Paying dues.

What a difference rest and nutrition can make. After feeling really bad on Sunday, I went into full rescue mode. I went to the local co-op healthfood store and picked up some green veggie juice, fresh fruit and my wife made a killer vegetable barley soup. 3,000 mg vitamin C, Fish oil, Calcium Magnesium, SportsQuest Recover and an InterPhase shake was also part of the protocol as it is pretty much daily. I also got a little PT on my right hip that was flaring up. Turns out it was the quad that was tight, pulling the pelvis out of alignment. I got a solid 9 hours sleep and woke up feeling golden. Bangers. It was just soon enough because I had some tough workouts on tap.

Monday was busy. Two workouts on top of busier than usual work, taxes and Jam night with the band. I was feeling great so nothing could stop me.

My swim was great. 11:am-12:30 3200m total. all aerobic pace. 1:43-1:45/100
All killer, no filler, straight swimming.

5x100 warm-up on 2:00
1000 straight swim
2x500 (60s)
500 pull with paddles
200 cool-down pull buoy.

I normally do some drills and kicking but I wanted to get in some good aerobic endurance.
All sets felt great, easy, balanced and consistent. Good.

I had some lactate repeats on the hills on tap for the afternoon. I headed over to the college to do the 12-14% hill just below the track. Here's what I did.

3 sets of 5x40s on the hill
recover on the downhill
3 minutes between sets

I did a 10 min jog over. some stretching followed by 6x40m strides.
Each repeat was done at a pace that was really hard. Needing every second of recovery. Walked then jogged down equalling about 1 min. R. I tried to work on form focusing on: pressing into the hill, shortening the stride, firing the hamstrings, more arms, thinking "light and glide". I guess it worked I pulled it off but my legs were buckling by the end. Had decent recovery as I tended to speed up on the cool down home. Quads are feeling alright today but my glutes are pretty sore.

Today was speedwork in the pool. I look forward to this workout all morning until I hit the parking lot. Took a gel and hit it. The plan was to get in 500m of sprinting. Since I've been swimming on my own I can really mix it up. Normally I'll do mostly 100's till I slow down too much then switch to 50's. I usually get in 5 but not always. Today I wanted to go all out so my main set was 100's but 50 ALL OUT with 50 "aerobic" on the way back. My thinking was to get used to O2 debt. Here's what I did.

8x100 warm-up on 2:00
2x100 as 25scull, 25swim...snorkel and pull
10x100 as 50 sprint, 50 easy (90s)(sprints all under :37, best :35 #10)
300 cool down with pull buoy
2300m total

The main set was tough but I was fast. Faster by 3 seconds on average. I was pulling long and hard kicking easy till the last 25m then hard. I think the key to getting faster is just doing more of these and gaining more strength, having the last cycle feel as powerful as the first. I'd like to learn more about streamlining as reducing frontal area becomes increasingly important as speed increases. I've been working on a wider entry freestyle, but I feel that water tends to pile up on the shoulders. The idea on wide entry being a pull that's through water that is not turbulent next to the body and head. But think about the position on the bike, wider is not better. I know there are many freestyle theories, but what I'm buying is front quadrant emphasis with an entry that is about as wide as your ears. Just my thoughts, only someone on deck or the UW vidcam knows for sure.

Tomorrow is another tough brick workout. Thinking about doing it XTerra style. We'll see if the coach approves.