagnation and the occasional back slide. I have learned that I can not beat myself up over it. Progress comes from assessment. What did I do well? Where can I improve? What needs to change or stop? After all, I am a work in progress… and I am loving the journey.

Two workouts in one day is a common occurrence for me, however two swims in one day is new to me. I have done it five times in the past two months, including today. Each time I go into the second swim thinking I am too tired to do this. Each time I come out thinking I am so glad I did it. Today I almost convinced myself to swim in the morning tomorrow instead because thunderstorms were in the area. When the time came to leave work the rain had cleared. I have to laugh at my reasoning: I was tired and thought if I get the swim in today, I can sleep in a bit more tomorrow. So off to the pool I went. I swam 3,000 meters this morning and 1,900 meters this evening. My intent was to swim 2,000 but my tired brain lost track and I missed a 100 meter interval. Oops.

The whole purpose of the second swim is to get six swims in one week in. I only plan on doing this through April and then resume a normal (?) training plan of only three to five swims in a week. I have seen an improvement in my pace, efficiency, and overall speed. That said, I am aware of where I have to work the most on improving. Endurance. My 50 meter and 100 meter repeats are fairly consistent. Add in the 200 meter repeats and I slow down more than I would like. This gives me a good review to work with and know what I need to work on. Swimming all these workouts has not only helped me become stronger, it has honed in on where I need to improve.

Regardless of the task – a workout, house chore, bill to pay – there will always be things we don’t want to do. Excuses can be made and the can kicked down the road, but eventually it catches up with us. Weight gain, disappointing race results, dirty house or late notice – something will force us into action. Once the task is taken on and accomplished, often the resulting reaction is similar to my second swim – I am so glad I did it. I hope you find this motivating, because I sure have. Now I am going to spend some time this weekend on those house chores I keep putting off….

Today’s workouts both convinced me I am making progress, or strides if you will. First in the pool. I swam another speed workout and noticed my pace is improving and I am nailing my flip turns. The swim this morning was the first one that I really felt like my flips in the main set were “official”. Coupled with my improved times, I am gaining confidence that my time trials next week should at least meet my times for March. Of course I want to improve on my time, I am concerned the flips right now might hold me back a second or two.

I didn’t get as much sleep last night as I would have preferred. I usually get 7 hours but I was up later than planned and I only got 6 hours. By the time I was finished swimming 3,000 meters, I was feeling the lack of the extra hour sleep. After work my plan was to run 5 miles. I suited up, headed out, and was committed to a nice easy run. I ran fast on Tuesday so a steady run today fit right in. I kept an eye on my Garmin and noticed my heart rate was staying steady in the mid 130’s. For me, that meant a pace probably over 12 minutes a mile about five months ago. Even with the hills I run on my 5 mile course, I was pacing between 11:30 and 11:45. When I finished the 5 miles I was very happy to have run an 11:36 average pace and my heart rate averaged 135. What really surprised me was my maximum heart rate was 142 – and I ran up hill. On Tuesday when I ran harder on the same course, I my average heart rate was 142 and maximum was 153. I am making strides in running for sure.

My lack of sleep did not slow me down and when I finished running my good ol’ endorphins kicked in. Now I am hoping to get to sleep earlier tonight. Hopefully this will all wear off and I will sleep sound. Days like today are so encouraging for my training. I was not looking for a strong performance in swimming or in running. When it came to the run, I just wanted to have it done. Then I saw my results. My hard work at training and perseverance is showing up now. Paces that used to be my all out, tough to maintain are beginning to be my typical averages. More encouragement to keep at it. Oh but wouldn’t it be nice to have a training plan to persevere for sleeping? Now that would be making huge strides.

This morning my endurance swim workout did just that, tested my endurance. It was a 2,500 meter swim with a 1,800 main set made up of 6 repeats of 150 meters, 100 meters, and 50 meters. The goal is to increase the pace every two sets within the 6 repeats. I did my flip turns through my warm up and the 150’s. By my second 100 I was flopping all over the place exhausted so I stopped flip turns for the last 4 100’s and picked it back up on the 50’s. It occurred to me while I was swimming, I had to just keep swimming. If this were open water and I had 1.2 miles to swim, I had to go forward or quit. With no good reason to quit, I pushed on. I was forced to be strong.

At lunch today I pulled out my Kindle app on my iPhone and snuck in a little reading. I am almost finished with the book I read on vacation. The last thing I expected to read was a quote that defined my workout this morning, but there it was on my screen:

Sometimes the fact that you were forced to be strong was enough to actually turn you into what you had to be. – JR Ward from Lover Avenged

How is that for multiple applications? My vampire romance fiction book taught me a lesson in swimming.  In a triathlon, the swim is in open water. The majority of a triathlete’s training is done in a pool with walls to push off of, a floor to put your feet down on, and 25 to 50 meters at most to consider if you want to stop. This is not the case in open water. You look for the next buoy and keep swimming. Many people become overwhelmed and start swimming breast stroke, back stroke, or even tread water for a bit. More often than not, they pull it together and finish. When it is time to give up, the kayak comes for you. If you don’t want to ride in a kayak, then you have to get the swim training in and turn into what you have to be – a distance swimmer.

This also goes back to what I have believed for a while now. We are capable of so much more if we only put our all into it with determination and practice. It is not easy, the hardest and best lessons aren’t. When forced to be strong, we truly can be come what we have to be – for me – a triathlete determined to swim 1.2 miles under 40 minutes.

My mantras are working. This morning I swam a speed workout, it is Tuesday after all. I did my standard 1,000 meter warm up and went into 18×100 meter repeats with progressing speed and increasing interval times for recovery. I did all of them with flip turns – I was not able to break 2:00 with the flips, but I am doing it. I have to admit I got a little frustrated. My times are a bit slower since I am still getting the rhythm of the flip down. I also did not do speed work for over a week, so I have some making up to do. My “Just keep swimming” song from Finding Nemo came in handy. It got me through and I was very happy to have completed 3,000 meters. I am a work in progress and my progress so far has been good. No as I just keep swimming I hope to see more progress.

This evening I ran 5 miles. The weather was perfect – lower 50’s and a setting sun. I wore my Brooks PureCadence minimalist shoes and have been adapting well. My pace was strong – faster than I usually run my 5 mile course. With that said, at mile 2 I hit the steepest hill on  my run. At that point the thought of making it a 4 mile run was enticing. I still had more hill to run, I was considering my options. Then Dory started singing in my head. “Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.” Which is funny for a run. I quickly changed channels in my mind (no iPod on this run) and thought of Jason Mraz I Won’t Give Up.  Now this is a love song that I think every woman would love to hear, but the title also helped me get through the hill and finish the 5 miles. Plus I sang the song in my head and it is one of my very favorites. Extra motivation.

Children’s movie songs or adult love songs, if it works to get me through and help me take my training to the next level, than I am all for it. Motivation comes from so many sources. Music is a big influence for me. Searching for what motivates me is also part of the journey. Stretching my limits, finding motivation to carry me, and seeing my improvement are elements of what the journey is about. And after all, isn’t that the best part?

After a week away from a 25 meter pool, it was good to be back at my gym. I remembered my flip turns and have them down well. Getting control of my breathing is the next step. One thing I know for sure, swimming in an 11 meter pool really cut down my endurance! I noticed a difference in my pace this morning, I swam 2,000 meters and was ready for bed. Too bad I had to go to work. I am sure some of it is from travel, some the elevation change, and some from not swimming as intensely last week. Tomorrow I plan on doing my speed workout and hope to have my distance back up over 3,000 meters.

I am also working on a mantra just for swimming. “Believe” is helping me most in running. Now that I know I am capable of flip turns and improving my time, I want to focus on something to get me through the hard swims. The swims where I have to push it to get to the next level. “Push”? I am not sure, when I stroke I am pulling the water more than pushing. “Keep On”? Maybe, there are times when I just want to call it quits after so many sets. I even googled “swimming mantras” and came up with “long and strong”, “you’re long, you’re lean, you’re in control”, and my favorite that I am going to try tomorrow from Finding Nemo “Just keep swimming“. Really, Dory the fish has it right – “when life gets you down you know what you gotta do? Just keep swimming, swimming swimming.” So when my lack of speed gets me down I will just keep swimming. Swimming. Swimming.

Besides, who wants to be a Mr. Grumpy Gills?