Tonight's weather...
The workout:
4-6 x 800m at 5K pace with 60 sec rest between.
2 min rest
2 x 200m at mile pace
Yeah, only Rush Runners are this tough and crazy!
Monday, June 25, 2012
Rush Hour Crazies
Tonight's weather...
The workout:
4-6 x 800m at 5K pace with 60 sec rest between.
2 min rest
2 x 200m at mile pace
Yeah, only Rush Runners are this tough and crazy!
A Little Biking Fun
Sunday I met up with some friends to ride the upcoming Shark Sprint bike course. This course includes a really tough hill and I always like to get in a couple practice runs on the course before the race.
We started off at 8AM and it was already pretty warm out. The first four miles of the course seem like a constant uphill and that is made more difficult since your legs aren't warmed up at all. We each took our own pace to get started but stayed pretty close together. By mile 5 we were in a flatter section of the course and all together. The fun thing about riding with friends is that the conversation and laughter make the time fly by!
We hit the big hill and I got into my granny gear and slowly pedaled my way to the top. It was a tough ascent and it quickly made me change the route plans for our second tour of the course. Instead of doing two loops we modified the second loop to cut out the massive hill. One friend needed a little longer ride so she did the full loop. We parted ways after a little break full of random topics including the best idea ever for how to turn your bike into art. AJ and Maja came up with a brilliant idea to frame your bike on the wall so you have beautiful art and storage!
Also during our break, AJ treated us to her prime number song. Looking back I don't remember why prime numbers were part of the conversation but it was a fun musical treat.
As we headed back towards our starting point we were discussing more random topics and saw a truck approaching us. In the road, there was a squirrel between us and the truck. The poor squirrel proceeded to go crazy with indecision. It couldn't decide where to go with the truck coming towards it and the three of us coming from the opposite direction. It was one of those awesome animal moments that you can only witness as an athlete.
We finished up the ride with a few miles of fast paced riding to have a strong finish. I originally had wanted to swim after the bike ride but instead we just stood in the lake and cooled off. The water was cool and the perfect way to finish. It could only have been better if we had planned ahead and brought some post workout snacks since we were all pretty hungry.
 |
| AJ, Britt, Maja, and Me |
We started off at 8AM and it was already pretty warm out. The first four miles of the course seem like a constant uphill and that is made more difficult since your legs aren't warmed up at all. We each took our own pace to get started but stayed pretty close together. By mile 5 we were in a flatter section of the course and all together. The fun thing about riding with friends is that the conversation and laughter make the time fly by!
We hit the big hill and I got into my granny gear and slowly pedaled my way to the top. It was a tough ascent and it quickly made me change the route plans for our second tour of the course. Instead of doing two loops we modified the second loop to cut out the massive hill. One friend needed a little longer ride so she did the full loop. We parted ways after a little break full of random topics including the best idea ever for how to turn your bike into art. AJ and Maja came up with a brilliant idea to frame your bike on the wall so you have beautiful art and storage!
Also during our break, AJ treated us to her prime number song. Looking back I don't remember why prime numbers were part of the conversation but it was a fun musical treat.
As we headed back towards our starting point we were discussing more random topics and saw a truck approaching us. In the road, there was a squirrel between us and the truck. The poor squirrel proceeded to go crazy with indecision. It couldn't decide where to go with the truck coming towards it and the three of us coming from the opposite direction. It was one of those awesome animal moments that you can only witness as an athlete.
We finished up the ride with a few miles of fast paced riding to have a strong finish. I originally had wanted to swim after the bike ride but instead we just stood in the lake and cooled off. The water was cool and the perfect way to finish. It could only have been better if we had planned ahead and brought some post workout snacks since we were all pretty hungry.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
2012 NWA Masters Long Course Swim Meet
Earlier in June was the Northwest Arkansas Masters Long Course Swim Meet at Memorial Park pool in Bentonville. This was my second time to do a long course swim meet and it was a great weekend for it. This year the meet organizers decided to do a two day meet format with the long events on Friday night and the sprints/mid-distance events on Saturday morning.
The normal meet format for Masters is that you can select five events to participate in but they allowed participants to do one event on Friday and up to five on Saturday. Bonus!
Some helpful tips if you are new to swim meets like me:
1) Read the meet registration form and look for important details like warmup and seeding information.
2) If you are unsure of a seed time, speak with the meet director and they will help you get in the right heat.
3) Take advantage of warmup and cooldown lanes. Usually 2 lanes will be provided for all the swimmers to use for warmup and cooldown during the meet. Prior to the start it is generally okay to utilize all lanes for warmup. Make sure you circle swim since this is the accepted practice with swimmers.
4) When you get to the meet, locate the heat sheets. Make note of your events and what heat and lane assignment you have been given. I usually bring a second registration form to keep track of this. I also will write down how many heats each event has as well as if any events are scratched.
5) You are responsible to be at the starting block on time for your events so you have to pay attention! Sometimes there aren't any entrants in an event and it will be skipped. The heat sheets will help you stay on top of that.
6) Most meets will post state and citizen records somewhere at the meet. If you think you could break a record for your age group and event, notify the starter and head timers. Record attempts require 3 timers to be official and it is your responsibility to tell the officials that you are going for a record.
7) If you are unsure of starting off the blocks or even diving from the edge, go ahead and do an in-pool start. There will be swimmers of all ages and abilities at a Masters meet so you have nothing to fear, all types of starts will be used!
8) Have fun and Swim Hard!!!
Back to the meet...this year I elected to do the 1500 Free for my Friday evening event. There was just one heat with about 5 of us entered. I put down 32 minutes as my seed time. This is a mental event more than a physical event for me. It's a tough distance to stay engaged and focused and keep a consistent pace. My previous time from this meet in 2010 was 32:35 so I was pretty happy when the timer told me I was under 29 min. I'm still waiting for the official results to be released but I pretty happy with a 3:30 minute improvement!
After the events on Friday, I headed to the club's board meeting. I had reached out to the president about getting more involved and it was fun to attend the meeting. I especially enjoyed the motion to elect me as Social Media coordinator!!! I'll be taking over the Facebook, Twitter, and Blog feed for the Arkansas Masters!
Saturday morning I got to the pool around 8:30 for the meet start at 9:00. I was super nervous since I was trying out a new event...50 m Breast stroke. I decided on 4 events for Saturday which were 50 Breast, 100 Free, 50 Back, and 200 Free.
First up for me was the 50 breast and I was in the 2nd heat. After the first heat, the official had a conversation with a participant about her stroke form and it appeared she was being DQ'd. That increased my nervousness even more. Turns out she was pulling below the waist which isn't allowed in breast stroke. My start was a little iffy since I initially forgot to kick properly and caught myself starting to flutter. Kick fix and I was on my way doing the breast stroke! About half way down the pool I realized that it's a long way, 3/4 of the way down I wanted to be done! My time was just under 1 minute...barely.
Up next after a quick rest was the 100 free. I swam in the 2nd heat and managed just over 1:30 for the distance which was a few seconds improvement over my time in 2010.
The 50 back was stressful since I was assigned lane 1 next to the wall and the official. In outdoor pools I struggle to stay in a straight line for back stroke. So I was worried about running into the wall and I was worried that somehow I would make a form mistake with the official watching. With those two things making me nervous I got started okay. For the first 15m or so I stayed straight and then I slowly moved to the lane divider on my left and promptly ran into it. That startled me and I tried to get back on course. I ran into the divider a couple more times but soon enough I spotted the flags and new I was just a few strokes from finishing! My time was just under 53 seconds which was in line with my previous time.
My last event was the 200 free. My finish time was around 3:18 which I was happy with since I stayed pretty close to the other competitor in my heat for most of the race. Overall, it was a good meet for me and I had a good time swimming the events and chatting with the other swimmers.
After the meet was over, we headed over to Greg's house for the meet social. Greg and his wife Kim had a great pasta lunch spread and a beautiful shaded deck where we enjoyed the meal. It was a perfect finish to the meet since I was starving given my nerves kept me from eating much before the meet!
The normal meet format for Masters is that you can select five events to participate in but they allowed participants to do one event on Friday and up to five on Saturday. Bonus!
Some helpful tips if you are new to swim meets like me:
1) Read the meet registration form and look for important details like warmup and seeding information.
2) If you are unsure of a seed time, speak with the meet director and they will help you get in the right heat.
3) Take advantage of warmup and cooldown lanes. Usually 2 lanes will be provided for all the swimmers to use for warmup and cooldown during the meet. Prior to the start it is generally okay to utilize all lanes for warmup. Make sure you circle swim since this is the accepted practice with swimmers.
4) When you get to the meet, locate the heat sheets. Make note of your events and what heat and lane assignment you have been given. I usually bring a second registration form to keep track of this. I also will write down how many heats each event has as well as if any events are scratched.
5) You are responsible to be at the starting block on time for your events so you have to pay attention! Sometimes there aren't any entrants in an event and it will be skipped. The heat sheets will help you stay on top of that.
6) Most meets will post state and citizen records somewhere at the meet. If you think you could break a record for your age group and event, notify the starter and head timers. Record attempts require 3 timers to be official and it is your responsibility to tell the officials that you are going for a record.
7) If you are unsure of starting off the blocks or even diving from the edge, go ahead and do an in-pool start. There will be swimmers of all ages and abilities at a Masters meet so you have nothing to fear, all types of starts will be used!
8) Have fun and Swim Hard!!!
Back to the meet...this year I elected to do the 1500 Free for my Friday evening event. There was just one heat with about 5 of us entered. I put down 32 minutes as my seed time. This is a mental event more than a physical event for me. It's a tough distance to stay engaged and focused and keep a consistent pace. My previous time from this meet in 2010 was 32:35 so I was pretty happy when the timer told me I was under 29 min. I'm still waiting for the official results to be released but I pretty happy with a 3:30 minute improvement!
 |
| I'm in green on the left side just before our 1500 start. |
After the events on Friday, I headed to the club's board meeting. I had reached out to the president about getting more involved and it was fun to attend the meeting. I especially enjoyed the motion to elect me as Social Media coordinator!!! I'll be taking over the Facebook, Twitter, and Blog feed for the Arkansas Masters!
Saturday morning I got to the pool around 8:30 for the meet start at 9:00. I was super nervous since I was trying out a new event...50 m Breast stroke. I decided on 4 events for Saturday which were 50 Breast, 100 Free, 50 Back, and 200 Free.
First up for me was the 50 breast and I was in the 2nd heat. After the first heat, the official had a conversation with a participant about her stroke form and it appeared she was being DQ'd. That increased my nervousness even more. Turns out she was pulling below the waist which isn't allowed in breast stroke. My start was a little iffy since I initially forgot to kick properly and caught myself starting to flutter. Kick fix and I was on my way doing the breast stroke! About half way down the pool I realized that it's a long way, 3/4 of the way down I wanted to be done! My time was just under 1 minute...barely.
 |
| Whoops, bad form with a way too wide kick! |
Up next after a quick rest was the 100 free. I swam in the 2nd heat and managed just over 1:30 for the distance which was a few seconds improvement over my time in 2010.
The 50 back was stressful since I was assigned lane 1 next to the wall and the official. In outdoor pools I struggle to stay in a straight line for back stroke. So I was worried about running into the wall and I was worried that somehow I would make a form mistake with the official watching. With those two things making me nervous I got started okay. For the first 15m or so I stayed straight and then I slowly moved to the lane divider on my left and promptly ran into it. That startled me and I tried to get back on course. I ran into the divider a couple more times but soon enough I spotted the flags and new I was just a few strokes from finishing! My time was just under 53 seconds which was in line with my previous time.
My last event was the 200 free. My finish time was around 3:18 which I was happy with since I stayed pretty close to the other competitor in my heat for most of the race. Overall, it was a good meet for me and I had a good time swimming the events and chatting with the other swimmers.
After the meet was over, we headed over to Greg's house for the meet social. Greg and his wife Kim had a great pasta lunch spread and a beautiful shaded deck where we enjoyed the meal. It was a perfect finish to the meet since I was starving given my nerves kept me from eating much before the meet!
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Rush Hour - Mile Repeats
Monday's Facebook post from the Rush Running team was quite the anomaly. Normally, Mike Rush and Drew promise pain and torture not free stuff! The Rush team had a few leftovers from the War Eagle trail race series so they gave out tons of PowerBar gels and Gu gels during the workout. Mike is very generous and shares with the community whenever he can.
The workout he prescribed was 3 by 1 mile repeats. The mile repeats were to be done at 5K pace with the 3rd lap of each at a hot pace of nearly 25 sec per mile faster for that 400. I had spent the weekend doing back to back triathlons and so my goal for the night was to just get some mileage in and try what I could handle of the workout.
I got in a slow warmup or around 2 miles before the workout. It was warm and sunny out and I didn't feel very sprightly! My first mile came in okay around a 9:30 pace which isn't where Mike prescribed but quick for how tired I felt. I started on the 2nd mile and just didn't have the heart to withstand the heat and effort. I took a break after a lap and went to stand in the shade for a minute. It helped and I gave it another go to finish out the mile. It was disjointed but felt good to try to persevere. I ended with a cooldown walk and 4.25 miles for the night.
After everyone had finished, Mike offered up a few more giveaway items.
He didn't tell us much about how he would select winners just told us to find a partner. Once everyone was matched up, he got us started in a rousing game of Rock Paper Scissors. Yep, that's how he determined who would win some hydration gear and new sunglasses! We started out with 60 people playing and whittled it down on a one shot game until just four were left. It was a fun way to end the workout.
Bonus, after the workout I stopped by my friend Brent's house to pick up the Walmart International Cycling kit that I had ordered. It turned out great and the sizing is perfect. I can't wait to try it out and will of course have pics to share. The kits were custom ordered from Primal and look so professional.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Release the Beast Open Water Swim
Happy Memorial Day!
I kicked off the morning with the Ozark Open Water Swim at Hickory Creek park on Beaver Lake. The swim this year was called Release the Beast and is a fundraiser for the AquaHawgs kids swim team.
I participated in this race two years ago when it was in September. They moved the race to be earlier in the season so that it didn't conflict with the Long Dam swim in August. The race distances are .6mile, 1.2 mile, or 2.4 mile. I elected to do the 1.2 mile distance again which is a one loop course.
The course is laid out as a straight out and back along a buoy line. The weather conditions today were dramatically different than in 2010. For starters it was in the upper 70's versus 54 at race time! The water was also a little chillier which made it a wetsuit legal race. (Side note: I highly recommend TriSlide for any wetsuit races!)
There was a brief pre-race meeting to go over the course and logistics for the different distances of the races. This was an event that was open for both Masters swimmers as well as Age Groupers (otherwise known as kiddos!) The Masters got a head start on the kiddos by 5 minutes or so. We all headed into the water and self seeded ourselves. The race director let out an air horn and signaled the start of the race.
I swam next to my friend Britt for a few minutes and then I felt like we switched sides and was gone. I was a little panicky for the first few minutes until I could find some open water. The water was super choppy from the wind and it was a little frustrating at first. Eventually, I settled into a rhythm and plodded my way to the turn buoy. As I neared the buoy, I was surprised to be in the wrong lane of traffic! I had drifted to the left of the buoy line and it was as if I was headed into oncoming traffic. I shifted to the right and was pumped to make it around the buoy.
There's something about a swim race that is just interesting. There's so little exterior noise to process...it's just you and the water. I tend to hear bits of songs in my head and have pep talks with myself. The first pep talk was during the first few minutes of the race. The crush of people is always overwhelming and it takes some reminding to know that I can do it. The next big one was during the return trip. The distance between the turn buoy and the 2nd buoy just seemed to take forever. It felt like I was zig-zagging and not getting any closer to the buoy. I ended up doing some math trying to calculate what distance would be left when I got to the buoy to distract myself and keep focused.
The last buoy was about .3 miles out and I equated that to about 10 minutes more of swimming. I don't swim with a watch and during the entire race had no clue of how much time had passed. I was really surprised to see the clock at the end and see that I had done the event in 34 minutes and some change. That was almost a 10 minute improvement over my time in 2010. I'll take that kind of a PR!!!
Britt did awesome too...she did the 1.2 mile and killed it for coming off of being sick recently. After I told her that I thought she had ditched me on the swim since I had lost her after a few minutes. I think I started pulling left towards the buoy line and she stayed on the outside edge of the course. Either way...fun times with friends!
I kicked off the morning with the Ozark Open Water Swim at Hickory Creek park on Beaver Lake. The swim this year was called Release the Beast and is a fundraiser for the AquaHawgs kids swim team.
I participated in this race two years ago when it was in September. They moved the race to be earlier in the season so that it didn't conflict with the Long Dam swim in August. The race distances are .6mile, 1.2 mile, or 2.4 mile. I elected to do the 1.2 mile distance again which is a one loop course.
The course is laid out as a straight out and back along a buoy line. The weather conditions today were dramatically different than in 2010. For starters it was in the upper 70's versus 54 at race time! The water was also a little chillier which made it a wetsuit legal race. (Side note: I highly recommend TriSlide for any wetsuit races!)
There was a brief pre-race meeting to go over the course and logistics for the different distances of the races. This was an event that was open for both Masters swimmers as well as Age Groupers (otherwise known as kiddos!) The Masters got a head start on the kiddos by 5 minutes or so. We all headed into the water and self seeded ourselves. The race director let out an air horn and signaled the start of the race.
 |
| The race site and course...the buoy looks a long ways away! |
I swam next to my friend Britt for a few minutes and then I felt like we switched sides and was gone. I was a little panicky for the first few minutes until I could find some open water. The water was super choppy from the wind and it was a little frustrating at first. Eventually, I settled into a rhythm and plodded my way to the turn buoy. As I neared the buoy, I was surprised to be in the wrong lane of traffic! I had drifted to the left of the buoy line and it was as if I was headed into oncoming traffic. I shifted to the right and was pumped to make it around the buoy.
There's something about a swim race that is just interesting. There's so little exterior noise to process...it's just you and the water. I tend to hear bits of songs in my head and have pep talks with myself. The first pep talk was during the first few minutes of the race. The crush of people is always overwhelming and it takes some reminding to know that I can do it. The next big one was during the return trip. The distance between the turn buoy and the 2nd buoy just seemed to take forever. It felt like I was zig-zagging and not getting any closer to the buoy. I ended up doing some math trying to calculate what distance would be left when I got to the buoy to distract myself and keep focused.
 |
| Rocking my ToughChik hoodie! |
The last buoy was about .3 miles out and I equated that to about 10 minutes more of swimming. I don't swim with a watch and during the entire race had no clue of how much time had passed. I was really surprised to see the clock at the end and see that I had done the event in 34 minutes and some change. That was almost a 10 minute improvement over my time in 2010. I'll take that kind of a PR!!!
 |
| Congrats to Britt! She's training for IronMan Wisconsin...truly a beast! |
Britt did awesome too...she did the 1.2 mile and killed it for coming off of being sick recently. After I told her that I thought she had ditched me on the swim since I had lost her after a few minutes. I think I started pulling left towards the buoy line and she stayed on the outside edge of the course. Either way...fun times with friends!
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Back to the Open Water
Tonight I headed out to beautiful Beaver Lake for a group open water swim. Normally, I wait until my first race of the season to do my first open water swim so this is a new take on training for me!
I got out there to do a short run first and the breeze by the lake felt great. It really helped with the temps since it was low 80's and sunny. Every so often there were shady spots that also helped since I'm still working to acclimate to the summer temps. After finishing up with the short run I met up with the others that were there for the group swim.
It felt strange since I didn't know anyone there. I usually train with my friends and this was a branch out to join a local tri club's workout. It was actually a combo of two different workout groups which included the one that I used to do last year. There were people of all skill levels and maybe 12 or so total.
As with any group event, we were slow to get into the water. I waited until the last minute to put on my wetsuit since I think they are too hot for just standing around in! The good news for the night is that my wetsuit still fits!!! Honestly, I hadn't put it on since my half ironman last year (and there was still a little Oklahoma red mud on it too!)
Everyone pretty much swam their own workouts at their own paces. Most of us swam for about 40 minutes. I had to take a break after my first loop to change out my goggles. I needed a darker lens because we were headed into the setting sun for part of the loop and I was having trouble sighting with lighter lens goggles. I did 3 loops total which was probably around 1 1/4 - 1/2 miles. The last loop included some play time in the middle of the loop of just bobbing in the water and talking to others. The water was really choppy for that last loop due to a boat pulling a tube right in front of the swim beach area.
We finished up with a couple mass start practices for some of the newbies in the group. I did my best to try and attack the new girls but I just felt bad for doing it. It really does help to practice the mass start and learn how to work through the panic that it causes. Even after 3 years of triathlon I still have panic moments in the swim. Working with friends helped me learn how to work through it.
Overall, it was a great first open water swim. My pace felt good and I think I did well handling sighting and the chop in the water. My big struggle for the night was actually getting into and out of the water. Somehow I managed to step on big rocks several times and might have bruised the bottom of my foot. Hopefully, it's just tender and will feel better tomorrow!
I got out there to do a short run first and the breeze by the lake felt great. It really helped with the temps since it was low 80's and sunny. Every so often there were shady spots that also helped since I'm still working to acclimate to the summer temps. After finishing up with the short run I met up with the others that were there for the group swim.
It felt strange since I didn't know anyone there. I usually train with my friends and this was a branch out to join a local tri club's workout. It was actually a combo of two different workout groups which included the one that I used to do last year. There were people of all skill levels and maybe 12 or so total.
As with any group event, we were slow to get into the water. I waited until the last minute to put on my wetsuit since I think they are too hot for just standing around in! The good news for the night is that my wetsuit still fits!!! Honestly, I hadn't put it on since my half ironman last year (and there was still a little Oklahoma red mud on it too!)
Everyone pretty much swam their own workouts at their own paces. Most of us swam for about 40 minutes. I had to take a break after my first loop to change out my goggles. I needed a darker lens because we were headed into the setting sun for part of the loop and I was having trouble sighting with lighter lens goggles. I did 3 loops total which was probably around 1 1/4 - 1/2 miles. The last loop included some play time in the middle of the loop of just bobbing in the water and talking to others. The water was really choppy for that last loop due to a boat pulling a tube right in front of the swim beach area.
We finished up with a couple mass start practices for some of the newbies in the group. I did my best to try and attack the new girls but I just felt bad for doing it. It really does help to practice the mass start and learn how to work through the panic that it causes. Even after 3 years of triathlon I still have panic moments in the swim. Working with friends helped me learn how to work through it.
Overall, it was a great first open water swim. My pace felt good and I think I did well handling sighting and the chop in the water. My big struggle for the night was actually getting into and out of the water. Somehow I managed to step on big rocks several times and might have bruised the bottom of my foot. Hopefully, it's just tender and will feel better tomorrow!
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Sunday Funday
Today there were just two of us at the pool for our regular Sunday Funday swim. That's not surprising since it is Mother's Day after all. I started off with my favorite warm up which is a 1000 yd ladder. The ladder starts with a 400 yd swim, nothing special just continuous swim.
Next is 300 yds of drills which is done 75 yds per stroke. I usually do one armed butterfly with a 25 free in the middle since my stamina for butterfly isn't that great. After that I move on to backstroke with a six count drill and also a drill to focus on leading with my pinky. I don't really know the name for these drills but for the first I kick for a count of 6 and then do 3 arm strokes and return to the six count kick. For the second, I bring my hand out of the water thumb first until it is perpendicular to the water and then I switch to pinky first as I finish the rotation and enter the water. For breast stroke drills, there is the double kick and another where I try to cup the water as I bring my hands out of the water to start the stroke. Again, don't know the names for these! Lastly for freestyle I have been doing this drill a lot lately which is 25yds single arm swimming and then the final 25 yds is catch up drill where I keep my hand in front until the opposite hand enters the water.
After drills, I move onto 200yds of kick. I usually try to do this as 4 x 50yds descending and I alternate between breaststroke and free kick. To finish off the 1000yd ladder I do a 100 yd pull.
After finishing up the warmup, Jen and I decided on our first set. We have different paces so we elected to do a set limit of time and see how many reps that we could get in during that time. We selected a 5 minute time and a set of 50's with 25 backstroke fast, 25 free recover. I managed 5 in our time limit. Next up was a 150 pull just to have a little recovery time. I don't know why but backstroke always burns out my legs. Then we moved on to doing 75's...just freestyle. I did 6 on a 1:30 interval and usually got 15 seconds rest within that interval. We went back to 50's doing this set as breaststroke for 25 and free recover. I did 6 of these but the last one was just all freestyle. I finished up with 6 x 25 sprints except my sprints weren't that fast.
All told with cooldown I got 2650 yds in for the day. This got my total up to around 61 miles for the year which is over 41% towards my goal for the year. I am about 5-7 miles ahead of where I should be to be on track for the goal so I'm pretty happy with that.
Next is 300 yds of drills which is done 75 yds per stroke. I usually do one armed butterfly with a 25 free in the middle since my stamina for butterfly isn't that great. After that I move on to backstroke with a six count drill and also a drill to focus on leading with my pinky. I don't really know the name for these drills but for the first I kick for a count of 6 and then do 3 arm strokes and return to the six count kick. For the second, I bring my hand out of the water thumb first until it is perpendicular to the water and then I switch to pinky first as I finish the rotation and enter the water. For breast stroke drills, there is the double kick and another where I try to cup the water as I bring my hands out of the water to start the stroke. Again, don't know the names for these! Lastly for freestyle I have been doing this drill a lot lately which is 25yds single arm swimming and then the final 25 yds is catch up drill where I keep my hand in front until the opposite hand enters the water.
After drills, I move onto 200yds of kick. I usually try to do this as 4 x 50yds descending and I alternate between breaststroke and free kick. To finish off the 1000yd ladder I do a 100 yd pull.
After finishing up the warmup, Jen and I decided on our first set. We have different paces so we elected to do a set limit of time and see how many reps that we could get in during that time. We selected a 5 minute time and a set of 50's with 25 backstroke fast, 25 free recover. I managed 5 in our time limit. Next up was a 150 pull just to have a little recovery time. I don't know why but backstroke always burns out my legs. Then we moved on to doing 75's...just freestyle. I did 6 on a 1:30 interval and usually got 15 seconds rest within that interval. We went back to 50's doing this set as breaststroke for 25 and free recover. I did 6 of these but the last one was just all freestyle. I finished up with 6 x 25 sprints except my sprints weren't that fast.
All told with cooldown I got 2650 yds in for the day. This got my total up to around 61 miles for the year which is over 41% towards my goal for the year. I am about 5-7 miles ahead of where I should be to be on track for the goal so I'm pretty happy with that.
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