Tomorrow is my last day of Holiday Training before school starts. It has been a very eventful two weeks.
It all started on December 19th, my first swim practice since school let out. We began this awful “Christmas Training” with the famous “12 Days of Christmas” swim set.
Here is a quick summary of this three hour practice:
Warm-up=400 free+ 400 IM kick
8×125 IM order (25 drill-25 swim-25 drill-25 swim-25 drill) @ 2:00
3×400 freestyle pull @ 4:50 descend 1-3
24×50 butterfly with kick with fins @:40
1×1000 free 80% effort
8×75 fly/free/fly by 25 @1:00
+ 2,650 more yards of assorted strokes and drills
After that practice we had the rest of the weekend off and we all enjoyed in preparation for the week to come. However, I still had to get my run in so my day off became my run day. I ran 4 miles and then went home to finally rest.
Monday the 21st was a great hint of what was to come. We swam 8,500 yards in the 3 hour morning practice and then 6,000 in the two hour evening one. Tuesday the 22nd was the same kind of setup. We swam from 7-10 in the morning for about 8,700 yards and then 3-5 in the evening with about 5,800 yards. And if two days in a row of doubles we had the same thing on Wednesday.
Thursday morning was the big one, four hours of hard swimming, from 8-12. No one was excited, but attendance was mandatory so there we were, at the pool at 7:59 am. The cold water looked so unappealing and no one wanted to get in. It took the threatening of butterfly to finally convince us that jumping in the water was a good idea. The first hour came and went with minimal pain. However, we celebrated each passing hour as a milestone in this very, very long journey. Once we got to the two hour mark, we were rewarded with a ten minute snack break. This was a nice, short chance to recover and brace ourselves for what was to come.
We had just completed a brutal set of 5×800 IMs (200 of each stroke) and we were tired. The coaches told us that the next two hours would be the hardest to get through, mentally. They told us that we were all physically capable of making it, but I wasn’t so sure. The third hour was hard, but we wouldn’t know the true meaning of hard, until the last and final hour. Our last set was 8×400@ 5:20 and this is where I truly felt the effects of four hours of swimming. This would normally be a fairly easy interval for me, but that day, I was barely making it, getting less than three seconds of rest each 400. I had never felt in so much pain in my arms ever before. I could barely move them around to take a stroke. The last 400 became a race between me and the person in the lane next to me and we were both so tired. Once we touched the wall at the same time, my arms started to shake. The 200 warm-down that we did, consisted mostly of me kicking on my back, sucking in air and trying to rest my arms. Now that this was finally over, we could smile. Christmas was the next day and we had completed the only thing standing in the way of truly enjoying the holiday.
I had a very nice Christmas and enjoyed the day off.
December 26th: Saturday was the day I would get to fly out to New Jersey to visit my friend Kylie. But first I had to bike. The ride was really short and was just a chance to get out on my new bike and try it out. All was well, and then it was off to New Jersey.
December 27th: The swim coaches had given us the weekend off (aren’t they nice!) so I decided to enjoy mine. Today was a day of total rest from swimming, running and biking but I did get to play laser tag and mini golf with Kylie, so that was really fun!
December 28th: Today I would get to swim with a swim team in New Jersey, GPAC (Greater Philadelphia Aquatic Club.) It was interesting to swim with another team, but overall we did about the same yardage, so I feel like I got a lot out of the practice. Wave may be a little harder than this team, but it is hard to compare because I don’t know as much about what phase of training they are in compared to us.
December 29th: I got home really late on the 28th, but that didn’t stop me from arriving at TAC at 6:50 for Tuesday’s morning practice. It was good to be home, and the 8,000 yard morning workout with my team made me feel glad to be back. Round two that afternoon was just as hard as the morning. The coaches swam us hard, but as usual we felt a lot better when we were done.
December 30th: Today was another one of those practices that lasts forever. It was three hours, just like all the rest but it seemed to drag on forever. This was probably due to the fact that I knew I wouldn’t have to come back that afternoon because I was going on a bike ride with my coach, Stacey Richardson, and two fellow triathletes, Forrest and Lili. The ride was scheduled for two o’clock so I would get one hour less rest than I would have if I were going swimming. It was cold on the bike and the ride was hard. We rode for almost two hours for a distance of 35 miles. It was nice not to have to swim again, but there is no doubt that the bike was equal to, if not harder, than the typical afternoon practice.
December 31st: This would be our last official Christmas Training practice and we were all excited. However, the coaches planned on killing us, and they made sure to let us know that. We did about 8,000 yards that morning, during the three hours, mostly consisting of hard, fast, swimming. There was only one practice that day and afterwards we all went out to CiCi’s pizza to celebrate.
Shannon’s Facebook Status’s through Holiday Training:
Shannon: is so tired from Christmas Training! I want to sleep! Dec. 22, 7:44 pm
Shannon: is so tired from our lovely four hour practice! Dec. 24, 4:09 pm
Shannon: is going to New Jersey for a couple of days and is really excited! Dec. 26, 11:08 am
Shannon: survived Christmas Training! Dec. 31, 5:12
