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swimsuit addict

Swimmer as wind-up toy

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swimsuit addict
, February 4th, 2014 at 08:13 PM (853 Views)
I enjoyed a good swim at the PCB pool this morning. I came at 6am for the PCST masters workout, then stayed for some solo swimming. Here’s how it went:

Warmup: 5 x 100 lcm, odds FR, evens BK

12 x 50 various fly stuff @ 1:00:
4 FL kick on BK
4 1-arm fly
4 goggle drill: 1 stroke no breath, 1 stroke just bringing goggles above water, 1 stroke breathing with as minimal head movement as possible [I liked this drill, but left out the no-breath stroke, and upped the interval.]

4 x 150 BK/BR/FR

4 x 100 pull with bilat breathing pattern @ 2:00

4 x 50 sprint BK @ 1:10

That ended practice. I skipped the 200 warmdown, and did the following solo:

Extended IM riff
4 x 150 stroke sandwiches (FR/ST/FR) @ 2:50
4 x 150 IM @ 3:10

  • 25 FL / 50BK / 50BR / 25FR
  • 50 FL / 25 BK / 25 BR / 50 FR
  • 25 FL / 50 BK / 25 BR / 50 FR
  • 50 FL / 25 BK / 50 BR / 25 FR

200 kick RIM
6 x 200, odds IM desc. @ 4:00, evens FR pull @ 3:45 [3:33 on fastest IM]

Magic 700, alt. IM/FR

200 kick
200 warmdown + play

I was feeling fatigued and a little loopy by the time I reached the magic 700, and decided to just focus on the rhythmic elements of each stroke. I imagined my body as some sort of perpetual motion machine, all cogs and gears and levers, with each movement leading automatically to the next, and the next, and the next. I tried to imagine the forces interacting with my body—gravity, inertia, the resistance of the water—and to imagine my body working with those forces in various ways. It was a nice meditative way to end a long workout. I closed my eyes for much of this swim, and did not run into a lane line even once. (The lanes are wide here, and I had my own, so felt pretty safe swimming blind.).

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  1. gigi's Avatar
    I may just lift this workout for my next trip to the pool. I'm just starting back this week after a 2-month layoff from swim, so I won't do the whole thing on one day. Love the variety.
    When my daughter was a kid she took an archery class & I'm not a "hover and watch" kind of mom so I would walk a three-mile loop around the area. The last mile was a straight-arrow stretch with a wide sidewalk and I would practice my eyes-closed walking technique. Good times. Never tried it in the pool though.
    As always, SSA, you're an inspiration!
  2. swimsuit addict's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by gigi
    I may just lift this workout for my next trip to the pool. I'm just starting back this week after a 2-month layoff from swim, so I won't do the whole thing on one day. Love the variety.
    When my daughter was a kid she took an archery class & I'm not a "hover and watch" kind of mom so I would walk a three-mile loop around the area. The last mile was a straight-arrow stretch with a wide sidewalk and I would practice my eyes-closed walking technique. Good times. Never tried it in the pool though.
    As always, SSA, you're an inspiration!
    Gigi! So nice to hear from you! I'm glad you're back in the pool now--I know you must be too.

    I've only tried the eyes-closed experiment in the 100-meter pool I sometimes swim at in the summer, which has no lane lines. Results were mixed there. I did learn that I can sense when someone is standing right in front of me without seeing them--something makes me instinctively draw back before I collide with them.

    I was recently surprised to find out that one of the swimmers at my workouts swims freestyle mostly with closed eyes, opening them just when he approaches the walls. (How do I know this? One of my fellow coaches was watching his stroke, noticed his eyes were squeezed shut, and asked him about it). Even though we typically have 4-6 people per lane, there are no collisions. I'm not confident enough to try that yet!

    I'll have to see how I fare walking--I've never tried that. I do remember that my PT once had me march in place for a couple of minutes with my eyes shut, and when I stopped I had rotated about 90 degrees left. I forget what the point of that was.