Morning Swim

Friday Morning Workout

400 Free / 100 Mixed

WarmUp Set:

200 Free Kick

400 broken 50 Drill / 50 Swim.  Drills:  One Arm, Fingertip Drag, Catch Up and Fist.

800 broken 200 long axis, 400 pull breath control every 3, 5, any and choice of 5 or 7.  I picked 5.  Then a 200 race strategy.

50 easy

Sprint Set:

6x50’s Freestyle on 40 sprint first 1/2

rest 30 seconds

6x50’s Freestyle on 40 sprint middle 1/3

rest 30 seconds

6x50’s Freestyle on 40 sprint last 1/3

100 easy

6x50’s on 50.  2 butterfly, 2 backstroke and 2 breaststroke.

2x50’s kick/drill

6x50’s on 50.  Butterfly/Backstroke, Backstroke/Breaststroke, Breaststroke/Freestyle.

100 warm down.

I think that was it. 

The Canadian Challenge!

Yesterday I posted some of my best swim times on my blog as I am trying to figure out what I’m going to swim at Regionals in a few weeks.  Afterwards Canuck Joe a fellow swimmer and blogger emailed me with these comments:

Hey Joel, those are some great times! Are those your all-time best times (i.e. including age group swimming) or your "masters" best times? I think I could give you a run for your money in 50 free and 50 fly but your 100 and 200 times kick ass on my times.

Well Joe that sounds like a challenge to me!  I might have to fly up North to kick some Canuck ass.  Kidding!  I’ve read your workouts and have read about you and your 50 times in workout and I’m impressed.  I hate sprints.  In fact the times posted for my 50’s were from March of 2005.  One swim meet a year is made of all 50’s.  In this meet you swim a 50 of each stroke and a 100IM.  At the end of the day they tally up all your races to award overall winners per age group not by individual event.  When I swam it the first time in 05’ I sucked so bad I skipped the meet in 06’.  But as I’m looking at Regionals in a few weeks I’m debating to swim a few 50’s just to see how I stack up to that Canuck!  Once again I’m kidding!  He’ll kick my ass in a sprint any day.  I love the internet and swim blogs as just from reading a blog here and there from someone I’ve never met I find inspiration.  Today Joe is talking about theme songs and how they keep him going.  I’m so looking for a theme song for my 1500 so I don’t spend every other lap looking at the cone at the bottom of the pool like I did last year.  So distracting! 

As for Joe’s question if those are my best Masters or Ever times they are my best Masters times.  I swam age group from age 5 to about 15 then swam my freshman and sophomore year of high school.  Then after 17 years of not swimming I started Masters in July of 2004.  I have no idea what my times were back in the day as Mom tossed that stuff away years ago.  It was before the internet.

So backing up to last night I decided to go out for a run.  Gmap Pedometer says I ran 3.5799 while the pedometer says 3.15.  I want to do the Venice Christmas Run on December 9th the week after Regionals depending on weather.  Therefore I gotta keep running although with Thanksgiving and being out of town it’s going to be tough.

This morning woke up and headed to swim.  My first day back after my ear infection.  It felt great.  Turnout at 6am was low so we only had one fast lane and it was just me and J.  He hadn’t been in the water that much in the last week so it was fear and balanced between the two of us. 

Warmup:  400 kick and 200 Kick

Warmup Set:  12x50’s on 50.  Drill down IM order / Swim Back Free.

Main Set:  Four Times

1x150 Free on 2:10

2x50’s on 50 Stroke. 

Next Set:  Four Times

25 Kick on 30

50 Kick on 60

75 Kick on 1:30

Next:

12x50’s on 50.  1st one sprint the last 1/3.  2nd one sprint the middle 1/2.  3rd one sprint the last 1/2.  4th one all sprint.  J and I did these IM order only doing the stroke during the sprint part and free during the non sprint.

I think I skipped a set of 50’s in there somewhere but oh well.  Damn 50’s!

After workout my morning was shit.  Picked up my dry cleaning, headed home, showered and changed and was 15 mintues late to a 8:15 Dr’s Appointment.  He then made me wait another 20 minutes.  Funny I do that to my appointments when they show up late.  I make them late just as long as they showed up late.  After the nurse leaves me and I’m waiting for the doctor my day falls apart.  First of all I love my job but sometimes enough is enough.  I got an emergency call at 9am so I had to deal with that while waiting for the doctor and as soon as I walked out of the room.    When I got to the office at 9:30 as I walked down to the kitchen before walking to my office I got peppered with coworkers giving me updates to various so called emergencies.  Every time I try to do run an errand at lunch or take time to go to the doctors I get emergency phone calls.  This is why I’m debating if I can take a few hours off to swim the 1500 at Regionals.  Ugh!

Drugs Can Be Fun

Last night after work it was time to stop being lazy and go out for a run.  So I headed down Pico to Crescent Heights down Olympic and Up Wilshire back to La Cienega for a bit over 3 miles.  The pedometer claims it was a 3.28 mile run in 37:37 while gmap pedometer claims it was 3.4048 miles.  Either way it was a slow run as I haven't ran in over a week.  I do plan on running more this weekend as I won’t be swimming for a couple of days.

NOTE:  I started to write this post about 9:45am it is now 3:30pm and I’m just getting back to it.  Crazy Day!

The crazy day started like most days wake up at 5:10ish, go to bathroom to put in my contacts and brush teeth.  Put on swim suit and grab warmup pants, sweatshirt and swim bag and walk to front room.  I do this walking in the dark so I don’t wake the bf.  I close the door to the living room, turn on the light and get dressed.  So for anyone walking in front of my window at 5:20am see me dressing.  Mind you I am wearing a swim suit.  Leave the house at 5:42 and get to swim practice.  Get in about 6:03 after chit chatting and finish up at 7:15.  Run home, shower and grab a protein shake and leave the house at 7:50. 

Drive to doctors office and find a broken meter, score free parking!  Run to the elevator and arrive at doctor at 8:03.  Then the waiting game for about ten minutes with no magazines in the lobby but the Today show is on the tv.  The nurse calls me back, weighs me with my clothes on 162 and directs me to a room.  I sit down there for 5 minutes then the nurse comes back.  Asks me why I am at the doctors office and leaves again.  The doctor comes in about 8:20 and asks me why I am at the doctors office, doh!  Tell him the I’ve been having a problem with my right ear.  Explained to him that at first I thought it was swimmers ear and used swimmer ear drops but after three weeks I’m still feeling a bubble or muffling of sound.  He decides to do a flush to see if wax is built up.  So he leaves the room and then a nurse comes in.  The nurse puts some ear drops in my ear and then leaves again.  The nurse carries in a small bucket and this cartoon sized syringe then starts mixing peroxide with water in the small bucket and leaves.

It is now 8:40 and the doctors comes back in the room.  He walks over to the bucket of water and peroxide and picks up the cartoon sized syringe.  He now begins to stick this huge mother fucking thing in my ear and pushes the water solution into my ear canal.  After several flushes and looks inside my ear.  Then he looks at the fact that no wax has been dispelled and decides a few more flushes are needed.  Before this morning I had no pain in my ear it was just me going deaf.  After this morning I’m in pain.  The damn flushes hurt.  Stll not able to figure out what is wrong he prescribes meds to me.  An antibiotic pill, and antibiotic and steroid air drop and a decongestive.  So for the next five days I’ll take these meds to see if my ear gets better.  If not it’s on to the ear specialist.  Because the doctor is afraid of infection while using these drops he asked me not to swim for a few days.  Ugh! 

At lunch I picked up all my meds, took the pills and dropped the drops.  Of course as soon as I put the drops in and have to keep my head flat on a surface I get ten calls in the row that all went to vm.  Then about twenty minutes later I got up from my desk and started to feel dizzy and loopy.  The meds are working!  Wahoo....drugs!  Today is a wonderful day!  Okay so not really but I got drugs!  Drugs!

Here is this mornings workout:

400 warm up

4x75

.....the never ending post...it is now 5:15 and I’m still doing this post. 

so we did 4x75’s warmup.  the first two were 50 kick / 25 swim then the second two were 50 drill / 25 swim.

Main Set:

200 IM on 3:00
4x150’s on 1:55 Freestyle
4x50’s on 50 Choice of stroke.  I did backstroke.

rest

200 IM on 3:00
4x150’s on 2:05 free/stroke/free.  IM order.  Replaced the breaststroke with backstroke
4x50’s on 50  Choice of stroke.  I did backstroke.

rest

200 IM on 3:00
4x150’s on 1:50 Freestyle. Okay so I made the first two.  Then I missed the third one by a few seconds and went 5 seconds later than the interval.  After the fourth one I was faster but still missed the interval this time by one second but waited for the next 5 seconds to go on to the next part.
4x50’s on 50.  Did the first three backstroke and the last one butterfly

100 warmdown.

Well that is for posting for today.  It’s now 5:30 and with one hour left at the office I’m ready to go home and crash. 

Countdown To Regionals

Instead of going for my normal Tuesday night run I just sat on the couch watching MSNBC’s election coverage.  That means I haven't ran in over a week I so need to get back to running.  Thursday has to be it.  I did go to the gym in the morning yesterday so I wasn’t completely lazy.  Although I think running is probably better for me than weight training. 

This morning I got up a bit sleepy since I did stay up a bit later than normal watching election results.  Once I did get to workout I was a bit slow to get going.  For warmup I did a 400 freestyle than did another 100 of 50 kick butterfly than a 50 drill butterfly before the coach stopped warmup.  Today being Wednesday the concentration was on strokes and I worked on my butterfly.

4x50’s Butterfly Kick

4x100’s 10/15 seconds rest stroke.  Since I did butterfly I did them 25 drill / 25 swim.  Those who did IM or any other stroke did a 25 drill / 75 swim rotating that 25 within the 100.

4x50’s Kick.  I alternated butterfly and backstroke.

4x100’s on 1:45 stroke, descending by 100.  I did the four 100’s butterfly.  I pretty much held about a 1:15 per each 100 with not much of a descend.  My fourth 100 was actually a bit slow.  Hell I was tired!

50 easy

4x 100 IM on 1:45 / 50 on 60 / 25 on 30 / 25 on 45.  In each round of the 50/25/25 were choice but all the same.  So I did the first round butterfly, the second and third round backstroke.  The last one I did a mix of backstroke and butterfly.

16x25’s on 30.  Four sets of four 25’.  IM order.  4 butterfly, 4 backstroke, 4 breaststroke and the last four I did freestyle.  Well except the very last one I did butterfly

100 warm down.

With only three weeks to Regionals in Long Beach I need to decide what I’m going to swim.  I know I want to do the 200 butterfly again so I need to spend the next three weeks working on my stroke.  I’m still debating if I’m going to do the 1500 freestyle or not.  The 1500 is on a Friday so it means skipping work for a swim meet.  Decisions, decisions! 

Here is the  modified Regional schedule(women's and relays omitted):

Friday, December 1, 2006
Warm-up 10:00 a.m., Meet starts at 11:00 a.m.

1. 1500 m Freestyle (Women, Men)
3. Men’s 400 m Individual Medley
4. 800 m Freestyle (Women, Men)

Saturday, December 2, 2006
Warm-up at 8:00 a.m., Meet starts at 9:00 a.m.

6. Men’s 200 m Freestyle
8. Men’s 50 m Butterfly
11. Men’s 100 m Backstroke
13. Men’s 100 Breaststroke
15. Men’s 200 m Butterfly
18. Men’s 50 m Freestyle
20. Men’s 200 m Individual Medley

Sunday, December 3, 2006
Warm-up at 8:00 a.m.; Meet starts at 9:00 a.m.
Check in for the 400 m Freestyle closes at 8:30 a.m.

23. Men’s 400 m Freestyle
25. Men’s 100 m Butterfly
27. Men’s 50 m Breaststroke
29. Men’s 200 m Backstroke
32. Men’s 100 m Freestyle
34. Men’s 200 m Breaststroke
36. Men’s 50 m Backstroke
38. Men’s 100 m Individual Medley

We are allowed to enter 7 individual events and enter by this Friday.  So if I enter the 1500 and decide not to do it that takes away one event.  Then again I don’t think I want to do 7 events any ways.  So here is what I’m thinking of swimming:

Friday:
1500 Freestyle

Saturday:
200 Freestyle
200 Butterfly

Sunday:
400 Freestyle

Maybe I’ll toss in some 50’s and 100’s for the fun of it to get to seven events.  Oh well...I got a few days to figure it all out and three weeks to work on what I decide.  Till next time...

Double Double

What was I thinking of doing double workouts?  The other day I posted about how I can even fathom how people do two workouts in one day.  Well now I know how the do it.  Yesterday morning I hit the gym working on abs, arms and back doing the same boring regular routine.  Than last night I went to the nighttime 7pm workout.  Only to wake up this morning and made the 6am workout.  My body is feeling it.  I’m sore but in a good way. 

First here is last nights workout:

warmup:  400 Free / 200 Backstroke / 200 Kick

Next set twice through:

3x200’s.  Mixed Free and IM.  1st 200 was 50 Kick / 50 Swim, 2nd 200 was 50 Drill / 50 Kick and the third 200 was all swim.  First round was freestyle second round IM.

12x50’s on 50/50/45.  Modified IM.  But my lane skipped the breaststroke.  Wahoo!  My kind of lane!  First one Butterfly/Backstroke, second one Back/Back and finally Back/Free.

24x25’s on 30.  Fist Drill on odds / Swim on evens.  I did the first 16 alternating two butter and two back.  the last 8 I did IM order.

10x50’s Kick.  Alternating Fast / Slow

That was the gist of the workout as I missed a few things but nothing major.  Warmup and warm down stuff. 

Then this morning it was time for another workout.  Turnout was really down this morning so I had my own lane.

Warmup 250

Umm...some warmup set.

Main Set:

2x150’s Free on 2:10

4x75’s Butterfly/Freestyle/Butterfly on 1:10

2x150’s Free on 2:05

6x75’s Backstroke/Freestyle/Backstroke on 1:10

2x150’s Free on 2:00

4x75’s Butterfly/Freestyle/Backstroke on 1:10

2x150’s Free on 1:55

6x75’s Free on 1:00

200 Kick

4x50’s Free on 40/35/40/35

Being the only one in my lane and having no other fast swimmers to pace myself was pretty hard but I used the intervals and rest time to gauge how fast I needed to go.  The times were a bit slower than normal as the coach said it’s hard to swim by yourself so I gave you reasonable times.  Which was good as I was still recovering from Thursday evening’s workout. 

After doing those back to back swim practices I still don’t know how some people do it.  I guess that is why they are 20something and I am 30 something.  What a difference a decade makes. 

Post Halloween Sugar Crash

Witches, Hookers, Flappers and Gorillas, Oh My!  Last night being Halloween while out on my run I came upon from time to time a few Trick or Treaters.  First I ran into a crowd on teenie boppers in Beverly Hills dressed as witches and hookers that might have been flappers but just looked like hookers to me.  At the end of my run I ran accross a party of people in gorilla masks.  The total run was 3.41 miles and was done in 34.55.

Woke up this morning for a short morning swim.  Due to the Halloween Carnival in West Hollywood and the clean up swim practice was only from 7-8:30.  I had to leave at 8am so I could get to work on time.  Warm up was 400 freestyle and then the usual 300 IM but only did a 225 of it. 

Then we did a warm up set and some stuff before doing a 400 pull breath control.  Breathing by 50 every 3, 5 any and 7.

After that it was time for a 50 build.

Then a 400 for time.  My time was 4:19.  This pool is a short course yards pool.

After that we did a 200 easy split freestyle and stroke.

4x75’s IM order.  75 kick / 25 swim

4x100’s 50 drill / 50 swim.

Okay so this is when the 8 o’clock hour struck and it was time to go.  All day at work I've eaten so much leftover Halloween Candy!  Ugh!  Well that is it.  Till next time...

Swimming Is A Contact Sport

My right hand from time to time gets a bruise from hitting the wall if I'm swimming in the wall lane especially when doing butterfly.  Well on Monday during swim pratice I crashed my hand into someone else.  I felt a bit of pain but didn't notice any bruising, that was till today.  My hand has a big redish/black blue mark.  Swimming is a contact sport!

Two Swim Days

My name is Joel, and I like amusement parks.  Friday night the bf and I went to Universal Studio’s Halloween Horror Nights and had a blast.  Well once we got past all the traffic and grabbed something to eat we had a blast.  Saturday morning I woke up and went to the gym and did a short easy workout then pretty much did nothing.  Sunday was more of the same but I did make it to the afternoon swim practice.

400 warmup

3x200’s  warmup 50 swim / 100 kick / 50 swim, 50 swim / 50 kick / 50 drill / 50 swim, 50 swim / 100 drill / 50 swim

Main Set:

2x100’s Free on 1:20

3x200’s Free on 2:30, 2:35, 2:40.  Okay I skipped most of the second 200.  I was leading my lane, not by choice, and just died.  I was so not in the mood to go fast.  So after talking to the coach I sorta just coasted the last 200.

16x50’s on 50.  I forget which ones but some of them were sprints and I did those butterfly.

3x200’s Stoke on 3:30 the first two I did 100 Fly / 100 Backstroke.  The last one I did 50 fly / 50 free / 50 fly / 50 back.

2x100’s Stroke on 1:30.  I did one butterfly and one backstroke.

next set

6x75’s kick on 1:30.  2/4/6 the middle 25 was done underwater.

last set:

100/75/50/25 with the 75 and 25 a sprint which I did butterfly.

wardown 100

When we started the workout my lane mates insisted I go first but I so wasn’t having that.  After swimming last Sunday all really fast I was so tired that my Monday workout suffered I knew I had to hold back.  After workout I didn’t feel as tired as last week which is a good thing.  Afterwards the bf and I went out for dinner at BLD.   I ate sooo much that I was so full my stomach hurt  but the chocolate brownie sundae was worth it.

This morning woke up to find the best part of daylight savings time is that it is daylight at 6am.  I so don’t remember all the workout but at the very end of workout we had our annual Pumpkin Relays.  My team won both Pumpkin Relays this year.  Wahoo!  The first one was swimming a 25 holding the Pumpkin out of the water, it was a small one.  The second one was swimming a 25 holding the Pumpkin with both hands.  For the second one I had to go twice as one of my relay mates had to leave early.  I love fun stuff like this every so often I only wish we did more.

Warmup 300 Free / 300 IM

some other stuff...

Main Set:

300 on 3:55

2x150’s on 2:10

4x100’s on 1:20

50 easy

200 long axis freestyle

300 for time.  I did it on 3:20.  Not bad but not great.  It just was.  My turns were shit and I could have gone faster.

more stuff....IM and stroke

9x50’s 3 butterfly/3backstroke...went to the bathroom and did two breast/butterfly

Well that’s it for now...back to work, till next time...

Swim, Run and Scary Nights

After work I went for a quick run about 3 miles.  After a few weeks of cool night runs last night was pretty warm.  I kept a 10 minute mile pace for the run.  After I got home I had a salad and some pasta then early to bed.  I was beat.

This morning I woke up and made it to the 6am swim practice.  The warm evening gave way to a very cold morning.  Bitter cold!  The water was a bit warm only making getting out to run to the bathroom even a colder experience.  After practice I went home and crawled into bed to get warm before showering and getting ready for work.

The good thing about taking a break from the gym yesterday was that I felt better in the water today.  The day of “rest” was needed.

warmup 400

warmup set 4x150’s.  100 kick /  50 swim then 100 drill / 50 swim

1st Set:

300 SCY freestyle on 4:00

200 SCY freestyle on 2:30

4x100’s on 1:20/1:25.  Okay we all screwed up here.  The coach mentioned we were to rotate a 25 fast in each 100 but failed to say fast butterfly.  So after doing the 1st one my lane stopped when the coach asked us why we weren’t doing butterfly.  So for the 2nd one we started the butterfly at the 2nd 25.  As the other fast lane started from the 1st 25 she had our lane do an extra 100 at the end starting with a 25 butterfly.  So we did five 100s instead of four.  As for the intervals, well we tried to keep to them although we did stop after the 1st and then the coach stopped us after the 2nd one to tell us to do an extra one.  So I guess we made three on the interval of the five.

4x50’s Kick

2nd Set:

2x200’s Free on 2:30/2:35 ( i think it was two, the very least we did was two)

4x100’s on 1:30.  They were suppose to be free/backstroke/breaststroke/free.  But as myself and my lane mate don’t do breaststroke we did the middle 50 backstroke.

4x50’s kick stroke.

Last Set:

4x75 on 60, 50 on 40 and 25 on 30

This morning the fast lanes were made up a little different today as none of the uber 20 something guys showed up.  I lead the faster fast lane with another swimmer who normally swims in the slower fast lane.  The slower fast lane was a hodgepodge of fast and medium swimmers.  I was glad to not have to be chasing anyone today and just swam.  it was a nice pace as I was still stiff but not as stiff and sore as Wednesday.  Well that is it for now.

Tonight I’m going to Universal Studios Hollywood Horror Nights.  I haven't been to an amusement park in years so it’ll be interesting.  Well till next time...

Oh and remember a week from Tuesday to go out and save a life by voting Yes on 86!

When Enough, Is Enough

Monday night I was so tired I fell asleep watching tv after dinner and crawled into bed early.  Then Tuesday morning after oversleeping I hit the gym.  As I was so sore swimming on Monday I took it somewhat easy.  I worked out but wimped out on the weights lowering what I normally lift.  Of course while running an errand at lunch in WeHo I stopped and grabbed Fat Burger so then I knew I had to run after work.  Damn fast food!

After work my bf and I went for a run.  Now mind you the bf is a runner and is sooo much faster than me but he insisted he was going to go easy tonight.   Well for the first 1.5 miles I was able to keep up with him.  Then as we made a turn off of Pico on to Roxbury he started to pull away.  As we snaked our way to Olympic the side walk was uneven so I was dodging cracks and bumps in the dark.  Eventually one bad landing of the left foot caused a shock of pain in my calf slowing me up.  After that the bf slowly pulled further and further away.  Eventually he got the light on Doheny so I was able to catch up but as he was in the midst of interval training once the light turned green he was once again way ahead of me.   The run was a total of 3.2 miles and I was beat.  After that it was dinner, some tv and off to bed early again.

This morning while I was stretching on deck I felt tight in the shoulder blades.  I figured once I got through warmup I’d be okay.  Nope!  The whole workout was a struggle.  I realized that I hadn’t let my body recover and I kept pushing myself day after day.  Today my body gave up and demanded a break.  Last week I swam Monday, did weights on Tuesday, swam on Wednesday, did weights again on Thursday, swam on Friday, weights yet again on Saturday then swam this Sunday and Monday, did weights yesterday and swam this morning.  Enough is enough and my body told me so.  I had to get out of workout early, my body gave up.

Tomorrow I’m skipping the gym and I’m either just going to go for a run or I’m just going to sleep in.  I was trying to make it to Saturday to have a rest day but after today I think I need it sooner. 

Here is today’s workout (short course yards):

Warmup 400 Freestyle /  200 Kick and Drill

Warmup Set:

200 Freestyle Kick / 400 Freestyle split 50 drill  and 50 swim / 600 Freestyle split 200 swim, 200 pull, 200 swim

8x50’s Freestyle kick on 60

Main Set:

2x400’s Freestyle on 5:00.  This is the beginning of the end for me!  The coach told me to take longer strokes and work on my rotation.  This only slowed me up during the 1st 400 only giving me 5 seconds rest before the next one.  Also by stretching and rotating I felt more pressure or discomfort in my shoulder blades.  The second 400 I went a bit faster by just swimming and not thinking about my stroke.

50 easy

okay we were suppose to do 4x200’s on 2:30 but I did two full 200’s and then on the third one just warmed down a 100.  I was done at this point.  Afterwards when I got out I regretted getting out and not sticking with it.  I hardly ever get out early so I was bummed out that I was sucking.  But getting out was probably best for me.  Now I just need to take it easy tomorrow and come back strong on Friday. 

The good thing about pushing oneself working out is that boy am I horny today.

Oh and once again to those living in California, let's crush big tobacco, vote Yes on 86!