Bad Medicine

Date: Thursday, March 1, 2012
Time: 4:40 p.m.
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Short Course Yards
116 days to Olympic Trials

I walked into the pool at Phoenix Swim Club today unsure what the workout with the gold group would be like. Just about everyone in the group is going to western sectionals next week, and I believe almost all of them are tapering. With that in mind, I figured today's workout would be pretty easy, and it was! Only 3,000 yards of drills and a little bit of swimming above aerobic pace. Coley Stickels called it "threshold swimming," which I must get his take on one day. I still don't know how fast that's supposed to be. I think it's supposed to be near 500 pace, which is 1:00 for me, but some of the girls were holding paces faster than that, though they are probably able to do a 500 free under 5:00 in season.

In any case, I needed tonight's workout. I was feeling quite sore from yesterday's speed workout compounded by the tough dryland session with JR Rosania. I don't know if I could have made it through 4,000 yards of tough breaststroke work! And to make it better, the workout allowed me to mix up the strokes, which helped me mentally. I wasn't really feeling my breaststroke today, though my freestyle and backstroke weren't so hot, either! Just to remind you, I'm not tapering, but today was a good recovery workout as I prepare for tomorrow's tough legs workout. Mark Rankin was at the pool tonight and, like an idiot, I suggested we do the vertical kicking set he mentioned to me last week. As soon as I made the suggestion, I wanted to take it back, but I might as well do it now. I won't be back for another Friday workout until the end of March, and who knows what state I'll be in then. I'll let you know how my body reacts to 15 minutes of vertical kicking.

After tonight's workout, I went to the store to pick up my refill for my blood pressure medicine, and also to get my new prescription for lowering cholesterol. I'm quite nervous about taking this, just as I was when I started taking the blood pressure medicine. I don't know how I will feel in and out of the water, knowing my body will need a few weeks to adjust to it. I hope it doesn't not adversely affect me, especially during the meet next week. The only problems I had when I started taking my blood pressure medicine nine years ago was slight headaches and lots of peeing. I have to take the prevastatin in the evening, so tonight is the first night! Down the hatch!