These donuts are similar to the one reporter Paul Tenorio ate this morning. Or at least that sprinkled one is. And yes, Tenorio forgot to take a picture. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

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I love donuts.

They are tasty. The good ones are chocolate-y. And the best ones usually have sprinkles.

So I can say that the way my practice ended today was probably the best any practice has ever ended — with a large, chocolate frosted, sprinkled donut, courtesy of Coach Jeff King.

Sure, it probably wasn’t the BEST thing for my diet. But I’m allowed to have carbs after a workout AND I think the sprinkles probably were fruit flavored or something, so that counts for something. No? Okay, maybe not,but it was delicious.

I apologize for this entry being up way late in the day and also very short. I’ve got two big stories in the paper tomorrow — a D.C. United youth academy feature and a Redskins story — and those ate up most of my day. In fact, I’ve been straight working since I hopped into the pool at 6:45 and haven’t had a moment to sit down and type this until just now.

Cue the violins.

Today’s practice was a bit different than Tuesday’s. Instead of building endurance by pushing me to do 200s, I worked instead on pushing myself through races by doing several “fast” 50s sprinkled throughout the workout.

There was a ton of kicking today. I think the practice started with 10 50′s mixed in with 10 pushups or 30 situps after each 50. Then we went to the four, six, eight, 10 25s, with a fast 50 mixed in after each set. The first 25 was one breath only, the second was butterfly kick.

After the 10 25s, we had the spin of doing three 50s instead of one. Each tested me to keep pushing, despite my heart rate almost 200, and each brought a new challenge. This workout had the excitement of getting the first one done, trying to push through exhaustion in the second and finally controlling the adrenaline to hold off a challenger in the last one.

By the way, I had toys (fins and paddles) and he didn’t. I had a two-second start. He caught me at the wall.

I’m definitely no Michael Phelps.

But what’s great is that each day I can step back and see the lessons Jeff King is providing and how they’ll translate to the pool. And so tomorrow I’ll swim a 100 and a 50 for time. And it’ll be meters instead of yards, which will definitely be interesting.

Hopefully I cut a little more time, but I have no doubt I’ll be tired and it’ll be close. For now, I’m going home and getting a nice long stretch in. It’s 5 PM, which means I’ll hit traffic (joy), but I’m done with Ashburn for now.

Tune in tomorrow to see what happens with my times.

Washington Post reporter Paul Tenorio will train with a swim club over the next few months and chronicle his journey as he attempts to transform from regular guy/sports reporter to competitive swimmer — everything from his waistline to his best times.

Tags: Michael Phelps

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 5:07 pm and is filed under Diving Back In. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.