01/14/03 - ladder set

Another day of feeling like a swimmer, from right away. I think it's starting to come back now.800 warm-up200 free, 200 pull, 200 kick, 200 swim. Really thinking about keeping my head down as I approached the turns. Tried not to look at the wall at all.8 x 2525 fast - 25 easy: the first 25 was on the :15, and the easy was on the :45. Just a little motivation to make it to the other end on time. I swam these breaststroke and felt much better earlier in practice than I did at the end of yesterdays. There is hope.8 x 5050 swim on :50, 50 kick on1:00. Just kinda swam through this, but again, concentrated on not looking at the walls on the freestyle turns.8 x 75 IM order 1:151st 4 were free, stroke free2nd 4 were stroke, free, strokeAgain, all the strokes feel really good, as long as I'm not swimming too far, or overloading any one muscle group.8 x 100 free2 on 1:35, 2 on 1:30, 2 on 1:25, 2 on 1:20The goal on this set was to count my strokes, and to vary the count to find out what felt the best, while holding right around 1:10 on each 100. I ranged basically from 11 to 14 strokes, and really felt the smoothest and most rhythmic while I was at 13. At 13 strokes at this pace, I think I can hold it for a pretty long time.I hundred easy kick finished this practice up. There was a race in a 50 back, which was plenty fun, and most of the group proceded to continue with the set for another 8 x 150.I... on the other hand... went to the starting block, and practiced a few starts. These will be very important soon, as I've just commited to a meet in Feb. YIKES. The great thing about this pool, even though they only have one block set up, it's in the deep end, so I can REALLY work on my start. I only did a few, and they all felt really good. Clean entry, and I really held on to the momentum very well. As long as I can still do the 1st half of the 1st lap of ANY race in 4.5 - 5 seconds... I'll be fine. Can't say for sure if I'm there just yet, but it felt close.