Thursday January 28, 2016

Our main set from Thursday:

3 rounds of:

8x50 "Stroke" (45)  -- 1 round of Fly, Back, and Breast

2x200 IM (245, 315) -- Descend rounds

8x50 Free (40) -- Descend rounds

2x200 Free (230, 250) -- Descend rounds

Some athletes did a modified version of this set:

3 rounds of:

6x50 "Stroke" (1) -- 1 round of Fly, Back, Breast

2x200 IM (3) -- Descend rounds

6x50 Free (50) -- Descend rounds

2x200 Free (250) -- Descend rounds

We had a very good practice overall.  The rain was coming down, the wind was blowing, and we rocked a 4200 or a 4800 yard set!  

I am not going to give grades for today's set.  A few weeks back we did a similar set on a Saturday AM.  It was 3 rounds of: 

3x100 (130) -- 1 round of Fly, Back, Breast

1x300 (430) -- Descend rounds IM

4x100 (120) -- Descend rounds Free to 500 Pac

1x400 (520) -- Descend rounds Free

I thought the strengths of the set, team-wide, were the 200 Freestyles and the 50s of Fly.  Our weakest portion of the set seemed to be the 50s Backstroke.  I thought the Breaststroke would have been better, but the intervals of either (45) or (1) were tougher for Breaststroke than for Back or Fly, and we just didn't adjust to going from 12-16 seconds rest per 50 to getting 7-12 seconds rest per 50.  I considered moving the interval from 45 to 50 on the last round, but I concluded that we would try to deal with it….which I think was a call decision -- we must be ready to deal with some pain at the end of the 400 IM and the tougher Breaststroke intervals will help us with dealing well and accelerating through the Breaststroke.  

For many, the last round of 200s IM were tougher to get into and many 200 IM times went up when they should have gone down on the first 200 IM of the final round.  

These are all things to work on. 

We have a lot of room to improve with our Backstroke right now, and that includes Back kicking, Back Pulling, and Back Swimming.  You guys can expect that set of 200s back we've discussed coming up soon!

Remember, even if backstroke isn't your top stroke, doing well with the backstroke kick and swims and trying to improve them during the practice improves your ability to access personal growth and individual improvement.  You are practicing "getting better at something".  You are making "going for"  improvement part of your normal daily action.  You are avoiding the trap of turning your 'on' switch 'off' during practice, and so you are working on focusing on a task for a certain period of time, which has its own merit regardless of "stroke" specificity. 

All of these things matter when it comes to being great at athletics or great at anything.  Wherever you are on the path to improving all aspects of your swimming, start now with raising your own personal expectations for yourself.

The final set, some times from the A interval:

Jack 208/207 IM and 154/149 Free

Shawn 21?/209 IM and 153/150 Free

Paolo 211/209 IM and 154/149 Free