Staying engaged

Yet again I heard another swimmer state how boring doing long swims is for them.  For me it's about staying engaged.  Physically and most importantly mentally.  Thinking about my stroke, the way the water feels on my forearms and hands, the way my ankles are relaxed and flexible as I kick and thinking about the rotation from my core during freestyle.  

Staying engaged mentally should also help you stay strong physically throughout a tough workout.  If you get lazy mentally, you'll probably feel like crap and want to quit.

This morning I got in the SDRC Pool at 0520 and did this workout which I wrote up on a piece of scratch paper last night:

500 free warmup

My upper lats were really sore on these.  I was worried that this morning's workout was gonna be extra painful, but by the end of the 500 they loosened up and I was fine.

1000 - 8 x (100 free strong + 25 back easy) :05 ri
3600 - 6 x (6 x 25's stroke/free, 6 x 75's drill/free/kick) only rest after all the 25's/75's of each subset are complete.  Then only about :15
1600 - 4 x ( 4 x 100's) first set pull, second set IM, third free, fourth kick with fins.  No rest, moderate effort
1000 - 2 x 500's free agility paddles + ankle band / freestyler paddles (no band)
500 - 400 IM + 100 grandpa swimming

8,200 yards total in 2:34

My right shoulder needs some TLC so I'm back to wearing my equmen compression shirt which really helps, along with an ice pack I wear throughout the day and my normal ibuprofen regiment of 800 mg twice a day.

I've been doing really well this week on the fuel.  Thanks to Julie Keyes for the awesome chocolate milk which I've been sharing, but I've also been partaking too much and gained 5 pounds this past week!  So I have done better this week and lost that gain.  Hoping I can trim up another 10 more pounds, and then I'll be right at my target.