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First, my sincere wishes to all swimmers for a safe and fun holiday season.

I'm officially off work for the rest of the year and will be back in the office on January 5th! After 27 years with the Army Research Labs, I've reached the age where I'm almost out to pasture and have the "use or lose" leave to prove it.

I'm planning to use the time off to do a couple of things. First, I want to reflect back on the past year and think about both the good things and the things that I know I should improve upon. Second, I'll use the time to make plans for the upcoming year.

I've organized a big holiday swim for the end of the year. It's called "Los Rapidos" for historical reasons, although it is anything but speedy. The set is 109 x 100 yards on 1:45. I really dislike the set, but a lot of people like to do this crazy cult swim, so I reserved 4 hours of pool time. I've invited all of the local kids teams and the high school team to participate. Fortunately, I've asked a friend to organize the counting. I did it one year and screwed up which caused a lot of complaining.


As far as swimming plans go, because I've hit that magically FINA age group change, I'm taking a hard look at the Canadian SCM Nats (rather than Clovis) and Indy (LCM Nats).

I'm also involved with New Mexico Senior Olympics and plan to go to the National Senior Games in Stanford. It is great to see swimmers that normally don't go to USMS events, but are outstanding multi-sport athletes in their own right. For example, Colleen Burns, from MacIntosh, NM, won the women's 5K in 20:35 and was a multiple medalist in swimming. Her 5K time was the fastest womens time overall. And her son is a great triathlete, competitive swimmer and high school teacher and head swimming coach.


My point is that when you go to the National Senior Games, you get to see other athletes in other sports (volleyball, track and field, table tennis, etc) besides swimming. It is a great multisport event and a real celebration of life.

Personally, at the state level, I've competed in swimming, racquetball (a fun game that takes up too much of my time) and triathlon. I keep wanting to try air rifle, but the cost of a competitive air rifle is about $2K - a bit out of my league. The old daisy bb gun just doesn't cut it.

Another holiday plan is to refurbish the upstairs. I need to remove all the old carpet and moulding and check the foundation. If it looks good, I'll start installing a very pretty blonde ash engineered floor. Hopefully, I will have the same number of fingers remaining when I finish. I did smash my thumb trying to pound finishing nails the last time and it was a bloody mess.

I guess planning is kind of like making New Years resolutions. We will see how far I get with actually completing these plans.

Best wishes to all for the holidays!

Finally got around to doing some aerobic work today. Good thing too. I needed something not too difficult as my mind is off on a frolic and banter with xmas looming.

Warm up:

700 variety swim and kick

Aerobic Sets:

30 x 50, done as:
1-10, backstroke (good technique) on :50
11-20, dolphin kick with MF on :40
21-30, freestyle (work on DPS) on :45
(extra 30 seconds rest between each 10)

50 EZ

16 x 25, alternate EZ speed fly and EZ

50 EZ

Lactate Set:

5 x 50 dolphin kick on back with MF on 1:30 (went around 24.5ish)

200 C/D

Total: 3150

It feels like it should be Friday but no it is only Wednesday.

10x50 @ 1:00 Free every 3rd Breast
5x100 @ 2:30 1/2 Breast 1/2 Free
200 @ 5:00 Breast Pull with bouy
500 @ 10:00 Free x100 Sw/Pull/Sw/Kick/Swim
500 @ 10:00 Free every 3rd 25 Breast
5x100 @ 2:15 IM 1/2 pull 1/2 kick
20x50 @ :55 Free

Total 3700 yards

My Breaststroke felt stroke and smooth but felt really sluggish toward the end.

Did 1 hour weight class this morning and will do a yoga class at the gym tonight. If I'm really motivated when I wake up tomorrow I'll go do a short swim at the hotel pool.

60 minute spin class.

75 minutes in the gym doing weights, core, RC work and stretching. I've been adding sit-ups on the incline bench. They're getting easier. I was admiring Patrick's commitment to the Jason Lezak sprint program. I'm going to have to look at that more closely.

On the hypochondriasis front, my left shin is twingey near the inside of my ankle. This is where I previously had a stress fracture. When I get this twingey feeling, it either means I ran too much or need new running shoes. lol

Yes I finally started feeling some what better and did the workout I had put off from last weekl. Here it is.

400 Free Pull with paddles and bouy
9x50 @ 1:15 1/2 Pull 1/2 Kick alternate fl/bk, bk/br, br/fr

4x25@ 1:00 Fly with fins
250 Free EZ
200 Fly with fins
500 Back Pull with paddles and bouy
100 Fly for time went 1:37
8x50 @ 1:15 as 25Fl/25Bk with paddles

400, 300, 200, 100 @ :30 Rest Free Pull with paddles and bouy

Total 3400 yards

In looking at this maybe I should have called this the paddle/bouy workout.

Well, my legs are a bit tired from running this last week. Can't resist indulging in running after a taper meet though. I miss it after a couple weeks of cutting back. However, I'm pretty certain that, when tapering, the most important thing I need to do is rest my legs. That only works if I cut out lifting, spinning, running, and monofinning a couple weeks before a big meet or a week before an in season meet.

Chatted with Mr. Fort about my travel schedule. I never travel (at least via air plane) more than 1-2 times a year, as more isn't really feasible with my family commitments. But, I'm pretty much set on going to Auburn in February and Indianapolis in August. (Although I'm slightly worried that vacation planning may interfere with or derail Indianapolis. We'll see on that.) I also plan on going back to Rutgers in December. I really liked the facility and it's less than 4 hours away.

Spent some time looking at the Order of Events for Auburn. There is only one event between the 100 back/50 fly and between the 100 IM/50 free on Saturday and one event between the 100 fly/50 back and between the 50 back/200 back on Sunday. And the 100s, which are harder to recover from, are before the 50s. Right now, I'm thinking I'll swim:

Saturday: (And I am absolutely over the 1:15 pm start)

100 IM
50 free
50 fly
(pass on the 100 back and go for a fast 50 fly)

Sunday: (9:30 am start)

100 fly
(Must swim this event here because I can't at CZ Zones)
50 back
200 back
(Can't decide whether to swim the 200 back or go for a 100 back split. I'd like to improve on the 1:04.7 that I swam on Geek 9:27.
Or, to get more recovery time, I could swim the 50 breast, which despite my aversion to, I am wont to do on occasion.)


Today's Workout, a quicky with lots of kicking:

Warm up:

400 swim
200 kick

5 x 100 one arm fly drill on 2:00

Kick Sets

16 x 25 UW shooters with MF
4 each on belly, left side, right side, back

50 EZ

2 X (5 x 50 fast on 1:15 + 50 EZ)
5 fast flutter kick with board and 5 fast backstroke kick, legs burning here

50 EZ

500 dolphin kick on back with MF
(I notice kicking on my back seems to work the upper and mid abs more than when kicking with a board)

100 EZ

Total: 2800

I don't have much to post since I have been pretty lazy and unmotivated the last few days.

As I reported Friday, I got a neti pot to help with my sinus problems. So far it's working well and I haven't had to resort to otc cold meds to be able to breathe.

Saturday all I did was a 1 hour weight class at the gym. Was going to swim first but didn't feel like going to the hotel pool.

Sunday I was going to swim but again, I didn't feel like going to the hotel pool. I did nothing else on Sunday.

This morning I was going to swim, but same story as the last two days. I'll do a spinning class at the gym during my lunch break.

After a rough day of work Sunday (not usual we were moving some computer systems) got home at 12:30am and was up by 5:45am to head to the pool. Felt strong but still am hacking up a lung between sets.

10x200 alternate @3:30 Free @ 4:00 Free 1/2 pull 1/2 kick
decended the free's 3:05, 2:58, 2:52, 2:45, 2:42 but the shocker was actually splitting under 2:00 on the 100 kicks for the 1/2 pull 1/2 kick. Unheard of for me.

5x100 @ 2:15 Back w/paddles 25 right arm 25 left arm 50 whole stroke felt strong here

Stopped to hack up a lung for 5 minutes.

500 kick with fins fast pace not my usual easy kick

Total 3000 yards

Good effort for little sleep and still being sick.

Went to my team holiday brunch today. Great fun and everyone looks so different dry and in street clothes. lol Among other things, we chatted about the B140 or even B210 issue. Apparently, the college teams double suiting (before the ban) were using the B70 underneath and the LZR on top. Other schools are sharing B70s among their swimmers. Mason is getting LZRs for only those men and women going to Conference Champs. We also chatted briefly about Indy Nats, and I'm hopeful some of my teammates will go so that we can participate on relay day.

Got home, made Christmas cookies for hours and hours and then went on a 5 mile trail run at the W&OD.

http://forums.usms.org/album.php?u=3376

I got a chance to take some photos of Long Beach and some of my friends at the meet. There are two albums - one of the scenic sunsets we enjoyed and the other of some swimmers: Jordan, Frank, Kari, Ande, Mark (w/toe ring), Fred and Jim are in the photos.

If you have ever wondered what the most famous guy on the USMS discussion forums looks like - check out Ande (just after his new world record in the 100 Back).

SCY, solo, even got my own lane on a Saturday. A miracle! The ever-present MF helped with that. I ripped off a couple of Chris's sets before strolling out the door and had a nice workout.

Warm up:

750 variety warm up of swim, kick, drills, builds

Speed Set:

8 x 25 AFAP,
2 of each stroke, 25 easy after each

I decided to do this at the beginning of my workout as ehoch had suggested on his Speed Zone thread. Not sure I was warmed up enough. Didn't feel zippy. Next time, I might try doing it after I get a short aerobic set in.

50 EZ

Endurance Kick Set: Kick Mountain
I did Chris's set on Chris's intervals, but with a board AND monofin.

50 kick on :35
100 kick on 1:30
150 kick on 2:15
200 kick on 2:45
150 kick on 2:15
100 kick on 1:30
50 kick on :45

100 EZ

Speed Set #2:
(another one adapted from Chris's workout)

5 x (3 x 50) on 1:00
#1 easy
#2 drill
#3 fast, about 90-95% (did them all backstroke and was around 27s)

100 EZ

500 dolphin kick on back with MF holding about a 1:10 per 100 tempo

100 EZ

Total: 3550

This morning started screwed up and just got screwier. Went to work for an hour only to do my daily checks and reports then left. I have to work Sunday so they wanted us to take today off if we could so. Went to the pool to work out and about 400 meters into my workout one of the guards started to slup over and move down onto the deck. I got out as well as the ER Doc that was in the lane next to me. I helped the guards with the other swimmers while he helped the guard who we believed was having a severe asthma attack. Thankfully she should be ok.

Here was the workout for today

1000 as 200swim/200pull/200swim/200kick/200swim break after 200 pull to help out
5x200 @ 3:30 free pull went 3:04, 3:08, 3:04, 3:04, 3:01
4x200 @ :05 rest kick with fins #1 & 3 fly 2 & 4 free
200 IM with fins use fly kick on breast

Total 3000 meters

Needed to get on to my next stop buying a new car.

No workout this weekend since the kids have a meet so will do coaching duties instead.

Went on a 5 mile LSD trail run this morning. Forgot my running gloves like a total idiot. Ran some of the time with my hands in my jacket pockets. Almost got hit by a deer jumping out of hedge. My first thought, of course, was "just not my shoulder." lol

1 hour at the gym doing weights and core.

Today I feel a bit better. Not quite as congested as the past few days. Since it has been recommended by several of my friends to help with nasal congestion, I went and got one today. I hope it helps.

Today all I did was a 1 hour spinning class early this morning. It was actually about 45 minutes of spin and then some abs work and stretching for 15 minutes.

Will swim and do weights tomorrow.

Friday Dec 12th 2008

today was a special treat,
I trained with the UT team
Eddie Reese coached

Roque Santos with Blue Seventy is in town for Jrs we're having lunch at the UT club

Made my 2009 SCY events, meets and training plans (below)

hope to blog this practice later today at:
http://andesswimmingblog.blogspot.com


Today's Practice

6:30 pm - 8:00
eddie coached
swim center SCY diving well
swam with Garrett Weber Gale and Dale Rogers
beside Hill Taylor and a couple other UT swimmers
right now they are in finals so the whole team wasn't there
dove in around 6:32

warm up

didn't hear the warm up but it was on a fairly fast pace, pretty long
we did several rounds of
4 x 25
50's
75's
100 IM drill
(i didn't ask what we were doing I just dove in and did what Garrett did, but we weren't getting much rest, didn't have much time to chat)

kick set

2 x 100 k on 1:30
2 x 50 k on :50
2 x 50 easy on 1:00

2 x 100 k on 1:25
2 x 50 k on :50
2 x 50 easy on 1:00

2 x 100 k on 1:20
2 x 50 k on :50
2 x 50 easy on 1:00

2 x 100 k on 1:25
2 x 50 k on :50
2 x 50 easy on 1:00

2 x 100 k on 1:30
2 x 50 k on :50
2 x 50 easy on 1:00


8 x 25 k on :20
made it


6 x 25 SDK
no breath on :30
made it


swim 10 minutes with a tube

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

My spring 2009 training plans are taking shape:

now till mid February
regular training
focus on 200 fr, 200 bk & 200 IM and sprints

Rest 2 weeks for the

USS Texas Grand Prix Th/Fri/Sat
Mar 5 - 7 in
Austin, TX

Switch to strength and speed training
focus on 50 fr, 50 bk, & 100 IM

Rest 1 week for

3/27/ - 3/29/09
USMS South Central Zone Championships -
Southlake, North Dallas

resume strength and speed training
rest 2 weeks for

5/7 - 5/10/09
USMS 2009 Short Course National Championships
Fresno, CA

Thursday, 12/11/08
I have a head cold and my sinuses are completely stopped up. I was able to breathe while in the pool but as soon as I finished it, I plugged up again.


Hotel pool, Solo

8 x 50 free on 1:15 started easy and descend each

8 x 50 kick on 1:30, alternated flutter and dolphin

8 x 50 swim on 1:15 alternating free and back

12 x 25 drill on RI :10

1500 meters

Did weight class at noon

700 variety warm up

Aerobic set:

5 x 200 on 3:00
(free, back, free, back, free)

Kick set:

10 x 100 kick with monofin, alternate medium speed and a little bit faster speed (around 1:05s)

50 EZ

Speed/technique work:

5 x (4 x 25) on :40 or so
#1 easy speed fly with MF
#2 easy
#3 AFAP shooter with MF
#4 easy

100 EZ

I rarely do any full stroke fly with a MF. Decided to try some 25s that way. It may help keep my feet down some so that I'm not kicking as much air. So then I tried:

3 x 50 easy speed fly with MF, followed by 50 EZ after each (went 25s). Definitely can't get the feet out as much and feel flatter in the water. I may get a bigger MF meant for swimming. Mine is the finis shooter MF meant for kicking.

50 AFAP with MF on back (:23 with a bad turn)

200 easy

Total: 3900

Still feel pretty speedy in the water despite running and spinning.

Walked out of the pool into the locker room and absolutely smashed my left shoulder into a thermostat. Damn, it hurt. Then I went home and smashed it again while putting up tree light.

I swam even though I didn't want to and I am glad I did. Something about chlorine just opens up my sinuses. Of course after I was done I went back to the I can't breath status.

Nothing particularly hard today.

500 as 100swim/100pull/100swim/100kick/100swim
5x50 @ 1:10 Free right arm only with paddle left arm at side
200 kick
5x50 @ 1:10 Free left arm only with paddle right arm at side
500 kick with fins alt 100fr/100fl
5x50 @ 1:00 Free right paddle only 4 kicks on the paddle hand
200 kick
5x50 @ 1:00 Free left paddle only 4 kicks on the paddle hand
100 EZ
5x100 @ 1:40 Free with 6 beat kick

Total 3000 yards

Just went for a quicky 3 mile run today. Then spent the rest of the day xmas shopping -- and I hate shopping in malls -- and being rather agitated over a swimming issue. Hope it goes away. Going to swim tomorrow for sure.