I feel fat.....or some speed work.

That seemed to be the sentiment at the Waterbury YMCA yesterday. As I got ready for swim practice I looked in the mirror at my "just ate a large meal" bloated gut overhanging the front of my jammer ( long legged swim suit Goes to the knee instead of cutting off a the thigh like the traditional "speedo".) Well any way with the images of a bloated gut,weakened arm,muscles, ( from not enough lifting..come March 6 I'm hitting the weights with a vengeance.) yet diesel legs. I drove from my home to the Y. Once again Stef was on deck with the workouts. " I feel fat." I exclaimed as I took a look at the 4600 yard set of mixed speed work. "join the club" she said patting her semi firm abs. I tried to retort back with the that ain't fat remark but it wasn't worth it. Anyway a majority of our group was doing Stef's 3000 yard I.M of Doom set While I was doing a set that brought back memories of Fordham and the mid-distance lane. Stef and I split a lane for warm ups but its kind of hard to circle swim when 1 guy's doing a full bore 400 free and the other is in the midst of a 100 breast stroke. Anyway here's the workout broken down.

6x200 2 swim 2 pull 2 kick Swim& pull on 3:00 kick on 4:00
5x 100 50 drill/ 50 swim on 1:35
1x 300 choice.

2000 yards to warm up. Not bad and tonight there wasn't as much kicking for which my legs were grateful.

3 x 400 on 5:30 build
This set wasn't too bad. It helped to get the heart rate up and I managed to average 5:15's on all three.

4x50 build to all out sprint on :50
I still feel pathetically slow on my sprints. The fastest one I was able to crank out was at about 32 seconds...granted that's what I can usually sprint in practice and I'm training for distance at the moment so I'll take it.

1x 400 moderate on 6:00
Did it on 5:30 so I had plenty of rest.

8x50 build to sprint 1-4, 5-8 on :45
Did these pretty well. Once again my fastest times being just a hair under 35 seconds.

3x 100's on 1:25
I did these averaging between 1:15 and 1:20.
I did bother doing the 100 cool down because it was three minutes to closing when I finished and decided to loosen up in the hot tub. So 4500 yards is a good night's work.

Today I don't know what's on tap. I'm trying to conserve gas but I have to run to New Britain to buy a book for my anthropolgy class. Sell some books I've had lying around the homestead to buy a book I need for European history as I wait for my loan check to come in. ( the loan gets disburst on Jan. 31 then the state cuts me a check and that takes about a week to get to me. ) So it doesn't look like there'll be any lake bricks this weekend. From What i see the weather's supposed to be ok and the roads arond Wolcott aren't too bad so I might do some short hill work or town loops, otherwise I've got the trainer and a movie collection and I also need to get a couple more long runs in. so my "read and react" training plan might not be the most effective but it has been working, granted I haven't gotten my century in but I've come pretty damn close so I'm confident that'll I'll be bike leg ready with 1-2 more 5 hour rides/ trainer sessions. I need to do one more 20+ mile run..so that my be my weekend right there.
Well I've got a go the rush is coming. More to be said on Monday.

The Barbarian Banker
R.D.