Today was somewhat special for me...

17 years ago I swam my last swim meet... I was then 19 years old.

Today, at the young age of 35, I was back in the pool competing against the clock and others from my group age. I felt good... It felt right... It felt like I've never left... Isn't that strange? Somehow, swimming has always been with me, and now I know that it will always be. I do triathlons today, and I LOVE IT, but the water and I have a pretty long relationship... That's SO Cheesy, eh? hehehhehehehehehehehhehehe...

I swam 100m IM (Individual Medley) and did 1:08:49. My seed time was 1:10:00. I was pretty happy with it. I finished 9th on my age group. Not bad for Nationals, right?

Tomorrow is going to be a lot harder, since I will swim 100m Free (I will try to break the 1 min), 50 Backstroke and 6 relays (!). Now I am glad that Monday is a Holiday here in Canada.

Recovery Run - Track

Friday was just amazing. I know, I know, this is recovery week and I am not so tired... but I was able to run really easy (it was after all, a recovery run) and maintain an 11.1 km/h pace. But what really impressed me was that my HR was only at 134 bpm (!). This is HUGE for me! My HR is known for being the highest in my group of friends.

I have a feeling that my polar/pedometer needs some adjustments, so the 11.1 km/h might not be as accurate as I would like, but since I was running at the track close to home I was able to time every lap, as I always do. So, as soon as I got home I checked the data from this run with a run I did last August (2008) and to my surprise, I was doing the same time per lap (2 min 05 sec), but that was NOT my recovery run... My HR then was 154 bpm!!!

Can you feel it? For the first time, I can!!!

Bike ride at home - Trainer

Thursday I did 1:20 hr on my trainer... this week has been pretty easy because it is a recovery week (I traded week 18 with week 16 so I could rest during the week of the Nationals), and it is tapering week for my swimming team...

I don't know how much this "unplanned" rest has affected me , but I am felling GREAT. Today I was able to maintain 26-27 km/h without any effort. If I am felling like this in 6 weeks for IM France, I believe I should be ok.

Run - Vo2Max

Easy run today. Nothing like an easy Vo2Max run during recovery week. At first it was kind of hard, but after the second 1 min "sprint" I felt great. The best part was the last 10 min, when I could not go slower than 13 km/h even trying. My HR was steady at 149 bpm.

- 36 min run: 8 x 1 min Vo2Max with 1 min active rest. (10 min warm-up + 10 min steady)

- 7.72 km
- Avg 12.8 km/h
- Max 17.2 km/h
- 568 kcal
- Shoes: New Balance 767

First of many

Just testing...