Surprising swim last night
Last night's practice was fairly uneventful for me except for the very end I must say.
In any case, I am wondering if I should permanently move up to lane 5 or 6 since I always seem to be running over people either in my lane or in lane 3 while I'm swimming. I find it distracting at times but on the other hand, it's a positive sign as it seems as though I'm getting faster or others are getting slower. I guess sometimes I fear that I will get run over on certain sets in lanes 5 and 6 (such as pull sets or kick sets) as I can't swim those very well. Those are one of the few types of sets in my lane where people can keep up to me or even pass me. Jody almost lapped me on the 16x25 kick we did yesterday.
Anyway, the very last thing we did yesterday night was a timed 100 with fins. I decided to do backstroke since I wanted to see what I could do with fins. Suffice it to say, I totally blew my expectations out of the water. Granted, the fins that I used were scuba fins and absolutely huge compared to the fins of everyone else but nevertheless, I still surprised myself. I ended up going a 1:05 for 100m backstroke with fins. That's really amazing! If I can even add 10 seconds on to that time by provincials and do a 1:15 with regular backstroke, then I'll be ecstatic! I guess time will tell to see how well I'll do.
Tonight I did a very short workout at the gym (only about an hour) but at least it was better than nothing. I am not too sore right now but we'll see how I feel tomorrow at swim practice.
posted by Damien @ 9:05 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
To move up or not to move up, that is a hard question. I'm starting to feel comfortable in lane 5 since moving up a few weeks ago. Lane 4 has been WAY too crowded this season. Four people is somewhat bearable but five people is just too much, especially if you're doing 200's, 300's and 400's. Why don't you try this tonight -- if there are only 2 people in lane 5 and 3 or 4 people in lane 4, then move up. But if the lanes are even, maybe just stay there. Dunno.
You definitely don't want to be in a lane too fast for you, especially when the sets include distances over 200 and the chances of being lapped become real (I hate being lapped). But staying in a slower than desirable lane means you won't improve. You have to compromise somewhere so move up and 'cheat'. For example like you my kicking is subpar and so I almost always use fins in our kick sets. If your pull is poor just swim the remaining reps when you start to lag. Eventually you'll be able to do the full workout as it was intended.
Scott is correct. That's precisely the strategy I use in lane 5. Fins for most kick sets and when I start to lag behind in long freestyle swim sets, I switch to pull.
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