Alex's swim journal

One of the reasons I love perusing the blogs on USMS is that, in addition to some great sets and workout ideas, there's always a juicy little nugget or link that can come in handy.

Yesterday's lake swim was an adaptation of a set from one of ekw's blogs this week (who in turn took the set from Swimsuit Addict). I couldn't keep track of times because I was in the lake, but at least had the 50-yard swim lane to keep track of distance. I used perceived effort as my guide, treating the swims between 2IM segments as recovery swims:

WU: 200 EZ swim

MS (2500):
50 fly--150 fr--50 bk--150 ft--50 br--150 fr--50 fr hard--150 fr recovery
:20 rest
50 fly--100 fr--50 bk--100 fr--50 br--100 fr--50 fr hard--100 fr recovery
:30-:45 rest
50 fly--50 fr--50 bk--50 fr--50 br--50 fr--50 fr hard--50 fr recovery
:30-:45 rest
200 IM
:30 rest
500 fr cruising speed

CD (300): 100 bk, 100 br, 100 fr

3000 yards/60 minuutes

It was a beautiful day--water like glass, crisp, cool air, blue skies, water temps probably around mid-70s--and I had the lap swim area all to myself... except for a water jogger who I've seen there before and who watches out for me... during the rests today I talked with her briefly and, though wondered if my swimming might be interrupting the solitude of the beautiful day for her, she mentioned that she liked it when I was swimming b/c it helped the time pass faster for her; she was there well after I left.

MEDITERRANEAN QUINOA SALAD:

I got this one from the Jul/Aug 2013 volume of Splash magazine. I got to it via a comment from PWB on ekw's blog about why swimming makes us so hungry. PWB linked the page from Splash with a short article about the effect of swimming on appetite. Of course that caught my interest, but it also led me to this great recipe on the same page... for a seasonal Quinoa salad, including cucumbers, tomatoes, kalamatta olives, a little lemon juice and EVOO. I adapted it for vegan by leaving out the feta cheese. I've been looking for an excuse to use quinoa... We tried it out tonight on some non-vegan dinner guests and they weren't completely turned off by it. Yay. But there's still enough left over for the next couple of days! I liked it. Anyway, as I said, surprising and useful little nuggets of information abound among my fellow bloggers... thanks guys!

IMPROVEMENT--1650 PACE:

In the excitement of a couple of new recipes and a fun dinner party, I almost forgot about the most exciting thing that happened today... I did a repeat of my 20 x 100 on 1:40 at 1650 goal-pace workout with surprising improvements. Last week I had a hard time holding the 1:25/100 goal pace, lots of 1:27-28, even a couple of 1:30-31 at the end. This week, only three reps over 1:25, all at 1:26. Here's how the workout went:

WU (1000):
4 x 100 on 1:40 EZ (1:36-1:38 fr, pull, fr, pull); :20 rest, then...
4 x 100 IM on 2:15 (desc from 1:40 to 1:36)
4 x 50 fr on 1:00 (:39, :38, :36, :38)

MS (2000):
20 x 100 on 1:40 (mostly 1:24-1:25; reps 14, 15, and 20 were 1:26)

CD (1000):
200 recovery swim (pull)
4 x 100 IM on 2:00 (1:39-1:46)
400 EZ swim (pull, bk pull, bk, fr)

4000 SCY/75 minutes