What doesn’t kill me almost kills me, or Why An All Breaststroke Practice Is A Bad Idea.

Yow. Our swim coach is still on spring break, so it was yet another create-your-own-practice day. I did not make my practice up, but instead did an old favorite from SWIM magazine, which used to be a membership benefit of USMS.

First I did our usual masters warm-up, which is 600 yards, broken into 300 swim, 200 kick, 100 drill/swim. Then I did the breaststroke practice from [I don’t remember the date of the issue, but I’ll fill it in here once I look it up]:

700 WARM-UP (yes, I know—2 warm-ups!)
200 swim, alternating free and breast by 50s
300 scull: 6 x 50 scull drills with freestyle kick (windshield wiper drill, etc.)
200 kick, on your back, breaststroke kick in streamline

2000 MAIN SET: MANY DRILLS
4 x 50 body dolphins: “press the T (i.e., your chest)” on each dolphin kick, keeping your hands in front and at the surface
4 x 100 body dolphins, but with a fast, powerful breaststroke pull every 3rd kick
4 x 100 body dolphins, but with a fast, powerful breaststroke pull and kick every 3rd kick
8 x 100 breaststroke “kick to a glide,” keeping your arms extended for 1 full second before beginning the next stroke
8 x 25 breaststroke sprint, trying to keep some glide at the front of the pull

400 COOL DOWN

That means 3700 yards all told, and MAN is it a tiring practice. I had gotten halfway through the 8 x 100 and I said to the PP, who was getting out of the pool to go to work, “I don’t think I can do 4 more.” He looked all sympathetic at first, like he might say, “That’s OK, honey. You’ve worked your ass off already,” but then he said, “Yes you can,” and enlisted the other swimmer who was there this morning to motivate me by cheering for me during the rest of the set. She was terrific and did just that. Then I was so proud of myself for not being a wuss that I had to go ahead and do the 8 x 25.

Anybody want to guess how ready for breakfast I was when I finally was done showering and dressing and driving to work? Peanut butter and jelly never tasted so good. And coffee!