3rd Place - 1500

With a time of 20:16.02 I came in 3rd place in my age group.  I can be happy with that.

1500 Splits / 20:16.02

  38.	41     		    1:19.16 (40.75)     2:00.68 (41.52)     2:42.98 (42.30)
        3:25.18 (42.20)     4:07.35 (42.17)     4:49.89 (42.54)     5:31.54 (41.65)
        6:12.90 (41.36)     6:55.10 (42.20)     7:36.59 (41.49)     8:17.86 (41.27)
        8:59.22 (41.36)     9:40.50 (41.28)    10:22.06 (41.56)    11:03.84 (41.78)
       11:44.66 (40.82)    12:24.80 (40.14)    13:04.69 (39.89)    13:45.48 (40.79)
       14:25.85 (40.37)    15:06.36 (40.51)    15:46.39 (40.03)    16:26.40 (40.01)
       17:06.25 (39.85)    17:45.23 (38.98)    18:23.91 (38.68)    19:02.66 (38.75)
       19:41.15 (38.49)    20:16.02 (34.87)

The 1500

Ugh.  20:15!  I don’t have my official time or splits yet, had to split the meet to get to work.  But my time for the 1500 SCM was 20 minutes a a tad over 15 seconds.  Oh well not my best time.  I only have myself to blame.  I was in the first heat with much slower swimmers so I could get to work today therefore had no one to pace with or push me.  Learned a lesson.  Two more days to do better.  FYI a 1500 is 60 laps.

Psych Sheets Are Posted

Psych Sheets came out this morning moving my Wii obsession to the back burner as I begin to worry about swimming this weekend.

First off we have on Friday the 1500 M Freestyle (Women, Men)   which i entered a time of 45:00.00.  Forty five minutes you ask?  Well I sandbagged my entry so I can get in right at the start of the meet at 10am and then be done to head back to the office for at least a half day of work.    My actual SCM time for the 1500 is 18:45.69.

Then on Saturday I am swimming the Men's 200 M Freestyle  with a seed time of 02:12.23, the  Men's 50 M Butterfly   with a seed time of 00:35.00 and the Men's 200 M Butterfly  with a seed time of  02:29.98.

On Sunday I am swimming the  Men's 400 M Freestyle  with a seed time of  04:40.71, the Men's 100 M Freestyle  with a seed time of 01:00.96 and then the Men's 50 M Backstroke with a seed time of 00:33.28.

For the 1500 five swimmers in my age group are listed:

M35-39
  1  xxxx                  18:34.54
  2  xxxx                  19:28.00
  3  xxxx                   22:30.00
  4  Me                      45:00.00
  5  xxxx                   NT

For the 200 Freestyle eighteen swimmers are listed:

M35-39
  1  xxx                   1:56.18
  2  xxx                  2:01.78
  3  xxx                   2:02.12
  4  xxx                    2:04.90
  5  xxx                     2:07.00
  6  xxx                   2:08.81
  7  xxx                   2:10.00
  8  ME                     2:12.23
  9  xxx                    2:14.00
10  xxx                   2:20.00
11  xxx                    2:23.00
12  xxx                   2:24.76
13  xxx                   2:36.08
14  xxx                   2:40.00
15  xxx                  2:50.00
16  xxx                    3:00.00
17  xxx                   3:15.00
18  xxx                    3:30.00

For the 200 Butterfly seven swimmers are listed:

M35-39
  1  xxx                 2:11.40
  2  xxx                   2:12.62
  3  ME                   2:29.98
  4  xxx                   2:30.00
  5  xxx                   2:38.06
  6  xxx                    2:42.24
  7  xxx                    2:55.00

For the 400 Free seventeen swimmers are listed:

M35-39
  1  xxx                    4:08.13
  2  xxx                   4:14.77
  3  xxx                   4:31.97
  4  xxx                  4:33.17
  5  xxx                   4:35.00
  6  ME                     4:40.71
  7  xxx                 4:53.50
  8  xxx                   5:00.00
  9  xxx                  5:12.60
10  xxx                   5:12.89
11  xxx                  5:25.00
12  xxx                  5:38.69
13  xxx                 6:00.00
14  xxx                 6:30.00
15  xxx                 7:00.00

HOLY SHIT!  Lot’s of super fast swimmers in the 400.  Oh well as long as I do my best or close to my best I’ll be happy. 

Fuck, It's cold out!

To taper or not to taper, that is the question.  Once again out coach had us separate between tapering and non-tapering.  Once again most of the fast swimmers decided not to taper except me.  What can I say, I like my rest!  Also I’m swimming the 1500 on Friday so I want to feel good and ready by then.  But then I started to notice that some people who are faster than me in workout are not much faster if at than me at meets.  One person in particular who kicks my butt every time in workout I noticed at the Gay Games were we both did our best times in both the 400 and 1500 Free.  In the 400 I was 10 seconds faster while in the 1500 the person was 20 seconds a head of me.  So why does this person beat me by 1/2 a lap in a 200 during workout and more during longer distance? 

After swimming in the rain on Monday today was even worse with sunny skies but freezing temps.  It was so cold that when waiting in between sets my ears got so cold they stung when I got back under the water. 

Warmup 400 free / 150 butterfly (50 kick, 50 drill, 50 swim)

Okay so I sorta forgot the whole workout and to be honest wasn’t paying much attention to intervals.  I was just swimming and trying to stay warm.  I think we did a set of 6 75’s with kicking and swimming mixed in with stroke and free.  Then we did a set of 100 / 50 / 25 /25 mixed of stroke and free.  Then eight 25’s.  We even got out a bit early.  Wahoo!  Now I just need to relax today and tomorrow and not think about Friday.  Relax!

Psych

This morning a fellow swimmer asked me if the Psych Sheets were available yet for this weekends Regionals.  I had to answer him that I didn’t know because it totally slipped my mind.  So I went to the website to look and read:

Psych Sheets will be provided in mid-November, after the early registration period has ended. Please check back here then.

So all that means is now I’m going to keep going back to the website until they are posted.  Then once posted I’ll start to obsesse even more about swimming this weekend.  Leaving me nervous and sick to my stomach with butterflies.  Why do I still get nervous?  Who cares, isn’t this just suppose to be an easy way for me not to turn into a blimp?

At least the timeline of the meet is now online. 

Swimming In The Rain

After too much food and wine last night I woke up at 5:10 and started to get my stuff ready for swim.  As I went outside to get the morning newspaper I noticed the ground was wet but it wasn’t raining.  Once on the way the rain started to come down.  More and more as I got closer to our outdoor pool. 

Not only is the West Hollywood pool an outdoor pool the genius who designed the locker room decided that it didn’t need a roof.  The locker room is shielded by a chain link fence like roof.  So when it rains the locker room is all wet.  This past summer they decided to come up with a remedy to this.  The city installed two awnings in the locker room.  Of course since no one expected rain no one opened the awnings yesterday so the locker room floor was soaked.  The rain continued all the way through swim practice but we continued to swim as the rain wasn’t that hard just steady.

With regionals this weekend the coach is letting us taper.  Not everyone wanted to taper.  The uber fast 20somethings don’t want to taper so the two of them had a lane and I had my own taper fast lane. 

500 warmup mixed

3x200’s 100 drill / 100 swim, 25 swim / 100 drill / 25 swim, 100 swim / 100 drill.  I did one butterfly, one back and one free.

9x100’s 3 on 1:25 freestyle descend, 3 on 1:35 backstroke and then  3 on 1:45.  I did the first one 75 butterfly / 25 free and the next two 50 butterfly / 50 backstroke. 

50 easy

12x50’s 4 on a minute butterfly.  4 on on a minute backstroke and 4 freestyle on 50 seconds.

Then we practiced doing starts off the blocks.

Well that is it.  One more practice on Wednesday then swimming the 1500 at Regionals on Friday.  Wahoo! 

Butterfly vs Backstroke

This morning swim practice was a bit of a rough one.  The workout itself wasn’t so bad as it was sort of a taper workout.  For me it was tough though since I was tired and a bit stiff.  Last night I went out for dinner at West at Hotel Angeleno in Brentwood and didnt’ get to bed to 1am.  Then this morning I woke up at 5:10.  So with four hours sleep I didn’t have much energy in workout.  Also after swimming Sunday and Monday then doing weights yesterday my body was calling out for rest.  I kept reminding myself this is the last workout till Sunday afternoon so keep on going.  Tonight at 10:30pm my redeye takes me to the Sunshine State.

Here was this mornings workout:

400 free warmup / 100 mixed

400 Free.  25 drill and 75 swim.

4x200’s on 3:30.  Rotating a 50 stroke sprint from beginning to end.  Butterfly was the stroke.

50 easy

200 Butterfly fast.  I did this in about 2:35.  Not bad I was doing these 200 butterflies around 2:30 before games.  So I’m on track to do about the same time.

50 easy

4x200’s on 3:15.  Rotating a 50 stroke sprint from beginning to end.  Backstroke was the stroke.

50 easy

200 Backstroke fast.  I did this in about 2:31.  WHAT?  How can this be?  My backstroke isn’t supose to be faster than my butterfly.  When did this happen?  Hmmm...maybe a 200 backstroke swim at a meet is in order sometime down the line.

75 easy

4x25’s sprint starting off the blocks.

Well that is it.  Have A Great Holiday!

Back 2 Back Pool Time

Since I’ll be out of the pool Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week I need to make the most of the workouts from now till then.  Well the one that is left.  I swam at the afternoon practice yesterday and then woke up and hit the 6am.  I try to do these two workouts as often as possible even if the body doesn’t have time to recover in between them. Tomorrow morning I’ll be hitting the gym for the last time to December 5th as the regionals being the Dec 1-3 I need to taper off with the gym.  This Wednesday the workout is going to be geared to those going to regionals.  Which means a workout of sprints, working on turns and starts.  Since workouts have seemed to me been geared towards sprints the last few weeks I wish I was doing more sprints at regionals.  Oh well.

Here was Sunday’s workout (from what I remember)

400 Free Warmup /  300 IM Warmup (kick/drill/swim)

6x75’s.  Two of them kick.  Two of them drill.  Two of them swim.  Freestyle to the deep end and stroke to the shallow.  I mixed the strokes butterfly and backstroke.

2x25’s Freestyle.  Drill one arm. 

400 Freestyle.  50 Drill / 50 Swim.  Drills:  one arm, fingertip, catch up and fist.

4x 3x100’s Freestyle on 1:20

first set of three the 1st 50 was sprint

second set of three the middle 50 was sprint

third set of three the last 50 was sprint

fourth set all sprint

50 easy

2x4x100’s Stroke.  Same as the 100’s Free in sprint fashion.  I did them mixed butterfly and backstroke.  I don't’ remember exactly how I mixed them up. 

Then Today:

400 Free Warmup / 100 Mixed

2x25’s Freestyle.  Drill one arm. 

400 Freestyle.  50 Drill /  50 Swim.  Drills:  something, one arm, fingertip drag and catchup.

3x200’s Freestyle on 2:45.  First one long axis, second one build and then up to 80% of what you got.

200 Freestyle for time.  Okay so I sorta took this one easy.  After yesterday’s workout I was beat.  Also we had two fast lanes today and I went into the slower of the two.  The fast lane had the uber fast ones and I lead the other fast lane.  So I had no one really to go up against so pacing and pushing myself just wasn’t there.  Plus I died by the 150.

100 easy

3x100’s on 1:40 Butterfly.  Well choice but I did them Butterfly

rest 1 minute

8x50’s on 50.  I did these backstroke.

rest 1 minute

6x25’s on 35.  I did these butterfly.  Dying but done.

2x25’s off the blocks.  Once again I did these butterfly.

I’ve complained before about swimming in the other fast lane so I won’t ramble on forever.  But seriously some people need to go back to the medium lanes.  2:45 is a pretty slow time for a 200 Free so if you are not making that you might consider moving down.  Same goes with 50’s on 50. 

Regional Entries

Okay so now I’m entered for Regionals.  And yes I did enter a slower time for my 1500 as I want to go in one of the earlier heats so I can swim and get back in the office at a somewhat reasonable time.  My real 1500 time is 18:45.69.  Oh and I made up my 50 SCM Butterfly time as I realized I didn’t have one.  Here they are:

# 1 - Friday - 1500 M Freestyle (Women, Men)    45:00.00

# 6 - Saturday - Men's 200 M Freestyle    02:12.23

# 8 - Saturday - Men's 50 M Butterfly    00:35.00

# 15 - Saturday - Men's 200 M Butterfly    02:29.98

# 23 - Sunday - Men's 400 M Freestyle    04:40.71

# 32 - Sunday - Men's 100 M Freestyle    01:00.96

# 36 - Sunday - Men's 50 M Backstroke    00:33.28