Highway to the Comfort Zone

The title to today's blog is obviously a vague reference to the popular 80s song, Danger Zone. No, I am not really that old, but I am male and have, therefore, obviously seen Top Gun. As is usually my way with referencing anything in the blog I thought I would check the title of the song on Google before using it and realised that I have had the words wrong most of my life. I always thought they were saying, 'Fly into the Danger Zone' rather than 'Highway to the Danger Zone'. There you go. Although given the use of the song in Top Gear I think my mistake is a little understandable. Whoever said you learn something new everyday really knew there stuff I guess. They didn't say learn something useful every day, but then again you can't win them all.

80s pop music aside, I did a little bit of flying into my comfort zone today (see what I did there). A little bit of returning to the way things were you could say.

Regular readers will know that Monday morning is typically swim morning. The Monday morning swim is a great way to get in a few extra swimming miles, as well being a gentle way to ease into the training week. During Ironman training it also a great recovery session post a solid weekend.

For the last few weeks I have been doing my Monday morning swim in the Swan River with my mate Chris from the Swim Smooth squad. This session has been less of a recovery swim and more of a great chance for another open water session. The sessions have been really good, but I will admit to missing my Monday morning recovery sessions a little. Well I don't have to miss them any longer because this morning I slipped into the aforementioned comfort zone and headed back to the pool.

The reason for my regressions were twofold. Firstly the training over the last weekend of training was a bit tough and so a recovery swim seemed like a good idea this morning. However, the bigger reason for the comfort zone was that the weather this morning was rainy and grey and I am a giant wuss about swimming in the the open water in miserable conditions.

Perhaps that is being a little bit hard on myself, if I am honest we probably would have got out swimming eventually this morning if we had headed to the river. However, looking at the forecast last night and seeing wet and wild weather predicted I thought there was a greater than even chance that we might talk ourselves out of the swim. Better safe than sorry was my approach, so I headed to the pool instead to make sure I got in the session that I wanted.

Sitting here reflecting back on my swim this morning I am very happy with my decision to head to the pool. The weather this morning wasn't all that miserable, but it was unpleasant enough. Plus, the swim in the pool gave me a chance to get in some serious technique and drill work which has been a bit lacking over the last few weeks. As is often my way with these sessions I just chose a Pure Technique session that I liked the look of from the Swim Smooth Guru and then got to work. Really enjoyable session in the end with a mix of swimming, drills and strength work. A great swim for getting back into the groove of the pool and for setting me up for the solid week of work to come.

Looking forward to tomorrow there is more unpleasant forecast (yes in the middle of Summer), but since I am not heading to the pool it shouldn't effect me too much. If I end up soaking wet tomorrow it will simply be because I have been caught in a thunderstorm. Hooray.