03/06/03 CCB Masters Stroke Counts from One Extreme to the Other

03/06/03 CCB Masters practice. I coached from in the water today. I've had a bronchial bug for the last month, so this was my first time in the water in all that time. The good thing is that my muscles were rested and loose, so I actually felt pretty good. The scary thing is that I'm signed up for a Masters swim meet in 10 days and I realize I have a LOONG way to go to get ready. The goal of the practice is to work on developing a "gear box" in your stroke. Force yourself to slow down and do the drill laps at N-4. Then, let yourself TAKE all the extra strokes on the final set. Almost everyone at practice hit ALL of their target stroke counts--on all the sets. This is a huge improvement on what they were able to do when the team started, just two months ago. If you are new to stroke counting, stick with it. Your counts may be all over the place the first few times you try a practice like this one. You'll soon learn to calibrate your stroke rate and energy expenditure. As a point of reference, about half of the swimmers (me, too) were using 15 strokes per 25 yards as our "N." No one had an "N" lower than 15 today. There were a few at 18 and a few at 23. WARMUP: ???Swim on your own for about 5 minutesCALIBRATION SET: 1004 X 25 freestyle AT A BRISK PACE! Sendoff per lane: :30/:35/:40 Count strokes each lap and get your average (N).DRILL SET: 5002 X (10 X 25 freestyle) Sendoff per lane same as above.1st 25: N-42nd 25: N-33rd 25: N-24th 25: N-15th 25: N6th 25: N7th 25: N-18th 25: N-29th 25: N-310th 25: N-4MAIN SETS: 15001 X 100 all laps @ N2 X 75 all laps @ N-13 X 50 all laps @ N-24 X 25 all laps @ NSendoffs were on a 30-seconds-per-25 basis for fastest lane; 35-seconds-per-25 basis for middle lane; 40 to 45-seconds-=per-25 basis for third lane.1 X 100 all laps @ N+12 X 75 all laps @ N3 X 50 all laps @ N-14 X 25 all laps @ N+1Same sendoffs as above.1 X 100 all laps @ N+22 X 75 all laps @ N+13 X 50 all laps @ N4 X 25 all laps @ N+2WARMDOWN: 100Total Yardage: 2200 not including warm-up