Freezing in Florida and the Swimming Celebration Set

Okay, I know it was really really cold in the midwest while I was down in Florida last week. I am not saying it was not nice to be in temps that were 30-40 degrees warmer than Chicago, but it was Florida and I was really looking forward to being warm for a week. However, I spent the week shivering on the deck while our team trained. I brought down some warm clothes because I checked the extended forecast before leaving, but everyday the weather people would say "it's going to stick around another few days." So, I ended up wearing the same three outfits for a week. Also, I had some warm clothes for the bike but not quite enough so I just had to suffer. If the sun was out if was warm but the wind was pretty cold and unpleasant. Again, any riding outside this time of year is not unpleasant so I was happy to endure some cold wind to have the luxury of riding on the roads instead of the computrainer.

Enjoying myself in the sun!

The last day of training camp in Fort Lauderdale was by far the worst as far as standing outside. It was 40 degrees and pouring rain. I was jealous of the team getting in the pool, I would have preferred to get in and swim the lactate set with them. I got a hot cup of coffee and just thought warm thoughts and the practice went by quickly. I made sure to stand right under that platform during the practice but I still got soaked by the end of the training session. A scalding hot shower back at the hotel made me feel like a million bucks. All and all it was a great trip and the team trained very well. I came up with what I thought was a very challenging and fun workout for the distance and 400IM swimmers and they claimed to"enjoy" it. If anybody wants to know what it is let me know...it was a 5600 meter main set of swimming fun.

And, speaking of swimming fun I just polished off my first 100x100m swim this morning. Yesterday was my birthday and Hillary calls this the birthday set so it worked out perfectly. Noelle, our volunteer assistant, asked me in Florida to do this set with her this week because she is having shoulder surgery on Friday and wanted to do something to celebrate the sport. What better way than a 10k swimming extravaganza?!?!? We broke it up by doing IMs, some stroke, fins and paddles, pull, varied intervals, etc. It went by really fast and by the end I was not ready for it to be over. We had a great time, it hurt and was a superb way to start off the day. I have not swam that far since December 30, 1999. You may wonder how I remember that but it is because it was the last day of training camp my 5th year at Michigan and we did a 12k training session before getting on the plane to head home. Jim was worried about Y2K that year and wanted to have us back in Ann Arbor before January 1.

Two very happy swimmers post set---we are already planning when to do it again