Sluggish Friday Night Swimming

My only goal was to get in the water today, but the only time I could go was in the evening. The Campbell pool is open for lap swimming at 7 Monday through Friday, and I figured there wouldn't be very many people in the pool.

It gets dark so early and it's Friday night - let's just say my motivation was low. Like really, really low. I really had to force myself to just go and get in, figuring my worst case scenario was that I'd just swim 2000 yards in smaller easy sets and call it a day. My hunch was right - there weren't many people there and I had my own lane, which is always lovely. My sad little workout was as follows:

500 warm-up
4 x 100 IM
100 (75 drill 25 swim)
400, every 4th lap hard
300, every 3rd lap hard
200, every 2nd lap hard
100 all hard
100 warm-down

I felt like I was dragging a sack of sand as I was swimming - I was so tired and sluggish, and for no good reason. Maybe I didn't eat enough today, but I suspect that I was a bit dehydrated. I had a fair bit of Diet Coke and not enough water and have been doing some reading about hydration; apparently "studies have shown" (in quotes because I haven't read the primary studies) 2% dehydration translates into a 10% decrease in performance. I need to pay closer attention to that, apparently.

Tomorrow is the "ride-n-tie." I have no idea why it's named that, but essentially I'm paired with another TNT athlete and we alternate between running and riding a mountain bike around a fire road/trail. So say my partner starts running and I start riding - I pick a distance, then dump the bike and start running. When she gets to the bike she picks it up and starts riding, passes me, and picks a distance then dumps the bike, etc etc until we go about 4 miles (I think). It's pretty fun, most people dress up in costume but my partner and I aren't feeling it so we're going as "triathletes" and calling it a day.

I'm drinking tons of water now and going to bed soon.

The rest of tomorrow is all about being a lazy bum. And maybe a nap. Sunday we are going Christmas tree hunting with friends who have kids - should be a riot and we'll get lots of pictures to post I'm sure. In the meantime, here's a really flattering one of me swimming last weekend:

And one of the team at our "color war" track night (can you find me?):