Rearview Mirror: Swimming in 2009

These year end numbers are not exact as I may not have logged every workout into my ongoing log totals.  But from what I have logged I have swam a total of 533,344 yards for 2009.  That is using a total of yards and meters and then having the log on the USMS website figure it all out for the Go The Distance login. 

The year itself was an okay year for swimming.  Swam at the USMS SCY Championships and had an okay swim meet.  Had a few personal best times.  Had some okay times.  But I swam and didn't get DQ'ed which is half the battle.  For SCY Season I ranked 10th in the 1650 for Men 35-39 in USMS Swimming.  Not too shabby.

Then I sat out LCM season with no swim meets.  Not that I swam many meets in 2009 in any pool length.  I swam at 4 SCY and 2 SCM meets.  That is more then enough.

When SCM season rolled around I gotta admit my swim meet swimming started off pretty bad and kept on getting worse.  I swam a meet at UCLA and in my 100 back and 100 fly did some of my slowest swims ever.  I alsn my 1500 i did my 2nd fastest time but it was so far behind my best time that I wasn't happy.  My 400 free, 200 fly and 200 back were also not very fast times for me.  On the last day of the meet I finally got into my grove and did a personal best in the 800 free.  Guess 2009 was the year of the 800 free for me. It'll be a few months before any Top 10 times are released but looking up my rankings I have a few but those can and may change as meets are still being loaded into the USMS database. 

Overall it was a good year.  As for 2010 and my goals you can read that post LINK that I typed up on my flight to Florida last week. 

Swim & A Bike Ride

The Culver City Plunge is one of my favorite pools so every Tuesday morning that I get to swim LCM at Culver is like heaven.  Not just because it is LCM but I love how the water is kept at a nice chilly temperature.  If my body didn't get so tired in it's old age I could just keep swimming all day. 

Warm Up
200 Swim
200 Kick
200 Pull
100 Swim (700)

6x50's Odds Drill / Evens Swim (300/1000)

Main Set:
6x100's  2 @ 1:40 2 @ 1:35 2 @ 1:30 (600)
4x50's on 55  (200/800)
2x200  3:20 (400/1200)
1x300  4:30 (300/1500)
1x100 active recovery no interval Square Up Clock (100/1600)
6x100's  2 @ 1:40 2 @ 1:35 2 @ 1:30 (i messed up the intervals so I took extra rest after the 5th one.  Between counting my strokes so that I'd do alternate side breathing and remembering how many 100's I was swimming I lost track of when I left the wall.  (600/2200)
4x50's on 55  (200/2400)
2x200  3:10 (400/2800)
1x300 (300/3100)

Then I got out.  I swam the 300 pretty hard so without a warm down I'll be feeling the pain in a bit.  Total LCM was 4100.  After the swim I rode my bike home the whole way.  On the way to the pool I take a bus usually from La Cienega to Venice then ride to the pool.  But on the way home I like to ride the full 7+ miles.  It's on a gradual hill up La Cienega.  And since I'm driving on a busy street during the morning commute it's a lot of fun.  Well if you like cars coming within inches of you. 

MTD Yardage: 63,000
MTD LCM:  10,500

YTD Yardage: 178,650
YTD LCM 21,300

And that ends the month of March in Swimming.  63.000 Short Course Yards and 10,500 Long Course Meters.

Easy Sunny Afternoon Gym Swim

Since I skipped this mornings swim practice I put together a workout and headed to the gym pool.  Now I'm not a fan of gym pools but the WeHo Pool was closing early for Cesar Chavez Day.  So I jotted down a workout and headed to the 24 Hour Fitness pool. 

Once I got swimming the workout went out the window.  Just wasn't motivated to swim hard or fast.  The pool at the West Hollywood 24 Hour Fitness is warm to begin with but with the sun beating down it was like swimming in a hotel pool.  Too Warm.  I will admit it did feel nice during the warm up with the sun on my back.  I could have just lounged all day in the pool.  Well except that I'm Irish and would not just get sunburned in the sun I'd combust into flames.   Then I'd be a real flamer. 

I don't remember exactly how much I swam.  I'd stop.  Look around.  Swim some more.  At least I started off with good intentions of swimming a workout. 

Swam a 300 Free
Pulled a 300 Free
Kicked a 100.

Then I did 3x100's Freestyle.  Then the workout really went buh bye.  I started to do a few 50's.  I had a hard time seeing the clock so at one point I swam a 25 to the other end of the pool.  Then a 100 IM and a 200 IM.  Then I did another 50, about a couple of 100's and finished up with a 50.  Not much but at least I got a swim in.

Being in a warm pool in the sun started to make me a bit dehydrated.  And of course I didn't bring water or anything.  Doh!  After the swim I showered and walked home.  A nice easy day of sorta swimming.  I figured I did about 1,500 easy yards today.  Tomorrow I'll do a LCM swim and get a quality swim in at the Culver City Plunge. 

MTD Yardage: 64,500. 
MTD LCM:  6400

YTD Yardage: 180,150
YTD LCM 17,200

6am Won Out Again

Last night I was debating on swimming at 6am or not so I hedged my bets and set my alarm for 5am.  Figured if I woke up and felt like going I'd go and if not then I'd go at 7pm.  I woke up with little fuss so I decided to go swimming.  Warm up and the first half of workout was a bit of struggle for me.  I felt super tight in the shoulders and upper back.  Must have been too much pull downs at the gym yesterday.

Warm Up
350
Then our warm up set.  I don't remember it all.  Some free, some stroke, some drill and some swimming.
2x
50 Drill
50 Kick
25 Drill
50  Kick
It might have been 2x50's kick.  Whatever.  That is close enough. (350/700)

Then we had another quick warm up set to get the heart rate up.  Which is a blur to me.  I have a hard enough time remember the main set with all of it's different intervals and starting off at different ends of the pools. 

Main Set:
3x with a break after each round
25 Stroke on 30
3x100's Free
50 Stroke on 60
2x100's Free
75 Stroke on 1:20
100 Free
Now this is so the type of set I hate with different intervals some evens like 30/60/1:20 and some odd's 1:25.  That and having the set at the opposite end of the pool to the board that has the set and intervals.  It's not to the second round that I have a clue what I'm doing.  And even then it's requiring me to think way too much with all the math at 6:30 in the morning.  Because there was no other fast swimmers I went on a slower interval today.  The first two rounds the 3x100's were on 1:25 and the 2x100's on 1:20.  For the last round since at that point I had my own lane I speed the intervals up by 5 seconds.  For the stroke I did round one butterfly and then the rest backstroke.  (1950/2650)

Warmed down a 200.  So the yardage count is off since I don't remember the whole workotu but let's just say 2850 and call it a day. 

MTD Yardage: 61,900
MTD LCM:  6400

YTD Yardage: 176,550
YTD LCM 17,200

Wednesday Swim - 3850 SCY

Today's swim was nice and easy.  And on top of that I made it easier by taking extra rest allowing my lane mates to get some rest.

Warm Up
400
Then
4x
100 Free Kick
50 Drill
50 Swim
The drills were Fist, One Arm, 3 Strokes then Turn and one other that I can't remember.  (1200 warm up)

300 Pull (300/1500)

Main Set:
400 on 6:45. Was 6:30 but the lane mates wouldn't have had les than 5 seconds rest.  I came in on 5:50. (400)
4x100's Free on 1:25 (40/800)
400 on 6:45 in theory but missed out interval debating who'd would lead the next part (400/1200)
8x50's on 45 (400/1600)
400 on 6:45 in theory as everyone in the lane did something different. (400/2000)
10x25's.  Was 16 but our goofing off during the set left us running out of time.  My last 400 I was going a bit slower as I was in between two swimmers as one swimmer took a pee break and got in around the 200 mark and my other lane mate was swimming a 300 IM.  I've gotten use to my lane mates so I am pretty laid back about lane order and people swimming various things at the same time.  When you only have three people in the lane it's no big deal.  Now if this was the 7:15am or 7:00pm workout I would have strangled my lane mates as those workouts are more crowded.  But with only three of us who swim together on a regular basis we stay out of each others way.  (250/2250/3750)

Then we did a 50 sprint choice of stroke.  Without swimming any fly for the whole workout I decided to sprint this 50 butterfly.  Which was a big mistake.  After the turn at the 25 I just took it easy as I was beat.  My arms so didn't want to move.  So after that I warmed down a 50 (100/3850)  I should have swam another 50 to make it an even 3900.  Oh well

MTD Yardage: 59,050
MTD LCM:  6400

YTD Yardage: 173,700
YTD LCM 17,200

So I was checking in on the USMS Go The Distance Swim Results LINK and some of those folks put me to shame.  The postal swim is measure in miles and a mile is 1760 yards.  Go figure how to swim that extra 10 yards.  Some folks in the postal have done 100 miles, 200 miles, 300 miles and one person with 400 miles in the months of Jan and Feb alone.  That is a lot of swimming!  I figured I do on average with my heavy swims about 35 miles a month.  Of course you gotta wonder what kind of actual effort is put into these super miler swims.  Are they just lazily swimming or are they just supermen and superwomen?

Fast 1,000 LCM And Some Warm Up Workout

The one good thing about this cold is that it is keeping the swimmers away at 6am.  Being Tuesday I headed over to the Culver City Plunge for the early morning lap swim.  The usual group that I do the lap swim all bailed on me except for one other person so I planned a 1,000 fast sort of for time.  I say sort of as I was just using it as a guide to how I'm feeling in the water.  My goal pace was to be under 1:25.  Not bad for a chilly morning LCM workout swim.

Warmed Up
400 Swim
200 Pull  (600)

10x50's Odds Drill / Evens Swim (500/1100)

200 Kick (700/1300)  I used a kickboard which meant my head was freezing out of the water.  Also my hip reflexers were killing me. 

10x50's Swim.  I did these on 60.  Building in each 50. (500/1800)

2x100's Swim.  Was going to do more but wanted to square up the clock to an easy even number to time my 1000.

1000 Swim.  I did it 13:23.  Just over the 1:20 pace.  I negative split the swim as my 1st 50 was on about a 6:50.  For the first 500 I kept looking for the clock and try to get my splits.  But with the clock being on the side of the pool about 1/2 way down the deck I had to do some water polo strokes with head up to get my splits.  After the 500 mark I just swam it and trusted myself to go faster.  I woud have been under a 13:20 if I had just swum without looking for the first 500.  I felt pretty good.  At the last 100 I could have kicked a bit more and I really did a lazy turn at the last turn.  Also I should have speed up my turnover.  I swam this mostly as a test of my mental strength to swim a distance swim since I havn't done much since the 1500 SCM swim in December.  I'd like to swim a 1,500 LCM in a week or two.  Also I need to get in a 1000 SCY swim in soon also.  (1000/3000)

4x50's.  Start off super fast then relax the rest of the way (200/3200)

3200 LCM Swim.  Well I'm off to shower and hit the gym.  Meeting someone in a bit to workout together. 

MTD Yardage: 55,200
MTD LCM:  6400

YTD Yardage: 169,850
YTD LCM 17,200

Another Cold Morning Swim.

It's a brisk morning in Los Angeles a bit too brisk if you ask me.  I'm still thawing out from this morning's swim. 

Warm Up
200 Swim
200 Kick
4x100's 50 Drill/50 Swim (800)

400 Pull (1st 200 Breath Control by 50 breathing every 3/5/any/7) (400/1200)

Main Free Set:
100 on 1:30
4x50's on 45 Sprint
8x25's on 25 Sprint
30 seconds rest
8x25's on 30 Sprint
4x50's on 50 Sprint
100 Technique (1000/2200)

100 Fast.  After about the 1st 75 I just dogged it.  Partially I was still tired and sore from yesterdays workout and partially that I was so cold I couldn't get warmed up all workout.  I felt so stiff and cold all workout.   Each time I'd press my arms to my ears in my streamline I could feel how cold my ears were.  Brrrr.....(100/2300)

50 easy (50/2350)

Stroke Now, I did the rest of the workout butterfly.

50 Drill
50 Swim
100 Kick (200/2550)

8x25's Sprint on 30 (200/2750)

8x25's Odds Stroke  / Evens Free (200/2950)

I then only warmed down a 50.  My right arm was sore and still.  It was time to get out of the water.  Total yardage today was 3000. 

MTD Yardage: 55,200
MTD LCM: 3,200

YTD Yardage: 169,850
YTD LCM 14,000

Sunday Afternoon Chilly Swim Practice in WeHo

I'm laying here in bed too tired to move after this afternoons swim practice.  While swimming I didn't feel like I was killing myself but boy do I feel it now.  Ouchie! 

Warmed up about a 300 before we started our warm set set.

2x200 Free Drill (400/700)
4x100's Kick on 1:55.  I had to take a pee break and missed a 50 (350/1050)
200 IM Drill (200/1250)
damn....then something IM swim.  oh well.  whatever

2x
25 fly
75 IM
50 Free
100 Free (shit.  i so can't remember the warm up sets. ) (500/1750)

Main Set 2700 Yards:
Working the 200 Free / 100 Fast Stroke / 50 Fast Stroke.  We do this 3x and each round gets faster but with more rest.

4x75's on 60 (300)
200 Fast Free on 2:30 (200/500)
3x50's Stroke on 55 (150/650)
100 Fast Stroke on some interval (100/750)
4x25's IM order on 25 (100/850)
50 Fast Stroke (50/900)
We then regrouped and did the set again. 
4x75's on 1:05
200 Fast Free on 2:30
3x50's Stroke on 60
100 Fast Stroke on some interval
4x25's IM order on 30
50 Fast Stroke
Got some rest and started again.
4x75's on 1:10
200 Fast Free on 2:30
3x50's Stroke on 1:05
100 Fast Stroke on some interval
4x25's IM order on 35
50 Fast Stroke
I think those intervals are right.  I didn't get all my times but I am confident I got faster.  I did get the 200 Free rounds for round 2 and 3.  Round two was a 2:09 and Round three was a 2:03.  I could have went faster but really slowed up at my turns.  My turns are crap.  I did backstroke for all the stroke.  So wasn't feeling like doing any fly today. (2700/4450)

I only warmed down a 50 making it an even 4,500 yard workout.  I've had a little over a week of some good workouts.  Don't want to jinx it but I do help it continues.

MTD Yardage: 52,200
MTD LCM: 3,200

YTD Yardage: 166,850
YTD LCM 14,000

Easy Does It On A Friday Night

Since I slept in this morning instead of being crushed by another hard workout I decided to head to swim tonight at 7pm.  I figured even if it was all sprints all out it was only an hour.   It turned out to be a relatively easy workout. 

For the warm up I did a 200 swim and a 50 kick.  (250)

6x75's Pulling Evens Free / Odds IM.  The Friday night coach is anti-paddles so no paddles during this set.  I gotta admit I am using my paddles less and less.  But over the next few weeks I'll be asking my lane mates if I can try on the various paddles sizes and companies.  It's time for new paddles.  I'm using the old fashion square ones that I bought at Big5 five years ago. (450/700)

5x100's Kick on 1:05 (don't ask me why such an add interval) 5 kicking butterfly on your back / 50 choice. (500/1200)

Main Set:
3x100's Free on 1:20.  (300/1500)
4x50's Stroke on 55.  Pick one stroke for all 4 that you cannot repeat later on (200/1700)
4x75's IM (i missed a 50 to take a pee break) (250/1950)
3x100's 50 Free / 50 Stroke.  The stroke had to be something different then the last stroke part but at the same time you'd have the next 3x100's to do the same stroke. (300/2250)
4x25's FLY on 25 (100/2350)
3x100's Stroke on 1:50.  Must be the same stroke you did for the 50's of the 3x100's (300/2650)
So for the 4x50's I did backstroke then the rest fly.  Which was poor planning as it was a bit of back to back fly. 

After that I only did a 50 warmdown making the total yardage for tonight 2700. At the end my legs were feeling stiff.  Must be from the last two days of spinning.  My legs are getting a workout.

MTD Yardage: 47,700
MTD LCM: 3,200

YTD Yardage: 162,350
YTD LCM 14,000

Doh!  There was something I wanted to mention but can't remember. 

Broken 1650 SCY Main Set Practice

After last nights killer swim practice I wasn't ready for another grueling workout but that was what was waiting for me this morning at 6am. 

Warm Up 400 Swim.  It was a very slow warm up. (400)

4x100's Kick - modified swordfish with an underwater recovery (400/800)

4x100's 50 Drill / 50 Swim (400/1200)

Then I think we just jumped into the main set:
1650 Broken -
400 Pull 5:15.  Holding the same pace.  I was holding around a 1:15
800 Swim.  I did this on a 9:45.  Basically I started holding 1:15's or just shy of that and towards the end just descended each 100 of the last 300.
4x200's on 2:40 Descend.  I did a 2:28/2:28/2:25/2:17.  Not as fast as last nights but then again i didn't just swim a fast 800.  Plus the interval was a bit shorter.  I do think I was faster in the last 200 as I know my 100 split was 1:07 and I thought I was faster my 2nd 100.  When I finished I looked at the clock and my mind stopped working for a second. 
50 Sprint.  So it was a 1650 broken.  I took extra rest betweent he 800 and the 200's as I was waiting for my lane mate to catch up.  I didn't want to start the 200's while she was swimming the 800.  Wanted to give her a chance to do her best time as possible.  Plus I like rest.  Everything else was kept on the interval given. (1650/2850)

150 easy.  50 just swim and 100 DPS.  (150/3000)

100 on 1:30
2x50's on 45
4x25's on 30 (300/3300)

3x25's Sprint on Coaches sendoff.  I did these butterfly even though I hadn't warmed up any fly or swam any fly today.  I was about a second off my normal sprint 25 fly.  (75/3375)

I took my time and warmed down about a 375 if not more.  I figured only one person from 7:15 jumped in the lane I was warming down in so I stayed till that group was stopped for morning announcements.  (375/3750)

MTD Yardage: 45,000
MTD LCM: 3,200

YTD Yardage: 159,650
YTD LCM 14,000