Somebody's Watching Me

Date: Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Time: 5:45 a.m.
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Short Course Yards
257 days to Olympic Trials

300 warmup

8x100 on 1:45
Odd: 25 free with strong kick/25 free with easy kick
Even: 50 choice/50 build

Four rounds:
12-1/2 from blocks
25 with fast turn
12-1/2 fast
(About 15 seconds rest between each, and a minute between rounds)

4x(6x50 on 1:00)
3 and 6 fast in each round
Round 1 and 3 free: 25.2, 24.9, 25.3, 25.3
Round 2 back: 25.9, 26.2
Round 4 breast: 29.5, 29.3

Easy 300

4x50 on 2:00 done as broken 200 IM
25.5 + 26.9 + 28.6 + 24.4 = 1:45.4

Easy 200

Total: 3,200 yards (75 minutes)

At the gym:

Five minutes shoulder warmup exercises

Sitting bench press (12 @ 155, 8 @ 170, 6 @ 185)

Leg extensions (12 @ 140, 8 @ 160, 6 @ 175)

Bicep curls (12 @ 25 (each arm), 8 @ 35, 6 @ 40)

4x20 box jumps

Ten minutes abdominals and stretching

When I amend the workout to get more rest during the sprint sets, I sometimes feel eyes shooting daggers around me. While the entire pool is swimming fast, I'm swimming easy. I've told many people why I take more rest on sprint sets, and though they say it's a good idea, no one really does it with me. Maybe they are afraid of the coach yelling at them or fearful they're not getting an optimal workout done. Either way, I feel the jealousy spreadig through the air most days. Today it took a lot of effort to erase those thoughts and concentrate on my swimming.

Today's workout produced surprisingly positive results. I was worried that last night's gym workout would take some of the edge off my muscles and fatigue them faster. But all my strokes felt very good today. I was especially happy with the 28.6 in the 50 breast in the broken 200 IM. I think I can be faster in my 50 freestyles, but I'm still learning this new stroke technique, and I'm not sure if it's making me faster or slower. I know my stroke has changed dramatically. I will conduct a test soon to see if my old stroke or new stroke is faster. I won't do that test in the 100 free I'm racing this weekend, though if I find that I'm losing ground, I might revert to the old stroke, which did produce a great result last April (47.29 in 100 free).

Speaking of that broken 200 IM, I had mixed feelings about doing it on a two-minute interval.

I had to go to the gym today, because it was the last day I would have this week to do so. I tried to work different muscles today, but it's not easy when the exercises you do work more than one muscle group. Though I wasn't sore in the pool, I definitely felt the pain and soreness in the weight room. I cut the workout short by one exercise (I had planned to do work on triceps), and did more stretching than abdominal work today. Before I left, I rolled my lats and deltoids on one of those foam rollers, and it felt like heaven when I was done. I will still need a handful of ibuprofen before bedtime.