I See the Light

Date: Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Time: 5:45 a.m.
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Short Course Yards
118 days to Olympic Trials

300 warmup

24x50 on :50
1-4 kick/swim
5-8 drill/swim
9-12 swim

300 breast pull

8x75 on 1:20 descend to 200 IM effort on 7 and 8
odd: 50 breast/25 free
even: 25 breast/50 free

12x25 on :30
odd: fly with flutter kick
even: breast with flutter kick

6x50 breast on 1:10, 2 easy 1 fast
(29.3, 28.8)

50 easy

200 breast kick no board

4x25 on :40 breast fast
12.0 (from dive), 14.0, 13.8, 14.1 = 53.90

150 easy (with stretching)

Total: 3,500 yards (80 minutes)

I was not expecting so much breaststroke today! Since the Masters group at Phoenix Swim Club is not comprised of a large number of breaststroke specialists, the workout surprised me.One of my teammates said to me on the way to the locker room: "I bet you really enjoyed that workout!" I did to a degree, but not completely. I don't like training breaststroke. It's a very tiring stroke, and I tend to fatigue quicker in workout with breaststroke than any other stroke, though that may depend on the effort and distance.

Tuesday is always stroke day, but when there is not an IM focus, we tend to work on all the strokes, not just one. Mark gave us the choice of strokes to do on the 6x50, and I figured since I was already doing so much breaststroke, I should just do the set breaststroke! The effort wasn't 100 percent -- maybe 96. I hadn't really prepped for fast swimming, but after that set, I was definitely ready for the broken 100.

Obviously, doing a set on a 40-second interval does not make it a lactate swim, so you should take that 53.90 with that in mind. If the interval had been :25 or :30, I might have been more fatigued at the end, and the swim would have been more indicative of what I experience in a race. No matter. It was a chance to work on the stroke and attempt to evenly split each of the last three 25s. I think I did that well.

Though it was cloudy and windy this morning, I did notice that the sun is starting to rise earlier, and in a few weeks, we'll have sunlight during our morning workouts! It definitely helps the mood, especially since we've been swimming in darkness for the past three months.

I still can't believe that we're four months from Olympic Trials. Where has the time gone?