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I had a really great time at the Commissioner’s Cup meet on Sunday. It was a well attended event, with around 175 swimmers, but with 10 lanes things went pretty quickly and the meet took maybe 3.5 hours total. The 500 at the end and the 200s grouped all at the beginning accounted for a big chunk of that, so after the opening relay my 4 individual events (all 50s) came and went quickly. The 25y competition course was set up starting in the shallower end of the pool, which, with the adjustable floor lowered all the way, was about 2m deep. One odd thing—the adjustable part of the pool bottom ended about 15y out, and at the end of it there was a white plastic scalloped border—I assume this serves to cushion the adjustable floor when it meets up with the permanent tiling. But besides being functional the scallops were cute too—it looked like the pool was wearing a frilly lace garter across its middle, and swimming across it made me smile every time.

The meet was deck seeded, but psych sheets were distributed so that we could check that our entries were correct. I dutifully flipped through it to make sure I was in the events I’d entered—yep, there was my name in the 50 fly list—but wait! There was a 28.39 by my name. That wasn’t right at all—I’ve broken 30 once or twice, but not recently, and I had padded my seed times pretty well for this meet. I flipped to the 50 free--25.37? That was faster than I’d ever gone too--I knew I hadn’t put that down. My other seed times were equally off. As I went up to the computer table to straighten things out I was trying to puzzle out what had happened—things weren’t off just by a digit, or even two.

As it turned out, everyone’s seed times had been treated as though they were meters times, then converted to yards by mistake. So swimmers would end up seeded where they should be, just the times would be off. There’s always something quirky with the heat sheets or seeding at this meet; this year’s glitch turned out to be pretty innocuous.

That mystery solved, I warmed up, went off the block s a few times, and gathered with my team to get relay assignments for the meet’s big event—the Commisionner’s Trophy Relay. The parks department goes all out for this, bringing in huge trophies for the top 6 teams (1 for each swimmer), plus t-shirts and a big photo session for each relay team. It’s not an official masters events, so any 4 swimmers who meet the criteria (2 men, 2 women, total ages equaling 160 or more) can enter, regardless of official team affiliation. And since it’s deck entries, there’s always last-minute finagling during warm-ups to try to pull together teams, with women over 40 being in high demand. This year I was very glad to be affiliated with TNYA, and have a coach on-deck taking care of all the relay decisions and entries so that I wasn’t part of that zooiness.

I had heard that one of my open-water buddies was putting a team together to go after the event record, a 1:40-mid. I knew we didn’t have a shot at them, so I was rooting for them to get the record. They didn’t disappoint, swimming a 1:40-low, the class of the field by far. My team came in third (1:49) with a strong finish from our anchor swimmer, who passed one team in the final 5 yards and came very close to catching another. They didn’t post individual splits, so I have no idea what I went, but I enjoyed swimming with my teammates and cheering them on in a close race—gotta love relays!

The rest of the meet was individual events, and I spent most of my time behind the blocks waiting to swim, or in the warmup pool. I had about 10 minutes between my first two 50s, then a 40-minute gap, then about 5 minutes between my last 2. My times were relatively slow (in IM order: 33.03, 33.48, 38.00, and 29.01), and if I had been really focusing on doing everything I could to swim fast at this meet I would have been disappointed by these results. But since I’ve kind of been taking an extended break from working very hard in the water, these seemed about right. And I was reminded how very much I enjoy just getting up on the blocks and racing, no matter the result—the experience was just plain fun.

So while I swam times in yards that would once have been good metric times for me (and no, they didn’t give the results the same treatment they gave the seeds times), I actually ended up feeling better about swimming after this meet than I have in a while. It confirmed to me that pool racing is something that I find worth doing, and that I would like to be better at. It also made me feel more connected to the pool swimming community again—it was gratifying to see so many familiar faces and chat with so many meet buddies from over the years. The one thing I regretted about the meet going so fast is that I didn’t get to watch more of other people’s races.

As for my events, what kept me from going faster on Sunday? A little bit of everything. I expected to tie up at the end of my 50s, as the little sprinting I’d done in practices had been just 25s or less. But that only happened in fly, where my arms had a hard time getting out of the water those last 15 yards. On the other strokes I felt almost good at the finish. I think that means I need to work on those lactate-production type sprinty sets more so that I can generate enough energy in the first place to put myself into some distress by the end. I could feel that my turnover in breast and back wasn’t as fast as it should be for 50s. And my execution on starts/turns/breakouts will be sharper the more race-pace stuff I do. So basically—there’s a lot of room for improvement here.

One of the things I had forgotten that I like so much about meet swimming—or maybe I never realized it before I became so immersed in open water stuff—is the sense of order and predictability. I just feel a certain competence when I’m at meets, because I know exactly what I’m supposed to be doing at any given moment. From the basics of being behind the blocks when I’m supposed to be and following starting commands to more complicated things like swimming races the way I’ve planned or getting in a good warmup in a crowded pool, the script has pretty much already been written. The challenge comes from executing mostly-predictable and replicable things well, rather than trying to figure out what I should be doing at any given moment. That I’m drawn to (rather than bored by) that sort of challenge is the kind of personality quirk that has made being a newbie diver a much more comfortable experience than being a newbie polo-player ever was. And it’s one of my perennial challenges in open-water. As many of those events as I did over the past couple of years, I never got to the point where I was confident that I was doing things "right,” or always knew what that might mean—which says both something about the nature of ow swimming and about my own insecurities and need for predictability. At Sunday’s meet I felt I had found my way home again, and was reassured to find it familiar and comforting after what seemed like a long absence.

(That said, I’m not giving up on open-water, just trying to understand some of my reactions to it a little better. In fact, I just signed up for my first open-water event of the season, the 2 Bridges 5K swim on June 1. I’m willing to give up some predictability, sometimes, for the joys of swimming without walls in beautiful locales.)

I thought I would take a rest day after the meet, but I woke up this morning early, and felt excited about going to the pool, so I headed up to Riverbank. I was lucky to find one of my swim buddies there to share a set with. Here’s what I did:

1000 lcm warmup (400s, 200k, 200p, 200 IM d/s by 25)

6 x 150: 3 @ 3:00, 3 @ 2:50, 3 @ 2:40, 3 @ 2:30, descending each set of 3 [I did fr/bk/fr sandwiches for the first 3, then FR for the rest. My fastest 150 was 2:10 (on the 3^rd set), the last set of 3 were 2:20-2:20-2:18.]

400 IM, kick/swim by 50, easy and stretched out

400 warmdown + play

Afterwards I had a nice stretching session on the playground overlooking the GWB. I’m looking forward to doing that more often now that the weather is warming up.

Swam w/ Dave, Dave and Roger. Swam w/ my kids yesterday. Ended up doing more workout than I had planned because I had extra time waiting for my wife to drop one of them off. Did some drill and fin work with a couple 200 IMs and pulls thrown in. About 1200 yards total. I don't do a lot of sculling drills so I was kind of sore from that this morning. Started off ok but I was pretty worn out by the time we were done.

SCY

600 Warm up

3 rounds of:
* 25 Fly - :40 (no breath)
* 25 Fly - :40 (1 breath)
* 50 Free - :40
* 100 Pull - 1:20
* 200 IM - 3:40 (add 25 kick each round)
1:00 Break
200 IM Kick timed - 3:19
50 Easy

3 Rounds of:
* 25 Free - :40 (no breath) <- after round 1, I had to go 1 breath
* 25 Free - :40 (1 breath)
* 50 Breast - :50
* 100 Fly - 1:30
* 200 IM up/down kick - 3:20 (:20) start w/ 150 kick
1:00 Break
200 IM Kick timed - 3:20
50 Easy

4 Rounds of:
* 2 x 25 Hard - :30 (did these IM Order by round)
* 100 Pull - 1:30

6 x 100 - 1:20
10 x 50 kick w/ fins - 1:00 (Odds underwater sdk down, easy back; evens IM Order)

200 Cool down

(5400 Total)

Today the chlorine levels were on the real high side so the guards did what they could, warned us and then let us do our thing.

500 free
500 free kick w/zoomers

10x100@1:40 free w/strapless padles, bouy and snorkle went 1:30, 1:29 then held 1:26's toward the end my throat was starting to hurt
5x100@1:45 back w/zoomers odds swim/evens kick

500 free kick w/zoomers
500 free EZ

Total 3500 yards

I drove over and back to/from Spokane, Washington today for the final day of a 3-day pentathlon meet. Friday night they did the short version, 50s plus 100 IM. Saturday was the 100s plus 200 IM. Today was the day I went for: 200s plus 400 IM. Gotta get my money's worth of course!

I was tired this morning for sure. Yesterday I ended up working 8 hours of OT in the morning, then did plenty more unpaid work at home to finish my night. We had all the cousins over here with my kids last night, so we decided to rent a movie from the RedBox - "Wreck It Ralph". A good kids movie, very funny, and did actually teach life lessons. That set me back to about 10:30pm for bedtime though.

Alarm went off at 4:30am and I was out the door for my almost 3 hour drive to Spokane. USAS meets have such darn early warmups, and then the meets last most of the day as well. That's the bummer part of the whole thing...otherwise I love every bit of them, especially the great competition!

Team Warmup:

500 Free
3 x 200 "IM" stroke down/free back @ ~1:00 rest
8 x 50 Build Choice (did 1 Fly, 7 Free) @ 1:15
2 x Dive 25s (1 Fly, 1 Free)
(1550 yards)

I did plenty of cooling down after each of the following races, but ZERO warmup prior to any of them. That's how I roll...

400 IM - 4:38.60
27.6 / 31.8 (59.4)
36.7 / 37.1 (1:13.8)
41.4 / 40.6 (1:22.0)
32.0 / 31.6 (1:03.6)
This was a season best time for me by 2 seconds, but I wasn't very happy with it. My legs just killed me after a 50 of the backstroke. Probably the lack of rest, plus sitting in a car for 3 hours prior to this didn't help. I'll go faster in a couple weeks.

Got in a Power Nap in my chair here for about 30 minutes

200 Back - 2:17.89
31.9 / 35.3 / 35.6 / 35.2
Right on the time I did a couple weeks ago at the LMSC Masters Champs meet. I was huffing and puffing afterward, and my legs still weren't happy with me.

Another Power Nap in the chair...who knows how long, but each event was spaced out almost 1 1/2 hours or more.

200 Breast - 2:32.65
34.3 / 38.5 / 39.5 / 39.6
Good season best time, I can live with it. I had explosive wall pushoffs, and my pullouts carried me a long way, so I didn't have to swim much. That's the goal of breaststroke - not to have to do very much, right?

Power Nap right up till 2 heats before I swam the next one - the parent next to me woke me up to see if I wanted to swim or not.

200 Fly - 2:10.09
28.2 / 32.6 / (1:09.2 2nd 100)
This one felt pretty okay. I was back and forth with the boy next to me, each of us taking turns leading the other. Good race. I ended up 4th place in this race, my only ribbon-worthy swim of the day. I need to remember to keep my head down on the 1st stroke off each wall in this race. If I breathe first thing, it slows my momentum for the entire 25, and then I start sucking...

200 Free - 1:55.33 (Masters Best Time - at least untapered/unshaved)
27.0 / 29.9 / 29.9 / 28.7
I didn't feel excellent as I stepped up onto the blocks for this one, so I decided to start out easy and see what happened. The kids next to me got out ahead in the first 100, but I kept them close. Started giving more power in the 3rd 50, and kept going on the 4th 50. The final 25 though is where I really made up ground, over a bodylength on the boy next to me to finish strong. This makes me happy leading into Nationals to be able to have a best time like that.

Just now posting Friday's because I left work early so the girls and I cold get down to Camp Cha-la-kee for our Indian Princess Campout. Had a great weekend - Daddy and Daughters!!!Keith was there Friday and was starting a 1000 when I got in the pool, so I joined him. Hadn't done anything more than a 200 in a while and wanted to show I could still do some distance. It was a good warm up and starting swim. Keith stayed thru the 10 x 100 Frees and then I was on my own.Swam pretty hard and was pretty pleased with the set times (particularly with no one to push me like Ray). My back times are getting better and holding better.1000 Free (13:57)50 Back5x200 Free on 3:00 (2:37; 2:38; 2:39; 2:40; 2:37)100 Breast10x100 Free on 1:45 (1:15; 1:15; 1:16; 1:19; 1:17; 1:16; 1:15; 1:16; 1:17; 1:13)2x100 Kick5x200 BAck w/paddles on 3:00 (2:50; 2:48; 2:48; 2:47; 2:52)100 Kick100 Breast5x100 Back w/paddles on 1:40 (1:20; 1:20; 1:22; 1:23; 1:23)5x100 Free w/paddles on 1:3050 easy5600105 minutes

I came in a bit late this am (getting the house ready for an open house). That meant I had to warm up in the rec pool with no backstroke flags. Not ideal and perhaps contributed to some misadventures in my 100 back.

400 Mixed Medley Relay, 3:57, 100 back split, 1:02.11

We grabbed first place overall and will definitely end up high in the TT rankings. We also had two swimmers who had just swum the 100 IM, and were pretty tired. My 100 back was fraught with turn problems. They seem to be due to my stroke count from the flags changing from prior years. I'm wondering if doing a fair amount of backstroke with agility paddles has helped my pull? I've customarily taken 3 strokes and flipped. I did this on the first 25 and my feet went entirely over the gutter, no push off. A huge collective groan from my team on the side. I just started SDK-ing like mad. The second turn I took two strokes and was too far from the wall. The third turn I took 2 1/2 strokes and that worked best. But who can plan on that? I may have to work on taking 2 long hard strokes before flipping. Any other advice? That must have cost me .5+ seconds. If I had had only a decent turn, I would have had a PR; my prior best was 1:01.99 with the floaty suits. So, I was pleased with the time considering the execution problems. It's actually .3 faster than I went at Nationals last year, though I had a terrible day on day one last year for various reasons. I am hopeful I can take a second off that swim with a full taper. My splits were 29.7/32.4. I swam it 50 easy speed, 25 build, 25 sprint. I will stick to that pacing strategy at nationals. I did put in a split request for this event as well.


100 fly, 1:00.8, PR

I had a lot of rest after 100 back, which I was grateful for as that is an exhausting leg dominant event. I planned to swim the race 75 easy speed + 25 whatever I have left. The last 5 strokes were horribly painful and piano-ish. But I was thrilled thrilled with the time. I haven't swum a decent 100 fly in SCY since 2010 (1:01.3). Splits were 28.0/32.7. I can't really get these any closer without training more for this event. This is only .5 off the NR. That .5 was lost in the last 5 strokes for sure. Still, this was the end of a two day meet. I was very happy with it. It helped to have friends cheering at the end of my lane. I'm hopeful it will hold up well against nationals times. And I'm glad I got it off my plate for the season!


Women's 200 medley relay, backstroke lead off, 27.3

We finished first overall! I only had about 20 minutes after the 100 fly for this race. I did have time for maybe a 250 warm down. I thought my legs would be beyond fried for the 50 back. But they didn't feel too bad. I did feel a bit ragged the last 10 yards. But this is a great time for my 7th event over two days.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Overall, I couldn't be more pleased with my Zones meet. This is the best one I've had in years. I usually do a more gradual rest going into a non-taper meet than I did last week. But 4 days of drastic rest really helped zap the fatigue and produce some great times.

I may start using my nose clip for all my 50s.

Feeling quite bushed at the moment. Will just do a recovery workout tomorrow.

Swam @ Huntsville Nat w/ Dave and Brandon. Long day. My wife and her friend ran a yard sale to raise some money to bring a Chinese orphan to the US to study for a year. It was more successful that I had imagined, After swimming, I was quickly put to work loading heavy items. I was relieved of duty to go coach my daughter's soccer game. That went great. The team passes really well and plays smart soccer. Score was 3-2 but we had three times the shots on goal. I stuck around to referee a game after that and headed home to be put on yard sale clean up duty. Finished that just in time to coach my son's U19 team. Somehow we blew a 4-0 lead but this was a team that clobbered us 2 weeks ago. We are better so I'll take it.

Matt coached the workout. First set was pretty tough. We were supposed to get :15s rest but Brandon was pushing off on a fixed interval so it ended up being more like :05-:10. The set felt more like a broken 1500... except we actually swam 2100m.

LCM

300 Easy 100 Fly/100 Free/100 Back
300 Easy 100 Free/100 Br/100 Free
200 IM Kick
200 IM
4 x 50 - Descend to 200 pace (whatever that is... I've never raced a 200m free)

3 Rounds of:
* 3 x 200 descend - 3:00 (Supposed to be :15s rest - I was coming in at 2:45-2:55)
* 100 fast - 2:00 (Supposed to be :45s rest - I was making 1:20-1:25 which seems slow)

2 Rounds of:
* 400 Pull/Kick w/ fins by 50s. Use pull buoy as kick board.
* 2 x 50 Fast w/ fins
* 200 IM Smooth
On the second round, my calf cramped horribly on the fast swim w/ fins. Too much kick-not enough hydration. It finally worked out enough that I could finish the set. Still hurts now.

6 x 50 Fly w/ fins - 1:00

200 Cool down

(5200m Total)

I was exceedingly glad I rested hard the last 4 days. I had a lackluster start, but from then on it was fast.

100 free, 58.4, Zones Record

This was a mediocre swim. I wasn't jazzed up to really really crank it with a relay soon after. I had a great start (9 SDKs) and took it out very conservatively given my concern with my 100 conditioning (28.0). Unfortunately, I only got a toe on my second wall, which stopped me dead in the water. Mollie said she say me stop dead/look splayed and wondered what happened as she zoomed by. This mistake demotivated me for my second 50, though I finished in 30.3. That botched turn cost me a good second, I'm sure. Definitely slower than my SCM 100 free from Dec. I've been frequently flipping too far from the wall in practice and I think this carried over to the meet. I've also never had fantastic flip turns since I race free infrequently. This is an item I really need to focus on. Mollie did point out to me that this time was a Zones Record, which did make me feel better.


Mixed 200 medley relay, 50 back lead off, 27.29

Our medley relay won overall with a 1:42. Our flyer went 22.0. Teen Fort split a 30 in evil and was happy. I was super pleased with my 27.29 leadoff, which is only .03 off my NR. I had a very good start. My only flaws were a bobble in my streamline on the second 25 and I was a bit too shallow (Yes, I hyper-analyze all technique aspects of my races.) I took fewer kicks on the second 25 since I was perilously close to a DQ on the second length at the Albatross meet. I did put in a split request on this swim in case anything goes awry at Nats.


50 fly, 25.90, NR



I had almost a 2.5 hour break until this event and two cups of java. I didn't even bother to get back in the pool to re-warm up. I knew it would be a tight race with Fall, Susan and Margaret (who all went sub 27). Fall and Susan didn't have a ton of rest after their 100 back. I was excited to swim, felt energized and just had a great feeling about the race before I swam. I wanted to win; I was dialed in. When I set the NR last spring of 26.3, I wondered if I would ever go faster. But I only took 7-8 SDKs off the wall at Greensboro. At the Albatross meet in March (where I re-set my SCM WR), I opted for 10-11 SDKs off the second wall and I did the same here. That is definitely faster for me, and I'll stick with that. I also hit my walls absolutely perfectly -- so very rare. But I was still shocked when I looked at the timing board. Just over the moon about this swim. It is actually faster than the 45-49 record done in a tech suit. This swim will be hard to ever replicate. I was a little surprised to go so fast in my third swim of the day. But I was rested and I always swim faster in the afternoon, which is when I work out.


Womens 200 free relay, 24.86 leadoff, PR/NR

Our free relay won too! I was very surprised by my time (put in a split request) because I was feeling tired. 4 events is pretty rare for me. I've been working on taking more SDKs on free too. I took 9-10 off the start; in the past I've done 4-5. My old PR in this event is from 2009 with a tech suit. I've beaten every other 50 tech suit time, but not this one. Adding SDKs was the ticket! I was almost startled when the wall came up so quickly. I will say that I took a good long look at the wall this time. Still felt like my flip turn was subpar. This is under the NR on the books of 24.91, but I saw a spanking new 50 year old swam a 24.80 in a Colorado meet. So I will need to go faster at Nationals. I really wish it wasn't the last event of a 3 day meet.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thrilled with my day! And pretty pleased that my speed held up so well over 4 events. Feeling very tired now and am clad in compression gear. The couch beckons.

Haven't had the time to blog this last week, so I've just been entering my workouts into the FLOG and got to thinking I should go ahead and put Monday thru Saturday workouts in a single blog entry... that way I can take a look at a whole week at once, maybe see what folks think of this workout schedule. I wish I could say I was more intentional this week, but there were several days when I got to the pool and still had no idea what I was going to do. I did try to keep the hard day-easy day alternation and do have a sense for when I "need" to do 200s or 100s or 50s.

MONDAY (3500 SCY/75 mins):

1200 (alt. fr/pull by 200s)
3 x 200 fly on 5:00 (all around 4:00)
1 x 100 fly on 3:00
300 back
200 (100fly/100 bk)
400 fr EZ
200 BK
100 BK
200 BR
200 free

TUESDAY (3800 SCY/70 mins):

400 ez swim
4 x 100 on 1:45
4 x 50 on :50
masters minute
20 x 100 on 1:40 (1:28-1:34)
masters minute
4 x 50 on 1:00-1:15 (200 IMO)
4 x 100 IM on 2:15
200 ez fr

WEDNESDAY (3000 SCY/60 MINS):

400 EZ
4 x 50 spear w/ fins on 1:00 (:45-:46)
4 x 50 pull on 1:00 (:44-:46)
4 x 50 pull w/ paddles on 1:00 (:44-:45)
4 x 50 free on 1:00 (:39-:40)
200 pull on 4:00
200 fr on 4:00 (2:52)
400 recovery swim
12 x 25 kick w. fins on :40 (4IMO: fly, bk, br--no fins on br)
8 x 50 on 1:00 (400 IMO)*
300 recovery/cool-down
*Fly: :49, :53; BK: :48, :48; BR: :54, :57; FR: :47, :46 [total time 8:00; swim time: 6:42 for the 400 IM]

THURSDAY (4200 SCY/80 mins):

400 EZ
200 spear w/ fins
200 pull
200 fr
200 spear w/ fins
200 pull
200 fr
200 bk spear w/ fins
200 bk pull
200 bk
---[2200]
4 x
200 fr (avg 3:08s)
50 recovery swim
---[1000/16:20--3200]
1 x 200 fr hard (2:50) on 4:00
5 x 100 on 2:00, swum as:
-100 fr hard (1:16)
-100 fly (1:48)
-100 bk (1:48)
-100 br (1:54)
-100 fr (1:25)
300 EZ recovery/cool-down

FRIDAY (2000 SCY/38 Mins):

500 ez fr
20 x 50 on 1:00*
500 ez fr
*50s were :42-:44, w/ every 4th at :39

SATURDAY (5600 SCY/110 mins):

WU: 600 (200 fr/200 pull/4 x 50 on :50)
MS: 3 x thru:
12 x 100 fr on 1:45 (1:26-1:34)*
1:00 rest
400 IM on 8:00 (7:05, 7:08, 7:22)
CD: 200 fr EZ

*only in the last set did the 100s fall consistently over 1:30-1:31; the last four were in the 1:33 range. The first set was all under 1:30; the second set was right at 1:30-1:31, with a few falling in the 1:27-1:29 range.

The whole week was kind of a mess now that I look back on it, but I'm encouraged by today's sets of 12 x 100 on 1:45; times are coming in a lot faster the what they were a few months ago for similar workouts; and back then I was doing 100 or 200 IMs between sets, not 400 IMs.

Lately the Y has been great at 83 degrees. Managed a great distance pace workout.

500 free
500 free kick w/zoomers

40x50@:50 free #1-20 w/strapless paddles, bouy & snorkel holding :45 #21-40 no equipment 21-30 held :44 31-38 held :43 then went :42 and :41

200 free EZ
200 fly w/monofin 50 rt arm/50 lt arm/50 kick/50 swim
200 fly kick streamline w/monofin
200 back
200 free

5x100@1:45 free EZ
500 free kick w/zoomers

Total 5000 yards

SCY@Fort Myers Aquatic Center
Air temp of 76, pool at 79
Cloudy skies with humidity at 73%

Warm up
200 FR as 2(25RA/25LA/50CU)
6x50 FR K on 1:00 desc 1-3,4-6
4x75 FR P on 1:10 desc 1-4
8x25 FR S on :30 desc 1-4,5-8, SPL-6 (cycles)

*Set 1*
6x200 FR on 3:00 desc 1-3,4-6
Did 2:15, 2:14, 2:12, 2:16, 2:13, 2:10

*Set 2*
1000 FR Pull w/agility paddles-tube-buoy
Steady state technical swim, negative effort second 500

*Set 3*
6x200 K on 3:30
50FR/50BK 3:01
50BK/50FR 3:00
50DK-Bd/50DK-bk 2:56
50DK-Bk/50DK-Bd 2:51
50BR-Bd/50BR-Bk 3:05
50BR-Bk/50BR-Bd 3:03

*Set 4*
4(4x75 FR on 1:15, 1 min rest) Desc 1-4 within each round
51, 49, 48, 46
49, 48, 47, 45
50, 49, 46, 44
49, 48, 46, 44

Warm down
200 EZ

Comments:
Had to swim SCY at FMAC since FGCU was unavailable due to GCST weekend swim meet. After only LCM last six weeks, SCY felt awkward.

This morning I swam at Riverbank with a friend. The kids team wasn’t there, and it was remarkably uncrowded for abou the first 45 minutes of the session. (Then word must have gotten out). Here’s what I did:

1000 warmup (400s, 200k, 200p, 200 IM d/s)

200 pull with paddles, build

5 x 300:
Odds FR pull with paddles
Evens ST/FR by 50s, with ST IM order
[On the 4^th one I tried doing 20 sprint / 30 easy on the stroke park—must have pushed a little too hard, had to get out and do my emergency inhaler.]

200 warmdown + play

Tomorrow I’m going to a local meet—the Commissioner’s Trophy Relay meet, which is a free annual event run by the NYC Parks department. It was the first local masters meet I attended when I moved to the city, so I have a soft spot for it and am glad I can attend this year. Back then, in 1994, it was held at Riverbank, which is only 4 ft deep—I can’t believe we were allowed to do dives off blocks into that depth, but we were, and did. Now the meet is held at the lovely Flushing Meadows Aquatic Center, which was built for NYC’s 2012 Olympics bid, and is where I go for diving practice.

When I signed several weeks ago, I chose to all four 50s, and I’m so very glad now I did. Then I was thinking sprints because I was excited about developing more strength and power with my lifting and diving, but now after being on a reduced workout schedule for a while I’m just happy I won’t have to swim more than two lengths at a time. It’s been a while since my last meet (since Iceland last May), and I was realizing as I was packing my bag for tomorrow just how out of practice I am at the whole getting-ready-for-a-meet thing. (It’s still far easier than preparing feeds for a multi-hour swim though!)

Todays workout was ahead of my daughters inter squad meet and was only 60mins. The workout was a mix of aerobic and quality sets. I really enjoyed this. The reduction of yardage was great too.

Warm up
500 swim with snorkel
10x50 catchup on 45
5x50 kick on 50
5x50 12.5 fast,12.5 easy on 50

Main set
3x100 best avergae on 1.10
200 easy
5x100 kick with fins on 1.30
4x50 AFAP with fins on 1.30
200 easy

Warm down
500 with snorkel

Total 3400

I went 59,1.00,1.00 on the 100s and then went 22s with the fins on the 50s.

300 swim
300 IM (k,dr,sw by 25)
4 x 25 choice (odds build, evens easy)
6 x 75 @ 2:00 AFAP
*1-4 50 k w/fins , 25 swim
*5&6 same but w/o fins

* 25's and 50's focus on speed and form strong swims
100 IM mod r/20
4 x 25 fly r/10
100 IM build each 25 r/20
4 x 25 bk r/10
100 IM mod r/20
4 x 25 br r/10
100 IM build each 25 r/20
4 x 25 fr r/10
Masters min
100 fr mod r/10
50 fly r/15
100 fr build r/10
50 bk r/15
100 fr mod r/10
50 br r/15
100 fr build r/10
50 fr
50 EZ

3 x 50 fr build r/10
3 x 50 stroke fast r/20
3 x 50 fr build down r/10

200 pull , stretch out swim

turn work from middle of pool

200 w/d

3450

We had a large crowd (for us) this morning. I am feeling better in the water which is good. What little bit of fly endurance I had before my little break from the pool is slowly coming back. This short stroke w/o was exactly what I needed.

Only time for a short swim tonight. I had to attend my daughter's "Math is Cool" competition. All the 4th grades from the various elementary school in central Washington were there for the competition. They did various individual and team testing first, then I came later and watched the "college bowl" games being played. They were paired up against 3 other schools in our room, and each went against the other schools in a battle of sorts. Needless to say...our school was there...may not have answered many questions ahead of the other teams buzzing in...but they were there, and had fun.
Some of the questions were EZ (remember, these are 4th graders), but other questions were like "HUH????" and made me think of the gameshow "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" w/ Jeff Foxworthy. I'm glad my daughter had fun tonight.

=====================================

Quick swim, there were very few kids there tonight with the meet going on this weekend in Spokane. I was able to get my own lane, and also able to just blaze my way through my own workout before I had to get out...

Warmup:

500 Free
400 Free Pull
300 IM Drill on the Fly
200 Flutter Kick w/ board
100 Free
(1500/1500)

4 x 125 Free Pull @ 1:35 (avg'd 1:23/1:24)
(500/2000)

4 x 100 (1 of each stroke IMOrder) @ 1:30
went 1:10/1:20/1:29/1:08
(400/2400)

4 Rounds of:

• 75 Free Build @ 1:00 (about :53s)
• 25 Free Sprint @ :45 (:14-15s)

(400/2800)

100 EZ and gone

-----------------------------------------
2900 Yards


Swim meet coming up on Sunday, USAS with the kids. Hopefully I'll keep up with them. Lots of fast ones there this year which is great! I doubt I'll make the podium for the distance pentathlon this time.
400 IM, 200 Back, 200 Breast, 200 Fly, 200 Free

LCM@FGCU Aquatic Center
Air temp 78, Water temp 78
Sunny, humidity at 84%

Warm Up
Dryland bands
400 FR as 4(25RA-25LA-50CU)
400 FR as DPS 4(50 Smooth, 50 Strong) w/snorkel
200 FR as 4(25 CU 25 Fast)

*Set 1*
4(4x50 on 1:20, 1:00 rest)
*35-34-33-32, 33-32-32-32, 32-32-32-31, 32-32-32-32, 2:00 rest, right into...
6x100 on 2:30, swim as 1st 50 in :38, negative split 2nd 50
*1:15, 1:14, 1:13, 1:14, 1:12
---200BK
---200 Fly as 2(25RA/25LA/50 DPS)
---100 FR as 2(25 kick/scull, 25 CU) w/snorkel

*Set 2*
1000 FR on 15:00 w/agility paddles-buoy-tube
*13:38 right into...
4(4x50 FR on 1:00, 1:00 rest) w/fins
*32-31-30-30, 31-30-30-30, 31-31-30-30, 30-30-30-29
---200 Bk
---100 FR DPS

*Set 3*
2(5x100 FR on 2:00, 1:00 rest) w/agility paddles-buoy-tube
*1:18, 1:17, 1:16, 1:16, 1:16 - 1:18, 1:17, 1:16, 1:16, 1:15

Warm Down
400 FR as 4(50CU/50DPS) w/fins-snorkel
Dryland bands

Comments
Finished the week with quality swimming in preparation for a moderate taper next week leading into the OW 5K swim at Miramar Lakes.

Thursday -- 1400 w/some bursts

Friday -- 1000 EZ

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Feeling much better and less tired than at the beginning of the week. My wolf pack has arrived and we are about to dine.

Swam w/ Dave and Dave. Got more sleep last night. Maybe I'm finally getting through this sinus infection. Workout today was modified from a workout 3 years ago when I turned 40. It probably made more sense back then. Instead of 3 rounds of 40x25, we did 10 rounds of 3x100.

SCY

600 Warm up

5 rounds of:
* 100 Stroke - 1:45 (fly,bk,br,fly,bk)
* 100 Pull - 1:15 (made 1:05s, 1:00 on last one)
* 100 Kick - 2:00 (fly,bk,br,fly,bk)
2:00 rest
5 rounds of:
* 100 Stroke - 1:45 (br,fly,bk,br,im)
* 100 Pull - 1:15 (made 1:03-1:05, 1:01 on last one)
* 100 Kick - 2:00 (br,fly,bk,br,im)

12 x 50 - 1:00 (IM Order x 3)
Did these hard. Fly was :33-:35, Bk was about :45 , br was :38-:40 and free was :31s
50 Easy

12 x 50 Kick w/ fins - 1:00
Odds underwater sdk down, easy back
Evens Fly,bk,fr

200 Cool down

(5050 Total)

My wife's flight was delayed last night and I never got to bed until about 11.30pm and as such I did not get my required sleep, meaning this morning was tough in the pool. I felt sore and sluggish.

400 swim with snorkel
6x50 catchup drill on 45
4x(100 kick on 1.45, 200 free swim on 2.20)
15x100 swum as:
5x100 on 1.20
4x100 on 1.15
3x100 on 1.10
2x100 on 1.05
1x100 on 1min
100 easy
3x(50 AFAP with fins on 2mins, 100 DPS with fins on 1.45, 25 AFAP with fins on 45)

Total 4050

I held 2.08-2.10 on the transition 200s, but felt really crappy, just stiff and sluggish. The descending 100s were fine until the 2nd one on 1.05 when it got tough, but I made all of them. The swims with fins were fun and I went 22-23 on the AFAP 50s and 11s othe 25s. I was not on top of the water like Wednesday morning but still fun.

My daughter has a meet tomorrow morning and I need to be at the pool at 7am to swim before the meet so another early start tomorrow. I plan on going to bed early tonight!

I have a LCM meet next weekend so this was a good time to try my hand at a strong 1500 swim this morning.

500 free
500 free kick w/zoomers

1500 Free w/paddles & bouy for time went 23:45 I could tell by my splits I back halfed this swim and it felt good

500 free kick w/zoomers
500 free EZ w/snorkle

Total 3500 meters