Back in the water, but slightly sore and very tired from the meet last weekend. Tuesday evening- Aspen Hill Club (SCM) and HOT!!! 550 warm up stretch 4 x 100 free on 1:45 100 easy 200 back on 3:40 150 back on 2:45 100 back on 1:50 2 x 50 back on :55 100 easy 6 x 25 on :40 hypoxic (but I only made 2, then had to do the rest with 1 breath) 150 warm down 2000 meters total I felt pretty good on the 100s free, nice cruise pace, faster than the last few weeks. I crushed the 200 back, mostly just to prove to myself that my 2:35 on Sunday wasn't a total fluke. I just had to know what I could do in practice if I pushed it. My sets of backstroke last week gave me NO indication that I was capable of going under 2:40 at this point in my training. I went 2:52 on the 200 and then continued to hold that pace on the 150 and 100. Funny story (at least I thought it was funny)...for whatever reason, I kept flipping very close to the lanerope during the backstroke set at the other end of the pool. On the 50 back, I flipped so close to it that I actually got my arm tangled up in the rope and had to stop. My training buddy who was kicking the set went right by, not that I expected him to stop. Then at the end of the set after I had re-done the 50 back without running into the lanerope, he said that he hoped that I was ok becuase he was having a great kicking set and especially great 50 kick and wasn't going to stop. LOL! Good thing I was ok! Just a bump/bruise on the inside of my elbow that was still kinda sore today! I'm actually starting to like swimming in the 85 degree pool! Scary, but true! I can't seem to get warmed up quickly at the Rockville pool anymore. This is not good if I want to go swim with Terrapin Masters since I hear their pool is colder than Rockville! Is there a benefit to training in a very warm pool? Wednesday morning - RMSC pool (SCY) 300 warm up 10 x 25 on :30 (I think, it may have been 8) 8 x 50 stroke on 1:00 4 x (4 x 100) on 1:20 with 30 seconds in between each set of 4. BORING! 5 x 50 easy on 1:00 2800 yards total I'm still pretty tired, but that just could have been because I didn't have coffee before the swim this morning!
Just felt very sluggish and unmotivated today, but as always I just trudge thru. 5x200@3:30 Free 500 Free kick w/fins every 3rd sprint 5x100@2:00 Fly drills as 25 front scull, 25 underwater recovery, 25 rt arm, 25 lft arm 100@1:30 Free w/paddles & bouy 200@3:00 Free w/paddles & bouy 300@4:30 Free w/paddles & bouy 200@3:00 Free w/paddles & bouy 100@1:30 Free w/paddles & bouy 4x50 from a dive sprint fly to the 15 meter mark then easy free tried to dolphin kick as hard and long as I could 100 free EASY Total 3200 unmotivated yards
In celebration of Don Davis' b'day, todays practice was 65x 50 @ 65 seconds. a few of us decided to do 65x 75 @ 1:05 and I did a fair amount of them as 25fly 50 fr. The practice took a total of 70 minutes and we had 5 minutes for a cool down swim. After, we all went to the local watering hole for beer, food and conversation. I've known Don for over 25 years.... dating back to the days when he used to put on a triathlon at Coney Island. I even participated in said event a couple of times. Things were simpler then... no aero bars or wetsuits. Don now organizes the SOS triathlon http://www.sostriathlon.com/ a local favorite event that has participants swim in all three of my beloved Shawangunk Lakes. A great time was had by all. Happy birthday Don! and many more!
I've been swimming and working out more than I've blogged but not by much. I took last week off after Long Beach in an attempt to let my back recover. It felt great but was a tiny bit pissy today. Oh well w/u 200 kick 200 back 200 pull (I opted to let my legs drag and use paddles) 200 swim main set 3 x (6x50 stroke 3x100 IM) I did rounds 1 and 3 back/back/free round 2 4x50 breast 2 x 100 kick ez running on the treadmill tonight hard for 20-30
50 back, 31.14 Stud took this 50 back vid with my mini digital. I wish I had had some other races taped, but just forgot in the excitement of the meet on day 2. I was in lane 5, flanked by 25 and 29 year old Elizabeth Mancuso and Jessica Knight. I knew their seed times were inaccurate, as they went 31+ last year. So I knew the race would be close and it was. And they both had very good underwaters as well. I notice that they both had somewhat splashier backstroke kicks than me. Mike Ross and I briefly discussed this issue. He's working on keeping his bottom half very very still while swimming and keeping the amplitude of his flutter kick and knee bend minimal. I think I won just as much with my stroke as my SDK perhaps ... I see from the video that I did the same breakout as the Sprint Classic where I pop my head out of the water ala Aquaman. This was a mental error. I simply forgot to lean back with my shoulders and head. I also tucked my chin too much on the start. Need to keep my head up and back a bit more. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28RQ7mbtjBo"]YouTube- Fort SCM 50 back[/ame] My turnover looked slower to me than in August at Indy, but Q says this is OK. Dara Surgery: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/...l?tag=facebook 50 breast split: Even though my 50 evil split is seemingly missing from the official MM (meet manager) results, it is still retrievable since it appeared on the scoreboard. My brilliant coach sent me the following email on how to retrieve splits from the Colorado timing system: "But have no fear, if it showed up on the scoreboard I bet it's on the Colorado printout. The final times print out in easy to read columns but the splits don't. Every hit to the touchpad during the race is recorded sequentially so if you follow a line across and you know the event, heat and lane you swam in you can find the time that displayed when you touched the touchpad for the first time. It looks like this 5) 2 25.25 3) 2 25.48 1) 2 25.50 5) 4 53.79 1) 4 54.91 so for this heat lane 5 2nd length 50 split was a 25.25, and 100 split was a 53.79. Lane 3 50 split was a 25.48 etc. Most meets print out the Colorado printouts during the meet and staple them to the results so it should be easy for the meet director to find. If they didn't print them out, they are still stored on the Colorado and can be printed out anytime." I forwarded this to Ed Gendreau, the meet director. So hopefully, he will take the time to pull my split since I did submit an official request. What's Next? Ande always asks, "what's next?" And I'm not really sure. I'm going to revise my training for a couple months to do more aerobic /endurance work in the pool and gym and lots and lots of kicking (not that the latter is different). I'm going to use my MF more and really work on my belly SDKs. I'm much faster on my back than my belly, and would like to fix this discrepancy. I am declining Patrick's probably tongue in cheek suggestion to remake myself into a mid distance geek. However, I may try to focus on the 100 back, 100 fly, 100 IM more this season than just pure 50s. I'm completely up in the air about what meets to attend this year. I'd like to have a taper meet in SCY that is not Zones, since my team is hosting again this year. But I'm not sure about Atlanta. I have a yen to possibly go to Middlebury in June for the LCM meet, which would then make my summer worry free. However, attending travel meets in both May and June would not go over so well at home. For sure, I plan to swim at the Albatross meet on March 20. As for the gym, can anyone suggest exercises to build up endurance in the lats and delts and terres muscles? Exercise: I may take another day off, as I'm tired and uber busy. Or, if I get all jazzed up, I may try the new P90X ab/core Plus DVD. Fortina: BTW, I forgot to mention that I wore Fortina for my 100 IM and 50 breast. Liked it, and will do so again! Though I suspect Fortina also contributed to me going out too fast in the 100 IM. My coach said my 100 IM and 100 back should be about the same, and my 100 IM was 2 seconds slower. Part of this must be mental -- I'm just not used to sucking it up and swimming through the pain on the last length of free.
Updated December 15th, 2009 at 10:13 PM by The Fortress
Tuesday Dec 15th 2009 Time to start training hard again check top times Weights world gym san marcos TODAYS SWIM PRACTICE Whitney coached 6:30 - 8:00 diving well swam with Brandon, Larry, & Paul beside Tyler todd, & Amy dove in on FIRST! wore brief 900 warm up 300 fr 100 IM k 200 fr 100 IM dr 100 fr 100 IM pretty technique 8 x 150 on 2:10 done 100 fr 50 IM desc 1 - 4 hold 5 - 8 #4 was 1:37, #8 was 1:33 assigned: 900 set with fins 100 k 100 sw 100 k 200 sw 100 k 300 sw did it but skipped 3 50's assigned 8 x 150 on 2:15 done 100 best stroke EZ 50 K FAST did: 8 x (50 EZ, 50 skip, 50 fast) assigned: 900 set with fins 100 sw 100 k 200 sw 100 k 300 sw 100 k Did 100 flutter kick fast with a board, swam easy & did half on the 100, 200, 300 went 1:13 rested 3:00 100 flutter kick fast with a board from a bellyflop dive, tyler & todd timed, looked at the clock went 1:07 50 easy 2010 MEETS: January 15 – 18, 2010 2010 ST TXLA New Years Classic Austin, TX March 4 - 6, 2010 Austin Grand Prix Austin, TX April 9 -11 2010 South Central Zone Short Course Championships The Woodlands, TX May 20 - 23, 2010 2010 USMS Short Course National Championships Georgia Tech Aquatic Center Atlanta, GA Order of Events
One of those bad on call mornings. Just tried to get some yards in before getting paged out. 10x100@2:00 Free 1/2 pull 1/2 kick 500 Free kick w/fins every 3rd moderate pace 10x50@1:00 Fly w/fins 6 kicks between strokes 5x100@1:50 Back w/paddles 500 as 50 Free, 25 6 kick switch, 50 Free, 25 6 kick switch, 100 1 arm fly alt arms each lap, 50 Free, 25 double arm back, 50 Free, 25 double arm back, 50 free That was all I could get in then it was race to work. Total 3000 yards
Our Y pool is closed for the week for some basic repairs, so drove 35 minutes to swim with my masters team. Good to see everybody. May try to make it up there once a week between now and Auburn. One of the swimmers on the team knows a ton about local history, so it was cool to hear him share some interesting info while we were all recovering in the hot tub after practice. Warm-up: 100 easy (I was late as usual.) Pyramid swim (85-90% effort on each swim): 50 free on 1:00 100 back on 2:00 150 free on 3:00 200 back on 4:00 250 kick with fins on 5:00 300 free on 6:00 250 kick with fins on 5:00 200 back on 4:00 150 free on 3:00 100 back on 2:00 50 free on 1:00 100 easy 8 x 50 - on 1:30 - 2 of each stroke, 25 drill/25 swim - drills: on fly did 3 rt/3 lt/3 full; on back one arm only; breast - pull with flutter kick, pull with dolphin kick; free - fist drill, heads-up. 100 easy 4 x 25 fly on 1:00 all-out 100 easy 2700 yards
AQUA - UMHS 05:10-06:30 PM Warm 800 (200FR, 200P, 200K, 200IM Drill) 200's 5x200 evens IM, odds FR on 3:30 (FR 2:30-2:40, IM 2:50) Kick (500/2300) 10x50 K with small weight ball 1-5 alt fly & BR kick, 6-10 BK kick on 1:15 IM 75's (675/2975) 9x75on 1:15 1. 50FLY/25BK 2. 50BK/25BR 3. 50BR/25FR Cool 200 (200/3175) Pool was closed last week due to snow, which resulted in a power outage. The "new pool heater system" took several days to get the pool heated to 78 degrees. The snow broke a lot of branches and fell trees on power lines. Last Monday the temp dropped to 19 degrees. In the employment world; I accepted a position in downtown Sacramento. Starts 2 days after Im surplused from AT&T.
Well I drove up to Boston to keep Fort company, see some swim buddies and swim 3 races. Turned out to be a fair meet for me. PBS in 3 events on SCM outright and 2 PB's on conversions. I also scored some good points which was nice. 50 BR 37.69 200 BR 3:08.77* 50 FR 29.99* *B70 swims, thanks to Fort..I assume most have seem the glam shots of me wrestling into the suit by now. All in all a good meet barring my either jamming my wrist on a turn/finish or straining it in pulling the B70 over my a$$. Anyhow...here are the swims below if you wish to view and comment. 50 BR [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6jAflyoglg"]YouTube- Stud's 50 evil[/ame] 200 BR [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDBBl8lmgAk"]YouTube- P1010835[/ame] 50 FR [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybRzZL-opmo"]YouTube- Stud's 50 free[/ame]
Updated December 15th, 2009 at 08:34 PM by SwimStud
After taking a rest of more than a week, I decided it was time to get back to work. Was going to do a short swim at a hotel pool this morning but couldn't get my truck to start. So I missed making it to the pool. Am going to try again tomorrow. But I did go to the gym for a spinning class during my lunch break. It was short, only 30 minutes but got me sweating and breathing hard and my legs were feeling it.
Q: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? A: Encourage your spouse to practice, practice, practice! At least that’s worked for me. The choir that my husband sings in is doing the Messiah tonight, so I get to go hear a wonderful performance. Singing and swimming both involve breath control. Maybe if we sang more, we’d become better swimmers. To test that, and in the spirit of the season, I propose the following Underwater Caroling Set. Here’s the rules: 1. Gather a group of swimmers—a lane’s worth works well. Count how many you are, and multiply this number times three. The result is the number of 100s everyone will swim. Decide on an interval that allows for some chatting between swims—2:00 or so is good. So 4 swimmers doing this set would swim 12 x 100 @ 2:00. 2. On each 100, the designated singer sings a holiday song while swimming. Swimmers take turns being the designated singer. Non-singers try to guess what song is being sung. (Note: Songs with natural breaks for breathing work best, i.e., “Jingle bells (breathe) Jingle bells (breathe) Jingle all the way (breathe).” Songs with longer phrases—think “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire”—require better breath control.) 3. At the end of each 100, everyone makes their best guess as to what they were hearing, and the singer reveals what song they were singing. If you’re keeping score, award yourself one point for correctly guessing a song, and two points for singing a song that was correctly guessed. 4. At the end of workout, the swimmer with the most points gets to buy the first round of eggnog. Cheers!
For Sunday, I did have 3 secret goals and I got them all. First, I wanted to go faster in the 50 fly than last year when my time trial was thrown out. Second, I had one stretch goal of going under 1:10 in the 100 back. And, third, I wanted to do a fast 50 evil split and possibly make top ten in that event. Here's how it went: 50 fly, 29.6 This was my first head to head race against KPN. We were in lanes 5 and 6. She got me on the start and breakout. I caught up in the second length and had a great last 15 yards. Couldn't see the wall clearly and short stroked the finish. She got me by .08. Cheryl Kupan said I should have glided in and would have won. Greg Shaw said it wasn't clear. I have trouble picking up the wall when I'm not breathing and my head's down. But I was super happy with the time. Hopefully, Q won't be disappointed as he instructed me to be mid 29. 100 back, 1:09.5: I always get nervous swimming 100 back in SCM b/c it's so much longer and painful. But I just reminded myself to go out faster and kick. I think I executed pretty well. Earlier this year, I went 1:10.9, going out in 34.9 and back in 36.0. This time, I went out in 33.5 and came back in the same time. So my entire improvement came from not dogging the first 50. I pretty much stuck to my kick pattern, except that I jammed the second turn, was way too close to the wall, and had trouble getting into kick mode. So I SDK'd 14-13-10-10 per 25. I was really happy with my time as my one stretch goal for this meet was to go under 1:10 and it's a 1.4 second improvement. Comparatively, I went 1:13.9 at the meet in 2007. The SDK work has paid off and I feel like I redeemed myself after that sub par cramp filled 100 back at LCM Nats. 50 breast, 37.6: I submitted a split request and did the 50 evil as part of the 100 evil. I rocked my pullouts, had good breakouts and hit the pad at 37.6. I was so psyched! I was hoping for a high 38. So this was a huge surprise. A friend just pointed out that this is currently the #1 time in the nation in my age group. Shocker. lol Chris S. said I was fairly close to the 15 meter mark on my first pullout. The less evil stroking, the better! I think this roughly converts to a 33.5, so this is .6 faster than my Zone Record in the 50 evil from last April. I may retire from evil after the suits are gone, however. I think they help me on evil relatively more than other strokes because I have such a weak breaststroke kick. I discussed this with Mike Ross and Mike Schmidt of ME masters. Mike S. improved his IMs by doing 500 yards of evil kicking in practice. Breaststroke is such an exhausting power stroke that it seems the only way to improve is doing more of it. I am slightly worried about my split request though, as I don't see the split listed in the results. I hope this is just a printing error, as everyone saw my time on the scoreboard and I clearly hit the pads hard. I have sent an email. 50 free, 28.2: I was very tired, but decided to give the 50 free another go, as I missed the turn on Saturday. Same result: had a lousy turn again and did the same time. I just can't pick up the bulkhead at this pool for free. Still, for my 7th swim of a two day meet, this was a good time. I didn't have any energy left for a 100 free anyway. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Commentary: I was thrilled to do 6 PBs. If I could have one do over it might be 50 back. I would have loved to go 30.9. But that is really nit picking, as 31.1. is very speed and likely comparable to my 27.9 in yards and 31.99 in meters. I may use Chris' ratings calculator later to see what my percentages are. Just have too much to do right now. And, predictably, I'm very tired from the meet. I will not be hitting the pool today. Just resting. And back to the shopping.
Updated December 14th, 2009 at 09:04 PM by The Fortress
Monday Dec 14th 2009 Sunday Lifted Weights but Did not swim check top times Longhorn Masters Christmas Holiday Schedule Mon. Dec 21st 6:30-8 am; 12-1:15 pm Tues. Dec 22nd 6:30-8 am; 5:30-6:45 pm Wed. Dec 23rd 6:30-8 am; 12-1:15 pm Thurs-Sat Dec 24-26 OFF Sun. Dec 27th 12-1:15 pm Mon. Dec 28th 6:30-8 am; 12-1:15 pm Tues. Dec 29th 6:30-8 am; 5:30-6:45 pm Wed. Dec 30th 6:30-8 am; 12-1:15 pm Thurs. Dec 31st 6:30-8 am; 5:30-6:45 pm Fri. Jan 1st 12-1:30 pm(only 1) Sat. Jan 2nd 7:30-9am Sun. Jan 3rd 12-1:15 pm return to normal schedule Mon. Jan 4th mornings will be 6:30 - 8am Mon - Fri (at least until MLK day) TODAYS SWIM PRACTICE Whitney coached 5:30 - 7:00 Main Pool north end, swam with nate, Brandon, Tyler & Brad Next to todd, doug Amy & Ned dove in on time wore brief 1000 warm up 8 rounds of 100 fr 25 stroke 8 x 100 on 1:15 400 IM 8 x 75 on :55 300 IM 8 x 50 on :35 200 IM 8 x 25 on 17.5 100 IM assigned 2 x 500 1) moderate, stop rest 30 sec 2) 30 seconds faster Did 10 x 50 K on around 1:10 held 35's 50 easy 2010 MEETS: January 15 – 18, 2010 2010 ST TXLA New Years Classic Austin, TX March 4 - 6, 2010 Austin Grand Prix Austin, TX April 9 -11 2010 South Central Zone Short Course Championships The Woodlands, TX May 20 - 23, 2010 2010 USMS Short Course National Championships Georgia Tech Aquatic Center Atlanta, GA Order of Events
The meet this weekend was called the "Last Chance" meet, but since I haven't been swimming this year it was my "Only Chance" to swim some good SCM times! I've been back in the water on a somewhat consistent basis for about 4 weeks now. I did a very mini taper, resting on Fri/Sat only. The only event I really wanted to do well at was the 200 back. I've been 2:38.9 tapered (Rutgers 2007), 2:39.9 not tapered (Albatross 2008) and 2:42 not trained (Rutgers 2008) in the last 2 years so I really had no idea what to expect based on my limited training and taper. 200 back is usually a good event for me so I was hopeful. The fastest time in my age group that has been turned in so far this year was 2:41, so if nothing else, I wanted to go faster than that. A PR would be nice, and a FINA top ten would be nice too since I've been around 11th or 12th the last two years. Friday Jeff and I did a short workout, about 1500 meters, I felt terrible. The pool was the normal 85 degrees and I just couldn't get into any sort of moderate pace. Oh well, maybe I was just tired. Wilson High School's new pool is just beautiful! It was so bright inside and totally different from the old pool. I did about 1500 meters of warm up, still felt not so good. There wasn't a pace clock around so when I did my pace 100 frees I had no idea what I was going. Probably a good thing! 200 back was my first event and I was in the fast heat in lane 8. Tom Patterson was in 7, Mollie in 6, Wookie and a few other familiar faces were also in there. Jeff came over to wish me luck and I said that "this is either going to be really good or really bad, I just don't know." The scoreboard was right on the wall over my lane and I knew it was going to be tempting to look. I took off swimming and hammered out a 37 then 1:16. Ok, I've NEVER been out in 1:16!!!!!! I don't even think I could have gone a 1:16 if I had swum the 100 back in the meet! I felt like I totally fell apart on the second 100, but according to my splits I really didn't. My last two turns were terrible, and I just gave it everything the last 50. When I looked up at the board and saw 2:35.24 next to lane 8 I went NUTS! That's a PR for me by almost 4 seconds!!!! No matter what happens with USMS and FINA top ten, this was an awesome swim for me and gave me a lot of confidence! Mollie had a great swim also going faster than she went at zones last weekend! Smiles all around! My splits were: 37.7, 39.1, 39.2, 39.1 (1:16, 1:18) 400 free was up next. Jeff and I had a bet two years ago...my 400 free vs. his 400 IM. I won the bet barely, and we both went 4:56. I had a feeling he would swim well, so no bet this time! This time, I swam an ok race but never felt in any sort of smooth pace. I ended up at 5:05.00 which is my second best masters time and better than I was expecting. But it hurt and I was wiped out afterwards! I'm not sure I really came down from the excitement of the 200 back. I was pretty wound up after that swim and even standing on the blocks for the 400 free, felt a little jittery. 200 free was next and my only goal was to go faster than I took my 400 free out. I ended up going the same time...2:29. Oh well. I guess I really only have one speed right now. I was about 8 seconds off my best time in this event. Mollie crushed her last weeks time by FOUR seconds cruising in at 2:13!!! I had to watch the fast heat from the warm down pool since I only had that heat and 3 heats of 100 back before my 400 IM. So, 400 IM....why do I feel the need to torture myself? 400 IM is such a fun race, except when it's long course! I knew once the fly was over that I'd be ok. Mollie and a few others were standing over my lane so I tried my best to hang in there on the fly. I heard her scream "kick" and was like, "are you KIDDING me?!?!?" She was really screaming "hips" because my hips had apparently sunk to the bottom of the pool. My only goal in this race was to not do any breaststroke kick on the fly and to finish the race. I finished in 6:00.13, a second faster than the only other time I had swum it when I was trying to impress my future husband at Albatross in 2007! Jeff went 4:58 which was awesome! I peaked at the board on my last 50 free and saw 4 something for him so knew he'd be happy! Jeff had a fantastic meet totally crushing the 100/200 fly and 100/400 IM. I'm not sure how one can race so much fly in such a short period of time. His turns in the 100 IM and general intensity just amaze me. I love watching him swim. It seemed that everyone had good times at the meet! The pool was excellent and the race organizers (Muppet and DCRPers) did a fantastic job! So what's next? I have been debating my 2010 over and over in my head. Do I make this a swimming year, triathlon year, marathon year? I think I've settled on 2010 being a swimming year. A pool swimming year with a few big meets and some open water too. I did enter the lottery for the Chesapeake Bay Swim and will probably do a few other open water swims and short triathlons, but am looking forward to having swimming be my main focus. It's been a few years!
Updated December 14th, 2009 at 09:50 AM by Julie Roddin
For the holiday season the kids teams request long course setup which I love but it always sends me into distance mode. Oh well. 500 Free 500 Free kick w/fins 500 Free w/paddles & bouy 5x100@2:00 Free kick w/fins moderate pace 5x100@2:00 Breast pull w/fins getting the dolphin motion 5x100@2:00 Free w/snorkle 500 Free every 3rd lap Breast Total 3500 meters
NE Champs, Day 1: Had an easy trip to Boston and even slept decently Friday night! Had a good Saturday, going 3 PBs: 100 IM, 1:11.5 Last year, I went a 1:11.8 at Rutgers (which was a very huge and unexpected drop). This year, I improved .3 on that. Since I only swim the 100 IM twice a year and don't swim it in practice, I'm happy with the time, though not the execution. My "plan" had been to improve on my second 50. (Last year, I was out in 32.7.) Er, I didn't really do this. This year, I was out in 31.9 and totally died on free. (Ande will say this is pathetic when he reads this.) My freestyle seems to fall apart when I'm tired. Chris S. noted that my turnover looked like I was swimming a 400 IM instead of a 100 IM ... lol. He also noted, as I have mentioned before, that my breakout on fly was a bit rocky. I'm not sure how to fix this without going off the blocks more ... I felt like this was a bit of a "getting the cobwebs out" swim, as is common for me on the first event of a meet. To improve in this event, I need to do 3 thing according to me and Coach Ahelee: (1) work on turns; (2) swim the 100 IM more than once in SCY and SCM; and (3) swim 100 IMs in practice. One year, I'll actually focus on this event. But, hey, a PB is a PB! 50 back, 1st place, 31.1: Last year, I went 31.7. I was seeded first here in Boston, and really hoped to win. And I did, coming in at 31.1! .6 drop -- which is a big drop in a 50. Probably due to better underwaters. I felt a little bouncy above water. Stud took a video of this race, so hopefully I'll post that soon. 50 free, 28.2 Best time! Last year, I went 28.5. However, I had difficulty on the bulkhead. I went into the turn just a touch behind the leaders and came out 2/3 of a body length behind. Completely blew the turn, too far from the wall. This is somewhat SOP for me on bulkheads. I can only think of 1 50 free in short course where I have nailed the turn on a bulkhead (Auburn where I went 24.9 in SCY). Otherwise, as Wolfy has noted, I'm a bit challenged in this area. This led me to think I may boycott short course 50 frees. Why bother with a flip turn? Long course 50 free is so much better. But, again, I am always happy with a PB and will take it! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Commentary: I had a fun day at the meet. Stud attended and was burning up the water. A highlight for me was loaning him my uber stretched out B70, which he used for his 200 evil and 50 free. He had previously swum the 50 evil in his cute British flag brief and gone a PB. I video'd all 3 of his races and took pics. So hopefully I'll get those up soon. Or maybe he'll even put them on his blog. He really swam extremely well, and I'm proud of him. Couple pics attached. I got to meet forumites Gigi and Swimmer Girl KT, who are both lovely and fast. (Thank you, Gigi, for helping me with my cap.) Re-met Greg Shaw, who is not only a fly stud, but the nicest guy ever. Mike Ross and I discussed sprinting, weight lifting, backstroke and joining Maine Masters. (He and Mike Schmidt (who is sooo nice) and Son N. seem to be recruiting. Wow, did they have a big contingent here.) I got to see Chris rip off some very fast times/WRs sans B70. And I scored some ultra swag from Rob Butcher -- two awesome dry fit USMS short sleeved collared shirts. He says more forumites must come to his meets to collect swag. On the whole, the BU pool is fast and it's warm on the pool deck. But the bulkhead, with all those Xs before the turn, confounds me. Glad I'm not really a pure freestyler. I think I have a slight preference for the Rutgers pool where they hosted CZ in 2007 and 2008. But I didn't have any outside lanes, so that was good. Good first day, happy with all my times. My turnover, however, felt a bit off. Stud noticed this on the 50 free too. I wonder if this was due to easing off on the sprinting too much during taper? Or maybe I have more power/less turnover from lifting? I did feel like I was getting off the blocks quickly and had power on non-free turns. If I had to do it over again, I might do more fast 12.5s and 25s the last 2 weeks. And I need to practice more race pace turns. I went out to dinner with Stud and some friends from Maine Masters (can I say I adore and admire Cheryl Kupan for her grace and toughness?). Then slept like crap last night, tossing and turning from 3-7. Par for the course after caffeine. I swam better on day 2, but am too tired to write that up right now, having just gotten back from Boston. Does anyone remember that I commented long ago that the compression tights and socks sold in tri/bike stores would find a use in swimming? Well, they have! KPN puts them on after meets and while traveling to reduce muscle fatigue. She had a fantastic meet BTW. On an allergy note, I stopped at Whole Foods to get some dinner on the way to my hotel on Friday night. Not sure what I ate, either the WF salads (biryani salad/w veggies and a bean salad) or a gluten-free granola bar with soy and possible milk. But I had a huge hive attack that night. Not cool. The rice krispie bars with malt didn't bother me at all. Thank goodness! I was very hungry before my last event both days. And I was lusting after pizza when Chris ate some in front me me today. I'm also lusting after his cool Kindle ereader device!
Updated December 14th, 2009 at 10:50 AM by The Fortress
My pool just posted the schedule for the holidays -- December 24 - January 3. Yes, it will be open every day, including Christmas and New Year's Day (short hours Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and New Years' Day, but open). So I never need to miss a day becuse of the holidays. But here's the weird thing -- it'll be at 50 meters the entire time; no short course at all. The pool is usually set with two 25 yard courses. Even in the summer (aka long course season), the management only sets the pool at 50 meters three nights a week. So I'm trying to understand the thought process behind solid long course swimming in he middle of short course season. (The fact that I don't really like long course has nothing to with it -- we'll only a little.)
I've been planning to construct a feed stick since I saw them employed at the NYC Pro-swim this past summer. It was the first time I saw them up close enough and was able to identify the components necessary for a durable and effective unit that will travel well. A google search for "swivel cup holder" came up with several units that are intended for limiting spillage of beverages mounted on everything from baby strollers to motorcycles to bass boats. The list of retailers was frightening and included Target and Gander Mountain... both have stores in nearby Kingston. I started at the dreaded Target... the first person sent me to housewares, housewares sent me to the baby dept, baby to automotive.... a discount shoppers purgatory, and no positive results. I stopped next at Gander Mountain and found myself somewhat unprepared for display of things stuffed with menacing expressions... (and there were animals in there too). Could someone explain the reasoning behind camo fishing gear? Its not that I wasn't aware of the existence of such a sub-culture (if I may toss the word "culture" around so loosely), but to be in an enclosed space with dozens of people that consider day-glow orange the new black and enough ammo to eliminate every living thing in the county made me feel a bit out of place. Well anyway, they had the swivel cup holders I was looking for, and as I paid for them with a cc, I'm sure my name will be added to the Ulster County Militia's mailing list. Next stop: a big sporting goods store for a "golf ball retriever". I found a 12' extension pole with a little loop on the end. I don't mind admitting that the golfing section weirded me out as much as Gander Mountain. Tomorrow I'll round up some bits of hardware and put it all together for some trial sessions at the pool later this week.
Today I signed up for the One Hour Swim—not the national event, which needs no pre-registration, but our team’s annual extravaganza. The team event is coordinated with the national event—it’s done in January, and results and split sheets are sent in—but our event is also done as a fund-raiser for local charities. This year we are hoping to raise $50,000. The swim itself will be done on 2 separate days, using the entire pool and running 9 heats of swimmers (2 per lane) per day. Many people hang out for several hours swimming then counting and socializing (refreshments are served). From now through January, most of our workouts are geared towards training for the event. When I first started swimming with this team, I resisted the pressure to participate in this whole OHS shindig. It’s not my favorite event to swim or to train for. But over the years the event has grown on me. It is cool to hang out with friends, and to watch teammates who have trained really hard achieve their goals. And I enjoy being a part of a team that comes together to do good in the community. Sometimes I still wish that all this was focused around something other than swimming for an hour nonstop, but it isn’t, so I will train and swim the event this year alongside my teammates. I’m signed up for the 8am heat on January 31st, and I hope to go 4500 yards or better. Here’s the workout I did with the team today: 500 warmup 3 x 200 FR @ 2:50 4 x 25 IM order @ :40 3 x 50 FR @ :40 4 x 75 FR @ :60 3 x 100 FR @ 1:25 4 x 25 IM order @ :40 5 x 300: #1= alt K/S by 25 #2= alt K/S by 50 #3-5=Swim @ 4:15, 4:10, 4:05 12 x 75: odds FL/BK/BR @ 1:15 evens FR @ 1:05 50 WD Mr. Addict (first name: Running) just got back from some crazy 15K cross-country race in the freezing rain. BRRR! It makes me glad I'm a swimmer!
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