... and that means I've got to get in shape for the MEMO (Marcia's Enthusiastic Masters of Oakland) 400 Kick For Time! I first did this fun, virtual event back in 2013, a year that I mostly spent with kicking and drills thanks to a shoulder issue, and have tried to enter it every year since.
To completely fry my legs today, I took yesterday's main swim set and converted it to a brutal kick set, making use of my new Funky Trunks Beast kickboard:
4 rounds of a "400 kick hard" followed by a 100 easy on 2:00 swim/drill with a snorkel:
#1 kick w/board on 6:30, odd lengths dolphin, even lengths flutter - 6:16
#3 as 4 x 100 on 1:40 with fins going 7 fast underwater dolphin kicks off each wall and then flutter the rest of the way, odd lengths on stomach, evens lengths on back (1:11, 1:12, 1:13, 1:12)
#4 kick w/board on 6:30, odd lengths dolphin, even lengths flutter - 6:05
#1 and #4 were in the style that I'll use for the virtual event. As I hiked 6KM yesterday in addition to my swim workout, I was pretty happy with the 6:05 on the last one. Last year for the MEMO event, I was 5:54, and I've been as fast as 5:38 back in 2014. Going forward through this month and early December, I'll do more kick sets in my workouts and at least one intense primarily kick workout each week. With my warmup and cool-down, I was at 3,150 yards today at my local LA Fitness.