The vertical kicking streamline w/fins is the worst of this one. I also needed the undulation of the dolphin kicks on the shooters to loosen up my back this morning. I have 4 weekends of meets coming up with my main focus as the Orlando meet mid October. Yes I am doing the 1500 in that one and trying to see if I might get into top ten on that. Usually I am 11th. My son is joining me so I will swim Friday and Sunday and the 200 Fly on Saturday then the rest of Saturday we are playing at Universal! This weekend is the Peachtree Pentathlon and I am just doing a few mixed up events like the 500 Free, 50 Free, 50 Fly and 100 IM. 500 free 8x25 shooters w/fins@:45 4x50 descend to 200 pace +50 EZ@2:00 went 41,41,38,38 on the pace part 4x25 burst + cruise fast hands drill 100 EZ 5x:10 kick at wall w/fins +25 shooter + 25 EZ 100 EZ 5x:40 VK w/fins in streamline @ :20RI 100 EZ 5x 25 barge kick w/fins&board + 25 kick EZ 100 EZ 3x100@1:45 free w/paddles & bouy descend to 1650 pace went 1:28, 1:22, 1:16 100 EZ 3x100@1:45 free w/paddles & bouy descend to 1650 pace went 1:26, 1:20, 1:13 100 EZ 100 EZ total 3000 yards
A quick solo swim in the Y lap lanes tonight...have to skip the normal practice as I have the bi-monthly LMSC conference call tonight. 200 Free @ 3:00 (2:20) 200 Free Pull @ 3:00 (2:20) 200 IM @ 3:10 (2:40) 200 Free @ 2:50 (2:22) 200 Free Pull @ 2:50 (2:20) 200 IM @ 3:00 (2:43) 200 Free @ 2:40 (2:25) 200 Free Pull @ 2:40 (2:25) 200 IM @ 2:50 (2:45) 200 EZ and out ---------------------- 2000 Yards in 30 min. Descent little aerobic set, wasn't going for any "gung-ho" efforts, just swimming and trying not to injure the other lap swimmers.
I must have still been in a denial phase, because two days after the meet I went back to the pool. My shoulder and arm were dead sore, but for some reason I had to test it out. I made it through warm-up before I got out. My entire arm had gone numb with pins and needles, and I was feeling “the click” during freestyle which was something I had only felt with backstroke before. No bueno. I felt like there was a whole lot more at stake this time around. Over the past six months I completely re-discovered my love for the sport, and I knew that I was a better person because of it. At this point I knew that I should go back to the doctor and get some professional medical advice on my whole situation. The game had changed for me. Now that swimming was back and in the near-center of my life again, I had to take my injury more seriously. A few days later, I got referrals to go back to physical therapy and to see an orthopedic surgeon. The ortho doc ordered an MRI and told me that I should do kick-only workouts for a few weeks. My plans for training and attending the next upcoming meets were pretty much shot right there, which was disappointing in the least. So, for the month of February 2012, I did kick sets in the gutter lane and went to physical therapy 1-2 times per week. My MRI was scheduled for early March, right after I got back from vacation. A week after my MRI, I had a follow-up with the orthopedic surgeon. My results were as follows: IMPRESSION: 1.Avulsion of the anterior posterior labrum with intact periosteum compatible with Perthes lesion. 2.Linear labral tear involving the superior and posterior labrum. 3.Hill-sachs deformity. 4.Undersurface fraying of the suprastpinatus tendon. Basically, I have fairly standard traumatic dislocation injuries. Perthes lesion is a variant of a Bankart tear. Hill-sachs refers to a compression fracture in the humeral head, caused by bone-on-bone action when the shoulder dislocates from the joint. My labrum is all torn up and detached from the glenoid in certain areas. All this damage adds up to having a shoulder that doesn’t stay in place all that well. My rotator cuff and biceps tendon are A-OK though, so I guess that’s good lol. So, based the results, I was recommended for surgery. I asked the surgeon, on a spectrum of minor to severe instability, where was I? I mean, I had read that some people have shoulders so unstable that they dislocate in their sleep! “Well, it’s not good, but it’s not horrible,” she said. I found that to be really helpful – NOT lol. She told me to think about my lifestyle, and if I would be willing to continue to live with my current situation of occasional interruptions followed by an annoying level of pain/soreness/dead feeling/pins and needles. She said that swimming itself would not make the injury worse – only actual events of subluxation could possibly worsen the damage. But by that point I had been through at least a dozen since my original dislocation, and that I was pretty much at risk at all times since minor everyday movements could cause my shoulder to sublux. But she also assured me that she wouldn’t recommend surgery unless she thought that it would help me. I left the doctor’s office depressed and skeptical. I knew that I had A LOT to think about.
Updated September 25th, 2012 at 01:51 PM by swimslick
This past weekend I swam the 10.2K Little Red Lighthouse Swim. It was a very pleasant early-fall day, and a great way to mark the end of the summer open-water season. A ton of CIBBOWS buddies and TNYA teammates were out swimming and/or volunteering, so it felt like an end-of-the-season social as much as a race. This year the swim start was within easy walking distance from my apartment, and the 10:30 start let me enjoy a leisurely wakeup before ambling over to the 79th Street Boat Basin to check-in. I then got to hang out in beautiful Riverside Park for an hour or so before they started lining us up for the start. This year the race went from south to north up the Hudson (the direction of the river changes every 6 hours with tidal cycles, so you can swim either way in it as long as the timing is right). This event has tended in the past to swim very short—the winning times in last year’s 10K edition was 1h20. This year the race director warned us to expect a longer swim (the length is largely determined by when tidal cycle the swim is started, and how strong the tides are on race day). But he’s said that before when the swim has proved short, so I didn’t really know whether low long to expect to be in the water. I tucked a couple of gels into my cap just in case I needed them. The first waves were scheduled to start just as the current was changing, with the current would picking up throughout the race. Before the start, I could see that the tide had not yet shifted in our favor—the boats in front of us were still being pushed to the south of their moorings. But as they marched the first of 9 waves down to the starting dock, I could see the boats slowly drifting towards their buoys, and knew that the tide would soon be heading north. I was in the 8th of 9 waves—we were starting slowest to fastest—and I finished up a sports bar and downed a bottle of water while we were lining up and marching down to the docks. Waves were sent off about 5 minutes apart. Finally it was our turn. We jumped off the dock in numerical order---NYCSwim events are very organized--and lined up in the water to await the start signal. We would be making our way gradually out into the river, then swimming roughly parallel to shore, trying to stay fairly close to the buoys that marked the course—it didn’t matter what side of them we swam on, as long as we stayed close to the buoy line and didn’t wander over to New Jersey. I thought the early current might be fastest nearer shore, but even so I moved all the way to the left of my wave before the start, just because it seemed less crowded over there, and also because I find it easier not to run into other swimmers when they’re on my right (my favored breathing side). We started, and there were no problems with crowding as we maneuvered ourselves out into the river. The water was comfortable (70 degrees), there was a slight to moderate trailing wind, and the swimming felt easy. I enjoyed being able to see Manhattan on my right, and swimming by landmarks that I often pass by when walking. It was sunny and clear, a beautiful day to be out in the river. Soon after the start I could see the eastern stanchion of the GW Bridge in the distance, and as suggested I sighted on it rather than on the buoys. (The latter were orange, as were some of the swimcaps, so that was occasionally confusing). Sometimes I found myself out a little far and being herded back in by the kayaks, but I never got close to the boats that patrolling the western edge of our allotted swim space. I could see lots of other swimmers in my wave around me, and we occasionally passed through some dense clumps of swimmers from earlier waves—it reminded me a bit of how groups of cars cluster together on the highway. Unlike highways, though it always felt very free and spacious, with plenty of room to pass. Around the Columbia neighborhood the wind seemed to pick up, making some bigger waves. It grew harder to see other swimmers if they were more than a couple of yards away. I swam for about a mile without being able to see anything around me—no buoys, no other swimmers, no kayaks. (I had seen the kayaks that were herding the left side of the course cross over to herd in some swimmers who were following the shoreline inward at this point). I felt a glorious sense of freedom, and part of me wished that swimming in the Hudson could always be like this—just me and the river. I didn’t worry about getting too far off course, because the stanchion in the distance was very easy to sight. However, after a while I began to get uneasy about being so alone out there—the river felt very big, and I began to feel very small. I turned over and did a few strokes of backstroke while looking around, and was reassured to see some swimmers and a kayak trailing along behind me. So I turned back over and enjoyed the sweet solitude a bit longer. Around Riverbank I saw a couple of swimmers up ahead of me. One of them had black swimsuit straps and a recovery than looked a lot like Hannah’s. We had started in the same wave, but I hadn’t seen her since the start. I speeded up a bit to see if it was her. It was! It took me a bit to pull even with her—I had to get around the other swimmer who was nearby—but eventually I did, and we stroked together for a bit, smiling at each other when we breathed. I was hoping we would swim the rest of the race together like that, but we got separated when passing a swimmer ahead of us. We eventually got back to a place where we could see each other while swimming, though, and it made me happy to be swimming with a friend out there. It seemed to take a long time to get past Riverbank, but soon enough I had passed it and the GW Bridge was looming up ahead. I did backstroke under it, and enjoyed looking up at the massive span, and over at its little friend for whom the race is named. It knew it was about a mile from the GWB to the finish at Dyckman Street, so after the bridge I picked up the pace. A few hundred meters from the finish I was chasing a couple of swimmers when I felt the ankle band holding my race chip coming loose. At first I ignored it, but I was worried that it would fall off, so I stopped to fix it. (Not sure how the velcro undid itself, but it started out tight and ended up loose enough to have almost slip over my foot at this point). That ended up being a good, thing, though because I got a good look at the finish while I was stopped and saw that I was a little too far out and needed to correct course. (This intuition was confirmed by a nearby boat screaming “Turn in NOW!” a few strokes after I started up again). The finish was just past some roped-off debris; once past it you needed to make a sharp right-hand turn to finish at the boat ramp. A couple of swimmers who had judged the finish better than I got past me at this point, but the two swimmers ahead of me, who seemed intent on racing each other, had gone even further than I had. One of them got back past me on the finishing stretch, but I narrowly beat the other to the ramp. (They were both from the wave after me in any case, so both ended up with significantly faster times, but it’s always nice to have some reason to sprint to the finish in races!) At the finish I got to see all my pals and swap race stories. The Dyckman Street area was a good place to hang out—we sat on some boulders by the river and watched the rest of the finishers come in. My sense during the race was that the course was swimming relatively “long” this year, and that was confirmed at the end. The fastest swimmers finished in 1:48, still short for a 10k, but significantly longer than last year. My time of 2:06:46 put me 38th overall (out of 299 starters / 284 finishers), 8th woman, and first in my age group. During the awards it was fun to see how many youngsters had done the swim, and how many competitors had travelled from far away. I ended up not needing the gels I had packed in my cap—I got hungry with about a half mile to go, but by then it didn’t seem worthwhile to stop. I was very glad to get some food and water when I finished though. I appreciated the longer swim this year, in part because it made things less stacked up at the finish, and I thought this year’s course was a good one. All in all, it was another great race put on by NYCSwim, and I enjoyed the day immensely!
Swim/SCY/Solo: Warm up: 600 various 10 x 25 shooters w/fins @ :40 50 EZ Speed Sets: I did sets from Workouts #1 & 2 from the HIT forum today: [ame="http://forums.usms.org/showthread.php?t=21408"]U.S. Masters Swimming Discussion Forums[/ame] 8 x 25 burst + cruise @ 1:00 100 EZ 3 x (5 x 50 + 50 EZ) @ 1:30 Round 1 = 8/9/10/11/12 fast strokes free w/fins (12 is almost a full 25) Round 2 = 8/10/12/14/16 fast dolphin kicks from a dive Round 3 = Round 1 = 8/9/10/11/12 fast strokes free w/fins 100 EZ 5 x through VK :20 fast dolphin kick w/fins in streamline + :40 RI :30 easy dolphin kick w/fins, work on kicking both ways + :30 RI -- The :20 fast is really hard on the legs with fins. I assigned :40 that way on the HIT forum. Need to revise that, it would be insanely hard if done right. -- Giving myself or 300 yards for that 150 EZ 6 x mid pool drag race @ 1:00 -- 2 breast, 2 free, 2 dolphin kick UW 125 EZ 5 x tethered 40s w/fins @ 2:00 -- swim/kick down to 20 yards, hold for :30 swimming or kicking fast, :10 rest on lane line, assisted fast free back 125 EZ Total: 3200 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Since yesterday's team practice seemed geared toward 100 speed, today I just worked on raw speed. Still, the workout was deceptively hard. World's best swimmers gather in Rio: http://blip.tv/morning-swim-show/str...-china-6368080 Immune System & Elite Swimmers: http://www.swimmingscience.net/2012/...ntent=FaceBook Exercise for weight loss: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/0...eight-loss/ght loss:
Monday Sep 24th, 2012 Did not swim on Sun Swam and lifted on Sat last practice at Mabel Davis pool was 77 LCM Main Set was 12 x 200 on 3:15 in groups of 3 with 100 easy between each R1 80%, R2 85%, R3 90%, R4 95% think I held the last round under 2:30 never really killed it then got out to make a 10am appointment UP LATE last night messing with a Def Driving deadline 5:00 am practice means 4:15 leave so I slept in and swam at NOON to 1:15 Bess coached SCY UT Swim Center diving well, warm main pool is filled but looks green swam with Killeen, Jim, Korey, & Bob Warm up did 5 or 600 Main Set 10 x 50 fr on 35 made it assigned 500 done 50 aerobic 50 strong did parts skipped some 50's to swim a little faster 8 x 50 on 35 assigned 400 neg split did 50's 6 x 50 on 35 assigned 300 did 50's 21 x 50 done 7 rounds of (2 fr on 35 1 k on 50) Next Meet: Sat Dec 1, 2012 - Sun Dec 2nd 2012 South Central SCM Reg Championships DAYS TILL 2013 South Central SCY Zone Championships Return to UT in early April, 2013 The 1st time since 1999! Tentative dates: Fri Apr 5 - Sun Apr 7 it wont be April 19 - 21 UT Swim Center Events Schedule say there's the TXLA Long Course Kick Off 26, 27, 28 is too close to nats so it's likely to be 5, 6, 7 or 12, 13, 14
About two months after joining Masters in August of 2011, I started thinking about competing in some meets. I wanted to put in some time and get into decent shape beforehand, so I decided that I would start swimming meets when the short course yards season came around. The first SCY meet was at the end of January 2012, so that would give me a full six months to train first. I also planned to swim at local SCY meets in February and March, which would help me get ready for our Association Championship meet in April. So I started putting together a training plan, which pretty much just involved gradually increasing my weekly practices over the upcoming months. I had a vacation planned at the end of February, but by March I wanted to be swimming 5 days per week before tapering for the big meet in April. I didn’t have any set goal times or anything, I just wanted to see what I could do. Soon January came around and I started to get pretty excited for my first USMS meet. A few days before the meet, I felt those familiar butterflies in my stomach as I prepared my packing list. Extra towels – check! Backup cap and goggles – check! Deck coat and sweats – check! Powerade and bagels – checkitty-check! I was definitely nervous but pumped. I had signed up for 100 fly, 50 free, and 50 fly. My goals were to just make my seed times. 100 fly was up first –eep! My teammates were at the end of the pool cheering hard for me at the walls. Things started off great, but then the last 40 yards….well, let’s just say that I survived. I ended up going a 1:08, which I was happy with. I remembered that during my senior year of high school - two years after I had quit club swimming – I had gone a 1:07. So I felt pretty satisfied, until I saw my splits! I split a :30 and then :38. Ouch! Obviously I was a bit excited and I didn’t quite have the racing endurance I needed yet, but I knew there was lots of room for improvement. Up next was the 50 free…the ol’ splash n’dash. After that 100 fly, my nerves just melted away so I was ready to have some fun. And it was totally fun….until the end of the race. Without thinking about it, I finished the race hard with my left arm outstretched. As soon as my hand hit the wall, I felt the tear and pop in my shoulder. I quietly mumbled obscenities as I exited the pool and walked over to the warm down area. I was totally shaken, and as soon as I jumped in the tears started flowing. I hadn’t really given my shoulder injury much thought in a while, since it had been maybe 8-9 months since my last subluxation event. Maybe I just wanted to forget about it, or maybe I was distracted from it since starting back with Masters, or maybe I was in some level of denial. But suddenly I was harshly reminded of it, and it felt like a smack in the face. I guess it had finally dawned on me that my injury might not allow me to do what I had come to love again over the past six months, and I felt crushed. But, I calmed myself down, picked myself up, and swam the 50 fly about 20 minutes later. I went a :29.4 – not bad for partially dislocating just a few minutes earlier. It was a nice consolation prize, but I left the meet with an overwhelming and devastating feeling of uncertainty for my future in the pool.
Swam w/ Dave, Dave, Ray and Leah. Took it easy on the soccer yesterday. It was 6 v 6 which means less running. We had a sub so I took advantage of that frequently. Probably ended up with 45-60 minutes on the field. I was sore today but not nearly as bad as I usually am on Mondays. SCY 600 Warm up 5 x 200 - 3:00 Odds IM, evens pull 100 Easy On the first pull, my left goggle flipped backwards pressing into my eye socket. Even if I stopped, I would have had to take off the paddles, flip the goggles, clear them out, put paddles back on and then resume swimming. I chose to just suck it up and deal with it. Wish I hadn't. 5 x 150 - 2:30 50 Kick sandwiched inside a 100 IM. Tried to descend... did the last one on about 2:02. 100 Easy 5 x 100 - 1:45 Stroke, IM Order + 100 Kick for the last one. 100 Easy 4 x 75 Pull - 1:00 (made :50s) 1 x 100 Pull - 1:00 (made 1:02) 100 Easy 400 IM Drill 10 x 25 - :40 * Odds underwater (2 x sdk on back w/ fins, 2 x sdk on belly with fins, 1 x br pullouts) * Evens hard 100 Easy 10 x 100 - 1:30 * 1-5 Descend (1:20, 1:15, 1:12, 1:10, 1:05) * 6-10 Ascend (1:05, 1:10, 1:15, 1:15, 1:15) 250 Cool down (5550 Total)
1 hour 15 minutes is not enough to get these workouts done in on some days and today was one. 500 Free 4x25 scull + 25 kick @:20RI 4x50 kick descend + 50 EZ @2:15 went 1:07, 1:01, 1:00, :58 2x(4x25 free variables)@:45 1=EZ-fast 2=fast-EZ 3=100 pace 4 EZ 50 EZ 3x(5x50) R1=free@1:15 R2=kick@1:30 R3=from dive good kick outs 1=8 fast strokes/kicks 2=10 fast strokes/kicks 3= 12 fast strokes/kicks 4=14 fast strokes/kicks 5=16 fast strokes/kicks 100 EZ after every round Would like to have had enough time to start the next set but didn't. After calculating the yardage it was not as little as I thought. total 2400 yards
Making use of the last of my YMCA membership today, as I am only paying through the end of the month. Got the idea from Jim Thornton's FB pre-birthday swim to do 60x100s on varying intervals, but was going to modify to my pleasure with swim, pull, and kick in the mix. 10 x 100 Free @ 1:30 cruised them 10 x 100 Free Pull @ 1:25 (1:07-08s) At this point the 2 available lap lanes became a "zoo" of sorts as far as lap swims go, and I'd almost speared a couple kids off my streamlines who kept coming across trying to get their ball. I just resorted to 10 x 100 Kick w/ fins @ 1:40 (ranged 1:20-1:30 depending on traffic) ...and got out. ------------------ 3000 Yards and out It was good that I swam today anyway, since I'm going to miss practice tomorrow night...we have our bi-monthly conference call for the LMSC board meeting tomorrow night.
At home with Susan and Richard. Warm-up (1200) 400 swim 2 X 100 @ 1:50, 25 scull / 25 swim 2 X 100 @ 1:50 DPS, count strokes. 2 X 100 @ 1:50 75 catchup / 25 swim 2 X 100 @ 1:50 DPS, count strokes. Set I (800 set / 2000 total) 8 x 25 @ :45 underwater SDK with monofin 4 x 100 @ 1:25 back kick w/fins 8 x 25 @ :40 underwater SDK w/fins Set II (800 set / 2800 total) 2 X 100 @ 1:45 25 catchup / 25 swim 2 X 100 @ 1:45 DPS, count strokes. 2 X 100 @ 1:40 25 right arm / 25 left arm 2 X 100 @ 1:40 DPS, count strokes. Set III (600 set / 3400 total) 3 x 200 @ 3:00 pull DPS, count strokes! 100 easy ** 3500 yards ** Woke up feeling run down so we did lots of drills and technique work. Some of it felt decent, I managed a couple of 1:10s at 12-13 strokes per 25.
Good swim had a swim stud in my lane and he was a good pacer. Swam 3K 300 s/ 300 k WU 4x 150 :10 200 K 4x 150 :15 200 K 4x 150 :30 200 K Haven't been in the pool in awhile. Felt strong and wasted.
Updated September 23rd, 2012 at 06:38 PM by Awf1975
Swim/SCY @ Mason: Warm up: 500 choice 3 x 50 kick descend 2 x 25 UW 500 pull ->->-> NO! ->->-> 10 x 25 shooters w/fins @ :40 + 50 EZ 3 x 50 build @ 1:00 (I did single arm fly instead) 50 EZ Main Sets: 2 x (4 x 75 kick) @ 1:30 1 = first 25 fast 2 = second 25 fast 3 = third 25 fast 4 = all fast -- I did it all backstroke kick (no fins). Did #4 as 25 AFAP + 50 sit on the wall and gasp for breath. Wasn't up to 75 all fast after the other efforts on that interval. 50 EZ 3 x 100 IM @ 1:40 extra 1:00 rest 2 x 50 fly fast @ 1:00 -- used fins, went 24 & 25 50 EZ 3 x 100 free @ 1:20 ->->-> NO! Did 2 x 50 EZ and sat out the last one extra 1:00 rest 2 x 50 back fast @ 1:00 -- went 200ish pace since I wanted to blast the fast 50 from the blocks coming next, went 36s 50 EZ 1 x 50 fast from the blocks on coach's go -- did back, may have gone a tad past the 15, went 28+ -- one of my teammates commented that I was going so fast he looked to make sure I wasn't wearing my fins. 50 EZ 3 x 100 IM kick @ 1:40 -- did flutter kick with fins & board very slowly instead to recover from the fast 50 extra 1:00 rest 2 x 50 breast fast @ 1:00 -- used fins, went 29 & 30 50 EZ 3 x 100 IM @ 1:40 extra 1:00 rest 2 x 50 free fast @ 1:00 -- used fins and went 24 & 25, feeling all tuckered out 50 EZ 1 x 50 AFAP from blocks on coach's go -- went 27.8, bad breakout on 2nd 25 150 EZ Total : 4500 as written/3950 me ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ My kid woke me up to go to practice with her today. Ha! Nice role reversal in life. This was a excellent masters workout. Lots of quality. Even then, my body is not used to doing a regular masters practice and I feel pretty blasted now. I was very pleased with my times in the 50 back and 50 fly from the blocks. The second 25 of the 50 fly felt a bit ragged as well, coming right at the end of practice. Off to a cross country meet with Lil Fort shortly. Will do my rehab exercises later.
Updated September 23rd, 2012 at 12:34 PM by The Fortress
Small crowd again this morning. Only two per lane which was actually kinda nice. 10 min choice --only got in 500 here, talking too much 10 x 100 1&2 75 free/25 stroke @ 1:55 3&4 50 free/25 stroke/25 free @ 1:50 5&6 25 free/25 stroke/50 free @ 1:45 7&8 25 stroke/75 free @ 1:40 9&10 free 1:35 --The stroke swims were at 90% and the free was cruise. --I chose fly. 4 x 125 @ 2:15 (25 fl, 50 bk, 50 br) 5 x through 200 pull @ 3:00 100 IM @ 1:45 50 choice cruise @ 60 --Descend pull's and IM's 500 pull --400 at 500 pace, last 100 all out 200 w/d 4450 scy
I did not get around ot printing off the rest of this weeks workouts due to time constraints so I took an old workout I had in the car and used it (week 28). This was surprisingly difficult and I am sore and tired. 1000 Warm up as 250 swim/250 pull/250 kick/250 swim 6x50 burst fly + cruise free 50 EZ 3x thru w/snorkle & zoomers 4x50@1:00 Free R1 held 40's R2&3 held 36's really laid in to the legs 50@1:30 EZ 100 EZ 4x50@1:00 Free descend to 100 pace went 42, 40, 38, 37 50 EZ 4x50@1:00 Free descend to 100 pace went 41, 40, 39, 37 50 EZ 500 EZ mix of kick and swim w/zoomers total 3200 yards
This morning was a very lightly attended practice, probably because a lot of families left town for the weekend to get out of the smoke. We only had 4 people there today, so there was a lot of personal time for the coach to make us work hard. Warmup: 500 Free DPS breathe every 3 500 Choice Kick w/ board (25 EZ/25 Hard) did Free/Free/Fly/Free by 25s 500 Free Pull DPS breathe every 5 - I dislike this breathing pattern soo much I'm only taking 11-12 strokes per length so I get a breath at the beginning, midpool, and right before the flip Extra 150 Free waiting for the others to finish 10 x 50 (25 V-Sit Scull/25 Streamline Back Kick) @ 2:00 (was 1:02s) 200 Backstroke w/ 4 SDKs each wall, also 9-10 strokes (getting better) Main Set (10 Rounds of): 100 Free @ 1:30 semi-strong w/ last 25 FAST (went 1:04/1:05s)2 x 25 Fly SPRINT FAST @ :45 - need to work on getting a more whippy fast kick200 Breast EZ 10 x 100 Kick w/ fins & board @ 1:30 make the intervals Odds Flutter (went 1:26/1:28s)Evens Dolphin (did SDK on back) went 1:20ishFirst time I truly didn't cramp, or even have a sensation coming on either 6 x 25 ALL OUT @ 1:00 2 of each stroke (no fly) work the underwaters and sprint to the end 500 EZ Swim and out ----------------------- 5700 Yards Realized that I swam all 7 days of the week (4 with the swim team, 2 at the YMCA lap swims, and 1 in Oregon) For a total of 33,350 Yards (would've been higher had the swim team not been cancelled due to the fires/smoke) ============================== Conversation with Coach John around Round #6 or 7 of the main set above: "This is getting tough, and I definitely wouldn't be doing this on my own." I said. He was asking "isn't this why you came here, to become a better swimmer?" I said, "well yeah, and to lose a few pounds". He then replied with "if you want to lose a few pounds grab a floaty belt and get in the deep tank with the ladies in the week. We're here to work." I thought about crying at that point. He was really pounding me about my dolphin kick being weak and wanted it snappy. "Snappy is happy". That and the addition of the underwater work will make the 200 Fly that much better and easier. Oh, and another thing...don't come out of a freestyle streamline and take a breath before you even take a stroke.
Saturday 9/22 AM only SCY 400 swim (100 FR/200 IM K/Dr/100 FR) 8x50 @ 1:00 swim w/ strapless paddles focusing on catch and DPS/stroke count 8x100 @ 1:35 odd kick w/ board FR FAST, even aerobic swim FR 100 EZ 4x50 @ 1:00 swim w/ strapless paddles focusing on catch and DPS/stroke count 100 EZ Total: 2000 Started off doing the 4x4 set from PWB's HVT thread, but felt gassed from yesterday's workout and still recovering from being sick so I called it a day.
Swam w/ Dave, Dave, Mary and Bob. Got up at 4:00 AM to make it to the 5:00 AM workout at HSA. They moved the time up due to a meet. Long workout today. SCY 500 Warm up 8 x 50 IM Order - 1:00 Drill down/Swim back 4 x 100 Kick - 2:10 3 x 200 Free down/Stroke back - 3:00 8 x 50 Kick - 1:00 3 x 200 Free - 2:45 (Made 2:30s) 4 x 25 Kick - :30 400 Pull (4:40) 3 x 150 Free Down/Stroke back - 2:30 4 x 100 Pull - 1:30 (1:05, 1:05, 1:02, 1:00) 4 Times through: * 75 IM - 1:20 * 100 Free - 1:30 200 Kick w/ Fins 3 x 100 Free down/Stroke back - 1:40 200 Pull - 3:00 4 x 100 - 1:30 Negative split (1:15, 1:15, 1:15, 1:10) 200 Cool down (6250 Total)
Friday 9/21 (Friday Fly Day) PM only SCY Been sick all week so this was my first day back in the water, and it was rough. I jumped into the club workout in media res. 2x 3x200 @ 3:00 IM (I did FR to warm up on both rounds), #1 drill, #2 DPS, #3 build each 50 4x75 @ 1:15 25 kick FAST/50 drill 4x25 @ :30 25 under H2O/25 FAST 2x 300 @ 5:00 kick w/ fins FAST FL on back 4x50 @ 1:00 FR drill 12x25 @ :25 FAST (RD1: 1 FL/1 FR, RD2: 2 FL/1 FR) 200 EZ Total: 3800 A large portion of this workout was fly, but I did most of it freestyle to try and get my feel for the water back.
During the summer of 2011, I seriously started toying with the idea of joining a Master’s program. Earlier in the year, I increased my gym visits and upped my weekly swims to ~3,500 yards. I ended up losing 20lbs and was feeling great! I had a subluxation event earlier in the year, but at that point it had become ‘no big deal’, and I wasn’t going to let it get me down. I had thought about joining Masters in the past, but all the local teams had crappy practice times at either the butt-crack of dawn (no way Jose) or during the lunch hour (a no-go for this 9-5er). Plus, many of the city area teams were quite small and often just swam as a group with no coach on deck, and I knew that wouldn’t be very motivating for me. I was very much looking for a team atmosphere and a coach that would tell me what to do, lol. The team that had an on-deck coach and a reasonable evening practice schedule was a 20+ minute drive out to the suburbs, and to me that seemed like such a huge time commitment given that my work commute was also 20+ minutes in the opposite direction. However, I was about to turn 30 and I got that feeling of having to do something ‘crazy’ again. I sure as hell wasn’t going to pick up the old skateboard, so I took the plunge and showed up for my first Master’s practice at the beginning of August 2011. When I got there, I was caught off guard because a) the pool was outdoors; and b) it was set up for long course meters! I hadn’t swam long course in like, 15 years! The coach asked me about my background and how often I was currently swimming. I told him about my shoulder injury, and he told me to not over-do it and to adjust the sets if needed. Then he assigned me to Lane 4, right in the middle. I found myself in a lane with people much older than myself, and I thought, “Well then, here we go!” I don’t know if it because I was younger or if it was because I wear swedish goggles (maybe both lol), but the people in my lane pretty much made me lead. I hadn’t had a real team practice or swam long course meters in forever and they wanted me to lead!? First, I remember thinking that the pool seemed never-ending, and second I was having a hard time with the digital clocks because I was so used to having the visual of a hand-clock. I wasn’t getting much rest so I really had to think hard to calculate those send-offs correctly lol. So that practice was a real physical AND mental challenge for me, but I made it. All 4200 meters of it. I think I got home and took a three hour nap…and when I awoke, I must have inhaled at least 2,500 calories. The next day, as tired as I felt, I got up and went to the 9am practice. Two weeks later, I found myself completely hooked, back in my element, going 3-4 days per week and loving every minute of it.
Updated September 22nd, 2012 at 12:02 PM by swimslick
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