Waterblogged

Oh how I mourn when February comes to an end. I treasure those early morning drives to the pool during that wintery four week period--drives during which I can rest assured that my bare and freezing toes will not brave the elements only reach the pool's edge and be told the workout consists of a flurry of 25 yard Breaststroke sprints (or anything less than pure unadulterated LONG FREESTYLE). Of course, I might be less aggrieved to see the month end if I had significantly stepped up the hours I spent in the pool. I might have even come to dread my next swim (egads, could that ever happen to me ?). But, unlike some of you (commendable) nutsos, I swam well below 100,000 yards for the month. (Around 65,000 to be generally exact.) I'd like to say this is all part of my Master Smartplan to prevent burnout and reach optimal fitness, but truly I just couldn't get any more time off from my two kiddos and one kid-husband to spend at the pool. Perhaps if I hadn't taken the kids ...

I'm not a health food nut, but I'm nuts about the healthy recipe I made last night. A dear friend of mine (who does triathlons) hired one of those snazzy trainers that does workouts and meals with you/for you, and I'm enjoying some of the benefits: second hand recipes already tested by my dear friend the gourmet triathlete. You won't find me making anything difficult (ever) but this one is just about the easiest thing I've ever done and I loooooooved it. My kids even ate the polenta and beans and cheese (the non oniony, spinachy parts). If you have a recipe to share send it along and I'll include it in a post. Give your name so we can all praise you for your recipe at the pool. Here's the Polenta Deal: Serving Content: 1/4 of recipe Servings: 4 (Riiiiight. I ate at least half of this, but even so it's healthy) Calories/Serving: 316.44 CPF Ratio (what the hell is this anyway?): 57-25-17 1 t Olive Oil 2 Garlic cloves, minced (I used two frozen Trader Joe...

Before you think this is a misspelled golf reference, let me just say I'm talking about the nine four hundreds we did this morning. When the warm up was 3 x 400 there weren't any groans from the liquid peanut gallery. But the announcement of 5 x 400 as the main set seemed to "set" some folks off. Me? I was smiling. Sometimes it seems as if the workout was written just for me, or as if those $20 bills I slip Tim once in a while really pay off. Not only is the 400 my favorite distance to swim in practice, but I love doing them with no gear, and over and over and over. Just putting my head down and swimming is my kind of morning. That's basically what this morning was, and I'm already getting teary-eyed thinking about the end of February tomorrow. Here's the entire workout: Warm up with 3 x 400 Main set: 5 x 400. switch leaders every 400 Warm down with 1 x 400 broken at the 100 for 5 seconds.

I didn't get to swim this morning. I love my Monday morning swim and I hate to miss it. But every year I go to down south to my best friend's house (along with my other best friend) for a women-only Oscar party. For this , I miss a swim. I did get a good workout, as you can see, posing on the red carpet. There were also great healthy food options at the party, like salad, which I had some of just before I hit the shrimp wrapped in bacon platter, the salmon and brie crostinis, and the enchillada casserole. Ah, the Oscars!

Here's what I battled this morning (from last night of course) at 5:30AM. My head hurt (probably more from the three homemade frosted brownies I ate than the glass of red wine) and I was tired . Sometimes the wine and chocolate doesn't seem worth it...for about five minutes. I do love it so. And I loved this morning's workout nearly as much. I'm a glutton for long sets of freestyle. Here it is: 400 easy free 400 moderate free add pull gear for the following 3,000 yards(!) of freestyle: 1x500 then pull apart and do 2x250 1x400 then pull apart and do 2x200 1x300 then pull apart and do 2x150 1x200 then pull apart and do 2x100 1x100 then pull apart and do 2x50 warm down with another easy 400 and call it a 4200 yard day!

Some people don't understand why I (we) get up at 5:15 am to jump in and swim for an hour before the sun is up (it's effin' cold and dark!). For me though, it's as natural as eating and sleeping, but that's because I'm used to it and I love every minute of it (much like I love every bit of eating and sleeping). I couldn't/wouldn't do it if I didn't. I also have to give big kudos to coach Tim for being the kind of guy you want to show up and perform for. Yes, he's a hottie and thus serves as early morning eye candy for many of us (just keepin' it real here), but he also has a certain uber coachy, fun, inspirational something that makes you want to "do good" for him. It takes me back to high school--all that drive to succeed in sports, and I thank him for that. One of my greatest wishes is that all of my dear friends would swim too. I just can't get over the idea that every one of them would gain as much mojo and good energy from...

Everything starts to look gosh darned rosey when my coffee is poured.

For most people, this past month is been February. As you all know, for us it's Can-Do February. And boy are we doing some swimmin'. This Can-Do February has been a Menlo Masters "thing" for years. This thing was originally started because Coach Tim firmly believes that one can change and improve one's swimming, and of course overall fitness, with about 5-7 hours of swimming per week. This translates to about 100,000 yards for the month. Yah. I'll say. That's a lot of swimming (and I love it!). Over the years this aerobic training has evolved into an “event.” Tim added the 100,000 and 50,000 yard club for motivation. It's amazing how much allure being able to say "Yah, I'm part of that club" can have. Swimmers are fans of clubs. Then Tim added something even more inspiring than the promise of bragging rights: swimming for a cause. These days, for every 2000 yards each of us swims, we donate a can of food. In past years the team has don...

I'm prepping for the Oscars but I took time out to watch a documentary film about swimming today, and I'm glad I did. If you swim, are a woman, and/or are Jewish (I fit all three categories), or you just plain have a heart (usually I'm good there too), watch this movie. It makes you feel proud to be a swimmer and lucky to be alive. The following is from an amazon.com review. I second it! "Watermarks" is a remarkable documentary, as remarkable as the women whose stories it tells. It harkens back to early 20th century Vienna, Austria, a time when the Jewish community was well-settled, prosperous, and largely assimilated, and tells the true story of Hakoah, a Jewish sports club, the largest membership sports club in the world. We mainly learn about the women's swim team: they are charming, intelligent, high-spirited, and as independent as the times allow them to be. These women were athletes, and in the old footage, you can see that they just loved to swim: there...

In all my years of swimming I have never arrived to hear the coach say "We can't get in. The chemicals are off. It's just not safe." I know this happens from time to time, I just thought it quite possibly would never happen to me . And on a Saturday at 6am for G-d's sake! Of course, Tim was away on a three day ride. This explains a lot. Technically, his record's still clean. After a rare outing last night with red wine and lasagna I managed to answer my 5:30am alarm this morning, chew down my favorite pre-workout discovery of late (this actually tastes good and gets me through a swim feeling like I've already had two cups of coffee minus that post liquid need to pee), rip myself off the computer after only five minutes of checking the Maya's Mom site, and get to the pool. All this only to be turned away with extreme workout consummation frustration! I took a deep breath and tried to see it as a blessing. Here are the things that went through my mind:...

Step One: Get up when alarm goes off even though thick fog of Valentine's Day chocolate fondue hangover shouts "STAY IN BED". Step Two: Gather things together for work in 4.5 minutes in order to arrive at practice on time (chocolate fondue plus red wine made outfit prep for this morning impossible last night). Step Three: After arriving late regardless of speedy prep at home, do workout: *1000 free (I missed the explanation and just swam the darn thing straight) Add Paddles for: *2 x 300 free on the 1:30 base *6 x 100 free on the 1:25 *2 x 200 free on the 1:30 base *6 x 100 free on the 1:20 *4 x 50 free on the 55, 50, 45, 40. repeat twice. *1 x 400 free with every fourth length backstroke. ~4000 yards Step Four: Pat self on back for getting chocolate logged butt to workout.

Ah, it's nice to be back after a three day hiatus from swimming and the long drives to and from LA (not to mention the bouts of vomiting from my little guy surrounding the Disneyland visit). All three of my alarms (my two sons and my watch) were weak (or kind to me) this morning and I slept a bit more than usual but got to the pool fifteen minutes late. Luckily I don't have any meetings today and I was able to leisurely finish the workout and then keep going to make up what I missed (and then a bit). To top off the indulgent morning I got to use my favorite new product for the first time after my shower. This stuff smells like the curly cued little lemon zest they put on your cocktail at high-end bars, and it makes you feel like butter. But back to the workout... All done with fins 2 x 600 25 fly kick on back, 25 flutter kick on back, 50 two arm back, 100 regular back. stop for 5 seconds. 50 fly kick on side, 50 flutter kick on side, 100 fist free, 200 regular free. Wait for l...