I Love LSD

No, I'm not doing drugs.  Well, not beyond alcohol and caffeine, but that's socially acceptable and legal in my state.

LSD, when discussing athletic events, stands for Long Slow Distance.  Generally, it is considered a running term, but it can apply to swimming as well.

I love me some LSD.  I can just get in the pool and go, zone out on whatever my tiny little mind wants to chew on that day -- be it the nature of the universe or how to fund my next Big Swim.*

However, LSD is not how you get faster, nor is it how you get faster to swim long distances, dammit.

So, I've being much better about throwing in more intervals in my training.  I even do the thing where I go as hard as I can, so I have to rest a few seconds between intervals.  (I know that's really how you're supposed to train, but I totally feel like I'm cheating when I do it.  Don't laugh at me.  I know I'm insane.  I can't help it.)

I've spent the last eight months or so griping out how slow I am.  Okay fine.  I'm totally a turtle.

 But I took a look at this from last year where I was really pushing it and doing my best.  I know this from comments on Facebook discussing how fast I was going and how happy I was and how I was pushing to occasionally keep up with the fastest swimmer in the gym in the lane next to me:

Then I compare it to this morning's workout.  Close to the same distance, but I wasn't really pushing all that hard.  In fact, it was a slacker workout because of a go-live at work that is a bit distracting.

So clearly improvement, significant improvement, is happening.  Astronomical?  Nope. But it's happening.

I need to remember that when I complain about how slow I am.  I'm still getting better.

And I still prefer LSD to intervals..

*You simply would not believe how much it costs to get across the United States in the summertime, you really wouldn't!