This morning the alarm went off just like it always does on a Wednesday morning at 5:01am. After about a minute of just laying still I got out of bed and started to shuffle my way into the hallway. It was at that point that I could hear the low hum of music from the apartment building next door. Once again the neighbors alarm clock went off and stayed on while the little whore is shacked up somewhere else. Okay maybe not a whore but this is the third time in about a week that the alarm clock has gone off and stayed on for some period. The only silver lining is that it is music playing even if it's wimpy soft rock.
I leave my place at 5:41 and proceed on bike to practice. I still haven't replaced the batteries on my head light on my bike so I'm riding in the dark. I decided to try a different route to the pool. It's still 2 miles but I take streets that have more traffic and more light.
Practice turnout was pretty light so I jumped into the stroke lane. Since it is Wednesday we get to swim either a stroke workout or a middle distance workout. My choice wasn't from free will it is usually decided by who shows up at workout. The middle distance free lanes today were made up of much slower swimmers. It would have been annoying catching up to them in 200's so I decided to swim butterfly in the stroke lanes.
The warm up itself started off with me chatting it out about the latest Olympic swims from yesterday. Being a gay team we ended up discussing Katie Hoff and her eyebrows. Well I brought it up and then someone joined the conversation only hearing half of what was said but guessing correctly that the eyebrows in question were of Hoff. I get into the pool and warm up about a 300 on my own before we start the warm up set.
Warm Up Set
2x
100 Kick / 50 Dril / 50 Swim (i did both rounds fly)
4x75's Stroke. 10 seconds rest. 25 Pull / 50 Swim. I alternated back and fly.
4x200's on 3:15. Rotating a 50 Stroke in each 200. So the 1st one being 50 Fly then 150 Freestyle. The rotating 50 starts from the beginning and ends up the last 50.
50 Easy, well I skipped that and took a pee break.
200 Stroke Fast. Myself and one other swimmer decided to do butterfly. We move over and share a lane. That way it would minimize the need to do one arm butterfly as we passed each other. My turns were pretty bad as usual and once off the wall when I was passing my lane mate my one arm fly put my timing off for a bit. I ended up coming in at 2:30. Not bad for a SCY workout time without starting off the blocks.
100 easy
Next Set
2x100's Stroke on 1:45. Did these backstroke
4x50's on 1:10. Did these backstroke.
8x25's on 35. Did these backstroke.
100 Stroke Fast. Did this butterfly. Came in around a 1:09. I think. Can't remember now but that is sticking in my head so let's say 1:09. Not bad once again for a workout swim especially for the end of a workout. But then that wasn't the end. I stayed on for the 7:15 workout.
My warm down / warm up was pretty easy with some time to get some recovery drink in me. I think I did another 300 or so. Wasn't really counting. Just swimming back and forth. I ended up swimming in the stroke lane as the middle distance free lane was too crowded. Ugh!
2x
100 Kick / 50 Dril / 50 Swim. I alternated back and fly.
4x75's Stroke. 10 seconds rest. 25 Pull / 50 Swim. I alternated back and fly.
4x200's on 3:00. Rotating a 50 Stroke in each 200. So the 1st one
being 50 Fly then 150 Freestyle. The rotating 50 starts from the
beginning and ends up the last 50.
50 Easy.
200 Stroke Fast. I did this butterfly again. This time we had five in a lane. One person doing the 200 backstroke and the three others doing it IM. This 2nd 200 felt better but I was breathing every stroke after the first 50. By the 150 I had caught up to the last person so my last 50 fly was a joke. I stopped to give him some room then did some breast when I caught up to him over and over. I ended up with a 2:29 for the 200 SCY fly this round but it could have been faster.
50 easy
4x50's 25 Drill / 25 Swim. Did this backstroke
200 Stroke on 3:10. Did this backstroke.
4x50's Stroke on 55. Did this backstroke.
8x25's Stroke. Did these backstroke and used them as a warm down.
We had another 100 fast but our lane was a bit confused about the send off so I gave up and got out.
I don't plan to doing doubles as a regular part of swimming. But I felt good after the first workout. Guess that is what happens when you don't swim Tuesday night and head back for Wednesday morning like I have been doing for the last few months. Okay so doing a double goes against my "I'm cutting back" mantra.
Myself and another lane mate will start swimming on our own Tuesday mornings to get a long course workout in. A good distance free workout that I feel I'm lacking. This will change my weight training a bit. So starting next Tuesday I'll be heading to Culver to swim at 6am. This should help me with my 1500/1650.