swimsuit addict

I enjoyed swimming at Riverbank this morning with a couple of friends. It was a lovely sunny morning, and I enjoyed the bright rays shining in the windows at the far end of the pool during the first part of the session. Here’s what I did:

1000 lcm warmup (400s, 200k RIM, 200p, 200 IM d/s by 25)

I knew I wanted to do some faster IM swims today, but I waited to see what my pals were doing before coming up with a workout. They chose a longish 500-2x400-3x300-etc FR set, so I did the following on the same intervals, focusing on working the IMs and recovering on the FRs:

500 FR, neg. split
400 IM strong [7:05]
400 FR, neg. split
300 IM strong [5:15]
300 FR, neg. split
200 IM fast [goal was 3:20, thought that was a reach but went 3:16, happy]
300 FR pull with paddles easy

Building an IM: 4 x 200, done as

• 50 FL strong + 150 moderate free
• 50 FL + 50 BK strong, 100 mod. free
• 50 FL + 50 BK + 50 BR strong, 50 easy free
• 200 IM strong

4 x 100 kick, odds FR/BR by 25s, evens BK/FL by 25

200 warmdown + play

I was working on a faster turnover on my fly this morning, trying to pause just long enough to get a good catch at the front of my stroke instead of resting and overgliding there. A few times I got it just right, and it felt like I was surging forward while I was breathing, rather than having a dead spot in my stroke there. Hey, I think this might be what fly is supposed to feel like! Unfortunately I couldn’t make it happen at will, but at least I could recognize the magic when it struck. Hope I can find that feeling again, note what I’m doing differently when it occurs, and come up with some keys to do it consistently.

After my swim I treated myself to a 30-minute stretching session at the playground north of the pool. It’s a great place to stretch—there are lots of bars and rings to hang from and grab onto to stretch my arms and torso, plus raised wooden platforms where I can sit and do leg stretches while watching ship traffic go by. And it’s a delightfully sunny spot too. Having a sun-warmed, stretched-out, and well exercised body is a pretty blissy way to start the day!