Use Cool Down Time In The Pool As Playtime And You May Learn Something Useful

Hi folks,

Ironman training involves some pretty long swims sometimes, and often they are preceded by heavy weight room, bike or run workouts the previous day. You may hit the water sluggish and stiff, but after a few laps you’ll loosen up, attacking each set with increasing enthusiasm. I find that around the two-mile mark (72 laps in a 25-yard pool) I start to tire significantly, and by the end of the workout all that remains is 200 yards of cool down. It is tempting to skip this set and head for breakfast, but that would be a big mistake.

It is when you are extremely tired that you might injure yourself or have an accident, but not so during the swim cool down. This is when you get to really play. To just explore the water. Your body is extremely sensitive to the motion of the water around you, your inner ears will tell you where you are in space, and any skin that is above the water will feel cool and provide an indication of your balance point. Tiredness comes with an almost euphoric sense of relaxation, so I just flop around gradually progressing through the 200 yards to see what I can find out about my relationship to the water, and whether, perhaps, I might just learn something new that helps my swim. I suspect that children generally swim faster than adults, in part at least, because they are more relaxed and thus their bodies do not resist the swirls and eddies of the water around them. When you’re exhausted relaxation comes more easily, which might make you more childlike. Furthermore, kids have not forgotten how to play. Take this time to be a kid again, feel your lassitude and the joy of the water. Most warm-blooded animals play, so why not you, whether you are 9 or 90?

And then have your breakfast with those feelings of light-hearted play swirling like water around in your mind.

-k @FitOldDog

Today’s workouts:

WorkoutPLAN Coach: Chris Hauth

Weights

Duration: 01:15:00

Description: This phase will prepare you for the final strength building phase. Following the same format as the previous phase, perform 3 sets of 12 reps on each exercise with the exception of leg press (3×15), sit-ups (3×20), and leg ext / leg curl (still 2×15). Increase your weight significantly so that the last two reps of sets 2-3 are very difficult but doable without assistance. Rest 45-60 seconds between sets.10′ jump ropeCore exercises: 2′ hold of position or 2′ of continuous repeats: Plank – Side Plank – Lunge – PushUps – Supermans – Back Extension – Abdominal Scissors1. Bench Press (chest) 2. Incline dumbbell flyes or Machine Pec Dec 3. Squats (glutes & quads) 4. Calf Raises 5. Lat – pull downs (lats) 6. Dumbbell Pullover 7. Low Row (or bent over dumbbell rows) 8. Upright Rows (shoulders) 9. Alternating Dumbbell Curls (biceps) 10. Dumbbell Kickbacks (triceps) 11. Leg Press 12. Leg Extensions 13. Leg Curls 14. Incline Situps or your choice of preferred ab work

Swim

Duration: 01:00:00

Description: 3550 – 400 wup – 10×50 drill/swim – 400+4×100 – 300+3×100 – 200+2×100 -100+4×25 – then 6×75 middle 25 non free – 4×50 kick FAST