3/28 & 3/29 -- I see you, Jan

Monday was a nice recovery day from the double tempo weekend. Just a swim lesson with Coach Ward and masters practice afterward. The lesson was pretty darn important as it really altered my stroke in a good and surprisingly immediately comfortable and powerful way. Open the hips, extend the arm, and a more powerful catch/pull results. I put it to good use at practice that evening, with some good fast sets of hard kick and 200s with at least 85% effort. The 200s included a 200, 2x100 and 4x50. I swam the 200 in 2:18, which is a practice best for me; the 100s in 1:05; and the 50s in :30 and the last one in :29, the first time I've broken :30 in practice. It was a great session, and I really felt the new stroke working wonders. I felt faster and more powerful. I'll have to keep the lessons up to improve on it even more.

Tuesday was another shakeout day with a pretty solid aerobic ride. 90min, at least 200w on the trainer. I felt surprisingly strong this ride, considering how bad I felt Sunday, and averaged around 219w. I was really pushing into tempo for most of the ride and had to lay off multiple times to prevent myself from going too hard. It wasn't just because of fresher legs... I was watching a REALLY INTENSE 2004 Tour de France stage: Stage 16, the uphill time trial. Lance was chasing after Ivan Basso, Andreas Kloden and Jan Ullrich, and made up a huge amount of ground on all of them, eventually passing Basso... which sucked for him! But what got my attention was Ullrich's intensity. He heard in his earpiece that Lance was gaining and coming after him hard. MAN, did Jan get SWOLE. It was really inspiring to see the twisted looks of pain on his face as he pushed up the grade and made a last-ditch burst effort across the line. He lost a good :40 on Lance, but his mighty legs, increasing effort and his AGONY sure made an easier ride more exciting.

LEGS!

AGONY!