House of Pain

Date: Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Time: 5:50 a.m.
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Long Course Meters
181 days to Olympic Trials

600 warmup

Five rounds:
100 back on 2:00 (1:19)
200 IM on 3:00 descend (2:58, 2:52, 2:46, 2:38)
Round five: 200 IM is 400 IM (6:03)

100 easy

10x50 on 1:00
Odd: stroke/free
Even: free/stroke

200 warm down (with stretching)

Total: 3,100 meters (70 minutes)

Wow! What a difficult workout!

I have not done a 400 IM long course in a very long time, and to have it come after four 200 IMs was not fun. I probably should have backed off on the fourth 200 IM more than I did. My best 200 IM long course from a push in Masters is 2:28, but today, going a 2:38 was extremely hard. Maybe it's because the 100 back was not supposed to be a warm down. Holding 1:19 is above aerobic pace for me, so I was not resting on those.

The 400 IM was brutal. It took all of my energy to finish the 100 fly legally. I knew Mark was watching, so I willed myself to get my arms out of the water those final 15 meters. On backstroke, I probably swam a 1:40 just because my body was in such agony. I felt a little better on the second 100 of breaststroke, but there was no way I was going to reach my goal time of 5:45. I didn't try to push the freestyle. I just wanted to finish.

I wasn't upset that I couldn't break six minutes on a 400 IM. I'm not training for a 400 IM, though to see that I could at least average 1:30 per 100 is encouraging. As I type this nine hours later, I still feel the wrenching pain from that 100 fly. I might not be able to lift my arms tomorrow.
If the fifth round had been a 200 IM instead of a 400 IM, I might have been OK. I probably could have really pushed it to maybe 2:35.