Swim, plus a short extra run

3,000m down. The main set included 800 pulling with paddles + a pull buoy, 600 freestyle with every 4th length backstroke, 400 pulling with paddles + a pull buoy, and 200 pretty hard freestyle. First a note about my equipment (my swimming equipment, that is). My swim coach, Melissa, said that I'm too much of a weak girly man for these paddles:
Instead, she recommended I pick these up:
The new paddles don't extend more than an inch or so beyond my hand in any direction, yet the paddles still add a substantial amount of resistance during the pull. I think Melissa made a good call.

Next, I do not have a pull buoy, nor does my pool have any available. As such, I did the pull sets with just the paddles, but I will try to pick up a pull buoy tomorrow.

Moving on to the actual workout, I felt good during the first 800 pull. By about 600m I could feel some muscle fatigue across my pecs, back, and triceps.

The 600 also went well. I tried to keep my effort level high, but have a hard time doing so during the backstroke portions. After each backstroke length, freestyle felt great - I felt like I was moving fluidly through the water.

I don't have much to say about the next 400 and 200 - they felt pretty much like I'd expect. For the cool down, I did a mostly breast stroke (if you can call my flailing "breast stroke") and backstroke, and even through in what I hope is double-armed backstroke. A youtube.com search may be in order for me to see proper technique.

Oh, and I did the vast majority of the swim with bilateral breathing, though every once in a while, most frequently after a poorly executed flip turn, I required a breath every other stroke.

I also added a 30 minute treadmill run following the swim. I kept my HR low, around 135-140. After a bad day at work (after restarting my computer, a document I spend about 6 hours working on disappeared for no apparent reason!), I felt a little more physical activity to get the stress out of my system was in order.