Highway to Hell

Date: Friday, April 13, 2012
Time: 5:50 a.m.
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Long Course Meters
73 days to Olympic Trials

4x200 on 3:45 (100 kick/100 swim)

500 flutter kick with snorkel and small fins, descending effort by 100s

6x50 on 1:15
odd: 25 underwater dolphin kick with small fins/25 back kick easy
even: 25 breast pull/25 back kick easy

6x50 on 1:00
1-3: freestyle drill with small fins and snorkel
4-6: freestyle swim aerobic (:37)

4x150 on 3:00
1-3 50 breast fast from push/100 easy (averaged 34.8)
4: easy

Three minute break

50 breast fast from dive (31.2)/100 easy on 3:00
50 breast fast from push (34.2)/100 easy

250 easy

Total: 2,950 meters (75 minutes)

At the gym (4:45 p.m.)

Eight minutes on elliptical machine

Shoulder warm-up exercises

Incline bench press (15@95, 12@125, 10@145)

Seated row (15@80, 12@100, 10@120)

Leg extensions (15@100, 12@130, 10@150)

Ten minutes abdominals and stretching

I swam five days in a row this week. That's a long stretch without a day off. I do not normally do that. Add in the fact that I did two workouts with the kids at Phoenix Swim Club and I called this my Hell Week, that time of the season, when you are working your hardest, and it takes every ounce of energy to get through the last workouts. Every workout was tough in their own regard, especially that Wednesday workout, which was 80 minutes of sprinting with almost no easy swimming!

I didn't feel too great in the first three 50s breast in today's workout. The water was warm, and my arms were not pulling water well. I could feel like I wasn't pulling wide enough on my outsweep, yet my shoulder muscles were too tired to do it correctly. That's no excuse, because in workout is the time when you have to swim correctly while you're tired, so you can replicate it in a meet. As much as I would like to blame the warm water, I simply wasn't in a sprinting mood today. It showed through the entire workout.

I did get myself motivated for the two 50s at the end. I was really hoping for a sub-31 second 50 from a dive today, but it wasn't a horrible swim. The 50 from a push was surprising. I was trying to stretch out my stroke and not spin my wheels, and the result was a pretty fast 50.

This might not be my hardest week of training before Trials, but it will be the last time I do five workouts in a row. I don't think my body has the staying power to last an entire week of training. I need my Mondays and Saturdays off! Now that I'm back on track in the pool, my workout schedule will return to normal.

I didn't feel like going to the gym. I'd had a stressful day at work trying to get 101 things done, and all I wanted to do was crash on my couch at home before I had to drive to Tucson tonight. But, I believed a good workout would take the stress out of my brain and relax me a little bit through endorphin release. For the most part, that was true, but the desire to go home was often very strong.


I had to be gentle with my left shoulder today. I have been feeling small twinges in my shoulder tendon, and I don't want to take any steps backward. I am getting back on a regimen of ice to help the soreness, mixed in with my electronic stimulation to keep the weaker muscles active.