Not exactly restful

Well, since I was pretty shattered last night, I was in bed about an hour earlier than usual. I think it helped, since I'm feeling pretty good today, but there's no way I'm getting away from my plan of a recovery week. I know I need it. I've been complaining enough for the last week.

The swim this morning wasn't the most restful way to start the week, but I'll be fine. I'm more concerned about my legs anyway. We opened with some open-water practice, starting at one-corner of the deep-end, and swimming a V (lane lines were removed for this time). Since we had all kinds of speeds swimming together, there was some practice drafting, sighting the cones as a target, a little bumping and foot-grabbing. Good times. Then it was a speed workout. Lots of efforts, and lots of rest. I'm learning (slowly) that I go my fastest at about 95% effort. When I try to go 100%, I end up slapping and flailing and not doing much. (I may be raising the concern of the lifeguards, but they haven't tried to fish me out. Yet.) So by slowing down a little and making sure I'm stroking properly, I do better. I got a reminder about one of my earliest tips that I may have been letting slip recently, to reach all the way forward. I get a stronger catch and pull, and just as important, the farther out I reach, the more likely I am to pull all the way through (I have a tendency to stop at my hip). The 100s we did were timed. I hit 1:48, 1:50, 1:49, and 1:48, so even dead-tired, I was consistent. I think we have another 8x100 test day in a few weeks, so I'd love to see a good set of low numbers for that.

Swim: w/u - 550m open-water practice
100m non-free, 30"
4x25 sprint/25 back, 30"
200 ez pull, 30"
4x50 sprint/50 back, 30"
200 ez pull, 30"
4x(100 sprint, 30", 100 ez pull, 30")
c/d - 2x(100 pull/50 back, 30")
Total: 2750m

Run: 3 miles @ 7.2 mph