Of Swimming Bondage
Flag Fun Day & Jochums' Revenge
by , June 23rd, 2014 at 11:40 AM (87 Views)
Catching up from a very busy and very fun weekend.
Saturday meet in Flagstaff - "Fast Times in the Cool Pines"
Though the meet was tiny (maybe 25 swimmers entered), the show still went on and, I think, everyone there had a great time. They ran it with generous breaks and so the meet took a little less than two hours from start to finish. As I've never swum long course at altitude, these are all 'Altitude Masters Best Times.' I haven't seen official results, so not sure if the tenths/hundredths are entirely accurate as the 50s were off the timers' watches and I took the board times for the 100s and the 400
- 400 free
- Goal was to see how close I could come to 4:40 and I went 4:43.73
- There were certainly some moments in here where I felt the altitude and I probably went out way too hard at the 100, but, fortunately, there were no splits to verify if I truly split this poorly.
- This actually felt pretty good and I was pleased with the time.
- 50 fly
- I had a couple of minutes to warm down while others were finishing their 400s and then one heat of 50 flys before I was back on the block.
- I wanted to go under 30 and the timer told me 29.96, so I really hope that time holds.
- 100 breast
- 1:24.81
- I have no feeling about whether this is good or bad, but this race probably hurt more than all others.
- 50 back
- The timer had me at 33.9-something, which is not too bad considering my sea level best is 32.98
- 100 free
- This felt really good, strong and powerful and I really thought I was going to be much closer to the minute mark than I was, but I was 1:01.35
I had brought #3 daughter and her friend along for the day. They were awesome sports volunteering as timers (and lap counters for the 800 which I wisely skipped), but my daughter had an ulterior motive in her attendance - a re-match of the 50 kick we had last October in the SCM version of this meet (http://forums.usms.org/entry.php?306...Aquatic-Center). She talked Liz, the NAU Masters coach and Meet Director, into throwing this event into one of the breaks. In addition to my daughter, her friend and I, one of the other Masters guys did this (he won). Here's how this panned out:
- Last fall, I had started with breaststroke kick and reverted to freestyle kick when I realized my daughter was going to beat me.
- This time, I thought I was wiser, and started with dolphin kick, but, by the 25 meter mark, I was at her feet and she was pulling away.
- I switched to flutter kick and she kept pulling away.
- Chalk another win up for the kiddo as she motored to a 0:41-low 50 LCM kick.
- I was at least a second or two behind her!
Additional kudos and props to my daughter's friend who bravely volunteered to sing the National Anthem at the start of the meet ... and did it with style and a great voice.
After the meet, we spent a good chunk of the day heading out to and enjoying the site at Meteor Crater. I was impressed with how interested both girls were in the site, the history and the museum ... though I think the tour guide even tired of their endless questions.
We wrapped up a great day with the social / dinner that the NAU Masters put on at a community pool before heading back down to the Valley. It was cool to get to know a little bit more about some of the people there and we had a great, great time. I just wish more Masters swimmers from the southern part of AZ would realize how great it is to come up to Flag to swim.
I'm looking forward to another rendition of their SCM meet this fall.
Sunday – Jochums Revenge
Peter came over this morning and brought a set with him that he said he got from training with Dick Jochums back in the 80s. The set, in yards, is supposed to be 100 – 200 – 300 – 400 – 500 – 600 – 700 - 800 on 2:00 – 3:00 – 4:00 – 5:00 – 6:00 – 7:00 – 8:00 – 9:00. We modified the intervals to be 2:00 – 3:00 – 4:00 – 5:00 – 6:00 – 7:15 – 8:30 – 9:45, but only one man can climb the podium to say he made it … and that man wasn’t me
We did a warmup of 400 followed by 12 x 50s on 0:50 descending in 3s before the main set. Here's how it went for me:
- 100 - swam w/snorkel and crushed the interval
- 200 - swam w/snorkel and was 2:34
- 300 - pulled this w/buoy, went 3:48, which was slower than I expected
- 400 - added my agility paddles and kept pulling, going 4:53 ... barely making the 5:00 interval
- 500 - started w/buoy & paddles, but started falling behind Peter very early on into this so I dropped the buoy around the 250 or 300 mark and threw my legs into it. I hit the wall at 6:10, whereas Peter had already made the 6:00 interval. I decided to switch the interval to 6:20 and then add 1:20 to each of the subsequent distances
- 600 - The interval should have been easier to make at 7:40, but I was just trashed and touched the wall at 7:41
At this point, my arms were wasted and Peter was continuing to crank. I should've thought about maybe just resting a 100 and then trying to jump back into the loop with him, but I decided to work my legs and did 16 x 50 on 1:05 kicking, alternating one moderate (reverse IM order) and one fast (IM order). I finished that set about the time Peter finished the Jochums set and we cooled down for a 100. That still have me a respectable 4K workout, but it was frustrating not to make the set.
Unfortunately, I told Peter that I was frustrated and so he threw down the gauntlet, "So, we'll just do it again next Sunday and you'll have to make it!"
At least I have a week to wrap my head around it! Strangely, though, I am looking forward to it as I think this is the kind of workout I need to do more of to prepare for both the 800/1500 and open water racing.
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Allen Stark