16 October 2022
My wife and I went down to lovely Ithaca, New York for a weekend getaway. My father had spent part of his boyhood years here and I had been there when I was somewhere between like 6 and 10 years old (e.g., a long time ago), so I didn't know much of what to expect. As I was researching it, I was stoked to learn that this was the home of Moosewood Restaurant, an institution whose vegetarian cookbooks played a prominent role in my Peace Corps diet when I was a volunteer in the early 1990s. So, I knew the eating was going to be great, but I was also happy to find two new pools to add to my list.
On Saturday morning, my wife and I drove up the hills from downtown to the YMCA of Ithaca and Tompkins County. After probably the most friendly front desk person ever got us checked in, I had about 45 minutes to swim in a sun-filled, cool six lane, 25 yard pool. I probably should have taken a photo from deck when I got there and it was less crowded; by the time I finished, they had young kids swimming lessons started, so I snapped a quick pic from the locker room entrance:
As it's been awhile since I had done my Heart Rate test set, I ran through a quick 1,100 yard warmup and then geared myself up in the most swim technology I think I've ever worn:
Garmin Swim 2 watch set to disply heart rate
FINIS Smart Goggles to track my times to the tenth
I was still feeling a little soreness in my legs from Thursday morning's weightlifting / dryland session, and produced a performance that makes sense for where I am right now - starting back after a bit of a break / period of lower volume and lower intensity swim training. If the trendline moves up and to the left, the same speed (x-axis) is requiring higher intensity (as measured by the sum of heart rate over three measures taken at 10, 30 and 60 seconds after each swim).
That's all good. I'll repeat this in about 4 weeks and hope to see some movement down and to the right!
As for Ithaca, between the great food, the great show we saw at the wonderfully restored State Theater, and the beautiful city, we'll be back many times.