I swim, therefore I am

SCY@Fort Myers Aquatic Center
Air temp of 76, pool at 85!, 100% water clarity.
Partly cloudy skies with humidity at 63%

Warm up - 200 FR

*Set 1*
4x500 on 1:00 rest RIMO

1. FR - as 2(5x50) descend effort by 50
2. BR - 50 Kick (on back)/50 Swim
3. BK - as 2(5x50) descend effort by 50
4. FLY - 50 Drill/50 Swim

*Set 2*
2000 FR Swim, build each 500 by 100 1-5

• Did 23:19.00

*Set 3*
1000 FR Swim w/paddles, fins
- as steady state swim

*Set 4*
10x50 on :45

• Did 1-5)32-31, 6-10)32-30

Warm down - 100 EZ

Comments:
OK, here goes... ARGHHHH! 85 water temp!!! Aquatic staff said pool heater was left on all night by mistake. Oh well, did the best I could, but sure enough, after the first 500 yards of swimming I felt like cooked spaghetti.

Set 1 - Today was supposed to be almost all FR at/or faster than AT pace, that was quickly revised starting with set 1, did a general 2000 yard swim RIMO trying to hold quality stroke form.


Set 2 - After finishing set 1, I made a comment to swimmer in the next lane that his freestyle stroke looked pretty good, so from there we continued to blah, blah for about 20 minutes or so. By then the water did not seem as hot, and I pushed off to do 4x500s on 6:00 descending, but then flip turned at the end of first 500 and kept going, as the stroke flow and rhythm felt good.


Set 3 - With the warm water, it was a good time to try the steady state freestyle swimming with paddles/fins. FGCU Head Coach Neil says they do it for EN1 & EN2 training as well as to help develop feel for long axis rotation. At first my tempo was slower, and I had to concentrate on keeping my kick steady and narrow, with long straight body alignment facilitated by a controlled EVF catch into the pull without excessive glide or outward lateral motion. After 500, I was feeling acclimated to swimming with the paddles/fins, and then slowly increased the pace a bit. The walls came up very quickly so for me, swimming in LCM will more fun. For a few brief moments I thought maybe this is a little how Sun Yang would feel. Yes... only in my dreams.


Set 4 - Although I was feeling really hot again, I wanted to do just a little pace swimming off the clock. The 10x50s was to see what state I was in at the moment. I can say that doing 32 required less kick than a month ago so that's progress. Overall, in cooler water, I believe I can swim close to that pace for longer straight swims and sets.