Going Postal

On Slowtwitch (online triathlon form) there is a swim contest going on amongst some users.  The idea is that as we are now in the "slow season,"  training becomes harder as there are no goals to focus on so someone came up with the idea of measuring your improved performance starting from now to the spring.  One way is your best time to swim 500 metres or the amount of laps you can swim in 30 minutes.  I've sat on the sidelines (figuratively) but followed the workouts a US swim coach post every week.  By following the workouts, its helped alleviate the boredom of swimming lap after lap which is the reason I haven't rejoined the Masters....yet.

So today, I decided to take the plunge (literally) and see how many laps I can swim in 30 minutes.  I calculated I should be around 60 laps (1.5 km).   Also I was interested in how many calories I burned swimming so I brought my heart rate monitor and wore the strap in the pool.  First problem that the belt kept slipping off so I had to keep tightening it and then for some reason it wasn't picking up my heart rate.  I ended up chucking the HR but kept the watch on to time my 30 minutes.  I also had my second running watch on the same arm (yes I looked like a geek wearing two watches) to count laps as I couldn't count laps if my life depended on it.  I lose count after three laps so I use the counter on my watch. 

So off I go and start out at a pretty good clip however the one problem with the pool in Stoufville is that its always so warm so I really began to die after 20 minutes.  I took a quick peak at my counter watch to see how many laps I had swam and it was........zero.  WTF!!  Even though I was pressing the button after each lap, it wasn't counting.  I was so annoyed that I didn't feel like doing anymore swimming, that and the bath like temperature did me in.  I'll try again on Tuesday where I swim in Markham and the temperature isn't as warm.

This sounds like a pretty whinny blog but its pretty much all that's going on right now.  I hate the off-season.

I need to get out and play more hockey