Blech! What happened to my swimming?

Things became very "real" the other day when my first designated workouts from Stacey magically appeared on TrainingPeaks.com.  One was some core work, consisting of planks, push ups, abdominal work etc. - not too bad.   The other was, gulp, a pool workout.

I didn't work particularly hard on my swimming this summer and I haven't done a structured pool work out for more than, wait for it....   30 years - I knew that this wasn't going to be pretty!

I printed out the work out and put it into a Ziploc bag for "wet consultation", grabbed my stuff (Stacey kindly suggested that I should "take my flowered cap" - and she was basically right) and headed to the Triangle Aquatic Center in Cary. 

The work out was basically broken down into:

400 yard warm-up
10 x 50 yard sets
50 yards "your choice" drills
1 x 200 yard set for time
3 x 300 yard drills for breathing; using hand paddles etc.
Cool down   (COOL DOWN?   How about call an ambulance?)

To cut a long story short - I was gassed by the time I finished the 10 x 50!   Yes, I really need to work on my freestyle endurance.  I can breaststroke forever, but freestyle is a different animal.  I'm fully anticipating spending much of the winter wrinkled-up like a prune after spending a lot of time in the pool.  It will come, but there's a lot of work required!