Saturday morning found me up early to complete my final task in order to qualify for entrance into the New York 2011 Marathon (gulp!). I've already run the 9 NYRR races, but I needed to do my part and volunteer for a race. My friend, Lisa, suggested that being a bike marshal was the best way to go. I signed up for Saturday's Dash & Splash 10K race (with the splash being in Lasker Pool after the race was over).
Of course, in typical fashion, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to bike quickly enough and the lead runner would pass me by, so I did some research on the fastest 10K times and quickly realized that I should have no trouble at all finishing ahead of the runners. Which is good, because I know that some people are really fast runners, but I'd be a little embarrassed if they could run faster than I could bike.
It ended up that there were 5 of us bike riders on Saturday morning. We went out in teams of two ahead of the lead truck (which stayed in front of the lead male runner). I was in the second wave of bikers. We were given whistles and told to clear all runners/walkers/etc. from the course in advance of the race. I have to tell you, it's not that easy to whistle and yell at people while riding your bike and trying to pay attention to everything else.
However, I had a ton of fun! Something about blowing a whistle and waving frantically at someone and telling (okay, I was yelling!) them to move out of the way was really fun. It was crazy to me how oblivious people are while wearing their headphones. Of course, some people were a little bit nasty when I was asking them to move out of the way, but I guess that's to be expected.
After finishing up with the volunteering, I did some more biking in the Park. I hadn't started my watch for the race and since I had such a nice time, I decided to just do the same thing for the rest of my ride and not be worried about anything other than spending some time on the bike. I ended up doing about 20 miles total, which I think seems like an okay number for the day.
Sunday I finally made it to the Terrier swim practice. I haven't been "real" swimming in a really long time. I figured maybe I should get one good swim in before the triathlon this coming weekend. I actually dropped my bike off at Toga to have them give it a tune up and also put a second bottle cage on (since mine fell off in San Francisco) and picked it up after practice, so it was really a two-for one kind of afternoon.
I got to practice a little bit early and was worried that I was going to end up with no coach. I knew that I'd get in and swim either way, but I was glad when Julia showed up a couple of minutes late and gave us a pretty good workout! Here's what we did:
300 Swim Warm-Up
2 x 150 Kick / Drill / Swim (50 of each)
2 x 50 Build
450 (Done as 9 x 50 with bilateral breathing on the 3-5-7, no rest in between 50s)
8 x 25 Breath control 2 x 4-3-2-1
4 x 200 race pace (:20 rest)
100 Swim Cool-Down
The 450 set wasn't easy. I sort-of hate bilateral breathing as a general rule, so I wasn't overly excited to do it today. I know that it's good race practice, but it doesn't mean I have to like it. On the last 50 where were were supposed to be breathing every 7 strokes, I definitely had to cut it short twice and only go 5 strokes. Oh well. Not the end of the world. I still took my breath on the left!
On the last 25, Julia told us that if someone could make it with taking no breaths, we could skip the 4 x 50s fast that she had written into the workout. I have to tell you that I was fine with sacrificing that 200 yards for the one 25. There actually only ended up being 4 of us at practice (it was during the World Cup game) and three of the four of us made it without taking a breath. Thank goodness!
I actually did the same thing that I did yesterday at the bike ride and didn't turn on my watch. Since we started a little late and ended about 2 minutes early, I'd guess that we were probably only swimming about 50 minutes today. Still, it felt great to get back into the pool and I'm glad that I got one good swim workout in before the race.
Biking
Distance: ~ 20.00 miles
Swimming
Time: 50:00
Distance: 2350 yards = 1.33 miles
Pace: 37:35/mile
Showing posts with label West End Fitness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label West End Fitness. Show all posts
Monday, July 12, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
A Good Leader
Well, I guess I should preface and say that I think we all know this isn't going to happen this week (Week 4 Planned workouts):
I think that 9 hours of training just isn't going to happen this week. And I'm 100% okay with that. I got an hour in today, I'll take tomorrow off most likely, get in another 3-4 hours Tuesday-Thursday and then travel/rest up for next Sunday's race.
I did some resting today as well. I was out late again last night, so Drew and I slept in. By the time I was up and had eaten something, I just didn't feel like doing two workouts today. Instead, I went grocery shopping, made homemade granola and started on dinner before heading to the Terrier swim.
I got to practice a little bit early and was talking to Sarah (one of our swimming coaches) about doing Alcatraz next weekend. I'm really glad that I ended up saying something because she definitely threw in a couple of things in the workout that I think will really help me on race day.
This was our workout:
Warm-Up
15 Minutes Continuous Swimming
8 x 75 (0:10 Rest)
Main Set
6 x 200 Descending (0:15 Rest)
8 x 25
Cool-Down
50 easy
Total: 2850 Yards
During the warm-up, I did a total of 800 yards (400 swim/100 kick/300 swim). The 75s were 50 swim with sighting and 25 kick. After I had done a couple of the 75s, Sarah came over and told me to really think about being at Alcatraz and trying to reach my head further out of the water as if there were high waves in the water. It definitely helped to think about that while I was in the pool.
I started in the slowest lane today (I just wasn't feeling like I was that fast) and by the time we got done with the warm-up, Sarah made me move over two lanes to workout with the "fast" people. I was in a lane with one other girl and she told me that I should go ahead and lead the lane.
Our first part of the workout was 6 x 200. On the very first one I forgot and only did 100. Oops. I didn't start out on a good foot leading my lane. The 200s were descending, so we got faster for the first three and then repeated for 4 through 6. I really pushed myself to get faster as we went on with the workout. Knowing that someone was behind me really helped me to push harder than I would have if I had been in a slower lane or not the leader.
When we finished up that set, the girl that was in my lane told me that I was a great leader, which was nice of her to say. I felt like I was having a really great swim and I know for a fact that it was because Sarah moved me over and then I ended up leading our lane. I'd been going to the later swim option at 4:30 on Sundays because it's more convenient for me to procrastinate longer, but there are fewer people there than there are at 3:30. Maybe I should reevaluate this?
We finished up with 8 x 25. On the way down the pool, we had to do head-up freestyle (another good thing to practice pre-race!). And on the way back, we had to do some breath control. The first one we got three breaths, the second two breaths, the third one breath and the last no breaths. The head-up freestyle isn't easy and I was definitely breathing hard by the end. All I wanted to do was put my head in the water and swim normally. It also made it harder to turn around and come back with so few breaths, but I managed to do it!
All in all, this was a fantastic workout for me today. I think it was a good confidence booster going into the race, which is exactly what I think I needed.
Swimming
Time: 1:00:00
Distance: 2850 yards / 1.62 miles
Pace: 37:30/mile
Calories: 632
Maximum HR: 182
Average HR: 163
I think that 9 hours of training just isn't going to happen this week. And I'm 100% okay with that. I got an hour in today, I'll take tomorrow off most likely, get in another 3-4 hours Tuesday-Thursday and then travel/rest up for next Sunday's race.I did some resting today as well. I was out late again last night, so Drew and I slept in. By the time I was up and had eaten something, I just didn't feel like doing two workouts today. Instead, I went grocery shopping, made homemade granola and started on dinner before heading to the Terrier swim.
I got to practice a little bit early and was talking to Sarah (one of our swimming coaches) about doing Alcatraz next weekend. I'm really glad that I ended up saying something because she definitely threw in a couple of things in the workout that I think will really help me on race day.
This was our workout:
Warm-Up
15 Minutes Continuous Swimming
8 x 75 (0:10 Rest)
Main Set
6 x 200 Descending (0:15 Rest)
8 x 25
Cool-Down
50 easy
Total: 2850 Yards
During the warm-up, I did a total of 800 yards (400 swim/100 kick/300 swim). The 75s were 50 swim with sighting and 25 kick. After I had done a couple of the 75s, Sarah came over and told me to really think about being at Alcatraz and trying to reach my head further out of the water as if there were high waves in the water. It definitely helped to think about that while I was in the pool.
I started in the slowest lane today (I just wasn't feeling like I was that fast) and by the time we got done with the warm-up, Sarah made me move over two lanes to workout with the "fast" people. I was in a lane with one other girl and she told me that I should go ahead and lead the lane.
Our first part of the workout was 6 x 200. On the very first one I forgot and only did 100. Oops. I didn't start out on a good foot leading my lane. The 200s were descending, so we got faster for the first three and then repeated for 4 through 6. I really pushed myself to get faster as we went on with the workout. Knowing that someone was behind me really helped me to push harder than I would have if I had been in a slower lane or not the leader.
When we finished up that set, the girl that was in my lane told me that I was a great leader, which was nice of her to say. I felt like I was having a really great swim and I know for a fact that it was because Sarah moved me over and then I ended up leading our lane. I'd been going to the later swim option at 4:30 on Sundays because it's more convenient for me to procrastinate longer, but there are fewer people there than there are at 3:30. Maybe I should reevaluate this?
We finished up with 8 x 25. On the way down the pool, we had to do head-up freestyle (another good thing to practice pre-race!). And on the way back, we had to do some breath control. The first one we got three breaths, the second two breaths, the third one breath and the last no breaths. The head-up freestyle isn't easy and I was definitely breathing hard by the end. All I wanted to do was put my head in the water and swim normally. It also made it harder to turn around and come back with so few breaths, but I managed to do it!
All in all, this was a fantastic workout for me today. I think it was a good confidence booster going into the race, which is exactly what I think I needed.
Swimming
Time: 1:00:00
Distance: 2850 yards / 1.62 miles
Pace: 37:30/mile
Calories: 632
Maximum HR: 182
Average HR: 163
Sunday, April 11, 2010
This Looks Like Fun
While I'm not sure I love two-a-days, I'm definitely getting better at them, at least on Sunday. I didn't even really mind going swimming this afternoon. Of course, when I got there and saw what the workout was, I changed my mind. There are two intermediate group swim sessions on Sundays - one at 3:30 and one at 4:30. I tend to go to the later one as it seems like there are typically fewer people there, which I like. It also means that I usually get to see the last couple minutes of the workout ahead of me.
Before we even got in the water, Coach Sarah said that she wanted to talk to all of us - those who were about to get into the water and the people who were getting out. She said that we should all be swimming at least twice (and preferably three times) a week. She told us that she's just as guilty of this as everyone else, but we should all remember that there are no junk laps. The most important thing is just getting into the water, even if we only have 20 or 30 minutes. We don't have to feel obligated to always be doing really long sets in the water.
I think that this was a really good reminder for me. I often think that I don't want to go swimming at the pool at my gymnasium because you can only reserve a lane for 30 minutes and I often worry that it's not enough time to get in a decent workout, but the point is that I should just get in and swim and the workout will take care of itself.
Sarah gave us her go-to 1500 yard workout when she's not really feeling into swimming. She does 500 swim, 400 pull, 300 drill, 200 kick and 100 swim. I have to say that I feel a little bit bad now for not just finishing up the last 800 yards that I should have swum last week. Oh well, that's in the past and I'm not going to lose sleep over it.
This was today's workout:
Warm-Up
200 swim
100 kick
200 swim
100 kick
Main Set
4 x 100-75-50-25 (Rest: 0:10)
4 x 150 Deck-ups
1 x 100 Deck-ups
Cool-Down
100 swim
The warm-up is pretty self explanatory. The Main Set was pretty tough. The 4 x 100-47-50-25 were increasing effort as the distance decreased. So, the 25 was supposed to be really hard and the 100 would then be used as an active recovery. I really tried to pay attention and not cheat on the rest times as I wanted to get in as much swimming as possible.
The Deck-Ups were the part that I was not looking forward to. It was the part that I had seen the previous group doing when I arrived to practice and as soon as I walked in, I told Sarah, "this looks like fun!". She then kept asking me while I was actually doing it if I was having fun or not. I gotta tell you, it wasn't all that much fun, even if it was a good workout.
The purpose was to simulate coming out of the water and heading into T1 and going from horizontal to vertical rather quickly. So, we would swim 150, pull ourselves up onto the pool deck, stand up, take a couple breaths and jump back into the water and swim again. I think that the best part of the workout was the jumping back into the water. I was a little nervous that my goggles might pop off, but they stayed firmly in place. Great to know for the jumping off the boat bit at Alcatraz!
The total yardage for this week is supposed to be 5200 yards swimming. I've already done 2,400, so that leaves 2,800 to go. I'm not 100% I'll fit it all in this week, especially since I want to spend more time biking, but it's good to know that I've got a good chunk of it done.
Swimming
Time: 48:38
Distance: 2400 Yards (1.36 Miles)
Pace: 35:39/mile
Calories: 483
Maximum HR: 171
Average HR: 158
Before we even got in the water, Coach Sarah said that she wanted to talk to all of us - those who were about to get into the water and the people who were getting out. She said that we should all be swimming at least twice (and preferably three times) a week. She told us that she's just as guilty of this as everyone else, but we should all remember that there are no junk laps. The most important thing is just getting into the water, even if we only have 20 or 30 minutes. We don't have to feel obligated to always be doing really long sets in the water.
I think that this was a really good reminder for me. I often think that I don't want to go swimming at the pool at my gymnasium because you can only reserve a lane for 30 minutes and I often worry that it's not enough time to get in a decent workout, but the point is that I should just get in and swim and the workout will take care of itself.
Sarah gave us her go-to 1500 yard workout when she's not really feeling into swimming. She does 500 swim, 400 pull, 300 drill, 200 kick and 100 swim. I have to say that I feel a little bit bad now for not just finishing up the last 800 yards that I should have swum last week. Oh well, that's in the past and I'm not going to lose sleep over it.
This was today's workout:
Warm-Up
200 swim
100 kick
200 swim
100 kick
Main Set
4 x 100-75-50-25 (Rest: 0:10)
4 x 150 Deck-ups
1 x 100 Deck-ups
Cool-Down
100 swim
The warm-up is pretty self explanatory. The Main Set was pretty tough. The 4 x 100-47-50-25 were increasing effort as the distance decreased. So, the 25 was supposed to be really hard and the 100 would then be used as an active recovery. I really tried to pay attention and not cheat on the rest times as I wanted to get in as much swimming as possible.
The Deck-Ups were the part that I was not looking forward to. It was the part that I had seen the previous group doing when I arrived to practice and as soon as I walked in, I told Sarah, "this looks like fun!". She then kept asking me while I was actually doing it if I was having fun or not. I gotta tell you, it wasn't all that much fun, even if it was a good workout.
The purpose was to simulate coming out of the water and heading into T1 and going from horizontal to vertical rather quickly. So, we would swim 150, pull ourselves up onto the pool deck, stand up, take a couple breaths and jump back into the water and swim again. I think that the best part of the workout was the jumping back into the water. I was a little nervous that my goggles might pop off, but they stayed firmly in place. Great to know for the jumping off the boat bit at Alcatraz!
The total yardage for this week is supposed to be 5200 yards swimming. I've already done 2,400, so that leaves 2,800 to go. I'm not 100% I'll fit it all in this week, especially since I want to spend more time biking, but it's good to know that I've got a good chunk of it done.
Swimming
Time: 48:38
Distance: 2400 Yards (1.36 Miles)
Pace: 35:39/mile
Calories: 483
Maximum HR: 171
Average HR: 158
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Let's Stick It To The Man
To keep accountable from now on, I'll be posting my weekly workout schedule. My half-Ironman training officially starts on Tuesday of this week, so this is what Week 1 will look like (click for larger image):
My current plan is to post the week's plan and also post what I actually did during the prior week. I'm hoping that this keeps me accountable and on track to completing the training as it's laid out. I should mention, however, that I know that I will not be doing these things on the days that they're listed. My main goal it to make sure the totals at the bottom add up. The only thing about the totals for swimming is that I put in an hour of time for the swimming in the log no matter what the distance was. So, my times for swimming might be short each week, but I am going to try to go the distances that the plan calls for.
After eating lunch and taking a short nap this afternoon, I headed off to Terrier swim practice. I was actually looking forward to testing out my goggles again! I got to the pool and noticed that there had only been about 5-6 people for the 3:30 swim (I went to the later swim at 4:30). That didn't seem so surprising given the holiday weekend.
I changed into my swimsuit and went out onto the pool deck. And I was the only person there! I asked the lifeguard if the coach had left for the day and he said that no coach showed up at 3:30. I checked to make sure we could still swim and after he said yes, I hopped in the pool. I figured I might as well make the most of my hour.
There was a work-out posted on the dry-erase board by the pool, so I started doing the warm-up listed there. I didn't know if it was a Terrier workout or something else, but I figured it was better than nothing and I didn't have any great ideas of things to do. After I had started swimming, two more guys came to the workout. One of them told me that the earlier group had done 12 x 100 at race pace as the main set. We figured we'd do that too.
Except when I was about to start the main set, I commented that I thought it didn't sound fun (I think I actually said, "that sounds sucky"), so the guy asked if we should do 6 x 200 instead. He said that we should "stick it to the man" and do what we felt like doing. We both thought that 6 intervals sounded better than 12, so that's what we did.
This was my workout:
Warm-Up
300 Swim, every 3rd length breaststroke
6 x 75 Swim/Drill/Kick (Rest: 0:15)
Main Set
6 x 200 Swim at Race Pace (Rest 0:30)
Cool-Down
200 Kick
200 Swim Easy
100 Breaststroke
Total: 2300 yards (1.30 miles)
For the drills in the warm-up, I did a mixture of one-armed drills and fisting drills. I also did the kicking with a board since it worked out to leave it at one end and pick it up on the next set. For the main set, I finished the 200s around 3:30/3:40 each time, which I was pretty happy with. There was some discussion about what defines "race pace" and how impossible that is to duplicate in a pool.
After I was done with the main set, I still had some time left, and I thought I should use up the whole hour as best as I could instead of sneaking out early, so I did some kicking, easy free and then some breaststroke. Seemed like a good way to get another 500 yards in.
Even though there wasn't a coach there today, I'm still really glad that I went and had such a good long swim. I think working at "race pace" really made me think about being tired in the water and pushing through. I also think that the 200s were better than 100s would have been in that situation.
Swimming
Time: 56:59
Distance: 2300 yards (1.30 miles)
Pace: 43:47/mile
Calories: 521
Maximum HR: 168
Average HR: 150
My current plan is to post the week's plan and also post what I actually did during the prior week. I'm hoping that this keeps me accountable and on track to completing the training as it's laid out. I should mention, however, that I know that I will not be doing these things on the days that they're listed. My main goal it to make sure the totals at the bottom add up. The only thing about the totals for swimming is that I put in an hour of time for the swimming in the log no matter what the distance was. So, my times for swimming might be short each week, but I am going to try to go the distances that the plan calls for.
After eating lunch and taking a short nap this afternoon, I headed off to Terrier swim practice. I was actually looking forward to testing out my goggles again! I got to the pool and noticed that there had only been about 5-6 people for the 3:30 swim (I went to the later swim at 4:30). That didn't seem so surprising given the holiday weekend.
I changed into my swimsuit and went out onto the pool deck. And I was the only person there! I asked the lifeguard if the coach had left for the day and he said that no coach showed up at 3:30. I checked to make sure we could still swim and after he said yes, I hopped in the pool. I figured I might as well make the most of my hour.
There was a work-out posted on the dry-erase board by the pool, so I started doing the warm-up listed there. I didn't know if it was a Terrier workout or something else, but I figured it was better than nothing and I didn't have any great ideas of things to do. After I had started swimming, two more guys came to the workout. One of them told me that the earlier group had done 12 x 100 at race pace as the main set. We figured we'd do that too.
Except when I was about to start the main set, I commented that I thought it didn't sound fun (I think I actually said, "that sounds sucky"), so the guy asked if we should do 6 x 200 instead. He said that we should "stick it to the man" and do what we felt like doing. We both thought that 6 intervals sounded better than 12, so that's what we did.
This was my workout:
Warm-Up
300 Swim, every 3rd length breaststroke
6 x 75 Swim/Drill/Kick (Rest: 0:15)
Main Set
6 x 200 Swim at Race Pace (Rest 0:30)
Cool-Down
200 Kick
200 Swim Easy
100 Breaststroke
Total: 2300 yards (1.30 miles)
For the drills in the warm-up, I did a mixture of one-armed drills and fisting drills. I also did the kicking with a board since it worked out to leave it at one end and pick it up on the next set. For the main set, I finished the 200s around 3:30/3:40 each time, which I was pretty happy with. There was some discussion about what defines "race pace" and how impossible that is to duplicate in a pool.
After I was done with the main set, I still had some time left, and I thought I should use up the whole hour as best as I could instead of sneaking out early, so I did some kicking, easy free and then some breaststroke. Seemed like a good way to get another 500 yards in.
Even though there wasn't a coach there today, I'm still really glad that I went and had such a good long swim. I think working at "race pace" really made me think about being tired in the water and pushing through. I also think that the 200s were better than 100s would have been in that situation.
Swimming
Time: 56:59
Distance: 2300 yards (1.30 miles)
Pace: 43:47/mile
Calories: 521
Maximum HR: 168
Average HR: 150
Sunday, March 28, 2010
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
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
Sunday, January 24, 2010
There's A Pool I Haven't Been To Yet?
This afternoon Drew made me go to the Terrier swim. And I was not happy about it. I was napping very happily on the couch and he woke me up and told me that it was time for me to go swimming. I will say that he was in charge of making dinner and it was a surprise and it was supposed to be "really good for swimmers". So, I was left with little choice but to tell him that I was mad at him and head off to swim practice.
I should also mention that the Terrier swim practice has moved to a new pool, which is further away from our apartment and it was raining, which didn't help matters at all. I knew in my heart that as soon as I got to practice I'd be glad that I went, but it was just the walk there that was pretty miserable.
The pool is just okay. It's 4 lanes (our old pool was 5), but this should probably really only be a three-lane pool because of how narrow the lanes are. We were lucky that there were only 8 people there total (two to a lane), otherwise I think it would have been a lot less fun to swim. This pool is also in yards instead of meters, so it's a bit shorter than our old pool too. The showering facilities at this new pool are a little bit better, though. Oh, and this new pool is HOT. Really hot. Uncomfortably so when seriously swimming. I actually had to concentrate on not overdoing it. Next time I'll be sure to bring a water bottle in an effort to curb the heat.
Megan was coaching today (I think she's my favorite swim coach) and we did a more drill intensive workout than usual. She explained that in the off-season she really wants us all to be working on things that we knew we were doing wrong last season but didn't fix then. For me, that'd be bi-lateral breathing. Ick. I just love to breathe on the right. It feels so natural. But, I'm going to make a conscious effort to work on it.
This was today's workout:
Warm-Up
300 swim
200 pull
100 drill (one arm)
Main Set
8 x 50 drill down, swim back
25/50/75/100/75/50/25 (0:15 rest)
6 x 75 (0:15 rest)
For the drills in the warm-up, I did one armed drills (alternating left and right each 25 yards). During the main set, Megan gave us 4 different drills that we did twice. The first drill was fisting - where you make fists with your hands instead of having an open palm. The second drill was zipper - you roll onto your side, pretending you were zipping up and then down a zipper along the side of your ribcage, then taking a full stroke before rolling over to the other side. The third drill was 3-3-3 - where you take three strokes with your right arm, three with the left and then three alternating. The fourth drill was 12 o'clock - where you roll onto your side, lift your arm that is doing the stroke up to 12 o'clock (the ceiling) and then bend your elbow and enter into the water. I was not very good at the 12 o'clock drill, mainly because I kept forgetting to bend my elbow and then I'd laugh and get all sidetracked.
The second part of the main set was a build from one length of the pool to four and then back down to one length. By the last length we were supposed be going at 100%. I'll be perfectly honest and say that I did not go quite as hard as I know I'm capable of during this. I was already pretty tired from the run this morning (not sure how well that bodes for my half-Ironman triathlon, but I'm trying not to think about it now) and with the pool so hot, I knew that there was no way that I could push myself to 100% and still be functioning. So, I probably did it at about 85-90% and was okay with that effort.
The final part of the main set were the 75s that were pretty brutal. We had to breathe every third stroke on the first 25, every fifth stroke on the second 25 and every seventh stroke on the third 25. I'm just going to go ahead and say right now that seven is a lot of strokes. I definitely cheated twice on this and took a breath after the fifth stroke, but I did the best that I could. I also really hung out on my side getting a super deep breath, so I wasn't very fast while doing this. But, I guess it was good practice for my bilateral breathing!
We finished the 75s right at 5:30 and there wasn't a cool down other than a really hot shower (I guess they really like hot water at this gym ...) and walk home. At least it had stopped raining by the time I was walking home. And I came home and had a fantastic dinner and watched some football. Not at all a bad evening and I have Drew to thank for it!
Swimming
Time: 60:00
Distance: 1.05 miles (1850 yards)
Pace: 57:08/mile
I should also mention that the Terrier swim practice has moved to a new pool, which is further away from our apartment and it was raining, which didn't help matters at all. I knew in my heart that as soon as I got to practice I'd be glad that I went, but it was just the walk there that was pretty miserable.
The pool is just okay. It's 4 lanes (our old pool was 5), but this should probably really only be a three-lane pool because of how narrow the lanes are. We were lucky that there were only 8 people there total (two to a lane), otherwise I think it would have been a lot less fun to swim. This pool is also in yards instead of meters, so it's a bit shorter than our old pool too. The showering facilities at this new pool are a little bit better, though. Oh, and this new pool is HOT. Really hot. Uncomfortably so when seriously swimming. I actually had to concentrate on not overdoing it. Next time I'll be sure to bring a water bottle in an effort to curb the heat.
Megan was coaching today (I think she's my favorite swim coach) and we did a more drill intensive workout than usual. She explained that in the off-season she really wants us all to be working on things that we knew we were doing wrong last season but didn't fix then. For me, that'd be bi-lateral breathing. Ick. I just love to breathe on the right. It feels so natural. But, I'm going to make a conscious effort to work on it.
This was today's workout:
Warm-Up
300 swim
200 pull
100 drill (one arm)
Main Set
8 x 50 drill down, swim back
25/50/75/100/75/50/25 (0:15 rest)
6 x 75 (0:15 rest)
For the drills in the warm-up, I did one armed drills (alternating left and right each 25 yards). During the main set, Megan gave us 4 different drills that we did twice. The first drill was fisting - where you make fists with your hands instead of having an open palm. The second drill was zipper - you roll onto your side, pretending you were zipping up and then down a zipper along the side of your ribcage, then taking a full stroke before rolling over to the other side. The third drill was 3-3-3 - where you take three strokes with your right arm, three with the left and then three alternating. The fourth drill was 12 o'clock - where you roll onto your side, lift your arm that is doing the stroke up to 12 o'clock (the ceiling) and then bend your elbow and enter into the water. I was not very good at the 12 o'clock drill, mainly because I kept forgetting to bend my elbow and then I'd laugh and get all sidetracked.
The second part of the main set was a build from one length of the pool to four and then back down to one length. By the last length we were supposed be going at 100%. I'll be perfectly honest and say that I did not go quite as hard as I know I'm capable of during this. I was already pretty tired from the run this morning (not sure how well that bodes for my half-Ironman triathlon, but I'm trying not to think about it now) and with the pool so hot, I knew that there was no way that I could push myself to 100% and still be functioning. So, I probably did it at about 85-90% and was okay with that effort.
The final part of the main set were the 75s that were pretty brutal. We had to breathe every third stroke on the first 25, every fifth stroke on the second 25 and every seventh stroke on the third 25. I'm just going to go ahead and say right now that seven is a lot of strokes. I definitely cheated twice on this and took a breath after the fifth stroke, but I did the best that I could. I also really hung out on my side getting a super deep breath, so I wasn't very fast while doing this. But, I guess it was good practice for my bilateral breathing!
We finished the 75s right at 5:30 and there wasn't a cool down other than a really hot shower (I guess they really like hot water at this gym ...) and walk home. At least it had stopped raining by the time I was walking home. And I came home and had a fantastic dinner and watched some football. Not at all a bad evening and I have Drew to thank for it!
Swimming
Time: 60:00
Distance: 1.05 miles (1850 yards)
Pace: 57:08/mile
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