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Well had a double of sorts today. I did my normal 1200 yards this morning including some kicking tests to see if I am faster on my 25's...I am!

25 Y Results 9/21
Dive from side--No board flutter :26
Push--w/Board flutter :24
Dive from side--SDK :24
Dive from side--Swim :15

25 Y Results 1/04
Dive from side--No board flutter :20.32
Push--w/Board flutter :20.1
Dive from side--SDK <:21
Dive from side--Swim :14.5

I got these from a watch vs the pace clock in September, but even if you give me a margin of error of 2 seconds on the pace clock. I am still faster!

Workout 1
4 x 50 W Snorkel
2 x 50 Snorkel and paddles
200 above kick testing incl. EZ 25s swim backs.
3 x 100 K no fins
100 K broken and I did a test 50 K w fins went :32
4 x 50P Snorkel, fins and paddles.
2 x 50P Snorkel and fin
1 x 50 Snorkel
1 x 50 No gear

Workout 2
Ladder 100 to 500 to 100 (2500)
I tried 1:38's but after the 300 I had a wicked headache and had to back down to 140's and eventually about 1:45. I didn't eat properly before and I think it was a factor.
I finished off with a nice EZ 500:
3 x 100 with full gear.
4 x 50 removing the gear by 50's fins, paddles, snorkel. Last 50 "naked" in the David Barra sense of the word!

Too damn tired to do a thing today!! My upper back is still sore from weights on Saturday and was shocked back to reality with an early wake up ... I'm always a tad gloomy after a holiday/vacation. Getting a deep tissue massage tomorrow -- that should help!

But I did get my USA Swimming card in the mail today. So I'm set for the Jan. Open.

Also am sending in my entries for Auburn:

Saturday:

100 IM
50 free
100 back
50 fly

(Will scratch either the 50 free or 100 back. Probably the 100 back as there's only one event between that and the 50 fly.)

Sunday:

100 fly
50 back
50 breast
200 IM

(Will do either the 50 breast or 200 IM. There's nothing I'm really dying to swim after the 50 back and the 100 free is right after and thus not an option. Guess I could also do a split request in my 200 IM.)

11:00 to Noon at the Jamerson YMCA (SCY)

Warm up
400 free - different breathing pattern every 100 - I cannot breathe to my left very well. I sink after I breathe and I think it's because I lift my head rather than roll on my axis.
4x25 dps on :35
4x25 descend on :30 (19high to 17low)

4x50 on 1:30 - Coach's instructions were to go hard but not sprint and go under :40 for each (I went :38s and :39s)
100 ez Free

8x25 on 1:00 sprints - Evens from the blocks. Coach timed the odds from a push(I went 15.1, 15.4, 15,9, 15.4).
100 ez Free

10x50 on 1:00 - 25 drill/25 free

8x3/4 length sprints on :40 (I don't know my times, but I worked turns and streamlines).
4x25 dps - Decrease # of strokes by 1 each length, except drop by 2 on last (I did 17, 15, 13, and 11 - I've never made 11, maybe my stroke's getting better).

100 ez warm down

2050 yards

Finally!!! Pool reopened for the year today.

SCY with Carrie
Warmup
300 swim, did 200 free, 100 back
4 x (25 kick/25 drill) IM order no board
8 x 50 RI :15 Odds IMO as 25 dps/25 build
Evens free, descend 1-4

Main
2 x 400 free on 7:00, #1 pull w/buoy only, #2 add paddles. Focus on dps
4 x 200 free on RI 1:00 count strokes and focus on holding the SC through the set. Also focus on taking 2 dolphin kicks off each wall.
Cool down
100 kick w/ board
100 easy IM

2700 yards

Did 40 minute spinning class during my lunch hour

Monday Jan 5th, 2009

my next meet is
Saturday January 17 - Monday 19th
USS Meet Longhorn Aquatics New Year's Classic
12 days away
plan to train through it (no rest)


will blog todays practice at:
http://andesswimmingblog.blogspot.com
the short cut to my blog is
http://TinyURL.com/AndeSwim
It's OK to comment there


Tyler emailed this morning to let me know that the USMS record keeper updated our SCM relay records and my individual records
I guess it's official now, it's nice when records last longer than 3 hours.


lifted weights yesterday


6:30 - 8:00
Whitney coached
SCY swim center main pool, NO Blocks
swam with Todd "the breastroke god" Bartee, Mike, Brandon & Amy beside
Larry, Nate, Paul and a new swimmer Annie Getter Brown, even Doug returned several lanes over from hernia surgery and about a month off
dove in around 6:38ish

200 missed
100 k missed
200 started here
100 k
200
100 k

16 x 25 on :25
3 fl drill or free
1 fly fast

4 x 75 fr on 1:00 desc (moderate interval)
went 44 on #4

16 x 25 on :25
3 bk mod
1 bk fast

4 x 150 fr on 2:00 desc (moderate interval)
went 1:40, 1:38, 1:37, 1:30

16 x 25 on :25
3 br drill or free
1 br fast went 15's & 16's

4 x 300 fr on 4:00 desc
went 3:25, 3:18, 3:11,
took an extra 30 sec rest before #4
went 3:01

16 x 25 fr on :25
3 fr mod
1 fr fast

easy 100

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

UT Men were training and Russell Mark USA Swimming's biomechanics coordinator was on deck.

I had a workout all written up and I left it at home so I put this one together as I went.

1000 done by 200's swim/pull/swim/kick/swim

8x25 @ :45 Breast Kick
8x25 @ :45 Breast
1 minute rest
100 Breast for time went 1:41
500 Free with paddles every 3rd lap Breast

8x25 @ :45 Back Kick just barely made these
8x25 @ :45 Back
1 minute rest
100 Back for time went 1:32
500 Free with paddles every 3rd lap Back

500 Kick with fins alternate 100's fly/free

Total 3500 yards

I am not going to worry about the yards only the quality of the workout and the quality of the stroke work this year. I guess you could say quality strokes and kick are my new years resolution for practices.

i sent this out to everyone on my e-mail list last week but thought i would post it here as well.

thanks everyone for your advise and support......now cover me; i'm going in!

> its cardiac update time!
>
> after a couple of months of tests i think i've finally
> got a good diagnosis and treatment plan. i can't thank
> enough all those who have helped me get to this point by
> sharing their personal experiences with this condition, and
> negotiating their way around the health care and insurance
> system; altogether a good argument for full disclosure. a
> couple of false positive test results sent me a little way
> down the wrong path including an echo-cardiogram indicating
> severe pulmonary hypertension and a nuclear stress test
> indicating a left ventricular ejection fraction of 32%.
> there is now pretty clear evedence that an ASD is the
> primary cause of my symptoms.
>
> on january 6th i will be heading to n.y. presbetyrian to
> undergo another cardiac cathether procedure. this one will
> involve a slightly larger incision in the femorial vein than
> the last, but recovery is pretty much the same. if my last
> cath was typical, i anticipate some very colorful brusing of
> the groin area and might just have a rorschach type of
> psyco-analysis test prepared. (sign up early to participate)
>
> though i will not be going to rochester, the link describes
> the procedure:
> http://www.stronghealth.com/services.../ASDrepair.cfm
>
> best wishes for a peaceful '09
>
> david

(Note: If you are reading this without first going back in time and reading Part 1 and Part 2, I warn you that today's tripartite swimming video-less vlog dependent on emoticons will make even less sense than it should. --Jimby)



Alas, the whole thing has left me with an exertional headache and some residual fatigue that keeps me from for joy, or, for that matter, even myself, and certainly not telling myself I am not , though the truth is, I probably could tell myself this, and not even the 's would find fault with my reasoning!

Anyhow, I had hoped to cap off the night with some butterfly kicking drills, but it looks like that's not in the cards. And so I will probably just head off to before a quick visit to parts of the Internet to help me visualize said kicking drills.

Your video-less vlogger, signing off. Check back here soon for more .

(Sorry for making you read this backwards. --Jimby)


In any event, I the previous record holder of the 100 I.M. from the #1 spot in our league , which was something of a pyrric victory, because it was --embarrassing for a humble guy like me to to admit--my own record.

This was followed by a mediocre 50 fly, an okay 25 free --a staple of our league, since we aren't so as to think such a distance is beneath us!

But then I swam the 400 I.M., setting a new record (not my own!) by 9 seconds, with a rather pathetic 5:11 in the 55-59 age group.

If I were not a teetotaller, I would have to propose a to my personal best post-diarrhea/nausea/sore throat performance in a pool measuring 18" deep (in the shallow end; I literally scraped my knuckles during warm up!)

(Note: Just found out while attempting to preview this that I can only use 10 emoticons at a time, so must divide today's vlog into three mini installments. Sorry for the bother. --Jimby)

Okay, no footage today, no still photography, no cartoons, no hieroglyphics. I am trying to figure out the cheapest, most portable, best, and least easily stolen & destroyed camcorder to buy, and it is proving surprisingly difficult.

So, today's vlog will be made up of words and emoticons.

I swam a meet today after having awakened from uneasy dreams and drunken three mugs of . I should have eaten a because I tend to get foot cramps a lot, especially when the water is and I don't drink enough . I was how I would swim, because for the past four days I had been feeling , laid low by in my inner ear, that caused a certain nausea and need to to the bathroom fairly frequently, plus I had a sore throat. In fact when we arrived at the meet, i actually had to to the bathroom. But maybe this is more than you care to know.

Managed to drag myself out of bed in time for team practice. Felt a little tired from the weights/swim from yesterday afternoon. I think it's preferable to have a whole 24 hours in between workouts. Still, got in a decent swim with a little speedwork despite the fatigue and revelry of last night.

Warm up:

800 of swim, kick & drills.
Skipped a 600 or so of pulling while chit chatting.

Main Sets:

10 tuck jumps off blocks

12 x 50 kick @ 1:00
2 choice, 1 fast free

10 pike jumps off blocks (this was rather amusing to watch, lol, helps to be an ex gymnast/diver)

12 x 75 @ 1:15
25 fast fly, 50 DPS free
25 fast back, 50 DPS free
25 fast breast, 50 DPS free
(I did the DPS 50s all backstroke)

300 social kick. Must swim in a different lane with someone you don't know that well. I met a new 25 year old on the team who's an evilstroker/IMer and plans to compete in meets.

15 x 25 with fins @ 40
4 UW switching lanes, 1 swim
(this had some real crashing potential!)

100 C/D

Did some starts off the blocks

Total: 3200

______________________________________

Mr. Fort ran his first 10 mile race in many many years on Saturday. He loved the Garmin Forerunner. Kept him on pace and beeped at him every mile. Since he's only been training for a month or so, he did very well, holding about a 6:55 pace despite some hilly parts.

Gym:

75 minutes at gym doing weights, core, RC and some stretching.

Hopped in the hot SCM pool for a very short workout:

Warm up:

600 swim, kick, builds

Sprint Set:

10 x (25 AFAP + 25 easy), no interval

(Didn't feel so great. Might not have been warmed up enough and the water was way too hot. No matter, needed to do some sprinting. And that was all I had time for anyway!)

50 EZ

Kick Set:

500 dolphin kick on back with MF

100 EZ

Total: 1750 meters

Hit the steam room and neti pot after. This is a bubble pool and, like Wolfy, I always feel congested after swimming in it.

Hoping to go to my team practice if I can get myself out of bed. I've been up outrageously late lately ... Probably will be again tonight as I'm going to a Twelfth Night party.

Today I went to the gym for the Body Pump weights class but when I got there the class was already full. Sooooo....
Carrie and I went for coffee and then I went back to do a spin class. About 45 minutes of very hard work. Left me drenched in sweat and with wobbly legs.

Will do nothing tomorrow and then training for SCY Nationals begins in earnest early Monday morning with my 1st swim of the new year followed by a spin class at noon.

Saturday Jan 3rd 2009

blogged today's practice at:
http://andesswimmingblog.blogspot.com


here's the short cut to my blog to make it even easier for you to find
TinyURL Ande Swim
http://www.TinyURL.com/AndeSwim

my next meet is 13 days away
Saturday January 17 - Monday 19th
USS Meet Longhorn Aquatics New Year's Classic
plan to train through it (no rest)

The water at the Y was alittle warm 84 degrees so Sandra (one of my 10 year old swimmers) and I did alot of fly drill work with fins.

500 by 100s as swim/pull/swim/kick/swim
40x25 @ 1:00 Fly drill's with fins we chose them as we went along, like kick on back, 6 kick rotation, chest press, etc.
500 easy
At this point Sandra left and I just put the rest of this together to get to 4000.

4x200 @ 3:30 free with paddles and bouy descend 1-3, #4 EZ, went 2:50, 2:45, 2:30, 3:00
This was my quality set and it felt really good

The rest was just thrown together as I went.
200 kick
200 free with parachute
200 back with paddles and board
100 IM
200 Breast kick with fins
100 Breast with fins
200 EZ Free

20 minutes in the hot tub!

total 4000 yards

Q & A with Jim Thornton

--by Jim Thornton

Q. Hi, Jim. Would you like to say hello to our audience?

A. Hello to you, Jim, along with our fellow masters swimmers, RSS feed subscribers, the CBS viewing audience, and my good friend Mr. Martin Scorcese.

Q. So, your output lately has really been astonishing. I can't believe you are posting more, so soon! People sometimes ask me, Jim, do you have a life?

A. Excellent question! I do have a life, but it has been on hiatus for quite a while now. At the risk of overloading you with vlog material, and perchance exhausting your appetite for all things Jim and Jim-like, as if such might be remotely possible!, I am nevertheless adding the latest swimming-related video made entirely by my DNA. That is to say, by John.

Q. John? Refresh my memory here.

A. Those who have been thrilled by "John is Real, Really" recently know that John, my identical twin brother, likes to make movies. Today's vlog is on a subject that many masters swimmers have either A) participated in personally, B) considered participating in but have heretofore postponed the actual impulse to the future, or C) find this quaint hibernal passtime an embarrassment for our great sport of swimming.

Q. Surely, you're not bringing up those Palin girls again?

A. Of course not! I refer, of course, to the Polar Bear swim concept, wherein a bunch of tubs o' lard like me and John partially denude ourselves and go into some incredibly frigid sources of moisture in the hopes of losing massive winter weight gain. Speaking from experience, you don't really lose any weight. But you do lose, massively, the appearance of weight from an area of the body that can easily be mistaken for midriff bulge tugged downwards by gravity.

Q. Always, those Palin girls find their way back! Okay, Jim, one last question before watching John's excellent polar bear swim film. You mentioned several blogs ago that you were going to swim the 1650 in practice. How did that go?

A. Hard! I ended up swimming an average pace of 1:14.41, give or take, for an overall 1650 time of 20:33. This was in full hair exposed mode, no body suit, no dive, and water temperature of 85 degrees.

Q. Yikes! Did Bill lap you, as expected, four times?

A. Actually, Bill almost evaded swimming it entirely, but I taunted him into it. He swam a 19:27 after I got out, and we calculated that he would have only lapped me once, though with a 5 second head start (had we been circle swimming) almost twice.

Q. How's that make you feel?

A. I am not sure yet. I am still checking various age-grading programs from programmers in the US, Finland, and the UK. When I find one that provides me some reason to celebrate, I will let you know, Jim.

Q. I have heard that Latvian age-grading is particularly lenient for 56-year-olds like you, and harsh for 38-year-olds like Bill.

A. I have "nyet" yet looked into it! But on this perfect segue, i.e., Ivan the Russian Bear slowly morphing into John the Identical Twin Polar Bear, the Thornton genes gives you today's vlog...

Thanks to the 353 (and counting) of you who viewed my last Vlog. The one criticism I received most consistently about this heartfelt homage to my fellow masters swimmers across this great pool-dappled country of ours was this:

Great assemblage, Jim, but why so many shots of other people? Why not just concentrate only on yourself and people who look sort of like you personally?

As one of the small handful of artists working in the rarefied medium of Masters Swimming Vlog Art, I could very easily have turned my back on such criticisms, shrugging the hues and cries of the "audience" as merely the jejune wimperings of the masses.

But I am not like this!

I appreciate my audience, though God knows that some of the members therein probably are so jejune they don't even know what jejune means!

Forgive a moment of private chortling over a certain befuddled Aryan Nation friend in Arizona.

Okay, composure regained.

As regular readers of this vlog may eventually learn, I have a somewhat sickly nature, though I rarely mention it and never complain about it. I have been sidelined from the pool today due to a fear of explosive emissions of pretty much any stripe imaginable save the one most women who know me actually like to imagine. Thus no swimming to report on today, other, that is, than the swimming of my head. I can say without equivocation that it has Gone the Distance today! http://www.usms.org/fitness/content/gothedistance

So what I propose to offer you today is a Vlog in the spirit of Partially Swimming Related Subject Matter, if by partial you accept the definition "not very much if at all." Instead, I am including an homage to my wonderful brother John. He is the mind behind the Leslie Livingston SCM butterfly Travesty of Travesty video, the Polar Bear Plunge (both scroffulous and musical versions), the epic Sunk, and pretty much anything you will see on this Vlog that is actually kind of good.

John and I are identical twins, though people who have not met us in the same room often think I have made John up. Some who have met us, while acknowledging some familial resemblance, nevertheless don't think we are identical twins. However, according to the University of Minnesota Twin Study's David Lykken, Ph.D., we definitely are.

One of is is the Good Twin; one the Evil Twin. Perhaps the hard turns my life has forced upon me accounts not only for the discrepancy in our character but in our looks.

John no longer swims, but holds the family records for the 100 freestyle and backstroke, and probably butterfly, too. Neither of us can complete a 100 breaststroke in the alloted time frame, i.e., the length of the entire meet.

If you are of a liberal persuasion, I strongly urge you to visit John's YouTube Channel, Rustyscupperton. If you are frothy-mouthed conservative, and for some reason you miss a swimming practice, you can still get your heart rate up to the target zone by similar visitations.

It is all, as they say, good! http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...=0&oq=Rustyscu

And here is my homage to John, with a little of me in there too, satisfying the earlier request, which I shall briefly recap here again:

Great assemblage, Jim, but why so many shots of other people? Why not just concentrate only on yourself and people who look sort of like you personally?

Just as Trenton makes, and the world takes--so is it that You ask, and Jimby gives!

Drove home from Pittsburgh this afternoon. Went to the gym pool to loosen up and ended up doing a workout. Relatively easy one, nothing like the sheer torture set from a couple days ago.

SCM, solo:

Warm up:

500 swim

Main Sets:

5 x (3 x 100)
#1 kick: backstroke kick or dolphin kick on back @ 2:00
#2 drill: fly or breast drill @ 2:00
#3 swim: backstroke @ 1:45

10 x 50 backstroke, drop down
2 50s @ 1:05
2 50s @ 1:00
2 50s @ :55
2 50s @ :50
2 50s @ :45

5 x 100 IM kick on 2:00
1st 25 = UW dolphin kick on belly

10 x (25 easy speed fly + 25 easy), no interval
just worked on DPS and staying flat

100 C/D

Total: 3600 meters

500 Warm up 2 x 100 snorkel 300 swim.
2 x 250 4:15
3 x 100 1:45
4 x 50 1:00 FAST...should have been :50 but I am blind, apparently.
3 x 100 1:40 Pull with fins, snorkel & paddles.
2 x 250 3:45 Snorkel and paddles.
1 x 500 8:16 (1:38 pace) no gear.
2 x 100 EZ with snorkel.

Yes, I'm using a lot of gear but I am trying to work on a few things with my stroke.

After work I ran 1.25 miles AGAIN, then went to lift weights.
I'm ready for

11:00 to Noon at the Downtown YMCA (SCM)

Warm up
400 IM drill (Did 2-1-2 fly, 1/4 arm lift back, 2 kk/pull br and fingertip drag free concentrating especially on a good catch)
250 free

10xthru:
3x50 free on 1:00
25 fly or breast sprint on 1:00 (on the last interval, concentrate on a fast turn, wall and breakout)

I alternated breast/fly but my timing on fly was off, so I resorted to 1 arm fly, switching arms half way down the pool. On the 50s, I worked on a good catch, strong pull and good turns/walls. Started out holding 46 and :47, but sped up to :43 and :44 as the practice progressed. My left arm feels good, but I'm still having trouble getting a good catch with my right.

2400 meters