Beautiful day!

This AM I got up at 4:14, so I could leave the house by 4:45 and make it to Coeur D Alene by 5:15 for the new Master's swim team. Well, I did it. It was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL drive. It was only 27 degrees outside when I left...since I didn't park my car in the garage I even had to scrape frost off the windows.

The moon was full, and there were low clouds. (We get that a lot here. I love it! The clouds are so low they hang below the tree-line. So pretty!) There were no moose, deer or bears to avoid in the road (yes, we have to watch for all of those while driving the pass), although I did almost hit a wolf as it ran across the freeway, and there was only one small patch of ice I had to go over.

The drive was gorgeous. I was in a pretty good mood once I got there. As I walked in, I asked the front desk lady about the Master's team. She said (with a frown) that it'd actually been cancelled. I was pissed. My mood was shattered, and I once again realized what a pathetic place I live in.

I did go do a workout by myself. It's amazing the difference in the pool that time of morning. There were actually a group of older people doing a workout together in the lanes next to me. I thought about joining them as I took my printed workout out of my bag (I guess I keep it in my swim bag in case of Master's teams being cancelled). After doing my warmup, I realized that their workout wouldn't really be enough for me anyway. The were doing lots of short distance things on pretty slow intervals. Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely not fast anymore, but if I'm going to get my butt out of bed at 4:15, I'm going to make all the effort to work it off. Otherwise, I could've just stayed in my cozy warm bed with my husband!

Anyway, I had an amazing workout. I did 3,200 yards in about 40 minutes. After the workout was over I had a nice relaxing cool-down swim, and then was able to relax in the shower before my drive home. My arms and legs both hurt today, so I know it did something. I really want to keep swimming, but I think I need to schedule it like Jen does. I think being in Coeur D Alene at 5:30 in the morning is just a little much for me. Especially if I can't even rub it in other's faces that a 40lb overweight, mother-of-two can kick their butt in the pool. I know, I'm evil. That REALLY was the reason I wanted to join the Master's team. The people up here just seem to be really slow. Probably because they've never really had an organized swim team of any kind until this year. I looked at the previous Master's team meet time and records, and even if I go around 15 seconds slower than my old 100 times, I could still shatter the record. Oh well. I guess I need to learn humility. Maybe I should work on that.

I guess I should post that my hardest set was 8 x 50's on 1:00 breastroke. It KICKED my butt! I was dying, but I did it. Kind of funny. 8 x 50's stroke in my previous life as a swimmer, was usually a warm up set. Ha. That's what 14+ years out of the water will do to you.