06/11/03 Breaststroke Kick and Speed

06/11/03 Breaststroke Kick and SpeedI'm planning on swimming in the Masters Long Course Nationals this August in Rutgers, NJ, so I'm trying to do one or two breaststroke practices per week to get ready. I don't have a lot of time for these practices -- usually 30 to 45 minutes -- so I'm going to try to do some short-distance, quality speed work at each one, to get ready to race. My goal is to have one or more Top-10 times this year in my age group. Got to get crankin!WARMUP: 400With fins and fistgloves.2 X 100 "IM," substituting No-Hands Slinky for the fly and breast laps.2 X 100 "IM," substituting Hand-Lead Slinky for the fly and breast laps.MAIN SETS: 1350Set #1With fistgloves.Twice through the following kick set (it's a continuous 250):25 Underwater Breast Kick25 Hand-Lead Breast Kick on Your Back25 Hand-Lead Breast Kick on Your Stomach25 Head-Lead Breast Kick on Your Back25 Head-Lead Breast Kick on Your Back5 X 50, starting each 50 from a layout position with hands on the wall (you're doing 2 turns instead of 1 turn per 50).Swim these as 25 drill + 25 breaststroke1st 50 drill = Underwater breaststroke kick2nd 50 drill = 1 Up/2 Down (1 stroke up, then 2 breaststroke kicks underwater)3rd 50 drill = Body-Dolphin Breast4th 50 drill = Double Body-Dolphin Breast5th 50 drill = Breathe every other strokeFor your sendoff, take 8 to 10 bobs between each 50.Set #2Repeat the above kick set and drill/swim set, except take off your fistgloves.Set #3With "nekked" hands.50 EZ swim as recovery3 X 50 breast Swim Golf on 1:05 sendoff.Count total strokes for the 50 and add this to your time in seconds to get your "score." Try to bring down your score on each successive 50. I didn't do so well today. My times were good, but my score went up on the 3rd 50. Here are my counts:1st 50: 14 total strokes and :48 = 622nd 50: 15 total strokes and :45 = 603rd 50: 17 total strokes and :44 = 61Set #4With nekked hands.50 EZ recovery4 X 25 breaststroke on :30 sendoff. My goal is to hit :20 on each 25. Here are my times::20:20:21:21I tried for as fast a turnover as possible, while still holding good form. My brain got a little cloudy toward the end on these, but I think my stroke count was about 13 strokes (compare this to stroke counts of 7, 8, and 9 on most of the rest of the practice).WARMDOWN: 250250 REALLY EZ swimdownTotal Yardage: 2000