1200 / 2950 / 1250 (46300/171700)

Stroke Clinic (Monday Afternoon)

100 pull
2 x 100 free
2 x 25 free
300, free/back by 50
2 x 25 breast
200, whip kick/breast by 50
2 x 25 back
3 x 50 back
100 free, moderate/easy by 50

Total: 1200

--

Masters (Wednesday Morning)

100 swim (warmup)
200 drill (warmup)
100 swim (warmup)
50 kick (warmup)
4 x 100, 75 free / 25 breast pull with flutter kick on 2:10
250 pull on 4:30
2 x 125, 75 drill / 50 free build on 2:30
5 x 50 free on 1:00
250 pull on 4:30
2 x 125, 75 drill / 50 free build on 2:30
5 x 50 free on :55
12 x 50, odds fly kick, evens 25 free drill/25 back drill on 1:05 (with fins)

Total: 2950

--

Stroke Clinic (Wednesday Afternoon)

200 free
200 free build
200, 50 back / 50 breast/ 50 free / 50 back
4 x 100, 25 free / 25 breast / 25 free / 25 back kick
50, 25 fly kick / 25 fly (fins)
3 x 50 fly (fins)
50, 25 fly / 25 back kick

Total: 1250

--

Work is still eating my face, but I wanted to say that this week, especially today, swimming = love. If it were a corporeal being, I would hug the stuffing out of it. I swam fly for the first time in a while today and it felt fantastic. Wee!

Additionally, I'm in a GREAT mood today. Probably the best in months. I feel positive, confident, athletic, and attractive. I wish I could bottle this feeling. It's incredible.

2850 (40900/166300)

200 swim (warmup)
100 kick (warmup)
200 swim (warmup)
3 x { 4 x 50 free on :55, 1 x 50 free on 1:10 }
6 x 50 kick, odds fast, even easy on 1:2o-ish
3 x 100 free sprint for time on 3:00 (1:32, 1:33, 1:27)
250 pull on 4:05
200 swim
150, back/free/back
6 x 50 free sprint for time on 1:10 (:44, :45, :48, :49, :47, :45)
100 easy (warmdown)

Total: 2850

So I punked out last Friday and slept instead of swimming. I set my alarm and woke up, but I'd only been in bed for about four hours and between work stress and sleep dep, I convinced myself not to get up. Of course I then felt bad about it all day, but what can you do?

The baseball game I went to on Friday ended up running FOUR HOURS anyway, so I didn't get home until 12:45 AM and had to get up at 7:30 on Saturday to run a 5K, so it probably worked out for the best.

It turns out everybody from lane one skipped on Friday - Lori and Nick as well as me. Oops, hehe.

Today was hard work (once again I got four hours of sleep because my hockey game last night went to THREE overtimes), but I'm glad I went. I was happy with my times on those sprints and felt like I gave it all I had. Right now I'm about to faceplant into my keyboard, though. And I'm still planning to go to stroke clinic. Because I'm insane.

Man, what I wouldn't give for a two hour nap right about now. Nng.

3050 (38050/163450)

300 swim (warmup)
200 kick (warmup)
100 drill (warmup)
5 x 150 { 75 breath control / 50 swim / 25 breast pull with flutter kick, on 2:50 }
6 x 100 free fastest interval (starting at 1:40, increasing interval as needed)
100 free easy
200 pull with paddles
2 x 50 fast kick
200 pull
2 x 50 fast kick
200 fin swim
2 x 50 fast kick
100 pull (warmdown)

Total: 3050

I did not love swimming today. In fact, I hated swimming today.

I thought my pulled quad muscle was feeling better until I got my first hit in the first of two softball games yesterday. I played all of both games and managed to strain my left quad compensating for the right. They're both really sore, and I think I was at considerably less power as far as my kick was concerned today. I got lapped SO many times and I was so far behind most of the time I wasn't getting any rest between sets. On top of that I got another massive charlie horse in my right calf during the 200 fin kick and my right leg hurt so bad that I basically gave up using it for the rest of the workout.

I almost didn't go to practice. I slept like crap, had stressful dreams, and woke up to cat puke in the living room and almost said 'eff it' and went back to bed. I didn't, but I really wish I had. It really wasn't worth it today. If that last part of the workout hadn't been so much pulling, I probably would have just got out of the pool half an hour early.

Meh.

3150 (35000/160400)

200 swim (warmup)
100 kick (warmup)
100 swim (warmup)
6 x 50, odds drill, evens kick on 1:10(ish)
3 x { 150 swim on 2:40 / 150 swim on 2:50 / 150 drill on 3:20 }
5 x 100 swim, :05 rest
100 drill
4 x 100 swim, odds :05 rest, evens :15 rest
100 drill

Total: 3150

So I'm pretty sure I pulled my right quad muscle. Last night playing hockey was kinda brutal, and this morning when I knelt to pet my cat I thought I was going to fall over from the pain. All this from running the bases in softball. Gosh, I'm lame.

The workout this morning was pretty rough, I'm not gonna lie. It was good for me, though. I don't really have much to say about it besides that my arms are tired now, and I'm not sure I'll make stroke clinic because of that and my angry quad, plus needing to get stuff done at work. We'll see, I guess.

2700 (31850/157250)

200 swim (warmup)

200 kick (free/breast/fly/back, warmup)

100 drill (warmup)

1100 free, 21:42

500 pull with paddles

10 x 50 free from center of pool, two flipturns on 1:15

100 back (warmdown)

Total: 2700

Just a quick Sunday swim to make up some yardage.  I did the 1100 to see if I could, because I have an open water swim in October that is 1K.  I can probably up my pace a little there, but I wasn't sure how tired I was going to be, so I dogged it pretty hard in the beginning.

2800 (29150/154550)

100 swim (warmup)
100 kick (warmup)
100 drill (warmup)
100 kick (warmup)
50 swim (warmup)
4 x 75 free, build, descend each 75 on 1:30
4 x 75 non-free (back), build, descend each 75 on 1:45
300 free, breathe 3/5 by 50
200 free, build by 50
100 kick fast
75 free sprint (:15 rest)
50 free sprint (:30 rest)
25 free sprint (:60 rest)
200 free, build by 50
100 kick fast
75 free sprint (:15 rest)
50 free sprint (:30 rest)
25 free sprint (:60 rest)
100 free easy
100 free sprint for time (in heats), 1:25.9
50 free easy
100 free sprint for time (in heats), 1:29.6
200 pull (warmdown)

Total: 2800

So if my thighs felt like they had knives in them on Wednesday morning, today it was more like forks. Sprinting today was HARD, man. Ouch. Though I am pretty proud of that 1:25. Not horrible! Progress is being made! Or something.

I did, however, decide I wanted to try and inhale the whole pool today. It was awesome.

Not much to say about the actual workout, but two things related to people I swim with.

1. There's this guy named Lazlo that swims in lane one with us. The guy is definitely faster than Lori and I, and he laps me usually at least once a practice. He's also horrible at getting the intervals right (he was totally pushing us at 1:15 on the 1:30 free, and then taking 2:00 on the 1:45 non). Personally, I think he should be bumped to lane two, if he wants to swim that fast. In those 100 sprints he was getting 1:16. Lori and I were hovering around 1:30 (I think she got 1:27 both times).

2. I met this gal named Jenny today who swims in lane two. We chatted in the lockerroom before practice, and ended up in the showers at the same time afterward. And... well, really, the only thing I can say is wow is she in good shape. She's tiny and muscular and probably doesn't have an ounce of body fat hidden anywhere. I am massively covetous. Beyond that, she's funny and nice and she's more at my level as far as swimming skill (she doesn't swim fly, paces just a little faster than me in everything else). She might kinda be my hero, heh. I'm sure she could whip my ass in any triathlon (she's going to do the same one in Windsor that I want to do in May), but that's perfectly fine with me.

Okay, enough of that. Off to work and stuff. Wee.

3200 (26350/151750)

200 swim (warmup)
150 kick (warmup)
4 x 200, odd 50s free / even 50s non-free (back/back/breast/back) on 4:00
300 IM (first 75 fly/free/fly)
8 x 50 kick (with fins) on 1:10
200 IM (first 100 with fins)
400 pull
100 IM
4 x 100 kick (with fins), odds fly kick / evens free kick
250 pull (warmdown)

Total: 3200

Okay, I need to keep this short because I have work to do, but I played softball last night and let's just say I ran the bases a few times and my legs are thrashed today. Who would think a little sprinting would be such hard work? Anyway, it made swimming today really interesting. My kick was way more pathetic than usual, and I got a really bad charlie horse in the middle of that first 100 fly kick at the end. Fun times, man.

Reu was back in the water today, so no diving off the blocks for me. Which I'm pretty okay with, heh.

1200 (23150/148550)

Stroke Clinic

200 free (with fins - warmup)
200, 50 free / 50 back / 50 free / 50 back
200 free, flipturns
200 free, open turns, streamline off wall, dolphin kick
50 free with fins, flipturn and streamline/dolphin kick
50 free sprint
2 x 150 { 25 left arm / 25 swim / 25 right arm / 75 swim }

Total: 1200

Stroke clinic is always pretty mellow, which I appreciate after Masters in the morning. Today I spent a good ten minutes just standing at the wall practicing flipturns and I figured out that, indeed, most of my problem is due to breathing. Part of the time I did the turns with my nose clip on, and those were all beautiful and perfect. As soon as I took the clip off, I started having trouble. I think it's mostly that I blow too much air out my nose to keep from inhaling water on the turn, and then I don't have enough to stay under water after the pushoff. I think I'll be able to get better at it with time, especially when my breath control gets better. In the meantime, I'll just keep practing at not flailing all over the place when I'm turning, heh.

3100 (21950/147350)

200 swim (warmup)
200 kick (warmup)
6 x 50 free on 1:15, descend
1000 free pull (with paddles), every 8th 25 back
6 x 100 on 2:15 (breast / free / back / free / free / free)
600 free pull (with paddles), every 8th 25 breathe every 5th stroke
4 x 50 free on 1:00, ascend (warmdown)

Total: 3100

Getting up this morning was SO HARD. Mondays are totally made of evil, man. I was running a couple minutes late, and then when I got into my car, I found out with was massively foggy out. My neighborhood is way out in the middle of nowhere and there aren't very many lights on the roads out there, so it was almost impossible to see more than about ten feet in front of me when I was driving. It was scary, to say the least, and I had to drive pretty slowly for about half of my commute to the pool, so I ended up in the water about five minutes late.

The workout was pretty good. Any day I get to pull that much is a good day, even if it was with paddles. My wrists are a little ticked off about it, but mostly it felt good. Reu today complemented me on my streamline coming out of turns (he's been having us work on our dolphin kicks off the wall) and told me that my stroke was "near perfect" (!!!) on my freestyle. He told both me and Lori that we've got the technique down pretty good and that as soon as we can increase our arm speed, we should be able to haul some ass. :)

Not much else to say. My right index finger is all tingly today and I think that's because I kept taking ground balls in the right (non-mitt) hand at softball practice on Saturday. I need to stop trying to catch with my bare hand. It's bad news, man.

3000 (18850/144250)

200 swim (warmup)
50 kick (warmup)
125 free drill
100 free, 90% effort
250, 100 free / 50 drill / 100 free
200 IM (25 drill / 25 swim)
325, 125 free / 75 drill / 125 free
300 free, 90% effort
300 free, negative split
325, 125 free / 75 kick / 125 free
200 IM (25 kick / 25 swim)
250, 100 free / 50 kick / 100 free
100 free, breathe every 5
125 kick
150 pull (warmdown)

Total: 3000

Wow, I had a hard time remembering those weird sets with the 50/75 drill in the middle. I think I got it right finally, though.

SO sore today. Still. Kicking was really hard work, but I made it through. Barely. Also, I was so tired when I got up that I was literally delirious. I finally started focusing a bit into the swim, but it definitely took a while.

Not a whole lot else noteworthy. Nick continues to practice his broken 50 backstroke. I think he's getting better. Reu was coaching again today, and I really like having his input. He's a good guy. Also, I dove off the block for the first time ever. It was a spectacular failure, but hey, I did it! Reu says he'll help me work on it next Wednesday. I really wish Chris hadn't told me about the person who broke his neck diving into the shallow lap lanes. I'm dead scared of killing myself now, ha.

3300 (15850/141250)

300 swim (warmup)
100 kick (warmup)
8 x 50, 25 kick / 25 drill, all strokes, IM order on 1:10
12 x 25 free, descend 1-4 on :45
4 x 100 free on 2:10
3 x 100 free on 2:05
2 x 100 free on 2:00
1 x 100 free on 1:55
200, drill / swim by 50s
3 x { 2 x 50 sprint on 1:10 / 100 DPS on 2:10 }
200 pull (warmdown)
2 x 100 pull (with paddles, warmdown)

Total: 3300

The workout today was hard. Good, but hard. I really enjoyed the descending 100s, even though it was rough at the end. My legs are still sore from Monday. Whine whine.

Reubin had some minor surgery and has some stitches and can't swim for a week and a half, so he was on the deck today helping Evan coach. He actually spent most of his time with our lane, helping us with streamlines and dolphin kicks off the turns and stuff. It was really helpful, and he was good at motivating me to swim faster. I actually managed to get some 40 second 50s on those sprints, even as dead as I was, so yay!

I was going to stop after that 200 pull, but then Evan got in to swim and suggested I do a couple 100s with paddles to work on my catch. My arms do not approve, but I think it's helping? Maybe?

No stroke clinic today because I have a meeting (and the pool is closed anyway). But I'm at ~9 miles for April, which is right on track.

1450 (12550/137950)

Stroke Clinic

50 free (warmup)
100 free (warmup)
300 free, sprint/easy by 25
50 free
50 fly
50 back
50 breast
3 x 100, 75 sprint / 25 back kick
300, 50 pull / 50 swim / 50 kick / 50 swim / 50 with paddles / 50 swim
4 x 50 hard

Total: 1450

So. Much. Sprinting. Ugh. Legs are falling off. Weeeee swimming!

3300 (11100/136500)

100 swim (warmup)
100 kick (warmup)
50 swim (warmup)
600 pull, breathe choice/every 5th by 100
2 x {

200 (50 drill / 50 free / 50 back / 50 free)
100 dolphin kick (with fins)
100 IM
8 x 25 choice (first set back even/breast odd / second set 4 x fly, 4 x back)
200 free, negative split

}
5 x 50, even free, odd back hard

Total: 3300

Today felt awesome. I was running late so I missed a couple hundred yards of warmup, no big. It was kinda cute... Lori was actually worried about me since she hadn't seen me since Wednesday. Aww. <3

I did find out I missed a distance swim on Friday, though, darn it. They swam a 1500, which I totally could have used. I have a date for my long-ish ocean swim now (October), so I wanted to see where I was as far as tiredness for something that long. Ah well, I can always try that if I go to the pool an extra day this week. It looks like they have a 1 and a 5K. I don't think I can swim a 5K, but I can definitely do a 1K (note to self: 1100 yards).

Nick, the really, really new guy from last week, was back, bless him. He keeps trying, even as much as he's struggling. I really need to mention stroke clinic to him, because he could really benefit from the attention, I think.

I got my FAST Masters t-shirt today and it made me SO GLEEFUL. I love it! I just love my team and being ON a team and yes. Reu says they had a great meet this weekend and pretty much convinced me to swim in the next one (he said there were people at this last meet who would have been in a lower bracket than me). So, yes. A meet this summer. Wee! Yay swimming!

3600 (7800/133200)

300 free (warmup)

100 kick (warmup)

300 pull (warmup)

100 kick (warmup)

8 x 50 kick with fins (front flutter/back flutter/front dolphin/back dolphin x 2)

8 x 50 drill, even free (catchup and fist), odd 6-kick hesitation

2 x 200 free, easy/fast by 50

2 x 300 pull

6 x 100, free / back / IM x 2

400 free

Total: 3600

So I skipped master's practice on Friday morning because I was coughing my face off.  I was actually coughing so much that I left work about 90 minutes early on Thursday and came home and slept for four hours.  I tried to go back to sleep at midnight, but was up coughing at least another hour, so getting up at 5:00AM was the opposite of appealing.

I was feeling really lethargic today, even though I was planning to try to swim one day this weekend.  Then college basketball came up, and I decided that was enough motivation to get me out of the house (because I can't stand watching it).

Anyway, blah blah blah.  I was going to try for an 800 free at the end there, but the pool was closing at 6:00 and it was about 5:40 and I thought I should hit the road so the guards could go home on time.

4200 (4200/129600)

300 swim (warmup)
100 kick (warmup)
3 x 100, 25 right arm / 25 left arm / 25 fist / 25 swim (middle 100 back)
400 pull, breathe choice / every 5 by 50
3 x 100, 25 right arm / 25 left arm / 25 hesitation or catchup / 25 swim (middle 100 back)
2 x 200, negative split
3 x 100, 25 swim / 25 kick / 25 fingertip drag (alt breast drill) / 25 swim (middle 100 breast)
2 x 200, steady
10 x 25 free, odds half headup / half sprint, evens streamline dolphin kick off wall
200 pull (warmdown)

Total: 2950

So I've been trying to determine if I'm forgetting something here, because Evan said we were at 3050 in my lane BEFORE warmdown. I probably would have been 2950 since I missed 100 of warmup, but I seem to be missing 200 somewhere. Ah well. Evan probably forgot to subtract 200 from the pull set (which was 600 yards for everyone else) or something.

Not much to note today. There was a new guy in our lane who... Okay, I'm all for people swimming and getting exercise and stuff, but he's NOT a masters swimmer. He can even do a 50 free. With fins on. He was doing 25s and stopping a lot and I really doubt he did more than about 500 yards. Which is fine, you know, if you're doing stroke clinic or lessons or something. I guess we'll see if he comes back Friday or not.

Myself, I seem to be having a relapse as far as being sick is concerned. I started coughing and having a tightness in my chest on Monday and it's just gotten worse as the week's gone on. I currently feel awful, and I cough constantly, trying to move sputum out of my lungs. Most of it is totally unproductive, but it's tickling all the time, and my breathing is dragging pretty bad. Do not want.

Might as well just tack stroke clinic yards on here, since I haven't posted this yet.

Stroke Clinic

300 swim (warmup)
250, 200 IM + 50 breast
5 x 50, odds sprint, second 50 pull, fourth 50 kick
100 breast, hard
200 back, hard
100 free, hard
50 free DPS

Total: 1250