paulafindlay wrote:
ericmulk wrote:
paulafindlay wrote:
Hey Slowtwitch! Paula here, first time posting, hope you won't be too hard on me (or my aero position :)
It's been a whirlwind since one of the biggest wins of my life but I wanted to see if anyone has any burning questions they'd like to ask. I'll drop back in throughout the day tomorrow so fire away and I'll do my best to answer! Thanks!
Did you swim on a team growing up??? If so, what events??? What are your swim workouts like now, e.g., how many swims per week, meters per workout, do you do any kick sets or mostly pull and swim full stroke, do you swim all 4 strokes or mostly freestyle???
Yes, I swam competitively (~8x/week) until my 2nd year of University. 400 IM and 800 FR were my best events.
This year was different due to closed pools, but normally we'll swim 5k (yards) or 4k (meters), 5 times per week. We're coached by Paulo Sousa and he basically gives us the same swim program as his ITU athletes. Sometimes I feel like it's too much swimming for 70.3 athletes but we do it anyway. Lots of boring, long, monotonous sets. No kick sets, full swim or pull+paddles. Only freestyle, haven't tried breaststroke for about 10 years :)
Ah yes, the Paulo approach, I've read about that here on ST. Kind of a shame though for a former 400 IM-er not to be allowed swim the other strokes. Personally, I would find it entirely too boring to just swim free, but sounds like you do too. You should sneak a 100 IM or 2 into your warm-ups and cooldowns. :)
In any event, it's great to see you come back from injury and do so well!!! I suspect this last win meant more to you than the ones in your youth, simply b/c you had to work so long and hard for it, vs the relatively quick success you had from 2007-11. :)
"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."