I said yesterday that today's workouts would be relatively easy. OK, I lied about the swim workout:
7:54AM (I woke up late, what can I say and then had to shovel the driveway again) Swim 2700 yards 59'. Workout: Warmup: 200s, 2x(50s, 100k, 50s 20"RI) Main Set: 3x(2x200 pull 20"RI, 4x50 pull fast 1'SI, 1' bonus rest); 4x50 paddles best avg. 1'SI cd: 100. For those of you who are abbreviation-challenged, SI means "swim interval," meaning the total time for both swimming and resting. So 50 1'SI means you swim 50 yards and you rest until 1' has elapsed and then you start the next swim.
This is another one of those "force" workouts from "Swim Workouts in a Binder." I didn't have to swim today; but I'm so used to swimming M/W/F and then in season on Saturday as well, that I figured what the heck. Besides, a swim usually helps me get the crap out of my body from the previous day, and yesterday was a tough one. Whenever I'm about to do a force workout, I always think about Obi-wan Kenobi saying to Luke, "Use the Force, Luke." I corrupted that into "May The Force Be With You." It's kind of like a blessing. I say it to myself under my breath right before I get into the water to do one of these workouts.
Anyway, this is not the world's easiest workout, if you give it your all. The warmup was innocuous enough. Did you think I would do the workout EXACTLY AS WRITTEN? Hell no! On the 200 pulls I slapped the band around my ankles to work myself a little harder. I took it off for the 50's, and didn't use it on the last set of 50's with the paddles.
Would you like to know what I was thinking while doing all that pulling? See below:
BOY I'M GLAD I LIFT WEIGHTS OTHERWISE THIS WOULD SUCK (first 200)
BOY I'M GLAD I LIFT WEIGHTS OTHERWISE THIS WOULD SUCK (second 200)
THIS ISN'T SO BAD WITHOUT THE BAND AROUND MY ANKLES (first 50)
GOOD THING I LIFT WEIGHTS OTHERWISE I MIGHT BE TIRED (second 50)
THIS REALLY ISN'T THAT MUCH EASIER WITHOUT THE BAND (third 50)
THIS SUCKS (fourth 50)
THIS TIME IS GOING BY WAY TOO FAST (First 1' rest)
GOOD THING MY SHOULDERS ARE SO STRONG (first 200)
THIS IS STARTING TO FEEL HARD (second 200)
WOW, THIS IS NOT GETTING ANY EASIER (first 50)
UGH, I WONDER IF ANYONE ELSE WOULD LIKE THIS WORKOUT AS MUCH AS ME? (second 50)
PROBABLY NOT (third 50)
THIS PRETTY MUCH SUCKS (fourth 50)
I DON'T NORMALLY LIKE A LOT OF REST BUT IT SEEMS LIKE A GOOD THING TODAY (Second 1' rest)
OK, LAST ROUND THIS ISN'T SO BAD (first 200)
YES IT IS (second 200)
OH SHIT I GET TO USE THE PADDLES IN A LITTLE WHILE (first 50)
IF I PULL ANY HARDER I'M GOING TO HIT THE WALL IN ONE STROKE (second 50)
ALMOST DONE WITH THIS CRAP (third 50)
MAKE IT HURT (fourth 50)
HERE IT COMES UP MY BUTT WITH THE PADDLES ON (Third 1' rest)
OK, I LIKE PADDLES; THIS FEELS AWESOME I'M GOING SO FAST (1st 50)
MY ARMS ARE ABOUT TO FALL OFF (second 50)
HANG IN THERE ONLY ONE TO GO (third 50)
@#@*(%&#)($#_%(#)_%()_#*()* I LOVE THIS WORKOUT (fourth 50)
You should see the pump in my arms even now from all this!
1:57PM Run 60'. Finally, a truly EASY workout! Stayed nice and aerobic--only to the middle of my aerobic zone. No worries.
Tonight's dinner will be sirloin steak with spaghetti with homemade pesto. I have a big day tomorrow!
4 comments:
For those of you keeping score at home, I did some dry heavin' at the end of the last set of 50's in the swim workout. The lifeguard was looking at me all funny, so I flashed him the "OK" sign so he'd know I was just fine.
sounds like a missed opportunity... you did the 'work'... in my case, if she was hawt, i would've just let myself slip under at that point.
ok, now that i've got my smart ass'dness out of the way, here's the daily question:
do you use a pull buoy in your main set to simulate wearing a wetsuit?
the reason i ask, is that i have not confessed to my swim coaches yet that i am training for an ironman (don't want to shock them close to open water) and am wondering if there is more specific training i should be doing.
thanks in advance, bold.
Do you mean do I use a pull buoy in ALL my main sets? Hell no--that would mess with my form too much. Normally I do only 200-400 yards of a workout with the pull buoy, or in the case of today, lots of pull buoy, since it was an optional workout, and the whole POINT was pulling.
Times swimming with a pull buoy for SOME people may be about the same as the gain they achieve with a wetsuit; for others not. I actually get quite a bit out of the wetsuit. Hope that doesn't mean I SUCK! I typically don't kick when I'm in the wetsuit, though.
The lifeguard at the Y was NOT HOT. I was, though. I wore my cat suit--has a cat face on the front and a tail on my butt. A trainer who works there was watching me swim through the glass. I'm sure he enjoyed himself!
LOL, Sheila, that was hilarious. I'm glad to know that others think like I do during 200s.... Like: Who the hell replaced the water with jello? What lap am I on, what song was I singing (That's how I remember my laps)???
Yeah, and I have suit envy too...
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