Captain's Log:
We've just finished our second full day of training (I think there are only 9 days left)! Even though sets have steadily become more challenging over the past few practices everyone is putting their all into each and every set. Throwing yourself into sets is not that hard though when you have people to impress and I'm not talking about the lifeguards either; this year we have the Lady Reds joining us. This is the first time in my four years of being a Carthage swimmer that two swim teams have traveled together for training purposes and I think it's safe to say that everyone welcomes the change!
We've just finished our second full day of training (I think there are only 9 days left)! Even though sets have steadily become more challenging over the past few practices everyone is putting their all into each and every set. Throwing yourself into sets is not that hard though when you have people to impress and I'm not talking about the lifeguards either; this year we have the Lady Reds joining us. This is the first time in my four years of being a Carthage swimmer that two swim teams have traveled together for training purposes and I think it's safe to say that everyone welcomes the change!This morning we started practice off with a brisk 2.0 mile run to the pool after being dropped off in what seemed to be the middle of no where. Unfortunately, there were no crocodile sightings, but we remain optimistic. At the pool we split in distance, sprint and stroke specific groups. From here I can only fill you in on the great times the breaststroke lane had this morning. After the warm up and some kicking we got down to business with our main set: 4x50's kick on 1:00 and then 3x100's descend on the 2:00 three times through. Even though our lane was packed with about 12 men and women swimmers we still managed to "Do Work" and descend the 100's to Vo2 max pace.
This afternoon we ventured to the pool around 5:00 p.m. After a quick 500 warm up we attempted a "Get In" swim off of the blocks. We put a 400 and an 800 freestyle relay on the blocks with each swimmer sprinting a single 50 in hopes of going under the NCAA "A" cut-victory was ours! We then split into a mid and distance group and a sprint group. The distance type swimmers started the main portion of our practice with 12x150 focusing on perfect streamlines and getting distance off each wall. After that came two sets of 4x 150's with the first 100 held right at 1:00 and the last 50 going full throttle with some pull and kick in between each round.
With practices four and five under our belts it's time to head back to the hotel for our normal dinner of pasta, sandwiches or order out. As a senior I can honestly say that having to make my own dinner after practice makes me miss the Carthage cafe.
Captain's Log -
Over and Out
Chris Steenrod