Drowning

Date: Friday, March 2, 2012
Time: 5:45 a.m.
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Short Course Yards
115 days to Olympic Trials

300 warmup

6x150 on 2:40
1. 5 lengths swim/1 length kick
2. 4 lengths swim/2 lengths kick
3. 3 lengths swim/3 lengths kick
4. 2 lengths swim/4 lengths kick
5. 1 length swim/5 lengths kick
6. 6 lengths kick

20x25 on :30 flutter kick with snorkel and short fins
5 fast, 1 easy
4 fast, 1 easy
3 fast, 1 easy
2 fast, 1 easy
1 fast, 1 easy

Easy 150

Vertical breaststroke kicking, with 10-pound weight:
Five rounds:
1 minute kick, 1 minute rest
Five rounds:
30 seconds kick, 30 seconds rest

2x150 easy, :15 rest
1 free, 1 choice

4x50 on 1:15
odd: breast @ 200 IM pace (32.3, 31.7)
even: 25 fast/25 easy

Easy 100

Total: 2,450 yards plus vertical kicking (80 minutes)

At the gym (4:45 p.m.)
15 minutes treadmill

10 minutes abdominals

Sitting bench press (12@160, 8@180, 6@190)

Bicep dumbbell curls (12@25, 8@32.5, 6@40)

Leg adductors (12@170, 10@190, 8@205)

3x25 breaststroke strokes with 6-pound dumbbells

Five minutes abdominals and stretching

The vertical kicking set wasn't as bad as I had feared. I was most worried that I wouldn't be able to stay with the set through the 30-second part of the set. But the hardest part of the set was the one-minute kicking intervals. But the most important thing to do in these instances is to flush the lactate out of your legs during the rest period. I hung on the lane rope during that minute and did very slow flutter kick.

The key to doing this set is to not look at the clock during the entire kicking interval. The good thing about doing breaststroke kick is I could count how many kicks it took to get to the minute. I didn't have to really look at the clock, because I did 58 kicks in a minute for each round.

There's always a fast swim at the end of workout, and I had every reason to do another stroke on the 50s, but I chose breaststroke. I wasn't sure my legs would be able to handle that, but they did OK.

I stayed away from doing too much work with my legs in the weight room. I had done plenty of strength work in the pool earlier in the morning, so no need to do more. It was the last strength weight workout I would do before sectionals, and I wanted it to count. I had hoped to do 200 pounds on the sitting bench press, but I wasn't feeling it, and there was no reason to push beyond my body's boundaries today.

Writing this about four hours after leaving the gym and 15 hours after this morning's pool workout, my legs are screaming at me. Luckily, I have tomorrow off!