Swim Day
Suggested Distance- 800yds
1 x 100yds Warm-up
4 x 50yds Catch-up drill- 1:00
3 x 400yds- 6:00
1 x 200yds Cool down
Total Distance- 1700yds
Today I stepped out on deck and the sun was up. It was getting warm. Then the overwhelming smell of chlorine hit me right in the face. It was like coming home. I stood there and soaked it in for a moment. Mmmmm...
My main swim set today was the longest distance set so far. It was good to get some serious distance in. The race is nearly one mile of swimming so I'm going to keep upping the main set's length to prepare. But I noticed today that my stroke technique might be suffering for my focus on distance. I know as well as anyone that the swim will depend as much on technique as on strength, if not more. The better my stroke is, the less energy I'll expend over the first leg of the race, which means the more energy I'll have to get me through the ride and run. So I'm going to start using one of my swim workouts each week as primarily stroke work. I'll still be upping the distances, but I'll be modifying time standards to allow me to concentrate less on speed and more on making my stroke pretty. I felt it going awry today in the middle of all three of the 400s and needed to really focus to fix it. I have to get my shoulders to my chin for longer strokes, knife my hands into the water, get my elbows high, finish past my hips, get my chest down and hips up, breathe less, breathe better...lots to do.
Longest cycle so far tomorrow. Should be fun.
Chlorine might be my favorite smell ever.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you're making amazing progress. Keep it up!
I'm also imagining your swim will be all arms to save your legs for the other two...legs...lol. Maybe add in some paddle work to get that extra strength, and you know paddles emphasize technique too. Maybe some heads up stuff too since I imagine you'll need to do some of that with all the splashing and commotion that will be the open water swim.
ReplyDeleteKeep it goin. :)