Showing posts with label swim. Show all posts
Showing posts with label swim. Show all posts
Monday, February 20, 2012

Soaking.

Just can't seem to stay dry around here!  The snow ended, then we went to Colorado, and swam outside in the snow. Now it is raining, raining, and raining.

Friday I had 5x1km hill repeats and nothing is stopping me with Costa Rica in all of 4 (*big gulp*) weeks away.  You would think we didn't even have windshield wipers on the car.  I tricked myself into driving to the walk-on passenger ferry that Mark was riding home, from downtown Seattle to Alki, so he could drive home then I would HAVE to run home.  Once he got across the water he met me on "the hill", with only one hill repeat remaining.  He had no sympathy for my 3 layer soaked-thru tops, my drenching hair and cold fingertips.  He handed me the keys to the house and drove away (okay, maybe not that brutal, but at the moment it sure seemed like he was asking me to drift away with the puddle of rivers streaming down the hills that the cars were so generously spraying over me).


A few days later I was eager to go to UW masters swims, it only fits in my plan once in awhile so I run with it when it fits.  The main set had my lats screaming in the way I have only felt at Honu 70.3 nearly two years ago. 
The main set started with some fairly quick 300's, with the last one on 3:30 then we went straight into:
8x{50 back on :45, then 4x25 on :25 going H/E, E/H, E, H, then 100 on 1:10, then 100 all out FAST on 1:30}
E=easy, H=hard



I typically don't share my workouts but this one was kind of sickly challenging in a way that I know some of you will want to to try it :)

This swim was a good kind of "soak".

Of course the weather has not let up!

 Just praying for a couple outdoor bike rides on the new Shiv (which is amazing BTW, but not nearly as amazing as the banana cream pie that came along with the selling of the previous ride) before it gets to travel to an exotic land!

Sunday, February 05, 2012

One-Hour Postal Swim 2012

Couldn't have been more excited for my third annual One-hour Postal swim. Yep, last year I snuck in with zero training, well, I got in the water the week of the event and swam a bit but just enough to get some sort of feel for the water, and then never spoke of it.  A year prior I was in some heavy training and shoved it into the schedule amongst endless hours on the bike.  This year, I really wanted to try my best and aim for my furthest distance to date.

Being that my last two races reflected results from  4-5'ish years ago. I aimed for the postal swim to mirror that of 2 years ago.  Claiming a slot in the first (of three) early morning 7am heat in order to prevent myself from becoming incredibly nervous.

A tad  OCD over it, or determined,  but paces and splits were studied over and over. 
(Those that don't know this is what it looks like at the event, with each swimmer having a pace and lap counter, and you may be able to find Waldo in here too!)

Luckily, I was able to swim right next to my all-time favorite swim buddy (Tom) and to share a lane with a super fabulous teammate (Kim).  For ultimate comfort I chose my favorite new TYR suit (blue and green with TNM logo) and my favorite TYR pink tracer goggles. I stuck with Tom the first few 100's and then held on to the same exact pace through the next entire hour. The goal was to hold 1:14/100 yards or 1:21/100 meters.

I did it!  4817 yards (or 4405 meters), 60 yards more than ever.

What was incredibly exciting was seeing the additional TNM swimmers who were improving by 100, 200 (this included Mark) and 300 more yards over just a year ago!  Seeing their progress reminds me of what a fulfilling and rewarding job I have.  They are inspiring and prove the truth that hard work pays off!


Ironically this weekend I had my first swim analysis and have so much more I can improve upon.  Many things I teach athletes "not" to do, I was doing.  The goal not necessarily to swim lots faster but to stop wasting so much energy. Back to work! ;)