Thursday, August 9, 2012

Shoulda Gone in the AM

Swim

1 x 200- Warm-up
5 x 200- 3:00
1 x 50- easy
5 x 100- IM
1 x 100- Cool down

I was going to swim in the morning. I normally swim in the morning. It's a nice way to start the day and right now, since I'm doing one-a-days, it means I'm done after school rather than having to change and get back out. But this morning I wanted to sleep, so I packed my gear and headed to 24 in Pearl City after work.
Bad Idea Reasons-
1) Traffic going that direction starts to suck and the right turn takes at least two lights to make.
2) More (old) people at the pool in the afternoon.
This, but unsmiling and less working out
3) Traffic on the way back is even worse, especially getting on to the freeway.
*beep!*
So now I've learned my lesson and I'll bite the bullet and go in the morning.
The swim its self went well. I'm starting to feel stronger again and, to be completely honest, I'm using the Olympics to power my swims. I picture how strongly the Americans nailed their walls and try to fake that off mine. I'm feeling the water again and better able to grab good solid chunks to pull myself over. The 200 set felt good to start and started to get messy at the end,  but I made all of them with at least ten seconds rest.
The IM set is a direct result of Olympic inspiration. That and the swim meet I did a few weeks ago. I forgot how much I love fly and IM. And the stress they put on my muscles will make me stronger faster than just doing freestyle. And the fly came together nicely mostly. Back and breast are meh. I did notice that the ceiling of the pool has a blue line painted where the flags would normally be so stroke count to the wall isn't a guess. That's a nice touch by the designers that I didn't expect.
I was going to get a 500 in to finish, but the old ladies decided I had swum enough and I didn't need one of my my walls anymore. So instead I swam around them for my cool down and bailed.

2 comments:

  1. Haha! I often see those folks in the aqua-aerobics classes too! Man, I hope I don't end up there in a few years.

    Btw, just a few months ago, I just couldn't get my swim under 2:00 no matter how hard I tried. My best days were 2:05 and I had to give an all out gut busting effort. Most of my swims, at that time, were around 2:10 to 2:15. However, now, without trying hard at all I am swimming 1:52ish. When I put in hard efforts I can go down to about 1:45. This is over 500 to 700 yards. I know that is not fast by any competitive swimmer's standards, but it does show that the advice you and tri cook have given has been working for me. Mahalo!

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    1. Kepa, that rocks! Swimming is a lot about relaxing into the stroke first and finding the water. And if you can seriously hold 1:45s or 1:50s over the course of a 500m swim start that gets you out of the water in so much better position. Glad to hear the swimming is coming along. Good luck with the marathon training.

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