Strange highs and strange lows

2010 has been a bit strange so far (Happy New Year, by the way).

The weather here in South Florida went from hot (those 90s in early December) to cold (we had a week of 40's at night, and 60s during the day--I even had to use my heater at home). It was so cold, a local Masters meet got postponed a week because the water was too cold (the pool's heater couldn't keep up with the dropped air temp). The delay worked out well for me as it moved the meet from the MLK weekend, when I was out of town in Pittsburgh (where it was unusually "warm": in the 40s and not snowing for the first time in 2 weeks).

Because the meet was moved (to last weekend), I was able to go for a day. I even managed to swim a 1000 and did ok (10:49). I actually went to help with running of the meet, and decided to swim the 1000 kinda on the spur-of-the-moment. As such, I decided to not warm-up for the race--a decision partially swayed by the fact that for the past couple years warming-up has seemed to hurt rather than help. But in a change, last weekend's swim really felt like it could've used a warm-up (which is a good thing in the overall scheme, but meant it the swim didn't feel so hot).

Anyways, post that 1000, my swimming training has actually picked up a bit this weekend. My yardage had been flirting with 5000 for most of the month, but this week I bumped it up to 5,500 and, surprisingly, started feeling a bit better in the water.

Hopefully this will mean good things for February....


There'll be days, when I stray
I may appear to be completely out of reach
I give in, to sin
Because I like to practice what I preach