By Paul Tenorio

Diving Back In Archive

Follow Paul Tenorio on Twitter

I don’t think it had really, truly hit me until today. At some point during this morning’s workout my coach, Jeff King, came up to me and said: “This morning is all about getting you mentally prepared for your race. It’s just a couple weeks away.”

I’ve talked about it on this blog recently. Shoot, I think I did last Friday. But I don’t know if it had truly hit me how close we were until today. We are exactly 19 days until my first race at the Open. The butterflies definitely are going.

Jeff, in his own words, threw me a bone this morning with the workout. After starting off with a warm up of 16 50s, alternating kick and swim, Pat Sullivan and I headed over to our own lane for a sprinter-style workout.

Here’s how it broke down:

200 swim
Four 25s 1 breath (zero for Pat)
200 swim
Four 25s descending
150 swim
Four 25s 1 breath
150 swim
Four 25s descending
100 swim
Four 25s 1 breath
100 swim
Four 25s descending
50 swim
Four 25s 1 breath
50 swim
Four 25s descending

The distance wasn’t too challenging, and the focus was on getting that muscle memory and mindset right for the race. I really tried to focus on my breathing, on keeping my head still, on the right form when I was pulling in. And I think working next to Pat helped me to see a few things that I can do better.

It definitely did during the descending when I raced off the block on the final 25. Pat really helped me with some tips on how to get out of my start: How important that first stroke was to get up and going, to make sure I was kicking as soon as I hit the water, keeping my arms tight on the streamline on my way in.

Working with the breath control helped me in those 25s as well. Last week, when I was doing those 50 races at the end of practices I was breathing three times on the way down and four on the way back. Not this time.

Even though it was only 25, I took just one breath — right before the flags — and I figure this is the best way to go for me. That way I can get into the turn and out of it and take a few strokes before I breathe again as I try to get back on just two breaths.

So while the workout itself seemed less challenging distance wise, and even though Pat and I had a nice pace going on, I took a lot away from it. I learned about how important head movement was, I focused on looking down, I watched Pat coming into the wall to get an idea of how my stroke should look.

It was an informative day and I think I’ll be able to translate everything from today into my race this week. Yes, I still have the number in my head. Yes, Jeff nailed in on the head this morning and told me if I swim PERFECT I can hit it but not to be disappointed if I don’t because I haven’t done these races enough to be perfect every time…and YES I still want to hit that number so darn badly.

Sitting here at Redskins Park my heart just started beating faster just thinking about the race…and about the fact that we’re just two weeks away from the open.

I’m nervous, I’m excited…this is what it’s all about.

July 20: Weight- 193, Waistline- 36, BMI- 27.6, Body Fat Percentage- 17.7
July 27: Weight- 189, Waistline- 36, BMI- 27.1, Body Fat Percentage- 16.6
Aug. 03: Weight- 185, Waistline- 36, BMI- 26.5, Body Fat Percentage- 15.6
Aug. 10: Weight- 184, Waistline- 36, BMI- 26.4, Body Fat Percentage- N/A
Aug. 17: Weight- 186, Waistline- 35, BMI- 26.7, Body Fat Percentage- 14.5
Aug. 24: Weight- 185, Waistline- 35, BMI- 26.5, Body Fat Percentage- N/A
Aug. 31: Weight- 184, Waistline- 34, BMI- 26.4, Body Fat Percentage- N/A
Sept. 8: Weight- 184, Waistline- 34, BMI- 26.4, Body Fat Percentage- N/A
Sept. 15: Weight- 181, Waistline- 34, BMI- 26.0, Body Fat Percentage- 13.1
Sept. 21: Weight- 181, Waistline- 34, BMI- 26.0, Body Fat Percentage- N/A
Sept. 28: Weight- 180, Waistline- 34, BMI- 25.8, Body Fat Percentage- N/A

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 Monday, September 28th, 2009 at 2:00 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.