That sinking feeling

Literally. Sort of. Yesterday morning was our normal 6:00 swim at Takoma following the same workout as Tuesday. Yardage-wise this was our longest yet clocking in at 2000 yds plus warm up and cool down. Tuesday was a good workout; one of the coaches even encouraged me to join the Level 3 group. They swam about 2300 yards in the same time. I don't think I'm nearly ready for that and would probably hold them up. My endurance in the water (and pretty much everywhere else) isn't up to snuff. To wit: Thursday morning's swim. I had every intention of attempting the increased workout first without the added pressure of faster swimmers nipping at my heels and felt like I normally do on Thursdays: tired, groggy, a bit hungry. After a couple warm up laps I knew that it just wasn't meant to be. It was dreadful. I couldn't catch my breath at all and my shoulder ached for some reason. The drills were really tough; I got through them but way slower than normal. My form was shot to hell and I was just thrashing about at the end of the 100s making everything even worse. I ended up completing the Level 2 workout and was just glad to be out of pool. The run was scrapped.

I don't know exactly what happened; it's probably a combination of things. I didn't get much sleep this week, and definitely not enough the night before. I hadn't eaten much that whole week either. The weight is still coming off, but I think I need to step up my intake in order to keep up with the training. My shoulder? Who knows where that came from. I had ridden the bike on the trainer the night before and stayed in my aerobars pretty much the entire time. I think it was just the added stress on some new muscles I was using to support my upper body. That may need some tweaking since I'm not entirely comfortable in them yet.

Today is our day off and I'm taking advantage hoping to rest up for the big workouts on Saturday and Sunday. Here's hoping tomorrow doesn't dawn with frost on the ground. At least the ride is in Rock Creek and we could actually bike there and back, but I think we'll just drive down. Busy day tomorrow, especially for Liz!!