A single practice today!

After so many "doubles", it was refreshing to be done after the morning workout today.  We had a single 4600 meter workout this morning with some dryland mixed into the workout.  The main set was:

4 x 200m :20 rest pull
4:00 Stretch
6 x 150m :15 rest swim
4:00 Hip flexer stretch in the hot tub
8 x 100m :10 rest swim
10 x 50 @ :40 swim 
4 x [2:00 step ups and :30 rest]

Those step ups at the end was pretty tough, it involved simply stepping up on a single beacher for 2:00 straight.  The fact that we were barefoot made it tougher.  We were on concrete and after 3 sets of fast stepping up and down, your feet really start to hurt.  The last set we basically were jumping up and down off the bleacher.  The bottoms of my feet were burning with pain.  My pain had nothing to do with the workout itself, the fact that I was straining the structure of my foot was the issue.  I felt like the set had good intentions but it would have benefitted everybody much more to have proper footware.

I got some good feedback from the coaches today regarding my backstroke form.  It's been improving consistently and I seem to be catching the water better and better in practice.  Their complement was followed with yet another reminder that for me to improve, I need to become stronger.  It seems as though their thinking is that I am near my potential from a technique standpoint, now I need to gain muscle to further improve my times.  I would have to agree.

One thing I find interesting is that I've been training with CW for 4 months and unfortunately, I don't look any different physically. I'm feeling my progress in the water and on the clock but I don't look like I've been working out 5-7 hours a day for 3-4 months.  I look forward to some visible results.