More than 4000 meters of staring at a black line

Date: Monday, August 22, 2011
Workout time: 5:45 a.m.
Short Course Meters
308 days to Olympic Trials

400 warm up: 200 free/100 back/50 breast/50 free

32x25 on :25, breathing three times on odd repeats

800 on 12:00 negative split

8x100 on 1:30 (averaged 1:10)

2 minute break

2x400 on 6:30 (#1 was done 200 back/200 free, #2 skipped first 200 for stretching)

16x50 on :45 (averaged :36)

100 warm down

Workout total: 4500 meters

I don't usually swim on Mondays, since the workouts are distance-oriented, but since I had not swum since Friday, I did not want to go three days out of the pool.

This is the first workout of this blog, but not the first workout since I made my Trials cut. I took time off the week of July 12, then went to the gym a couple of times the week of July 19, doing 20-25 minutes on the elliptical trainer to work on my cardiovascular system. The week of July 26, I was covering the world championships for Swimming World, so I was up at 2 a.m. for eight days. I swam a couple of times during that week, but not very fast. The following week, I was in Palo Alto, Calif., covering the USA Swimming nationals. I swam four times that week, no more than 3000 yards/meters per workout.

The week of Aug. 8 was my first official week back in the pool. Workouts were tough, in the sense that I was trying to find my feel for the water again.

Today's workout was the first in which I felt like my normal self. I'm glad things are physically feeling better. Even better, the water was a chilly 79 degrees!