One or the Other

Date: Thursday, March 15, 2012
Time: 2 p.m.
Location: Mansfield, TX
Short Course Yards
102 days to Olympic Trials

300 warmup

12x100 :20 rest
1-4: 50 kick/25 drill/25 swim IM order
5-8: 4-3-2-1 breathing per 25 freestyle
9-12: 50 back/50 breast

6x50 :20 rest
15 breakout/10 easy/12.5 underwater/12.5 easy

100 easy

Five rounds, on about 6 minutes:
25 underwater kick, then :15 rest
37.5 swim fast, then :15 rest
12.5 easy, then :10 rest
25 swim fast
50 easy
Rounds 1 and 3 back; rounds 2 and 4 breast; round 5 free

3x100 free easy, :20 rest

2x50 breast fast swim from push, about two minutes rest between

200 easy

Total: 3,250 yards (75 minutes)

I had three possible lactate sets to choose from for today's workout. I picked the one I did because I had no pace clock to use, and this set was not totally reliant on a clock. I hope to do one of the others on Saturday, but it depends on the availability of a pace clock, which they turn off for the meet. I used the scoreboard's time clock yesterday, but they switched the display for use in diving today. When you workout during a competition, you're at the mercy of the rules!

I was happy with the way I felt in workout today. Not exactly explosive, but technically sound and really pushing the effort, even though my legs were screaming after each 25 underwater kick. I am wondering if I should have done that 12.5 easy before the last 25, or done something fast to the wall. Either way, I was pretty tired when I got to the last 25, and didn't feel like my stroke fell apart too much.

I've been inspired watching the kids (yeah, they are kids, since a lot of them are half my age) swim here at the Division II meet. It's given me some motivation in workout the past two days, and I definitely need it when I'm swimming alone!