Breaking Away

Date: Thursday, December 1, 2011
Time: 5:45 a.m.
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Short Course Meters/Short Course Yards
207 days to Olympic Trials

(Short Course Meters)
300 warmup

6x150 on 2:40, last 50 kick

12x50 free on :45, breathe every 5

(Short Course Yards)
6x100 back on 1:30 aerobic

400 kick breast

6x50 on 1:15
25 scull, five seconds rest, then 15m breakout

200 with underwater turns

Total: 1,800 short course meters/1,500 short course yards (80 minutes)

This morning was the first official taper workout of the season! After the set of 50s free breathing every five, I decided to move to the other part of the pool and do some aerobic swimming. Everyone else did 6x300, odds on 4:30, evens on 5:00. I didn't think I needed to do that, so I broke away from the pack and worked on backstroke technique while maintaining a steady heart rate.

Every day in my taper, I will do something fast. Most days, it will be nothing more than a few breakouts. Other days it will be a longer test sprint set. Keep following the blog and you'll see how I plan out the days when I swim fast for a longer period of time.

I am keeping this blog short because I'm quite tired. I'm writing this from my hotel room in Atlanta, where I'm covering the USA Swimming nationals for Swimming World. It's been nonstop for me since I landed in Atlanta, and it is almost midnight here. I arrived at the pool 10 minutes before the finals started tonight, and spent the next 15 minutes trying to find the mixed zone for media. Apparently, it's just a space on deck that the media took control of this morning. Works for me! After the meet I still had work to do, and finally feel like I'm settled in.

Can't wait to dive into the pool at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center tomorrow! It will be my first swim in the pool that hosted the 1996 Olympics. Tomorrow's workout will likely be a longer sprint set, but I haven't officially decided yet.