What Would Janet Do?

Olympic trials are next week, which prompted coach Bill to pose a question to the team today: What Would Janet Do? Of course he is referring to our favorite distance swimmer who is still rocking the trials at age 40. It also happens to be that BB knows Janet personally, so with two degrees of separation, we feel like we know Janet personally too. But back to the question at hand: WWJD? I am pretty sure she did not get where she is today by choosing the "master's option" at workout, e.g. choosing to do freestyle when the set requires fly or taking extra rest because, well, you can. No, the lesson learned today is that if you want to go to the Olympics, don't use your pull buoy (SB!) when one is not required by the coach. At least I know why I never reached that top level! We will all be watching Janet next week and Conor Dwyer (our friend Pat's son!) as they go for the Olympic team. Go Team USA!!!

200 warmup
200 drill/swim by 50
4 x 50 count strokes :15r
100 swim on :15r
4 x 50 stroke on :15r
Main set:
100 IM on 2:00
100 free on 1:40
200 free on 3:25
2 x 50 breast
300 free hypoxic 5,3,7,3 on 4:30
2 x 50 back
400 negative split :30r
2 x 50 fly (or freestyle with master's option)
500 fast
6 x 100 on 2:00
2 going 50breast fast/50 free
2 going 50 back fast/50 free

2 going 50fly(free) fast/50 free

RAAM vs. MOPO

Today in the locker room I posed a challenge to my dear friend Maggie - come up with a theme for today's blog.  She did not disappoint (when does she ever disappoint?). But you might be asking yourself - what is RAAM  and what is MOPO? The first the Race Across America, and some friends of ours are riding and crewing this event that starts on Saturday.  It is a grueling bike race across - you guessed it! - America. It starts in San Diego and ends in Annapolis. These cyclists race either as singles or teams and it's pretty intense. Juxtapose that with MOPO, an event that many of us are participating in this weekend.  Notice I said "event". You see, the Morses Pond Swim is just a swim. There are no prizes, no posting to coolrunning.  Maggie was a bit shocked to find out this morning that MOPO was not a race (I mean, why even do it if I can't get a prize? thought she). But it begs the question: is something somehow less appealing because the competition factor is taken out? Do we need to push ourselves or others toward something to make it meaningful?  I'll let all of you ponder that on this rainy Wednesday. We got our butts kicked today at distance day.

100 warmup (lame)
Four times through:
50 drill/50 stroke on :25r
50 build up/50 build down on :25r
300 fast on 4:30
200 easy on 3:30
500 keep pace on 8:15
300 fast on 4:30
200 easy on 3:30
500 keep pace
8 x 100
2 on 1:35
2 on 1:45
2 on 1:55
2 on 2:05

While we are leisurely frolicking in Morses Pond this weekend (shown above, very serene), you can follow team Live4Life on twitter, @RAAMLive4Life.

Bait and Switch

I think there are laws that prevent false advertising. A typical bait and switch (in the retail sense) lures customers in for a product or service at a low price, and when they get there they discover that the advertised good is no longer available and are  "switched" to a costlier product.  Well, that is exactly what happened this morning, but it happened part way through the workout when we were already in the store.  As we all know, Wednesday is distance day, and there is a specific mindset needed for d-day, something akin to "keep calm and carry on".  With this in mind, I was pleased that the first set was an 800 swim, nice and easy, clearly leading up to a faster 800 or, at worse, two 400s.  But here is the switch: No more distance, but 200 sprints.  Now usually I love 200s, but just like flip flops and socks, "sprint" and the number "200" don't go together. The young kids with their names on their suits were tickled pink at this turn of events, while the 35+ crowd tried to keep it real.  It's not fair, we usually swim circles around them at the end of the workout on d-day. But we'll probably keep shopping here anyway.

300 warmup
100 swim
2 x 50 stroke
100 swim
2 x 50 stroke
100 (25 gallop, 25 swim)
2 x 50 stroke
4 x 100 kick
800 swim watch your splits
200 sprint (15 seconds FASTER than you fastest split in the 800)
2 x 50 easy
200 sprint (keep that pace!)
2 x 50 easy
200 sprint (don't die on me now!)
2 x 50 easy.