Hit Me Baby (One More Time)

Date: February 22, 2012
Time: 5:45 a.m.
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Short Course Yards
124 days to Olympic Trials

300 warmup

6x100 on 1:40 various drills and kicks

7x(3x50) on :50
Odd rounds with small fins:
1. 25 underwater kick/37.5 easy
2. 25 aerobic/25 build from underwater dolphin kick
3. 25 breast pull fast/25 easy
Even rounds: descend 1-3 backstroke (descended to :30)

2x100 easy

Five rounds:
25 underwater kick with small fins/25 easy/25 underwater kick with small fins/75 easy on 3:00
100 easy on 2:00
50 breast on 1:00 (Pull with small fins on rounds 1, 2, 4, averaged :29; swim on rounds 3 and 5, averaged :29)


200 easy


Total: 3,850 yards (80 minutes)


Another hot day in the pool, punctuated by close to the same workout we did yesterday (and apparently, the same workout given on Monday). Coach Mark Rankin said the thermometer read 82 degrees. I think it was 82.99 degrees. Not much cooler than yesterday. It was quite difficult to sprint today, but I gave myself a few mental slaps and did it. It took a lot to do those underwater kicks. Every time I emerged for air, my lungs couldn't send the oxygen to the needed muscles fast enough, a product of swimming in warm water. Everyone else was doing fast 100s, and I knew I would be worthless doing that. In warm water, my sprinting limit is 50 yards/meters at a time, and it helped get my heart rate down.

At the end of each set, I sat on the edge of the pool, letting the cool air bring down my core body temperature. It really did help.

Tonight's workout with JR was one of the toughest I've done. The volume of exercises increased dramatically, from 32 sets to 42! JR told me at the beginning of the workout that I looked "fresher" than usual, meaning I was doing the exercises with more ease, and he was right about that ... until we got to the back raises and back extensions, two of my least-favorite exercises. JR increased the repetitions on those exercises from 15 to 20 and increased the number of sets from two to three. I thought my back would give out on me when I tried to walk after that, but I managed to make it look like I could handle it with no problem. I'm sure JR heard my grunts of agony during the exercises, though.