threadwalker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
threadwalker) wrote2008-05-19 10:41 am
threadwalker) wrote2008-05-19 10:41 am
Shark-Off Drills
(ultimately, a tri-training swim post)
You have failed your saving throw against boring prattle. After a 2 week break from rigorous fitness stuff, I'm back in. And I'm going to be journaling every work out so I can understand my progress. I promise to use cuts to save you from falling asleep and slamming your forehead into your keyboard as you doze off.
I have two competing impulses all the time. I call one my "inner hippie". It's the voice of reason that often suggests I just relax and take life as it comes, that just wants to get along and chill out. The other impulse is my "driver", which is the voice that pushes me harder, beats me up for not trying hard enough, and gets my butt out of bed to do tasks when I'd really rather be sleeping. I saw that I'd been journaling about my Driver in my Tri-account, so that's what I mean when I talk about my Driver.
Today's workout was a near-miss. Meaning I got up at the appointed time, closed the bedroom windows, and climbed back in bed, where it was warm and snuggly. The Hippie was winning. Unfortunately (or fortunately), the Driver woke up and started staring at the clock, calculating how many minutes remained before I could reach the pool by 6 am and still get a full work out. And the Driver compared that time to the time I'd need to get up to get ready for work. It was only a 15 minute difference where I'd just blown 5 staring at the clock arguing with myself. Math always wins. I got up and it was still 5:35 am.
The actual work-out.
My goal: Finish the Tri at Pacific Grove w/o being Shark Bait. The distance is double the last race, which I did in 17 minutes by some cosmic miracle of water-wet suit-drafting magic. I think I'd like to finish the ocean swim in 40 minutes, depending on weather, current, chop, etc. What this means is that I'd like to bring my pool swim time down from 2:30-2:45/lap to 2:20/lap on 900 yd swim (21 min total).
I finished reaing 'Swim Training for Triathletes' by Steve Tarapinian. Interesting read. Lots of helpful advice and explanation of swim lingo, examples of good technique, bad technique, etc. From that, I developed a plan for today:
Warmed up 500 m w/ 200 m of breathing drills (1)
Siting Drill: 100 m of "siting practice" (2)
Speed: 4 X 100/50 w/ 15 sec breaks
Endurance: 1 X 500
My swim cap tore, so I missed my cool down. Total: 1700 M (Sept Tri is 1500 M)
I realized during my last lap that I wasn't "doner than done and ready to get out". I was actually bummed that I couldn't squeeze another 500 M set into my hour of swim. I blew right through it without my previous mental whining, "Are we done yet?.. Can we get out now? Haven't we done enough? Wait... I think I'm drowning, quick, GET OUT!"
I count that a mental break-through! Yay!
(1) I am not a bilateral breather. However, in "da book", they have a breathing drill. 50M while breathing on every 2nd stroke. 50M breathing on every 3rd stroke (need to be bilateral). 50M breathing on every 4th stroke (my comfort spot). 50M breathing on every 5th stroke (need to be bilateral and lots of time between breathing = super hard). I am going to do this at least 1x week, although I'm going to swap out the 5stroke/breath with 3stroke/breath. I feel like I'm suffocating w/ the 5stroke/breath
(2)"siting" drill where I swim 4 strokes with my eyes closed and lift my head to spot an imaginery bouy. That was HARD and uncomfortable. So glad I did it. I will probably be doing this 1x week.
You have failed your saving throw against boring prattle. After a 2 week break from rigorous fitness stuff, I'm back in. And I'm going to be journaling every work out so I can understand my progress. I promise to use cuts to save you from falling asleep and slamming your forehead into your keyboard as you doze off.
I have two competing impulses all the time. I call one my "inner hippie". It's the voice of reason that often suggests I just relax and take life as it comes, that just wants to get along and chill out. The other impulse is my "driver", which is the voice that pushes me harder, beats me up for not trying hard enough, and gets my butt out of bed to do tasks when I'd really rather be sleeping. I saw that I'd been journaling about my Driver in my Tri-account, so that's what I mean when I talk about my Driver.
Today's workout was a near-miss. Meaning I got up at the appointed time, closed the bedroom windows, and climbed back in bed, where it was warm and snuggly. The Hippie was winning. Unfortunately (or fortunately), the Driver woke up and started staring at the clock, calculating how many minutes remained before I could reach the pool by 6 am and still get a full work out. And the Driver compared that time to the time I'd need to get up to get ready for work. It was only a 15 minute difference where I'd just blown 5 staring at the clock arguing with myself. Math always wins. I got up and it was still 5:35 am.
The actual work-out.
My goal: Finish the Tri at Pacific Grove w/o being Shark Bait. The distance is double the last race, which I did in 17 minutes by some cosmic miracle of water-wet suit-drafting magic. I think I'd like to finish the ocean swim in 40 minutes, depending on weather, current, chop, etc. What this means is that I'd like to bring my pool swim time down from 2:30-2:45/lap to 2:20/lap on 900 yd swim (21 min total).
I finished reaing 'Swim Training for Triathletes' by Steve Tarapinian. Interesting read. Lots of helpful advice and explanation of swim lingo, examples of good technique, bad technique, etc. From that, I developed a plan for today:
Warmed up 500 m w/ 200 m of breathing drills (1)
Siting Drill: 100 m of "siting practice" (2)
Speed: 4 X 100/50 w/ 15 sec breaks
Endurance: 1 X 500
My swim cap tore, so I missed my cool down. Total: 1700 M (Sept Tri is 1500 M)
I realized during my last lap that I wasn't "doner than done and ready to get out". I was actually bummed that I couldn't squeeze another 500 M set into my hour of swim. I blew right through it without my previous mental whining, "Are we done yet?.. Can we get out now? Haven't we done enough? Wait... I think I'm drowning, quick, GET OUT!"
I count that a mental break-through! Yay!
(1) I am not a bilateral breather. However, in "da book", they have a breathing drill. 50M while breathing on every 2nd stroke. 50M breathing on every 3rd stroke (need to be bilateral). 50M breathing on every 4th stroke (my comfort spot). 50M breathing on every 5th stroke (need to be bilateral and lots of time between breathing = super hard). I am going to do this at least 1x week, although I'm going to swap out the 5stroke/breath with 3stroke/breath. I feel like I'm suffocating w/ the 5stroke/breath
(2)"siting" drill where I swim 4 strokes with my eyes closed and lift my head to spot an imaginery bouy. That was HARD and uncomfortable. So glad I did it. I will probably be doing this 1x week.
no subject
I agree that waiting to breathe every 5th stroke is too much of a stretch. You burn up oxygen too quickly for that to work well.
Can you do the siting drill between ropes initially? Or is that cheating?
no subject
One interesting thing I learned is that we swim faster when (a) we are fully submerged and dolfin kicking (hence the race requirement that people need to surface within X-distance) and (b) when we are on our sides (!) Which means more-frequent breathing = more time on your side = faster.
Voila'. Drag and Lift and bouyancy... Science is cool.