Sub Par Kick Set

There is really only one type of practice set I pride myself in.  Kick sets have proven to be my only way of consistently keeping up with the other guys.  Today we had a long set which was comprised of everything from 25's, 50's and 100's.  All of them on less than 30 seconds reset and all of them a maximum effort.  I assumed I would be able to hold my own.  My lane voted me up to lead the set.  I saw that as a small honor.  The set had three main rounds.  The first two used no equipment.  The third used fins.  During the first two, I was consistently beat by everybody in the fastest heat.  I was touching last out of 8 swimmers.  It was really frustrating.  I gave it my all but just felt really run down.  I've never done well in sets with short rest.  Only two of the swims did I hit the wall in 5th but for the majority of the two rounds, I represented the slowest swimmer within the fastest heat.  I was in pretty good company for a few swims though, the first heat was comprised of 2 NCAA champions and 2 Olympians.  These guys were just killing me, touching the wall 5-10 seconds sooner than I was in the 100 kick.... really impressive.

Sadly, I volunteered to go last in my lane for the final round.  I was pretty run down and felt as though the other swimmers in my lane would benefit from the heat 1 competition more than I would.  We all have "on" days and "off" days.  Today was the latter.