All By Myself

Journal by Jeff Commings, Swimming World associate producer

PHOENIX, Arizona, September 19. SWIMMING World associate producer Jeff Commings, who will be the second oldest man to compete at the U.S. Olympic Trials next summer, is journaling his daily training regimen on his personal blog. We are reprinting those articles here:

Date: Sunday, September 18, 2011
Time: 11:15 a.m.
Short Course Yards
281 days to Trials

Three rounds:
150 free on 2:15
100 IM on 1:30
50 breast on 1:00

8×25 on :45 (15m fast)

3×100 back descend to 90 percent on 1:40
(1:18, 1:08, 1:05)

One minute rest, then 100 back fast (:56)

8×25 on :30 recovery

4×50 breast kick drill (one pull, two kicks) on 1:00

One minute rest, then 100 breast fast (1:03)

8×25 on :30 recovery

Power Tower (bucket 3/4 full)
4×15 on 1:00 (2 back, 2 breast)
One minute break
4×25 on 1:30 (2 back, 2 breast)

6×100 on 1:40 easy, 50 back/50 breast

Total: 3200 yards

I suppose I only had one fast 100 in me today. I wish it had been breaststroke. I was very happy with the backstroke swim. I haven't been :56 in a long time, stuck at :57 for about a year. What does this mean about my backstroke? I don't know. I've been stuck at the mid-51 range in my tapered 100-yard backstroke for eight years, and haven't gone under 1:00 in long course meters since 2008. It would be great to go under those barriers again, but obviously, the focus is on breaststroke until June 25 (which is not to say I'm not keeping up on my other strokes).

Going 1:03 in the fast 100 breast wasn't horrible, given that I only had 10 minutes to recover after that tough 100 back. My legs were still tired, and pushing off the walls was difficult. The upper body felt strong, though. I'm usually 1:02-low on my fast 100 breast swims, but I dont' do them as often as I should.

To add to the difficulty of the workout, I did it alone. No one else was in the pool at the University of Arizona's Hillenbrand Aquatic Center. Doing aerobic sets alone is tough, but doing all-out sprints with no one to push you is a Herculean feat. Racing the clock is nothing new to me, but when your muscles are flooded with lactic acid, your first instinct is to back off when you have no one to keep you moving forward. I'll be doing more sprint workouts on Sunday, especially since the sprint phase of the season is just a couple of weeks away. I'll have to work on the mental aspect of swimming alone if I want to reach my goals this season and next.

Reprinted from Jeff's personal blog at commings.blogspot.com

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