Fresh air is on the way

That's what they're forecasting for the weekend: cooler, cleaner air. It can't come too soon since my lungs are feeling like sandpaper has been repeatedly rubbed on all surfaces. I can deal with the heat, even training in the heat (although it's much tougher) but this air quality is something else.

I was very surprised when they held our training yesterday despite temps in the 100's and air quality that was declared "unhealthy." From Phil's description they had a full circuit workout with the intensity decreased. Strange, I'd think TnT wouldn't want its athletes to destroy their lungs. When the local Air Quality Board says that active people should do their activity indoors, that would seem to be something you'd listen to.

Claudia and I didn't pay much attention either, but we decided on the wetter option. Since the pool had been closed on Tuesday and we missed that workout, we decided to go with the swim last night. So did everyone else in San Ramon. It was very crowded and many people don't know that the lap lanes are supposed to be used for, uh, lap swimming. We got in our entire workout despite one woman who couldn't swim the entire length at one time and another woman who kept zooming past us.

Even though this is another "recovery" week the workout was pretty intense, 2650 yards. That's going back and forth a whole lot of times! The workout included levels 1 and 8. Bwahahaha! I don't OWN a level 8. Frankly, I think of my intensity levels (for almost all activities) as 1-3: 3=bursting my lungs and eyeballs popping; 2=regular movement; 1=walking (or drowning).

Maybe that's an exaggeration, there's a slight difference I can do in the mid-levels, but it's so very slight and depends on a gazillion factors. I try to swim at 8 and I think I'm just flailing, I don't think I'm really moving any faster or more efficiently. At level 1 my feet sink and again I feeling like I'm flailing around and getting nowhere. So to me the levels on the workout are more of suggestions such as "swim easily" and "swim normally" and "swim your ass off."

I'm still trying to get back to a smooth swim after the remedial swim lesson I had a couple of weeks ago. I'm thinking of so many things at once that it's no longer as easy as it was. I think I'm being hypercritical of form instead of concentrating on moving forward. I know that form is very important, but my tri for fun showed me that it's all going out the window once I hit the race. I'm not feeling the comfort that I had, too much thinking. And counting laps/sets/breaths confuses my brain.

No doubt, running is easier. For someone of my talents, "move forward" is the best instruction. I can do that!