I Did It My Way

Date: Friday, November 18, 2011
Time: 11:50 a.m.
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Short Course Meters

This morning, I pressed "off" instead of "snooze" on my alarm, and when I woke up again, it was 6:05. Too late to rush to the pool and do anything of worth. I decided to try and make the noon workout, which is always a crapshoot for me. Usually, I'm rushing to the pool in order to get there in time for the first set, and today was no exception. I had one minute to spare, which was enough to do a little dynamic stretching before diving in.

8x100 on 1:45
Odd: Kick last 25
Even: Kick first 25

150 underwater kick

Four rounds:
4x25 kick on :30
100 easy on 2:30

12x25 kick on :40

150 recovery (25 drill/25 swim)

4x50 breast on :55
4x50 fly on :50
4x50 back on :45
4x50 free on :40

200 easy

Total: 3,200 meters (75 minutes)

At the gym:

Five minutes shoulder warm up

Sitting bench press (12 @ 160, 8 @ 180, 6 @ 200)

Lat pull (12 @ 150, 8 @ 175, 6 @ 190)

Leg extension (12 @ 140, 8 @ 160, 6 @ 180)

Bicep curls (12 @ 25 pounds per arm, 8 @ 30, 6 @ 37.5)

Leg adductors (12 @ 160, 10 @ 180, 8 @ 200)

Ten minutes abdominals and stretching

Those who swim at the noon workout have the advantage of seeing the entire workout before they start. Those of us who normally swim in the mornings do not have that luxury. I saw the set of 50s at the end and spent the workout mentally preparing myself for making the intervals, especially the 4 on :40. The wrinkle was that I thought all 16 of them would be freestyle. Only when Mark began describing the set did he mention that the challenge was to do each stroke, but we got the choice of which strokes to do for each interval. I knew I could make breaststroke on 55 or 50 seconds. Doing them on a 45-second interval would have been a big challenge in short course meters, and it would have affected my ability to do the final four on :40. I figured I would do the set the way I did it because I wanted to get maximum rest as the set went on. I realized I would get more rest on the 50-second interval if I did it butterfly, and so that's what I did.

I was very happy that I made all four of the butterfly intervals without any desire to break stroke. I have to give a lot of credit to JR Rosania for making me do that dreaded hip extension exercise. It's strengthened my lower back in a way that's helped me stay with the undulating rhythm of butterfly. My arms and shoulders were hurting on number four, but I was able to keep my body position and technique fairly consistent. I was so proud of myself that before starting the 50s of backstroke, I yelled to Mark, "I didn't break stroke! Take that!" Saying that gave me a little adrenaline for the rest of the set. I felt like I was going to vomit when we finished, but everything stayed down. I just needed to get my heart rate down and catch my breath.

I've been answering a lot of challenges lately, both in and out of the pool. Last week, it was 10x50 breast short course yards on :45. This week, I improved in my dryland work with JR and today, I didn't back down on a very tough set. Mark thought in the future I should try the whole thing breaststroke. I'm not sure I would make it past the round on :50. The last eight might be a straight 400.

In any case, I'm pretty sore tonight, and yet looking forward to racing tomorrow at the Masters meet in Mesa, Arizona. I will start the meet with a 100 breast. I don't really have a goal time, since I don't swim short course meters much in season. I just want to work on race strategy. After that is a 100 IM and 100 back. It's a one-day meet, and I didn't want to overload myself like I did with the pentathlon a couple of weeks ago.

But life doesn't stop for a swim meet. I've got to do some housework before going to bed. I wish I had one of those robot vacuums that could clean my entire house while I put my feet up and watch television. COnsider my bathroom and vacuuming duties as extra dryland!