7000 yards!

I did it. I tackled the big long swim workout yesteray.

Yesterday morning I was SO nervous!! It was a bit strange that I was so nervous. I mean, I was a swimmer. A great pool workout is what is natural to me. But it's been a long long long time since I've jumped in the water with 30 fast swimmers and done a workout over 4000 yards!! I really didn't know what to expect. Which lane should I swim in? Could I make the intervals? Would people be grabbing me feet the whole workout? Would my shoulder hold out or would I have to be "smart" and hobble off to the locker room at 5200? I really was nervous.

I got there early (an old family "trait" and joke I must add) and the first person I saw on deck was Rob. He is co-owner of the Tri-shop I frequent. My brother appeared next. See, told you it was a family trait. More and more people arrived including a few women who will be serious contenders out on the race course this summer. Before I new it, we were off. I was in a lane with my brother Jeff and the man who takes lead of this group. He is FAST. He recently went a 54.100 yard fly. He's in his 50s! He was even in the Olympic trials way back. I was in his lane? How did That happen??

I felt so so ssmooth and fast! It was like there was something in the water. I did have to do some self-talk and remind myself that I was on the first 500 warm up and we had 7000yards ahead of us!
Here's the workout:
500 warm up
400 4x100 8x50 The 400 was on 6 (1:30/100 base) 100s decend on 1:30 and 50s on 40. The 50s were basically touch and go and then we went right into the next part of this set:
300 3x100 6x50
200 2x100 4x50
100 1x100 2x50
That was a long set but it got a lot of yardage out of the way.
Meanwhile, the guard was Blasting the hardest screechiest head banging hard core rock stuff you can even fathom. Everyone was rolling their eyes. I was so glad we were under water 90% of the time.
Next set:
100 easy
200 drill
10x100 first 6 decend to fastest 100 on 1:30 two min break last 4 all out fast
100 easy
2 sets of ( 200, 2x150, 3x100 IM on 1:40, 4:50 on 40)
100 warm down
that's 7000!!!
The workout was good. We were moving quickly almost the whole swim. We all took a GU mid swim and lots of water. That is something we Never ever did during my entire 15 yr competitive swimming career. My brother and I marveled at that. Could we have gone a lot faster had we had some nutritional knowledge back then? I do hope someone is out there educating collegiate athletes about that these days. Sounds like a fun job to me.
During the last 1000 yards or so, my left calf cramped up a lot! I would push hard off a wall and whammo! It was in knots. It hurt so much! I saw a lot of people grabbing their legs with similar pain throughout the workout.

The swim was long and somewhat hard but most of all it was exhilirating! I felt this renewed love of swimming. I found speed that had been locked up inside me. My 100s were a solid 10 sec faster than when I swim alone. I felt confident and strong.
What's next? 100x100 on March 10th. I have no idea why....but I'm joining the group again that day for the big kahuna. 10,000 yards. STay tuned.