I Won't Back Down

Date: Friday, November 4, 2011
Time: 5:45 a.m.
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Short Course Yards
234 days to Olympic Trials

300 warmup

4x300 on 5:15
odd: 50 kick/50 swim
even: 50 drill/50 swim

24x25 on :35, done as:
2x25 free with six strokes per length
2x25 breast with three strokes per length

Three rounds:
4x50 back swim on :45
4x50 on 1:00 (1 and 3 with 15m breakout, 2 and 4 easy)

125 easy

75 breast fast from a push (45.4)

Easy 175

75 breast fast from a push (45.3)

200 easy (with stretching)

Total: 3,950 yards (80 minutes)  

After Wednesday's dryland workout with JR and last night's swim workout with Coley, my legs were fried this morning. My hamstrings and groin muscles were very tight, despite my dynamic stretching before getting into the pool and light stretching after the set of 300s. I didn't want to do the 24x50 as a kick set, though that is the way the set was written. I didn't bring my fins, and even if I did, I couldn't have done that set kicking on a 45-second interval.

By the time the set of 24x50 was done, I was having trouble pushing off the walls, and my fast-twitch muscles in my arms didn't feel very responsive. But I decided to not give in on the physical signals I was getting from my lower body and swam those two fast 75s at the end. I could have done freestyle on them, I could have backed down on the effort or I could have just gotten out. All were viable options. But I would not have been happy with myself later. I am quite happy with going 45-mid on the swims, especially the first one. I was sharing a lane with one other person, and we agreed to swim straight for the 75. But while swimming the first 25, I noticed someone was about to jump into the lane, and I instinctively decided to swim circle. Luckily, I was swimming breaststroke, so I was pretty deep underwater and didn't hit the guy sharing the lane. We managed to do OK for the rest of the 75, but I wondered if I could have gone faster if I didn't have that brief distraction. The answer was no, but my legs were not happy that I wanted to do that 75 again. I had trouble getting my quads to respond to sprinting, and it showed on the final 25, where I jumped up to 7.5 strokes, as opposed to the seven that I'm still getting used to taking.

Another reason I thought about backing down was because I have a tough meet on Sunday, and I wanted a little bit of rest for it. It will be a quick meet, with only about 30 entrants. Everyone -- or almost everyone -- swims five events (500 free, 50 free, 200 free, 100 free, 200 IM in that order) and it's likely I'll do all that in about 90 minutes, depending on how long a break we take between each event. I'm not looking for fast times necessarily, but just want to see how well I step up and swim fast. I doubt I will have anyone to race, but I will be doing a 500 free, 50 fly, 200 back, 100 breast and 200 IM, so I might be racing someone on the 100 and maybe the 200 back. Looking forward to it. This might be my last meet before the taper meet in December, though there's another one scheduled for the Saturday before Thanksgiving in Mesa. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get to that one.

At the gym:

Five minutes shoulder warm-up exercises

Sitting bench press (12 @ 140, 8 @ 175, 6 @ 190)

Leg extensions (12 @ 130, 10 @ 160, 8 @ 180)

Lat pull (12 @ 140, 8 @ 170, 6 @ 180)

Shoulder shrugs (20 @ 30 each arm, 15 @ 40 each arm)

3x20 box jumps

2x25 breaststroke pull on physioball with five-pound dumbbells

Ten minutes abdominals and stretching 

With my legs still sore, doing leg exercises today was dicey. I thought about skipping legs, but it was good to work on strength. I might not be at my best at the meet Sunday because of this, but I think that might call for about 30 minutes in my tub on Saturday night. 

Next blog will be on Sunday, with results from the meet. See you then!