Friday, March 23, 2012

Heartbeat

Date: Friday, March 24, 2012
Time: 3 p.m.
Location: Orlando, FL
Short Course Meters
94 days to Olympic Trials

300 warmup

2x500, :30 rest
250 back/250 free aerobic

2x400, :30 rest
#1 50 breast pull/50 breast kick
#2 100 free swim/100 free kick

12x50 on :55
1-6 breast (avg. 37, heart rate 174 )
7-12 free (avg. 33, hear rate 156)

200 IM drill, :30 rest
4x50 IM order at 90 percent effort on 1:00 (:31, :34, :36, :30)

2x100 on 2:00
odd lengths easy, even lengths fast breaststroke

200 warmdown

Total: 3,500 meters (65 minutes)

Today, I seriously considered the option of taking a nap over swimming. After 10 minutes in the water, I seriously regretted choosing the workout. My body felt heavy, and I mentally was checking out. Add to the fact that I started the workout with two 500s -- not my cup of tea -- and today was a challenge.

My legs felt very tired, and my left shoulder was in serious need of work. I didn't bring the electronic stimulation machine I got for Christmas, and I wish I had. I could be using it every other night to keep my muscles and tendons looser, and would help keep my range of motion. While I was doing dynamic stretching before I dove in, I noticed my left arm didn't have the same range of motion as my right arm, and it worried me. Luckily, I am scheduled for some body work with Tod Miller on Tuesday!

The fact that I designed the workout as a downward ladder made things a little easier. Knowing that the sets were getting shorter made getting through it better. I don't have ADD, but sometimes -- more likely, when I'm swimming alone -- long sets are hard to get through.

I did feel better near the end of the workout, but as you can see, those six 50s breast were killer. I didn't think holding 37s was going to be difficult in short course meters, but it was! My heart rate was higher than I wanted it to be for that set, and my technique faltered a little bit on numbers five and six. Instead of doing four 50s IM order, I had written down a 200 IM at 90 percent. I didn't think that was a good idea.

All in all, I'm glad I did the workout. Every workout I manage to do always looks good in hindsight, even the tough ones. Those are the ones that make me mentally and physically better. The ones I look forward to doing -- which are the ones I do with my team back in Phoenix -- are important as well.

Speaking of being back with my team, I can't wait to be at Monday's workout at Phoenix Swim Club. Today was my seventh workout alone, and it's getting difficult to come up with clever workouts to keep me engaged. As tired as I was today, it was hard thinking of anything interesting beyond a downward ladder. This was the only thing I didn't like about coaching many years ago, and was the only thing I don't miss about it.

Speaking of which, it was great seeing two girls I used to coach in Albuquerque, N.M., do so well this weekend at NCSA juniors. I remember coaching Olivia and Mariah Morrell eight years ago, when they were 8 and 10 years old. I'm so glad they are still swimming. They're not Olympic caliber yet, but that doesn't matter. It's great to see them still racing -- and racing well.

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