Happy Leap Day

This morning I decided it was time to do something that I haven't done in a very long time. It involved searching for my bathing suit bottoms, a swim cap, and goggles. Yes folks, I actually SWAM today.

I devised a simple short workout to reacquaint myself with the pool:

100 warm-up
200 drills
400 moderate/easy pace - timed
200 breast up, crawl back
100 warm-down.

Amazingly, my 400 in the middle came in at 8:53 which is not too far off where I was in the midst of my peak swim training last year. Not bad. And I hereby declare Fridays to be swim day on my training schedule.

I could have done nothing else and still would have been pleased with myself. But it actually gets better. You see, today has been an absolutely beautiful day - mid-sixties, sunny, no wind.

I decided to take advantage of the spring-like day and get my 6 mile run in this afternoon rather than wait until the weekend.

My plan was to go fairly easy (think half-mary pace), take walk/fuel breaks every mile, and cover my target distance of 6.0-6.5 miles.

Here's how it played out for 6.24 miles. Please note that the first mile was all run, I didn't start my first walk break until I hit the 1 mile mark. Every other mile includes a 1-2minute walk break. The last quarter mile is all run also, I didn't stop to walk when I hit mile six, I kept running until I reached my driveway.

10:47 (all run)
11:32
11:56
12:02
12:43
12:29
10:24 (0.24 miles all run)

I'm happy with my overall average pace of 11:53, but as you can tell, I'm still not very good at pacing myself. But since pacing myself wasn't part of the plan, I'd call this run a success. I feel like I'm back on track for the half-mary in April.

And since it's a leap year, both the swim and the run get counted into my Feb totals (which I will tally up and post at some future time). For me, it has been a very happy and productive leap day. :)

Edit: I'm sore this morning, but in a good way. I also pulled the trigger and signed up Husband & I for the half-marathon. WoooooHooooo!!!