Tuesday, September 15, 2009

I am blessed

I have not only one coach that wants to kick my ass. No. I have two. Two coaches that want me to be fast. Two coaches that will push me. Two coaches that each have a specialty and a purpose.

I have my tri Coach. And I have my masters coach. Aaron really wants me to learn how to swim fast. I also believe he wants me to dismantle the belief that "I am not a swimmer".

This morning's practice began with a decent warm-up of 6x50 where the first 25 is sharkfin kick (REALLY?! I am World's slowest kicker. I create drag for myself. there is not forward propulsion. Aaron laughs at me. Seriously!) second 25 is swim. Then comes the swapping of the lanes...

Somehow, I end up in Lane #1 with 3 others, all faster than me. And that's when we got the main set. 18x100. Doesn't seem so bad, right? It's just 1800. But I'm no dummy. I know there's a catch. Yup! It's 18x100 as in 2x100 on 1:20, 1x100 all out on 2:00, six times through. Then check heart rate.

Yeah, so I made the first 700. Then, things started fading. I made all the first 100s of each mini-set (of 300. are you following me?)on 1:20 (because I had some rest after the third, being on 2:00). By the fifth time through, my times for each 100 were 1:20, 1:25, 1:30. I see Aaron on the side of the pool, running along side me, telling me to "GO! SWIM! FASTER! GO!" I could feel myself flailing about, poor form, barely cutting through the water. But I made it through. And check this out: my HR got up to 180. One freakin' eighty! In the pool!

Then we all did some hypoxic pulling - 6x75 w/specific breath instructions. Fine with me. My arms/lats/back do not use much oxygen. My legs? They suck it all out. Actually, i think it's just keeping my ass afloat that takes so much effort. Thank God for floaty little buoys!

I got exactly what I stated I wanted...the kind of swim that makes it hard to pull myself out of the pool after.

And on Sunday, I asked Eddy if I could do the TT on Tues night. His response? "YES! And hammer it! And then do a 15 min run".

So, I'm pretty lucky to have not only one, but two, coaches that care enough to push me like that.

5 comments:

Big Daddy Diesel said...

Must be nice to have people give you that sick minded love.

RockStarTri said...

I've got two torturers, I mean coaches, too. One focuses on swim and the other bike/run. It is great to get their different perspectives and they both push you in different ways.

GetBackJoJo said...

That is awesome! Very jealous... I want a Masters coach, too!

Signifying Nothing said...

I know the feeling! I'm on a tri team stacked with swimmers--it's my team, and I handpicked them to drag along my sinking, nonswimming ass--and they kill me each time. Love it. Happy, murderous training to you and your two masochistic trainers!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a fantastic threesome to me!!! WOOHOO!!!