She ran so fast, and she ran so far!

Here's to the end of recovery week, and the beginning of strength block number 2! I had the luxury of my recovery week lining up with my break week from school, so it was a true recovery week! I went in to the lab a couple times to get some research done, but mostly stayed home and relaxed. Watched Phineas and Ferb on netflix, a lot.

I had a swim test yesterday. I was happy with my results. I didn't get to be one of the billion members of my team who lowered their T-Time though. Not that I particularly want my T-Time lowered. I know that sounds bad, but I feel like my current T-Time is a good fit. I think moving it down the next notch would leave me having to puke at the end of longer sets like 5x200s. I'm pretty close to that next level though. I just need to lower my average for those 2x400s a few seconds, so maybe in a month or two I'll be there, who knows. I also always seem to have trouble pacing those 400s. I take the first 100 out too fast, and I know that impacts my finish. If I could just slow that one down a few seconds, I think I would see my overall time drop. Maybe it's just mental though. Yesterday I felt amazing taking out the first 100 of the test. I felt smooth, strong, and was really feeling the water (something that had been lacking lately). I also didn't wear the drag suit (which I don't for my swim tests, just every other time). Anyways, I felt amazing, then I made the mistake of looking at the pace clock as I came into the 100yd turn. I love RIT's digital pace clocks on the sides of the pool, but sometimes I think I'd be better off not knowing. I went into the test with a plan. I'd hold one pace, that I know I can maintain for the first 300, then let loose on that last one. Didn't happen. I went into that turn and saw I was running 7 seconds faster than that pace. Seven seconds may not seem all that significant, but it's like 11% faster than planned. That got in my head, well, I let it get in my head. And I'm sure that made that last 400 hurt a lot more than it would have otherwise. Anyways, I'm happy with the results, but I know I can do better.

 The true highlight of my recovery week cam Thursday, when I got a massage! Thank you Amanda! She bought me one for valentines day, and I decided I wanted to wait for my next recovery week to use it. It was definitely worth it. I've always thought of massage as more of a luxury relaxation type thing. But I really see it's value from a body maintenance perspective now. Apparently swim/bike/running for like 16 hours a week takes its toll on your musculature. The massage really helped smooth things out. Since the summer, I've had this nagging pain in my shoulder, that is fine when I swim, but keeps me from catching and throwing all the well in water polo. Thursday night at polo after the massage, pain free. Completely. Yay! Now I just need to slowly work back to shooting for real.

Today was another great part of the week! I mentored for No Boundaries this morning from GVP, and I convinced Amanda to come along so that she could go for a short run after. She loved helping out with the program. After, she wanted to check out the course for Johnny's next weekend. I was thinking that it would be a nice easy run around 10min/miles or so. Nope. She killed it. Took it out pretty slow from GVP through U or R, but she kept creeping up the pace. By the time we got to Ford Street we were running 8:40s, and then we went down past Corn Hill and turned around, 8:30s. Back over Ford St, and along back towards U of R. I look at my watch 7:56. WHAT? Where did this girl learn to run? I know she's been at the gym like crazy lately, but I had not idea she could do that! She ran the last two miles right at 8s. So much for an easy run for me, I was definitely in zone 2 for the last two miles. I'm excited to see how she does next weekend, and at the half marathon a the end of next month. Her goal is under two hours, I think she's going to nail it. She was pretty excited about her performance today, and the title of this post is a little song she made up about it. Next weekend you should ask her to sing it for you.

That covers pretty much everything I have to talk about. Other notables are I'm super pumped for Placid Training camp, and our new team water bottles and visors that are coming soon!

141 Days!