Check out this video from my first weight session yesterday.

For the last week and a half i have had the opportunity to train with the visiting Italian nation sprint relay team. The quartet consists of World Champion Filippo Magnini, Christian Galenda, Luca Dotto, and Andrea Rolla. The Italians seem to come from a completely different school of thought when it comes to training and sprinting. This has been an interesting experience which has highlighted both of our strengths and weaknesses. The Italians are very good in terms of their general fitness, Max VO2 and speed endurance, when it comes to the gym and dryland work they are literally like fish out of water. While we do work the things mentioned above we also pay special attention to improving our overall strength, breath control/ hypoxic work and the details and skills involved. I am not saying there is one particular right way to go about things. It’s just interesting to see what other people do to go as fast as they do and to learn and adapt it to your own needs.
I think in absence of the high tech suits being as strong as possible is not going to help you unless you can maintain this top speed for as long as possible. As I get more into the racing part of the season I will tweak my weight lifting reigime to focus more on speed and power and less on sheer strength.

Training has been going on recently with renewed vigor. my coaches here at Auburn seem to be in show off mode to the Italians and our workouts have become truly world class races featuring the likes of World Champions, Magnini and Cielo, Olympic medalists Cielo, Targett, Gangloff, myself, Pan American medalists Dos Santos and Barbossa from Brazil and top US swimmers Mcgill and Bryan Lunquist. This is truly a unique and special opportunity that I have been working hard to avail myself of.

Last Friday however, I slightly strained my hamstring. This I believe was the result of a nagging pain that I had been suffering from behind my left (bad knee) for about a week since I had slipped on a dive at Charlotte Ultraswim and hyper extended my knee. I was doing some weighted lunge jumps and the pain spread from behind my knee up to my left but cheek. I resorted to pulling for a few days in order to give the leg a chance to heal and for the inflammation to decrease. After lots of ice the rest I believe that its on its way back to a full recovery and I am back kicking.

I am off to Europe in about a week to compete in the Mare Nostrum Tour. Stay tuned.

Unfortunately you cant be your fastest when you are working your hardest. You just get broken down, sore, heavy and without that easy speed. The speed comes when you rest later on, but in order to get the speed at the end of the season you have to grind it out and put in the work. This meet came in the middle of a hard training period for me.

Here is an interview from right after my 50m freestyle on the second night of the Charlotte Ultraswim.

I followed this up with a 50.7 in the 100 freestyle the next evening to come 7th in the finals. Its ok for where I am right now in my season. I think next time I race this event with a little more rest i need to get down below 50 seconds

So, it wasn’t the 22.1 I was hoping for, nor was it the 1st place. I was 22.6 and 3rd place, but at least i made it to the podium. Josh Snider was first in 22.38 and Cullen Jones was second in 22.4.

It was strange that I was switched from swimming in lane 1 as the listing after the morning heats indicated to swimming in lane 8 in the final.

To watch the race paste the link below into your browser and scroll down to select the Men’s 50 Freestyle A final.

http://www.swimnetwork.com/Events/Meets/2010/May/Charlotte-Ultraswim-Grand-Prix.aspx?t=video

Results here

http://www.charlotteultraswim.com/results10/index.htm

You might think I am being hard on myself but I won’t lie here, I am disappointed with this time. It was a step back up from the time of 22.35 which would have won that I had posted in Spain 3 weeks ago. I was on track to be very fast but really slowed up in the last 10m. My stroke rate dropped considerably, and my arms were a little wild. I remember feeling as if i was swimming in mud for those last few strokes. Tonight in the warm up I just didn’t have that spring that I feel when I know I am fast. Looking back I think I was over optimistic when it came to estimating how much recovery I needed before this meet.
I also noticed some issues developing with my left arm recovery. I believe this to be because of a temporary lack of flexibility due to being stiff. All things considered It was a learning experience, and I intend to get down to the low 22. ‘s next month in Europe.
100 freestyle tomorrow….. First I have to make into the finals tomorrow morning. Many of the world’s best swimmers are here and I know its going to be extremely competitive.

Stay tuned……….