Saturday, January 9, 2010

Negatives

Wow, it is January 9th and I’m still sitting here and looking at my Christmas tree.  I’ve got the boxes ready to start putting the ornaments back in, I just haven’t quite gotten around to it.  Hmm, maybe tomorrow with any luck!

Today was quite possibly the perfect Saturday.  Although my alarm went off at 6:30 I wasn’t quite ready to get up.  Finally at 9:30 I tore myself away from the covers, made some breakfast and relaxed watching the final Pirates of the Caribbean movie.  After lounging around for awhile I finally got ready to head out and tackle my workouts for the day.  Yesterday a chinook blew into town so it was a fantastic 6C out.  I decided to run downtown along the river.  It makes the most sense at this time of the year because the city is really good about clearing snow from the pathways throughout the winter.  Running around the neighbourhood can be a bit treacherous as not everyone clears the snow from their walkways (or clears very well) and often it will partially melt then ice over.

My general rule of thumb is that if we are above 0C then I aim to wear capri tights.  I threw those on, a long sleeve tech shirt, and my new favourite jacket.  My run was scheduled for 45 minutes and as soon as I got going I had a feeling it was going to be a good one.  My pace was feeling easy even though I was running into the wind.  The scenery was amazing…I really ought to take my camera with me one of these days.  All of the snow and ice on top of the Bow River is so pretty.  I hit my turn around point before I knew it, and then I was running with the wind at my back.  It must have really helped to push me along as my pace started to drop yet it still felt easy.  I managed a pretty nice negative split and all in all had an excellent run!  Gotta love those days when it actually feels almost easy…

After the run I went into the YMCA, exchanged the running gear for a swimsuit and hopped in the pool for an 1800 meter workout.  It was fairly quiet and I managed to have a lane to myself for almost my entire workout.  The workout really focused on technique as I ran through some single arm drills, finger tip drills and 6 kick roll drills.  Between each drill set I’d have a 200m swim set that I needed to try and negative split while I focused on the technique that each drill tried to teach me.  First off, I have to say that 4 x 50m of single arm…with 50m of single left, 50m of single right…I’m surprised the lifeguards didn’t come over to ask me if I was okay swimming!  Sputter, sputter…try not to drown!  But on the plus side, I managed to negative split every set that I was supposed to.  Good times!

Yup, a great day of workouts.  Hope everyone’s weekend is going well!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome workouts!! Great job on the run and what a hard workout in the pool. You really do have to love the days when things just click.

TNTcoach Ken said...

Sounds like the stars were aligned, except the Christmas tree!

Julie said...

I LOVE one armed drills -- since getting the go ahead from my coach to do all the extra swimming I want, I do one armed swimming after my workouts -- sometimes until lane swim closes. It is my favourite drill for teaching my left side to do what my right side does well. LOL!!!

Road Warrior said...

Nice job, Leana! That's one seriously athletic day. I think it has to do with sleeping in. That always does it for me.

teacherwoman said...

0C and you were wearing capris? Isn't that like 30 degrees F? Hmmm. :)

Nice job on the run!

Speed Racer said...

I love those days when everything's easy! Guess all that lounging did you good!

Keith said...

One thing about going from cool (0 C is cool) to swimming, is that it feels like you have a face full of molassass. Then once you cool down a bit more all is good. The drills are kind of dull, but they can really help.

kristen said...

i love sleep in days that also end up being productive! i especially love when work outs just click. sounds like a really great day. hopefully the greatness continues :)

Alisa said...

Did I really hear you say you went out in Capris???!?!?!?! I guess I'm a weather wimp since I'm from California. Anything below 50 is cold =).

I've been working drills into my swim workouts too. I think they really do help with technique.

Laurel said...

I love great workout days! You feel like such a badass.

I just took my tree down today too. It took forever (we have a lot of decorations). I am so glad to mark that off my to-do list though,

ihaverun said...

I'm with you on the capris!

And my tree is still up too. It's on the to-do list, just not close enough to the top!

Lindsay said...

i left my tree up when i left home over a week ago... maybe i'll get around to taking it down in another week or so when i get back ;)