What a Drag

Tuesday morning - What a Drag...

Since we raced this weekend at Gold Rush, Chris gave us Monday morning off.  I took the opportunity to swim on Monday--another rare treat!

Monday's swim set:

1. 200yds IM
2. 4x100yds free
3. 200yds free
4. 4x100yds IM

Many of the MEMO swimmers did a 1 mile open water swim at Spring Lake in Santa Rosa on Saturday.  Maybe Marcia thought the set was suppose to be easier/recovery, but the set was tiring!

This morning, Marcia had an invention for us--SpongeMarcia, a sponge placed in mesh bag.  In preparation for open water swimming and probably upper body strength conditioning, Marcia had us use a strap to tie the sponge in the mesh bag around our waste and drag it back and forth in the pool.  In fact, we covered quite a good amount of distance with the sponge:

1. 300yds free with the sponge
2. 50yds free sprint with the sponge
3. Repeat #1 and #2 two more times
4. 50yds spring with no sponge (surprising how much faster you can go without the sponge!)
5. 100yds free with ALL the sponges in your lane

Swimmer dragging all the sponges in her lane

For all the rowers, have you ever erged with the drag factor set at a 7 or 8?  Or have you ever rowed an eight with a bucket tied to the stern?  Marcia's sponges are a similar concept--increased drag or resistance.  A higher drag factor on the erg and increased drag through the water in a boat helps to build strength and practice non-ideal conditions, such as a strong headwind, a heavy coxswain, and/or just a lot of dead weight in the boat!