Breaststrokers Shouldn’t Run

Journal by Jeff Commings, Swimming World associate producer

PHOENIX, Arizona, August 25. 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: Thursday, August 25, 2011
Time: 5:45 a.m.
Short Course Meters/Short Course Yards
305 days to Trials

300 warm up (150 free/50 back/50 breast/50 free)
100 kick with board

12×50 on 1:00 (odd: 25 kick/25 swim, even: 25 drill/25 swim)

12×25 on :40 breaststroke with double pullouts

Moved to short course yards part of pool for next set to avoid getting in the way of my lane mates
3x(300 free on 4:30, 250 kick breaststroke on 5:30) — completely aerobic set, though because the water was a little warm today (almost 82 degrees) my heart rate got up to 168. Held 3:30 on 300s and 4:45 on kick

25 fly from dive
10 vertical dolphin kicks
25 swim choice
25 underwater swim from dive
3 wall push-ups (or "wallys" as we call them)
Light jog to starting end of pool
Repeat for 12 minutes. Made 6.5 rounds.

Total distance (not counting last set): 3100 meters/yards
Total swimming distance (including last set and not counting effort expended on vertical kicks, wallys or jog): 3600 meters/yards

Thursdays are the only day at Phoenix Masters when you don't know what the workout will be. Some days we pretty much swimming aerobically, as a recovery day from the sprint workout on Wednesday. Some days are pretty tough. Today we got a bait-and-switch with the short distances in the first two sets followed by a long distance set. I didn't mind it. In fact, I expected repeats longer than 200 today.

To explain the move from short course meters to short course yards: The pool has nine short course yards lanes and nine short course meters lanes when swimming width-wise. In a few weeks a portable bulkhead will be installed, turning the SCM lanes into SCY lanes. In the first half of the workout, I was in an end lane for short course meters, so all I had to do was go to the next lane over to be in the yards lane. I would have had no issue with the intervals, but everyone else in my lane was going to swim the second part of the set, so I didn't want to get in their way. Mary Jo Pursley (wife of British Swimming national team coach Denny Pursley) kicked with fins, so she was essentially keeping up with the swimmers.

I'm glad I did a fairly aerobic kick set. Everyone who swims with me knows how horrible my kicking prowess is. I have very inflexible ankles and as such, kicking isn't my strongest suit. In college, my ankles got a nickname: The Aquabrakes.

As for that set at the end, it was fun, but I was worried about running on a concrete deck with no shoes. So, I kind of did a run/walk hybrid for most of it. I wasn't worried about my knees, but rather the shock of hitting the concrete with no shoes for support.

Tomorrow has a kicking emphasis as well, so my legs will be sore this weekend!

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

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