Ass whoopin'

I do believe yesterday I wrote down that I thought the swim session was going to be tough. TOUGH? Not quite sure if the word 'tough' clearly defines how I found yesterdays swim. It wasn't the total distance that blew me away, it was how we did those 3000m and the fact that we used the pullbouy alot - leaving my shoulders and arms screaming in lactic acid pain.

Here is what we did yesterday:

• 300m Fr/s warm up
• 200m Rock n' Roll for 50m, Fr/s for 5om.

Then this is where it all started to hurt. We did a ladder set.

• 100m - scull for 25m, Fr/s for 25m
• 200m - 4 x 50m Fr/s stroke count. Decreasing the stroke count on every 50m
• 300m - Easy Fr/s with pullbouy
• 400m - 4 x 100m on 1.40. I did them on 1:16, 1:18, 1:22, 1:19
• 500m - Fr/s with pullbouy. 50m hard, 50m easy
• 400m - 8 x 50m Fr/s on 1 min. Coach wanted them all under 40s
• 300m - Easy Fr/s with pullbouy
• 200m - 8 x 25m open water swim start drills
• 100m - cooldown

I have never ached that much in my shoulders before. I always thought I was strong in my upper body but this highlighted one critical flaw in my stroke - I lose form when I fatigue. I start to bounce through the water losing the front part of my catch and then trying to pull through with about 60% of my pull to go. This makes me dig hard and makes me drop my shoulder. I also start to cross my arm over the halfway point which makes me zig zag slightly in the water - which makes me lose momentum. NOT GOOD.

Oh well, good thing now is I know what I am doing wrong so I just have to fix it. Which means I need to focus more on form in all my sessions. I know I worked hard yesterday cause my shoulders, lats and deltoids are aching this morning. I haven't felt that in a while.

Off I go now to cook up some pancakes for breakfast for Father's Day for Stephen. Happy Father's Day to all you daddies out there.