1/2 mile swim

Ahh... the good ol' days when we used to all hang out at the gym in our togas

Yesterday was another good morning swim. It almost wasn't due to the fact that people do not know how to A. pick lanes that are appropriate for their swimming skills and B. know what to do when someone faster than you is swimming on your ass and you come to the wall. I think that swimming it pretty self explanatory, if you are slower let the other person pass you when you reach the wall and if you choose to do drills on kick boards or with a buoy then go into one lane down. Swim lane etiquette... the trials of life.

Any who, yesterday was the first day that I have ever swam a 800. That was pretty exciting. In swim practice we used to do about 3,300 meters a practice, but I have never done 800 straight. I was never much for the long distance swimming, but it seems that now in my older years I have come around to it. :) I was always a sprinter before. Doing the 800 felt really good and I wish that I was able to time myself, but alas the Hearst Pool doesn't have a real swimming clock. I am hoping to get a stop watch this weekend so that I can start timing my longer swims. It was exciting to know that I had swam half a mile without fatigue and was feeling really good after. Seriously, swimming it the only positive reinforcement that I am getting these days as far as my training goes!

I also made a swim work out for Erica the other day. We have decided to make a deal: however many times I run in a week she has to get into the pool that same amount of times the next week. Hopefully this will push me to run and her to get in the pool.

Here's the basic swim workout I made for her.

Warm up:

2 X 100 meters slow 20 sec recovery

2X 100 meters medium 25 sec recovery

Practice:

4 X 100 meters medium kick with kickboard 15 sec recovery. This should be with your head in the water tol promote proper alignment. Also I like to work on bilateral breathing when using kickboards- something that was never too important when racing, but very important with open water swims

2 X 100 meters zipper drill working on proper alignment (i.e. being in perfect gliding form) and shoulder/ back rotation

2 X 100 meter catch up drill working on rotation and breathing

6 X 50 meter fast kick with kickboard 20 sec recovery. These should be fast and really get your heart rate up!

2 X 200 meter at whatever pace you think you can sustain for the whole thing. This is so that you can start to figure out the best pace of your arms and legs for the longer swims.

This whole work out is about 1,800 meters total which is a good amount to start at since a mile swim is just over 1,600 meters.

I am excited to see how she did during this practice and hopefully increase the times and lengths for next time!