Erika and Avery did an "active rest" practice today. Here's the set:

4x (125 Free* (125) + 100 easy (135) ) (each round on (3))
4x (100 Free** (110) + 100 easy (150) ) (each round on (3))
3x (75 Free *** (55) + 100 easy (205) ) (each round on (3))

Both Erika and Avery had great results -- moving forward from earlier this week and earlier in the season prior to this week.

Erika got held 1:15s for her first 3 125s, then went 113 on the last one.
Her 100s were:

57.5 (27.9/29.5)
55.8 (27.5/28.1)
54.7 (27.0/27.7)
53.7 (26.6/26.9)

Her 75s were:

39.5 (back in 26.5)
38.8 (back in 26.2)
39.0 (back in 26.2)

Then we did 12x50 with fins on (50), every 3rd fast to finish even faster.
Erika's final 3 were 24.6, 24.2, 23.5

This was after doing a great kick set yesterday. Check this out:
6x200 Free Kick, one on each interval: 310,305,3, 255, 250, 245.
Erika went 246, 243, 240, 239, 237, 230

Afterwards she did a set of 6x50 easy followed by a 50 fast for three rounds.
Each of the 50s fast was 25 dive swim, 25 underwater kick.
One those 50s she went 27.1, 26.3, 25.9 -- all with the final 25 underwater kick.

Avery's set today was her best free set of the season. Here's the way it went:

Avery held 117s on the 125s, with a 116.1 to finish

Then the 100s:

100.9 (30.0/29.9)
59.6 (29.2/30.4)
58.4 (28.8/29.4)
57.8 (28.6/29.1)

And the 75s

43.5 (back in 29.6)
42.8 (back in 28.8)
42.5 (back in 28.4)

The Fin 50s at the end

27.0
26.3
25.5

The splits are important because they show the true story of the set.

The good news with both Erika and Avery is that the splits descended all the way through the set (you can see them drop all the way down the page on this blog). The thing everyone (today we saw it with Erika and Avery) needs to improve on is working the back half of their speed training -- not just going for great overall times, but great back end splits. Back end splits that are faster than the front end splits show that an athlete is ACCELERATING through the swim.

I KNOW that most (almost all) athletes practice DECELERATING every day during training, all over the world. Let's be different by practicing ACCELERATING through all of our splits. The total time of the swim may not be as fast, and we may not SEE that unless we can see our basic splits on the clock (easier for the distance guys to do, not as easy for the sprinters) -- or we get the splits from the coach on deck.

Over the next few weeks we will do some more focused speed work -- see if you can focus on the final half of the swims -- understanding that if you are not accelerating through the swims, then you are decelerating.

We've had a great week of swimming. Let's make sure we're not complacent. Get your schoolwork done over the weekend and recharge yourself for Monday morning, when we get back to work.