Flip and Flip and Flip and Flip and...

OK, I'm happy to report that there was no donut or chinese food scarfing occuring for this kid on Friday. I was completely good and didn't indulge and you know, it's easier today to say no because I have that "I already said no once before" track record going for me. And I was rewarded with a Sunday morning weigh in of 2 lbs. less than last week. I guess it remains to be seen if I keep it off through the next 7 days. Why is it that we are such gluttons over the holidays? Isn't it supposed to be about friends and family and being thankful? I'm hoping I can focus on that rather than the 8 different types of pie. Moderation, right? Thanks to all of you who checked in about the donuts. They are evil. And they stayed out of my belly. Yippee!!!

We swam again on Sunday but with less enthusiasm than the previous two weekend practices. I wanted to work on turns and my teammates agreed that was a good idea so we did the following after warming up (~400 EZ):

3 times thru (600 yds):
The idea was to do the appropriate turn for each transition as you would in an IM race (order is fly/back/breast/free) with flip turns on the free/free. It gave us ample opportunity to practice each type of turn. I still didn't have it all down by the end but it was good practice and helped me know where I need to focus for the next two weeks.
50 - 25 Fly/25 Back
50 - 25 Back/25 Breast
50 - 25 Breast/25 Free
50 - 25 Free/25 Free

100 EZ recovery

Then 4x thru, broken 100s (400 yds):
25-Choice, 10 seconds rest (I did IM order on the 25s - fly/back/breast/free)
50-Choice (I did Freestyle on the 50s), with flip turn, then 10 seconds rest
25-FAST-Choice (I did whatever stroke I'd done for the first 25)

We did this twice and then did 100 EZ to recover, then did it twice more. On the fourth time thru, we did a true broken 100 and did 4x25 at race pace with 10 seconds rest in between.

200 EZ warmdown

Overall I think I learned that I still have a lot to learn about swimming. My goals for the meet are to have fun and not get disqualified because of an illegal turn or start. There's a LOT to think about! It helped to force myself to flip on every turn so that it's becoming more automatic. My timing is off and I keep getting too close to the wall but it's not about the mechanics of the turn, it's about not having enough air to cruise into the wall and push off all in one breath!! I'll get there but boy do I have a LOT of respect for the folks that are at the top of this sport. They must have HUGE lungs.

Train hard, my good people...