Hurts So Good

Journal by Jeff Commings, Swimming World associate producer

PHOENIX, Arizona, September 14. 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: September 13, 2011
Time: 5:50 a.m.
Short Course Yards
286 days to Trials

24×25 on :30
1-4: 1 of each stroke
5-12: 2 of each stroke
13-24: 3 of each stroke
(averaged :19 on each)

8×200 IM on 3:20, 3 and 6 fast
(2:10 on #3, 2:05 on #6, did IM on 1 & 2 and averaged 2:25, did back on 4, 5, 7 and 8 and averaged 2:28)

3x(3×25) breast on :35
#1: double pullouts (took one regular stroke to the wall)
#2: breast pull with flutter kick
#3: breast pull with dolphin kick
(averaged :20 on each, as this was a welcome recovery set)

3x(3×25) fly on :35
#1: dolphin kick halfway underwater
#2: 1 up, 1 down on breathing
#3: three left arm, three right arm, three full stroke (I only had room for one full stroke each 25)
(averaged :18 on each)

8×100 IM on 1:40, 3 and 6 fast
(57.6 on #3, 57.5 on #6…decided to do #8 fast and went 59.5)

200 easy (with stretching)

Total: 3650 yards

What a workout!

We haven't done IM training in a long time. Usually on Tuesday, we focus on the individual strokes. That's always good, but I forget how much you need to do IM training in workout, so you can work on transitions and other things specific to the IM (such as holding your stroke on freestyle).

I must comment on the set of 200 IMs. This morning, Walter Ross, an age-group swimmer who trains with the top group at Phoenix Swim Club, swam with us because he had a swim meet this afternoon during normal workout. I let him lead the lane because he's young and has a bundle of energy. I might have overestimated him a little bit, seeing as he is not really an IMer. On the first fast 200 IM, I went 10 seconds behind him and caught him at breaststroke. I had to slow down a little bit when I caught him, then was able to speed up on freestyle. Given that, I was very surprised to go 2:10, which is about a second slower than my best 200 IM from a push — at least in the past few years. I can't remember how fast I used to do that in college. On the second fast 200 IM, I was excited for the opportunity to race the super speedy Alan Carter in the lane next to me. We haven't done any racing in IM since he came to Phoenix Swim Club, so I didn't know how I would do against him. All I knew is that he wasn't as good in breaststroke, and that he has a stellar freestyle. We were fairly even after butterfly, then he took off on backstroke. He was almost a body length ahead after breaststroke, and I managed to catch him after 25 yards of that stroke. I got a body length lead on him going into freestyle, but it wasn't enough. He went a 2:04 to my 2:05.

Wow! I had never gone 2:05 from a push in a 200 IM in Masters before! The gauge on how fast I'm going is to take my best time shaved and tapered (from my times in Masters) and add six to seven seconds for a 100 and 15 for a 200. That would put me at 2:07 for my 200 IM (based on the 1:52.6 I did nine years ago). I think it was having Alan to race that helped me go so fast in that set. Usually when I do a 200 IM alone, either in a race or in workout, I tend to mentally hold back on the first half of each stroke. I didn't do that today. My upper body did not want to swim that fast, but my competitive instinct took over. The 2:05 really hurt at the end, but I was really focused on working each turn and not saving any energy through each stroke.

The set of 100 IMs was exhausting, but I was happy to go 57. That's right on my target time for that event. I was a little too confident on the extra fast 100 I did. The butterfly felt awesome (a rarity for me), but it was a struggle to hold my strokes after that. At least I broke the one-minute barrier!

When I get home tonight, I'm going to take as much ibuprofen as the FDA will allow. I'll need to recover quickly for tomorrow's sprint workout. Or will it be best known as a "sprint" workout? Coach Mark Rankin sent a team e-mail out today extolling the achievements of some of my teammates, all of whom just completed Ironman triathlons or major open-water swims.

"I knew we were a Distance Team and not a Sprint Team." That's what he wrote in the e-mail. I have a bad feeling about this…

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

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