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June 25, 2008
Today's News
First of all, I'd like to report that I think my toe is going to make it. I woke up this morning to a much more normal looking toe. But I'm not against Ashley's advice to "cut off the toe and save the leg!" if need be. One smart girl is that Ashley... :)
In other news, my friend Kim (thanks Kim!) sent pictures that her husband took this weekend while we were racing. I find this one to be the most interesting:
I asked O what he thought I was doing as I appear to either be talking or smiling or something of the sort...none of which I SHOULD be doing in the midst of a race. "OH, I think Kyle took that picture when I was telling you that you were 75 seconds down on 1st place." Ahhh...that explains it. Notice the lack of visor. I think we've previously discussed what happened there. You may also note that I appear to be a bit of a heal striker. No wonder I was a 10K runner in college. :)
Anyway, today I had 3 great workouts! First off this morning was some work at the track with O. It was a perfect morning for some hard 400s - in the high 50s with no wind and the sun was just rising. And the workout went well. I had aimed pretty high with the splits I wanted to hit so I was pretty excited when we actually did it. Not that it wasn't really hard. In fact when we finished the last repeat both O and I were on all fours on the track, desperately seeking oxygen! But my run fitness is coming along. I don't often get large chunks of time where I'm 100% healthy for running so when I do I'm so thankful and it feels awesome!
After work I came home really wanting a nap. But there wasn't time for that. I still had a swim and lift and if I wanted to get that done and eat dinner and stretch and do all the other things I needed to do (like blog of course! :) I needed to get moving ASAP.
So to the pool we went. I always swim better in the afternoon but I don't often do it just because we don't ever swim tired in a race so why practice it right? :) Regardless, today's main set included 4 sets of 5x100, each set on varying send-off times. The goal today was to descend each set of 5 which is really hard for me. Coach determined that based on my POOL swim fitness I should be able to swim faster in open water. But the fact is, I'm just not getting it done in races. Swimming in open water is obviously tougher for many reasons so I'm trying my best to fix these problems. One of them is just pure lack of experience in open water and in my wetsuit so this year I'm making a good effort to get more open water swimming in (including my first ever open water swim race this weekend!). But another problem we think I have is my lack of feel for what pace I'm swimming when I don't have a pace clock staring me in the face. I sometimes think I just don't swim hard enough in races because I don't have a good awareness of pace and feel for the water.
Anyway, the point of all this is that coach wants me to do some swim workouts where I have to descend throughout the workout or parts of main sets so I get that feel for what I can do and for certain paces. So today the goal for each set of 5 was to swim the first one in 1:20 then 1:19, 1:18, 1:17, 1:16. (the intervals for the 4 sets were 1:50, 1:30, 1:40, 1:30 to mix things up). And I'm proud to say I actually did it! A couple times I would swim 1:20, 1:19, 1:17, 1:17, 1:15 or something like that but I was very close on all of them. That is HUGE for me! I know I wouldn't have been able to do that a couple months ago. So I'm getting there. Slow as molasses but I'm getting there.
Finally a trip to the weight room and then home for PIZZA NIGHT!! I love pizza night at the Shutt house. O even had it made by the time I got home. How's that for service? :)
Hope everyone has a great night!
Posted by beth at June 25, 2008 8:14 PM
Comments
Nice! Three good workouts & the picture was funny and I thought the same thing.. what is she doing there! Not that I ever look decent in racing pics. You're swim times are amazing (1:15, is that about 36 per 50 in a 25 yard pool..?) geezz.. speedy! Let's see what we can do at Moraine this weekend - I'll call you tonight or tomorrow.
Posted by: Kim at June 26, 2008 11:31 AM
Hey - great picture! You look very relaxed which is nice. For the record, I think you're smiling :) HEy NICE JOB on the swin - I know that is MAJOR for you. Way to really push through with those sets. Excellent!
Posted by: marit c-l at June 26, 2008 11:41 AM
Hey - great picture! You look very relaxed which is nice. For the record, I think you're smiling :) HEy NICE JOB on the swin - I know that is MAJOR for you. Way to really push through with those sets. Excellent!
Posted by: marit c-l at June 26, 2008 11:48 AM
Beth! Nice swim set!! I like your coach's commets about your OW swimming - but the pool and OW are SOO different. Keep on working on it...it is coming along! YEAHHHH! Nice run pic! :)
Posted by: Jennifer Harrison at June 26, 2008 12:16 PM
That sounds like a good swim set. Do you ever practice sighting during your swim workouts? We practice sighting low (as long as there are not large waves) so that our legs don't drop down and cause a lot of drag. I'm not sure if I explained that well...
Posted by: maija at June 26, 2008 9:05 PM
Beth... I LOVE that photo so much... Looks like you are having a blast and your legs look so strong.
Okay, tuff love from me... I agree with your coach... I think you can swim faster in open water all the way and I agree with you... It is "experience". I so wish you could come play in the ocean with us and do an ocean swim camp!
I am the total opposite of you, my times in the ocean are WAY better than I do in the pool, maybe because I like the ocean and not the pool.
KEEP IT UP, Mark is a SMART man, he knows tri VERY well... swim hard in the pool then take those times and claim them in the open water!
Posted by: breewee at June 27, 2008 1:17 AM