Date: Sunday, October 9, 2011
Time: 11:30 a.m.
Short Course Yards
260 days to Olympic Trials
400 warmup
3x(4x100 on 1:40)
1. free breathe every 5
2. back
3. breast kick drill (one pull, two kicks)
4. IM stroke drill
Two rounds:
4x50 breast on 1:00 holding :35
8x25 back on :30
4x50 free on 1:00, three breaths per 50
8x25 on :45, 15m sprint
Power Tower (90 percent full)
3x (3x50 on 1:30, done as 25 fast/25 easy)
1-3 breast
4-6 free
7-9 back
350 recovery
Five minutes stretching
Total: 3,800 yards (80 minutes)
Sometimes it is not easy to design a workout for yourself. I knew I wanted to do about 20 minutes work on the Power Tower and the 15m breakouts, but I didn't know how to get there. Sometimes it feels like garbage yardage, but today I used the warmup sets to focus on the weak parts of my strokes. On breaststroke, it is grabbing the water better with my feet. For freestyle, it is not losing the grip on the water halfway through the pull. For backstroke, it is swimming straight! I didn't succeed in swimming perfect backstroke. On one of the repeats, I cut my finger on the lane rope. The cut closed up fairly quick, thanks to the magic of chlorine, but it did sting for a few minutes. That is the danger of swimming backstroke outdoors. Sometimes your inner compass doesn't work.
If you do not have a Power Tower (or Power Rack or similar device) at your pool, you can amend the sets I do to be sets of all-out 50s on the same interval. Based on the number of strokes I took, I was basically swimming 50 yards without the turn. My times on each stroke were about five seconds faster than my actual 50s, which was OK by me. I hadn't filled the bucket on the Power Tower to almost full in a very long time, and I don't recall doing such a difficult set with that much water in the bucket. I am glad I was able to complete the set without failing on technique.
Today was one of my few solo workouts when I didn't feel any urge to cut short a set or end workout early. It did take me about 40 minutes for my body to feel good in the water, and it was just about that moment that I was ready to do the second round of the 50s breaststroke. Sometimes, it's like a light turns on. Other times, I just need to get my blood pumping for a while.
This was a great start to week two of eight in my sprint phase. This week will end with me competing/working at the Rowdy Gaines Classic in Orlando. I'm very much looking forward to the meet, though I wish it hadn't been on the same weekend as the Ron Johnson Invitational, which is going to be held on the campus of Arizona State University, where the late Ron Johnson coached for may years with great success. I'm not sure who will come to the Ron Johnson meet, but I suppose I'll be doing a virtual competition with them.
Do you know what your stroke count per 25 is for your 100 breastroke? Is that something you pay attention to or incorporate into your training?
ReplyDeleteDuckman,
ReplyDeleteI take seven or eight strokes per 25 in an all-out 100-yard breast. I am always consistent with that, though sometimes I take seven-and-a-half strokes. I always count my strokes in breaststroke, whether I am swimming fast or slow. It helps me know internally if I am swimming at the pace I need to swim, and if my technique is allowing me to keep that stroke count.
thanks Jeff. That was not something we did when I was an age grouper. Makes sense to track that. I'll start paying attention to stroke count in practice now that I'm back in the pool as a Masters swimmer. Good luck at your meet!!
ReplyDelete