My Monday hasn't been too bad, getting back into the work place routine. That usually translates as reading e-mails. The only hiccup to the day was that it was absolutely eyebrow shattering freezing this morning. Okay, well not quite freezing, but near enough that you could be forgiven for not noticing. Hard morning to get out training. Obscene morning to go to a pool.
Well actually, as I was heading to the pool thinking, 'Why, oh why am I swimming when it is three degrees' it occurred to me that I am not sure what else I would prefer to be doing (other than curling up under a doonah and sipping hot chocolate). Starting most forms of exercise is fairly unpleasant when it is three degrees. Starting a ride, ewwww. Starting a run, hmmmm, numb hands. Sure you warm up and get comfy, but there is always that unpleasant phase right at the start when it is just a little uncomfortable. At least with the pool I am jumping straight into heated water, and at Claremont it is particularly heated, the warmest pool in Perth apparently. Girdled with that knowledge I got myself to the pool and through a swim set. Toasty by the end.
The swim this morning isn't actually on the program, I am supposed to swim Saturday rather than today. I have a bad track record of getting to the Saturday swim though so I thought I would get it done today. If I do manage to make it to Saturday then that is a bit of a bonus. Plus, after not swimming at all last week I was keen to get in a bit of pool time before rocking up to the Wednesday Swim Smooth Red Mist session.
Besides being freezing the session went okay. I took it on the conservative side since I haven't swum for a week. I did the classic 10 x 400m red mist set, basing it on the same CSS (Critical Swim Speed) as I used a couple of weeks ago. Swimming has been going well, but I didn't want to overdo it with this first swim. As usual when you haven't swum for a while the first 1000m felt awful, like I had never swum before at all. I gradually found my groove though and by the final 3 x 400m I was feeling a lot better. If anything the session was possibly a bit easy, so based on that I have tweaked my CSS a couple of seconds quicker. I will see how that goes for the rest of the week. If the new CSS is about right then I am a couple of seconds closer to where I need to be.
For my return to the pool I thought I would also crack out something a bit special. These:
These are my new bathers from Mako Sport. Plus the goggles are actually new too. The goggles are Mako Maelstroms, which is about the coolest name for a pair of goggles I think I have ever heard of. The goggles are Mako's open water model. I thought I would give them a go since I have been trying to find a good pair of open water goggles for a while. When I first started triathlon I never really saw the attraction of open water goggles, thinking them overly large, overly complicated and overly expensive, but I have sort of come around to them a bit. I still think a lot of triathletes get carried away, rocking up to races with things that resemble diving masks, but the Maelstroms aren't too bad. They have the larger lenses that characterise open water goggles, allowing you to get a good wide field of vision. but they aren't overly massive. Good sealing on the lenses means I haven't had any leakage. Plus one feature I really like is that they come with three interchangeable nose pieces (small, medium and large) so you can make sure you get the fit just right. One of the problems I have had with goggles with rigid nose pieces before is that they aren't the right size for you then you are a bit stuffed. I had one pair of goggles once that I just couldn't make fit, no matter what I did. The nose bridge was too narrow and they goggles leaked, no matter how tight they were. I have always been a bit wary of rigid nose pieces since then. That shouldn't be a problem with the Maelstrom.
The bathers really speak for themselves. I was after something a bit bright to bring some Summer to this Winter and I think this pair of Mako Aloha bathers achieves that quite well. Not that subtle I have to say and I sort of feel like I am swimming in bathers made from bad 70s wall paper, but I also think they are kind of cool. If nothing else they are certainly very bright.
Training for the week gets into proper gear tomorrow with a bit of time on the bike and a bit of time running. Should be a good solid day of training. As well as the training I also have an appointment with Nutritionist David Bryant from Catalyst Dietetics. David was the one who really got my eating on track towards the later half of last year and I have been keen to get back to see him now that I am over my injuries. I consider the appointment a bit of a status update. I suspect I lost some muscle during my recovery and so I am no longer sure whether the race weight I used to aim at is still correct. I am keen to get in and get some skin folds done and have a chat about where I should be setting my benchmark. I suspect after the eatfest I had offshore last week I may not like skin fold results I get, but at least it will give me an idea of where to start.
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