07/25/07: Group Swim and a Lower Resting Heartrate

One thought that came to mind this morning is how much time, money and flexibility training for an IM takes; so, for the record, I'm extremely grateful that I have a job, girlfriend, family, friends and overall lifestyle that allows me to pursue this crazy goal.

When I started training for my first marathon last year I checked my resting heartrate most mornings, with the theory that if it jumps up more than 5 or so bpm, somethings going on, e.g. overtraining, getting sick, stressed....At the time it was in the low to mid 50's. For some reason I got away from this habit. The last couple of days I started checking my morning resting hr again, and was pleasantly surprised to see that it's now down around 47.

Resting HR down in the 40's, running lactate threshold up in the 180's.....hmmm...maybe all of this aerobic training stuff really does work.....My god....imagine what I could accomplish with some blood doping.....Sorry, couldn't resist after the latest Tour de France fiasco....

Last night was another great workout with Coach Carrie. We once again worked quite a bit on form, while still getting in 2400m. Last nights form thoughts:

1. Hands shouldn't cross the center line - pay particular attention to this while breathing.

2. Hand enters index finger first, and should feel like reaching over to grab a rope. Catch and hold the water through the rest of the stroke.

Hmmm....so that's what the catch feels like.....I think I've now graduated to having the swimming ability of a half decent 7 year old......

Last night's set was:

400 wu: 300 swim, 100 kick (was supposed to be 200 swim, 200 kick, 200 pull)

2x200 swim with 100 kick in between (the lane was doing im's - thankfully Carrie gave me the option to swim freestyle instead, although I did throw in a little bit of breastroke for variety)

100 easy swim

8x100 on 2:30 (the lane was going on a 2:15 interval - I was able to keep up for one...so I slowed down to a 2:20/100m pace, with 10 sec rest)

400 drill: 25 1 arm, 25 swim (the lane did 600 with fins = 400 for me w/o fins)

cd: 200 swim

My zoomer fins, which I got based on Carrie's recommendation should be arriving today



Since this is recovery week, and I'm only scheduled for a 30 min form run, I'm going to head out to the beach tonight for some barefoot running.....

Live with purpose....Enjoy the adventure.....