Stick With The Plan

    Days like today I really have to force myself to Stick With The Plan. Not in the way you might think. For me, on days like today during my swim, feeling that combination of strength, drive, and the need to burn off stress. I want to go longer and harder than I know I should. I have my first swim only race in less than a week, 800m and 4000m, now is not the time to go crazy and give myself a ridiculous overwork injury. Today and tomorrow I have tougher swims planned, then lighter recovery swims for Friday and Saturday so I can be rested but loose for my swim on Sunday. That is The Plan. Today I hit the pool feeling pretty powerful. Yes, I was tired from work, and almost every muscle was sire from my weekend training session, but the water is invigorating.
    The plan for today was my Power Swim, a combination of Individual Medly and hand paddles. I had decided to warm up with 24 laps I.M. then 24 laps with hand paddles, and 24 laps I.M. to cap it all off. A nice 2 mile swim with muscle intensity, but not the cardio intensity of a HIIT workout with sprints and hard effort. Yeah, I'm rambling incoherently aren't II? I'm tired, I didn't sleep well last night and was plagued with strange dreams about getting exotic pets. Anyhoo, back to the pool.... I was feeling great in the water and found myself pushing the intensity on my breastroke, and speeding my cadence on the crawl to a near sprint. Not part of The Plan. I forced myself to back off. Then once I got the hand paddles on I found myself wanting to push harder and faster. Again, Not part of The plan. I backed down to proper pace and technique. Then, I got the end of the 24 laps and though, "Maybe I can just go another few, or five, or ten laps...." Once again Not part of The Plan. I finally convinced myself to keep on track and not risk damaging myself.
    It was still a great shoulder burner of a swim, and I know I'm going to feel it tomorrow. But feel it in that comfortable achy muscle kind of way, not the sharp stabby WTF-did-I-do-to-myself-this-time kind of way. This is one reason it is vital to Stick With The Plan.  The Plan lets us get through a training season, building intensity and endurance at a proper pace, and not damaging ourselves along the way. Now I just have to keep reminding myself as I try to get my body back on track from last year's injury prone not-a-season. Now for sleep to recover from the intense swim that was just right, and just what I needed.