Some of the workouts right now are geared towards me swimming the 1,000 freestyle in less then two weeks. Seeing how I feel in the water, how I can or can't hold a pace, how does my stroke feel, etc.. This mornings workout was one of those workouts. So last night I went to bed early and got a good night sleep. No wine before bed just right to bed.
The Workout -
1x400 loosen
1x200 kick
4x50 on 1:00 drill/swim
6x50 on :50 - 2 slower than 600 pace, 2 at 600 pace, 2 faster than 600 pace
3x100 on 1:40 - 1 slower than 600 pace, 1 at 600 pace, 1 faster
rest as much as you like
1x600 for time
1x100 loosen
8x50 - 2 of each stroke - you pick the send-off
Okay so after a decent pool temperature yesterday todays water was warm. Not saying warm water was an excuse just saying it was warm. I took the warm up nice and easy but instead of my usual swim a 50, chat, swim a 50, chat some more, swim a 50...I swam it pretty much continious minus a few goggle adjustments. For the drill 50's I kept thinking what I need to work on for my 1,000. Then the 6x50's and 3x100's I really was just trying to pull it all together and get my heart rate up. I did them the way the coach suggested.
We rested a bit before the 600. My swim mate who was swimming with me put on fins. Lucky! I told him my plan on how I was going to swim the 600 so he wouldn't freak out. My plan was to go a bit faster in the first 100 then sink back into my pace. Now I had two pace's in mind. One that I told the coach in case I somehow couldn't hold the other pace which was my goal pace. I know I should have told him. On the flip side my swim mate would most likely keep up with me so we'd both have descent times. The first 100 I was out in a 1:07. After that I was pretty much holding 1:10's. My 200 split was 2:17. I finished up with a 6:54. I speed up for the last 1:50 but didn't get my last 100 split. I felt I needed to keep my head down and not look at the clock. I felt pretty good and think I could of held a few more 1:10 paced 100's. Not for a 1,000 yards.
So what does that all mean? Well I'm slow for one. I've swum the 1,000 SCY in a time of 11:16.70. That is going to be tough to do. Here are my splits for the 1,000
It won't be impossible just hard for me. I got over a week to get into the swing of things and if I just work on everything I did wrong today I could have at least a cleaner swim. One thing I learned this morning is that about the last 200 as my turnover got faster I wasn't returning my head to the neutral position. I somewhere in between breathing and neutral. Also my arms seemed to be doing all the work. I just couldn't engage the legs even at the end when my arms were needing some assistance. I'll need to work on those two things during the next few pace sets.
At least tomorrow is a stroke / butterfly day. Doing a stroke workout in the morning then a mini butterfly clinic in the afternoon. That 200 butterfly seems like a nightmare right now!