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August 15, 2006
IMs Are Hard
Holy cow do I NOT like doing other strokes other than freestyle! It's most likely because I am not doing them right but they tire me out and slow me down like you would not believe. Unfortunately today was off-stroke day and we had some bad juju IMs to do. I don't even do butterfly and I still stink! Either way, I'm sure they make me stronger...right?! :)
This morning's swim was 3300 yds total including 1000 yds warmup and 300 yds cooldown. The main workout was:
5x50 yds
100 IM
5x50 yds
200 IM
5x50 yds
300 IM
5x50 yds
400 IM
And the 50s went like 25 fly/25 back, 25 back/25 breast, 25 breast/25 free, 25 free/25 fly and then an easy 50 free. All my butterfly was substituted with free. And let me tell you, that 400 IM still kicked my butt!
Fast forward to tonight's crit. It was great. It took me about 10 laps but I kept attacking and attacking and attacking and finally broke free with my teammate K and we worked together to lap the field. I have to say, that's really fun to do. We are not necessarily better cyclists but if you're tough out there you will do well. Anyway, I had to really work hard to break away but once we were away and taking turns pulling each other I could relax some. We rode in together but they had to give someone the win so K was deemed winner. And what a killing we made on the primes! They usually have 2 or 3 primes at most but tonight they had a prime for EVERY lap! And it was money and chocolate PowerBars. Kim and I took home lots of goods! :)
And now I'm tired and want to sleep. No time for revealing in a win. Tomorrow it's back to business and a run. At least running doesn't involve the butterfly stroke!
Posted by beth at August 15, 2006 10:17 PM
Comments
Hey you "Dura e Pura" ("Tough and Pure" - in Italian it rhymes so it is idiomatically quite popular...) ... here's some tongue-in-cheek "Karate Kid" advice for you. As in the Tri you only need to swim freestyle, you would think, why the heck should I swim Butterfly? (Also known as Dolphin Kick stroke, do you prefer this name?) Well, let's make up (here and now) a reason called "Degrees of Freedom" and "Range of Motion." The freer you feel, the faster you go, the stronger you get. So to block a punch or a kick, you practice cleaning a window. So to rotate your arms faster in the water, you learn how to do it at the same time, all the while keeping your brain alert and flexible to coordinate with the rest of the body. And do a reasonable dolphin kick with an ever so smooth and pleasurable sinusodial motion. Don't think you need to learn it overnight, not even for this season's workouts or for Lake Placid. But in those odd, wonderful, little windows of learning spare time that sometime become available to all of us, it will only do you well to learn to Fly. As well as to refine Breast Stroke and Backstroke... To IM. (and if we just wanted to let our imagination run wild, to swim laps underwater... no kidding...) Degrees of Freedom. Range of Motion. I love making this stuff up :) Bests, Corrado
Posted by: corrado giambalvo at August 16, 2006 6:51 AM