Of Swimming Bondage

I am not "whining on the Scottsdale yacht" because my home city truly is a gem of a town when it comes to aquatics. However, their delayed deck re-construction at Cactus threw my workout plans in a bit of a tizzy the last two days. Cactus has been closed the entire month of December for deck re-surfacing and was supposed to re-open yesterday, Monday. As I'm trying to step back up my training, I had this wonderful plan to hit the 5:30am yoga class and then swing through Cactus for a quick ~2K sprint-oriented workout on my way back home. With Cactus re-opening, as of yesterday, delayed until today, I had to scrap the swim.

"No worries," I thought, "That was just a bonus swim that I can make up later in the week."

Which is all true.

But then, last night, we got an email for our kids' team that the Cactus re-opening was now delayed until this Friday, due to the pool heaters not being turned on soon enough to get it back to a reasonable swim temperature. I gave my daughter, a lifeguard at Cactus, hell for this lapse in judgement, but she pleaded like a war criminal, "I was just following orders."

While my dreams of a brisk morning swim in the sub-freezing outdoor temperatures at the newly-christened-decked-out Cactus were shot due to this, a late morning coffee interview in Old Town Scottsdale put me a few minutes away from the lovely, if a bit too shallow and too hot El Dorado Aquatic Center, where I managed to perform ahead of expectations on my 400 IM test set.

Warmup sets (1,775 set)

• 1 x 400: IM, kick-drill by 25
• 4 x 100: on 1:30, free descend swim (1:09 -> 1:02+)
• 4 x 100: on 1:45, IM kick descend, odds w/board, evens on back (1:28 -> 1:22)
• 6 x 50: on 1:00, #1 and #6 cruise free, #2 to #5 IM order build
  
  • 0:31, 0:32, 0:37, 0:29
  
  
• 8 x 25: 4 on 0:30, 4 on 0:35, going 5-6-7-8 AFAP strokes off the wall then cruise twice thru, wore Zoomers and agility paddles
• 1 x 75: easy to get to the side of the pool with the digital clock

400 IM Test Set (2,225 set / 4,000 total)

• 8 x 50: on 0:55, 2 each stroke, build the odds and make sure the evens are at your target 400 IM race pace
  
  • In SCM, my dream is to approach the 4:39.8 I did in 2008 in a tech suit. That race was split 1:03.8, 1:11.5, 1:21.1, 1:03.4 so target 50 times would be 33.5 (2nd 50 of fly), 35+ (back), 40+ (breast) and 31+ (free)
  • My SCY splits to dream of would be 29+ fly, 31+ back, 36+ breast, 29.0 free
  • 09/17/13 - 35+, 35, 42, 33
  • 09/23/13 - 33, 35, 40+, 31+ (much better!)
  • 10/06/13 - 34, 35, 41, 32 (a little sluggish)
  • 10/10/13 - SCY - 29, 30+, 36-, 28- (awesome)
  • 10/17/13 - SCY - 31, 31+, 37, 28+ (sluggish start, OK finish)
  • 10/27/13 - 33, 34+, 41, 31- (much better than expected)
  • 10/30/13 - 33, 34, 40+++/41---, 31-
  • 03/04/14 - SCY - 30, 32, 37, 30 (only fly feels good)
  • 03/15/14 - SCY - 29+, 32, 36, 30 (felt pretty cruiseful)
  • 04/01/14 - 0:33, 0:35, 0:40+, 0:32
  • 04/14/14 - 0:33+, 0:35+, 0:41, 0:31+
  • 06/01/14 - 0:33+, 0:35, 0:42, 0:31
  • 06/27/14 - 0:34, 0:35, 0:42, 0:32
  • 07/27/14 - 0:35, 0:35, 0:42, 0:32
  • 12/30/14 - SCY - 30, 31, 37, 28
  
  
• 4 x 100: on 1:40, do as 100 IMs, descend to your target race pace divided by 4, ideally starting on #1 no slower than 12 seconds above that
  
  • SCM target would be to descend from 1:22 to 1:10
  • SCY target would be to descend from 1:14+ to 1:02+
  • 09/17/13 - 1:23, 1:22, 1:19, 1:14
  • 09/23/13 - 1:21, 1:19, 1:15, 1:12+
  • 10/06/13 - 1:21, 1:17+, 1:14, 1:12-
  • 10/10/13 - SCY - 1:11+, 1:10, 1:07, 1:03+
  • 10/17/13 - SCY - 1:12, 1:09, 1:06, 1:04
  • 10/27/13 - 1:21, 1:18, 1:15, 1:11+
  • 10/30/13 - 1:21, 1:18, 1:14, 1:12
  • 03/04/14 - SCY - 1:08, 1:06, 1:07, 1:06+ (I forgot these were supposed to be descend and started hard)
  • 03/15/14 - SCY - 1:09+, 1:09, 1:05, 1:03++
  • 04/01/14 - 1:21, 1:19, 1:14, 1:13
  • 04/14/14 - 1:20, 1:18, 1:13+, 1:11
  • 06/01/14 - 1:22, 1:20, 1:15+, 1:13
  • 06/27/14 - 1:20, 1:18, 1:14, 1:11+
  • 07/27/14 - 1:20, 1:16, 1:14, 1:11
  • 12/30/14 - SCY - 1:10, 1:08+, 1:06+, 1:04
  
  
• 1 x 50: easy on 1:00
• 2 x 200: on 3:00, build each stroke on #1, try to make #2 at your target 400 IM race pace divided by two (e.g., 2:20 in SCM, 2:05+ in SCY)
  
  • 09/17/13 - 2:49, 2:38
  • 09/23/13 - 2:49, 2:33
  • 10/06/13 - 2:45, 2:33
  • 10/10/13 - SCY - 2:28, 2:13+
  • 10/17/13 - SCY - 2:26, 2:15
  • 10/27/13 - 2:43, 2:32
  • 10/30/13 - 2:41, 2:30+
  • 03/04/14 - SCY - 2:24, 2:22
  • 03/15/14 - SCY - 2:27, 2:15
  • 04/01/14 - 2:47, 2:36
  • 04/14/14 - 2:48, 2:30
  • 06/01/14 - 2:43, 2:32
  • 06/27/14 - 2:43+, 2:31
  • 07/27/14 - 2:45, 2:31
  • 12/30/14 - SCY - 2:30, 2:18
  
  
• 4 x 50: active recovery, on 0:45, 0:50, 0:55, 1:30
• 1 x 400: IM on 5:20, hard
  
  • 09/17/13 - 5:36 (ugh-o-rama)
  • 09/23/13 - 5:15
  • 10/06/13 - 5:10 (1:11, 1:19, 1:30, 1:10)
  • 10/10/13 - SCY from push - 4:36 (1:05, 1:09, 1:20, 1:02)
  • 10/17/13 - SCY from push - 4:38 (couldn't see splits in the sun)
  • 10/27/13 - 5:20 (1:13, 1:21, 1:32, 1:14)
  • 10/30/13 - 5:12 (1:14, 1:20, 1:28, 1:10)
  • 03/04/14 - SCY from push - 5:02 (if only the pool was SCM)
  • 03/15/14 - SCY from push - 4:40
  • 04/01/14 - 5:21 (no splits)
  • 04/14/14 - skipped it
  • 06/01/14 - 5:13 (from dive)
  • 06/27/14 - 5:08 (from dive) <= BEST EVER on this set
  • 07/27/14 - skipped it
  • 12/30/14 - SCY from push - 4:42+ (1:09, 1:11, 1:20, 1:02+)
  
  
• 7 x 50: active recovery, starting on 0:40 and adding 0:05 to each
• 1 x 25: float to the other side of the pool

TOTAL: 4,000 SCY

Commentary:

• I far exceeded my expectations.
• I'm pretty happy with the power I feel like I'm generating from my legs and pretty sure it's due to my more regular yoga attendance.