Saturday's last dash
Last practice before taper! I wanted it to be hard, and Mimi delivered:
200 free warm-up
100 swim (50 fly/50 back) warm-up
4x50 free on 1:00
3x200 on 2:45
6x200 on 2:40
3x200 on 2:35
4x125 on 1:45
4x125 on 1:40
4x50 on :45
4x50 on :40
2x50 cool-down
Total yardage: 4400
The way I felt during this practice was reminiscent of, but nowhere near as bad, as the last Saturday practice I went to. Since I never feel like this during the week and I also happened to be shifting my sleep schedule the last time I felt like this kind of ass in the pool, I think that that is probably the culprit.
It was weird. I was swimming fairly fast on the first rep of each set, but I couldn't maintain it, which is very unusual for me. That is typically something I am very good at. I still swam very hard and definitely got a good workout, but I could tell that I was... off somehow.
Now that I'm starting taper, I'm going to have to watch it -- no more circuit training for a couple of weeks and nowhere near as much food. I'll need to do something every day though -- yes, seven days a week. I don't want to gain any weight before the meet, so the food intake will have to come down. This shouldn't be much of a problem since I won't be as active and hence not as hungry, but somehow I have to keep the ice cream cravings at bay, or at least moderate them a lot
I think one reason I've been craving so much junk food that I would not normally crave is because I might not be getting enough protein. I definitely try, but with such elevated activity levels and such decreased intake of beef and chicken I don't think I'm doing my body enough of a favor. I have noticed a huge difference when I get more lean protein in (such as a cup of plain yogurt with some granola), so perhaps I need to start eating one serving of animal a day (preferably fish). This is a lot more than I have been eating recently. Alternately, I could make a couple batches of black bean burgers and freeze them or make some of that 15-bean soup I've bought. Either way, I need to be getting far more protein. I'm doing so much with my body, I need to take good care of it and give it the means to repair itself.