the17thman

Friday's Swim Report - Who's Hotter? Speedo Clad Firefighters or Speedo Clad Water Polo Players and Some Swim News

Lane 1 - Garmin posts "Garmin Swim-- A Must Have For Anyone In The Pool.  After this week's latest Garmin Swim update, this amazing training aid continues to be one of the industry leaders for swimmers. We have made significant improvements to length count accuracy, we've added some new data fields, some new features like "Countdown Start" (for more precise start timing), and we've even made enhancements to some of its original capabilities."

Lane 2 - Verizon Wireless posts via youtube "Celebrating Your Story - Lia Neal.  Learn about Olympic swimmer Lia Neal's inspiring story."

Lane 3 - Towleroad posts "James Franco Shows Jimmy Kimmel His 'Gay Town' Portraits of Speedo-Clad Water Polo Players: VIDEO."

Lane 4 - NY Times posts "Ask Well: Swimming to Ease Back Pain.  Many people find that recreational swimming helps ease back pain, and there is research to back that up. But some strokes may be better than others.  That said, it does not mean that everyone with a case of back pain should jump in a pool, said Dr. Scott A. Rodeo, a team physician for U.S.A. Olympic Swimming at the last three Olympic Games."

Lane 5 - The Australian posts "Bracing for two key swim reports.  AUSTRALIAN swimming is bracing itself for the delivery on Monday of not one but two reports that broadly will determine the future of Australia's most successful Olympic sport.  Former federal sports minister Warwick Smith, who was charged by the Australian Sports Commission in September with investigating the sport following Australia's muddled performance at the London Olympics, will hand down an 80-page report certain to recommend major governance reforms."

Lane 6 - In Menlo posts "Olympic water polo player Brenda Villa brings new aquatic programs to Belle Haven Pool.  Brenda went from swim lessons to swim teams to coed water polo, all by the age of 8. She came north to attend Stanford, playing water polo for coach John Tanner. She medaled at all four Olympics she participated in — Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, and London 2012 — and was also on three World Champion teams (2003, 2007, 2009). Named the “FINA Female Water Polo Player of the Decade” for the 2000s, she spent 16 years on the US Women’s national team."

Lane 7 - io9 posts "When Kirk and Spock grew gills and went all Waterworld.  Grab your swimtrunks and your floaties for Star Trek: The Animated Series' "The Ambergris Element."  What do you know, there's intelligent life on Argo! They're the Aquans, green-skinned fish-people who hate the hell out of all "air-breathers," especially "air-breather spies" because of some "ancient records."

Lane 8 - Sun News posts "Speedo-clad Quebec firefighters help save vacationers from blaze in Dominican Republic.  Two Speedo-clad Quebec firefighters rescued fellow Caribbean vacationers from raging flames that partly destroyed a Punta Cana resort this week, leaving several Canadians with nothing but their bikinis."

The Hardy Boys & The Case Of The Long Lost Swimmer & His Lost Kickboard!

Ahh...Sunday my day off from work.  Which means it's my day!  Not my day to sleep in but my day to do my workout stuff.  Ya know, running and swimming and swimming and more swimming.  Although of late one may wonder if I swim at all anymore and I admit I really haven't been.  Not enough time, to tired, to cold outside, to this and not enough that.  Excuses, excuses, excuses and then...self defeat starts to set in.  Why bother swimming today it's not like I'm swimming any other time so why swim today?  Ugh!  Self defeat in swimming is winning over my thougths.   This past week has been the anti-swim week in my mind.  But I'm moving past that.  I'm going to embrace the few times I can swim.  And with that today was one of those days.  I was going to swim with the gang around 8:30/45 after my run but I was freezing after that run so I put off the swim.  More on the run later.  When I remember to use my Wahoo HR Monitor I can track my spinning classes.  Of course I forget to put in on me or even to turn the app on most of the time.  Last week I even forgot to put it on for my run.  Doh!

Let's talk swimming!  After my second breakfast or very early lunch I relaxed a bit.  Then hit the pool after 11.  I figured everyone would be way gone by then so I wouldn't have to explain how I'm busy and lazy and just don't swim to anyone.  I had a printed workout and figured I'd go with that.  So that it what my plan was. Got to the pool and realized I didn't have a battery for the deck clock but did find my Speedo kickboard that I left behind a few weeks ago.  Funny cuz' it wasn't around in the storage room last Sunday.  Glad someone returned it.  I almost bought a new one yesterday!

Warmed Up

200 Swim

200 Pull w/o Paddles

200 Pull w/ Paddles

Garmin Swim registered an extra 25 yards for some reason.

4x75's Kick w/ fins on 1:30  (300/900)

3x100's w/fins - swim/kick/pull/build on 2:00.  The Garmin Swim registerd each as a 75 ignoring the 25 kick.  (300/1200)

Crazy Time!  Motivation Time!  I keep telling my students in my spin classes to push themselves to break out of thier comfort zone.  So today I decided to do that myself.  I was going to swim or pull a 1,000 but decided I'd pull a 1,650.  I used all my toys:  pull bouy, paddles and d-band pulling band.  I wasn't going for speed I just wanted to prove to myself that I can swim a 1,650.  I needed something to motivate me. 

Distance:     1,650 yd
Pool Length:     25 yd
Time:     22:19
Avg Pace:     1:21 min/100 yd
Calories:     314 C
Avg Efficiency :     30
Avg SWOLF :     27

Grr…I can't see a 100 by 100 since I didn't hit the pause button at every 100 of the 1650.  I can only assume I was on a steady pace.  I felt like it.  Tired at the end but controlled.
This chart is damn fucking useless pretty much like the Garmin Swim.  I can sorta see highs and lows and if I place the cursor at the peaks and valleys I get sorta splits but not real ones.  My slowest average pace was 1:34 and fastest 1:05.  Meh.  I'm going to use this workout as my "Base Workout Set" and do it in theory once a month to see how I'm doing in swimming.  I may actually do it again next Sunday and try to go faster.  Not that one should compare swim meet times to workout times but the last time I swam the 1650 I did it with a time of 18:06.41.  So I'm 4 miutes off.  That is horrible!  Oh!  (1650/2850)  I then did an easy 50 for 2,900 yard workout. Jan    6.96 miles (=12,250 yards, =11,201 meters)
Feb    1.65 miles (=2,900 yards, =2,652 meters)
Total    8.61 miles (=15,150 yards, =13,853 meters)

I think that might be an all time low for a month!  12,250 yards?  Holy no longer a swimmer batman!  I gotta snap out of this! 

So running.  I ran again this morning with a run mate.  A few of us at work are going to run a 12K in April.  Most of us are pretty active and in shape but none of us are runners.  I'm the most experienced with a few runs under my belt but haven't ran much in 2012 if at all.  So a few of us run together on Sunday mornings at 7am.  It's damn cold at 7am!  Almost too cold! So I can do this.  7.4 miles or 12K.  Hopefully all of us will be able to do this!  My run today was different then what I planned out for everyone else.  Mostly cuz' I got to the Polo Fields early and was so cold I decided to warm up a mile first. After I mile I paused and waited for everyone to run.  Then I ran another 3.7 miles.  At the end I didn't run the full loop but cut through the half way point which is the polo viewing stands. One loop around the Polo Field is about a mile.
Splits
mi     Pace (min/mi)     Elevation (ft)
1     11:53     0
2     9:07     4
3     9:08     -1
4     9:29     -3
5     10:01     1

I took a pee break in the portajohn which is why I slowed up after mile 4.  Forgot to pause the Wahoo HR Monitor app.  You can see the two breaks in the red line on the chart above. 

Overall it was a good day.  Swimming and Running.  Now I got the day to relax and watch House of Cards and Downton Abbey.

12/25 - A Holiday Cherrished Moment of The Lost Swim & The Found Running Sock

Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho!  Despite being a bit umm. filled with Holiday Spirit from last night I woke up and decided to go swimming.  Unfortunately I have no proof of my swim as I've lost the swim workout when I had to reboot my computer mid sync.  But I did swim 1,225 yards.  I walked to the other end of the pool and warmed up a 225.  Then kicked a 100.  Then 4x100's pulling w/o paddles on 130.  Then 4x100's IM on 1:45 and warmed down a 100.  Making for a 1,225 yard swim.

That was it.  I came home and quickly ate a banana before heading out for a run.  I had to search high and low to find my running tights.  It was a bit chilly out.  Then I decided to wear a long sleeve running shirt.  I grabbed the orange one I last wore on Halloween 2011 for Aquaman.  Well after I put in on I wondered why I had one shoulder pad?  Shoulder pad?  It turned out to be one of my favorite socks.  I never tossed out the other one cuz' I still hoped they'd reunite some day.  And today they did.  It was my little running christmas miracle. I only ran 2.5 miles to celebrate the 25th of the month of December.  So that's it.  I got in my holiday workouts.  I've now have ran 498 runs using Nike+.  I'm going to fit 2 more runs in this year to finish up my 500th run in 2012.

Too Cold To Swim!

Brrr....it's in the 30's outside!  That is way too cold to swim outside! No wonder why I was the only person at the pool this morning.  I actually didn't want to swim but was guilted by myself to swim.  I told someone I'd be there around 7:30 so I figured I better show up in case they did.  Alas they didn't show but I continued to swim.  I sorta made up the workout as I did it without much thinking of what I was doing.  Warmed up an easy 350 with swimming and pulling.  Then pulled a main set that I made up and stuck with.

Five Rounds:

2x50's on 45

100 on 1:30

Since I didn't bring a battery for the clock I went of my Garmin Swim which meant I had to keep the watch running so I didn't get any splits.  I still can't figure out how to get pause during a set and see a clock not stopping to go off on intervals on the damn watch.  Don't know if that is even an option.  It should be.  I gotta figure it out someday or just toss the damn thing away.   So that was a 1,000 and not the 950 the freakin watch counted.  I was pulling with paddles so sometimes it just doesn't count the laps right when I pull with paddles.  The watch is pretty damn useless.  (1350)

Then I kicked trying to do a set but was too damn cold.  (150/1500)

4x50's on 60 One of each stroke (200/1700)

Then I was going to do the main set again but only three rounds but got sidetracked after a 50.  Another swimmer showed up so I chatted a bit.  Was too cold to be standing around!  (50/1750)

Did another 200 and got out.  (200/1950)

Damn!  I should of swam another 50!   Oh well. I'm closer to my 200 miles milestone then I thought.  On one of my 1500 yard quick workouts I had entered only 150 yards.  So I am only 888 yards to reach 200 miles!   I'm going to swim tomorrow morning at 7am.  That'll get me past that!  Won't hit 250 miles but at least I'll hit 200! 

Another Failed Attempt To Get Back On The Horse Called Swimming

I went to bed early after finishing up watching Season 1 of Downtown Abbey.  I know I'm so late to that party.  Anyways I went to bed early with plans of swimming this morning.  Just another swim to slowly get back into swim and chip away at my Go The Distance swims.  I had every intention of swimming with some swim mates but this morning I knew that I wouldn't be able to do that.  So I decided to just swim on my own at the other end of the pool. 
The above chart is far from complete.  In fact some mysteries have popped up or vanished into thin air.  It really is a case for The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew.  What isn't a mystery are the cycling reports since I am bad at using my Wahoo Fitness App and Heart Rate Monitor.  Sometimes I forget to turn on the app to get my heart rate while teaching.  It's on my iPhone using the Wahoo Fitness app and the Bluetooth HR Monitor.  After I'm done I can sync my workout to various websites like Garmin, Daily Mile, Runkeeper and others.  Sometimes I remember to use it and other times I forget to sync the workouts.  As for the mystery it's all my swims.  I finally got the Garmin Swim to sync but oddly the set I deleted or thought I deleted from yesterday popped up while today's workout vanished.  Hmmm...interesting.  And bad cuz' I really was just randomly swimming today. And since I did sync today the workout is gone from my watch. 

Warmed Up

200 Swim

200 Pull w/d-band no paddles

200 Pull w/d-band and paddles

200 Kick

So an 800 Warm Up

Main Set: (this was pulling with the toys)

2x50's on 45 (100)

2x75's on 1:15 (150/250)

2x100's on 1:30 (200/450)

2x125's on 2:00 (250/700)

Did I make it to the 150's?  Damn let me try to remember.  I did then the set earlier then I had hoped.  I wanted to do 2z150's, 2x200's then a 400 and call it a day.  But I was feeling sorta crampy on my side so decided to stop early.  Oh yeah I did stop at the 125's cuz' I remember I was at 1,500 yards.  So that was it.  Another attempted swim.  I hope to swim on Friday but I doubt it.  Tomorrow I think I'm subbing the 9:30 spin class so that'll be 3 morning spin classes.  Oy!  So no swimming.  With the holiday I have Monday and Tuesday off from work.  With that I gotta plan on which days I can swim which could be 5 days in a row which I know is too much right now for me.  Gotta plan it out.  Maybe take Saturday off since I do teach spinning at 10am.  Inch by Inch or Yard by Yard I'm closing in on 200 Miles!