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

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

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