Swimming Is For The Dogs

After my run this morning, I knew that I should go to the Terrier swim, but I didn't really want to go. Drew told me that I really had to go - that he was worried about Alcatraz. I knew he was right, but it still didn't make me want to go. I have to say that I really didn't want to go when I was woken up from my nap and then went I went outside to walk to practice I discovered it was raining.

But, I went anyway. It actually ended up being a fairly small practice - I think there were only 8 of us there. I started out in the slow lane because I wanted to just work on concentrating on my form and not be too worried about speed today. However, after the warm-up, Sarah made me move over one lane to the slightly faster lane.

This was today's workout:

Warm-Up
150 Swim
150 Drill (I did one armed drills)
150 Kick (with board)
150 Swim

Main Set
10 x 50 Swim on the 1:05
Odds were fast/easy
Evens were easy/fast

5 x 100 Pull (RI 0:15)

500 Swim at Race Pace

8 x 25 For Breath Control

Cool-Down
1 x 50

The 50s that we did, I completed each one in about 45 seconds. I really concentrated on making the easy part easy and the fast part faster. The pulling was pretty boring. I just concentrated on making sure to finish my stroke each time. Then came the hard part - the 500 at race pace. Since I wouldn't even know what my race pace was and it's impossible to duplicate in a pool, I tried to pick a maintainable speed. I didn't want to be dying at the end and I also didn't want my form to go to hell while swimming too fast. I think I finished in about 8:20, which is 1:49/100 pace.

Then Sarah told us that we had all finished the workout so fast that she was going to add some additional stuff on for us (lucky us!). That was when we did the 8 x 25. We did two sets of four. The first 25 we could breathe three times, the second 25 two times, the third 25 once and the fourth zero times. I have to say that I cheated on the first set and breathed once on the zero. But, I felt like I made up for it because on the second set, I only took two breaths on the 25 where we could take three. I actually think that it took me that long to figure out how to adjust my breathing/exhaling. The last 25 I did without taking a breath at all. I asked if I could do it by swimming underwater, but Sarah said no. It's a lot easier to do it that way!

Then we did a quick 50 cool-down and showered and headed home. I am really glad I went today, as I always am. It's just such a struggle to force myself to go. I know that for the next couple of weeks I really can't slack off on this as I need to get myself in the water more and work on my swimming fitness for the race!

Swimming
Time: 58:46
Distance: 2350 yards (1.33 miles)
Pace: 44:00/mile
Calories: 529
Maximum HR: 168
Average HR: 149