I wouldn't do this sport if I didn't enjoy it.
I enjoy the variety that running never provided. I enjoy pushing the limits in each sport. And I enjoy seeing myself improve. Right now, I feel very focused but I'm still having as much fun as ever.
I swam Masters for the first time last week. I made it 3 mornings and felt pretty good. I haven't committed to which days I want to swim Masters in the future, but with my long commute and early mornings I was exhausted by the end of the week. I was probably the most boring New Years partier after I skiied on New Years Ever after Masters. I keep reminding myself that the season is early, so I think I'll stick with 1- 2 days per week for Masters and swim the remaining days at KSU. The difference between waking at 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. is huge when you don't get home until 9:00 or 10:00 during the week and don't get to bed until 11:00...and work/train in the hours between. I need the sleep if I want quality workouts, so the key for me is balance. I've been able to do quality swims on my own, so I'm not worried about sacrificing quality by swimming alone instead of Masters.
Back to the topic of fun, I've been trying to mix up the trainer workouts for variety. I watched the Orange Bowl tonight while biking and I decided to make a game of it. I would spin hard for 2 minutes for each touchdown; 1 minute for each field goal; and 30 seconds for each first down. It offered some variety and randomness to the ride and I really enjoyed it. I'm going to create variations on this for fun. I do a similar workout on the treadmill (I call it "power hour") where I increase my speed 0.1 mph every 2-4 minutes. Here's to more fun base training this winter.
