Lessons Learned from Nanaimo

The major point driven home from the meet at Nanaimo has to be my lack of conditioning, not exactly a new concept. Still, when you can’t race properly after an hour’s rest then conditioning should be a priority in training. I’ve already decided to bump up my mileage to around the 2,500 - 3,000 meter range; now I plan on doing more distance work as well. This means primarily more 200 and 400 distances in my main sets rather than restricting them to my warm ups and warm downs (up to now we’re pretty much talking 200s as I’ve swum a 400 in warm up only a couple of times). I’m also going to make an effort to work on my swimming technique in all strokes so come race time I have a reduced tendency to fall apart under stress. Consequently this morning I swam a fairly simple practice a little on the short side as I’m starting up on my first weight power cycle today too:

Warm up: 400 free pull
200 kick (100 board & 100 without)
Main set: 5x200 free on 4:00
Sup set: 4x200 back on 4:30

Current plans for my next meet this coming February (the English Bay Swim Club Meet) are to swim the 200 back plus the 100 butterfly and freestyle races. Of course this is entirely dependent on the event scheduling and how I progress, but my training over the next couple of months will be targeted at racing these three events.

And lastly, a snide comment on observing an unattended minivan in a no parking area as I left the Canada Games pool this morning. Apparently someone decided to save a few steps in an otherwise open parking lot before heading into the facility to exercise. I just don’t get some people.