Every Tuesday and Thursday I meet my Ironman team, and the Memphis in May tri team for swim practice. Tuesdays are strictly drill work for those of us that need our strokes to be fine tuned. I loved this picture I took. The water feels as cold as it looks, and just just like the sign says "I'm hungry." :) Tuesday's drills were great. I really feel like my stroke is coming together, Finally! Tuesday was an "aha" day for me with my stroke which is nice to have. This has been my Achilles heel for too long. Thursday I decided to do a workout Coach Dee and I discussed. My endurance is not great in the pool right now, and I need to quickly build it. So Thursday I set out to do a 5x200m set. Thus far 100m was the longest I could swim without needing a break. This was definitely going to be a test. I warmed up with 500m in drills, and set out for my 5x200 set. It was going really well. I finished the first two sets and felt really good. I was surprised. I decided to switch it up and do a pull set. Third 200 finished. Holy cow, I might be able to finish this. My 4th 200 was a struggle. I slowly started to feel myself fatigue, and I could tell the stroke was falling apart. After 150, I was toast. On my last set I decided I needed my form to stay in tact so on the fins went. (These help you swim easier. They're a great training tool to be able to build your endurance.) I pushed off the wall. 50 done. Onto the next 50. I almost had 100 under my belt, and I was feeling great. I pushed off the wall to start my 3rd lap. I finished 25;pushed off the wall. I'm almost done I thought in my head, when it happened. I felt my calf start to tense, in my head I said, "No, no come on, " but it did full on muscle spasm so bad I had to grab the lane line for fear of floating to the bottom and drowning. I couldn't straighten, my leg out, I couldn't take off my goggles. I could only squeal in pain, like a child that dropped her ice cream cone on a hot summer day. Thankfully, one of my teammates swam over and straightened my leg out for me, and I was able to pull myself in. I had never experienced that before, but apparently it's coming when you're trying to build up your fitness.
Wednesday morning around 3:45 AM I awoke to the sound of the tornado sirens. Meg, Tucker, Jack, and I marched our selves down to the basement and waited out the storms. I got back in bed around 5AM and decided to switch my off day to Wed this week instead of Friday.
Mother Nature is a bit confused this winter. One day it's 70 degrees and the next it's 20 degrees and snowing. Many runner's choose to run on the treadmill on days like Saturday, but I throw my Yaktrax on my running shoes and head out. Snow days are my favorite to run in. These runs become some of the most peaceful, surreal ones that i experience, and Saturday was one of these runs. I crested the hill at Seneca golf course and had to catch my breath it was so breathtaking. Everything was covered in snow, noone was around, and it was fluttering snow. I wish I'd taken a picture, but it wouldn't have done it justice.
Sunday was my longest spin so far. A tough 1:50 minute spin. It was supposed to be 2 hours, but I had a flat tire fiasco that took a while so 1:50 it was. :)
Totals for the week are 7 hours and 40 minutes of training, 64 miles, 3,343 calories and 9 workouts!
I also wanted to include my monthly stats for January. This will be fun to look back at at the end of every month. In January I swam 4.28 miles in 7 workouts for 4.5 hours. I biked 92 miles in 8 workouts for a total of 5 hours and 52 minutes, and I Ran 33.8 miles in 8 workouts for a total of 5 hours and 43 minutes for an overall total 130.8 miles, 16 hours an 57 min of training!!
http://pages.teamintraining.org/ky/louisir13/bpitcock
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It's good to see your swimming endurance is getting better. I'm in a similar position where my swimming endurance is not the best, and my Ironman seems to be coming up quicker and quicker each week!
ReplyDeleteHow do you find it best to build your endurance? What would you recommend doing? Do you think it's just a case of putting lots of pool time into the training schedule, or would you say using pool toys is important too?
Hi Lewis! Thanks for visiting my blog! Which IM race are you racing? For me it's all about getting more days in the water, and working on drills. I'm trying to get in the water 4 days a week right now. One night a week my group works solely on drills. This has been the biggest improvement for me. Swimming is all about efficiency and good form, both of which I have lacked. I think fins are an excellent tool to use while building endurance and performing drills for form. Good luck with your training!
DeleteHey Bridget keep working!
ReplyDeleteHow is your breathing technique going? I have been swimming since August but still mainly breath every stroke. Also, have you gotten those flip turns down? I panic when upside down, so I do this half turn thing with one quick breath and an underwater push from the wall. Seems pretty quick and avoids me trying to take a break every turn.
Hey Bobby!! Thanks for reading my blog! When I first started swimming I only breathed to mt right side, but after some coaching and reading a ton of articles I can bilateral breather now. My past few swim workouts I noticed I could only go 100m without feeling like my lungs were going to explode, and I was out of breath. Again after a lot of reading, I realized I wasn't expelling all of my breath each time. This apparently leaves no room for the oxygen, and in a way I was hyperventilating. I swam last night, and made an effort to push it all out, and I finally had a really really good swim. I don't do flip turns, there isn't any use for them in open water. My coach told me to do what it sounds like you're doing. It's way better than flip turning, besides I ht my head a couple times trying, and I was over it :) Keep up the swimming. I've really found that I like it, even thought it can be so frustrating. Are you going to do any tris this year?
DeleteI've been breathing bilaterally but just in every other lap, now that I'm at my goal distance I'm trying to integrate breathing every three as much as possible. My plan was to do an sprint with an indoor pool and one with an outdoor before my goal of the Olympic buckhead challenge. But, at this point it depends on my employment situation. I'm training like its going to happen though! But don't get discouraged, swimming is one of the hardest things I've ever tried to take up.
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