I've taken a blogging break. I have been lurking and commenting but otherwise on hiatus. Swimming has been good lately. I have been doing the Jackie Hirsty Distance workouts (find in the Forum) on Monday/Wednesday solo and swimming with the Nasti Tribe on Tu/TH/Sat/Sun. I've been subbing some backstroke in for freestyle in the JH workouts. I am really starting to like bs but I need to get stronger coming off the walls. Last Saturday I needed to swim earlier than Nasti's practice so I trapsed down to the Monon Center to go solo. As I entered the pool I noticed 2 lanes of swimmers (4 or 5 per lane) starting a great looking workout. I started over to lane 1 (empty) and the swimmers called my name out. As it worked out it was a group of friends (ISF mostly) I haven't seen for a while; they invited me to swim with them. It was a great workout! So much better than my normal solo slog. I will probably swim with them this Saturday too; Nasti's lost their pool time this week-end due to a high school meet. Tomorrow my school is trying to break the current Guinness World Record we currently have participants claim of. It's "Stack Up" day. The goal is to have MORE than 222,568 people Sport Stack in a single day. I will have 740 participants at my school during PE classes. The current record is on page 10 in the 2010 Guinness Book of World Records! I will try to post some footage of some stacking if I can figure out how to get my flip videos downloaded. If you don't know what I'm talking about (and you care) go to Speed Stacking.com and click on any Steve Purganeon sp? video clip....you'll be amazed!
"Study the past if you would define the future." -Confucius Raising the Standards Again, decisions on this meet were based on my experiences and ideas on swim meets. Another area where a new approach was taken was in the meet web page. Until our first meet, the only meet web pages I saw were for a local meet with a few links given, and for Nationals. Since there was a lot of information I wanted swimmers to have access to (that I seldom had for meets I entered), and since most swimmers had internet access, I wanted to take the meet web page to a new level. I gave our meet its own web page with its own menu of links and created an extravaganza! Information from the meet announcement was copied onto the page in the same order so it was easy for swimmers to correlate the two if needed. Leveraging the web, URL's in the meet announcement were replaced with actual hyperlinks on the web page. First, the menu contained a link to the entry form, a pdf file, and next, a link to the swimmers' entry status. After entering a meet, I want to know if my entry was received and everything was OK. Our status page lists all swimmers' entries received to date and their status (either OK, or something wrong with their entry.) Past problems included wrong or missing registration card, no tee shirt size given, not enough or too much payment, unsigned release of liability, and entering too many events. Of course the meet director needs to notify the culprits and ask them to make good. The status page also indicates who else is coming (your friends and foes) and how many slots are left in the restricted 500-free (more on this later.) Years ago, a fellow teammate and I went to a Thanksgiving meet nearby and ordered and paid for the meet tee shirt. It was OK. Next year, he ordered a shirt at the meet, I did not. Upon arrival, he was proudly given a light brown shirt with sh#@ brown 'Times New Roman' lettering and ads across the back. I joked about it all the way home, and felt relieved that I had not spent money on the shirt that year. Ordering a meet tee shirt was like rolling the dice. We included a web page link to our meet tee shirt design to let swimmers see the design before plunking down their money. You should only do this if you have a good tee shirt design. I noticed one Albatross Open (who always has good shirt designs) started doing this last year, too. Once again, the web was leveraged for the next link. Directions to the New World were given in a graphic map, as well as in a link to an interactive Google map. No one was going to get lost and show up late to our meet. Meg Smath from Kentucky put together a document that was distributed to first time competitors at her LMSC meet. I thought this was a great idea since we were reaching out to the first time competitor who may not know what to expect or plan for. Some swimmers may have been familiar with USA, college, or dual meets, but not Masters. There were a few surprises at my first USMS meet (Reston Masters SCM with warmups around 6:45 AM.) Meg's directives were condensed, revising some advice specific to our meet, and uploaded as My First Meet for our newbies. For some reason while putting the web page together, an idea flashed into my brain - usually they only leak out. I thought it would be good to allow swimmers to post their photos of the meet on our meet page. The friendly meet scrapbook showing shiny happy people was developed. Meet participants now send in their smiling faces each year. File sizes are reduced and pasted in the online scrapbook so others can see how much fun they missed. On the first meet's web page, I included a short background midi music file (low file size) that played once. Two teammates responded. One said the sound was normally turned off on his computer. The other said she worked at the Library of Congress and viewed the meet page at work, alerting her fellow workers to that fact when the music started up. I included another background music file only once since. No other swimmers commented on the music or web page then or since. However, these were the first clues to swimmers that our first meet was going to be a bit different. BOOK OF WISDOM If you do a meet page to encourage entries, leverage the web's interactive and linking abilities to your advantage
Updated November 12th, 2009 at 02:46 PM by Rnovitske (grammar)
Decided to start blog to keep track of workouts and swimming progress. 4th year of swimming masters and starting to drop time, especially on distance free. Considering doing a meet next weekend - I'll sign up this weekend if I decide to. Saturday coach is encouraging this. I have been extremely tired since the time change the begining of November, so I cut my 6-7 days a week to 4 or 5 days a week. Feeling better today than I have since the time change. I plan on hitting the gym at 5 am tomorrow, still considering the workout. Took the dog on a 1/2 hour hike after work today and can tell my dryland is lacking the endurance I used to have. I will be more concientious of doing this every day now. (since I am recording it, I am now responsible) 5 am practice. Warm up: 1X400 IM (swim, kick, pulll, swim) 2X200 IM 4X100 Back 4X100 Breast pull dolphin kick with fins 4X100 Fly 4X25 hypoxic underwater Got out early to help the coach with a younger swimmer.
A few years back, my interest in OW swimming grew into something of an obsession. Of course I read many books and articles about swimmers who have pushed the limits of what was considered "humanly" possible regarding exposure to cold water temperatures, and it seemed that a generous layer of subcutaneous fat was a celebrated feature of many of the who's who of OW. This makes perfect sense as all mammals living in extreme temperatures share this characteristic and many also sport a thick coat of fur as well. A self-proclaimed fat-o-phobe... I have managed to keep my weight between 162 and 173 for the past 20 years and I never thought I would be willing to "sculpt" my body to fit an OW ideal, leaving me with two choices: 1)forget about swimming marathons in water below 70 degrees. 2)adapt to cold water by increasing exposure gradually. Along with a couple of friends, I have been working on the latter, and I have also been experimenting to find the right pace that will generate maximum heat and still be sustainable for 9 - 12 hours. My time in Dover this year led me to a change in attitude about weight gain. I have met so many channel swimmers and almost all claimed some degree of "bulking up" for the swim... none expressed regrets. I think a target weight of 185 - 190 should be a decent balance for me... somewhere between the 20 and 30 pounds extra that is commonly sought. If it seems like the extra weight is slowing me down much (I am not expecting any 50scy personal records) I will reevaluate the plan. The Dover Harbor training swims employ a sparse feeding schedule (one feed after 2 hours, and then once each hour) in part to train ones body to burn fat to keep warm.
SCY Workout at GMU w/Speedo, Jazz & Wolfy: PART 1: Warm up: 700 variety swim, kick, drill (Jazz was in the hottub for much of this. lol) Pre Sets: 6 x 25 Jazzy "good swimmer drill" @ :40 In this drill, you tap your head on the freestyle recovery before entering the water. This drill is designed to promote high elbows and proper entry. I loved this one. I might incorporate this drill regularly if I actually do some tri relays next year. Straight arm doesn't work so well in OW. 3 x (4 x 25 variables) @ :30 #1 12.5 fast/12.5 easy #2 12.5 easy/12.5 fast #3 build #4 fast I didn't do #4 fast, just cruised instead. 50 EZ 6 x 50 kick w/fins @ 1:00 The girly boys were very lazy on these, though Jazz claimed to go fast on one of these. I missed that. Sheesh, wimpy kickers. 50 EZ Sprint Set: 8 x (25 AFAP w/fins + 50 EZ) @ 2:30 Previously, Pete and I did these on 3:00. But Wolfy couldn't tolerate our lollygagging ways, so forced us to do them @ 2:30. I did 6 free w/fins and 2 backstroke SDK w/fins. Jazz and Wolfy had some nice races and Speedo looked speedy as usual. Jazzy blatantly taunted the Wolf by putting on a drag suit and pull buoy and challenging him. I'm actually not sure who won that duel. All I know is that Jazz and Wolf are both evil "leave a second early cheaters" and none of the girly men could beat me on the 25s, even when I was kicking, unless they used super fins. (I had forgotten my own fins and used some of Mason's -- they were awful, those floaty Speedo fins that are good for drills, but not speedwork.) I felt pretty draggy on the first couple of 25s, but then sped up. I didn't have that easy speed feel, but I think I was just too sore from the mega dryland yesterday. 100 EZ Total: 2450 Jazz left at this point, being utterly uninterested in vertical kicking and having done much more yardage than usual. PART 2: Kill the Wolf Vertical Kicking Circuit: 2 x through: No evil kicking allowed whatsoever No fins, except when Wolfy needed them to do or finish the set. #1 med ball throw: Paul, Pete and I did the first round for 2:30. Wolfy & I did the second round for about 1:30 I wish I had a partner to do this with more often. Very fun and hard work. #2 5:00 vertical kicking with hands at shoulders I did the first round dolphin kick and the second round alternating dolphin kick and flutter kick by 1:00 intervals. Wolfy and I agreed that flutter kick was harder b/c you don't recruit the core as much. Pete did round 1 of these and then had to leave for work. Or was it a hair appt.? #3 "sprint" 1 x flutter kick in streamline position for as long as you can without mouth going below surface 1 x dolphin kicking same way. I made about 30 seconds on both of these, but I had a somewhat sloppy streamline. Need to work on this. These "sprint" kicks are great for working on increasing kick tempo. You have to kick really fast and hard to stay above the water. Wolfy lasted about 2 seconds on the first one. Speedo suggested that underwater film to catch the facial expression could be interesting. #4 vertical kicking with med ball for 1:00 OMG, this was HARD. We had a 6 pound ball and a 8 pound ball, and we each used one once. The 8 pound ball was much harder and it was hard for me to get through the second round. Quads were burning. 100 EZ I was very proud of the Wolf for making it through this set! And I was really really glad to have some company for it. 15 minutes in hottub ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Commentary: Part 2 was harder than Part 1. Doh. As I noted above, I definitely want to add more of the high tempo VK to my routine. Wolfy was mentioning that he thought I might be overtrained. IDK ... I thought I was just training hard. There are lots of folks swimming, lifting, and doing other forms of cross training just like me. And I am not showing the symptoms of overtraining that I've read about on other threads. Here's one: http://forums.usms.org/showthread.ph...t=overtraining Plus, I did have a recovery week before the Sprint Classic and typically take Saturday off, though I didn't the last two. But we both agreed that I might need a longer taper than my typical 2 week taper. Actually, I think my last taper was really 3 weeks b/c I dropped the leg work early. I think I'll have to go with 3 weeks again b/c I am always beating up on my legs. Or possibly more. I just have to figure out what to cut out, how much and when. I'm sure I'll enjoy the first week of taper and then just f'in hate the last 2 as usual ... As to my plan to stop heavy lifting after NE Champs, Wolfy commented that lifting heavy 1x a week to maintain strength might not have any real benefit and just confuse the neural system. I still plan on strength training, of course, I'm just going to drop the heavy lifting on the leg press, hi row, bench press, deadlift, etc. for a few months. I need a mental break. This is apparently b/c I am an "ADD" trainer. Hahaha, I just like to mix it up. I'm going to focus on bodyweight work and plyos instead. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SCM Meet in DC: Nice line up for this meet! Yay, Muppet for organizing a good meet with a good order of events. (Did you hear that guys? ) https://www.clubassistant.com/club/m...1403&smid=1968 Had I known this earlier, not sure I would have booked my Boston flight ... And I still need to get my meet entries in for that meet.
Updated November 11th, 2009 at 07:20 PM by The Fortress
On Tuesday, jumped in for part of the kids' practice. Warm-up: 300 swim, 300 pull, 300 kick 4 x 500 free on 1 minute rest (hard efforts) 10 x 50 pull on 1:00 8 x 75 free kick (no fins) on 1:30 100 easy 5 x 50 heads-up free on 1:15 -all-out 3 x 100 dolphin kick (no fins) on 1:45 300 easy 4800 yards Dryland immediately following swim: Lunges Wall-chairs 8 x 1:00 - 1 minute rest between each wall-chair and on last 4, keep one leg out - alternate legs every 15 seconds Today, met with the Death Valley Club and ran 4 miles of the hill route at an 8:45 per mile pace.
11/11/09 Since I have a meet this weekend, but am not really tapering, this week's workouts are lower in intensity so i can be somewhat rested. SCY, solo 200 swim free 200 kick, rev IM order 200 IM drill 200 pull free 200 swim back 3x around { swim 300 bk/br/fr IM (ie 100 bk, 100 br, 100 fr) 20 sec. rest kick 6 x 50 w/10 sec. rest: 2 fly, 2 breast, 2 free } 200 swim down -- Total: 3000 yards Upcoming Swim Meets This weekend I will go to Utah for a Masters meet at the Davis County Recreation Center I will swim the following events on Saturday: 200 back 50 fly 100 free 50 back Next week, 11/21-22 I will go to Boise ID and swim in a USA swim meet with the kids I'll be swimming the following: Saturday 50 free 50 back Sunday 100 free 100 back 50 fly
Wed Nov 11th, 2009 TODAYS SWIM PRACTICE FOUR OR MORE SDKs off EVERY wall SCY 5:30 - 6:30 Whitney coached dove in on after warm up swam with jon, tyler, marcio, ned, nate, & brad TSC Diving well WORE briefs Warm Up missed it MAIN SET whitney set up 5 stations we spent 6:00 in each one 8 x 50 warm up 12 x 25 on 30 worked SDK 5 x 50 fr 6 SDKs off each wall 8 x 50 worked SDK 12 x 25 on :30 worked SDK MEETS: Saturday, November 21 & Sunday 22, 2009 University of the Incarnate Word (SCM) Masters Meet 9 Days till San Antonio December 4th - 6th, 2009 2009 SPMA Short Course Meters Championships at Long Beach http://www.spma.net/meetforms/2009/lbgscm.htm 22 Days till Long Beach
UMHS Warm 10x50 on 1:00 Main 10x100 on 1:40 50 ez *left shoulder prevented applying torque Kick 6x50 BF K (on back hands streamlined) 2:00 Drills 6x50 Stanford drill (4 strokes BF no breath, FR to wall, then 4 more BF no breath FR to wall) 1:30 6x50 BK d/s (drill is one arm overhead switch)1:00 200 cool down Its just human nature to compare oneself with others in their quest for swimming greatness. Its good to have higher standards to look up to, it always keeps me motivated, as I have a competitive spirit. So even if I don't have stellar workout performances, I believe that lowering my standards in this case is not the wise thing to do, as my standards seems to be lowering themselves without any due process on my part. I haven't been in the pool since Friday. Today my 10x100 on 1:40 were landing on 1:20 -1:19. The last time we did it, I was just cruising and doing 1:18-1:16 on 10x100 on 1:30(Sept) Last spring I was able to get 1:10-1:13 on 5x100, so the weight training is having a negative affect on my overall performance. (I started in the spring in hopes of lowering my cruise towards 1:05 or better.) Somehow its just not helping. Ive injured my shoulders and I just don't have the strength I need to pull myself through the water faster. Ive decided that I will go back to normal dryland/calisthenic's/pilates. This is not to say that weight training is bad, I didn't approach it correctly and I did more damage than good, ergo I should have got a trainer to help me with the weight program instead of DIY.
Doveryai, no proveryai (Trust, but verify) -Russian proverbFirst entry received The first entry to the 2010 Tropical Splash was received! I stopped by the post office box this weekend and there was one entry from a Germantown Masters swimmer. I think this is the earliest a swimmer has ever registered; usually entries start trickling in around Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, he attached a copy of his 2009 registration card that will be invalid at meet time in 2010. I contacted him by email and asked him to send a pdf of his card after he renews. Hosting a meet so close after the beginning of the year, we were expecting this problem, and we were not disappointed. In the past meets, about 20% of all entries received did not have a current USMS card. Entries would arrive with outdated registration cards, with or without explanations. The ones with no cards attached always had a guilty explanation. In order of popularity:My renewal was sent in but I am still waiting for my card.I thought I could just bring a copy to the meet. (Of course, and hold up the check-in and make us keep track of you until then)No card, but here's my USMS number (The number is from last year, and I need your DOB, USMS club, and USMS name)I sent it in to my club treasurer but she won't forward it until she has a batch to send in. (And did you tell her you need it to enter a meet?)I lost my card and need to get another or find it (So soon after renewing????)Sorry, I copied the wrong registration card. (Why do you keep your old one?)My registration is with Egypt (the country) This usually created more work for the meet director: keeping a list of swimmers who need to submit valid cards and contacting them by email or telephone to arrange a method for receiving it. Try playing Sherlock Holmes when their email and phone number are left off the entry. Loads of fun. Being such a nice guy, (my philosophy is that we were HOST to the swimmers and as a HOST, should try to be gracious and as accommodating as possible) I usually allowed them to fax it to me and would attach it to their entry form. Some would send it in the mail if there was enough time. Still others were so late to sign up that they needed to bring a copy of their card to the meet check-in. This would make a good VISA commercial - everything is humming along at check-in and some dolt steps up to pay or copy their card, causing the entire process to disintegrate. J-Rod, our LMSC registrar, made updated registration info a bit easier to get in the Cretaceous Period before online registration. He would update an online list of pertinent info of Potomac Valley swimmers that only meet directors had access to - a BIG help in checking out cardless excuses. For our meet, he updated it almost daily. I usually found the late renewals here and copied their info into the meet before a copy of their card arrived. I also copied the page for our meet archives since rules state that evidence of USMS registration is necessary. I have also been known to contact a few neighboring LMSC registrars to get the scoop on their late bloomers not fortunate enough to belong to Potomac Valley. I had to check into that Egypt entry. Yes, a Egypt Masters swimmer could enter the meet. No, I do not report his times to USMS. Good thing because I did not know his LMSC. I could not read Arabic to determine the expiration date on his card. A Syrian friend eventually translated it for me - it was from the previous year - expired. Why did that not surprise me. We did get him squared away before the meet. Last year the renewal clouds parted and the savior arrived and his name was Club Assistant. The new USMS online registration made 'it's in the mail' excuses invalid. In minutes, swimmers could renew online, receive a pdf copy of their card, and print it out to enter the meet. The expired-registration card entries dropped to about 5% of the total. Those that tried some excuse received a quick infraction notice from me that included a web address to renew, and my email address to send their pdf card to. One more note on registrations. J-Rod also advised me at our first meet to have a LMSC registration form on hand at the meet in case someone needed to register there in order to swim, along with neighboring Maryland and Virginia registration forms. Only once in 2008 did someone need it to register at the meet check-in. BOOK OF WISDOMDon't host a meet at the beginning of the yearDecide if you want to be a wicked director of the west, or a good director from the north
Updated November 10th, 2009 at 07:08 PM by Rnovitske
Since I hadn't been to the gym in a few days, I made sure to get in a real meathead ignoramus extraordinaire workout today. I suspect I'll be dead later as usual. Drylands: HS hi row, warm ups sets, 210 x 1 x 5, 220 x 2 x 5 (PR) Dara yoga ball twist on cable machine, 50 x 1 x 15, each side, 60 x 1 x 15, each side one legged squats w/15 lb DBs, 2 x 10 each leg lying overhead tricep press, 20 x 1 x 15, 30 x 1 x 15, 40 x 1 x 15 leg press, warm up sets, 410 x 2 x 10 (PR) (this is the max weight on this machine) deadlift, 135 x 2 x 8 push ups, 3 x 25 body rows, 2 x 15 bicycles, 2 x 50 long arm crunches, 2 x 25 elevated knee ins w/10 lb weight held by feet, 2 x 25 good morning darlings, 1 x 50 box jumps on high box, 1 x 10 rock star jumps, 2 x 10 plyo circuit: 3 x through: 30 seconds lateral jumps over bench w/hands on bench (did 45-47 jumps) 30 seconds rest 1:00 jumping jills 30 seconds rest 30 seconds squat press w/15 lb med ball throwing up and catching it 30 seconds rest power wheel: roll outs, 1 x 15, 1 x 25 pike ups, 1 x 15 As I was getting ready to do the pike ups, a guy came over and declared the power wheel "an absolute instrument of torture." lol I started a second set of the pike ups, but felt an abdominal muscle strain on the left side, so I stopped. This is a very hard exercise if you roll up and out all the way. (Well, FortSon just told me I wasn't supposed to go completely flat ...) prone scapular scrunches, 3 x 25 3 position arm extensions, 3 x 2 x 15, each arm scapular wall slides, 2 x 25 external and internal rotators, 10 x 3 x 15, each arm I then trudged into the hot gym pool and did the following very slowly: Swim/SCM/Solo: Warm up: 600 variety Slow aerobic work: 10 x 25 twirling 4 point shooters 5 x 100 on :20 RI done as 50 backstroke kick/50 back 10 x 25 twirling 4 point shooters 50 dolphin dive Total: 1650 meters 5 minutes hot tub 5 minutes steam room ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now, I would love a good massage and an ice bath. Alas, that is not happening, and I fear I will be sore tomorrow. But, unlike Jimby, I will not be weak. I drank my pure sort workout and recovery drinks during the workout. I was famished after and made my own recovery smoothie with a banana, fresh blackberries, mixed frozen berries, coconut water, mangosteen juice, walnuts, glutamine, flax seed oil and whey protein. Tomorrow, I'm planning to head to Mason to work out with Speedo, Wolfy and maybe Cage Fighter. Some vertical kicking is on the menu, including vertical kicking with med balls. We may alternate some endurance vertical kicking (as Ande did in one of his circuits recently) with some sprint kicking with the head above water in a streamline position. Wolfy has already announced he will be "moaning." But it will be good for him!
Updated November 10th, 2009 at 06:09 PM by The Fortress
SCY, solo 500 swim alternating free and back 200 kick IM order all on back, no board 200 IM drill 200 pull free w/buoy only swim 5 sets of 3 x 50: set 1 build free on 1:00 (ave 37) set 2 back, desc. 1-3 on :55 (44->38) set 3 smooth free on 50 (make the interval) (just barely made interval) set 4 back, descend 1-3 on :55 (about the same as above, took an extra 30 sec rest before next round) set 5 25 fly fast/25 free easy on 1:00 swim 200 easy swim 4 x 25 fast on 1:00 choice (did back (16), free (14), fly (16), free (15) back from race start, the rest from a push) swim down 300 -- Total: 2450 yards
This morning I went to practice chanting my new mantra: “I’m a sprinter—I need my rest!” My teammates rolled their eyes, but I swam down a lane from my usual one and felt good with the more generous intervals. Here is what I did: 600 warmup 12 x 25, starting & ending mid-pool @ :30 [These were to work on IM-transition turns—we did 4 of each type. I focused on starting slow and increasing my speed on each one within each set of 4, and on staying calm and smooth while increasing my speed.] 12 x 75: 3 x BK/BR/FR @ 1:15; 3 x FR @ 1:10 @; 3 x FL/BK/BR @ 1:15 [More focus on smooth and efficient turns] 4 x (50 K @ 1:15; 50 K @ 1:05; 50 K @ :55). (One of my lanemates today is a polo player, and did leg work in the deep end of our lane during this set. I high-fived him with my kick board on the slow and medium 50s. No matter how high I put my kickboard, he could always leap up and hit the top of it!) 2 x (200 easy FR @ 3:20, 2 x 100 fast @ 1:25) [I focused on keeping the fast 100s under 1:15, and tried to keep them nearer 1:10. This set actually called for 4 rounds of 200/100/100, but during the 2nd round my left arm started feeling twingy, so I bailed on the last two rounds and warmed down, preparing to get out. It never feels great to stop in the middle of a set, but sometimes when things aren’t feeling right with your body it’s better to shut things down, and live to swim another day!] Then I noticed that all the swimmers in lane 5 had left early, so I was able to practice a few BK starts. On these, I focused on curling my thumbs (as well as my fingers) over the bar, rather than gripping it with my thumbs underneath. This helps me think about pushing downward and outward with my hands immediately on the start, rather than using them to pull myself up higher on the wall. When my first motion is a push downward, it helps me get my hands back over my head in time to enter the water with streamlined arms. Pulling myself up on the wall, on the other hand, often results in my hands arriving to their streamline late, plus I think it also increases the chances of my feet slipping down the wall. It’s funny how such a little change—thumb wrapped over rather than under—can make such a big difference in my starts. I did 5 practice starts, and the last 3 of them felt good—it seemed like I was able to preserve a lot of my momentum into the water. On my breakouts I concentrated on keeping the amplitude of my dolphin kick small, and making the kicks really quick. I did these starts on my own, so had plenty of time to set myself and think about what I wanted to do before each start. The next step is being able to do all this on a starter’s timing, so I’ll ask one of my coaches to give the starting commands next time I practice BK starts. Then I did another quick warmdown and left practice happy. I'm coddling my arm for the rest of today in hopes that it will be up to some sprinting tomorrow.
Tue Nov 10th, 2009 have a little cold or allergies Weights World Gym lat press 8 x 40 8 x 45 8 x 50 6 x 55 lat pull 6 x 167 6 x 207 4 x 217 bench press 6 x 135 6 x 185 3 x 200 leg press 8 x 230 6 x 320 6 x 410 TODAYS SWIM PRACTICE FOUR OR MORE SDKs off EVERY wall SCY 6:30 - 8:00 Whitney coached dove in on time swam with Nate & Mike beside Tyler Todd Larry Amy Max & Paul WORE briefs Warm Up 300 fr inx 3 SDKs off each wall, I did 4 100 IM k 300 fr 100 IM MAIN SET assigned 4 x 400 desc done 75 fr 25 stroke mod interval did 4 x (4 x 50 fr with 6 SDKs off each wall) assigned assigned 4 x 300 desc mod interval did 4 x (3 x 25 easy 25 SDK from a dive) got out rested 12 minutes put on B70 legs 50 FL FAST Mike V timed 10 SDKS / 7 SDKS went 23.8 50 easy got out early to make a 8:00 meeting MEETS: Saturday, November 21 & Sunday 22, 2009 University of the Incarnate Word (SCM) Masters Meet 10 Days till San Antonio December 4th - 6th, 2009 2009 SPMA Short Course Meters Championships at Long Beach http://www.spma.net/meetforms/2009/lbgscm.htm 23 Days till Long Beach
Today I decided to challenge myself alittle at the end and actually get back up to 4000 today. Tomorrow the pool will be closed for the holiday so no swimming in the morning. 10x100@1:45 Free nice and long 5x100@:05R Back drills w/fins fashion model, partial recovery, underwater recovery, double arm and arms perpendicular kicking 500 kick as 25 free/25 fly middle 100 sprint kick Work on getting a good pull here 5x100@2:00 Back w/paddles as 25 right arm, 25 left arm, 50 swim Push set 5x100@1:30 Free w/paddles & bouy 3x100@1:25 Free w/paddles & bouy 2x100@1:20 Free w/paddles & bouy 500 Free Easy Total 4000 yards
Got to practice some with the kids today. Felt kind of bad that I got there late. They had a long warm-up of 1600 yards and I only got 100 in before starting on the first set. Warm-up: easy 100 Four rounds of the following set: 300 free pull on 4:00 200 free negative split on 3:30 100 I.M. - ALL OUT (held within 4 to 7 seconds of masters best on I.M.) 50 easy 6 x 100 kick with fins on 1:30 - hold 1:15 or better - did 3 dolphin on back, 3 free kick 100 easy 6 x 150 free with fins on 1:55 - We were supposed to hold 1:40, 1:30, 1:20 for 1-3, and repeat for 4-6. This was a little tough for most of us to do. I was happy just to be making the set! 300 easy 4600 yards I really liked the first set. Seemed like a good combo of aerobic and anaerobic work.
Swim/SCY/Solo: Warm up: 700 variety Hypoxic/Aerobic Kick: 20 x 25 shooters w/fins @ :30 10 belly, 10 back 50 EZ Speed Work: 5 x 50 @ 1:00 25 AFAP flutter kick w/board + 25 EZ kick 10 x 50 back @ 1:00 # 3, 6, 9 fast @ 90% (went 25, 25, 24.5ish) the other 50s EZ 30 seconds extra rest 5 x 50 @ 1:10 25 AFAP free w/fins + 25 EZ 10 x 50 @ 1:10 # 3, 6, 9 fast dolphin kick w/board & fins (went 26.5-27ish) the other 50s EZ 30 seconds extra rest 5 x 50 @ 1:10 25 fast evil + 25 EZ, working on pullouts 10 x 50 @ 1:00 25 easy speed fly + 25 EZ working on breakouts 30 seconds extra rest 5 x (50 hypoxic w/fins + 50 EZ) 50 hypoxic done on back as 25 EZ shooter + 25 AFAP shooter) 100 EZ Total: 4100, 1750 kicking, only 700 fast ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Commentary: Got some decent sleep last night, but my legs were still pretty tired when I woke up today. I still feel like I banked a reasonably high quality sprint workout today with a large percentage of kicking. I made up this workout, and rather like it. I had thought about coming home and doing some power wheel work. But I'm going to save that for tomorrow and force myself to do RC work tonight while watching House. Child #2 (Mini Fort) has now come down with swine flu. Tris: My Savageman relay mates were on line checking the BTB ironman tri results. The swim times were sick fast, between 44 minutes and 1:07. I can only imagine that this is due to a very strong current. Otherwise, I'll get owned big time in that "race." I am apparently now expected/signed up to do both Savageman and BTB next year. I have warned my relay mates that I am extracting a big travel meet in return for this sacrifice. My running buddy asked how much I was aiming to improve in the Savageman swim leg. I said "one second." This apparently did not go over well. lmao. I've tried to explain to these clowns that I just can't train enough free for these crazy events without shoulder surgery! Indeed, if there's a nice current at BTB, I see no reason to not do part of the race backstroke! Jimby vs Fort: I received my USMS mag today and read the "Both Sides of the Lane Line" feature where Jimby and I went mano-a-mano. Mini-Fort said I got "owned" by Jimby, but she appreciates funny and is under the influence of piggy flu. Fort Son agreed with me, but then he likes weights. Jim has already announced on FB that he "crushed" me. Proof's in the pudding though. :-P Chaos mentioned on FB that, after reading the debate, he had flashbacks to Jane Curtain/Dan Ackroyd. lol
Updated November 9th, 2009 at 10:25 PM by The Fortress
Swimmers new to masters swimming often ask me what events they should do at meets. I generally tell them some version of “Whatever you think will be fun and challenging for you!” Often, though, what I think they are driving at is that age-old question: What am I really good at? What sort of swimmer am I? One of the great things about masters swimming is that we don’t have to pigeon-hole ourselves as simply a backstroker, a distance freestyler, a breaststroker/IMer. We’re free to swim events that we’re awful at, or that we’ve never even tried. That’s a good thing—it would get awfully boring to swim the same 3 events from now until our 90s. But I also sometimes wonder, what is it that I’m best at? I generally think of myself as a backstroker/IMer/sprinter, and oh, yeah, I like breaststroke too. But that’s a pretty mushy way to self-identify, so this past weekend I decided to turn to Chris Stevenson’s nifty ratings calculator at the Virginia LSMC website for some answers. I put in all my top LCM and SCM performances, along with the age at which I swam them, to determine my best rating for each event. (I combined LCM and SCM in order to have a fuller set of data). I then charted those ratings with the handy graph-making tool at http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/default.aspx, and came up with the following: The horizontal axis lists the distances; the vertical axis is the ratings (higher is better). Some observations: 1. I’m definitely a sprinter! The ratings go down as the distances go up across the board. (The one exception is the 100/200 IM, where my rating is 0.1 higher for the 200. I attribute this to not being able to swim a 100 IM LCM—my ratings are generally better in the longer pool). 2. My ratings decline less sharply from 50 to 100 in my long-axis strokes. Is there something I can learn there to make my 100 BR and 100 FL better? 3. Perhaps I'm a better freestyler than I give myself credit for. I generally think of it as being little better than my butterfly. 4. Someone definitely needs to work on her fly! I’m looking forward to plugging in the numbers after my upcoming meets to see how my swims compare with each other, and with these rating-PRs!
Updated November 12th, 2009 at 02:12 PM by swimsuit addict
Starting to wind down a bit as I have meets the next 2 weekends. Not really a taper just cut back slightly on the intensity. SCY, Solo 200 swim free 300 kick/swim by 25 (went free-breast-back by 100) 300 pull choice 200 swim back 2x150 free smooth on 2:45 2x75 build back on 1:30 2x150 free smooth on 2:45 2x50 free at 85-90% on 1:00 2x150 free smooth on 2:45 take 30 sec. rest swim 2x25 fly FAST on 45 (150's ave 2:05-10 75's went 1:05 50's went 35-6, 25 went 16-7 swim down 300 easy -- Total: 2500 yards
"I could say things with color and shapes that I could not say any other way - things I had no words for." -Georgia O'KeefeMeet Entry Entry Form The last step in getting the sanction this year was to submit the meet entry form. Since essentially the same form is used each year, only minor modifications need to be made: '2009' dates changed to '2010,' and some fonts and colors changed. Of course after Eric gave us our sanction, I realized one of the dates did not get changed on the form sent to him for approval, or maybe he wanted to restrict to masters swimmers with an expired registration. It was corrected before uploading to the web site. THE FIRST MEET ENTRY FORM The entry form was another area where I took a fresh approach. I wanted a stylish, more user-friendly form than other meets had. It was a brand new meet and we needed to grab attention. Most meet directors will launch Microsoft Word, and after the Times New Roman font comes up, start typing. I picked up a typeface from a font web site for the Tropical Splash title that shouted fun, lively, and 'tropical.' It happened to be named Ultimatum (as in ransom notes). OK, no one needs to know that. This would become the branded logo title for our subsequent meets. Next, I saw that every meet entry was black text on white. I wanted to convey a message that our meet was going to be different and colorful. Since we dream in color (except for those 'Times New Roman' meet directors), the title used tropical colors. (The first meet always seemed a dream to me until two events jolted it into reality - to be discussed later.) Tropical sun-washed colors look great on a Bermuda house, but are difficult to read on a white background. The second attempt at a colorful meet entry looked like I did it while tripping on acid (like some people's blog colors.) Too much of a good thing. I eventually got the balance of colors right. Subject headings were colored and used another fun-looking font. In fact, each year the smaller headings font is changed, again, to try to keep the meet fresh (although most people probably do not notice this subtle change.) Times Roman with its serifs was too formal looking, and our meet was going to be fun and informal, so the rest of the meet entry used sans-serif Arial font. I wanted enough space in the blanks for swimmers to write information without crowding into another line, and I wanted to be able to read it, therefore, an adequate line spacing was given to do so. Handwriting consideration turned out to be important, given that most people ask their chickens to fill in their entry forms. And, some swimmers make up their minds after seed times and events are already scratched in. Again, my experience ruled the decisions on this meet: Ever searched through an entire entry form to find if the meet was SCM or SCY? (Keep 'em guessing.) Our SCY course would be listed at the top of the page. In addition, the events would be 50-yd xxx instead of just 50 xxx. Did you ever leave a meet early because it lasted longer than anyone imagined? We placed an estimated end time on the entry form. "Staple your card here" was the instruction on some entry forms, although the space alloted was smaller than a cracker. Ample space was given on our form after measuring a USMS card. Where does the entry get sent? Who is the check made out to? What is the deadline? Instead of forcing swimmers to play "Where's Waldo" on the entry form, this important info was placed in an area set aside at the bottom of our page. And in keeping with Potomac Valley tradition, a two page document using a full page of info and full page for the entry was assembled. BOOK OF WISDOM Try filling out and attaching your card to your own meet entry form (or test on others) before forcing swimmers to do so.Graphically style your entry form to match the character of your meet.
Updated November 10th, 2009 at 07:08 AM by Rnovitske
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