Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Can You Feel the Love Tonight

Date: Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Time: 6:15 p.m.
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Short Course Yards

300 warmup

6x150 on 2:30
Odd: 1st 50 kick non-free
Even: Last 50 kick non-free

12x25 on :30
One-turn 25s from middle of pool, did two of each stroke and four IM transition turns

40x25 on :25, 10 each stroke

One minute break, then 50 fast breast kick no board
Did six kicks underwater, then took a breath with a small scull. Time was 37.7

8x50 on 1:00
Odd: 50 IM
Even: IM order doing different kick than stroke (i.e. butterfly arms, breast kick)

8x25 on :30
Odd: 15-meter breakout
Even: easy

50 breast from dive (27.6)

Easy 200 (with stretching)

Total: 3,400 yards

I haven't swum at the evening workout for Phoenix Masters since I first moved to Phoenix in 2008. The group is much smaller and not really at my level. There was a woman who did the set of 25s on :25 with me, but did not really push the set. She was averaging 22 seconds per 25, while I was holding 17 seconds. I held that average on the breaststroke, too, which was not as difficult as keeping my stroke smooth and controlled on butterfly!

Why did I swim in the evening workout? I am covering the prelims of the World Cup for Swimming World, which has me up at midnight. At first, I thought about staying awake until it was time for workout this morning, but I was so exhausted after posting my prelims report at 2 a.m. that I couldn't have stayed awake for 10 minutes. I figured swimming in the evening was much better than not swimming at all, and that held true. The set of 25s on :25 was not difficult at all, and my heart rate was 165 at the end. That's extremely low for me. That shows I am very much in shape.

Sprinting, on the other hand, was not as easy. That dive 50 at the end was tough. I didn't feel the easy speed I'm trying to get in time for the end of the season. I could feel the muscles I worked hard yesterday with JR Rosania not being very responsive. It's best not to force your muscles to do something they don't want to do; that's how injuries start.

Funny story to end this blog entry. I was walking to my car after today's piano class at South Mountain Community College. I had stayed late to work on playing chords correctly, and figured I had 20 minutes to do so before heading to the pool. As I got to my car, a man yelled out to me from his car, "Are you Jeff Dash?"

"Uh, no," I said, though I had a feeling he might have just gotten last names mixed up. Jeff Dash swam for the University of Arizona and a few years ago was training for Olympic Trials in Tucson.

"I mean, are you Jeff Commings?" he asked me. I said I was, and we greeted each other. His name is Wiley, and he said he is a professor at the school. I meant to ask him what he studied, but I figured if he were a piano teacher, he would have offered some advice to me. In any case, he swims for Sun Devil Masters and he was on his way to workout. It was great coincidence to meet Wiley, and when I got home tonight, I discovered that he is an art professor at the school. Art is definitely not a subject I will be taking at a college campus! It's not easy for me to draw stick figures! In any case, Wiley had taken seven years off from competition after college, and was returning to competition this year. He said he went 24.0 in the 50 free at the Ron Johnson Invitational last weekend, which is quite fast! I'm sure I'll see him again, either around campus or at the short course meters state meet in December.

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