I always have good intentions, but often do not follow through on them.
THUS: I have signed up for the 400 IM in 2.5 weeks (the 0.5 being critical) without really having trained for it.
To put it politely.
My team mostly trains freestyle, so I have a good freestyle base. In the last 4 weeks I have gone to the pool twice (woo hoo) on my own and done sets of 50s of stroke on 1:00. 8 x 50 to be exact, twice through, both times. Twice at practice in the last month I have made myself do fly instead of free for warmup, and once I made myself do stroke (IM) (100s) instead of free on the free interval.
Yesterday we had a heavy stroke workout, rare.
After yesterday's practice I did my second 400 IM in 7 years, with a wonderful time of 7:10.
SO: What's the reality of any time dropped in the next 1.5 weeks? What tack would people in my position take (please be kind).
I signed up as a dare. I *had* thought I would be *self-disciplined* and train on my own but *I have learned I am not.*
Input appreciated!
P.S. For those of you with kids struggling with college entrance essays, I think this would be a great essay if you changed all the "I didn't do it even though I planned to" to "I am so proud of my self-discipline," etc., etc., "my ability to motivate myself for my own high challenges," etc. etc. etc., "I pushed myself without outside coercion," etc., etc.,
"This is a trait I was surprised to see that I have, and I have become much more confident in this, my senior year, in my ability to meet challenges head-on." "Swimming has made me a better person." "I am a good person." "I am just who you want in your freshman class."
Swimming has made ME a better person too but apparently I am still lagging in the self-motivation arena.
I would like to break 7 minutes in the 400 IM. I would mostly like not to die in the fly, which is my fastest, after free, but in which I die after a nice brisk 50.
Fast is relative. Please also keep that in mind with any comments.
izzzzzzzzy
P.P.S. I now know that real men swimmers and all men moisturize and use lip balm because they are now doing it on the T here in Boston. So the stigma is gone, dudes. You can lather up on public transportation.
Swim on, excellent forumites!!!!!
I would just do it & see where you are in meet speed. Your team does "mostly free" WOW? How does that work out for the swimmers who do meets? Do they only sign up for free events? I would think the coach would add strokes to the mix much more often.
Yes, I would say that 95% of our workouts are freestyle. Four days a week. Maybe we do stroke as warmup. But very rarely do we have a stroke day. I am working on this with our coach. I think it's really important to mix in stroke, all the strokes, and good distances of them (the most we do of fly, ever, is 50 yards; ditto for ***; occasionally we do a 100 back here or there). Doing stroke improves endurance for free, plus it's less boring, plus you don't fry your shoulders as easily, or you fry them in different ways. I am working very hard with our coach to increase stroke. My last team did a lot of stroke, and I was much faster overall as a swimmer. Then again, I was also much younger . . .
And yes, most swimmers from our team sign up for free events. Or else they train on their own for their stroke specialties. Yah. But I still love my team and my coach. Just need to get more stroke in there!
Wow, 5,500 posts! You rock, orca1946! I would post more but I tend to detour rather quickly into stories of little interest to others than myself. Frustrated writer and all that. Cheers! Iz-o-bel-la
Oh. And thanks for the advice! I think you are right. Just Do It. See where I'm at. Work forward from there. I kind of love the 400 IM because it is not boring and it is challenging too. I love it in a kind of crazed way, I guess.
I would just do it & see where you are in meet speed. Your team does "mostly free" WOW? How does that work out for the swimmers who do meets? Do they only sign up for free events? I would think the coach would add strokes to the mix much more often.
Yes, I would say that 95% of our workouts are freestyle. Four days a week. Maybe we do stroke as warmup. But very rarely do we have a stroke day. I am working on this with our coach. I think it's really important to mix in stroke, all the strokes, and good distances of them (the most we do of fly, ever, is 50 yards; ditto for ***; occasionally we do a 100 back here or there). Doing stroke improves endurance for free, plus it's less boring, plus you don't fry your shoulders as easily, or you fry them in different ways. I am working very hard with our coach to increase stroke. My last team did a lot of stroke, and I was much faster overall as a swimmer. Then again, I was also much younger . . .
And yes, most swimmers from our team sign up for free events. Or else they train on their own for their stroke specialties. Yah. But I still love my team and my coach. Just need to get more stroke in there!
Wow, 5,500 posts! You rock, orca1946! I would post more but I tend to detour rather quickly into stories of little interest to others than myself. Frustrated writer and all that. Cheers! Iz-o-bel-la
Oh. And thanks for the advice! I think you are right. Just Do It. See where I'm at. Work forward from there. I kind of love the 400 IM because it is not boring and it is challenging too. I love it in a kind of crazed way, I guess.
