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Date: Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Time: 5:45 a.m.
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Long Course Meters
41 days to Olympic Trials

300 warmup

400 IM - 25 kick/25 drill

6x50 on 1:30 -- 25 fly with flutter kick/25 vertical breaststroke

8x100 roving IM on 1:45

200 easy

Two rounds:
4x50 back descend on 1:00
1x50 easy on 1:30
4x50 breast on 1:00 -- 25 fast from dive/25 easy
1x50 easy on 1:30

4x50 breast kick easy :10 rest

Total: 3,400 meters (75 minutes)

This morning, I felt pretty sore when I got out of bed. This is how I usually feel on Thursday morning, after my workouts with JR. My legs weren't feeling up to the task of walking from the bed to the bathroom, then from the bathroom to the closet, then from the closet down the stairs to the kitchen, and so on, but they managed anyway.

Before I got to the pool, the plan was to not push the workout if my body wasn't able to handle it. But we had a special guest in our group this morning. Mike Nelson, who swims with the top group at Phoenix Swim Club, was in the pool! Mike has also qualified for Olympic Trials in the 100 breast in a time that's a couple of tenths faster than mine. When I saw Mike, I sighed and groaned a little, but put on a happy face. I knew this meant I'd have to push my pace a little harder than planned this morning.

Both Mike and I weren't feeling like breaststrokers today, but we got through that last set. On the first round, Mike did backstroke, but he switched to breaststroke on the dive swims, which offered up a challenge for me. I was happy that he was stepping up to race me at the end of workout. It was the push I needed to work on getting off the blocks faster. I think I haven't been doing very well on my starts because there has rarely been someone there to challenge me. Mike did that, and I had good results. I did a couple of the dive 25s in the low 13-second range (13.3 and 13.4).

I was so exhausted from the workout that I was this close to a nap at work. I managed to hold out well, knowing that I was going to sleep extremely well tonight. And I'll need it: Tomorrow, I'm doing the lactate workout with the kids, and I'll need every bit of energy I can muster!