The Final Countdown

Date: Sunday, May 27, 2012
Time: 11:45 a.m.
Location: Tucson, AZ
Long Course Meters
29 days to Olympic Trials

300 warmup

Four rounds:
25 underwater kick on :40
50 IM transition on 1:00
75 free breathing every 5 on 1:20
100 IM on 1:40

8x25 breakouts on :45

Three rounds:
25 fast breast from dive with bungee cord / 25 back fast assisted with bungee cord / 25 breast underwater swim from a dive / 25 free fast
5x50 recovery on :55

4x50 :20 rest -- 25 scull/25 swim

4x50 on 2:00 IM order fast from push (30, 31, 34, 29)

6x50 free with snorkel on :55

Easy 100 (with stretching)

Total: 3,350 meters (90 minutes)

The original plan today was to do two broken swims: a broken 100 breast and a broken 200 IM. Because I did not have any to give me accurate times on my swims, I decided to cut out the 100 breast, make the broken 200 IM more like four 50s with a decent amount of rest in between.

Substituting a major lactate set for a broken 100 breast wasn't an even trade, but I enjoyed doing the lactate set today. The bungee cord wasn't too tight. I didn't feel the resistance until 15 meters out, giving me 10 meters of resistance swimming. The bungee cord was initially too short to reach to 25 meters, so I improvised and added another cord, shortening it just a little bit. I knew it was too long after the first round, but it was too much work to make it shorter.

I didn't go right into each subsequent round on the lactate set. I did the lactate 100 in about 1:40, then had about five minutes for the recovery. Then, I gave myself an additional three minutes or so before starting the next round, putting each round on a 10-minute interval. It was a pretty adequate amount of rest.

Today was a crucial day for swimming fast, not because we are past the 30-day mark until Trials. I will likely not do as much fast swimming per workout for the rest of this training cycle, concentrating instead on explosive speed on 25s more than 50s. Everything seemed to fall in line today, and I was happy with all the fast swimming I did today, especially the 50s at the end. The times listed above are based on what I saw on the clock when I touched, so likely a little faster, but who knows? The real goal was good technique and speed endurance. I fell apart a little bit at the end of each 50, but not to a major degree.

I'm happy to have tomorrow off work and swimming! I will definitely enjoy sleeping in and having no real plans to the day. Have a good Memorial Day everyone!