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. 

One Last Swim For September

After yesterday double swim workouts it was time to squeeze one more workout in for the month so I headed to the 6am workout.  This morning was the first morning in ages that I had to put on a hoodie as it was brisk out this morning.  This being LA we only have two seasons Winter and Summer and today was one of those days that you wake up to winter but by lunch it's summer.  it was not only brisk but a bit windy.  A chill was in the air.  To make matters worse the pool temperature is still on the rise for it's winter run.  So it was one of those swims that when you stopped during sets your body was cold and hot at the same time.  I so can't wait for Summer to come back or the pool heater to break.

Warmed Up a 400

Then we did 3 rounds of 75 Kick / 50 Drill / 25 Swim Freestyle (450/850)

Main Set:

400 Pull (400/1250)

5x200's on 2:45 as follows:

#1 Technique

#2 Last 100 Fast

#3 Middle 100 Fast

#4 First 100 Fast

#5 FAST 100% I forgot what I did but it was nothing to great.  I've done faster but considering how much I've been swimming in such a short time period it was okay. (1000/2250)

50 easy (2300)

Then we moved onto stroke (I think.  I don't think I'm missing any sets so far)

Three Rounds IM Order (ummm....) 50 Kick / 25 Drill / 25 Swim (I think) (300/2600)

Three Rounds

100 on 1:30

4x25's on 30

This was all choice so I did round one all fly, round two all back and round three all breast

Then we did 100 IM on 1:30 followed by 4x25's Free on 30 (800/3400)

Then it was warm down and all that.  So not a bad workout.  I'll take tomorrow off with a quick run tonight.  And that will end this month.  Now comes October and winter, sigh.

Thursday Swim Swim

Another swim workout in before the end of the month.  Actually this week is going to be crazy so it might be my last time in the water for a few days.  Depending on how I feel in the morning I may squeeze in one last workout for the month.  I doubt I'll swim on Thursday and well Friday is also up for grabs.  So a second swim workout today was worth the pain and agony.  After this mornings swim I hit the gym at lunch time to get some weight training in. 

Warm Up

400 Mixed

Then we did a warm up set.  Good god what was it.  I know we did it twice.  50 Drill / 200 Pull / 50 Swim.  After that it was a 6 minute kick.  Every so often the coach blows a whistle and you do fast kick for 20 seconds.  Let's say I did a 400 kick.  (1400 yards so far)

Main Free Set:

200 Pull on 2:40 (200)

4x100's on 1:15 (400/600)

6x50's on 50 (300/900)

rest a bit

200 Pull on 2"40 (200/1100)

3x100's on 1:20 (300/1400)

4x50's on 50 (200/1600/3000)

then we did a 100 sprint (100/3100)

Stroke Warm Up Set:

3x IM Order

75 Kick / 50 Drill / 25 Swim (450/3550)

Then we did a 400 IM FAST (3950)

Then after a 50 easy (4000) we did 2 Rounds of 4x25's.  I did the first round backstroke and the second round butterfly.  And that was it.  (200/4200) 

LCM Lap Swim In Culver

I swam at the Lap Swim at Culver to get in a LCM workout.  I thought a few mates of mine would join me but I ended up swimming on my own.  Which was great for the first 50 minutes.  I had my own lane.  I got in most of my workout although I did stop my main set early.  Three swimmers got in the lane with me and well it got ugly pretty fast.  At one point I told one swimmer that I was leaving on the 30 so he left on the 28.  Another swimmer I told I was leaving on the 20 and they left on the 15 after I had just lapped them.  Usually in LCM you can deal with it but these three had no lane etiquette at all.  The didn't get out of the way when I was doing my turns.  I get fed upped with that shit pretty quickly.  But at least I got in a total of 2,900 LCM.  I swim again tonight at the 7pm workout.

Warm Up
300 Swim
300 Pull
200 Kick
200 (50 drill fly / 50 drill swim & 50 drill back / 50 swim back) (1,000 LCM)

Main Freestyle Set:
4x50's on 50 (200)
2x100's on 1:40 (200/400)
1x200 on 3:10  (200/600)
4x50's on 50   (200800)
3x100's on 1:40 (300/1100)
2x200 on 3:10 (400/1500)
4x50's on 50 (200/1700) (2,700 LCM)

and that was it...sort of.  I did do 4x50's pulling.  but it was obvious that sharing the lane was getting to be ugly so I got out.  Which is a shame cuz' I was on a roll and feeling good in the water. 

Sunday Gym & Swim Wrap Up

I slept in today and made it to the gym around 2:30.  Then after a quick circuit routine of weight training I rested a bit before heading out to swim. 

Sunday afternoon swims is more about my friend Amy who is getting better and faster.  I started off warming up a 200 while she got her cap on and warmed up a 100 on her own.  Then I had her do some kicking and pulling while I stayed on deck.  Then when she had the slow lane to herself I got in with her and did some 25's.  Pretty much I broke it up into groups of 4x25's odds drill / evens swim.  I did about 500 yards with her.  Then someone else got in the lane so I got out.  Once she was done I moved up to the "fast" lane.  Fast lane in most lap swims is relative.  I did a 400 free pull, 100 back swim followed by a 400 kick reverse IM and finished up swimming a 400 IM.  So 2,000 yards.  Not a real workout but at least I was in the water.  Since swimming was only about an hour after I finished up at the gym it wasn't like I was about to swim a tough workout. 

Thursday Night Swimming

I really wanted to go running tonight.  I got my stuff together and was walking out the door and decided that running was not a good idea.  It was 100 degrees here in Los Angeles and the run club starts at 6:30 and it was still scorching hot at 6pm so I said fuck that.  So instead I went swimming.  I knew that it was going to be a tough workout but oy vey!

Warmed up about a 500 between goofing off and chit chatting. 

Then we had a warm up set.  I so can't remember what it was I'm so tired from tonights workout.  I remember doing at least 8x50's IM order odds were drill / evens were stroke (400).  And I know we did two rounds of kicking 100/2x50's and 4x25's.  May have done something else.  (600)

So let's say warm up was a totoal of 1400.  i know we didn't start the main set to about 7:40-ish.

Main Set:

100 IM on 1:30

4x50's Stroke on 50 descend

100 IM on 1:30

2x100's stroke on 1:40 descend

100 IM on 1:30

200 stroke.  All the stroke in this round had to be the same stroke.  After this 200 we regrouped as we then were allowed to switch stroke choice.  I did both rounds backstroke.

100 IM on 1:30

4x50's Stroke on 50 descend

100 IM on 1:30

2x100's stroke on 1:40 descend

100 IM on 1:30

200 stroke

1800 Yards of stroke.  OY!  3200 yards so far.  Hmm...seems a bit low.  Oh well.

Then we finished up with a pulling set.

3x200's Pulling breating by 50 3/4/7/9 WTF 9?  damn!  on 2:45 (600)

3x100's Pulling on 1:20 (300)

4100 Yard Workout.  I left that pool a broken man.  Sore and tired.  That's two swim workouts and a trip to the gym.  Oy!  I will sleep in tomorrow and swim the 60 minute sprint workout.  Mainly because we have a dinner social at a BBQ place I've been wanting to try.  I haven't been to a dinner social in a while either.  Figured I'm over due!

Recovering And An Easy Swim

After doing a double on Tuesday I decided to sleep in on Wednesday morning.  I figured i'd run at night.  Of course once night time came I was lazy.  So I ended up taking Wednesday as a recovery day.  An unplanned recovery day but one needs those from time to time. 

This morning I headed to the pool to meet up with a swim mate and do a lap swim.  Nothing to hard but not just a splish splash good ol' time in the pool.  After about an hour my swim mate had to leave but my friend Amy came.  So the workout became for a splish splash time of a series of 25's of incredible easy intervals and lots of rest in between sets.

Warm Up

300 Swim

200 Pull

200 Kick

100 Swim (800)

Main Set:

2x100's on 1:25 (200)

1x200 on 2:50 (okay so the intervals were a bit easy but that is okay) (200/400)

1x300 on 4:15 (i think i did the math right as the set was on a 1:25 base)(300/700)

100 easy (100/800)

2@200 on 2:50 (400/1200)

1x300 After this 300 my swim mate had to get out.  So I didn't do an interval I just waited to reset the clock to the top (300/1500)

1@100 backstroke (100/1600)

1x200 IM (200/1800/2600)

Then I had my friend Amy join me in my lane.  I moved down to an empty medium lane and she moved up.  We then did a series of 25's

4x25 Pulling Breathing 3/4/5/7

4x25's Pulling Breathing 4/5/6/7

4x25's Fly

4x25's Back

4x25's Breast

4x25's Free (600/3200)

I think that was it.  By this time it was 8am-ish.  Amy had to get ready for work.  i had planned on staying and swim for a bit longer but the lap swim was finally filling up with swimmers.  The people in the fast lanes were way too slow and someone joined me in the medium lane.  So I just got out.  Later on today I will hit the weights and run 5 miles tonight.  My goal for the next few days is swim on Friday monring which will be a tough workout the possibly swim a LCM workout with the team on Saturday.  That is up in the air.  Don't know if I want to head to East LA early on a Saturday morning. 

Another Swim For Today - SCY Workout

It's all a blur but after this mornings LCM swim I did hit the gym in the afternoon for some weight training.  Then it was back to the pool for another swim this time a SCY Swim. 

I don't remember all of the workout but here is the gist of it:

500 Swim

100 Breaststroke.  I don't know what is up with all this breaststroke of late but it must be some evil plot against me. 

We then did a bunch of 25 BREASTSTROKE drills.  I'd say about 6 or a 150 (750)

Main Free Set:

2x100's 50 Drill - One Arm / 50 Swim.  No interval just 10 seconds rest. (200)

300 Pull no paddles Distance Per Stroke (300/500) There was also no interval for this just take 15 seconds rest.  Now today's fast lanes were a bit of a mess for distance free set like this.  In one lane we had this super duper fast guy and me.  Then in the other fast lane we had the sprinters.  So I moved after the 300 to the lane with the sprinters which was a mistake since it was a distance set. (300/500)

2x400's Free 5:15 (800/1300)

2x100's 50 Drill - Fist / 50 Swim (200/1500)

300 Pull no paddles (300/1800)

4x100's on 1:15 Descend (400/2200)

4x100's on 1:20 (400/2600/3350)

Then we did a 50 easy (3400)

Now time for some stroke.  More Breaststroke Follows! 

50 Kick / 50 Drill BREAST STROKE (100/3500) was supose to be a 100 KIck / 50 Drill / 50 Swim (100/3500)

Stroke Set:

200 Breast Stroke (I was told to just swim it and not worry about an interval since it is breast stroke) (200/3700)

2x100's on 1:40 I did these backstroke (200/3900)

4x50's on 50 I did them fly / back / fly / back.  (200/4100)

Then I just warmed down a 50.  I should have warmed down more but I was so beat.  Moving my arms just wasn't about to happen anymore.  Tonights yardage was 4100.  Add in the morning long course meters and that is one hell of a day!

Long Course Meters Morning Workout

i haven't swam a LCM workout in ages and boy did I forget how much I love swimming in a LCM pool.  I headed to the 6am lap swim at the Culver City Plunge and met up with a mate of mine for a nice easy workout.  Just need to get use to swimming LCM so I didn't want to kill myself the first day back. 

300 Swim
200 Pull
100 Kick
100 Swim

then I did another 100 kick while my swim mate was still warming up (800)

4x100's Pulling (#1 breathing every 3, #2 breathing every 4, #3 breathing every 5 and the last one choice and relaxed) (400/1200)

Main Set:

Some of these intervals may have been changed.  I just copied and pasted from an email I sent out last night.  I made the intervals based on past swims with various swimmers who all swim at different speeds.

100 on 1:45
200 on 3:30
400 Free on 6:50 (get you 100's pace)
4x100's on 1:45 descending from your 100's pace
100 easy on 2:00
200 free on 3:30
300 free on 5:15 (get your 100's pace) the interval might be a bit off.  i can't remember if we made it faster or not. 
3x100's on 1:30 descend from pace
100 easy (1900/3100)

For the 400 free I was doing a sub-1:30 pace.  Because the clock is at an odd place int he middle of the pool I could only get my split after my turn and I almost had to stop and look to my side to get my splits.  My last descending 100 I was down to a 1:16.  Not so bad for Long Course Meters.  By the time I got to my last 100 of the 3x100's I was feeling tired but strong in the water.  I did a 1:19 but that was only cuz' another lap swimmer slowed me up and then fucked my turn up.  As I caught up to her I was trying to move to her left side but as she got to the wall she moved to the middle and just stopped.  Doing the turn I had to slow up to almost a stop to figure out what was her next move.  Ugh!  At least for most of the lap swim we had the lane to our selves.  In the past we would have more then just the two of us so no one jumps in our lane. 

The whole workout was 3100 LCM.  A good start to the SCM season.  Since we don't swim in any SCM pools I figure swimming in a LCM pool is a good traiing swim.  Plus being a distance swimmer (1000 & 1500) it's always nice to get in longer swims than the typical workouts we do of 100's. 

I Hate Monday Morning Swim's

Another week of swimming is off to a start.  I can't believe that this is the last full week of September.  Fall is in the air.  Well at least at 6am it's beginning to feel like fall.  The rest of the day the temperatures in LA make it feel like summer.  Steam is beginning to rise above the pool as the pool is getting warmer and warmer by the day and the air is getting colder. 

Warm Up

500

Then we had a kick set which I was able to finish 3x75's kick plus a 50 of the 4th 75.  (275/775)

3x100's 50 Drill / 50 Swim (300/1075)

Main Set:

400 Pull (200 Breath Control breathing every 3/6/any/7 then a 200 DPS)(400/1475)

500 Swim Pace (500/1975)

5x100's on 1:35 Descend (500/2475)

50 easy (50/2525)

For my 500 pace I started the first 100 a bit slow at about a 1:17 then got on a 1:15 pace.  The last 100 always seems to be faster but I believe it was all on the same pace.  I don't get to see the clock during the swim to after my turn so that is always a second or two off.  Basically I do my flip turn and look up after my streamline to see the clock at the end of the lane.  My 5x100's I started with a 1:16 and finished up with a 1:05.

Stroke Warm Up Set:

3x50 kick / 25 drill / 25 swim IM order (300/2825)

Stroke Main Set:

2 Rounds

100 IM

50 Build Stroke

2x25's Sprint.

I did the 50 and 25's butterfly.  I forgot the intervals but at that point I was swimming on my own so I changed the intervals as I felt they were a bit too easy.  Too easy and I wanted easy math intervals. (400/3225)

Then I did 3x25's fast butterfly.  These were to be on 45.  But at each 25 other lanes joined me so we were almost going on the coaches send off.  Some of the other lanes only did two and others only one.  I just swam another 25 to the other end of the pool and got out (100/3325)

I felt pretty okay n the water.  Better than I did last week.  The rest of the week I'm trying to get back on a regular swim scheadule with one LCM workout tomorrow morning.  Wahoo!