Having the "Will" to give 100%

Today Will came up with the workout.  Man it was awesome!  It involved giving 100% and rewarded with more rest.  He said often we focus on a low amount of rest and only go at about 80-90% at most.  Occasionally it's OK to take lots of rest, as long as you go all out!  And that's what we did today on several sets of 100s.

Got in the water at 0515 and did:

1100 free, then joined masters...
600 warmup
300 - 6 x 50's descending stroke count on 1:00
4000 - 4 sets of

200 pull on 3:30,
6 x 100's free (first round on 1:30 (hit 1:20), second round on 1:40 (hit 1:15), third round on 1:50 (hit 1:10, fourth round of six on 2:00 (hit 1:05) I used finger paddles on the fourth round, but the rest were all me. I was very happy with the effort I gave on these. My HR was just above 170bpm and I was breathing like an asthmatic upon hitting the wall, but by the time it was time to go for the next rep I was almost breathing normal.  I was right behind Will.  I left exactly 5 seconds after he did, and my goal was to just stay 5 seconds behind him (or less).  .
200 kick (no fins)

400 easy

Fantastic workout!!!

Then a TON of people came in for Masters (round 2).  This group of swimmers are much more varied in abilities.  I initially swam with the wrong group.  They were really slow.  So I moved to the other side of the pool and the two fast lanes already had like 7-8 people in them.  It was really crowded.  I got in at the butt end of the second lane.  It sucked cause everyone ahead of me still was a tad too slow, but the fastest lane was just as crowded and were faster people.  Oh well, I was really tired at this point, so I just went at the slower pace.

300 - 3 x 100's 50 kick/50 swim
200 - 4 x 50's back
100 - 4 x 25's varied swim
Main set:
300 - 3 x 100's free base +5, base, base -5
300 - 6 x 50's kick on 1:00
400 - 4 x 100's free base +5, base, base - 5
200 - 4 x 50's one arm fly/free on 1:00
500 - 5 x 100's free base +5, base, base -5
100 - 2 x 50's back, free
600 drill/kick/swim

Then everyone got out and it was a ghost town. I continued with:
1000 pull cruising pace
500 kick with fins


10,900 yards in 3:20


I left my prepared mixture of hammer drink in the fridge and I had an extra gatorade in my car so I used that.  After the workout, on the way to work I tried a Hammer Almond Raisin bar.  Holy crap was that good!  I've tried all sorts of different energy bars, and most of them taste like crap, even the ones that are supposed to taste like a candy bar instead of an energy bar.  They taste so fake.  But this was authentic, it tasted like a delicious bowl of raisin bran, except in a bar.  It has 270 calories, and a good blend of carbs, fat, protein.  I'm definitely going to keep this one on my list.


Tonight I'm going for a short cold water swim in the GSL.  Looking forward to that.