Had a meeting up in Columbia today which meant I had a good excuse to hit the indoor pool at the ARC this afternoon before a meeting across town at 6:00. Yay! My workload has been kind of light and I haven't been going to my friend's office up there as much so it is good to have an excuse to make the drive. The lap lanes were crowded most of the time I was there. I shared a lane with a crazy older oriental woman who had the most bizarre swim form and also did some walking backwards in the water in the lap lane.
I tried again to get the hang of the bilateral breathing. I did a little better, but felt like I got a little water up in my sinuses that didn't feel too nice (nor did it seem to want to come out!) It wasn't quite as good of a swim as last week (which felt awesome), but I felt pretty strong. I hopped out after 35 or 40 minutes. I'm guessing I did 1500 yards give or take. I was pretty pleased that it was again nearly all freestyle only resorting to a few breast strokes when I had to cough up some water from not quite managing the breathing and thinking at the same time.
Headed out to a meeting with some of my favorite women engineers, but ate a way too large dinner that has me feeling kind of ill right now. Stupid!
OK - so changing gears - I joined Columbia Multisport Club about a month or so ago. They have all kinds of group training (although 30-45 min from me so it isn't super convenient except when I am working up there more) and they have great discounts (my membership has already nearly paid for itself although my credit card hurt after my trip to The Starting Block). Got a very nice, personal email today from the VP of the club talking about USAT Club Nationals. Each participant can earn points for their club at the competition in Myrtle Beach in October. I never really considered it because I thought it would be too expensive plus I'm still pretty fat and slow. But this email today talked about how CHEAP the club makes it for our members to go (like crazy cheap for a trip to SC). And I looked up some info tonight and just by showing up and participating, I could add a point and some change to my club total. This small town club (which does have a lot of members) has RULED nationals five times - beating out teams from much larger metros! How cool is that? With my husband laid off and my workload not where I would like it to be (plus a pretty big project of mine being put on hold), I hate to spend any money I don't have to, but this is so cheap it is super tempting. However, another problem is the timing. It is the 8th and 9th of October and I am supposed to be at one conference in St. Louis the next Wed and then fly out early Thur to Chicago for the national Society of Women Engineers conference (my section's delegate - ugh) through the next weekend. I basically would miss seeing my kids for a good chunk of the first part of October! And, if all goes as we hope, my husband might be working the nuclear plant shutdown (72 hour weeks - night shifts) by then. My mother-in-law and father-in-law will probably help us with childcare as much as they can, but timing could definitely be better for me to be gone. So - something to think about. I think it would be a fun trip to get to know some of the CMC gang. The sprint distance is definitely doable and the course looks great. Ugh - so hard to choose between what I want to do and what I should do!
For the swim you might try nose clips. They are cheap, a couple $. At first they feel weird, but they sure keep the water out. Which much reduces pool snuffle and the possibility of catching colds. Just so you know, walking in the lap lanes is a no-no. So either she goofed or doesn't care, or you can move up a lane.
ReplyDeleteTough choice on the USAT thing. But no matter how cheap it is, your budget and personal economy comes before supporting a club or taking a non-working trip somewhere.