Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Turn, Turn, Turn

Date: Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Time: 5:50 a.m.
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Long Course Meters
55 days to Olympic Trials

2x500, 1:00 rest
#1 25 free/25 stroke/50 free/50 stroke/75 free/75 stroke/100 free/100 stroke
#2 same as above, except drill/stroke

400 breast pull (no pull buoy)

200 breast kick with board/200 dolphin kick on back

4x50 on 1:00 (1 each stroke)
15 fast underwater kick/20 easy/15 fast swim

Four rounds:
4x50 on 1:00 IM order
2x50 easy on 1:15
Round 1 (32.1, 36.0, 39.1, 33.1=2:20.3)
Round 2 (31.9, 35.0, 37.5, 31.0=2:15.4)
Round 3 easy
Round 4, fly from dive (29.8, 33.5, 37.1, 30.5=2:10.90)

200 easy

Total: 3,200 meters (75 minutes)

I was glad to do breaststroke pull today, because I wanted to work on my insweep. My shoulders and lats were quite tired by the end of the 400! The reason I try not to do breaststroke pull with a pull buoy is because the pull buoy affects your body line. Your legs are too close to the surface, which either means you'll glide on the surface, or your upper body will be angled down too far. And I used to do it with dolphin kick, but it makes my body dive too deep.

The last set was a nice surprise. I wasn't expecting to go 2:10 on the last broken 200 IM. I didn't feel great on the first round, but felt OK on the second round. Instead of going at about 90 percent effort on the third and fourth round (and likely not going much faster), I decided to do the third round easy and the fourth round faster. (Coach Mark was OK with that plan.)

The key for my 200 IM is to be more aggressive on the middle 100. I tend to use back and breast as my assets in the IM, but don't attack them enough. For backstroke, I spend too much time "recovering" from butterfly, and in breaststroke I try to depend less on my kick, which I'll need for freestyle. Sets like this help me understand the importance of not backing down (too much) on each stroke.

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For those in the know in swimming, today is a very sad day. World champion Alex Dale Oen died last night at training camp in Flagstaff, Arizona. I got to do an interview with him last week, and he was an absolute delight to meet. I've been experiencing a lot of emotions today, and it is hard to grasp that he will not be racing in the final of the 100 breast in London.

I wrote an article with my thoughts on meeting him last week. You can read the article here.

All day, I keep hearing the opening lines from U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday" in my head when I think of Alex:

I can't believe the news today
I can't close my eyes and make it go away

A sad, sad day.

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