Turning It Around

As is standard for a Wednesday morning, I decided before I left the house that I as going to swim hard today. Then I got in the water and started swimming and was like OMG ok maybe not... Once again I just felt like garbage warming up. I didn't fight it but just let the 1000 warm up be slow and crossed my fingers that maybe I'd come around.

Main set was a long one at 2800m. 4 rounds of the following with 60" rest between rounds:
300 @4:45
200 @3:10
100 @1:35
2x50's @:50

Send-offs were a bit tight but each round was only 700m and then we got an extra minute so that was the key I think that saved this set for me. First round wasn't very fast but was ok then it got better from there. Each round got progressively faster but it wasn't forced it just sort of happened, which was a huge turn-around from how my warm-up went and once again engrains in my brain that the way a session (or race!) starts is not necessarily the way it will finish. I started that set at 4:30 for the 300 and then spent subsequent rounds chasing Mark... 4:26/4:21/4:18. The shorter swims progressed similarly.

So while that swim turned out to be quite solid, in hindsight it may have been too much. Mostly b/c I spent the rest of the day just feeling trashed. Nalani sent me a text post swim...

Eventually of course I managed to eat (I'm not one to skip meals!!) but it's 12 hours later and I'm still feeling that swim.

I'm currently watching the finals of a Pro Series swim meet in Charlotte... Men's 1500M is going on right now (the leader is holding 60"/100 long course). Awesome to watch their strokes. One thing I think is funny is how triathlete adults learning to swim seem to think its so important to bilateral breathe to "even out their strokes"... Watching these guys, some of the best in the world at distance swimming, and they ALL have lopsided strokes and breathe to only one side. The leader is moving along with a cadence at 78 strokes/minute (I just timed/counted). He just finished in 14:59- nailed it b/c he put his head down and didn't breathe the last 6 strokes into the wall. Beautiful! So ya, while we can't all swim like these guys, we can maybe glean a few things from them... like don't waste your time/energy forcing yourself to breathe to both sides, and for Pete's sake, keep your turnover up!!