the17thman

Sunday Morning Easy 40 Minute Swim

500
10x50's 40/45/50/55/60
10x100's 1:20/1:30/1:40/1:50/2:00

Back in the pool.  I'm regretting taking over a Sunday work shift as now I gotta get up early on a Sunday morning and go swimming.  Not that I have a life outside of the gym and/or pool.  But still.  Oh well, September will be here and I'll be off on Sundays. 

Last night I went to bed early and got a good nights sleep in.  I was tired from my weight training earlier in the day.  Still it was a bit rough getting out of bed.  Before heading to the pool I jotted down a quick workout to swim.  Figured I needed to keep it under 45 minutes and if possible closer to 30 minutes.  That way I would have time to relax over breakfast after swimming before heading to work.

Mixed 500 (200 Swim / 100 Pull w/o Paddles / 100 Pull w/Paddles / 100 IM)

10x50's Pulling w/ Paddles Free - 2 on 60 / 2 on 55 / 2 on 50 / 2 on 45 / 2 on 40 (which was really just one off the clock on 40) (500/1000)

I had in my mind that I'd swim 10x100's like above but on 2/1:50/1:40/1:30/1:20.  But that got old quickly.  I ended up swimming -

6x100's Free on 2/1:50/1:40 (600/1600)
2x100's IM on 1:45 (200/1800)
4x50's Fast Freestyle on 45 (200/2000)

The workout was about 40 minutes long when I was done.  2,000 yards is better then not swimming.  Swimming alone is so not motivating. Motivation is key for a lazy person like myself.  I need people to push me.  The last 18 months or so I've been swimming with a rag tag bunch of swimmers.  Not a team but just the coach from the senior citizen / retired folk team and a few of the swimmers who can't make that teams workout for one reason or another.  So usually I'm given a workout and I just do it.  Well since starting in July my work schedule will be changing I'll actually be able to swim with that team on a regular basis.  At least for July!  Who knows what will happen come August.  It'll be nice to have people 5 seconds behind me to push me.  Yeah, some of these swimmers are 20 years older but they are still damn fast.  Hopefully that'll be enough motivation to push me.

June Rearview Mirror In Swimming and Running

Well that is wrong since I didn't run at all this month.  I'm still recovering from some hip pain so a whole month without running.  Damn!  As for swimming I added it up and swam about 42,000 SCY for the month.  I'm saying about because that number sounds way made up.  I did add things up but it's me and well my math skills are lacking. Plus I could add in my LCM warm up and swim meet events.  But that really isn't training so that doesn't count.  It is what it is and it is 42,000 SCY.

Past Months To Compare -

May I swam 47,950 yards.

April I swam 44,950 yards.

March I swam 62,125 yards.

February I swam 41,750 yards.

January I swam 42,300 yards.

In 2011 I've swum 239,075 yards.

December I swam 22,050 yards.

November I swam 34,375 yards

October I swam 2,700 yards.

September I swam zip, nada, nothing

August I swam 25,000 SCY

July I swam 49,900 SCY

June I swam 43,650 SCY and 4,000 LCM

May I swam 55,000 SCY

April I swam 46,050 SCY

February I swam 53,250 SCY

January I swam 46,750 SCY

And so goes another month of swimming.

 

A Rare Sprinting Set For Me. - via @goswim

Since I'm stranded at the pool all by myself I decided I'd try a workout from Go Swim.  Well mostly since I noticed a new workout was posted in my RSS Feed.  After glancing at this weeks "Swimming Set Of The Week" I decided it wasn't for me.  Way too much kicking!  So I went back to May 6th to see a set for me.  Although anyone who knows me would know this is the type of set that isn't all about me.  It's a sprinters set. 

From Go Swim "Swimming Set of the Week - May 6, 2011.  Posted by Barbara Hummel on May 06, 2011.  Looking for speed but not necessarily all-out sprinting this week.    This set also exercises the brain...it can be challenging to figure out your sendoffs on the first part of the set.  Total Yards/Meters: 1500.

Swim five rounds (total of 20 X 50) with no break between rounds.  Choose one of the sendoff patterns.   To choose your pattern, look at the sendoffs for #4 and figure out which one you could make, getting 2 to 5 seconds rest."

Sounds easy enough, right?  Well first off I had to warm up so I did a freestyle warm up of 200 Swim / 200 Pull (no paddles) / 200 Pull (w/paddles) / 200 Kick (reverse im) so an 800 yard warm up.

Still pretty easy.  The pool was still warm but well below the 90's.  I can't believe I'm getting use to warm swim pool.  Curses!  For the 20x50's I had several interval options.  Five choices to be exact.  I decided to go with the 2nd fastest batch. 

4 X 50
#1 on :50
#2 on :45
#3 on :50
#4 on :40

Now I should have done the fastest batch but hell I can't push myself alone.  Then…

"After the 20 X 50, swim 100 easy recovery, then...

4 X 100 on 2:30 sendoff.  With a generous rest interval, your goal is to achieve fastest average speed.  You need to manage your energy so that you don't spend all of it on the first 100.  All four of  the 100s should be fast and fairly equal in pace."

Well I did the 100 easy recovery after a quick pee break.  As for the 100's I did okay.  My first one was the slowest one coming in at a 1:07 then I bounced to 1:04, 1:03 and 1:03.  Not great but not horrible.  I was still feeling yesterday's trip to the gym.  My shoulders and back are all ouchie!    Go Swim added one more thing at the end "For a special challenge, repeat the entire set :)"  Yeah right!  I gotta admit it was hard to self motivate myself to finish the 50's and then again the 100's.  I plan on attempting this set again but on the faster interval which was

4 X 50
#1 on :45
#2 on :40
#3 on :45
#4 on :35

Well that is about it.  Check out Glen and the folks at GoSwim at Goswim.tv and on Twitter @goswim.

 

 

 

Making It Up As I Go Workout

Sunday is normally my double workout.  I swim on my own with a workout the coach gives me then I stay and swim with the rest of the group.  But since most of that group is out of town I just went and swam on my own.  The coach asked me if I needed any workouts to swim while he was away but I told him that I had enough workouts to do.  Which I do but once at the pool this morning I just made up the workout as I swam.

Warmed up a 200 swim then a 200 pull.  Mind you the first 200 was more like 4x50's since I stopped after every 50.  Then I did a 400 IM kick.  Followed by 300 IM Kick/Drill/Swim by 25.  (1,100)

Then I did 10x50's on 50 pulling w/ paddles alternate breathing by 50's every 3 and 5.  (500/1,600)

Then I modified the set from the other day...

3x50's on 50 Fly/Back, Back/Breast, Breast/Free

100 Free pull on 1:30

Repeat.

That wasn't so bad.  The last 50 into the 100 pull was close since I had to put on my pulling gear.  Which just made me work the last 50 a bit faster.  (500/2,100.)  And that was the end.  About 50 minutes in the pool for 2,100 yards.  Not great but not bad.  So not motivated on my own.  And today was a perfect day to push myself.  It had rained yesterday so the pool was about 5 degree's cooler at about 86F.  Which a few months ago I would have been dying. But after a few weeks of water temps in the 90's I thought the pool was nice today.  Also the outside temp is about 20 degrees color also. So I should have done longer swims today.  Oh well, hopefully I'll be motivated the rest of the week while I swim alone.

Shooting From The Hip

Over the last month I've been dealing with some hip issues.  I haven't been running since it hurts too much to run but I've been swimming.  Since I've been swimming I'm beginning to think that the hip issue has been created by something other then running.  It could all rest on the evil creature lurking in the pool.  That evil creature is kicking.  Well not just kicking but kicking with fins.  I've been slowly believing that the kicking with fins is to be blamed since I've never had this hip issue until I started kicking with fins.  I've run two marathons and two half marathons without having such pain then all of a sudden when I start using fins I get hip pain?  Hmmm!  Knowing me it's my own fault and I'm doing some horrible leg/hip movement in kicking that is just being exacerbated by the fins.  I'm a horrible kicker to begin with so the fins aren't helping me learn to kick but creating a whole new problem.  Another reason why I'm slowly thinking it's the fin's fault is that I don't have any hip pain when I wake up or swim but right after I kick with fins I feel some hip pain.  Mostly after freesyle or backstroke kicking.  So I'm going to lay off the fins for a few weeks.  And if you see a pair of fins for sale on this blog you'll know why.  Now as for today's workout...

Warm Up 500/200 Kick (700)

500 (Right Arm/Left Arm/Pull/Kick/Swim repeat 4 times) (500/1200)

Main Set

4 Rounds -

50 Fly/Free

50 Back/Free

50 Breast/Free

100 Free Pulling

The 50's were on 60 and the 100 on 1:30.  I took an extra 60 seconds between round two and three.  (1000/2200)

Then we chit chatted a bit and I did an easy 50 for 2,250 yards.