Could I Really Drown?

This afternoon I went to the Terrier swim to find out that there is a new coach that is being added into the mix. Her name is Sarah and she'll be at the practices for the next couple of weeks and then will be added into the rotation throughout the year. I was hoping to have a really good practice and was hopeful that her workout would be a good one.

This was the workout:

Warm-Up:
200 Swim
200 Drill
200 Kick (with board)
200 Pull

Core:
4 x 75: right arm, left arm, perfect swim (300)
4 x 100: easy to fast (0:15 RI) (400)
4 x 100: fast to easy (0:15 RI) 400
8 x 50: sighting, 50's should be in 1:00 400

Cool Down:
50 easy freestyle

Total: 2350 meters / 65 minutes (1.46 miles)

For the warm-up drill, I chose to do one arm drills, alternating right and left arms. For some reason in the pool, I just couldn't think of anything else to do. The core work-out was really pretty good. The 75s were not very easy. I thought that it would be more of the same right-arm / left-arm drills that I had done earlier. However, instead of keeping the non-working arm out in front of you like I had been doing, these drills made you keep the non-working arm against your side. We were not supposed to breathe every stroke so that we could really make our bodies turn and make the non-working shoulder rotate as well. Doing this drill on the right side wasn't too bad. The left side, however, was almost impossible. I almost never feel like I will drown in the pool, but the first time that I did that drill on the left, I thought about the fact that I could drown very easily. Probably not the best thought to have.

The first 4 x 100 was the following:
100: 75 easy, 25 fast
100: 50 easy, 50 fast
100: 25 easy, 75 fast
100: 100 fast

That last 100 fast was killer. I was pretty beat by the end of that set. The next 4 x 100 was the exact opposite:
100: 100 fast
100: 75 fast, 25 easy
100: 50 fast, 50 easy
100: 25 fast, 75 easy

This 400 was supposed to simulate a race scenario - you start off fast and then settle into your swim, and then speed up at the end. Looking at it now, I realize that I should have timed myself on those 400s as that's pretty much the distance for the sprint triathlon and it would have been interesting to know how going faster for part of it instead of easy like I did last week affected my time.

I was really glad for the sighting drill. I've never really done any real significant sighting drills and it was good that it was part of our practice. They explained that you really shouldn't lift your whole head out of the water, that it should just be a look with your eyes. I mainly incorporated it into my breathing. I would lift my head up to the side to breathe, look forward and then stick my head back into the water. I tried to sight about every 6 strokes or so. I'm not sure how often I'll have to sight in the actual race, but I figured that getting in as much practice with the motion in the pool would be beneficial. We were also supposed to do these 50s within a minute, and at first I was a little worried that I wouldn't be fast enough, but I did them all within 45 seconds, even with the sighting, so it turns out that I worried for nothing.

When we finished up the sighting drills, we were already a couple minutes over the hour we have for practice, but I felt like I needed to do a 50 just to cool down a little bit. All in all, I liked this new coach. I thought it was a good mix of swimming and drills. Next week is an open water clinic that I am planning on going to, so I might not see her again for 2 weeks (that is if I feel like going to practice the day after the sprint, I'm not quite decided about that yet). I also met a teammate today who is also pretty new to Terrier. She's also doing Westchester, so it was nice to meet someone else who is going to be doing the same race!