Swimming At LA Fitness

I decided to hit the gym and swim at the pool knowing in advance that the water would way too hot, I'd be dealing with idiots and that the pool in general is pretty nasty.  The swim didn't fail to live up to those expectations.  It made yesterdays swim seem like the dream swim.  I didn't want to do a real workout I just felt the need to do something.  I toyed with the idea of going to a spin class but decided on swimming. 

I started off by doing a 400 swim followed by a 400 pull.  I then did a 200 swim.  At this point I was getting close to being like the guy arrested at his gym for assaulting someone in the pool (story LINK).  Twice when swimming into the wall to do flip turns this guy sitting on deck placed his legs into the pool in front of me.  I went on to do about 350 more broken up by 100's, 50's and 25's.  I was basically swimming and stopping as I was lapping the other swimmers.

I look forward to swimming tomorrow morning at Culver.  That pool keeps the water nice and chilly just the way I like it.  Plus being long course I'll be able to focus on my stroke.  It looks like I'm the only of the group going so I'll be sharing a lane.  I'm going to bring several workouts and make it up as I go depending on the other lane mates.

Friday Morning Swim / SCY

Last night I fell asleep watching Law & Order SVU on my Roku Netflix player while on the couch.  I woke up to the sound of the LA Times being delivered at around 3:15.  I pretty much just rolled over and got a few minutes sleep off and on before my alarm on the iPhone went off at 5am.  I sluggishly grabbed my swim gear and biked to practice.

Turnout wasn't so great at practice and when I first got in the pool I was the only fast lane swimmer.  That was a good thing as I knew that would mean I'd get easier intervals and swim with people a little slower than me to balance out the lanes.  After swimming about a 100 another fast lane swimmer came.  Doh!  The way in theory that our workouts are divided are 2 slow lanes, 2 medium lanes and 2 fast lanes.  The difference between the lanes is once again in theory is 10 seconds per 100.  But that doesn't happen.  For example today we had one fast lane, two lanes that in theory is the 10 seconds slower, two medium lanes that I don't know what they were swimming on and then one slow lane.  Over time this not fast but not medium lane went from being one lane to being two or more lanes from practice to practice.  The thing is that some of these swimmers should be in the regular medium lanes.  Not to bitch too much but I see have of them sitting out parts of the workout when they miss the intervals.  Hell, I missed the intervals but I just kept going.  Enough of my rambling.

I warmed up about a 350 before we had our warm up set.  50 Drill on 55 / 100 Kick on 1:55 / 200 Swim on 2:40 / 50 Kick on 55.  We did this twice.  I did take a pee break the second round and missed a 50 kick and a 50 swim.

One more warm up set to get our heart rates up.  A 75 free on 100, 3x50's on 40 followed by an easy 25.

Main Set
Freestyle Round
3x100's on 1:10 (this was pretty much a non stop 300 for me)
4x150's Descend on 1:50.
take an addition 30 seconds
100 Fast.  I think I did this on a 1:06.  Not all that fast.
take a breather...
Stroke Round
3x100's IM on 130
4x150's Descend on 2:30.  I did these 50 fly / 100 back.
take an additional 30 seconds
100 Fast.  I did this butterfly and did about a 1:10.  Damn slow.  My fly is a struggle of late.  It just doesn't feel right.  My breathing is a bit off.  Also I'm trying to not raise my head so much when I breath by staying low but then my undulation seems flat.  I may try breathing to the side.  I got a few months before my next 200 fly so I need to work on that.

Finishing up with a 300 pull.  Lap 4 breathing only 3 time, Lap 8 breathing only 2 and Lap 12 breathing only once!  I used the paddles when pulling on this set and made sure to watch my hand and pull.  I keep hearing coaches tell other swimmers about hand placement before starting the pull so I've been watching myself when swimming.  Having those bright yellow paddles on my hands makes it easier to see what I'm doing.  My catch is pretty good I just really need to work on my rotation and getting that kick in my freestyle stroke.

Now that it is Friday I have my recovery day.  I don't plan on doing anything tomorrow!  Wahoo!

Morning Freestyle Workout SCY

Warmed up about a 300 before an additional 100 distance per stroke.  Then we did an 800 broken as 2x400's.  The first 400 was 50 drill / 50 swim doing the following drills one arm, finger tip drag, catch up and fist.  The second 400 was pulling. 

Then it was time to kick.  2x200's.  The first 200 non stop on a set interval that I don't remember then the second 200 was 4x50's on a minute kick.

400 Swim on 440 (in theory)
rest 30 seconds
4x100's on 110
rest 30 seconds
8x50's on 35
rest 30 seconds
16x25's on 20

50 easy non free

8x25's on 30.  Reverse IM order 1 easy / 1 fast.

Then I warmed down a 150.

I think that was the whole workout.  Maybe left something out.  Sometimes by the time I get home, eat breakfast and sit down to write them down the workouts in my mind all blur together.  With SCM regionals now just a little over 2 months to go it's time to decide what I may swim.  Right now I'm thinking of swimming both the 1500 and the 800.  The only thing is that they are on the same day.  If I decide that is what I want to do I'm going to need to increase my daily yardage.  Oy!

Tuesday Morning LCM Swim Workout

It is interesting to compare what I had planned on swimming and what I actually end up swimming for these Tuesday morning lap swims.  Today we had a total of five people swimming the workout all of different speed levels.  So I ended up tweaking the workout and working on technique more than speed. 

400 Warm Up (400)

6x50's (odds finger tip drag / evens swim) 10 seconds rest (700)

10x50's (8 Pull / 2 swim) 10 seconds rest (1200)

Main SetL
200 Swim (1400)
400 Swim (1800)
600 Swim Broken 6 laps / 4 laps / 2 laps  (i ended up taking a pee break during the 6 laps so it was more like 3/3/4/2 taking 10 seconds rest) (2,400)

We started late and some people had to leave so the workout got cut short.  We finished up with 5x100's Descend on 2 minutes. (2,900)

Then I warmed down a 100.  So all in all it was 3,000 LCM in about 60 minutes.  Not too bad and it was a workout that I might have not done if I hadn't swam in the morning.

LCM Tuesday Morning Workout

A few of us have been swimming Tuesday morning's at Culver City Plunge to get in a long course workout.  If anyone is in the Los Angeles area and would like to join us send me an email and I'll give you more info.  I came up with this workout for tomorrow:

I've been reading about 4 years of swimming magazines to find good warm up and workouts.  Here is Tuesday, September 9th LCM:

400 Warm Up (400 / 6:10am)

6x50's (odds finger tip drag / evens swim) 10 seconds rest (700 / 6:18am)

10x50's (8 Pull / 2 swim) 10 seconds rest (1200 / 6:30 am)

200 Swim  on 3:00 (1400 / 6:34 am)
400 Swim on 6:45 (1800 / 6:41 am)
600 Swim on 10:00 (2400 /6:51 am )
rest (2 minutes // 6:53 am)
600 Swim on 11:00 (3000 / 7:04 am)
400 Swim on 7:30 am (3400 / 7:12 am)
200 Swim on 2:50 (3600 / 7:15 am)

warmdown

We will have to see if we actually do it or not!

Monday Morning Swim: Pace Work

Warmed up around a 300.  Then we had a warm up kick 100. 

Can't remember what was next but it was some drill work. 

5x100's Freestyle 1:20.  I head a 1:07 pace
50 easy
500 Freestyle.  Stayed on my 1:07 pace
50 easy
500 Broken:  200 rest 10 seconds / 150 rest 10 seconds / 100 rest 10 seconds / 50.  Kept with the 1:07 pace.

200 easy pull

Then it was stroke time.  We did this set 2x.  Once fly and once back for me:
3x25's kick
1x25 drill
3x50's Swim

warmed down a 100

Sunday Afternoon Swim

I haven't been to a swim on Sunday afternoon in a few weeks.  It's been one thing or another.  Once I got to practice it started off with a very slow warm up.  I did about a mixed 400 or so.  I wasn't really counting. 

Warm Up Set
4x
2x50's Kick on 55
2x50's Drill on 50 (one round of each stroke)

Main Set
100 IM on 1:30
3x50's Free on 45
100 IM on 1:30
3x100's Free on 1:20
100 IM on 1:30
3x200's Free on 2:40. 
We took an extra minute or so to readjust the lanes.  We had a few people drop down from the fast lanes to the medium lanes.  I was all by myself by the 200's.  As for the 200's we were allowed to pull so I pulled first one with paddles, second one without paddles and swam the last 200 coming in at about 2:14.
100 IM on 1:30
3x100's Free on 2:20
100 IM on 1:30
3x50's Free on 45
100 IM

easy 50

3x25's on 40.  Sprint 1 and 3 (did the sprints butterfly)
3x50's on 60 Sprint 1 and 3 (did the sprints butterfly)
3x25's on 40 same pattern.

warm down

Walk, Swim, Walk, Bus and Walk Some More

This morning I decided to walk to practice.  I've walked it before and it takes less than 25 minutes depending on cross lights.  So I had to leave a bit earlier than normal cutting out my morning newspaper time.  I'm a creature of habit as I really enjoy the few minutes I have in the morning to sit with the paper.  Call me old fashioned but you can't beat the feeling of holding a paper in your hand.  Even with e-mails, texts, RSS readers and various other fun technological things I still love my morning news paper.  So I walked to workout and our normal Friday coach wasn't there we had another one.  Which was cool as I really like our guest coach this morning. 

We warmed up a 400 swim then a 200 kick.  After warm up I moved over a lane which meant slower intervals but no wall.  My plan was to do more butterfly today so I didn't want to be the third person in our narrow lanes with the wall.  So today's workout wasn't a big challenge it was more of quality workout for me.  I worked on my turns and push offs.  One of my lane mates commented that he had never seen me go so far off the wall.

6x oh damn what was it?  Something with free style breathing every 3/5/7.  Oh 6x150's.  Odds free breathing every 3/5/7 by 50.  Evens 50 free / 50 stroke / 50 free.  I did fly for the stroke.

Main Set:
2x
4x75's Back/Breast/Free on 1:20 (i was coming in on 59 seconds on each one)
4x50's Free on 50
4x25's Choice on 30.  I did these butterfly both rounds.

Kick Set:
200 Kick (did this butterfly kick)
200 150 Kick / 50 Swim (did the kick butterfly then split the 50 between fly and back)
200 100 Kick / 100 Swim (once again kicked the fly and split the swim with fly and back)
200 50 kick / 150 Swim (same pattern)
200 Swim.  I did 100 fly / 50 back / 50 fly

Warmed down a 100

The Swim Workout From A Magazine

In USMS swimming we all get a free subscription included in our dues to the magazine USMS Swimmer LINK.  Now when it comes I glance at it, put it aside and pick it up on from time to time maybe just before bed.   So I don't always read the monthly article called "My Favorite Practice".  Which is a good thing as our coach had us do this months workout albeit she modified it a bit. 

When I got in the water I warmed up around a 350.  Just sorta swimming in between chatting.  After that we did an warm up set of 50 Drill followed by a 75 Swim taking 10 seconds rest after the 125.  We did this 4x with the following drills:  one arm, catch up, finger tip drag and fist.

Then we did a 400 Pull.  The first 200 was distance per stroke.  Count your strokes going down then minus one coming back, count again going down then minus two coming back, same pattern but minus 3 and finishing up minus 2.  The second 200 was just distance per stroke. 

Now comes part of the Main Set #1 from the magazine:
5x100's on 1:25 descend (the mag called for 4x100's on 1:30)
1650 Broken (fast) taking 10 seconds at 11 lengths, 10 lengths, 9 lengths, 8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1. 
200 recovery

As for my 1650 I didn't get my time from the coach.  I was trying to keep my 100's pace the same which I did for the first half.  After that the distances were short so I couldn't figure out the pace.  Too much math to do when swimming.  I'd rather just do a 1500 keeping pace but that is just me.  It's easier to look at the clock every 100 and know your pace.

After that we did a warmdown set:
4x25's kick on 30
3x50's on 60 25 Drill (one of each stroke) and 25 Free
4x25's kick on 30

Then I warmed down another 50.  Should have done more but I was tired.  I just wanted to get out and go home.  As for the main set I really liked the 11 to the 8 but after that I didn't really care for it.  The 5x100's descend I started at around a 1:11 and finished at a 1:05. 

Over the next week I'm going to dust off my old swim magazines and find some other fun workouts.  Maybe I can suggest a few to the coach.

Back In The Swim Of Things / Tuesday Lap Swim

Take three days off from swimming and the body reacts like I've taken a year off.  This morning Katie, Sarah and I headed to Culver City Plunge to do a lap swim workout.  All of us were a little late with Katie and I arrive at 6:20.  Opps. 

We found Sarah and jumped in her lane.  By the time I was getting in "scuba man" was also getting in and got in Sarah's lane.  For those of you who swim during lap swims you  know who "scuba man" is as every lap swim pool as a swimmer like this.  He is the one who swims like he is the only person in the pool and due to being a macho man insists of swimming in the fast lane even though he is slow at best.  This "scuba man" doesn't seem to understand that you let the faster swimmers pass at the wall.  This "scuba man" wears fins and a scuba snorkel while swimming and isn't aware or maybe doesn't care that other swimmers are around him.  But enough about the dangers of lap swimming.

LCM Swim:

Being late we warmed up a 200 while Sarah had about a 600 in already.  After the quick 200 we did a warm up set.  4x50 Kick / 50 Drill / 50 Swim taking 10 seconds rest at each 40.

Main Set
2x100's on 1:45
200 on 3:30
2x100's on 1:45
2x200's on 3:30
2x100's on 1:45
3x200's on 3:30

That was really it.  A quick easy workout.  I was trying to work on pacing although I gotta admit it took me a while to get myself going.  I was doing around a 1:21 pace for the workout.  It was hard to keep the pace as every 100 I was swimming around "scuba man".  Since we got to the pool  a bit late the workout was only an hour.  War up was an 800 LCM total while the main set was 1800 LCM for a total of 2,600 LCM.  Plus I warmed down a 50.  Not a great workout but for an hour not so bad. 

All of us were tired and sluggish so I made the intervals generous.  Next week I'll try to keep them a bit tighter.