Thursday, April 12, 2012

I Like It Like That

Date: Thursday, April 12, 2012
Time: 4:40 p.m.
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Short Course Meters/Long Course Meters
74 days to Olympic Trials

Today's workout with the kids at Phoenix Swim Club was a mixed bag. Usually, the main focus is on breaststroke, but the first half had an IM focus, with some emphasis on breaststroke. Specifically, we worked on making the pullout strong, forceful and legal. The key, I've found int he past three months, is to not et the hands stop their motion too much when you separate them to start the pullout and do the dolphin kick. You want to have a quick snap as soon as the hands separate and keep moving the arms through the pull. It's not easy, because you tend to want to stop the hands while doing the dolphin kick.

The second half of workout was essentially a distance freestyle workout, with stroke 50s thrown in for recovery. Here's how it went: 

Long course
Two rounds:

3x50 back on 1:00 (pull, kick, swim)
3x100 free on 1:40 holding threshold pace (averaged 1:10)
3x50 breast on 1:00 (pull, kick, swim)
2x100 on 1:40 holding threshold pace plus 3 seconds (75 free/25 back) (averaged 1:11)
3x50 free on 1:00 (pull, kick, swim)
1x100 on 1:40 holding threshold pace plus 4 (75 free25 breast) (averaged 1:12)

I was very pleased with the way I swam the set. I have done threshold sets like this before with this group, and I am not entirely sure what my threshold pace is, since we don't do sets of that nature often in Masters. But, I remembered that set I did with Tucson Masters last Friday, and thought I should be able to hold 1:11 and not fall apart too much. My heart rate was high (28 beats for 10 seconds) but my stroke felt "comfortable," meaning I wasn't floundering at the end. This was a great breakthrough in terms of my endurance, which can often suffer when I am in the sprint phase of the season. I tend to forget to keep my endurance in check, and I was glad to have today's set to remind me of what I'm doing.

It was much better than what was offered in today's Master's workout. They had a 1500 for time! No thank you.  

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