wow. i am really tired right now. i woke this morning at 430am to go swim with the Solana Beach masters. here's my review of my first masters swim workout:
1. the pool - 6 lanes, nice and warm. the whole complex is undergoing a huge renovation including a huge new pool which should be open by july.
2. the coach was cool when i told it was my first swim and gave me a lot of good info.
3. choosing a lane - the first two lanes were reserved for the high school kids (they swim on tues & thurs) and then there were 4 lanes (3-5 people per lane) for masters going from letft to right, fast to slow. i jumped in the second slowest lane because the coach said that it was usually the 1:30 - 1:40 interval lane... i can hang with that. not today. the fastest 2 lanes were swimming on the 1:20 and the guys than joined my lane decided they were going to swim on 1:20 - 1:25. great.
we all warmed up - about 800 yards, then 10 x 50 drill/swim. then the main set:
4 x 600
1. 6 x 100
2. 3 x 200
3. 2 x 300
4. 6 x 100
all with decreasing interval.
so these 2 guys in my lane are going for it and i was able to hang through the first two sets, which i was shocked by. i can swim harder than i thought for sure. the only problem was i was still finishing while they were taking their 10 second rest and i had to just keep going with no rest to not jack up the lane. so basically i swam back to back 600's on 1:25 with about 5 seconds rest between the 2. i wasn't necessarily winded but i was frustrated because i didnt want to slow these guys up if i fell off the pace and i could feel my form falling off just a bit. i did one more 600 with them and then moved down a lane to finish.
the slow lane was WAY slow, and again i was frustrated, but oh well. i finished the workout, and it was a good one.
overall take: i am not sure. i didn't like how there were 3 "fast" lanes and one "slow" lane with nothing in between. i talked to the coach afterwards and she said that it's really only like that on tues and thurs because of the HS kids.
so i'm going to go back on monday and have another go. i dont think i am going to join just yet as the jury is still out, but i am going to add one masters session a week to my workout for now. it's only $6 a workout and if i go once a week that's only $24 a month. we will see how it goes for the next month with that and then i will decied if it's worth the $$$ to join and swim with then 3-4 days a week.
workouts:
Wed
AM: 3000 yard swim
Lunch: weights - upperbody
PM: bike workout - intervals - 18 miles
Thurs
AM: 3500 - masters swim workout
Lunch: 5.5 mile trail run
tomorrow morning i am going to swim and get in a short mountain bike in the afternoon. on saturday i am going to the club race which just got changed from a tri to a duathlon. i guess this works in my favor, but i wanted to use this race to practice my swimming. after the race i am gonig to go for a ride with guernseyman. well that's if for now. i will post a race a ride report on saturday. time for bed.
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3 comments:
What is it about swimmnig that makes you SO tired? It always makes me sleep like a baby. I used to have that problem with masters swimming. In the slow lane, it was so slow, it was ridiculous. One lane over, I could barely breathe. I just stuck to the slow lane and worked on my form. On my own, I worked on speed and distance.
Welcome to the world of the "Tweener!" That's when you're smack dab between two lanes. The life of a tweener stinks!!! Here's my two cents (ok, 10 cents), having been in your situation twice before...
1.) Definitely don't give up yet. I think your idea of giving it a month is a good one. The guys in the fast lane may have just been having a good day...and it might very well be that that lane more typically holds a 1:30-1:40.
2.) Don't practice struggle. If you can't keep good technique because you're just trying to keep up, then drop down a lane, even if it's too slow. The life of a tweener is a hard one - this will make you mentally tougher! But it is essential to be able to maintain your form and if you can't breathe and aren't getting any rest, you're probably not doing yourself any favors... Once you drop down, don't be afraid to lead the lane. This way you can go at your own pace while swimming but you'll just be getting extra rest while the others finish the set.
3.) Swimming with faster swimmers will make you faster, no question. So the solution for now may be to do exactly what you did - start with the fishys and then drop down a lane once you can't hold your technique. You'll find that by "redlining" for awhile, you'll eventually be able to hold it and then things will fall into place and you'll move solidly to that faster lane. Have faith! You'll get there....
4.) One of the hardest things about Masters swim teams, I've found, is that your lane assignment often depends on who else shows up that day...some days you'll lead the lane, other days you'll be dogging it in the back and dying. It was hard to get used to but in the end I think I've decided that the variety is good - it helps me to be mentally stronger because I don't always know what to expect and it's good to learn to adjust on the run. Just don't sacrifice your form to keep up.
5.) One other solution is to stay in the fast lane but eliminate one of the swims...if the set was 6x100, just do 5x100 at that faster pace but take a little extra rest so you're ok for the next set. If it's a good team, no one will question you or think you're sandbagging...
6.) You may find that with some very minor technique adjustments (that hopefully the coach will help you identify) that within a few weeks, you're easily swimming your 100s 5-10 seconds faster. I'd expect a steep curve of initial improvement and then you'll plateau for awhile. It's all good!!
Keep up the good work and you'll see dividends soon. Meanwhile, embrace the life of a 'tweener!! You won't be one for long, of that I'm sure!!!
Make them eat wake....
wow, thats some good advice from spence. Masters workouts just flat out beat me down. When I first started training with them I think I was more fatigued from those workouts than anything else I've ever done in training. I would literally be passing out while talking to people. I soon realized that no one else in the pool was doing two-a-days or 3-a-days and that they had a ton more energy to expend than me. Now, I swim down a lane or two always. It's just not worth the beat down if you have to get up the next day and go for a run or ride.
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