The Rematch Begins (01/15/07 - 01/21/07)

So the challenge has resurfaced. My good friend Marc (that's him to the right) and I used to swim together back in high school and were pretty much equal in the 200 IM. Our sophmore year, we actually tied for 7th place in the event at CIF. We have spoken about rematches ever since, but now its going to happen. We have both been swimming pretty regularly for the past 3 years so not one of us has an upperhand than the other. He is an incredible triathlete which has made him a lot more fit than me. But I am hoping with some hard work and watching my diet, that I can give him a run for his money.

So on April 1st at the Mission Viejo meet we will be having our rematch. Based on what I have heard from his training, he is ahead of me. But hey, I have 74 days to step it up. Reading his blogs have gottene me worried, but at the same time helped me get motivated to train harder.

Monday:

5 mile run

Since I coach on Mondays I have to decide to run or swim. I have the HB 1/2 Marathon coming up so I need to make sure i don't kill myself with lack of training. I met up with Kurt and we ran 5 miles on the treadmill at the gym. I ran about 11 minute miles to just take it easy, which it was. I am hoping by 1/2 marathon time to be able to hold 10 min miles.

Tuesday:

Swim - LCM
500 w/u
6X50s under/over
4 X 200s pull
100 kick EZ
8 X 50s kick EZ-MED-FAST (did breast)
100 EZ
6 X 50s drill down swim back stroke (did back)
3 X 100 IM - 2:00 (averaged 1:25)
50 sprint
3 X 100 free - 1:30 (averaged 1:17)
50 sprint
3 X 100 IM - 2:00 (averaged 1:25)
300 cool down
Total - 3800 meters


The weather is sooooooooo cold. I didn't want to swim tonight, but I knew I had to start taking swimming serious again if I wanted to give Marc a run for his money. His freestyle is really fast right now and that worries me! :-). The IM part I made sure to work hard but it sure hurt and I felt the out of shapeness. 1:25 converts to about a 1:12 and with no turns I am ok with that. My 100 frees though were slow but I think the postal swim plus the IMs made me a lot more tired and tight. My arms were killing me too. As I was pushing off on the breast stroke for each IM, I kept on reminding myself of the challege in April to keep me going. It sure is hard to switch strokes without a wall I must add for a 100 IM in a 50 meter pool! For the next few weeks I am not too interested in times, but more effort until I feel that I am back in shape.

Wednesday:

Boyfriend night so unless I do something in the AM, I don't get any exercise done.

-

Thursday:

-

LCM-

600 w/u

8 X 50s (stretch out, breath every 5, good rolling)

3 X 200s pull on 3:00

Main set -

200 at 50%

150 at 60%

100 at 70%

50 at 80%

4 X 50s with paddles and fins all out at best LCM time

(repeat set)

4 X 50s cool down

total 3200 meters

Although this workout was short in meters, I produced some good swimming as I am just getting back into it. Most impressive were my 200s pull. 1st one was 2:30, 2nd was 2:28, 3rd was 2:25. In yards that converts to 2:09, 2:07 and 2:05. I was totally shocked as they were really easy and I never felt like I went over 80 or 85% (and chose not to). The main set really hurt when you wear fins and paddles and go out. All 8 50s averaged between 27.8 and 28.6 which I think are respectable. In yards that is about 24.0 thru 24.6 which is about what i do in meets so I'll take them for now. I guess all I needed was this challenge to get me back into taking swimming serious. Getting nervous Marc?

Las Vegas meet is this weekend. It will be more fun but still I hope to swim some decent times. I am doing the 50, 100 and 200 free and 50 fly. Nice short events. No workout on Friday and Sunday, but the meet is Saturday.

-

Saturday Vegas Meet

-

So my swims were not impressive, but that's ok. After the hard Thursday night swim with my legs, they just weren't there during the meet.

50 fly - 26.6

200 free - 2:02

50 free - 25.1

50 free split on relay - 24.0

So the only swim that I was happy with was the relay split. That was good. My 50 fly felt spastic which it always does. I need a 50 to get going. My 200 free was horrible. I just never got going. Tom told me to push the 2nd 50 for the first time so I did. My splits were 29, 31, 30, 31. Since I was out in a 29, it shows I just never got going. But I felt sluggish the entire time. Oh well. The relay split was good, but since I had to deal with things right after the relay, I had no warm down or rest before the individual 50 free. The relay was a lot of fun though. I put together 8 relays, all with entry times of 2:16. We had the entire heat and it was a head to head competition and everyone said it was the highlight of their meet. Yea. I'm glad we had fun.

-

Back to some hard training. My 200 free was a big disappointment so I need to figure out what went wrong.