Surprise, Surprise

Date: Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Time: 5:45 a.m.
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Short Course Yards
230 days to Olympic Trials

300 warmup

4x(4x25 on :30), one stroke each round IM order
1 drill, 2-4 swim

4x(3x75 on 1:15)
1: 25 fly/50 back, 2: 25 back/50 breast, 3: 25 breast/50 free

6x(3x100 on 1:30)
1: back, 2: IM, 3: free
averaged 1:11 on back, 1:06 on IM, 1:08 on free

12x25 on :35
Odd: breast with 2 pullouts
Even: backstroke as three left/three right/three full strokes

8x25 on :45
Odd: Breast from dive (12.7, 12.1, 12.3, 11.6)
2, 4, 6, easy
8 breast fast from push: 13.6

100 easy

Total: 4,000 yards (75 minutes)

This is the time of the year when I bite my tongue quite often in workout. As the weather gets colder in Arizona, every pool in Arizona cranks up the heat to insanely high temperatures. The only pool I have been to from now through April that is not overheated is the Arizona State pool. I won't defect to their team, but I did swim there a couple of times in 2009, and it was wonderful to do a sprint workout in an 80-degree pool.

This morning, the pool was about 82 degrees, which made the main set of 18x100 difficult to do as written. Mark wanted all of them to be strong, so we would get decent rest. I would have been happy to hold 1:06 on backstroke and 1:03 on freestyle, but I needed a couple of repeats to get my heart rate down after a somewhat fast 100 IM. During the set, Mark suggested that a dive set was coming up "so you guys can cool off." With the air temperature at 50 degrees, we were definitely bound to do that!

I was very surprised at the 11.6 on my 25 breast from a dive. I don't go under 12 seconds regularly in-season, so that made me feel good. My stroke technique was OK, though I think I exposed my legs too much on my kick in an attempt to push more water with my legs. The dive was smooth and clean, and the breakout pretty good as well. I wasn't looking for something this morning to make me feel better about the :59 I swam on Sunday in the 100 breast, but those 25s did the trick for me!

I still haven't decided if I am going to swim in the meet in Mesa on Nov. 19. I won't rest for that meet, but I would like to swim a fresh 100 breast before taper starts. I'll make the decision before Friday.