I Swummed Agin

This time of year is a difficult one for me and swimming. The ending of a school semester is always a super busy time and the holidays bring inevitable cancellations of practice. Also, about this time each year I begin to become aware of the Chicot Challenge and want to start easing my distance up. To make all of this more profound, I have missed more practices than ever during the months of November and December. I actually got out of swimming shape.

So I go to practice Tuesday night and find out there will be no practice Thursday night because of a swim meet. Before we leave, coach lets the other shoe drop. He tells us there will also no practice the next Tuesday after that. WHAT!?!?!?!? Just when I am starting to come back, I get knocked back to the ground. Do NOT tell me to get up one more time than you are knocked down. That's an impossibility. Think about it. You get knocked down once, you get up once. You get knocked down twice, you get up twice. You get knocked down three times, you get up three times. Where does the extra getting up come from? If you get knocked down four times, how do you get up five? 

Two things, three, I'm trying to focus on now that it is December because I start the build for real in January. One is consistency with the weightlifting. Even there I have been a bad boy and a lazy one, but from now on, no more gaps in the program. Weightlifting really does help my swimming. Two is swimming. My access to water will remain limited for some time, but when January arrives, I try to squeeze every yard or meter possible out of every dip in the pool. Three is rotator cuff exercises. I try to do them year round, but guess what. Yes, I get lazy in the off season and let that slip also. 

At the pool Tuesday night, I swam

2,400
6 X 100 @ 2:00 small paddles
6 X 100 @ 2:15 small paddles
6 X 100 @ 2:30 
150 easy
total: 4,350 SCYs.

I got there early and found an empty lane and was able to get 2,400 straight before practice started. That is the most in a long time. Then on the 100s, the first set was with fins and paddles. I didn't bring fins, and when I told coach I would go without, he said that changes the sendoff time. "I can do 2:00," I told him. So we did the set. It was just Ricky and Mark and me so they kicked me pretty good since both of them had fins. I did hang with Ricky on a couple of them, but then decided not to push it too hard because I didn't want to risk tweaking a shoulder trying to swim fast with paddles when I am not in top form.

The second set of 100s was with paddles only and @ 2:15. Mark beat me on at least half of them. Then we did the third set with nothing @ 2:30. I was able to stay ahead of Mark by just a second or two on all six of them. I have definitely slipped some, but last week's two swims has me stronger now that only a week ago. That is one thing I love about swimming. My body responds quickly to workouts. Running? Not so much.