When it gets this hot - head to the pool

I think it's finally summer here in Wisconsin.

Gone are the temperatures in the upper 60s and lower 70s. The past two days? More like mid-90s with dew points in the upper 60s and lower 70s, making it super humid. Kind of makes me want to hole up in a building with air conditioning.

Oh wait. That's kind of what I've been doing the last two days. I think I've only left my office once during the workday.

I skipped out on a workout yesterday. Called it a recovery day and used the heat and the fact that I was walking around with one less pint of blood due to a blood donation as my excuses.

Today I toyed with heading home for a bike ride after work. But the thermometer was still 90 at 5 p.m. and the dew point was hovering around 70. So I opted to head indoors to the pool, because water is good when it's hot.

This was my first swim since High Cliff is done. Now I've got to concentrate on the Trek Women's Triathlon, which is on July 12, where I'll have to be ready to swim a half-mile across Lake Andrea. While I could stop and touch bottom if necessary last weekend at High Cliff, that's not going to be a possibility in July.

With that in mind, I headed to the pool with the intent to start upping the distance I was swimming. The past month I've been doing workouts somewhere between 1,000 and 1,700 yards. Today? I donned my swim cap and goggles with a 2,000 yard workout in sight.

And it went pretty well. I attempted to do a little bit of speed work mid-swim and tried out a couple of different breathing options - breathing every on the left every time I took a stroke on that side versus every other time. Wasn't too bad.

When I started the swim, I was sharing a lane with another guy. I don't know what happened to him. He disappeared somewhere around 300 yards into my workout. Then there was a little kids' swim lesson in the lane next to me. They also disappeared about 35 minutes into the workout and then it was just me and the lifeguard. At times I think the lifeguard was looking at me, just wishing I would go home.

Fifty minutes and 2,050 yards later I did just that. I got out of the pool. Sat in the hot tub for about 10 minutes and then went home.

It was a little more tolerable outside. The temperature must have dropped a degree or two. I considered hopping on my bike for a few miles, but decided not to, thinking dinner was much more important. I'll tackle the bike - or a run - tomorrow. It's only supposed to be 87.