04/21/09

Breakouts: I have to really start working on smooth, quick breakouts in the next 2 weeks. Sometimes I just get hung up underwater, and it really hurts my momentum. Probably want to start doing 25s of just working on a fast breakout + first couple of strokes.

SCY
300 swim
300 IM K
200 dr/swim IM
100 breast w/snorkel
8 x 25 IM order fast @40.

4 x {
200 ez speed
rest 45s - 1:00
150 strong
rest 1:00
100 fast
rest until ready (usually ~1:30)
50 sprint
100 ez/drill
}
Set gets faster, with a little more rest as distance is shorter. I generally tried to hit HR of 160-170 after each swim and let it recover to 120- before the next one.
Did:
1.)Back (2:24; 1:48; 1:08; 32.31)
2.)Breast (2:45; 2:01; 1:18.35 [39.88, 38.47], 36.61)
3.)Free (2:19.38 [1:09.36, 1:10.02]; 1:44.30 [33.66, 1:10.64]; 1:04.35, 29.11)
4.)Fly (2:42.27 [39.55, 41.01, 42.82, 38.89]; 1:56.49 [38.42, 40.43, 37.64]; 1:12.62 [36.30, 36.32]; 32.33)

200 ez

5 x 25 resistance/25 assistance w/blue stretch cord (3 free, 2 breast)

warmdown

Seems to me that 1 stroke is usually slower than normal on a given day; today that stroke was freestyle. All of my other strokes felt great, and I even did full butterfly all the way through the last set 'cuz it felt pretty smooth today. But I couldn't get my freestyle crankin' today. I'm not really concerned about it. I've gotten in a lot of quality free swims over the last 2 weeks, and it seems to be a pattern that 1 stroke is a bit off each day.

I flattened out my breaststroke a little bit. I noticed on the warmup breaststroke that I did with the snorkel that my head was going far enough under to fill the snorkel with water. That's diving a little too much. So I tried to focus on keeping my upper body closer to the surface today and shooting my hands forward with the kick. I definitely noticed a difference in undulation -- it tightened up.

The funny thing is that it *feels* less powerful in a way -- and it may be if you were to chart the total power output -- but judging by DPS/time, I'm able to put more power into going forward, the only direction that matters in swimming. My DPS was down about 1-2 strokes per length. I was taking a pretty regular 6 strokes per length on the 200, 7 on the 150, 9 on the 100, and I didn't pay attention on the 50 because I was just trying to crank it out. And my times were as good or better than they've been in practice. So I'll have to keep focusing on this until it becomes my regular stroke. I had to think about it a lot today.