Thursday

Hades week is approaching its end, and things haven't been too bad. I did my first double since being sick yesterday, and this morning I am no worse for wear. By "double" I mean two workouts, which for me right now means weightlifting and swimming. Trevor and I lifted starting about 5:00 and I had only been home minutes when he drove up. Since I did benches Wednesday, I pulled last night, doing seated rows, lat pull downs, the Swim Pull, and the T-bar. Not only that, but I also hit the external rotations for the rotator cuff muscles. I can still tell a difference between my left and right arms. The left is stronger. Will they ever equalize?

Because I only swam once this week and a short one at that, I felt like I had to go to the pool. Besides feeling the need, I had some new toys. For Christmas, my son, Forrest, gave me a gift certificate to SwimOutlet.com and my order had come in the day before. Although I like to swim and lift afterwards, I lifted and then swam. I didn't do much in the water. Just like de-loading with the weights, I am in the recovery phase with my swimming, hoping to re-peak in late May/early June. I swam

2,000 warm up
3 X 50 with Finis Freestyler paddles

The Freestyler on the left and the

agility paddle on the right

This is a paddle I had wanted for a long time and now I own. From everything I have read about them, they are designed not for resistance but for getting the stroke right on freestyle. The paddles have a fin on the bottom which discourages all those funny side-to-side underwater movements you see some people make who are usually trying to look good but don't know what looking good in the water looks like. If you do any of that goofy stuff with these paddles, the fins will start pulling them off your hands. Since I don't do that goofy stuff, they stayed on my hands. What I found surprising was the amount of resistance I felt. They do work your strength although that is not supposed to be their designed use.

Next, I swam 

3 X 50 with my new Agility paddles. 

These are those strapless things that everyone is raving about. So I bought some and swam in them last night. I can tell you very concisely what they will do. They will reveal any dead spots in your stroke. If you are not pulling water, they start to separate from your hand. For me, they showed that I glide on the front end. But really, I already knew that and even designed it into my stroke. It is an all-day swimming adjustment that slows the stroke slightly and actually gives some rest while swimming. With the agility paddles, however, I found myself pointing my hand back sooner in the stroke to keep the paddles firmly against my palm. I think that should be good for speed but for open water swimming for miles and miles and miles, not so much.

I also did 

4 X 50 kick with fins 

While doing this, I played with another one of my new toys: a snorkel. I put the snorkel on along with fins and started down the pool. All was well. Then I did a flip turn and of course I almost drowned. Yes, I knew it would fill with water, but I thought I blew it out only I didn't blow hard enough. Then after resuscitating, started back and everything was working when I realized I had no nose covering. In other words, I was breathing through the snorkel with my mouth. Because I was congested, no water was coming through my nostrils. But just the realization that it could gave me a severe case of the creeps. I stopped. I could not keep going. So I will either get a nose clip or tape up when I use the snorkel in the future (notice I did not say "going forward." You're welcome). The reason for kicking with a snorkel is to do kick sets without a board so your body position is better, like it is when you actually swim. Anyway, I will play with that some more later.

Finally, I finished with

600 medium paddles.

I don't think anything will ever replace my tried and true Speedo Power Paddles. I love those things and rarely go to the pool without swimming something in one or more of my collection of various sizes. Since my comeback, I have swum so much with the small pair that I don't feel them in the muscles anymore. Now I am focusing on the medium pair. I hope to lose my feeling of them too. Then I will be bad.

My total swim was 2,600 yards. Not too much, but enough to keep me from sliding too far down the hill. I hope maybe Saturday that I can do something longer, stronger, and faster and then begin to build again next week. 

Thank you, Jesus.