the17thman

Swimming In Hell or At Least At 6am

I've been swimming at 6 am at the WeHo pool for the last 4 years and never have I read or heard as great of a description of swimming at 6am than a reporter's take on the Arden Hills Swim Club back in the 1960's:

"It looked like something out of Dante's Inferno, or mayb a witch-and-wizard's convention in Yellowstone Park.  The temperature of the air was thrity-five degrees; so, with the three swimming pools heated to about eighty, they were generating mists swirling up about forty feet.  The only illumination came from below, from the underwater lights of the pools, and through the mists, it looked something like hell.  The swimmers, struggling back and forth back and froth, two in each lane of each pool, were barely visible and gave me the impression of tortured souls in purgatory..."

This is from the out of print book "The 50 Meter Jungle" by Sherman Chavoor but the description reminds me of many a morning as I pull up to the pool.  I can see the steam rising up in the air before I can see the pool.  Some mornings the digital clock at the end of the pool vanishes behind these flumes of steam.  In some mornings it's magical and others it does feel like I've entered the gates of hell. 

Beard Denies Being Thorpes...umm...Beard.

Amanda Beard has flatly denied that she and Thorpe were once lovers.  According to the Aussie Press:

Thorpe's management issued a statement pointing to his comments in a 2007 magazine article in which he spoke of his affair with Beard.

"Well, I did have a long-term, long-distance relationship (with champion American breaststroker Amanda Beard), and it was great while it lasted. It was sort of public knowledge we were seeing each other, and yet not. It went on for ages, years," he was quoted as saying.

But Beard, 27, yesterday told her agent: "Take out the word relationship and put in the word friendship and that's exactly what it was."

I Could Get Use To The Medium Lane

Late this afternoon on my way home I stopped at the LA Fitness in Hollywood and did some weight training.  Going later in the day when the gym actually has people is motivating me to push myself.  Not in the typical macho bullshit way of trying to keep up or show off.  But as compared to going at 6am half awake with very few people the gym is more alive in the afternoon.  Which gets me motivated.  I did about 50 minutes of my circuit routine which now includes leg work.  I said this the other day and I'll say it again "working my legs for my push off the walls is a top priority for me this year!"  Hell the 1650 has a lot of those damn walls.  I need to work each one of them.  After the gym and about 2 hours recovery I decided to hit the 7pm swim practice.  I jokingly earlier emailed someone that I'd be swimming in the medium lane tonight and when I got to swim I did jump in the medium lane.  The fast lanes filled up pretty fast and I would have been in the wall lane with 4 other swimmers.  But in the medium lane I'd be in the middle with only 3 other people.  Ding, Ding, Ding, we have a winner.  Swimming in the medium lane was an easy choice.  And it turned out to be harder than I thought it would be. 

Warmed Up a 250 swim and a 350 kick.  Yup, I kicked!  Part of the whole working my legs thing.  I still have issues with kick sets as I'm still trying to kick and swim at the same time in freestyle.  Right now I'm doing a one beat kick instead of the typical 4 or 6 beat kick.  But I'm working on it.  (600)

Warm Up Set:
2x
100 (75 catch up / 25 finger tip drag)
100 (75 fist / 25 swim)
75 kick
50 kick
25 kick fast (700/1300)

Then we did a 300 pull breathing by 25 3/3/5/7/3/5/5/7/3/5/7/7 OY!   (300/1600)

Main Free Set:
4x75's on 1:25/1:20/1:15/1:10 (300)
200 on 2:50(200/500)
4x75's on 1:25/1:20/1:15/1:10 (300/800)
200 on 2:50 (200/1000)
150 on 2:10 (150/1150)
4x75's on 1:25/1:20/1:15/1:10 (300/1450)
200 on 2:50 (200/1650)
150 on 2:10 (150/1800)
100 (100/1900)
Yes the intervals were pretty easy.  Yes I got extra rest.  But I worked every turn and every push off the wall.  The one thing that was crazy was that the pool was so wavy that when I did come up I was pushed right against the lane line.  I have the battle marks to prove it.  I really worked this set so by the end of it my arms were sore.  Even my legs were sore from pushing off as hard as I could and kicking underwater.   (1900/3500)

I took a pee break while the lane did a 50 easy

Stroke Set:
2x
100 IM on 1:50
75 on :20
50 on 55
25 on 35
100 Fast on some interval I forgot. 
The first round I went backstroke and the second round I did butterfly.  My butterfly is so out of whack.  The 200 butterfly is looking more and more unlikely at this point.  (500/4000)

Then I warmed down a 50.  So tonights total yardage was 4050.  Total month and year to date yardage is 64,440.  That may be it for the month but who knows. 

More Rambling On About the 1,000

Right now I'm using this as a sounding board for my thoughts on my swimming.  Yesterday I posted about swimming the 1,000 at the Rose Bowl meet next weekend and my various goal times.  I've settled on a 1:09.  A dooable time.  Before this past summer I never really thought about what pace I'd be swimming.  My goal was just to finish without drowning and have a faster time than my previous time.  Who knew people thought out races and had it all figured out before even hitting the water.  I was on deck at the IGLA Championships when teammates started to talk to the Coach on deck about what they had planned on doing. When the coach asked me I had nothing to say.  I think all I said was that I didn't want G, a teammate, to lap me.  I listened to G talk to the coach about his pacing and he would be in the same heat as me but two lanes over.  So I figured by past swims as long as I stayed about a body length behind him for the first 1,000 I'd be okay.  After that I'd just be in survival mode.  Turned out that I was able to keep at his feet for the first 800 and then feeling strong passed him.  I don't think I finished that much in front of him but it was after that swim that I decided I needed to start thinkig about how I swim the 1500. 

So in my blog and with emails to swimmers and a coach I've been thinking it out.  I thought my 1500 SCM swim back in December out and dropped 20 seconds from my IGLA time a few months before which already was 30 seconds faster than my previous time.  50 seconds in one year is a lot to drop in the 1,500.  I'm so impressed with it myself.  So now I'm swimming my first 1,000 SCY swim in a week.  After emailing a coach about my goal pace of 1:09 she replied to me:

 For your 1000- 1:09s sound good. Does this mean low 1:09s or are you
thinking 1:09-mids? Your walls are looking so much
better/faster/longer. Be sure to keep that head position for the first
few strokes off the wall so you can take advantage of your speed. When
was the last time you swam the 1000?

Umm...mids, lows?  I just want to finish under a 11:30 and 11:29.99 is fine with me.  So I'll have to say mid-1:09's.  Monday we are swimming our 10x100 Check Set.  I won't be sprinting them all out like we are supose to do as I'm just shooting to feel like I'm swimming a 1,000 at a 1:07 pace.  So I will hit a 1:07 on each and every 100 on Monday during practice.  As for her comments on my head position.  I really need to work on that.  In and out of the wall.  I'm slowly getting use to the idea of not looking up and at the wall at each turn.  To just have faith that the wall is going to be there and I'm not going to crash into it.  Coming out of the wall is another thing.  I still need to work on that.  For now I'm really worried about the 1,000 as I'm beginning now to worry about the very next event the 200 Butterfly.  Oy!  Is it LCM Season yet?

"CAR-FREE FRIDAYS"- THIS FRIDAY!!

I've decided to skip Friday morning swim and go to the 7pm swim so I can take part in "Car Free Friday - Ride" with the LA County Bike Coalition.  Here are the details:

To celebrate the first "Car-Free Friday," on January 30th, LACBC will be hosting a ride that will start at 8:00 am at Hollywood/Western Metro Station and will head to downtown LA!

KICK- OFF RIDE
When: Friday, January 30th meet @8:00am ride @ 8:30am
Where: Hollywood/Western to Downtown LA City Hall

Read more at http://www.la-bike.org/

Also read about this great cause:  City of Lights Program.  The LACBC's City of Lights Program mission is to give bike lights to immigrant cyclists.  I personally feel that this is a very important cause for all of LA residents to take part of. 

What It Feels Like To Swim

In Sherman Chavoor's "50-Meter Jungle" he quotes Olympic swimmers Debbie Meyer, Don Schollander (read his quote LINK) and Mike Burton on how it feels to swim like a champion.  Below is Mike Burton's comments:

"The punishment is unbelievable.  You simply have to accept the fact of hurting yourself all the time.  The pain becomes the symbol of maximum effort, and you work against it instead of the clock.  I used to judge my program in a race not by the seconds registering on the timer - but by the amount of pain I was suffering"

Burton was the winner of the 1500 meters in both the 1968 and 1972 Olympics.  He sure worked past all the pain for those swims.

Sleeping In And Not So Much Butterfly

OH my lofty goal of waking up and hitting lap swim was a big failure this morning.  When my alarm went off on my iPhone to wake me I could feel the coldness of outside sneaking in from the window above me bed.  At that point I hit snooze.  And then again.  And again.  Finally I decided to sleep in.  The extra few hours were overdue for me.  Last night I was so tired that I couldn't even stay up to watch Lost.  I crawled into bed an watched Days of Our Lives on iTunes.  While I was watching I wrote up a little workout to do based on a previous workout.  It would be heavy on the 100 butterfly since I have the 200 SCY butterfly at the Rose Bowl Meet in 9 days.  The main set in theory was this:

16x100's:
1-4 1 fly / 3 free all on 1:30
5-8 2 fly / 2 free all on 1:35
9-12 3 fly / 1 free all on 1:40
13-16 all fly on 1:45

I figured that interval was doable considering the whole workout was pretty much that set plus a warm up set.  Warmed up was about 1,500 then the set.  So I figured I'd put 100% into the set.  I think I've done this set or one very much like it at least twice before so I knew I could handle it.  Even with being a bit out of shape on the butterfly.  I was hoping that the 6:30am lap swim wouldn't be so crowded so I'd have my own lane and the pool would be pretty calm. 

As for my actual workout plans for today I'm still debating.  I need to do my weight training later on since I didn't even bother to muster the energy to do that either this morning.  I figure I'll hit the gym on my way home which should be around 4 today.  Maybe a bit earlier.  Then maybe, just maybe I'll hit the 7pm workout after.  I wish I had a crystal ball and could see who will show up and how busy the lanes will be before I commit myself to swimming tonight.  I guess I could go and if I feel too crowded in the pool just take it easy and work on technique.  I got over 10 hours to think about that.

Thorpe Releases A Statement, But Does Anyone Listen?

Ian Thorpe has had enough of the speculation and rumors regarding his sexuality that has been fodder for the tabloids and internet gossip blogs.  Thorpe's representatives released this statement:

"I don't think, at this point, there's any reason for Ian to dignify what has been said...It's a matter of some photos being taken and some implications being made on the internet... they're 'just mates'...At this stage we don't see the need...Ian has made his position in life clear.

Later on yesterday after 24 hours of speculation on the gossip blogs Thorpe released the following statement:

"Over the last few days there have been a series of press articles published speculating about my friendship with Daniel Mendes. I am still friends with many of the people I competed and trained with during my swimming career. Daniel is one such good friend whom I have known for many years. I have only commented on this issue at this time because I draw a line when innuendo implicates people like my family and my friends. I find this kind of inaccurate speculation tiresome and I am annoyed by the hurt it has caused those closest to me. In the past, on several separate occasions, I have openly and honestly with the media. My situation in this regard has not changed. I look forward to myself and those around me receiving the respect and privacy afforded others."

Read more at news.com.au

Thorpedo'ed

Ian Thorpe and friend enjoying the sun and water at Dolans Bay in Sydney.



see more at sociallitelife

Aussie's Rule Against Suit Layering

The swim tech suit battle keeps on going on and on.  This time it isn't so much what the suit is made of but how many a swimmer can wear at one time.  Now the first time I heard of suit layering was back at the US Masters Nationals in Federal Way almost two years ago.  A few swimmers I noticed would wear a tight speedo under the tight leggings.  What I was told was that they felt they needed "extra support" for the male anatomy.  That may be true but I then noticed layering of suits at this past SPMA US Masters Regionals in Long Beach.  Once again me being naive just figured that since the one or two swimmers I noticed were a bit overweight that they were wearing two suits be more of a girdle or maybe it was in case one ripped.  Okay so I'm naive.  I didn't realize to a few weeks later that swimmers wear two tech suits for extra buoyancy.

Well now Swimnews and Tech Suit Hater Craig Lord reports that Australia has become the first nation to officially cut out the practice of wearing two or more suits in an attempt to increase buoyancy in racing.  Mr. Lord writes commentary against tech suits on a weekly basis if not daily.  He also likes wooden starting blocks and pools with almost no gutters or lane lines. 

As for the two suits I do believe that this practice should be stopped.  One suit is enough.  In the US the NCAA has banned the layering practice already but USMS or USA Swimming has yet to comment.  Considering that both these bodies are sponsored by various swim wear makers they most likely won't make any steps until after FINA meets with the swim wear companies on February 20th.