Happy Birthday to You

Date: Sunday, February 12, 2012
Time: 11:20 a.m.
Location: Tucson, AZ
Short Course Yards
133 days to Olympic Trials

300 warmup

5x100 free on 1:30, no breathing inside flags
4x75 IM (fly/back/breast) on 1:30 -- 12.5 kick12.5 drill
3x50 breast on 1:00 distance per stroke
2x25 free on :30 one breath per 25

One minute break

4x100 free on 1:30, descend 1-4 (descended to :59)
3x75 on 1:30 -- kick/drill/swim back, breast and free
2x50 breast drill on 1:00
1x25 underwater

4x15 breakouts on :45

50 easy

Four rounds:
25 fast from a dive with parachute on :30
37.5 fast from push/12.5 easy on 1:00
25 fast
100 easy
(Round 1 back, rounds 2 and 4 breast, round 3 free)

200 easy

Total: 3,200 yards (75 minutes)

On Saturday, I celebrated my 38th birthday. I never thought that at this point in my life, I would be training to compete in my third Olympic Trials. What a thrill to know that my path has taken me to this point! As I promised to do when I started this journey, I am enjoying (almost) every step of the way. Today's workout was another great one, and a great way to kick off another year of life.

The main set was not entirely new to me. I will admit that I borrowed it from Coley Stickels on the one day I came to swim with the top group at Phoenix Swim Club on their lactate day. I wanted to work on my 100 breaststroke pacing and tempo, though it would have been better to do it in long course meters. The first 25 was obviously very difficult, and being strapped to this parachute makes you feel like you are not moving forward. I never swam with parachutes in my life until a couple of months ago, and I thought when I swam wearing this parachute I was going to drown, that one doesn't compare to the Kytec chute. It holds more water, which means more difficulty in moving forward. You obviously have to try harder wearing the parachute, but the key is to use great technique. The first 25 was tough (took about 16 seconds from a dive), and the hardest part of the set was the last 12.5 yards of that 37.5-yard sprint. Pushing off the wall was agony for my legs! The final 25 wasn't that bad, so maybe I should think about shortening that interval from 1:00 to 50 seconds.

Sets like the main set I did today are going to be key in working on racing in workout. It builds up so much lactate in your system, and you work on fighting through the muscle pain.

I am thinking about going to Wednesday's lactate workout with Phoenix Swim Club, which means I will have to switch my session with JR Rosania to tomorrow. This also means I won't have tomorrow off, as usual, but I am traveling for work later this week, with no promises on pool availability for a one-hour workout. I'm trying to fit everything in before Thursday afternoon, with the expectation that I might not swim Friday, Saturday or Sunday.