My Own Private Lane

I guess this is the way it's going to be for now on at 6am with me having my own lane.  Not that I am complaining but I miss my fellow 6am fast lane swimmers.  I'm sure that this won't last too long as Nationals start to slowly come up but for now the fast swimmers sleep in and hit the 7:15am swim.  Over the past 4 and a 1/2 years that I've been swimming at 6am the fast lane has changed over and over again with swimmers coming and going.  But for now I get to either swim by myself or get extra rest.  And I've never been one to to complain about extra rest.

Warmed up a 250 on my own.  Then we did a warm up set in which I did add 5 seconds to one of the intervals but shhh...I didn't tell the coach that I did that.

2x
2x75's Free Drill 50 Fist / 25 Finger Tip Drag on 120
200 Kick on 400
3x100's Free Swim on 1:25 (the original interval was 1:20) (1300/1550)

Main Set:
5x100's Free on 1:20 (i pulled these with No Paddles) (500)
75 Free on 1:20 (i think the interval was 1:00 but I wanted to square up the clock) (575)
50 Fly build on 50 (625)
4x25's fly sprint on 30(725)
ran to the restroom for my pee break and restarted at the shallow end
3x100's Free on 1:15 (i just swam these)(1025)
75 free on 1:15 (once again the interval was 1:00 but I wanted to square up the clock) (1200)
50 back build on 50 (1250)
4x25's back sprint on 30 (1350)
1x100 Free on 1:10 (1450)
75 Free on 1:10 (yeah the interval was 1:00 but why break the pattern i was doing so i did it on 1:10) (1525)
50 fly build on 50 (this was breaststroke but i wanted to work on my fly.  and i did.  as of late my fly has had been having technical difficulties.  In the past when swimming fly my arms would easily come out of the water and over for the recovery but these days it seems I need to force my arms up and over.  I think that may have something to do with some muscle loss.  One thing I'm trying to do is when swimming fly to keep low and keep looking down even with breathing.  This will keep me low and hopefully my underlation will carry my arms over instead of me throwing them over. (1575)
4x25's fly on 30 (1675/3225)

50 easy (3275)

Pulling:
200 Free on 2:40 breathing every 3/5/7/9 by 25
4x50's on 60
1st breathing 4 down / 1 back
2nd breathing 3 down / 1 back
3rd breathing 2 down / 1 back
4th breathing 1 down / 1 back (400/3675)

50 easy (3725)

These are the days I should be keeping a running total on deck of my yardage so I can finish up on an event amount.  So far the month and year to date yardage is 31,750.  This is about the 1/2 way of the month.  Will I hit 60,000?  Mind you I'm not swimming yardage just to get yardage.  I just think it's fun to keep track of it. 

Thursday Night SCY Swim

I made it to swim this evening with the plan of getting out at the 60 minute mark. I figured I'd swim 60 minutes and that would be enough for me and I'll be able to swim tomorrow morning.  I ended up swimming 75 minutes instead but I didn't swim thefull 90 minutes. 

We actually was given a warmup which I ignored and pulled a 400 with several stops along the way.  We started off with a kick set made up of 1x25, 1x50, 1x75 and then I took a pee break and went on with 1x25, 1x50, 1x75 and then only a 50 of a 100.  So I kicked 550 yards.  (550/950)

Stroke Set:
3x one round of each stroke
100 on 1:50 broken by 25 taking 5 seconds rest
100 on 1:45 broken by a 50 then 2x25's taking 5 seconds rest
100 on 1:40 broken by a 75 then a 25 taking 5 seconds rest
100 on 1:35 not broken
The first round was fly and that went swimmingly.  Well maybe not the 25's or the 50 but the 75 and 100 went really good. I will admit to taking more than 5 seconds rest each and every time for all the rounds.  I basically waited to the guy before me got to the wall and in some of the strokes that was up to 10 seconds.  The guy who was second in the next lane made up for my extra rest by taking 2 or 3 seconds rest if any.  Some people can't count to 5 for the life of it.  These are the people who I hate going behind me.  You do your first turn thinking you have 5 seconds of space but nope that guy who can only count to 2 is right on your ass.  I made it a point for the fly and back rounds to be far ahead of him in the 100's.  Then came the breaststroke round.  Oy!  The knee pain started almost on the first 25 then the arms.  I swear the human body was not meant to bend like that!  I did breaststroke pull with some free and fly kick every so often to make the intervals.  F' it!  I did the thing I hate when other people do it.  But I went last in the breaststroke lane and was more than 5 seconds behind the guy in front of me so I didn't disturb his swim.  (1200/2150)

Free Set:
400 on 6:10
5x50's on 60 1 & 3 Sprint.  I sprinted the hell out of them.  I was shocked!  Me, sprinting?  Why would I do that.  These would be the only 2 I'd sprint.
300 on 4:00
5x50's on 55.  1 & 3 in theory are a sprint.
200 on ... used it as a warmdown.  Basically I was past the time I wanted to swim for and those first two 50 sprints wiped me out.  (1400/3550)

So my yardage for tonight was 3,550 making my month to date and year to date yardage total: 28,025.  Oh I'll hit the 30,000 tomorrow!

If I had stayed the main set would have went on to
5x50's on 50 1 & 3 sprint
1x100 on 1:20
5x50's on 45 1& 3 sprint
A good set if you like to sprint.  I need to think less during some of these workouts and just swim.  Sometimes I look at the set on the board and just in my head and sometimes outloud "this is a stupid set, i'm not doing it"  or if the coach says to work one part of the workout say the 50's of the above set and I say "nah, i'm going to work the distance".  I gotta stop doing that.  I need to take the workouts for what they are.  All of the sprinting will help in my distance events.  I just wish we did more distance sets in our workouts.  I sometimes think that the words pace and set are not in any of the coaches vocabulary. 

Mini-Distance Free Workout

After two days of record heat I woke this morning to a chilly morning.  I was shivering while biking to swim and once at the pool took my time getting in.  I ended up warming u a 300 free.  Today being Wednesday our workout was divided into "distance free" lanes and stroke lanes.  Since more people decided to do stroke the "distance free" lanes condensed down to two lanes.  My lane wasn't so bad as a group but the other lane was a mess with people who have minimal swimming skills and those who can swim but are slow/medium swimmers.  During our warmup sets those slow/medium swimmers gave up out of frustration as they were lapping the newbies almost every 100.

Warm Up Set:
100 Kick no board on stomach
50 drill / 50 swim
100 Kick on back
50 drill / 50 swim
400 pull (1st 200 breathing every 2/5/any/7 by 50 & 2nd 200 breathing every 3 or 5)
100 Kick
50 drill / 50 swim
400 pull DPS first 200 count strokes then minus 1, count strokes then minus 2, count strokes then minus 3 i'm skipping one of the 50 DPS as I sorta messed up.  The 2nd 200 was just dps. (1000 / 1300)

I think we did something else but I so can't remember as last nights workout is seeping into my head with this mornings workout.  I was feeling last nights workout this morning.  I wasn't keeping very good pace at all.  During the main set I was struggling to gain speed and maintain my stroke. 

Main Set:
4x250's on 3:20 I descended them.  Even still the fastest I could get to was about a 2:58.  Oy well. (1000/2400)

100 easy (2,500)

Then we did 7x25's sprint and I warmed down a 25 (200/2600)

Hmm....2,600.  I so forgot something.  Also I need to go back and redo last nights workout that I posted.  I looked at my notes and I blogged and extra 100.  Actually let's fix it now....i had a running total of 21,975 minus a hundred is 21,875.  Then add in this mornings 2,600 (even if I think I'm skipping some yardage big time). So my month and year to date yardage is 24,475.

100's of Backstroke

I thought tonight would be an overcrowded workout since it's a postcard perfect sunny day in So Cal with temps in the 80's.  The warmer it is outside usually brings out the swimmers.  But not tonight as I had my own lane for the entire workout.  Which was a good thing for me.  Even if it was the wall lane.  The workout itself was pretty easy which was also a good thing for me.  When I jumped into the pool right off the bat I was feeling pretty strong and almost sprinting.  Normally that is a bad sign as I won't last for the full 90 minutes.  But I was able to build from my speedy warmup.

I warmed up a mix 750.  Did 3x50's in which I stopped, looked around, fixed my goggles, putzed around, chatted a it before I pulled w/o paddles 300.  I then put on the paddles and pulled a 100.  I then took off the paddles and pulled a 250 IM.  The coach stopped us before I started my free.

Drill Warm Up Set:
4x
75 IM Drill / No Free on 1:10
50 Stroke IM order all on 50 except Breast was on 55

Warm Up Set:
4x150's Free Pull Odds Breathing 3/5/7 by 50 & Evens Building.  I used my paddles for the first 3 of them.  1 & 2 we did them on 2:00 / 3 & 4 on 2:05

Main Set:
4x
200 Free on 2:40 easy / recovery
3x100's Stroke on 1:30 descending
I did all my rounds backstroke.  Wasn't feeling like a fly day.  After weights this morning my arms would have fallen off.

50 easy

Kick Set:
4x
50 easy on 1:05
2x25's fast on 30
50 easy

tuesday's yardage total 4350
this months yardage total 21,975

6am On A Monday Swim

I was debating on sleeping in and swimming tonight but I had a crappy sleep last night and was up already so I just rolled over and got on my feet.  Once at the pool I was feeling lazy but in a better mood than yesterdays swim. Hard to be in a bad or any mood at 6am.  Chatted with the coach a bit then started my warm up.  I pulled a 300. 

Kick Set:

100 Kick

50 Kick / 50 Drill

50 Drill / 50 Swim (300/600)

Main Set:

10x100's Free on 1:20

1-5 descend.  I started off slow with a 1:15 then down to a 1:11 forgot the next two but then finished up with a 1:08

6-10 Fast.  Umm..I ascended these.  1:06,1:08,1:08,1:10,1:10.  My arms and legs felt like jello.  Oh well.  (1000/1600)

50 easy (1650)

500 Pull building within each 100.  I didn't use paddles.  (500/2150)

Stroke Part: (i did back today)

100 Kick

50 Kick / 50 Drill

50 Drill / 50 Swim (300/2450)

Main Stroke Set:

5x100's Fast on 1:40.  I descended but my times sucked.(500/2950)

6x25's spring on 45.  Odds Free / Evens Choice (I did them IM order) (150/3100)

Total yardage for this year so far 17,625.  My previous entry math was incorrect.  I'll need to double check.

50 warm down (3150)

Sunday Funk

This was one of those days I shoould have stayed away from the pool.  I really wanted to swim but was tired from running around all day that swimming was something I shouldn't have done.  I ended up showing up late and leaving early.  I showed up about 8 minutes late then by the time I got my swim suit on, showered and got in the pool I got a 50 warm up.  It went down hill after that.

Kick Set:

200 Kick

4x50's Kick

took a pee and chat break

4x25's Kick  (500/550)

Drill:

200 Drill Reverse IM

6x50's Drill 1-3 Free (fist / finget tip drag /kick 6 stroke kick 6 ) & 4-6 Stroke (500/1050)

Warm Up Set:

100 Free on 1:20 2x75's broken 50 butter / 25 back then 50 back / 25 breast

100 Free on 1:20 2x75's broken 50 breast / 25 free then 50 free / 25 fly (500/1550)

Main Set:

400 IM on 6 mins

3x100 Free on 1:30 1&2 easy 3 Sprint

2x200 IM ono 3

3x100 Free on 1:30 1 easy 2&3 Sprint

100 IM then gave up.  It was to be 4x100's IM's then 3x100's all sprint.  (my yardage 1500/3050)

 I had to get out.  Total yardage for 2009 so far is 14,470

Taking It Easy, A Friday Night Swim.

Ahh...Friday Night Swimming.  The Social Swim.  The 60 Minute Swim.  The easiest swim of the week.  Knowing that in advance makes it easier to accept.  Plus everyone is in a more social less swim swim swim fast fast fast mood.  It's an enjoyable swim even the parts that I don't like.  I started off with a 400 swim/pull.  I might have done more but for tracking I'll say 400.  Then we went to the deep end for 5 minutes of deep end kicking.  Ugh!  Then we did a 25 swimming freestyle with a 6 beat kick.  Something I so have yet to grasp the concept of.  I really need someone to stop me and show me how to do it.  When I swim butterfly I get in a groove and just keep moving to my underlation propelling me forward and my arms just moving.  In freestyle it's not so natural.  I've never been able to master kicking and swimming.  We then did about 2x25's starting in the center of the pool into the wall and back working on understream line and turns.  Then we did 4x50's in which you started in the middle, swam to the wall, flip, do a flip in the middle, swim to the other wall, flip and swim back to the middle.  These just tire me out.  All this flipping.  Oy!  Is it Long Course Meters Season Yet? Okay we are up to 675 yards so far.

Main Set:
4x25's Back on 25
2x50's Free on 45
3x100's IM on 1:45
take an additional 30 seconds rest
4x25's Free on 20
2x50's Fly or Back on 1:00
2x100's IM on 1:40
take an additional 30 seconds rest
4x25's Fly on 30
2x50's Back on 50
1x100 choice sprint.  I did back and did a 1:07.  I was going to do this fly but was feeling a bit of pain in my left arm.  It was like the muscle in my upper arm was twisted.  Odd feeling so no fly.  1100 yards for this set.

50 easy / cool down

So this whole workout was only 1,825 yards.  Gotta love Friday night!  But this will ding my yardage total only up to 11,425 for 2009.  Oh well.  Next week it'll bump up a bit.  This week I switched up my workout routine a bit by skipping the morning swims.  Normally I'd swim Monday morning, Tuesday night, Wednesday morning and Friday morning.  But my body was in recovery mode since I added weight training back into the mix on Tuesday and Thursday.  Next week I'll be mixing it up also.  Actually the next few weeks I'm going to tweak my scheadule a bit.  Just for the fun of it. 

Is It Just Me Or Is It You? Thursday Night Swim

So after hitting the gym this morning it was time to hit the water and swim the 7pm workout.  As we are all getting in doing our 10 minutes of warm up which tonight was in theory to be a 700 I kept a watchful eye of who was getting in which lane.  It seems some of the fast swimmers haven't been showing up to the 7pm workouts while the medium lanes are fast becoming over crowded this week.  So while I'm warming up I am sizing up the lanes to see who I can get to move over to my lane.  As I swam my 500 warm up during this period I had my own lane.  Albeit it was the wall lane that no one wants but still.  Right now in the WeHo pool some of the lane lines are broken so bad that the empty space is becoming more and more of the lane line.  The worst one happens to be by the far wall making swimming in the lane like swimming in open water.

By the time we all stop for the coach to give us the main set I'm still by myself and the lane next to me as Swimmer A and Swimmer B in it (I won't use names.)  I look over and see Swimmer C and D in the Medium lanes and ask one of them to move over.  Swimmer C moved to my lane evening the two fast lanes to two swimmers per lane.  Now I did this because I can't stand Swimmer B.  I've swam with him maybe two times so far and both times just wanted to kill him.  At times I think it is me but really this is the type of guy who rode on the short bus to school.  But he's Canadian so that might have something to do with it. 

We start with a kick set:
75 Kick
50 Kick
2x25's Kick
75 Kick
2x50's Kick
25 Kick
2x75's Kick
50 Kick
25 Kick
Since I'm with Swimmer C we added a few seconds to the given intervals every so often.  The 25's interval given was 25 and we did them on 30.  Actually the last round of 2x75's/50 and 30 we did them on a 30 base.  So 1:30, 1:00 and 30.  (600/1100)

IM Warm Up Set:
300 IM on 4:00 (50 Drill / 25 Swim)
200 IM on 3:00 (25 Drill / 25 Swim)
100 IM Swim
(600/1700)

Then we get our main stroke set which was the end of my happy swim.  First of all if on Tuesday we did the BEST Set Ever in the History of Swimming tonight's set was the WORST Set Ever in the History of Swimming.  It's classic confuse me in the pool type of set with different intervals and different things all going on at once.

Here it is:
25 Stroke on 45
25 Stroke on 40
25 Stroke on 35
25 Stroke on 30 (mind you these intervals might be wrong)
50 Stroke on 1:00
50 Stroke on 55
50 Stroke on 50 (i think i messed up all these intervals so bad me)
75 Stroke on something
75 Stroke on something minus so many other seconds)
100 Stroke on...oh who cares.
Then we had to repeat this set.  I did the first round butterfly and the second round backstroke.  I was a bit confused as I kept looking at the wrong column on the board for the intervals.  We need a bigger board.  During this set Swimmer B, C and I moved to the non-wall lane while Swimmer A had the wall lane to himself on the faster interval.  The second round I kept on the interval getting a bit too much rest.  The first round who knows what I was really doing.  (1000/2800)

For that set basically we did the Medium lane intervals.  And this is why I don't understand or can stand swimmer B.  He had a hard time with these intervals.  Umm...these are the Medium lane intervals.  If we had done the fast lane intervals he would do what he does when he swims in the fast lane.  Swim freestyle and sit lots of it out for the stroke sets.  I think he does hold his own in freestyle if we are doing the slower fast lane intervals.  Why do people want to swim in the fast lane so bad for?  If you can't make the interval why bother.  Hell, I am always asking to swim in the Medium lane but the coaches won't let me. 

400 Pulling.  First 200 Breathing by 50 every 3/5/3/7 and the 3rd and 4th 100 descend within each 100.  (400/3200)

Free Set:
4x50's on 40
3x100's on 1:20
2x150's on 2:00
1x200
I started to lead but after the first 25 I cramped up.  So I just rested about 20 seconds and was on my way.  After the 4th 50's Swimmer B had no idea what was next so he stopped.  I told him and explained I had a leg cramp that he should leave in case it comes back.  I left 20 seconds after him.  After the 3rd 100 Swimmer B once again had no idea what was next so he stopped.  I left 20 seconds after him.  After the...do I need to even say it.  Damn...even after the 150 of the 200 he stopped.  I was spitting nails.  I was being a bit prissy and it was very clear I was getting pissed off.  Part of it was the fact that I was going 20 seconds behind him but narrowing it down to 5 seconds in the 100's.  Really, Swimmer B are you really in the right lane?  (1000/3300)

After that I only did a 50.  I was cramping and my frustration level was at a boiling point.  I thought it was best that I get out of the pool.  I've said it before to the coach and others that I can't swim with Swimmer B and I just really need to be proactive about it at the beginning of practice.  Even if it hurts his feelings he so shouldn't be in my lane.  Some may say that I should have sucked it out and swam with Swimmer A with faster intervals but no I shouldn't have to suffer due to a Medium Lane swimmer having some Macho Bullshit Complex wanting to swim in the Fast Lane. 

Now that I've vented I feel better.  At least till next time. 

Total yardage tonight 3350 making my 2009 total yardage of 19,600.  I plan on swimming the 1 hour 7pm workout tomorrow.  My arms are still sore from weight training.  Figure an hour of sprint work is better than an hour of kick ass Friday morning swimming.

A Bit Too Much

After my first weight training day since November 27th plus last nights swim I woke up a bit sore.  My arms and chest weighed me down so much I stayed in bed.  No swimming today!  Since we don't have a Wednesday evening workout I won't be swimming.  I may attempt to hit a spinning class instead. 

Best Swim Workout Set In The History of Swimming

Okay, maybe not the best set but I really liked tonight's main set.  But before I get to that it took me a bit to get out of my sluggish mood.  I had to run an errand by the pool before swimming so after that I waited 40 minutes on deck watching the lap swimmers.  Everytime I watch them I'm reminded why I like going to a practice.  I don't know how anyone can swim in the same lane with 3 other people doing 3 different things at the same time.  You got one guy doing breaststroke, some guy kicking and another guy swimming with paddles.  Actually the guy with paddles wasn't swimming as much as slapping the water really hard.  I couldn't stop wondering how bad his shoulder pain is going to be tonight. 

Once it was time to swim I got in and did the following:
100 swim
300 pull w/o paddles
300 pull with paddles
150 kick
The given warm up to be completed to the coach holds us up was 400 swim, 300 pull, 200 kick and 100 swim.  I get in late and well goof off at the start of workout.  Stopping every 50 to adjust my goggles and what not. (850)

Kick warm up set:
100 easy on 2:00
2x50's fast on 55
100 easy on 2:00
4x50's fast on 55 (i swear we did 5 but whatever)
100 easy on 2:00
pee break so i missed 2x50's out of 6 so I did 4x50's fast on 55 (800/1650)

warming up still:
4x50's on 45.  one easy / one build (200/1850)

Now for the best main set in the history of swimming:
5x400's Freestyle!  Wahoo distance swimming! As follows:
1x400 on 5:20
2x200's on 2:30
1x400 on 5:20
4x100's on 1:15
1x400 on 5:20
For the first 400 I started off with a 1:10 before settling in at about 1:11's or so.  I caught up to the lane leader who was 10 seconds ahead of me so we switched for the rest of the set.  For the 2x200's I held 1:11/1:12 which I continued to hold for the middle 400.  Then at the 4x100's I slowed up each 100 finishing up at 1:15.  I took a second and was off for the last 400.  I started with a 1:15 and descended down to a 1:10 for the last 100 of it.  (2000/3850)

100 easy (100/3950)

10x50's on 55.  #'s3/5/7/10 sprint choice of stroke.  I did those backstroke swimming but wasn't super fast just fast or to however I could go after that main set.  The rest of them I pulled them freestyle. (500/4350)

So tonight's workout was pretty good.  I broke past my sluggish feeling and really rallied during the main set.  Maybe because I like distance sets like this.  I'd prefer to have done just 5x400's but this was close enough!  Plus it was a perfect night for swimming.  Well in lane mates that is as I had a pretty laid back swimmer in my lane who never stopped and just kept swimming.  He never gave up and put on paddles during the main set to keep up.  He didn't sit out any part of it and then leave on my heels.  It was the most perfect swim set at a workout in a very long time.  I wish every swim was like this. 

My running total of yardage for 2009 is 16,250.  Oh and doing weights today didn't bother me at all to the very last 10x50's.  Nice to be almost back in shape!