Had my first coached workout in about 6 years today. Swam with the Fort Bragg Masters, led by the wonderful Celia Wolff. I met her in the parking lot, by dumb luck. Thankfully, I knew what she looked like from the website, so I managed to not be stalker-y when I approached her by the car.
The workout today that she gave me was her triathlon/distance workout. The warm up consisted of 50 drill and 100 swim three times. Celia gave me some much-needed advice re: my hand entry. Despite many years of working on my entry, namely not crossing my hand over my mid-line, I was still doing it! Celia suggested I swim straight down the middle of the lane, tracing a line with my right hand along the outer right-hand side of the lane line. Ditto with the left hand. This worked for a while, but my technique, such that it is, always craps out after I get tired.
The next set was 6 x 25 build. Celia reminded me that my hand entry should be flatter, unlike my thumb-first entry, an entry I've had burned into my brain for decades. During this set I worked on a flat hand entry, so as to avoid the historic, and wrong, S-pull.
The main set consisted of three sets of 500 followed by 200. The 500 was split thusly: 100 easy, 100 faster, 100 sprint, 100 easy, 100 faster, all on 7:30. The 200 was easy, with a :15 rest after the first 100. Well, I couldn't make the 500 time, hitting 7:40 the first set. Celia set me on a 8:15 interval. I worked on my hand entry during the easy and faster sets. I was very happy with my times. The pool was set to SCY, so a time of 7:40 for a 500 yard free is great, especially considering my time of 9:33 when I was 30 years old (done for the Navy PT test). I've gotten a lot faster in the last 14 years!
Following the main set, we did a 300 pull, breathing hypoxically, one of my favorite things to do. The pool was outdoor, and I only had my clear goggles, so I was getting blinded occasionally. This is actually a good thing; forces me to breath on the non-sun-in-my-eyes side. Celia had me enter my hand closer to my head, as if I were doing a finger-drag drill. I apparently extend my hand too far before entering the water. The 300 pull turned into 1000 pull.
The workout ended with 200 easy, but I wasn't done. I decided to do a 500 swim medium, working on the hand entry the entire time.
The pool was nice, if a little murky; it had been raining here for a few days. I had a lane to myself, despite showering this morning. The sun was pretty brutal, but luckily I had some waterproof sunscreen.
Mike, Thanks for the ego boost and for stopping by to work out with us. It was a pleasure, even if I did think you were some crazy stalker... You have good swimming skills you just need someone to watch and correct you every once in a while. Keep up the good work!
Posted by: Celia | 28 August 2011 at 15:37