By Paul Tenorio

Diving Back In Archive

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On the day that marks exactly one month until the October Open, I got a little upset at myself toward the end of practice.

It wasn’t really anything I did wrong, though I am getting a reality check after swimming on these intervals and at a pace that I am not used to. Rather, it was that my ankle flared up again at the end of practice.

Really, there’s nothing I can do about it. I felt the pain on my third round of the set and just kept pushing. But it really started to hurt on the fifth one, and when I pushed off to kick without fins on No. 6, hoping that would decrease the problem, I felt the same burst of pain that I felt last week.

With just a month left before the meet, I’m just not going to let this get in the way. I’ll be icing today and from now on, I’ll be taking plenty of Advil and gritting my teeth. I know there are several people in the pool around me who also have ankle problems and they are getting through it. I don’t have time for injuries.

Okay, now that I’m beyond my own whining, I’ll get into the workout from today. The thing is, it’s not really distance that’s getting me so tired in these workouts.

Here’s what we did, six times:

Five 50s on a minute.
Four 25s no breath (for me one breath because I’m a weakling)
300 kick

Now that I do the math, I guess it’s a decent amount of yardage. About 2100 swim and 1800 kick — which totals 3900, or more than 500 more than I have ever done before.

But what got to me was the combination of the one-minute intervals and breath control. It was unlike anything I have really done in my workouts.

For much of my time during this project, I’ve had basically one-on-one sessions with Jeff, and he’s kind of kept me at a nice pace.

Looking back at it all, I can see everything had a purpose. Slowly he built up my stamina and my form so that when I got to this point I’d be able to somewhat keep up.

Now the goal is going to be to build off of this and get to the point that I’m getting through these workouts at the same pace — or closer to it — as the other swimmers in the pool.

I just have to get used to the pace. And hopefully my lungs start to catch up. I feel like I don’t have as much lung capacity as the people beside me and I’m probably not in the same cardiovascular condition. It also doesn’t help that they finish their 50s about five seconds in front of me, which is an extra five seconds rest for them.

I exaggerated to Jeff that it felt like I was only getting seven seconds of rest and really it was about 15 seconds. But there’s a big difference between 15-20 seconds rest and 20-25.

So basically, my goal is going to be to continue working on form and building strength so that I can really push through. That should help my times during these types of workouts, and I can get in a good amount of rest so I don’t tire out.

Still, Jeff hit the nail on the head when he said something during workouts. It wasn’t the workout that was pushing me today. It was the people around me. I didn’t want to fall too far behind and I wanted to show I could keep up.

I know that this environment is only going to help me keep growing. This whole journey has been working to a plateau and then increasing the work so that I keep challenging myself. Getting used to the pool, increasing the workouts a bit, taking them to the next level in yardage and now it’s about pushing myself in both yardage and pace.

Soon I think I’ll really start to see it pay off in my strength and my stamina and that hopefully will translate to the races.

I just know I’m excited about this next level of training and pushing myself even more.

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.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 at 1:13 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.