Great to read all the posts on those at nationals! I haven't been since 2008. The zones meets have been fun, robust competition, and nationals are just so late in the season. I've been backstroking away. I'll skip the boring bits and go to the meat of the sets: SCM, Baylor Fitness Center 3 times through: 4 x 50's on fast pace straight into 200 fast intervals vary by lane. Now, I find that my back is fast enough that if I moved down 1 lane, i'd be in the middle somewhere because the people at the back of each lane usually can't really make the intervals. So in a good way, it makes me just step up big time and og last in the fastest interval lane, and drop something at the end: Me: 3 x 50 on :45 (skip #4) 150 fast Held 38-42's then 2:08 2:05, 2:04 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ At first I was a bit disappointed I wasn't closer to the 2:00 mark, but then I can see the difference in this set. It's one thing to do easy bits and then a fast 150, but to do even the 3 x 50's with an extra :45 rest made it quite tough by the 150 anyway! I was happy I could pretty comfortably make the 3 x50's. I could make 4 x 50's, but that 4th would be a lung and gut busting swim. The harest part was turning around on the wall. That took up way too much energy. I'll have to get used to that an more efficiently turn/swivel around. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ It has gotten really hard to do INSANITY along with swimming. INSANITY and the like are great, but they aren't designed for you to do "double duty" with the swim training. So i've decided to just do one or the other, and simply pick up the next INSANITY that is on the wall chart. I skip the recovery day ones, but work in a total day off. I'm almost half way through.
Wednesday 5/8 AM only SCY (gorgeous weather to be swimming outside this morning!) 500 swim 3x100 @ 1:30 k/sw/dr/bld 6x75 @ 1:15 kick, rotating 25 L/25 R/25 on back 6x 100 @ 1:20 AE 75 @ 1:00 AE (stronger than 100) 50 @ 1:00 FAST 12x25 @ :40 2 - 12.5 FAST/12.5 EZ 2 - 25 FAST 100 EZ Total: 3000
My Monday-Friday pool at the CCAC will be Long Course thru the beginning of August and since I am only doing LC Nats this year I am getting excited. I tend to do better in Long course than short course because my alergies are not in play in August but they are in the spring. I may have found a great solution for the spring. This year I am taking local honey 3 times a day and I have not had to use any allergy meds this year!!! Next year will show me if that is true or this year was just a fluke. 500 free 500 free kick w/zoomers 800 IM each 200 is 50 rt arm/50 lt arm/50 kick/50 swim except breast which was 100 pull/50 kick/50 swim w/zoomers took them off for the breast kick and swim only 400 free w/paddles and bouy in 6:12 300 alternate accordian drill/streamline free kick w/snorkle 5x100@2:00 Free Relaxed Total 3000 meters
Thursday was a rough day to start with... At least starting on Wednesday night, leaving Seattle airport at 11:25pm, flying to Chicago. Got awoken about WAY TOO EARLY somewhere over Salt Lake City as the capitan mistakenly spoke through the cabin speakers rather than the transmission do the air tower in Salt Lake. Grrrr.... I never really got back to "good sleep", if you can call it that, for the remainder of the flight. 2 hours of sitting in Chicago, with a McDs Hot Cakes Big Breakfast as well about 5:30am local time (3:30am to my body). We boarded the plane to Indy. That seat felt amazing, and I was instantly out. I don't even remember leaving Chicago, but woke up as the wheels hit the ground with a bump in Indianapolis. ...but it finished quite nicely: 2 Adams, James 35 HMS 18:03.13 17:46.96 1:31.10 ( ) 2:02.87 (31.77) 2:35.30 (32.43) 3:07.38 (32.08) 3:39.55 (32.17) 4:11.72 (32.17) 4:44.28 (32.56) 5:16.81 (32.53) 5:49.44 (32.63) 6:21.90 (32.46) 6:54.47 (32.57) 7:27.41 (32.94) 8:00.21 (32.80) 8:32.90 (32.69) 9:05.58 (32.68) 9:38.47 (32.89) 10:11.33 (32.86) 10:44.39 (33.06) 11:17.48 (33.09) 11:50.12 (32.64) 12:22.70 (32.58) 12:55.58 (32.88) 13:28.38 (32.80) 14:01.15 (32.77) 14:34.02 (32.87) 15:06.50 (32.48) 15:39.08 (32.58) 16:11.79 (32.71) 16:44.24 (32.45) 17:16.38 (32.14) 17:46.96 (30.58) Season best 500 time, and season best 1000 time on the way out for the race. Dropped over 16 seconds on the race from last January. I probably could've been faster, but I'm happy with it. It was very consistent, even though it didn't feel that way. I began picking up my kick intensity about 400 to go, even though the splits don't show it, but perhaps this kept me from going the other way too. Not to bad with roughly 3 hours or so of sleep, plus the East Coast time zone change. I'll hopefully get more rest tonight in the hotel. Tomorrow is my marathon day: 400 IM, 200 Free, 200 Fly...then forum dinner time.
I had a great nights sleep last night and woke feeling excited. I had some butterflies fluttering even before I left the hotel room, which for me is a really good thing. I did the 10 minute walk to the pool from my hotel which was very pleasant and arrived at the pool at around 6.45am. I swam in lane 4 and realized after about 100 that three of the people in my lane were on the Alexandria Masters team I train with when I am in Washington DC. It was great briefly catching up with Katie Gilmore who is going to do the 1650 later today. I did about a 1600 yd warmup and then got out and dried off before heading back to the hotel for a light oatmeal breakfast. I quickly repacked my competition bag with my meet suit and headed back to the pool. I was in the last heat of the 1000 so had tonnes of time when I got back to the pool. I hate sitting around at meets so kept moving and about 45 minutes before my race did another warmup swim in the diving well. Indy is such a great facility for swimming with the two competition pools and the diving well, plus two other 25 yd pools for warmup/warm down. After my second warmup I again dried off and put on my competition suit and then basically stretched and stayed busy until my heat. I had checked out the heats for my competition and new the next fastest guy was in lane 1 in the heat before me. He posted a 10.39 which is a good time, but it was beatable. I was pretty relaxed before the start, but could not get some condensation out of my goggles which was annoying. As the gun went off and I hit the water, the strap on my goggles moved significantly down my head, and as I went down the first length I was expecting my goggles to fill with water. Luckily my worst fear did not come true and my goggles stuck. After about 400 I started to feel pretty tired, but focused on long and strong strokes. After 700 I really started to hurt and the final 150 was pretty brutal. I noticed a few guys on the other side of the pool, but being in lane 8 it was hard to really see where I was and where they were. I think I overtook a couple guys on the second 500 but wish I was closer to the middle of the pool. After finishing I looked up and swore I saw my time was 10.48, and I was really upset. Nicky who was my counter congratulated me and said I did great and that my time was 10.21. I double checked with the time keeper and she confirmed my time. I guess I had looked at the wrong lane. I had won my age group. I am a National Champion masters swimmer. I am so excited. I had hoped to swim faster than 10.20 but at this point I don't care. It gives me plenty of room to improve and train to improve, but I won! I am going to head back over to the pool to catch the 1650 swims.
Swam w/ Dave and Dave. My kids made it on the swim team! They both worked hard to learn the strokes so they could make it and both are excited. Now, I can back off and let the people who know how to teach swimming fast take over. The cool thing is that the team will participate in the Alabama State Games swim meet in mid-June and they let parents swim on the team with the kids. So, I'll get to swim on their team for one meet... fun! SCY 600 Warm up 8 x 100 Kick - 1:45 (2 x Fr/Br, 2 x Fl/Br, 2 x Br, 2 x Bk/Br) 4 x 50 Bk - :50, Descend 6 x 100 Free - 1:15 (Made it but I wasn't warmed up and struggled) 100 Easy 10 x 100 Pull - 1:20 (descended 1:08->1:03) 2 x 100 Kick - 1:45 2 Rounds of: * 2 x 100 Kick - 1:45 * 100 Pull - 1:20 * 100 Pull (25 Fly/75 free) - 1:20 * 100 Pull (25 Bk/75 free) - 1:20 * 100 Pull (25 Br/75 free) - 1:20 * 100 Pull - 1:20 * 2 x 100 Kick - 1:40, make 1:30 * Rest in between rounds 200 Cool down (5500 Total)
Wonderful to be back in the cold water again. The other good news is next week we start LONG COURE every day. I am ready to prep for LC Nationals. Good luck to those doing SC Nationals this week! Also played a game on deck with coach Walt we were trying to figure where in the 1976 mens olympic team photo was Bill Forrester. Bill had to tell us we would have never guessed. Since I am resurecting my 400 IM and 200 Back this year I have to work on both. Especially my nonexistant breaststroke. 500 free 500 free kick w/zoomers 10x100@1:30 free w/strapless paddles & bouy went 1:23, 1:23, 1:24, 1:23, 1:24, 1:23, 1:22, 1:22, 1:21, 1:20 felt good and loose 5x100@:05RI w/snorkle odds breaststroke accordian drill/evens streamline free kick (no fins) 8x25@:40 breast 300 free EASY Total 3000 yards
Almost slept in today - was tired and figured I'd earned a day off. But since I don't swim on Thursdays, I only slept in 30 minutes and then went to the pool. I figured that way at least i wouldn't put 6000 yards. Got there and had to join the fast boys - Peter, Dave, and Dave - because Keith and Ray were not there and the other lanes were taken. So, it turned into a "fast" workout. But, I need that. End result was being just as worn out as if I had swam 6000 yards. My free seems to be getting better; but, that is not as noticable as the improvement in my back, which has noticeably improved. 250 Warmup 5x100 on 1:20 (they were doing 3 at 1:20, 2 at 1:15, 2 at 1:10 and 1 at 1:05 - I was just trying to keep up) 6x100 on 1:20 (actually swam all 6 100's in this set) 50 Back 3x100 Back on 1:40 2x100 Back on 1:35 100 Back on 1:30 3x100 Back on 1:35 2x100 Back on 1:30 100 Back on 1:25 100 Easy 5x100 BAck w/paddes on 1:35 100 Kick 5x100 Free w/paddles on 1:25 2x100 Kick 5x100 Back w/paddles on 1:30 4500 yards 90 minutes
I was able to get out for a little lunchtime swim at Westgate Rec Center in Dothan, Al again today. I'm still at the hospital with my aunt, but things are looking better. It seems she has pneumonia, but she is responding well to treatment and will probably be able to go home (with some home health care help) in the next couple of days. In the meanwhile, I was glad to get the opportunity to take a break while my mom was here during the day. Here's what I did: 1000 warmup: 200 free 200 stroke/free by 25 200 kick 200 reverse IM drill/swim by 25 4 x 50 free, desc 4 x 100 FR @ 1:45, desc. 2 x 200 FR @ 3:30, build each one 400 FR, alt 25 fast, 25 easy 2x thru 100 IM kick 200 IM swim 100 easy I had more company at the pool today. Lap swim hours are from 11-1; but if you come before 12 it only costs $1 instead of $2, so the earlier time ends up more crowded. I was next to a woman swimming heads-up breaststroke, and felt self-conscious about doing butterfly and making waves in the laneline-less pool. Once she left I switched to IM. Another woman replaced her soon after, but I figured she could see what she was getting into swimming beside me. I try to be be on my best behavior here, since I'm a visitor and there aren't many serious adult swimmers at the pool. If they ever contemplate adding a masters team, I'd like for the lap swimmers to be enthusiastic about it. I'll be staying a few more days than planned down here. I hope to be here when my aunt gets released, and help get her get settled back in at home. I feel so lucky that I packed a swimsuit on this trip. I did so only because I was originally planning to go directly from the airport to diving practice on my return flight. Swimsuits--never leave home without them! Good luck to everyone going to Indy! I'll be looking at the results online and virtually cheering on all my fellow bloggers.
800 EZ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our new Arena Mark 2 suits arrived today. Relief! And no acid green or white! Just a nice dark gray. Teen Fort and I went to get pedicures and are all set to go. Just hope the flight goes smoothly. I sort of feel like Water Rat -- ready or not here I come. I've definitely had much less rest than I did before NE Champs bc I've been so busy. Good luck everyone!
Updated May 8th, 2013 at 10:04 PM by The Fortress
I promised a few people I would blog my week at Nationals so thought I would start with a quick preamble post the day before the meet. I am currently sitting at DFW waiting for my flight to Indianapolis. As of this week I have been back in the pool 8 months and when I got back in I never thought I would be traveling to Indianapolis to compete at Nationals. I have trained hard for this meet and feel like I have had a good taper keeping my yardage up yet mixing in some good quality work. I am nervous that I have not really raced in a long time, yet excited at the prospect of some good races. Practice was short this morning with a quick 2300 yard workout after which two of my team mates who unfortunately are not swimming this week and my coach took me out for breakfast. It was great fun and its nice to have team mates i swim with who are so supportive. After breakfast I headed back to the house to start my shave down. I did not think much about hair or lack of before I started and ended up an egg head! My shave down took about an hour and I had no major razor burn or cuts and I am feel pretty good right now. My flight leaves Dallas around 3.40pm and arrives at around 6.30pm. I hope to have time to swing by the pool for a short swim but if not I will grab dinner and try to go to bed early. Warmup tomorrow is 6.30am so with Indy being East Coast time zone I will have an early start. I had hoped to swim all the free events but the meet does not let you swim both the 1650 and the 1000. I swim the 1000 tomorrow morning, the 200 on Friday, the 500 and 100 on Saturday and the 50 and 100 back on Sunday. The 1000 and the 500 are deck seeded so I won't know my heat or lane until just before I swim. The 1000 is swum slowest to fastest with all ages and both men and women swimming together. I am ranked #9 overall so could be in the second to last heat or the last heat if anyone drops out. The meet timeline looks like i will be swimming around 10.30am. I am really looking forward to swimming the 1000 and it will give me a pretty good idea how my taper worked out and how the rest of the meet will go. I think my base is pretty good and think the middle and lone distance events should be strong, but based on some speed I seem to have picked up during the taper I may surprise myself it he shorter races. I need to run since my flight boards in about 10mins, but will blog tomorrow after the 1000.
Wed May 8th, 2013, LCM & SCY Swam: LCM Tue May 7th Lifted: Tue May 7th Whitney Coached 6:30 - 8:00 SCY UT Swim Center main pool & diving well Swam with: Jim Tyler & Mike Beside: Todd, Chris, Marcio, Ned, Dick & Sam Warm up LCM 20 x 50 on 1:00 1 fr 2 no fr 3 fr 4 K on back Main Set moved to diving well (warm pool) 4 rounds of 5 x 100 done 25 stroke 50 free 25 stroke on 1:20 right into 6 x 50 FR on 35 REST 30 sec 100 K fast 100 easy 6 x 125 30 sec rest odds IM fast evens 10 breaths total Next Meets: Jun 5 - 12, 2013 LCM 2013 Pan-American Masters Championships Sarasota, FL DAYS TILL Jul 19 - 21, 2013 LCM 2013 USMS South Central Zone LCM Championships Jenks, OK 74037
Forgot the coach said to show up 30 minutes later than usual so woke up to my normal alarm. Last night was not the best night of sleep I have had, I was thinking too much about Indy and Nationals. Today's swim was very straight forward with very little pace stuff and mainly floating along yardage. 400 swim with snorkel 6x50 drill 6x50 kick on 1 min 4x150 alternating free and IM 6x50 pace holding no fast than 30 on 45 3x100 easy drill/swim 100 easy Total 2300
Swam w/ Dave, Dave and Dave. Felt pretty strong today. I'm doing stuff right now that I would have had to do without a drag suit last year... some things a little faster. 1:10 repeats w/ a drag suit are still a bit out of my reach but I'm getting closer. SCY 600 warm up 3 x 100 - 1:25, 1st 25 stroke 2 x 100 - 1:20 1 x 100 - 1:15 3 x 100 - 1:20 2 x 100 - 1:15 (actually missed the interval on the second one) 1 x 100 - 1:10 (pushed hard w/ a 1:08 to make up for missing the 1:15) 50 Easy 3 x 100 - 1:20 2 x 100 - 1:15 1 x 100 - 1:10 3 x 100 - 1:20 2 x 100 - 1:15 (made 1:10s) 1 x 100 - 1:10 (1:07) 50 Easy 3 x 100 Fly - 1:40 2 x 100 Free - 1:35 1 x 100 Free - 1:30 3 x 100 IM - 1:35 2 x 100 Fly - 1:30 (1:25s) 1 x 100 Free - 1:25 18 x 50 - 1:00 (6 Free, 4 IM Order, 8 kick w/ fins) 200 Cool down (5400 Total)
I look forward to the cold lap pool opening back up. I don't know how floating on your back can be exercise. I guess it is like my mom thinking that playing golf is exercise, I tell her not if your in a cart riding around. Walk it! Today was just another easy day. Too hot to really swim hard. 500 free 500 free kick w/zoomers 5x100@2:00 back w/zoomers as 25 rt arm/25 lt arm/25 kick/25 swim 300 breast kick 2x100@2:15 breast 5x100@2:00 1 arm fly w/zoomers alt lt/rt 500 free kick w/zoomers 400 free w/strapless paddles maintain 4 beat kick 100 free EZ Total 3500 yards
Indy!!! All I have left is 10 hours of work to survive through tomorrow, and then it'll be time to shave, get to the airport in Seattle, and then final sleep on my way to Chicago and Indy. I'm ready to race! I did a 400 Free warmup tonight, and then just intermixed a bunch of 50s, with a few EZ EZ 100s while the kids were doing a 2000 yard kick set. I did build 50s, a few at 500 pace (29/30s), and EZ stuff. A few of each stroke as well, then just cooled down a couple 100s. ----------------------------- 1500 of pretty much nothing but feel good swimming. Next time I'm wet in the pool, it'll be warming up for the mile. ====================== Final conversation with coach John were: "Wow, that was a quick one!" "Yeah, about 1500" I said, "Now it's just time to have fun". His final words were "Go to the legs...and have fun". "Don't worry, I'm already trained that way. It's my go-to stuff now."
Joined Keith for some 500's and 300's. Then, as Keith was finishing here comes Ray - they called it a tag team. Anyway, I put in a lot of yardage for the 2nd day - but I could feel myself wearing down today. My calfs even started cramping at 5300 yards. I still had some time, but just did 50's after that. 50 2x500 on 8:00 (7:10; 6:47) 150 Free/back 5x300 on 4:30 (descended 4:15 to 4:00) 2x300 Back w/paddles on 4:30 10x100 Free w/paddles on 1:30 (1:15's) 2x100 Kick 5x100 Back w/paddles on 1:30 3x100 Kick 50 Free (cramps) 10x50 Free/Back on :50 50 5900 yards 106 minutes
I had a long day at work today and got to the pool late. I felt ok during the warmup but got better as the workout went on. 1x800 swim with snorkel 5x200 alternate swim and pull no paddles, on 3 mins 4x50 fast on 2mins 3x100 back easy on 1.40 500 swim over kick with snorkel Total 2800 I went around 2.12 on the 200s and felt strong but relaxed. On the 50s I felt good and built each 50, my times were good, 26,25,25,24. I may surprise myself in the 100 and the 50 this week.
Updated May 7th, 2013 at 10:49 PM by StewartACarroll
Today's workout was short on yardage but long on gratitude. I flew down to Atlanta early Monday morning for a visit with my mom and aunt in southeast Alabama. Upon landing I had a voicemail from my sister. It turned out that my 93-year-old aunt had been admitted to the hospital late Sunday night for chest pains. So I drove directly to the hospital in Dothan, about 3.5 hours away, and have been here staying with her ever since. My aunt is doing better, and I'm hopeful she'll be kicked loose in the next few days. Meanwhile, I'm glad that I'm able to be here to help out, which lets my mom at least go back home to sleep at night. It can be hard being a plane flight instead of a drive away when emergencies happen with my family, so at least this time I was already on my way south when things started going south. I'm very lucky that the hospital is within a couple miles of the only pool available for lap swimming in these parts. I was able to get in a lunchtime workout at the Westgate Recreation Center, an 8-lane 25y indoor pool. There were no lane lines, no clock, and only one set of backstroke flags, but the side panels of the building were partly open on this warm sunny day, and I chose an empty end lane to swim in because it was the most light-filled patch of water. After a day spent traveling and sitting in a hospital room, plus night spent on a hospital room couch, it felt so very good to stretch out and move around in the water. Here's what I did: 1000 warmup (400s, 200k, 200p, 200 RIM d/s by 25) 10 x 100 FR: 2@ 1:40, 2@ 1:35, . . . 2@ 1:20 100 IM kick 5 x 100 IM desc. @ 1:45 Before I left the city I had a good diving practice Sunday night. Our team added a second weekly practice a few weeks ago, on Sundays from 6-7:45pm, and this was the first opportunity I'd had to take advantage of it. I love being at the beautiful Flushing Meadows facility, with its wall of glass that faces the park, when it's still light out (our other weekly workout is from 8-10 on a weeknight). I love even more getting home at a reasonable hour. My commute to and from the pool takes about an hour to an hour and a half each way, depending on whether there's express trains running. Nights when there are Mets games are great, because Citifield is at the same subway stop at the pool, and the MTA runs special express trains back into the city after games. My goal Sunday was to learn a front flip with a half twist off the 1m. We had a group viewing of an instructional diving video last Wednesday, and I was intrigued by the twisting dives. I'd learned a simple straight forward dive with a half twist last January, but I don't have a lot of confidence in that dive, and I wanted to learn another twister for what will be my eventual dive list for IGLA. Plus, I just wanted to feel what rotating in two different planes at the same time felt like. When watching the video, I could imagine doing the various somersaulting dives, but it was tough to get my brain around how the twisting dives actually worked. I wanted to feel it for myself so that I could understand the motion better. I started off by doing front flips in an open pike position, then added a half twist in the middle. The movement feels very much like a round-off, only without putting your hands down on anything. I was able to hit the dive in the first try, but need to work on getting more height. My instinct when I try new stuff is to start small, and be timid in my approach and jump off the board. I know this instinct is absolutely wrongheaded--it would be both easier and safer if I approached the dive with conviction and get a bigger bounce off the board--but it's tough to change that natural inclination to start small then build up when trying new skills.
Swim/SCY/Solo 600 various 50 scull 6 x 25 shooters w/fins @ :40 4 x 25 in & outs 50 EZ 3 x 50 burst + cruise 50 EZ 1 x 25 @ 100 pace + 75 EZ Total: 1250 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I am suffering from Arena Carbon Pro Stress Disorder. I feel somewhat better after I talked to Olympian Nelson Diebel in person just now to confirm that new suits for Teen Fort and me will arrive via Fed Ex by tomorrow am. So far, I am very impressed with Arena's response to the problem. If they continue to handle this gracefully without worrying overly much about their bottom line, they will have built a lot of customer goodwill. I can't wait to try out the Mark 2! Though the ACPSD will not abate until they are actually in my hands. I am taking Lil Fort to the gym to run, so I will do some RC/scap work there. Got this very nice note from Tim McCool: Leslie, This is Tim McCool. I am the VP GM in charge of Arena North America. I want to personally wish you good luck. I also want to apologies for the stress you’ve endured as a result of our suit. We did not intend for this mishap, but we are doing everything possible to correct the problem and our utmost to try to make this as pain free as humanly possible on our valued athletes. Again, best of luck, and thank you so much for your passion and support of Arena. Oh no! I forgot to ask what colors the suits were. Now I have to stress about acid green or white.
Updated May 7th, 2013 at 06:29 PM by The Fortress
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