Another month and more swimming. Swimtober or October is now over and with no swimming today due to rain I have finished up the month swimming 37,550 yards this month. This doesn't count that itty bitty open water swimming thing.
Whatever I got "4 Minutes" stuck in my head. So it's Sunday and since I gotta work I really didn't have much time to swim. So I got up early and headed to the pool. I do this for two reasons - 1. I'm so not a morning person and need to workout to wake up or otherwise be a walking zombie and 2. I need to swim more and faster. Sunday I'm on my own since everyone else sleeps in so I can make my own workout. Or at least steal a workout to swim. This morning's grand larceny of swimming came from EE Workouts' "Quick Death... Happy Halloween" Well at least the genesis of the workout. Here is the workout they posted a 4300 yard workout -
Warm up 800 swim, 200 kick
Three rounds of: 1x300 - 4:15 pull 6x50 - :45 maximum effort (choice)
The main set was 1,000 yards. I actually felt okay swimming today. Wish I had more time to push myself. I was slow with a 3:55 for the 300 and 2:30 for the 200 but I felt good. No back pain like earlier this week. I only had 30 minutes to swim so I had to stop. I had planned to swim 6x50's fly and back to round up to 2,000 yards but I decdided to get out and get some breakfast. But at least I got a workout in.
Well not me I was a judge! But, Boy do I make a sad looking Aquaman! Later I'll have to upload a picture of me as Aquaman and Luwdig "Willy" as a shark. Before the 10pm Halloween Parade and Swim Relay I did my own little swim. I wasn't really feeling up to it this morning but I did swim.
Warm Up 500 then 200 Kick (700)
300 sad little swim then another 100. It was suppose to be a pace 500. My lack of food and caffeine started to give me the shakes. I stopped and drank some gatorade. (400/1100)
10x50's on 60 (500/1600)
That was it. An easy day at the pool. I went home ate a good breakfast and showered. Then put on my sad excuse of an Aquaman costume and headed back to the pool to judge. I snapped a few photos with my phone.
As you can tell everyone had fun. I loved the Swimoutlet.com costume with one person being "A Plug for SwimOutlet" and the other being a "Swim Outlet" as in power outlet. They had to be able to swim 50 yards in the costume! You can see the pictures better in my gallery on Facebook.
Okay maybe not great but much much better. I took Thursday off from swimming and slept all the way in till 8am. Then after putzing around in the morning I was off to the gym. Once at the gym I decided to go for a short run to warm up. I ran just the 2 mile loop around the gym. As I was almost done with my run a big giant Beer Stein drove by me. Seriously! When I was done with my run it was gym time for some weights. Worked on chest and arms. When I checked my phone Runkeeper sent me an email about my run. At least it's a record for my very few Runkeeper runs. This morning it was "Up And Atom" to go swimming. My back felt a bit stiff when I woke up but I still headed to the pool. I figured I'd just go slow. But I was feeling pretty good and pushed myself for the 300's and 100's. Not blazing fast but still not bad considering this week has been a bad week. I didn't even start to do any flip turns to the 6th 50. Was saving my back. Now we were to kick 3x100's but I wasn't using fins and was so slow basically I kicked a 250 with no rest and stopped.
450 MIxed Warm Up 2x100's Kick then a 50 Kick (700)
Main Set: 6x50's on 55 (300) 2x300's on 5:00 (600/900/1600) 3x100's on 1:40(300/1200/1900) 3x50's on 55 (150/1350/2050)
And that was it. My first 300 I was a bit slow. I came in on about 3:57. That gave me a minute rest but that's like 1:20 per 100. My second I was a bit faster at 3:35. I was shooting for under 3:30. But considering I've had a bit of back pain this week it's okay. My 100's were sad. I did 1:19, 1:15 and a 1:12. I was getting tired and my back was beginning to feel off. I don't want to say I'm in pain but I can feel a bit of strain. So I just took it easy. And I really did see big giant beer stein as later I took a picture of it driving by... It was Octoberfest! Today it's some gym time. Just going to take Group Power but take it easy on the back. No need to kill myself.
Once a song gets in my head when I'm swimming it stays in my head. Sometimes it's an old favorite, sometimes it the last song I've heard on my iPod or the last song I heard before taking off the wall that is on the radio at the pool. Then sometimes it's just a song haunting my mind. This morning's song was Holiday themed with "This Is Halloween".
Maybe it's because it's a week before Halloween, or the fact that the pool is Leesburg doesn't have any lights in it so it's dark while swimming. Well that and we only removed part of the pool covers so the deep end right next to my line was still covered. I kept thinking that a gator from the lake would be under the covers. It was creepy swimming next to this pitch dark pool of water. Guess I shouldn't have watched Halloween last night. Then again "This is Halloween" has always been a favorite of mine only to be spoofed this year in Gaga-fashion.
Hmm...maybe I should be Gaga as a mermaid for Halloween?
The Workout
1x450 loosen
4x100 kick with fins on 2:15 - can do the last 1 breast (400/850)
4x175 on 3:00 - catch-up on the odd lengths (600/1450) I did flip turns for the first one but my back was acting up so open turns for the rest. It wasn't a pretty swim today. It was me stretching out hoping just to be able to swim.
6x100 descending on 1:40 (600/2050) I did these backstroke and well not at all descending. I did a 1:27, 1:22, 1:17, 1:19, 1:20 and a 1:17. I was doing open turns for most of it. Tried a few flip turns but boy they were ugly.
4x75 pull with paddles, etc. on 1:20 (300/2350). Slow as molases with open turns. I was struggling.
50 easy (50/2400)
My back is better then it was yesterday but feeling just a small tweak. I'm going to take it easy for the rest of today. No gym time again. Yesterday I fought the temptation to workout. It's hard but I know I'll heal faster if I lay off working out. Think I'll just sit on the couch with the dog and watch scary Halloween films all day long. Maybe something about crocs or sea creatures.
