Saturday Workout Update

You guys are always so fascinated by my workouts, so here goes:

Swimming
 -- 200 swim / kick / IM / pull / swim
 -- 1000 pull (aerobic pace @ 13:35 or 1:21/100)
 -- 6 x 50 kick @ 1:05 (fly/breast)
 -- 100 easy/drill
 -- 10 x 50 tempo @ :55 (fly/free)
 -- 100 warm down

Total: 3000 yards

It's been hot outside, and despite having the roof open on the Milford YMCA pool, the water was somewhere in the mid-80s F.  I don't swim my best in those conditions and haven't felt particularly strong in the water lately, regardless.  I did 14 x 100 @ 1:25 on Tuesday, and managed to keep them all below 1:20, but I had to work to make that happen.  It didn't used to be like that, even as little as two or three years ago.

Today I wanted to leg out a long set at aerobic pace--a very different thing than what I did Tuesday--and a 1000 pull fit that bill.  But 1:21/100 is not blazing fast, even in mid-80-degree water at aerobic pace, and what's worse is that I started off better but lost the pace badly in the last three hundred yards.

I haven't had my best stuff in the water this month, and it's driving me crazy.

Somewhere in the middle of the 1000 pull I hit on the idea of doing a tempo set to close out practice, and so that's what I did.  I made it stroke work because I've been feeling slow.  It's hard (but not impossible) to do butterfly at an aerobic pace.  I did ten 50s alternating fly/free, working the butterfly laps but cruising easy on the freestyle.  :55 is not an overly aggressive interval, but I decided to set my goal time at :35 per 50 fly.  That's rather more aggressive.

Wound up going :34, :35, :36, :35, and then closing out strong with another :34.  Better.  Certainly I had a bit more pop than I've felt this month.

Afterwards, I headed into the locker room, changed clothes, and headed upstairs to the weight room.  I wound up doing three sets of three supersets, each composed of three sets.  That's a lot of threes, am I right?

Weight Workout
 -- pull-ups / dips / tuck-ups
 -- seated reverse flys / dead lifts / dumbbell lunges
 -- seated rows / upright barbell rows / incline leg raises
 -- last set: standing bicep curls

Pull-ups and dips I did weight assisted, using a 10, 6, 12 rep pyramid to increase weight and work power in the middle set.  I did consistent sets of 20 tuck-ups.  I again used the power pyramid for the reverse flys but did dead lifts and dumbbell lunges in even 10 and 12 rep sets, respectively.  The same was again true for the last superset.  I did the power pyramid for the seated rows and front rows but did consistent sets of 15 leg raises.

I then came home, had some breakfast, and took Emma to see Star Trek: Beyond.  Cool movie.  We both enjoyed it thoroughly.

I've got a race next weekend, which means that the coming week is going to be a Rest Week.  We'll see how that goes.