swimsuit addict
Next stop: Iceland!
by , May 10th, 2012 at 10:37 AM (1076 Views)
Yesterday I did an easy 3000 at Riverbank, and today I attended TNYA workout. Crowded conditions gave me an excuse to sneak over to the slow lane, which was unoccupied when I arrived despite 4-6 swimmers everywhere else. I was joined there by friends Janet and LisaLisa, and we did the following workout together, doing different things on the same intervals so that everyone got to do something challenging.
My upper arms are still plenty sore from the AZ lakes adventure, so I did a lot of kicking,. I also used the soreness I felt when swimming freestyle to figure out how I could tweak my stroke to use those overworked deltoid muscles less. Rotate more? (yes). Make the recovery more about momentum, less about effort? (yes, and turning over at a higher clip helps me do that). Consider bending my elbows more? (only when combined with more rotation). Tighten my core to use my lats more? (double yep.) It was nice to have the space to experiment around a bit—I hope the soreness will be fleeting, so I need to make use of it while it lasts.
Brad coached, my lanemates and I edited, and here’s what I ended up doing:
500 scy warmup
3 x 200 FR swim/kick halfsies @ 3:30
2 x 100 FR/BK halfsies @ 1:40
2 x 50 FR/BK halfsies @ :50
100 easy
2 x 200 kick @ 3:50
2 x 125 alt. BR/kick by 25s @ 3:00
2 x 75 BR/kick/BR @ 1:45
100 easy
[The 125s and 75s were supposed to be hard efforts, but I decided I’m not ready for that quite yet—apart from the soreness I’m still systematically fatigued.]
1 x 200 IM kick
4 x 125 IM with rolling extra 25 (alternated kicking and swimming by 25)
300 FR alternating kicking and pulling with kickboard
100 warmdown
I felt tired throughout this workout until the last 20 minutes or so, when I started to loosen up and find some good energy. I had thought about getting out early, but was glad I stayed in—the whole effort was worth it for those last few minutes of feeling smooth and fluid in the water.
As far as recovering from last weekend’s swims, I’m mostly just trying to get plenty of sleep, stretch a lot, and listen to my body when working out to avoid pushing it harder than it wants to go. Taking days completely off seems to leave me feeling tighter and sorer and more lethargic than ever, so I try to at least get to the pool and move around some. I’ve been craving protein ever since I got back, so I’ve been eating plenty of it. Sometimes it’s hard to know how much to push and how much to coddle your body when recovering from hard efforts, and I’m trying to find some balance between the two.
And my next swimming adventure is quickly approaching: IGLA in Iceland! My last attempt at doing a big pool meet in the midst of open-water swims (LCM nats at Auburn last summer) was somewhat disastrous. I’m hoping this one will go better, but I’m mostly just looking forward to traveling to a cool place, supporting my teammates, and having fun with friends. I leave on the Tuesday after Memorial Day, and my first events are three weeks from today. I signed up for the 200/400 IM, 100/200 BK, and 400 FR. I decided not to do any sprints other than the 1BK because it was just too hard to fit in the necessary training/recovery for those and keep up the yardage I need for my OW events. I’ll probably also swim relays—I’ll just do my best with the sprinting there—plus there’s a 250m OW swim in the North Atlantic! Water temps in the high-40s are predicted. Should be a fun time!
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