After a long rest set

I arrived back from Houston last night pretty late. My original flight was scheduled to get back to Dallas at 7pm but because of the storms did not land until 10.30. By the time I dropped the guys I was traveling with back at the office it was midnight by the time I went to bed. The alarm went off pretty hard this morning at 4.30am and it was tough getting out of bed.mi made it to the pool early which was weird, and actually had a pretty good practice all things considered. I think I am still feeling some of the positive affects of my taper, because my stroke feels strong in the pool.

Warm up
400 free with snorkel
6x50 catchup drill on 45
10x50 kick 12.5, swim 12.5 by 25 on 50
4x200 on 3 mins getting heart rate up alternating IM and fre

Main set
4x(2x50 on 35 with fins, 50 back on 35 with fins, 100 kick on 1.30 with fins)
12x100 free on 1.20 holding under 1.05

Warm down
200 easy

The 200s in the transition set were pretty good, holding 2.20s on IM and 2.07s on the free. The 50s with fins I always find harder than it should be, but felt good today holding 25-26s on the free, 30 on the back and 1min on the kick. The pace 100s felt easy and I held 1.02-1.04s. Overall a good workout and no I'll affects from my lack of sleep last night.

Woke up before the alarm was scheduled to go off this morning. I was pretty tired, but got up and headed to the pool 5 mins earlier than usual. The senior racer group coach was already at the pool so I got in few minutes earlier than normal. I had a great workout and felt strong throughout.Warm up400 free with snorkel8x50 drill alternating catchup and finger tip drag drill on 50Main set8x200 pull descend 1-4, 5-8 on 2.30100 easy8x100 kick with fins on 1.308x50 alternating drill, build on 1 min10x50 on 45 holding 33 paceWarm down200 easyTotal 4400 metersToday was one of those days where everything felt good and strong. I went 2.15,2.13,2.11,2.09, 2.16,2.13,2.11,2.08 on the descending 200 pulls and felt strong. In fact on the last 200 I ran into some traffic and think I could have gone quicker. The 100 kicks we were told to do them on 1.40 but I felt good so dropped the time on these, and held about 1.10 pace with fins. The build 50s I was around 33-34, and the final 50s I held consistent 33s.

Today was a solo swim. I tried convincing my kids to join me, but my son had a birthday party he was attending(these are becoming rare for him and he still really enjoys them) and my daughter just did not want to swim today(she is already swimming 5 days a week at 9 years of age, but is really enjoying it). I decided I,was going to do a pyramid swim today and thought the pool would be setup short course but to my pleasant surprise it was setup long course. I modified the pyramid slightly only going upto 400s but held a pretty quick pace and felt pretty good throughout. I really need to get my yardage backup and this will no doubt hurt, but longer term this will be good. I am going to,sit down with my coach in the next two weeks and work on next years goals and put a plan in place. Despite short course Nationals only just finishing I am ready to get going on the next set of goals. This morning I even caught myself thinking about doing long course nationals in August. My wife will kill me and I know I promised I would back off over the summer, and long term it will be better to reenergize and focus on a longer term goal, but it's tempting.

Warm up
400 free with snorkel
6x50 alternating catchup and finger drag drill on 45

Main set
All done with paddles and buoy
100 on 1.20
200 on 2.40
300 on 4mins
400 on 5.20
400 on 5.20
300 on 4mins
200 on 2.40
100 on 1.20
10x50 kick on 1min
10x50 catchup with 6 beat kick on 50

Warm down
300 easy swum 50 back, 50 free

Total 4000meters

I felt pretty good on the pull set and held 1.08 pace the whole way. I felt quite sore after the second 400 but kept my stroke long and concentrated on quick turns. I noticed in all my swims in Indy my turns were ok, but very slow. I know at 6.5 feet it's hard to tuck into a tight ball but I need to get over quicker. As i write this entry I am tired but I guess that's what happens when you taper all the way to no yardage and then build it back up again. I want to build a good base this summer and fall as a platform for next year.

I had a good practice today. We worked as a group on drills which was fun. We were given a drill that really helped with my catch. I dont know what its called, but you basically swim with your hands in the catch position out front, and then use each arm from the catch position. The weird part is that your hands are almost acting like a break since you start with the hand bent.

400 free with snorkel
6x50 finger drag drill on 45
8x50 shark fin drill
8x50 kick with hands in the catch position
8x50 catch drill(as described above)
6x100 25 catch drill, 75 perfect stroke with 10 seconds rest
3x200 kick with fins on 3 mins
2x(4x25 swum 12.5 fast 12.5 easy, 12.5 easy 12.5 fast, 25 easy, 25 fast, 2x50 on 40)
200 easy

Total 3700

I had a good nights sleep last night and woke up for the first time since Friday not congested. I had the goo d after affects of my taper at the beginning of practice but by the end I was poooped. This was a long 75 minute workout.

Warmup
400 free with snorkel
6x50 alternating catchup and finger drag drill on 45
6x100 IM descend 1-3, 4-6 on 1.20

Main set
4x500 free on 6mins, #1 breath every 5, #2 over kick, #3 4 SDKs off walls, #4 DPS
6x200 on 2.50 2x(IM, free, back/free by 50)

Total 4500

I felt tired by the end of this one. Found out after practice my team is hosting a long course meet on 6th July in Rockwall, Tx. The meet details will be posted in the next couple of days. I can't wait. we have an awesome facility and we need to host some more meets. Now all I have to do is motivate my own team to sign up.

I arrived home around 10.30pm last night and grabbed a quick sandwhich and went to bed. My plan today was to do an easy hour stretch type swim. The alarm went off hard at 4.30am and I dragged myself to the pool. I am glad I made the effort because I felt much better after the swim. The pool was setup long course, which was hard since I have been concentrating on short course yards for the last few months(with the odd LCM thrown in for good measure). It was great seeing everyone this morning and most of my team had watched the live streaming video of both Nikki and my races. I think my team mates were as excited about the meet as I was. I just wish We had more attending. Oh well there is always next year.


1000 swim with snorkel
6x150 kick with fins with 15 seconds rest between 150s
12x50 reducing stroke count per 50 on 1min
6x50 swum 25 fast, 25 easy
200 easy

Total 3000 meters.

I plan on taking this week pretty easy before getting back into the groove next week. As I have blogged before I spanning on doing 4 or 5 workouts a week through the summer and then working on my next goals and a program for the next year. I am looking forward to spending time with my kids in the evenings.

Saturday night I went out for dinner with my team mate Nikki and her mother. We went to the Webergrill restaurant downtown Indianapolis and despite an hour wait the food was well worth the wait. For future reference and events in Indy I would recommend the restaurant.


I had a really solid nights sleep and woke around 6am. I went through my normal morning routine of reshaving, brewing and drinking coffee and taking my vitamins. I then headed down stairs and had a nice leisurely breakfast of oatmeal and a bagel. I headed off to the pool later than usual and caught the last 4 heats of the women's 500 at around 9am. My friend Katie Gilmore with Alexandria masters swam an incredible race and ended up taking second in a blazing quick time of 5.06.


Today was my off race day and I had zero expectations for placing. First up was the 100 back followed by the 50 free. I had not swum a fast 100 back since 1992 and despite the odd back swim in practice(which are not swum all out) I have not swum the race at all. The 50 was never my thing and I don't recall the last race 50 and I bet it may have been back in the 1980s.


I did my normal warmup of about 1600 but did back 100s instead of my normal pace 100 frees. I practiced my turns and even joined the start lane and did a practice back start. After getting out and drying off I heard the start of the relays and only then realized I had not done a back finish and did not know the number of strokes from the flags in. Oops! In the end it did not matter because I had a great race, hitting all my turns, and taking four strokes into the finish and hitting the final wall spot on. My splits were 28.x, 29.x for a final time of 58.4. I felt really energized at the end and felt like I could have done another 50 at that pace. I am now determined to do a 200 back at some point in the future. I can definitely say I have not done one of those in an even longer time frame.


After the back, I took a nice long warm down which felt good. I got out wrestled my speedo fastskin3 on and then spent about 45 minutes stretching and focusing for the 50. I had entered on the only 50 time I have done since joining masters which was back in January and at 25.14, was over a second slower than my first 50 of yesterday's 100, and even slower than the first 50 of my 200. I felt with a good start and turn I could do a 23.x. I concentrated on taking a good track start and I got off the block really strong with a good breakout. I was half way down the pool and shock and horror I breathed. It was not intentional, but I breathed. I hit the turn really well, had a good streamline, kicked and the next thing I knew I had taken a second breath. I could not believe I had breathed. When I finished I was really upset at myself. I turned looked up and saw my time was 22.61. I had a moment of joy followed by that feeling of I could have gone even quicker. My time placed me 3rd, which I never ever would have imagined possible.


This meet exceeded my wildest expectations and my first place in the 1000 and third place in the 50 has to be one of the weirdest medal combos. I ended the meet with two golds, two bronzes, a fifth and an eighth. I would like to thank all the forumites for there support and encouragement since joining masters swimming. I am even more motivated to continue this fun masters journey. The most inspiring part of the week for me was seeing the 90 year old Vladimir Ouchaya's 20 minute plus 400 IM followed by a great 30 minute discussion with him about his life and how he quite smoking and took up swimming, competes regularly in his 90th year and has no intention of retiring any time soon. Swimming really is a life sport and my congratulations goes out to everyone who participated this week.

I went for a stretch swim last night and came back to the hotel tired. I decided to have a early dinner at the hotel and go to bed early. I had a good nights sleep but woke this morning with a sore throat and some sniffles. I don't know if I have a cold or allergies and i don't feel sick.

Today was not such a good day and my 500 was disappointing. I took the race out ok on the first 200 and then just did not have anything left. I have been working on bringing my 500 home and it just did not happen today. No excuses it was just not my day in the 500. I ended up going 5.02 and finished 3rd in my age group. I honestly think I have a lot more in the 500 and I will train even harder for this one.

There was about an hour gap between the end of the 500 and my heat of the 100. I took a long warm down after the 500 and tried getting myself in a good frame of mind for the 100. I had a good start but my first turn was not very good, but despite this I kept pushing hard and brought my second 50 home. I had hoped to go under 50 , but touched in 50.20. I think this is another race that could have been better and I think my seed time was probably a handicap. If I had been in the fastest heat I think I could have gone quicker, but I can't change what I did and this was a solid swim. My time placed me 5th in my age group.

Tomorrow is a fun day swimming off events. First up is the 100 back which I have not done since 1992 and then I have the 50 free. I will do a no breather on the 50 free and see what I can do. I have had an awesome time so far and plan on finishing the meet with some fun racing and a smile on my face.

I was pretty tired last night after the 1000 and when a rain storm came through around 6.30pm I decided to grab food at the hotel and have an early nights sleep. I fell asleep around 7.30pm and had a solid nights sleep waking at around 5.30am. I had a leisurely hour getting ready for the second day at the pool and ate breakfast around 7am and then took the 3-4 block walk to the pool.

Today had the 400 IM'ers starting followed by a break and short warmup before the rest of the days events. Long story short I had a lot of time this morning to do my 1600 yd warmup and then a shorter 1000 yd loosen up before my 200. Yesterday after my 1000 I had a pretty long talk with my coach and he asked me to trust him and take the 200 out in 24 on the first 50, and 52 at 100 and he felt I could bring it home swimming from the front. The 200 is my least favorite event. Over the years I have swum both slow and fast races in this one and on all occasions it just hurts. Typically my legs feel filled up with lead by about 150 and the last 50 is just brutal. Today was no different, but as my coach said I had enough to bring it home and I won in 1.49.47, touching out Morton Anderson who was reeling me in on the last 50. My splits were spot on what I was asked to swim and with some more fast endurance training I think I can drop significantly in this event.

It took me 30 minutes to loosen up after my race, but this one felt great. I have a tough day tomorrow doubling in the 500 and the 100. The 500 is my favorite event and based on today I think I can have a great 100. The key tomorrow will be getting a good long loosen up after the 500. I believe on the time line I will have about an hour between races and I am glad the 500 is first. I am ranked 4 in the 500 and there is a professional triathlete who is ranked first but has no times in the usms database. The 100 I am in the second fastest heat.

I am tired but I plan on heading back to the pool for another stretch and then will decide if I go to bed early or meet up for the forum dinner.

I had a great nights sleep last night and woke feeling excited. I had some butterflies fluttering even before I left the hotel room, which for me is a really good thing. I did the 10 minute walk to the pool from my hotel which was very pleasant and arrived at the pool at around 6.45am. I swam in lane 4 and realized after about 100 that three of the people in my lane were on the Alexandria Masters team I train with when I am in Washington DC. It was great briefly catching up with Katie Gilmore who is going to do the 1650 later today. I did about a 1600 yd warmup and then got out and dried off before heading back to the hotel for a light oatmeal breakfast. I quickly repacked my competition bag with my meet suit and headed back to the pool.

I was in the last heat of the 1000 so had tonnes of time when I got back to the pool. I hate sitting around at meets so kept moving and about 45 minutes before my race did another warmup swim in the diving well. Indy is such a great facility for swimming with the two competition pools and the diving well, plus two other 25 yd pools for warmup/warm down. After my second warmup I again dried off and put on my competition suit and then basically stretched and stayed busy until my heat. I had checked out the heats for my competition and new the next fastest guy was in lane 1 in the heat before me. He posted a 10.39 which is a good time, but it was beatable.

I was pretty relaxed before the start, but could not get some condensation out of my goggles which was annoying. As the gun went off and I hit the water, the strap on my goggles moved significantly down my head, and as I went down the first length I was expecting my goggles to fill with water. Luckily my worst fear did not come true and my goggles stuck. After about 400 I started to feel pretty tired, but focused on long and strong strokes. After 700 I really started to hurt and the final 150 was pretty brutal. I noticed a few guys on the other side of the pool, but being in lane 8 it was hard to really see where I was and where they were. I think I overtook a couple guys on the second 500 but wish I was closer to the middle of the pool.

After finishing I looked up and swore I saw my time was 10.48, and I was really upset. Nicky who was my counter congratulated me and said I did great and that my time was 10.21. I double checked with the time keeper and she confirmed my time. I guess I had looked at the wrong lane. I had won my age group. I am a National Champion masters swimmer. I am so excited. I had hoped to swim faster than 10.20 but at this point I don't care. It gives me plenty of room to improve and train to improve, but I won!

I am going to head back over to the pool to catch the 1650 swims.

I promised a few people I would blog my week at Nationals so thought I would start with a quick preamble post the day before the meet.


I am currently sitting at DFW waiting for my flight to Indianapolis. As of this week I have been back in the pool 8 months and when I got back in I never thought I would be traveling to Indianapolis to compete at Nationals. I have trained hard for this meet and feel like I have had a good taper keeping my yardage up yet mixing in some good quality work. I am nervous that I have not really raced in a long time, yet excited at the prospect of some good races.


Practice was short this morning with a quick 2300 yard workout after which two of my team mates who unfortunately are not swimming this week and my coach took me out for breakfast. It was great fun and its nice to have team mates i swim with who are so supportive. After breakfast I headed back to the house to start my shave down. I did not think much about hair or lack of before I started and ended up an egg head! My shave down took about an hour and I had no major razor burn or cuts and I am feel pretty good right now.


My flight leaves Dallas around 3.40pm and arrives at around 6.30pm. I hope to have time to swing by the pool for a short swim but if not I will grab dinner and try to go to bed early. Warmup tomorrow is 6.30am so with Indy being East Coast time zone I will have an early start. I had hoped to swim all the free events but the meet does not let you swim both the 1650 and the 1000. I swim the 1000 tomorrow morning, the 200 on Friday, the 500 and 100 on Saturday and the 50 and 100 back on Sunday. The 1000 and the 500 are deck seeded so I won't know my heat or lane until just before I swim. The 1000 is swum slowest to fastest with all ages and both men and women swimming together. I am ranked #9 overall so could be in the second to last heat or the last heat if anyone drops out. The meet timeline looks like i will be swimming around 10.30am. I am really looking forward to swimming the 1000 and it will give me a pretty good idea how my taper worked out and how the rest of the meet will go. I think my base is pretty good and think the middle and lone distance events should be strong, but based on some speed I seem to have picked up during the taper I may surprise myself it he shorter races.


I need to run since my flight boards in about 10mins, but will blog tomorrow after the 1000.

Forgot the coach said to show up 30 minutes later than usual so woke up to my normal alarm. Last night was not the best night of sleep I have had, I was thinking too much about Indy and Nationals. Today's swim was very straight forward with very little pace stuff and mainly floating along yardage.

400 swim with snorkel
6x50 drill
6x50 kick on 1 min
4x150 alternating free and IM
6x50 pace holding no fast than 30 on 45
3x100 easy drill/swim
100 easy
Total 2300

I had a long day at work today and got to the pool late. I felt ok during the warmup but got better as the workout went on.

1x800 swim with snorkel
5x200 alternate swim and pull no paddles, on 3 mins
4x50 fast on 2mins
3x100 back easy on 1.40
500 swim over kick with snorkel

Total 2800

I went around 2.12 on the 200s and felt strong but relaxed. On the 50s I felt good and built each 50, my times were good, 26,25,25,24. I may surprise myself in the 100 and the 50 this week.

Today I woke up early and felt pretty good. This feeling continued into the pool and I am finally starting to feel good.

Warmup
400 free with snorkel
6x50 catchup on 45
8x50 kick on 1 minute

Main set
6x100 descend 1-3, 4-6 on 1.40
2x500 with 30 seconds rest, breating every 5 on first and overkicking on the second
6x25 on 45 with fast breakouts

Warmdown
100 easy

Total 3050

I went 1.05, 1.01, 58, 1.03, 59, 56 on the descending 100s and felt like I had a lot left in the tank.

I showed up again at the pool ahead of the second day of the B/C meet and ended up doing my meet warmup. This week will be fun since yardage falls away at the beginning of the week and then it's race time starting on Thursday.

400 free
8x50 alternating catchup and finger drag drill on 45
4x100 fast 3 strokes off each wall
50 easy
4x50 fast 12.5 on each 50
150 easy

Total 1600


I felt sluggish on the first 400 but by the end of the warmup felt pretty good. Hopefully a sign of things to come this week.

Today there was an age group B/C meet at the pool so I got in as the pool was being setup. I was joined by Scott, Nicky and Sid. Nicky and I are going to Nationals and Scott and Sid are starting training for next year(both age up). Today was an easy swim, but once again I felt out of sorts. I hope I will start to feel more energetic soon. I plan on having a very easy and lazy weekend and plan on sleeping a lot between naps.

Workout
400 free with snorkel
6x50 drill alternating catchup and finger drag drill on 45
6x100 kick on 2 mins
3x200 pull on 2.45
6x100 drill with snorkel on 1.30
12x50 swum as 25 underwater, 25 DPS with fins on 50
4x50 swum 25 fast 25 easy with strong turns with fins
500 easy

Total 3800

I received a good luck card from my swim team in England yesterday, which was so nice and it's nice to know I have such great support. Thanks Woking Swimming Club.

I felt pretty crappy this morning. Just no umphh.

Warmup
400 free with snorkel
6x50 alternating catchup and finger drag drill on 45
6x100 kick with fins on 1.40 easy

Main set
3x500 #1 pull, #2 swim breathing every 5, #3 6beat kick on 6mins
2x(2x50 with fins AFAP on 35, 2x25 underwater with fins, 2x50 back AFAP)
100 easy

Warm down
6x100 on 1.25 DPS

Total 4000

500's I held between 5.30 and 5.40. It did not hurt but again no feel for the water and just no go. The fast 50s were ok and I went 23,24 on the free on both sets and 27,28 on the backstroke 50s. My back felt pretty good.

I got to the pool late tonight and had to rush to get a decent swim in. The weather in Dallas dropped from a very pleasant 80+F to 40+F overnight. This time of the year can be so unpredictable! To make matters worse it rained and despite needing the rain it makes the commute crazy. Anyhow I did not stress out and grabbed a quick dinner and headed to the pool. At the pool a lot of people(many I did not even know) seemed to know I had nationals next week and there were a lot of well wishers. On one had it was a little concerning that I did not know these people, but they new me(I guess the old man who swims quite quickly in the pool makes me stand out in the public lanes) and on the other hand it was quite flattering.

Warm up
6x200 alternating free and IM on 2.45

Main set
3x(2x100 on 1.20 80% effort, 200 kick on 3.30)
4x(4x25 underwater, 2x50 on 35 holding 30, 2x75 back on 1.10)

Warm down
200 easy

Total 4000

My second tighter competition suit arrived today. The Speedo Fastskin3 size SR4 was tight, but will be great next week. I am quite shaggy hair wise and need a hair cut. I am really looking forward to next week to get my hair clipped and shave down for some fast racing.

Today I felt sluggish. Taper blues as my coach called it set in. My times were ok but I just felt slow. After practice we discussed the last week of my taper and what he was looking for from me. I felt pretty pumped up after the discussion and can't wait for next week.

Warm up
1000 swim with snorkel

Main set
3x500 on 6 mins, #1 6 beat kicking, #2 pull with paddles breathing every 5, #3 even splits at 85-90% effort
100 easy
6x100 kick with fins on 1.20
12x100 descending 100s by 25 on 1.25 holding 1.03-1.05 pace

Warm down
200 swim with snorkel perfect stroke

Total 4600yds

I went pretty easy on the first and second 500s and went about 5.30 pace. The last one I had trouble hitting my turns right and ended up too close on quite a few which definately slowed me down. I went 5.14 and felt pretty bad. Not tired bad just no umphh. I felt much better on the 12x100s and built to about 85% and held 1.03s on all of them. Despite the feeling of no umphh the taper is coming along nicely and I will be ready to race next week.

I tried my race suit on yesterday and it's a little loose(i can still wear it but it went on way too easy) so I ordered yet another competition suit. This time I made sure I went with a tight suit and ordered a speedo fastskin3 size 28(sr4). I believe my Nike Hydra will be fine to race in and in some ways it's nice to have two suits since I have two races on Saturday and Sunday and wearing a dry suit can't hurt.

I suspect those going to Indy are like me and getting excited!

I felt ok tonight. I was in a rush because my daughter had a school program tonight. I got about an hour sim in and felt like I was rushing.

Warm up
20x50 on 50 alternating 50 free, 50 back and 50 fly
8x100 kick best average on 2mins

Main set
2x(3x50 on 35, 3x50 on 30)
8x25 free DPS on 30
3x300 back with fins on 3.45, 12.5 underwater off turns
2x200 descending by 50 on 3mins

Warm down
100 easy

Total 4000