All I can say, is that it will be great to get into a regular routine again. Granted, while in school, I was in a routine, and while it was the same from week to week, it was far from regular. I like being able to go into work and leave at the same time everyday. I like not having to juggle wether or not to go to the gym or the grocery store because I had to work later into the evening because I had to go to class. I like not having to come home and work on homework instead of doing something more fun, like tend to my garden, do home improvements, or just be lazy and play video games or watch TV. Its going to be nice.
I started my 4-day work week this week. I have Mondays off. Although, for every Monday between now and July I will need to work at least 5 hours. We have two vacations coming up. One at the end of May into early June, and one at the end of June. I will need 70 hours of leave for these two vacations combined. I have 25 right now, and will only earn another 16-20hrs between now and then (not all at once either). But, I can handle 45 hour weeks. I technically did more than that while in school. Just, not all of it was work-related. And, knowing I can do those 5 hours during any time on Mondays is also nice. So, if I'm feeling motivated, I'll go in at 7am. If not, I'll go in at 10. I like having that option.
As far as the triathlon goes, the July 4th Freedom Springs Tri is going to be a bust. July 5th is Steve's birthday. He wants to make a trip to Orlando to go to Universal Studios for the weekend, since we get the 3rd off, and I get Monday the 6th off. We have family down there as well who are our age to hang out with (cousins). So, I need to start looking for other tri's in the area (decently driveable) to train for. This is probably better anyway since, I really didn't have any time to trian the last few weeks with finals, graduation, and family coming into town. I'm hoping to get on the boat this week or next. I've been swimming lately, which is nice. Especially in the summer in Florida. And, while its great, and I love being able to do it - I can't help but still feel some of the negative feelings I used to get in college & HS.
Butterfly day???? UGH!!!! Distance Day??? We'll never finish 7500yds before its time to leave for school!!!
Its nice to know, that if I miss an interval, I won't be required to start a set over. Or have lounge chairs thrown in the pool at me for farting around. And, if I don't want to do butterfly or breaststroke, well, by golly I don't have to! And I won't feel bad about it either!!!
Surprisingly, I'm not as slow as I thought I would be either. I did some 50 free's on the :45 and made them ok. Did some 100s on the 1:45 and made them pretty easily. My only problem is, getting enough yardage in. I've been swimming about 45min and getting about 2500yds in. Its really weird to think, that, 45min is a lot of cardio. And, when I run or bike, I don't do much more than 45-60min at a time. But, 2500yds in the water seems so short! Probably because i'm used to doing anywhere from 3500-7500yds in any given practice. I mean, some of our practices would be over 2 hours long depending. That's a LONG time to be working out. I think an hour is good. I'd like to average 3500+ yards in an hour.
My first day back in the pool, I did 2000 yards. I told Steve my warm up was 800 yards. It was the standard warm up I did while in OK: 200 Swim, 200 Kick, 200 Pull, 200 IM. He said "It takes you 800 yards to warm up? When you're only swimming for 45min?" I thought about it. Yes, it seemed odd. But, my body needed it.
I need to do more sprints, and more distance. I haven't done any sets that require anything over 200. Which, I did 200s (free) on the 3 minutes. I made all 4 of them. Funny to think I used to swim a 200 backstroke in 2:12.
It feels weird saying the swimming portion of the triathlon will be the easiest. But, really - 400 yards, when I do 800 yards for a 'warmup' on any given day, should be a piece of cake.
