After Tuesday Night’s Trek the Trace I had another early morning with the Master’s Swim. Now I am an early riser. I am almost always awake around 5AM; however, I am rarely out the door at 5AM. This is an adjustment.
Master’s Swim was more drills focusing on balance, form and general mechanics. Coach Steve says that once you have the dynamics of swimming down pat then adding speed is the easy part. I could not agree more. Swimming is not like running! If I want to run faster I just run harder. In swimming this just makes you tired quicker – there is no speed gained.
At lunch I was back on the treadmill – massive rain outside. I got another 6 miles in at an 8 minute pace. I have been loving me some treadmill.
I had planned on riding to work and I even put my fancy light on the bike. However, because of the rain I had had to drive into work. That meant I had to drive home and hop on my bike. I got to the ride just in time. There would only be 5 of us for tonight’s ride. I would definitely be sucking a wheel. My legs were tired and all of the others are strong riders. We have started riding a loop out in the countryside. It has a little bit of everything. A couple of hills, some perfect pavement and some crap. The loop takes about 12 – 15 minutes to complete. At the start of the second loop there was a two person breakaway. Matt and Raland were out front and pulling away. Butch told us to let them hang out in the wind for a while. The three of us, Butch, Ty and me just paced them. After the first loop Raland was blowing up and drifting back. Matt continued to put time into all of us.
Our little pace line of three absorbed Raland but Matt continued to stay out front. At the start of another lap we picked up the pace. We were gaining on Matt but it was slow. I felt like I was blowing up even on a wheel. I have never seen Matt that strong. At the end of the second lap we catch up to Matt and turned towards home. The ride was challenging and we still kept the pace high. There were attaches and sprints all the home.
Good times were had by all. Matt kept us honest and made us work our butts off. The R2W guys plus Raland and Keith have a road race this weekend. That should be exciting!
2 comments really. I couldn't agree more with the swimming tips. I got fast in the pool by relaxing and focusing on my form. I take it easy and go faster, TOTALLY counter intuitive. Its funny when I sprint a lap I don't go MUCH faster because I am pin-wheeling.
ReplyDeleteNow on biking, is there any method to the madness when these guys go and pull away? Is it welcomed? Are they considered show boating to keep pulling away from the group? I know it is good to force the back pack to keep up, but how does this all work? I want to ride in groups and do not know the proper etiquette I guess?
Hey Matty-O -
ReplyDeleteI took your advice and rounded up all of my swim times so I can SEE the improvement. I think it will be very interesting and encouraging to see the progress. I can already start to feel it!
Now, about the group rides. All of them are different. It would be very bad form to break away and leave a group if that was not in ‘the rules’. This kind of behavior is really only accepted with close friends and on certain rides. On the Wednesday Night Ride / Race that is almost the point. You can get dropped. You need to know your way home. You should get out front if you can and hold on for dear life if you can’t.
It is a lot of fun!
Swimming sure is different to running. Technique, technique, technique - that's what helps.
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