Big Cats

Well, this morning I did NOT wake up at 6 to go swimming before Mindy had to go to school. Are you kidding me? Doesn't another hour of sleep sound so much better than swimming for an hour? Not that I slept good, I was up 3 or 4 times during the night with various children. Luckily they all went right back to bed. It could have been worse.

I went to the pool after dropping Mindy and Pete off, as usual. I love having a gym with a daycare. I don't think I could do this otherwise. 

Here is what my training plan told me to do today:

Swim: long day

Warmup: 6 x 100, concentrating on different part of stroke each 100

Main: 4 x 500, keeping each 500 (that's 10 laps, just so we're all on the same page) even pace

Cool down: 2 x 150 pull

I must also share my training plan's description of this weeks goals:

This week we introduce Neuro Speed….training the body to move fast and efficient while not stressing the body. 

We'll do this on the run through strides(also called accelerations). Strides are short efforts of running fast by slowly accelerating allowing fast, quick footstrikes and an efficient form on the upper body. These strides only last 20-30 seconds but are not run "hard." 

By slowly accelerating from normal run pace to near top speed, but over a very short time, you should not feel at all fatigued but your body will begin to neurologically what it feels like to be swift--think cheetah!

"Hm," I thought, "Cheetah would be a good one for C in my animal counting game. Much better than Cat." Then I moved on to thinking that it would be cool to think of a big cat for each of the letter up to J (becasuse that's 10, still on the same page?), and I was all excited about this since I already had one for J!

I was stumped immediately by A. Here's the list I finally came up with: 

1. Aslan (Min and I have been reading the Chronicles of Narnia)
2. Bobcat
3. Cougar or Cheetah (yeah!)
4. Dingo (I know, that's not even a cat, but "Maybe a dingo ate your baby!" I just couldn't help it.)
5. Elephant (couldn't get away from that one either)
6. Fast cat
7. Giant cat
8. Hungry lion (look out!)
9. Ice Leopard (Ice is almost the same as snow right?)
10. Jaguar! 

Pretty pathetic list. Can anyone come up with better ones? I wasn't even close was I?

I realized, while swimming trying to make this list, how helpless I am without the internet right there. Ok, here's my new list with the help of the World Wide Web: 

1. Aslan
   
2. Bobcat
   
3. Cougar or Cheetah (yeah!)
   
4. Dandelion (Pete came up with that in a split second)
   
5. Eurasian lynx
   
6. Felidae (this is the Family of big cats)
   
7. Great Cat (that's really what they call them)
   
8. Hungry lion
   
9. Ice Leopard
   
10. Jaguar! 

That's better. I also realized, while swimming and trying to come up with these, that this was taking way too much brainpower so I only did 2 of the 4 sets using this method. The last set I actually just counted using numbers can you imagine that!

I was in the pool for an hour and 10 minutes, and my fingers were so wrinkled and getting tender by the time I got out. Pete took an hour and a half for the Ironman, though, so I need to get used to it - and hope to get that good of a time.