Well, today is Monday and you know what that means: Master's swim practice. I sure hope I get faster swim times this year because these workouts are killin' me!
Today I woke up 10 mins late but managed to get to the pool by 6:10. Warmed up with 200 free, 200 pull, and was supposed to do 200 kick but Richard started the workout before I could get it done. Richard Hess is our swim coach. He usually saunters in around 6:20 and writes the workout on the board. We start the session off with a "joke of the day" (which could easily be my swim times) and then the main set (aka, killer workout).
Being a long time distance runner (which means I'm a swimmer wanna-be), I still get nervous for Master's swim. It just doesn't come naturally to me and I'm always working harder than everyone else. I'm clearly the slowest swimmer (even with fins on) and although I don't worry about it as much andymore, its hard not to notice when I'm the only one finishing a set when everyone else waiting for me.
This is what we did today:
6 x 125's, with #2, 4, and 6 faster than the others
8 x 75's, descending
4 easy 50's
6 50 kick set
and there was more but I didn't finish the workout.
I did the 125's and 75's pretty much all out. I had to, in order to keep up. I did the first half of the 125's free but then used my pull buoy for the rest, which I've been told is similar to wearing a wetsuit. I used my fins on all of the 75's. But I've noticed that fins don't always help - my lower body tends to sink when I wear fins, whereas I stay "up" with the pull buoy (or whatever that thingy is called).
And I was swimming next to Sarah, who is coming back from an injury and she's NOT signed up for Master's, I ended up talking with her after the 75's and that was part of the reason for not finishing the workout. But I don't think I could've done the 4 "easy" 50's anyway. My arms were dead.
So, I'm driving home wondering if I should really push myself to finish the workouts or take the approach that it is still early in the season and that half of a Master's workout is hard enough...that I don't need to do all of it and I'm risking an injury if I do too much too soon. My race isn't until November and if I start swimming hard now, I may burn out and/or get injured.
Or is that just a rationalization for not doing the whole workout???
I do have one other good reason, though, for doing only half the workout: I need to run today because I can't tomorrow. So I need to save my energy for running.....and believe me, it IS hard to run when you've worked your arms and shoulders so hard that they ache.
Today I'm only running 3-4 easy miles with Daisy. I came home to see the kids off to school (Kurt was here for once and had them up and ready to go - so nice when he's here!) so I just needed to eat breakfast. I made oatmeal with peanut butter and skim milk - yummy! I'll wait for 90 mins and then go run. Nice way to start the day.
Tonight I'm spending the night at our church (Room at the Inn program for homeless families) and have to teach tomorrow AM so its good to workout hard today since I'll do nada tomorrow. Maybe by then my achin' arms will be back to normal!
2 comments:
Maybe do half the workout one week and the full the next? I agree you don't want to push it too early. I do think you push yourself pretty hard so I think listening to your body is a good thing.
Thanks, Dan. And you know what? I have never once done the entire swim workout - ever. And I had people telling me that you HAVE to be able to swim 3000 - 4000 yrds to do an Ironman and I never did. I couldn't - literally could not do it (physically). But I'm getting stronger and wonder if I shouldn't start trying to do the whole darn thing. It would be a major ego trip for me!
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