“If u want 2 be the best, you have to do things that other people aren’t willing to do”.
Michel Phelps
And I want to be different…
Week 13 has arrived, and with it the time for long volume trainings, or to be more accurate for longer than I did so far, and just for general knowledge, when swimming in large volumes, download the intensity, and make sure to eat throughout the workout.
Basically the idea is to simulate the swimming mode of 42.195, learn the right pace, and check what food is right for me.
Sunday afternoon and I’m talking to Ori, My coach:
Me: “Ori, are we sprint swimming tomorrow”?
Ori: “We also sprint swim tomorrow, Avishag, tomorrow is a very important training session”
Me: “Important, but I’m planning a long training session tomorrow, I’ll swim 3 of these important training sessions? Isn’t that too hard”?
Monday, 4:30 am and I’m up even before the alarm goes off. I drink my coffee, eat my whole grain slice of bread, make sandwiches to take with me, and pack plenty of gels.
5:20 my good friend Guy picks me up and we head to the pool.
5:45 training begins, I warn in advance, it’s going to be long.
100X4 first 50 a bit faster kick start 1:45 – freestyle
100X4 first 50– a bit faster, picking up the between the hundreds the first 50 1:45 min freestyle.
100X4 first 50 a bit faster, in every hundred the first 50 like the fastest from the previous set 2:00 min freestyle.
100X4 – first 50 something other than freestyle, picking up the pace 1-4, out at 2:00 min
200X5 – paddles
Training is over, people leave and new people arrive, and fill in the transition time with 4X100 leg work.
Snack on a sandwich and go out to make some more sandwiches because ori tells me that my nutrition is based on food and Gels? They’re just for strength.
My 7:00 training session begins, 300 warm up, the main exercise, meaning the fast 50 I do backstroke, so I move to the slower lane.
3X100 +50 – first 50 a little faster send of time 2:00 min
3X100 + 50 – first 50 fast and pick up the pace between the hundreds the first 50 2:00 min
3X100 + 50 – first 50 faster, in all the hundreds the first 50 like the fastest in the previous set 2:15
50 – Release
3X100 + 50 – 50 something other than freestyle, picking up the pace 1-4, out at 2:15 min
3X200 – Paddles – workout over, people leave and it will take some time till new people arrive. I eat a sandwich, drink water and go back to swim 3000 meters.
I finish, and notice new people on the edge of the pool, great. Then the 9:00 workout begins.
200 warm up, I’m dragging behind getting out last and trying to work up some energy. So towards the third set – moving forward.
Can you guess what we’re doing?
100X4 first 50 a bit faster kick start 1:45 – freestyle
100X4 first 50– a bit faster, picking up the between the hundreds the first 50 1:45 min freestyle.
100X4 first 50 a bit faster, in every hundred the first 50 like the fastest from the previous set 2:00 min freestyle.
100X4 – first 50 something other than freestyle, picking up the pace 1-4, out at 2:00 min
2X200 freestyle with fins
Sadly again, people are leaving and for the next few hours I’m probably going to be swimming alone.
Yes, the mental workout begins, in my head I start thinking of the name of the book “loneliness of a long distant runner”. I eat a sandwich and drink water.
950 meters – cube.
7X200 – 100 meters legs 100 full, out in 4 minutes.
600 meters legs with fins – backstroke
4X100 meters legs picking up pace, out 2:30, very hard after 13.5 km to increase leg work, and I remind myself the gap between 13.5 to 42.195 km, and then Eyal Yamin arrives, great, he fills up my water and joins me after release of 100 meters.
We swim together:
10X50 Hypoxia 3 breaths to 50- out 1:15
10X50 – first length dolphin dive the whole way and back legs backstroke, fins 1:30 out
10X100 – with paddles
We each go out for release; I swim 300 meters and do my stretches.
6:30 hours of swimming are over, total of 16,300 meters. Whoever managed to survive the post can imagine what it’s like to swim the words.
Mental work here comes in intervals.
See you next week.
