Well this comes as no surprise to anyone who has seen me swim before.....particularly my parents who have watched from the beginning)...I don't kick much. I've been told this throughout my swimming career, but I've rested in the reply "I'm a distance swimmer, I don't need to kick."
Well, at USMS High Performance Camp this year, one of the main critiques of my stroke was my lack of kick (even for a distance swimmer). And Coach is encouraging me to add more kick sets (particularly vertical kick sets) in order to reach my goal of completing my swim in 2013 without the ole wetsuit.
So, we are officially starting the training today. I don't have a date selected yet, but it will be sometime in August. So at approximately 9 months out, my goals this week are to swim 4 times this week for an hour and a half each session, with 2 VASA training sessions, cut down on my candy consumption and start practicing eating "real" food before and during workout.
Today I got up at 4:30, hit the snooze for 10 minutes and was in the pool by 5:03. My breakfast this morning was a banana, which was insufficient as I was hungry ten minutes into the workout. Here's what I did:
1000 warm up
200 back stroke
8 x 100 kick @ 2:20 (every other "100" was a vertical kick for the entire interval)
5 x 100 IM @ 2:00
5 x 200 @ 3:30 with Finis Agility Paddles
200 IM, 100 scull Cool Down
Total: 3800 yards
The vertical kicks were hard, I tried to keep my hands above the water the whole time so as not to be "cheating." I was in for about an hour and twenty minutes. I felt pretty good in the water, I was focusing on 3/4 catch up and trying to shorten my breaths on freestyle. I threw in IM today because I was feeling a bit stiff and other strokes usually help me feel more loosened up in the water.
Wishin I had time for a nap today! :)
~Emily
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