Clearing the Murk

A slow start this morning. Monday morning means swimming, but after the flat out weekend, the body took a while to come to the party. It got there in the end though.

The plan for the swim started out as an open water session in the Swan River with my fellow Swim Smoother Chris. Dr Gary has told me previously to avoid swimming in open water until I get my heart sorted, but I was figuring it would be okay with Chris on hand to keep an eye on me.  However, this morning it was a case of a plan not coming together, with the water quality in the Swan River a little questionable at the moment. The immense amount of rain we had a week or so ago means that the Swan is getting a lot of flow from the upper reaches. All that flow is bringing a heap of dirt and goodness knows what else into the River, apparently it is looking rather brown and murky. It was decided that the wisest course of action would be to seek our swimming elsewhere.

For me elsewhere was Bicton Pool, my other normal hangout for Monday mornings.

Last week swimming felt increasingly good as the week progressed. By Friday last week, swimming was feeling alright indeed. Still down on pace, but the sessions were feeling a lot more comfortable. When I started swimming this morning though that comfort was out the window. The first 200m felt rather horrible indeed, to the point where I was questioning the wisdom of the session. As I persevered though, my body warmed up and the swimming improved. I stuck with my training model from last week, building my session out of a series of 200s, however, the 200s felt significantly better than they did last week. I actually felt like I could chase the pace a little if I wanted, and indeed the pace wasn't that bad. It was another reassuring session.

Last week I was hoping to start returning to a bit of routine in my training. I was getting a better feel for what my body could do and so I was planning on using those limits and getting some training done. In the end that plan didn't quite come together, I got some training in, but not quite what I was hoping for. Still, I got a great weekend away with the family instead, so I don't really consider the compromised training as a loss. What last week did manage to achieve was a second week in a row of solid(ish) training. A good place to start from I guess you could say.

This week I am hoping to start from that place. Once again the training is going to be compromised, I know that from the outset, this time by the tests I am having on Tuesday and Wednesday. The MRI tomorrow is no big deal, but the Holter Monitor is rather restrictive, so exercise is more or less out for Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning. That is fine though because those tests are necessary and I would much prefer to have the tests than not. Still, even with the training being a little compromised by the tests, I am hoping that I can build on what I did last week, getting a a bit more time and volume done.

Depending on the results of the tests, I am hoping that this week of training will set me up for an uncompromised week of training next week.