Main Set Cut Short

Since I'm doing a mini taper prior to Montreal, I've done slightly less than the rest of the group over the past few days.  Saturday was our routine "Race Pace" day.  The group was assigned a 4 round set of 100 pace swimming.  This consisted of broken 100's meaning we swim 50's in which you add up your times from each swim and calculate a total for your 100 meter time.  The abstract part was the "bucket" swim before each round.  We had to strap ourselves to what looks like a typical power rack (belt, thin cable, pully and lift weight as you swim away from it).  This model has a 50 gallon drum of water (half full) and a series of pullies which allows the 9 foot tall structure to provide enough cable to be pulled 25 meters or more.  Prior to each broken 100 we pulled 25 gallons of water 25 yards in the diving well.  Due to all the resistance, it warms you up for the timed 50 but also wears you out prior to the actual timed swimming.

Due to my taper, I would join the group for round 2 and 3 and skip rounds 1 and 4.  I kept warm as the group moved through round 1 and prepared for my first round.  Soon after my round was called.  I strapped the belt around my waist, connected to the cable on the bucket machine and got ready for the "go" command from the coach.  When I heard it, I pushed off and spun my arms to the other side.  The resistance on the cable was significant but not impossible.  I didn't get a time for that effort but I assume it took me about 20 seconds of high intensity swimming to cover the 25 yards.  I unstrapped myself and walked over to the long course pool.  I was out of breath but warmed up.  I noticed a slight hesitation from the other 3 backstrokers as they looked for some direction from the coach.  It seemed like nobody wanted to get in the water!  We were all so tired that we were procrastinating for every additional second we could get, it was a funny moment.  When the coach yelled "10 seconds", we knew we couldn't wait any longer.  We all jumped in and got ready.  Luckily I ended up in one of the two lanes with a pad on the wall.  I was sure to get a good start.  When we heard the "take your marks.... hup", I kept tabs on how fast everybody else started.  I was on par with everybody off the wall but I feel like these guys are still better underwater than I am.  I got edged out at 15 meters by just a little.  I cranked it up and used my new backstroke technique to touch the wall in a 27.4, others touched in high 28's and 29's.  We had just 20 seconds before we would have to swim another 50 meters from a push.  The coach yelled "Ok, I'm timing everybody to 15 meters, everybody goes 15 meters underwater.".  This was not a good thing for me.  I've never gone 15 meters off the wall in a 100 back race.  I don't have the strength, endurance or lung capacity to stay under.  Statistically it's faster for me to surface and start swimming since I'm slower underwater.  I knew all this, but he said "15 meters underwater" so I did just that.  I watched my competition pass me by like I was standing still.  I got to 15 meters but it was slow and pathetic looking.  I was even more worn outo and oxygen deprived after that stunt.  I tried my best yet hit the wall in a 32.6, others touched in 30's.  Coach Mike Bottom was right there when I finished (we had specifically discussed the 2 round deal prior to practice).  He looked at me and gave me the hand across the neck signal and said "you're done, no more rounds".  I'm certain I had disapointed him and he realized there was no point in making me do another round with a sub par performance like that.  Unfortunatley I don't think he saw the first 50 when I excelled compared to the group.  Either way, he was right, I would have gained nothing by wearning myself down more with another round.  I was a bit embarrassed but accepted the reality... I have a lot to work on.  My total time was a 1:00.00, not impressive.

I watched the rest of the rounds as I drank some water and gathered my equipment.  We did a 20 minute ab set after practice which always produces some good laughs from the college age swimmers.  Listening to stories of college antics never gets old.  As always, thanks for the laughs guys!