Making it up as we go

Sometimes special attention is a good thing. Sometimes, it's not. And sometimes, it's both. Today was that day.

I was having a pretty good morning in the pool. The kinks and such from Monday had been worked out, and I was cruising along pretty well. But as we finished a set, the coach told us not to continue the posted workout, we were doing drills for a while. There were three of us in the lane, and we each got assigned a special drill for something we were doing. The other two were getting their kick fixed, but for me, it was another drill to "finish my stroke". Anyone see a theme for me yet? I feel like I'm finishing, but I'm still short, so how short was I before? My drill wasn't anything too fancy, just long, exaggerated strokes. That helped somewhat, and as I continued through the next work set, I felt like I was getting it most of the time. As we switched to paddle work, I guess I was shortening up again, since I now got the special attention. I was dropped to the end of the line, and was doing my own special drill during the next set. Even the coach said, "I don't know if this is going to work, but let's give it a try." Described simply, I would do 25m of low sculling with paddles on (like a triceps pressdown), then 50m of pull with paddles, all through the set.

I don't know yet if this necessarily fixed the problem, but for the remainder of the workout, I knew if I wasn't finishing my stroke. My triceps were so sore and fatigued after that drill, that if I had a pain-free stroke, I must have been short. Four hours later, and they're still throbbing a bit. I'm to add this drill to warm-ups, cooldowns, or other paddle sets as I see fit. I'm going to keep this up and see what it can do for me.

Swim: w/u - 200m each free, non-free, pull
400 as 25 head-up/75 ez free, 1'
400 free at HIM pace, 1'
3x50 drill, TI strokes, 30"
400 pull at HIM pace, 1'
300 as 100 back/100 breast/100 ez free, 45"
300 pull w/paddles, 45"
300 pull w/paddles as 25 low scull/25 pull, 45"
150 as 50 back/100 breast, 30"
200 free at sprint tri pace, 30"
c/d - 50 pull
Total: 3250m

Run: 2.5 miles, ez

Run: 4 miles @ 7.4 mph