The Jazz Hands training log, an alternative swimming experience
Former Member
Whenever I mention something about how I train, somebody flips out and asks for clarification. "Jazz Hands," they say, "do you really bathe in ox blood before workouts?" Or, "Jazz Hands, how many grams of testosterone do you inject weekly?" I hope to answer these questions and many more in my training log. I'll be covering water workouts and weight workouts, and I'll answer questions about both, as well as questions about my nutrition and supplementation.
I hope my alternative swimming experience will give other swimmers ideas for their own training, and expand everyone's idea of just what kind of preparation a swimmer needs to go fast.
I typically list weights this way: weight x reps. I list swimming sets this way: reps x distance. They are kind of the reverse of one another, but each one is the standard for each particular activity.
I'll start with some recent workouts.
Evening weights
Saturday December 8, 2007
School mostly finished for me on Friday, so I decided to celebrate with some sumo deadlifts.
Warmed up with 135, 205, 275, 345.
Attempted 415, felt good and fast but something went wrong. I lost control of the bar and it swung and hit me in the right shin, leaving a big red rectangle.
Finished up deadlifts with a bunch of singles at 345, and a few more at 365.
Did a set of alternating negatives on the calf machine with 140.
Evening weights
Sunday December 9, 2007
Started with 90x4 on dips. I try to do dips as deep as possible.
Did several sets of 185 on bent-over barbell rows. Didn't count reps. I mostly focused on form: back flat and parallel to the ground, no jerking and swaying. My form improved with each set.
Finished with 90x5 on dips, a new personal best. My brother watched and said I went really deep on all of the reps.
Morning swim
Monday December 10, 2007
Started with 4x25 sprint flutter kick on my back, with several minutes rest. Went 19, 18, 16, 16.
Did a couple 25s sprint free, my mind was wandering though. I was thinking about how Paul Smith says I can't do a good 100. Why not start it today? Back in the day, I used to do a 100 fly from a push every week or so just to see if I could keep up my endurance while I was swimming mostly 25s. If I remember correctly, I did about a 57 at my best. Pretty cool considering my best time in competition (high school) was a 58.
So, 100 fly! I breathed every stroke, and finished in 59. The first 50 felt really good, but I died just about as bad as I ever had on the last 25. It felt like I was actually going backwards. My friend in the other lane watched me and said I split 26 at halfway. Twenty-six to 33 is not good, and I felt like I was going to throw up for the next half hour. I hope to improve on that a lot in the coming weeks.
Former Member
Thanks, Paul. I was actually much more stoked about the 100 in 46, because holding my speed for a full 100 has been an unknown this season, and I never went faster than 48 before.
Former Member
Are you going to use the fins at your next meet?
Former Member
Are you going to use the fins at your next meet?
I think my 50 would actually be slower with fins because of how awkward the start would be.
Former Member
I disagree. An all-out with fins from a push should be faster.
Maybe, maybe not. It's kind of a silly question, but you have to factor in reaction time and the race psych up factor. I think that the more "awake" I am, the less helpful fins are. As it is, my best 50 with fins from a push is 21, and my best 50 in a meet is also 21.
Former Member
Maybe, maybe not. It's kind of a silly question, but you have to factor in reaction time and the race psych up factor. I think that the more "awake" I am, the less helpful fins are. As it is, my best 50 with fins from a push is 21, and my best 50 in a meet is also 21.
Jazzy, the dive is worth 2 seconds right? So your best 50 from push would be 23...so the fins win that one. At least that's the way I see it.
They have 12 step programs for everything these days, don't they?
But how many addictions can one battle at once? Right now, I'm focusing on my potato chip and iphone addictions.
I thought youth was an advantage in grudge races ...
Why would you need to use an age differential? Do it straight up.
God, if that was a requirement for grudge races, then Fortress would have CRUSHED me in ours instead of just beating me.
Paul
Yes. Go to
www.vaswim.org/.../rcalc.cgi
to do exactly that.
Chris
Hmm, so a 23.5 50y Free at 41 is equal to a 22.97 for 25 yo and a 24.20 for a 51yo?
Hmm.
Paul
I believe using fins has value for water feel, as JH states. However, I would suggest this also has a downside in that you kick much differently with fins, stroke much differently and certainly hold your body in a different position.
I can go roughly the same time in a 50 with fins from a push as I can with a meet 50 and it is a totally different experience. Of course, comparing a practice time to a meet time is relatively pointless and dissimilar.
I also had to give up fins about 7 years ago due to an addiction.