With Butterfly Wings

State Meet: Post Meet Write Up

2010-08-16T09:22:00.006-06:00

Looking like a super hero in my borrowed tech suit.

No, that is not a Rice Crispy treat behind my back, why do you ask? ;)

Apparently I'm terrible at keeping up with a blog these days. I'd like to be able to blame Twitter, but I never update there either, hehe.

My last post here was my entry times for State, and then I never followed up on that meet. The meet itself was April 9-11, and I swam on the 10th and 11th. Those dates mark one month after being hired for the job I'm now working, and my life was in a lot of upheaval back then. As such, even though I had a lot going on in my head about the meet, I never got to write it down.

I think possibly my favorite parts of the meet were the three relays I swam on. When some of us were talking about doing the meet, my friend Kristi said we should do a medley relay together. Courtney said she'd only want to do the free leg, and Kristi said she'd take fly, so, given what was left, I volunteered for back. Interestingly, a new girl - Sara - had joined our team just that day of practice, and she was planning to do the meet, so we got her to take the breaststroke leg.

I was horrified that I was going to ruin the relay with my terrible backstroking, but we started practicing the exchanges, and I learned how to do a backstroke start (and figured out if I wear a nose clip I can swim backstroke WAY faster, since I don't have to worry about getting water up my nose), and it turned out to be awesome! Our relay got DQ'd at the meet (Sara did her breaststroke pullout incorrectly), but none of us cared because it was SO FUN. I'm pretty sure I'd never gotten anywhere close to a :43 mid backstroke 50 before and I was over the MOON about it. It was a great first race of the meet for me.

The rest of that day I had 50 free (improved my time by just over 4 seconds since Loveland, -4.27), 100 IM (-1.67 seconds), my first individual 50 back in competition (three seconds slower than the relay, but I think I got 5th in my age group), and then another relay - 200 mixed freestyle. Which was tons of fun, again! Sara and I got to swim with a couple of our fast guys, and we had a great time with it. I swear, I will never, ever say no to being on a relay. Wee!

Sunday actually started with another relay, 200 mixed medley. This time they had me swim the anchor, and I was nervous as hell. But! My friend Leigh Ann loaned me one of her tech suits (an older Speedo) and I felt so amazing in it. I'm pretty sure I'm not a good enough swimmer to really notice a difference, but it made me feel awesome, like a super hero. The fabric is so thin, you sort of feel naked in it, except for the part where it's compressing your body and pulling on your shoulders. It fit so well that I was worried I was going to rip it during a flip turn or something, but it flexed and moved and I can't even describe how cool it felt in the water, how perfect my streamline seemed. And when I got out, it was like being hit by a cold breeze, the way it held water against my skin. It's too bad they're illegal now, because it was sort of intoxicating, wearing it. I'd love to get to do it again. I wonder if those new kneeskin suits that are legal feel anywhere near as sweet at that speed suit. Not that I have the $375 to get one, but at least it's cheaper than the full length ones.

Anyway, long story short, that 50 free felt like my fastest race EVER. The annoying thing is that, somehow, they didn't get my split. Nate (the butterflier on the relay) may not have touched the timing pad hard enough or something (even though there are lane judges who are supposed to record the splits with stop watches), but our splits got smooshed together as 1:01.28. The closest I can get to estimating my split is to take his individual 50 fly time (27.19) and subtract it from our combined split to get 34.09, which is one 1ooth slower than my split on the 200 mixed free from the night before. It felt SO much faster, though. I just wish I knew for sure what I went.

After that, 50 breast (-4.09), 100 free (-2.14), and 50 fly (-4.69 - which amazed me because, even though the DU pool felt really fast, I was so dead tired by the time I swam my 50 fly that I felt like an inchworm on the second 25, not hardly moving at all on each stroke). I was definitely ready for the meet to be over, though I totally would have swam the last 200 free relay, if they'd been able to get me on one. I finished the meet with a huge bruise on my right shin from climbing in and out of the warmup and competition pool, and I was truly sick of warming down from things, hehe. The pool at DU is awesome, though, and we had swanky timing pads and I felt like a legitimate competitive swimmer. I'm really happy with how I did, getting ribbons in every individual event I swam in except 50 fly, and dropping at least a second and a half off every event I did in Loveland.

Here are the final results:

200 Medley Relay (2:52.58 // my split 43.63)

50 Free (34.94)

100 IM (1:38.16 // splits 47.93 / 50.23)

50 Back (46.20)

200 Mixed Free Relay (2:04.74 // my split 34.08)

200 Mixed Medley Relay (2:26.47 // my split ~34.09)

50 Breast (48.31)

100 Free (1:16.38 // splits 37.75 / 38.63)

50 Fly (46.37)

I'm really excited for the meet my team hosts in October, The Pumpkin Plunge! I'm thinking of adding 100 back to my event list for this one, and maybe I'll lose my mind and signup for the 200 IM too. We'll see. ;)

There are a few other things I want to blog about here - the 2.4 mile open water event I did yesterday, plans for the future, discussions about being healthier - but I think I'll put those into their own entries.

Sate Meet

2010-03-28T17:31:00.003-06:00

Apparently I'm easily convinced to do such things, as I'm now swimming in the State swim meet on April 10-11 in Denver (at DU). I'm swimming the same events as the Sweetheart meet plus 50 back, so I can complete the Sprint Squad events (50 free, 50 back, 50 fly, 50 breast and 100 IM). Here are my seeds (events in swim order):

50 free - :39.21

100 IM - 1:39.83

50 back - 1:00.00

50 breast - :52.40

100 free - 1:18.52

50 fly - :51.06

So, basically what I swam in Loveland, and a huge guess on the 50 back, since I suck ass at it. My goal for this one is NO GOGGLE FAIL. That would make me happy. Also, to not embarrass myself in front of lots of people. Haha.

Loveland Sweetheart Meet: Post Meet Write Up

2010-03-03T13:24:00.003-07:00

Firstly, I had a GREAT time at the meet last Saturday. I was so nervous the night before I slept poorly (not to mention my sinuses were rebelling and making breathing a challenge), and was really anxious all morning. I got to the pool a bit before warmups were supposed to start and signed in, then found two of my teammates and chatted until we went to warmup together.

The pool was nice, smaller than the one I normally swim in, and warmer too, but not bad. I felt better once I saw it, because it was no longer such an ominous thought about what it would be like there. Warmup felt good, and we got out and talked and hung out until Rachel and I had our first race (100 IM).

My friend Alix and my boyfriend, Jeff, are very awesome and not only came to watch and recorded my stats, but they also critiqued and gave me suggestions for my next race, or the next time I swim a meet. Jeff sent me a note from his iPhone, so I'm going to copy and paste all the meet data on each event, and then write up my notes as well.

100 IM - Heat 1
Lane 3
2nd place
Time: 1:39.83

This was literally the first event of the meet, so I had no idea what the start tone sounded like or anything. I've watched meets before, but never at this level (the last one I went to was the Santa Clara Grand Prix, where I was watching Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte swim). Apparently it works exactly the same way. I got up on the block and I was freaked out of my mind. The tone went off and I dove in and when I surfaced to start my fly, I swear the building was silent, and I couldn't see ANYONE else in the water. I was totally sure I'd false started, but I didn't stop swimming because I wasn't certain. Turns out I was just out ahead of everyone else in my heat, and lead all the way through the breaststroke leg, getting beat out by about six tenths on the freestyle. I think I could have done better if I worked on my turns more, because my backstroke to breaststroke transition is terrible, and I even kicked the wall really hard with my left heel in this meet, which stunned me on my push off a little. I also need to work on my underwaters on ALL my strokes, because I generally don't do any at all.

The race felt AWESOME, though. I had so much adrenaline going into it that I hardly remember the first two lengths, and by the time I got to breaststroke I was hurting like crazy, swimming out of my mind. I loved how it felt, and I can't wait to swim this race again.

50 Fly - Heat 1
Lane 7
4th place
Time: 51.06

Oh butterfly, I love you so much, but you are so cruel to me. The second half of the second lap was excruciating, and my stroke completely fell apart. I did swim it faster than expected, but I have a lot of work to do on my fly. I want to make 50 fly a staple for me in meets, and I'd love to work on trying to get below :50 as my next goal.

100 Freestyle - Heat 2
Lane 1
3rd place
Time: 1:18.52

This race felt great. I seeded it at 1:30, which is what I've been swimming it without a dive in practice. I think I swam this faster than usual, though, and it felt awesome all the way. I could have done better on my first turn, and of course underwater dolphin kick, so I think I can totally improve. I definitely want to do this race again.

50 Freestyle - Heat 1
Lane 4
2nd place
Time: 39.21

I totally should have won this heat in this distance. I know I can swim faster than :39 low off a dive, but when I hit the water, both sides of my goggles filled up with water and I was swimming blind. I tried to turn where I thought the wall was (based on the fuzzy T bar on the bottom of the pool), but missed the wall entirely and killed my momentum. I suppose it's good that I finally had goggle fail, since things had gone so well the previous three races went perfectly in that regard. I'm looking forward to giving this race another shot.

50 Breaststroke - Heat 2
Lane 2
4th place
Time: 52.40 (DQ'd)

This was my fail race. I was talking in the stands with Alix, and she was telling me I really needed to work on my pull downs, and got me to promise to do them in this race. Well, when I dove in, I was thinking so hard about the pull down, and worrying about my goggles, that I did one fly stroke off the dive. I have NO idea what the heck I was thinking (or maybe I just wasn't?), but that DQ'd me. Still, the time wasn't bad, and the lane watcher ladies said my breaststroke looked pretty good. This is another one I can't wait to try again, to see what I can really do with it.

All-in-all, despite the DQ and goggle fail, I feel like this meet was a success. It gave me an idea of what swim meets are like as a swimmer, and I have a lot of stuff I can work on before the next one. I can't wait to do it again!

Loveland Sweetheart Meet

2010-02-24T09:47:00.004-07:00

Wow, so I haven't updated this thing since last August. Most of that has to do with being able to post my workouts to my Fitness Log over at USMS, and I don't feel like duplicating the entries over here (and I've been too busy to post workout reactions and such anyway).

Anyway, I thought I'd dust this blog off for competition type posts, since tri season is about to start, and I'm going to swim in my first meet this weekend.

Yup, I'm swimming a meet on Saturday. And I'm scared out of my mind, even though I've already told myself that no one is going to judge me on how poorly I swim (well, except the lane judges - I'm not going to be shocked if I get DQ'd in something like the IM because I have no idea what I'm doing) and I don't care if I come in dead last in everything. If I can manage to a) not break myself doing racing starts, and b) not vomit on myself from nerves, I'll consider the whole thing a huge win.

So, this is what I'm swimming:

50 free (seed :40)
50 fly (seed :55)
50 breast (seed 1:00)
100 free (seed 1:30)
100 IM (seed 1:50)

The only things I feel okay with my seed time on are the free races. The other three are massive guesses, since I don't sprint those that often. I swam some 50 breast this morning on around :55, so we'll just pretend I can do that in competition. The IM might be optimistic, as well as the fly. I guess we'll find out!

I will make myself write a post-op entry once I do this thing, so I can record my times and my reactions and stuff. Aaaah, I'm going to swim in a meet! Aaaah!

Swim Workout: 3600 (46550/346650)

2009-08-28T08:13:00.002-06:00

I messed up the math on the total set AGAIN in the pool this morning, telling Lori I had us doing 3200 when really we did 3600. I guess this makes up for the mistake on Wednesday, ha.

Anyway, I don't have much to say today. I felt like crap Wednesday and part of yesterday, then I had a bad allergic reaction to my friend's cats last night and felt even crappier this morning. I still went swimming, and took some Albuterol before I got in the pool and did okay. I did hack up a ton of phlegm (I'm glad Cesspool has a proper gutter), but I feel a lot better now, so it was probably a good thing.

My weekend is suddenly much busier than I'd originally planned. I have a tri early Sunday morning, so I might skip swimming Saturday, even though I hate doing that. I'm exhausted lately, and I think my body is trying to tell me something via all the headaches I've been getting recently. If I could have anything I wanted today, it would be to go home and sleep for about twelve hours straight.

300 swim (warmup)
200 drill (warmup)
10 x 50 drill, 6 strokes right arm, 6 strokes left arm, with fins
5 x 100 free, 75 swim, 25 kick
2 x 200 free
600 free, with fins
2 x 200 free
2 x 300 pull
100 back (warmdown)

Total: 3600 SCY

Swim Workout: 2700 (42950/343050)

2009-08-26T08:07:00.005-06:00

Wow, workout fail today. I totally read the page wrong and managed to cut me and Lori to 2700 when I meant to do 3200. That said, we still didn't get out of the pool until 7:10, so...

I think the big problem was trying to do the six 50s in the buildup. Those were on a golf score sort of thing where you'd add how long it took to do the 50 plus all your strokes, then get a "score". The point was to get a lower score each time. Well, 6:00AM + math = about 1:15 rest between 50s (we wanted to go on the top to make the math less ridiculous). So there was a lot of lost time there.

Additionally, for the first time since Lori and I started swimming at Cesspool, all the lanes were full at 5:45. One lane had what we thought might be one of our teammates - Tim - in it, but we had to wait for him to stop so we could be sure. It was him, so we got in with him and he finished his workout by doing our warmup with us. But there was some chatting, and the initial waiting around, so we probably lost ten minutes or so there as well.

The slightly shorter distance probably isn't a bad thing anyway, considering I gave blood yesterday afternoon, and I'm still feeling a little drained. The laps with the fins about killed me for some reason, and I spent a lot of the time I was swimming them trying to avoid cramps in my calves and hamstrings. I played softball last night, but I didn't run a whole bunch or anything, so I don't know why my legs are so cranky. Stupid legs.

300 swim (warmup)
200 kick (warmup)
2 x 100 free, 75 swim / 25 kick
6 x 50 free, DPS, descending
2 x 200 free
2 x 200 free with fins
2 x 200 pull
2 x 200 free with fins
50 free, easy (warmdown)
50 breast (warmdown)

Total: 2700 SCY

Lost Month Roundup (July 50800 / August 40250 / YTD 340350)

2009-08-24T12:41:00.009-06:00

So apparently I got behind somewhere in July (when I spent all non-working/swimming hours immersed in the FINA World Championships), and still haven't been able to catch up.

Because posting a month's worth of swim workouts with minimal comments is probably lame (and really annoying to the nice people who follow me on RSS - hi Rob!), I'm just going to post a big highlights post. Mostly it will cover my most recent triathlon, first distance open water swim, and some brief comments about other stuff that has happened swimming-wise in the last four weeks or so.

Also, a list of my total yards/day, because I like to track that sort of thing. ;)

Exciting, right? Right. :p

Acupuncture:

First off, the first day I didn't manage to post anything (July 22), I got acupuncture for the first time. I'd written a bunch about it before I got sidetracked, so I'm going to repost a section of that here.

This was right after I'd injured my knee via creative baserunning in softball, and it was still bothering me quite a bit. My kick was still a disaster, and longer kick sets were killing me, as well as whipkick all together. I'd had my friend (and softball teammate) Ann check the knee out and it was fine, generally, though I still had an effusion under the patella. Kimberley, my friend and tri partner, suggested (for probably the ninetieth time) that I try acupuncture, so I finally took her up on it. :)

I'd never had acupuncture before, and while I wasn't really scared about getting it, I was a little skeptical about it. Now that I've done it, I can say it was definitely a cool experience.

The first pin Kimberley put in was on the outside of my right shin, and when she tapped it, it felt like there was a little burst of sensation beneath my skin. When I told her about it, she said that was the pin hitting my chi. Apparently that doesn't actually happen that often, so it was neat that I felt it. She stuck some more pins in my knee, the other side of my shin, a couple in my lower left leg, one in each hand (in the skin between my thumb and forefingers), and one in my forehead (to mellow me out). Then she ran a current between a couple of the ones on my right leg, put some heat on me, and left me alone for about thirty minutes.

It was nice, but only relaxing for about ten minutes. It was hot, and my muscles were all jumpy from my swim workout, so I started to get anxious and uncomfortable. That said, I don't recall having much in the way of pain in my knee afterward. It continued to be stiff for a few days, and is still not completely healed (I can bend it and straighten it, but I can't kneel and put any weight on it, and misjudging my distance from the walls on flipturns is rewarded with some fun discomfort), but I do think the acupuncture helped. I'm definitely going to have to try it again sometime.

FAST:

The last week of coached workouts with FAST was the first week of August. Evan was in Hawaii for an age group meet, so Reu coached all three of those workouts. They ended up being right around 2500 meters each (if we were lucky), followed by getting out of the pool fifteen minutes early to eat donuts. Yes, all three days. There are photos on Facebook to prove it. ;)

The Friday practice was pretty fun, though, in that it included a snake swim relay where my team was massively handicapped by having both me and the brand new guy, Nick, on it, plus Walter's 12 or so year old son, Little Walter. We lost both relays, but the last one was fun because Little Walter tried to cheat by using fins, Big Walter caught him and threw him over one of the lane lines, only to have Little Walter steal his goggles. :)

So now FAST is on forced hiatus until the second week of September (because our pool is unavailable due to construction). When we get back, though, we start six day a week practices, and I couldn't be more geeked. I've been swimming four days a week (once on my own) for the last month or so, and I can't wait to add the two lunchtime swims as well. I still don't know all the details (what time the Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday swims are starting, or how long they'll be), but my big plan is to make MWFS and do as many TR swims as humanly possible.

Eyeballs:

I did want to mention something I discovered by accident, but had never heard of before in my life. The last day EPIC (the pool I normally swim in) was open, I went and swam three miles. I mostly did it because I'd said I was going to (as a joke) to make up for eating all those donuts the week before. And I felt great after two miles, so I decided to go for it.

And it wasn't bad. In fact, I was feeling pretty awesome at the end, great that I'd swam that much in one workout, a little sore and tired, but in that totally accomplished way. Except my eyes felt really funny.

After a quick shower, I went back to my locker and checked out my eyes in the mirror. And they were misshapen. Like, the part of my eyeball that was exposed by my open eyelid was pushed out. Or, rather, sucked out. By my goggles. I was horrified (and launched into a two or so hour panic attack), because I had this bad feeling I'd done something terrible to myself. Of course my eyes went back to normal in about 45 minutes, but holy crap, it was freaky.

Since then, I've done something similar (ish) twice, all three times with my women's Tyr goggles. The suction on those things must be pretty massive, because since the first time, I've tried really hard not to press on them too much when I'm swimming, and pop them off between sets to give my eyes a break. I do love the goggles (they don't leak, obviously) and my Speedo women's Vanquishers are pretty tinted, so I don't like wearing them for regular, indoor workouts. Still, gah. Has anyone else ever had this happen to them?

Cesspool:

My teammate/pal Lori and I waffled a bit about where we wanted to swim while EPIC is closed. We were thinking about swimming with the Vortex Masters, but the pool was an annoying drive for both of us, and the lack of showers AT the pool would have made my commute really long three days a week. So we settled on just swimming MWF at 5:45AM at Mulberry Pool.

I think I've complained about this pool before, but let me just reiterate why I dislike swimming there. The water is kept pretty warm, firstly. I'm not sure what the temp is, but Lori describes it as "swimming in your bathtub". Besides that, it's a very kid friendly indoor pool, with only 6 lap lanes, and a whole section dedicated to kid play that has a waterpark type jungle gym in it. Because of the kids, they really crank up the chemicals, so the water is cloudy, and gross, and turns my sinuses into snot factories. Plus there's all the fun 'debris' that comes from letting kids play in the water. For all these reasons, I've started referring to the place as Cesspool. I literally only swim there when EPIC isn't available (usually because of swim meets).

All that said, there are a few pluses to swimming at Cesspool. For one, the guy that works the front desk in the morning most of the time is really, tragically attractive. I love that he gets to see me looking like crap first thing in the morning with terrifying bedhead. :p But my brain doesn't complain about the wake-me-up. ;) Two, it's not very populated in the morning, so Lori and I never have to fight for a lane. We have my little binder full of workouts (some were via Evan from previous breaks, and a few I printed from Swim Plan), and all our gear, and get a pretty decent workout three days a week.

Of course Lori and I are pretty bad about sticking to intervals on our own, but eh. We don't slack. For instance, today we swam five 100 IMs in a row, which felt pretty awesome. My arms are not pleased NOW, but that's fairly usual for me.

Anyway, we've got the rest of this week and next week, then Mulberry closes for maintenance. All the muni pools are closed for Labor Day, and then FAST should start up again the Tuesday afterward with Reu's first Tuesday workout.

Tri for the Cure:

This post is hella long already, so I'm going to give the reader's digest version of this tri. This was my third sprint this summer, and it's starting to kinda get old hat by now. The swim was 750 meters, which is a piece of cake, except this was my first without a wetsuit. The water was about 72º, so two seconds into the swim I was rockin', not cold, not freaked, totally on top of it. My time kinda sucked at the end (18:30-ish), which I've decided to blame on the fact that I got beat to death by breaststrokers for a long time and couldn't pass them (one on each side, man), and then the timing pad was waaaaaay up the shore. I thought I'd crossed it, but turns out I didn't, so I lost a handful of seconds walking when I could have been, you know, moving faster. :p

Neither of my transitions are worth mentioning, because I was racing in the Buddies category, so the transitions were really mellow as we all regrouped between legs of the race. :) Kimberley, Ann, and I started the bike together, but I broke off about halfway through and gunned it, just for the hell of it. I have absolutely no idea what my bike time was. But! No flat tires! I consider that a win.

Blah blah T2 (where I got on my iPhone and found out David Walters was anchoring the medley relay in Rome and about ran around in circles with glee), then Ann, Kimberley, and I started the run together. I think we ended up going 40 minutes on the 5K, and all crossed the finish line hand-in-hand. At the end, we all got medals, and food, of course. The weather was great, I felt fantastic the whole way, and I had a wonderful time.

Next Tri is, well, Sunday. This one is a mountain bike tri, and my mountain bike is about thirteen years old and purchased from the Target, so I'm not expecting much out of that part, but it will be fun as heck to try! The swim is in Horsetooth Reservoir, which I swam a mile in the weekend before last (see below), so I geeked about that, since it was a breeze the first time, and is only a half mile this time. The run's four miles, I think, and a trail run, so that should probably kick my ass. But what doesn't kill us makes us stronger, right? Or at least more sore.

Horsetooth Open Water Swim:

This was another last minute signup type thing. My coaches, before we went on hiatus, said they were doing this swim (liars, both of them), so I signed up to do it. There were a handful of options as far as length: 1 mile, 2.4 mile, and 10K. Since I'd never done more than 800 meters in open water, I decided to play it safe and signup for the 1 mile. Evan and Reu were supposed to do the 2.4, along with Walter and Nate, two of my teammates.

I ran into Walter at the parking lot and hung with him and Nate until it was time to get in and swim. The 1 mile did not allow wetsuits, so I got to stand on the shore of the water for probably about five minutes in my little swimsuit freezing my tuckus off in 50º windy weather before I got in the water.

The water, however, was a pleasant 74º. All the 1 and 2.4 milers started at the same time, so I hung way at the back of the pack and just swam steady the whole way, probably slower than I could have, but playing it safe. I had zero problems in the water, didn't mind the waves that the wind was kicking up too much, and only had one collision after the turn around with someone else in my group. They were kinda bad about communicating which direction we were supposed to turn around our buoy, so someone coming the other way clocked me in the head pretty good.

Luckily, I have a really hard skull, so I just kept on swimming. I ended up finishing in 27:34, which was five and a half minutes faster than my last pool mile, and probably about 6th out of nine women who swam the mile. All but one of the ladies who came in ahead of me were high school kids, so I didn't feel too bad about it, hehe. The swim went so well that I think I'll try the 2.4 next year. :)

Asthma Meds:

Only partially swimming related, I've had some problems with my voice over the last two months. I've been hoarse constantly, and have had issues with my voice breaking whenever I raise it at all. Finally I went in to see my doctor and it turns out that my asthma medication has caused some cobbling in the back of my throat which is what is affecting my voice.

Originally, when I started swimming, I was having a ton of problems with my lungs hurting and being short of breath. It was making getting any endurance practically impossible, so I went and got on some asthma maintenance medication. The first thing I was on was Advair, which was two medicines in one: a steroid (to reduce the inflammation) and a bronchial diolater (to open the swollen passages). When I changed insurance, I found that Advair was MASSIVELY expensive, so I changed to Pulmicort, which was just a steroid. Apparently the steroid is what is messing with my throat.

My choices at this juncture are to continue on the Pulmicort and have no voice, try a different steroid, try a medication that is just a bronchial diolater, or go off all together. At the moment I'm trying going without, but I have a prescription for the bronchial diolater, in case I have issues.

Today is day seven of being off the meds. So far I've only had about three instances where my lungs have caused trouble, and none of them have really affected my ability to swim. I have had some pain while swimming, but it's not something that I think is bad enough to need medication for. So far my voice hasn't had any improvement, but my doctor says it could take as long as a month for it to heal. I have yet to use a rescue inhaler for anything, which I'm taking as a good sign. I'm thinking (hoping) that the swimming has actually helped me build lung capacity, so I don't have to take the maintenance drugs again in the future.

Lastly, some swimming stuff of note:

Timed swims:

100 yard IM - 1:57 (July 26)
100 meter IM - 2:04 (July 27)
50 meter breast - 1:04 (Aug. 7)
50 meter fly - :54 (Aug. 9)
50 meter back - :57 (Aug. 9)
50 meter breast - 1:04 (Aug. 9)
50 meter free - :46, :43 (Aug. 9)
1600 meter free - 33:09 (Aug. 9)

Swim Workout Distances:

July 22 - 3800 yards
July 26 - 3000 yards
July 27 - 3000 yards
July 29 - 3200 yards
July 31 - 3100 yards
Aug. 2 - 800 yards (Tri for the Cure)
Aug. 3 - 2250 yards*
Aug. 5 - 2500 yards*
Aug. 7 - 1850 yards*
Aug. 8 - 5250 yards
Aug. 10 - 3200 yards†
Aug. 12 - 3400 yards†
Aug. 14 - 3200 yards† + 1000 yardsˆ
Aug. 16 - 1750 yards (Hoursetooth Swim)
Aug. 17 - 3000 yards†
Aug. 19 - 3150 yards†
Aug. 21 - 3000 yards†
Aug. 22 - 2800 yardsˆ
Aug. 24 - 3100 yards†

* - "Donut" swims
† - swimming at Cesspool
ˆ - random gym swims

Swim Blogger = Swimsuit Rant

2009-07-28T10:29:00.006-06:00

The swimsuit thing? Starting to piss me off.

Yesterday I was so worked up about this that I was ready to rant my brains out. I've calmed down considerably (not to mention have been mellowed by a night of crappy sleep and hard swimming this morning), so I'm going to tone down what I wrote yesterday a little bit.

At any rate, here are the facts: FINA approved the polyurethane suits for use in Rome. The Arena and Jaked suits are legal. Anyone can wear them. Wearing these suits is not cheating, and it's not the same as using performance enhancing drugs.

There are a lot of swimmers wearing these suits in Italy. And why wouldn't they? They have a legitimate, legal way to get an edge in a competitive sport. I can honestly say that, if it were me, I wouldn't turn it down. Especially if there were potential sponsorship dollars to be made depending on the outcome.

The issue, really, is that there are a couple of big name swimmers that aren't wearing the new suits. Those swimmers are (occasionally) getting beat out by the guys in the Jakeds and the Arenas, and everyone is now finger pointing, calling these swimmers out as cheaters, comparing the suits they're wearing to steroids. It's ridiculous, to say the least. The suits are LEGAL. I can't say that enough times. FINA had the chance to ban them - even DID put a ban on them, which they later revoked - and then backed down. I don't really know the reason why, but I'm fairly certain it has something to do with money and politics.

Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte aren't wearing these new tech suits for one reason: they have high paying sponsorship deals with Speedo. It worked out really well for them in Beijing when the LZRs were the fastest suits in the water, but not so much now, when European companies finally have a competitive suit. Maybe the polyurethane suits give the swimmer an advantage, but the LZRs do too, just like the Fastskin suits did before them. Swimsuit technology has been heading this direction since Athens. Saying that the swimmers in the Arenas and Jakeds don't deserve their world records but not saying the same thing about the swimmers wearing LZRs in the Olympics is a double-standard. Twenty-five world records were set in Beijing. Sixteen have been set so far in Rome. There were seventeen set two years ago at the World Championships in Melbourne. It's not like it's a new trend.

I have two reigning thoughts as far as this whole debacle: 1. If the people swimming in these suits predominantly don't like the way the technology is changing the sport, then FINA is right in (at least attempting to) roll back to something more old school, and 2. If people don't like the way the suits are being handled currently, they should place their blame on FINA, not on the swimmers, who aren't doing anything they aren't allowed to do. I'm sure all of this is touching a nerve with me because a couple of my favorite swimmers are being called cheaters by fans of Phelps and Lochte, and I realize that I'm probably being too sensitive, but the definition of cheating is 'violating accepted standards or rules'. No rules are being broken here. Speedo is being out done by other suit manufacturers, and their swimmers are suffering for it, one way or another. Nike went through the same thing in China, and they had to pull out of the speed suit game because they couldn't keep up, to the detriment of their sponsored swimmers (guys like Jason Lezak, Aaron Peirsol, and Brendan Hansen).

Is all this speed suit nonsense unfair? Sure it is, because people in the new suits are swimming faster than they have before, and the guys not wearing them aren't getting that advantage. But, honestly, the only way to resolve that would be to force every swimmer to wear the exact same suit. Take away the swimsuit choices and you end up with something more like what other sports do as far as awarding contracts to a single company (Reebok making all NHL jerseys, for instance), which changes the game dramatically. If the swimsuit companies can't outfit specific swimmers, there wouldn't be sponsorship opportunities (no one cares what kind of goggles a swimmer is wearing). The sponsorship money these swimmers get is literally the biggest part of their paycheck (the money they get from USA swimming isn't enough to cover cost of living), so unless they were getting sponsored by non-swimsuit related companies (like Phelps is), they're going to have to get a day job to make ends meet.

Long story short here is that, yes, some suits are faster. Anyone can wear them (so long as they're legal, like they are right now), but some people don't, because of contractual obligations. That's how sponsorship works. You're betting on one company to make the best gear available for you to compete in, and if they don't, you unfortunately have to deal with that.

Phelps made a comment in an interview yesterday that initially pissed me off, but upon further reflection, I like the sentiment that was underlying. He wants to competition to be about talent, training, and ability, and not what suit you get your hands on. I agree with that wholeheartedly. I agree with FINA trying to cut off the tech suit trend before it gets too much more out of hand. They need to man up in a big way and put down some concrete rules that aren't governed by how much money or pressure they're getting from the swimsuit companies. If they can put together some real guidelines for the swimsuit companies to follow (rather than all this cryptic air trapping crap that they can't even really test for), I think we could finally get back to the healthy competition there used to be out there between Nike, Speedo, and TYR. The Arena and Jaked suits were almost undeniably a response from the European countries that weren't easily able to get their hands on the LZR before Beijing. I have a feeling they're not just going to go away when/if the polyurethane suits are banned.

I really think all of this should be up to the athletes. They're the ones swimming in these things, after all. I don't honestly think changing the length of the legs, or how much of torso coverage there is on the swimsuits is going to make a hell of a lot of a difference now. The world records that have been set in the last two years are never going to get broken if the suits get reset, which I think is a bit of a shame. I don't think records necessarily need to be set every race, but I do think that once everyone is at the same starting point, these things will hold up a bit longer without being set in stone for years and years. A balance needs to be found, and it's not going to be easy, but the sooner things get smoothed over and people get back to the swimming, the better.

I'm going to finish up by posting a link to a video made by (my consummate hero) Mel Stewart of Phelps' press conference from yesterday. I have a bit of a love/dislike relationship with Michael, but what he said here reminded me of why I liked him in the first place, and definitely renewed my respect for him:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1173335128487&ref=nf

Edited to add this: To paraphrase Brendan Hansen, don't hate the player (the swimmers), hate the game (FINA).

Typing Outloud

2009-07-21T10:06:00.002-06:00

I wanted somewhere to splah about this, and this blog is as good a place as any, so...

The pool I swim in for Masters (and on the weekends) is closed August 8 - September 7 for some kind of maintenance or other (I've heard two stories, one about the roof and one about the pool drains), so my team isn't practicing for a month. I contacted another Masters team in the area whom I plan to swim that month with, and they have an interesting schedule that includes three morning practices (M/W/F), two evening practices (T/R) and a weekend practice (Saturday).

The morning practices are pretty much the same time as the ones I'm currently doing (fifteen minutes earlier), so I was thinking I'd just do those. The only issue there is that it's pretty far from home (doubling my driving time, really), and they don't have a place to shower, so I'd either have to drive all the way back home to shower, and then back across town to work, or brave the scary, uncleaned work shower.

The evening practices are a bit late (7:00 - 8:30), but I could go to them and then back home to shower and not have to drive around as much. Plus there's the added bonus of not having to wake up at 4:30 in the morning. Though I'm not sure if Lori can make the night practices. Plus they're late enough that I'd probably rather be at home on my couch in my PJs than going out to swim at seven at night.

I think going to the Saturday morning practice is a given, though. If I do M/W/F morning and then add Saturday (which isn't early, 8:00AM - 9:30AM), that would be a pretty good setup, assuming the getting up thirty minutes earlier doesn't kill me.

Blah blah blah. Anyway, when I go back to my regular team in September, they're opening up practice to be six days a week, Monday through Saturday. I don't know yet what time of day the T/R/S practices are going to be, but... It's a very real possibility that I might try and swim all six days a week. Which will probably be insane, but I think a good thing as well. I like swimming, the cost (assuming they don't change it and they let us swim as many days a week as we want) is awesome, and the health benefits are already very apparent.

What does this mean for me? Well, for one, it means I need to learn how to go to bed before midnight, because if I'm getting up at 5:00AM all five working days and not sleeping, I will crash really hard in the middle of the week. And be miserable. Another thing, it means I will need to reevaluate my winter sports participation.

Usually I play in two hockey leagues, and adult recreational league and on an all women's travel team. The women's team has once a week practices, which are great, but they're also at 9:30PM. Last season they went 90 minutes, so I didn't get home until after 11:30, then had to get up at 5:00 the next morning. I suppose I'll wait and see what comes out as far as practice and such, but I might just sign up as a practice only player (and a sub) and not do all the travel games, or I might not play with the women's team at all. I will probably still play in the adult rec league because it's only one day a week - usually Sunday - and I DO still want to play hockey. I love hockey.

What I really need is just more hours in the day. Who do I talk to about that? ;)

But honestly, back when I was lazy and kinda overweight and such, people would say, "oh, you can get addicted to exercise", to which I responded, "yeah right." Well. Yeah. Guess who's a believer? And I'm really excited about all this extra practice. This guy on my team, Reu, is going to be coaching the extra three days and I'm geeked because he's a GREAT coach. And a pretty super guy, too.

3400 (34700/284000)

2009-07-20T07:44:00.004-06:00

It's always fascinating to me when I start to realize just what muscles are needed to do certain things. I spent a bunch of time on Sunday throwing and pitching at softball practice and ow, my lats on my right side are killing me today. I also did some weights last night, but the pain from that is pretty minimal in comparison.

After swimming on Saturday I thought maybe I'd be up for swimming normally without resulting to a buoy or fins, but after getting smoked SO HARD in a 200 IM, I gave in. My whip kick is still broken, because a) I can't turn my knee out the way I need to in order to do the beginning of the kick, and b) bringing my legs together hurts like an SOB. So I limped my way through those two 200 IMs and then didn't do any more breaststroke.

Anyway, anything in parentheses as far as fins or pulling is my addition so I could make it through this thing without getting my ass run down. I am still having mobility issues with my knee, which is probably why I'm still so gimpy, even in the pool.

I did try to throw in as many flipturns as I could today, which went pretty well, I think. Especially when I was pulling. Maybe one day I'll actually get better at them, ha.

300 swim (warmup)
200 kick (warmup)
200 IM (warmup)
100 swim (warmup)
100 pull
200 IM
300 pull
200 back
100 pull
8 x 25 kick, odds free / evens non (fins)
100 free easy
200 free fast (pull)
200 free easy
100 free fast (pull)
8 x 25 kick, odds free / evens non (fins)
100 fly (fins)
200 free (fins)
100 back (fins)

Total: 3100 SCM (~3400 SCY)

3800 (31300/280600)

2009-07-18T15:51:00.005-06:00

I woke up this morning with a super stiff neck, something that's been happening to me a lot lately. Today I'm in search of a new pillow, but my neck was so sore when I got up that I wasn't sure I'd be able to swim today, the range of motion was so pathetic.

After I had some breakfast, I put some heat on my neck and the muscles loosened up enough that I went to the pool. I didn't really have any plans, other than trying to swim a mile again, so I just sorta did what came to me. My one goal, though, was to do more flipturns.

At this point I decided to go back to my arm assisted flipturns, because I can not do them consistently without. Mostly I end up sorta flailing a little with my right arm to complete the turn, but it's better than inhaling pool, which is what I end up doing without. Even with that, I was pretty tired of doing them by the time I got to my mile, so I made myself a deal that I would do 50% of my turns as flipturns, and it worked out pretty well.

The 12 minute swim test is something my friend Alix does with her Masters team, so I wanted to see how far I could swim in 12 minutes. I did almost 575 meters, which is 50s on just about 1:03, which is pretty normal for me.

As far as the knee, most of the swimming wasn't bad, and I'm probably pretty close to 100% again on my kick, though I still can't push off hard on that side, so I babied it on the turns. Also, whipkick was miserable, both in pain and execution. I think I'll lay off the breaststroke until things are feeling back to normal. Fly hurt a little, but not bad enough to discourage me from swimming it a little.

2 x 100 swim (warmup, flipturns)

400 pull with paddles (flipturns)

100 IM

50 free, easy

50 back

12 minute swim test (575 meters)

25 free

1600 free (alternate flip and open turns, 1000m on 21:40, 1600m on 34:22)

500 pull with paddles (warmdown, flipturns)

Total: 3500 SCM (~3800 SCY)

3450 (27500/276800)

2009-07-17T08:43:00.005-06:00

My knee is actually feeling remarkably better than it was on Wednesday, but I'm still having mobility issues (can't bend or straighten it fully), so I played it safe and did all those long sets with a buoy. When I was swimming/kicking without fins, it felt like my right leg was at about 75% normal power, but wow with the slow. Lori was handily kicking my butt in the warmup kick set, as well as the six kick hesitation 50s.

My turns are still a mess too, but I can tuck up more now than before, so they're improving. It still hurts to push off with my right leg, so I avoided that, but could at least get my gimp leg out of the way so I could push better with the good one.

Blah blah blah. I honestly don't have much to say today. I wish I could have done the distance sets without pulling, but what are you gonna do?

200 swim (warmup)
200 kick (warmup)
6 x 50 kick, odds fast, evens easy on 1:10 (with fins)
3 x 100 build, descend 1-3 (pull)
700 swim, every fourth 25 fast (pull)
2 x 200, six kick hesitation / swim by 50
500 swim, every third 50 fast (pull)
100 free
100 back
300 swim, every fourth 25 fast (pull)
50 easy (warmdown)

Total: 3150 SCM (~3450 SCY)

2900 (24050/273350) or How I Ended Up at the Hospital Three Times in One Day

2009-07-15T07:57:00.006-06:00

So yesterday, Jeff (my boyfriend) became an uncle. Jeff's brother's wife had a Cesarean Section yesterday afternoon, so when I left work on my bike, I just rode straight to the hospital. Except apparently they hadn't been moved to their room yet, and Jeff was still at home, so I rode the rest of the way home.

Then, around 8:00, we went by and actually got to see the twins (which were cute, a boy and a girl). So, hospital visit number two.

From there, we went to our softball game. We were up to bat first, and I'm third in the order, so I got up and ended up getting walked. We had one out, so I was running if the ball was hit on the ground by the guy behind me, and it was, so I took off to second. His hit went past the third baseman and into shallow left field, so I decided to go for third, since no one was telling me to go or stop. They were close to getting the ball to their third baseman, and they told him to tag me, since it wasn't a force out. Except instead of turning to tag me, he planted his foot in the middle of the bag right before I stepped on it, so I landed on his foot instead. My entire leg buckled and my right knee popped, sending me to the dirt in pain.

Apparently I skinned both of my knees and ripped a large hole in the back of my right thigh when I fell, but the knee hurt so badly that I didn't notice those until quite a bit later. After laying on my face in the infield dirt for a few minutes, two of my teammates (both doctors, incidentally) helped me to the dugout and I sat on the bench next to one of them (Anna). The field manager came and brought a bag of ice, which Anna held to my knee. I was definitely in shock, both when I was down in the field and sitting there on the bench, my ears ringing and my vision all blocky. I felt massively lightheaded and kept trying to shake myself out of it, tried leaning forward to get my balance but couldn't, and reached back to grab the back of the bench.

The next thing I knew I was on the ground, looking up at my teammates. I'd passed out and fallen forward off the bench, hitting my head on the cement. Anna caught me right at the end, so I didn't hit my head too hard, but I was totally confused about where I was and what was happening for a couple of minutes. The field manager called 911, and I ended up having at least one ambulance and a firetruck show up, a cadre of firefighters and EMTs crowding around and checking my vitals (which were fine) and asking me a million questions.

At that point, I mostly felt fine, except I was insanely dehydrated. I asked for some water and then started feeling lightheaded again, so I got laid back and the EMTs tried to convince me to let them take me in to get checked out. Now I know this is nuts, but I kept saying there was no way I'd go in the ambulance, because of the cost. I finally convinced them to radio in and get permission to let me go in one of our own vehicles, signed a form saying that I refused the ambulance, and then Jeff drove me to the ER.

I was not excited to go in, after everything that's happened this week, but I went. They checked me in but refused to give me water (something about not wanting to give me anything before a doctor saw me), and I waited a bit, but not too long. The whole thing took about 90 minutes, and I basically just got my vitals taken a billion times. But my BP is great, my O2 sats are always at 100%, and my resting heart rate is at about 50. Exciting.

So I was released with a diagnosis that my knee was probably just strained (which is not new for me) and that I fainted because of vasovagal syncope due to the pain (also not new - it's happened to me before). And all that for the low, low price of $190 (plus what ever UHC decides to charge me later).

My knee last night felt okay, but tender. During the night, it got worse, woke me up at 4:15. But I said screw it and went to practice anyway. I knew I was going to take it easy, and was really careful when I first started kicking. Right now I can't fully straighten my knee, and I can't bend it past 90º, so my kick on that side might have been at about 30%. Halfway through that first set of 75s I came up with the idea to wear a fin on my good side to try and make up for the lack of power and it worked pretty well (though doing one legged dolphin kick was really hard - I did manage the butterfly, however, somehow).

I spent the rest of the workout either pulling (when it was swimming only) or using the one fin method. Doing that, I was able to do the entire workout without cutting anything, and with very minimal pain. My turns were a little ridiculous (not only could I not push off with my right leg, but I couldn't even tuck it out of the way, so it made the push really pathetic) and I had a little trouble getting out of the pool, having to pull myself out backwards at the gutter and then couldn't get up from the pool deck. I made Evan come help me, heh. :)

Also, and this is mostly for Rob, I used my H20 Audio Interval system during my warmup today and I LOVED IT. The ear pieces I picked fit really snugly and didn't slip or move at all, and made a tight seal in my ear. The sound quality was great, about what I'd expect from any headphones. I obviously wasn't doing anything crazy, stroke wise, but the device didn't move around or bother me on my goggle straps, and it was easy enough to skip songs or change the volume while I was wearing it. Also, it made the 500 meters I swam go by SO fast. I can definitely see myself going to swim on the weekends more now that I have this thing, to keep me from getting bored and lost in my own head. Music is definitely motivating to me when I exercise, and I love being able to have it in the pool now as well. :)

300 swim, free/back by 50 (warmup)
200 kick, free/back by 50 (warmup)
4 x 75, kick/swim/kick, odd choice, even fly
6 x 50 free, odds on :50, evens on 1:00 (pull)
400 pull (with paddles)
3 x 100, 25 kick / 25 right arm / 25 left arm / 25 swim
200 free, negative split (pull)
3 x 100, 25 swim / 25 kick / 25 fingertip drag / 25 swim
3 x 100 free on 1:50 (pull)
50 pull (warmdown)

Total: 2650 SCM (~2900 SCY)

Boulder Sunset Tri

2009-07-14T10:44:00.003-06:00

I had such a great time in the Boulder Sunrise Triathlon last month that I decided to sign up for the Boulder Sunset Tri in September. It's another Tri for Your Cause event, so I'm fundraising again, this time for the Colorado Dachshund Rescue. I picked that organization because it's where my sister adopted her dog, and I've been involved with some of their fundraisers before. They're a great organization, and they've been overwhelmed lately because of the economy and having even more dogs to rescue than normal.

Anyway, here's the donation link, if any of my readers are so inclined:

http://www.active.com/donate/TFYCSep122009/LFuller72

The tri this time is a 750 meter swim, a 23 mile bike ride, and a 5K run. The best part, though, is that it starts at 3:30PM. Which means I don't have to get up at four in the morning. :)

2200 (21150/270450)

2009-07-14T09:26:00.003-06:00

So I don't really want to get into it too much, but Sunday night a friend that Jeff and I play hockey with died (they think it was an undiagnosed heart condition, but we're not sure yet) and we were up pretty late staying with his roommate/cousin, so I didn't get to practice Monday morning. I attempted to go swim later in the afternoon, and got a little in, but my heart wasn't really into it. Here's what I did do, though.

200 swim (flipturns)
200 drill (IM order by 50)
200 kick (IM order by 50)
250, 25 fly / 50 back / 75 breast / 100 free
250, 50 fly / 75 back / 100 breast / 25 free
400 pull (with paddles, flipturns)
100 flutter kick (with fins)
100 dolphin kick (with fins and snorkel)
300 free (100 catchup / 100 fingertip drag / 100 swim, with snorkel)

Total: 2000 SCM (~2200 SCY)

3300 (18950/268250)

2009-07-11T15:48:00.004-06:00

So my regular pool (EPIC) is closed this weekend, so I had to go over to the other muni pool to swim this morning. At first I didn't really mind swimming at Mulberry, but now that I'm swimming more in a set, I'd really prefer to go to EPIC. The lighting inside Mulberry isn't very good, for one, and there are only six lap lanes. There's a tiny diving well with one low diving board, then the a section of shallow pool that has this large piece of what is basically playground equipment in it. Because there are so many kids playing in there, the pool is filthy, and has WAY more chemicals in it, so the water is gross and cloudy.

But I did it anyway. Mulberry is in yards, so to swim a mile I had to do 1800. My time was about a minute slower than my last 1600 meters, but I'm going to attribute that to a) 1600 meters being about 1750 yards, so I swam an additional 50 yards today, and b) my turns are pretty bad, so more turns generally means more lag for me. Swimming that far is still boring, but I do have to say that it makes me happy that I can do that much distance. When I first started Masters last December, I could barely swim a 400 consecutively, and now I could probably do a 2k if I felt like it. Also, my BFF Cheryl bought me one of those H2O Audio setups for my birthday that just arrived today, so as soon as I get myself a new iPod shuffle, I can start listening to music during these workouts. I can't wait!

I enjoyed the IMs today, since I got to do them on my own pace, and focus on my form instead of trying to keep up with my teammates.

Okay, off to watch some US National Championship trials. Wee. :)

200 free (flipturns - warmup)

4 x 100, 50 drill / 50 kick, IM order

2 x 100 IM (second 1:56)

400 pull (with paddles, flipturns)

1800 free (35 flat)

150 kick, 50 back / 25 free / 25 breast / 25 back / 25 fly

100 IM

50 free

Total: 3300 SCY

3100 (15650/264950)

2009-07-10T07:46:00.005-06:00

OMG breathing fail today. I woke up feeling heavy in my chest and I knew I was in for some fun at the pool this morning. I had pretty much nothing going into this practice, and I have literally no idea how I managed to do all that fly without puking or passing out.

That said, on the second round of those broken 25s, Evan made a point to tell me that my butterfly technique is really good, I just need a little more kick. Which sounds about right to me. I was very pleased to receive the compliment, though. It definitely made me feel better about today's fail!swim.

So everyone but me and Lori were doing 100 IM fast followed by 100 IM easy. Evan was having us do just a 50 easy afterward, but at the end, Lori said, "let's do another one." Evan said of course SHE wanted to do another one, she wasn't swimming fly. ;) But I did it anyway.

I've mentioned this here before (probably a million times), but I LOVE butterfly. It's hard and I can't do much of it at a time, but it's my favorite stroke. So I really liked getting to do so much of it today, despite the pain and suffering. And wow, was there pain. When I'm having asthma problems, it usually starts with pain in my chest that just spreads out through my limbs. By the freestyle of all of those IMs, everything was burning, and my arms felt like they weighed 100 pounds each. Ugh.

I still love swimming. Even when it's killing me. Maybe even more when it does. ;)

400, free/back by 50 (warmup)
4 x 75, 50 drill / 25 swim (IM order) on 2:10
8 x 25 swim, IM order (supposed to be on :30, was more like :40)
250 free
100 IM fast
50 free easy
6 x 25 swim, IM order (minus free) on :40 - adjusted by Evan so I wouldn't die, heh
350 pull
100 IM fast
50 free easy
6 x 25 swim, IM order (minus free) on :40
350 pull
100 IM fast
100 IM smooth
200 kick (with fins - warmdown)

Total: 2850 SCM (~3100 SCY)

3700 (12550/261850)

2009-07-08T07:36:00.006-06:00

Since this is posting to my Facebook now, I should probably put the writeup at the top, rather than below the workout. I'm sure most people don't care about my swimming sets. :)

This felt like a lot of yardage when I was doing it, but I didn't realize it was THAT much. Nice. And we cut a 100 at the end because, the age group swimmers needed to get into the pool. It was really tiring, but it felt good to do that much swimming, and try to hit those intervals (even if I wasn't completely successful). Man, I love to swim.

My legs are totally feeling it right now, though. Also, I did a lot of biking and running yesterday, so my quads are shot. I'm taking my road bike in for a tuneup today, and if I have to leave it overnight I'll be riding the mountain bike to work tomorrow, which should be... entertaining, heh. Probably good for me, though. Builds character.

I just ate my body weight in food. I was starving when I got out of the pool. Mmm, giant breakfast.

300 swim (warmup)
200 pull (warmup)
100 IM (warmup)
3 x 200 free, descend 1-3 on 3:50
2 x 200 pull, breathe 3/5/7/choice by 50
300 free with fins, every 4th 25 fast kick only
2 x 300 free on 5:30
3 x 200 free on 3:50
2 x 100 free on 1:50
100 free (warmdown)

Total: 3400 SCM (~3700 SCY)

3000 (8850/258150)

2009-07-06T07:46:00.004-06:00

Well, with this post I am FINALLY caught up. Whew. Again, sorry for the massive spam.

100 swim (warmup)
300 pull (warmup)
4 x 75, kick/swim/kick, odds breast, evens free
4 x 150, 50 9-kick hesitation / 50 6-kick hesitation / 50 swim, 3&4 with fins
300, 100 free / 100 breast / 100 free
300, 100 free / 100 back / 100 free
4 x 100, odds 50 catchup / 50 free, evens 50 breast drill / 50 breast
12 x 25 { 4 x 25 drill, 25 swim, 25 fast } (1-3 fly, 4-6 back, 7-9 breast, 10-12 free)
100 pull (warmdown)

Total: 2800 SCM (~3000 SCY)

I really liked this workout, though I did abuse myself with a ton of breaststroke. Evan had a bunch written into it, but then I added my own when we were supposed to swim choice sets.

The 25s drill/swim/fast were fun, because the breaks made me feel like I could sprint a little fly. I love it, but it still dislikes me quite a bit, heh. The last 25 was my free sprint, and Evan commented that it looked "really fast". And it was, something like :20, which isn't bad for 25 meters. If only I could keep up that pace for a 50 or 100, heh.

The bummer is that we found out this morning that EPIC (the pool where we swim) is closed ALL of August for cleaning and ceiling renovation, so we won't have any practice. If I go that long without swimming, I WILL turn into a giant blob, no lie. So I'm in the process of enacting a backup plan.

Option one is to swim at the other, smaller muni pool. They do open at 5:30AM, but I have no idea if they have swim teams practicing at that time or not. The cost for drop in is $4 a session, or $3.20 if you get a Super Pass multi-use card. That brings the total for three swims a week for four weeks to either $48 or $38.40. I'm paying $35 a month to FAST for dues, which Tasha said shouldn't be charged the month we're not practicing. So the cost isn't much worse. The only drawbacks are a) not knowing if we'll have the space to do it, and b) the workouts aren't coached.

Option two is to swim with another Masters team for a month. T2 Coaching (triathlon group) has a Masters team, but they apparently also practice at EPIC, so thye're likely SOL as well. There's one at a local health club, but I'm pretty sure you have to be a member of the club to participate, and their pool is TEENY. Then there's Vortex, who I was considering joining when I was trying to find a team to swim with. They are currently swimming at a private outdoor pool, which is very appealing to me. The drawback here is that their dues are $60 for the month, but they do have a more open practice schedule, so I could swim even more than three times a week, if I wanted. I sent them an email today to see about joining for August only, just to see if they'd even let me do it.

So, yeah. I WILL swim in August, even it I have to take two hour lunch breaks and work until six everyday to make it work. I'm hoping the Vortex thing works out, even though it's more expensive, because I'd like to keep up with coached workouts.

2850 (5850/255150)

2009-07-03T13:49:00.003-06:00

500, 100 free / 75 free, 25 back / 50 free, 50 back / 25 free, 75 back / 100 back (warmup)

10 x 50, 25 kick / 25 drill (IM order)

12 x 25 kick with fins, 2 free, 2 choice x 3

700 pull, 500 Fartlek (25 smooth / 25 strong, 50 smooth / 50 strong, 75 smooth / 75 strong, 100 smooth / 100 strong), 200 build

100 free fast, 25 - 10 seconds rest - 25 - 10 seconds rest - 50

100 free fast, 25 - 10 seconds rest - 50 - 10 seconds rest - 25

100 free fast, 50 - 10 seconds rest - 25 - 10 seconds rest - 25

100 free fast, 25 - 10 seconds rest - 25 - 10 seconds rest - 25 - ten seconds rest - 25

100 free fast, for time (1:38)

100 free (warmdown)

Total: 2600 SCM (~2850 SCY)

So this was actually an off day from work, so I got up feeling relaxed knowing that I could come home and go back to bed whenever I wanted. Which was 12:00 in the afternoon, after breakfast and a snack and a bunch of Heroes season 1. Heh.

Anyway, Tasha coached us this morning and I LOVED the little broken 100s at the end. I can haul a ton of ass when I do 25s, and I always feel really fast when I get to do them. The 1:38 at the end seems appropriate considering the other 100m times I've been getting, so yay!

3000 (3000/252300)

2009-07-02T14:08:00.004-06:00

So the Wednesday before this I rode my bike to work, then came home and proceeded to run for 45 minutes on my elliptical runner. At a fairly high setting. And then lifted weights.

I think I killed myself a little, because I not only managed to forget to reset my alarm to 5:00AM for Masters practice, I turned off my backup alarm. In my sleep. I guess my body wanted rest. :p

So I went over my lunch break and swam about 70 minutes, doing another distance test.

200 swim (flipturns, warmup)
200 drill (flipturns, warmup)
200 kick (IM order, warmup)
600 pull with paddles
1600 swim (34:06)
200 pull (warmdown)

Total: 3000 SCM (~3300 SCY)

Where I got slower. What the? I'm not sure how that happened, unless it was the aforementioned body killage from the night before. Ah well. I do really like doing the mile, so I think I'll keep trying that here and there when I swim on my own.

Sadly, it turns out that by missing the morning practice, I missed my last LC workout. Wah. :(

A side note: I can now bench press 50 pounds, which is probably not even remotely impressive, but back in high school I could BARELY press ten pounds. Yes really. I was a 125 pound dancer weakling that only had muscle in my legs. I think this goes to show what swimming has done for me. I do weigh ten pounds more than that seventeen year old dancer, but I can guarantee that those ten pounds and more is from muscle. And I really like that I can say that. I'm in the best shape of my life at the ripe young age of thirty. I might be a slower learner, but at least it's better late than never. :)

3200 (40450/249300)

2009-06-29T07:42:00.004-06:00

200 swim (warmup)
200 kick/drill by 50 (warmup)
400 pull, negative split
8 x 25 choice on :45, 3rd and 6th fast (1-4 free, 5-8 back)
800 swim (15:18)
200 pull smooth
400 swim
4 x 50 kick/drill (reverse IM)
200 swim fast
100 easy (warmdown)

Total: 2900 SCM (~3200 SCY)

We randomly ended up doing an 800 at this practice, so I got to compare it to the time I got the day before. Happily, I was faster the second time. :) I still think I can probably up my pace at the beginning of these distance sets. I'm not getting as tired as I expect, and I could probably improve my time a lot by being less cautious.

I've also been trying lately to do more different kinds of kicking in kick sets, hence the reverse IM in that kick/drill set. I am not so good at the fly kick, and I really need to practice, as much as it kills me. My biggest problem is breathing, since I need to do it, but my fly kick sucks on the surface of the water. It's a lot better if I get my whole head under the water, but then I have a lot harder time keeping up the kick for any real distance.

3000 (37250/246100)

2009-06-28T23:25:00.003-06:00

500 pull with paddles (flip turns)
2 x 50 free (flip turns)
100 free (flip turns)
1600 free (800m 16:50 / 1000m 22:05 / 1600m 33:39)
200 kick, reverse IM
2 x 100 IM (second timed at 2:08)
50 fly (1:03)
250 pull (flip turns)

Total: 3000 SCM (3300 SCY)

This was a random weekend swim I decided to do so I could see what my distance times are looking like. I just signed up to do the Race for the Oceans and that's a 1K, but I wasn't sure I've ever swam a 1K without pulling before.

My 1K time wasn't too bad. I ended up gaining about :30 per 500 on top of my normal 100 meter splits (right around 2:00). The time I got on the 1K would make my 50s average at about 1:05, which isn't too terrible, considering I was really holding back at the beginning because I don't know how tired I'll get.

The 1:03 on the 50m fly was shocking. My second 25 was dragging HARD, so I must have been quick on the first half. My two handed open turn is a train wreck, too.

Also, I've been trying to work on my flipturns when I swim on my own. I'm still really bad at them, and I get a lot of water up my nose, but maybe someday I'll actually get to a point where I can do those by default, instead of open turns. Here's hoping, anyway.

3000 / 3500 (34250/243100)

2009-06-25T09:41:00.004-06:00

Thursday, June 25 - Masters Practice

200 swim (warmup)
200 drill (warmup)
4 x 100, odds kick/swim, evens swim/kick (with fins)
4 x 50, build 1-3, 4 easy on 1:10
6 x 100 fast for time (1:36, 1:46, 1:48, 1:49, 1:52, 1:48)
4 x 150 pull, breathe every 9 on the last 50
100, 50 breast / 50 back
6 x 50 fast for time (:56, :56, :51, :52, :55, :54)
4 x 50 pull on 1:30 (warmdown)

Total: 2800 LCM (~3000 SCY)

My times on my 100s and 50s seem really slow, even for meters. I must have been tired that day, or something. I can usually sprint a 50 a lot quicker LC than SC because my turns are so bad. My SCY times are usually around :45 on a sprint, so maybe it's not TOO bad, but who knows.

One thing I'm really going to miss without LC is being pushed by people who are usually in lane 2. We weren't having as much distance cut as usual because of the different skill levels in the lane, and it felt nice to try and keep up and sometimes succeed.

--

Friday, June 26 - Masters Practice

300 swim (warmup)
200 drill (warmup)
100 kick (warmup)
4 x 50, 25 kick / 25 swim
500 pull
4 x 100, 25 fingertip drag / 25 head up / 25 fingertip drag / 25 swim
4 x 75 IM (removing least favorite stroke, so fly/back/free)
50 easy/fast
50 fast/easy
50 build
50 fast
400 pull, breathe every 5, choice by 50 (with paddles)
4 x 100, 25 right arm / 25 left arm / 25 head up / 25 swim
8 x 25 (2 x V sprints)

Total: 3200 SCM (3500 SCY)

I loved these 75 IMs. I'm so bad at breaststroke, and I love fly so much, I was thrilled to get to skip the breast part of the IM. The funny part about my lane is that we all skipped different strokes, and the only person who skipped fly was Lori, and that's because she's never learned to do it. :) Amanda doesn't like her freestyle at the moment (she's about seven months pregnant) and Vicki hates backstroke.

Then there's the head up drill. I HATE that drill. At one point Evan shouted at me to kick hard during it, and I announced my hatred of it. The bonus of having your head out of the water. :p Then Reu shouted at me, "Come on, little triathlete!" Yeah, I know, I need the practice. Stupid drill.

3000 (27750/236600)

2009-06-22T08:33:00.004-06:00

This workout kicked my butt. So much IM. And I refused to stop doing fly in mine, even though everyone else in my lane started subbing in some freestyle instead. I want to be a butterflyer, dammit. Even as unreasonable as it probably is. I love that stupid stroke. It just doesn't love me very much, heh.

200 swim (warmup)
200 drill (warmup)
25 fly
50 back
75 breast
100 free
100 fly kick
75 back kick
50 breast kick
25 free kick
100 IM
200, 100 free, 100 breast
300, 200 free, 100 IM
400, 300 free, 100 back
300, 200 free, 100 IM
200, 100 free, 100 breast
100 IM
2 x { 25 free / 25 free drill / 25 stroke / 25 stroke drill }
50 free (warmdown)

Total: 2750 SCM (~3000 SCY)

3300 (24750/233600)

2009-06-19T08:29:00.005-06:00

We ended up getting long course this Friday as well because there was a long course meet over the weekend, which made me pretty happy. Have I mentioned that I love long course? Because BOY, do I.

I've recently taken to doing almost all of my pulling with paddles. I like what it does to my stroke, and the extra work it makes my sad little triceps do. However this particular day I was getting my ass kicked by everyone in the lane, so maybe I should have gone without, ha.

200 swim (warmup)
200 kick (warmup)
8 x 50 kick, odds free, evens fly on 1:10
2 x 400 pull (with paddles) on 7:30-ish
3 x 100 free on 2:00, 1:55, 1:00
4 x 50 free on 1:10, 1:05, 1:00, :55
300 pull (with paddles)
3 x 100 free on 2:00, 1:55, 1:00
4 x 50 free on 1:10, 1:05, 1:00, :55
100, 50 breast, 50 back (warmdown)

Total: 3000 LCM (~3300 LCY)

1500 / 3300 (21450/230300)

2009-06-18T08:02:00.004-06:00

So the first workout here was from Wednesday, June 17. I hadn't swam since the previous Friday, and after watching a TON of live swimming at the Grand Prix, I was starting to go crazy, I wanted to swim so badly. So I took 45 minutes and went to the smaller of the two muni pools in my area. There are so few lanes in that pool to begin with, and the Vortex age group swim team was having practice, so I had to share a lane the whole way, half of the time with a guy who was just doing distance freestyle (who had one half of the lane), and half of the time with three people (another guy came along and I offered to share my half of the lane with him in a screwed up circle swim because the other guy didn't stop for us to get his attention and have him circle swim as well).

It made swimming fly interesting, but I had been wanting to swim some butterfly for so long that I made it work by doing some one-arm fly when needed.

The second workout was from Thursday's long course Masters practice. I don't have much comments about that, except that I LOVE long course, and I'm sad we don't get to do it again until next summer. *cries*

500 free (open turns)
200 free (flip turns)
300 pull with paddles (drill)
2 x 100 breast
50 fly
100 IM
50 free
100 pull

Total: 1500 yards

--

300 swim (warmup)
100 drill (warmup)

200 pull
200 fast
150 drill (6 kick hesitation/catchup/zipper)
100 stroke (breast)
50 fast

200 pull
150 drill (6 kick hesitation/catchup/zipper)
150 fast
100 stroke (back)
50 fast
50 streamline kick

200 pull
150 drill (6 kick hesitation/catchup/zipper)
100 stroke (free)
100 fast
50 fast

200 pull
150 drill (6 kick hesitation/catchup/zipper)
100 stroke (breast)
50 fast
50 fast
50 streamline kick

Total: 3000 LCM (~3300 LCY)

2250 (16950/225800)

2009-06-12T09:02:00.003-06:00

This is the second workout I had with the SCSC in NorCal. This one was at a local high school called Harker, I believe, same coach as Thursday morning. I'd originally planned to swim with them a third time on Monday morning before I left to come home, but Alix and I decided that staying up late and drinking rum the night before sounded more fun, hee.

100 free (warmup)

3 x 100 pull, drill/swim by 25

3 x 100 pull, DPS/swim by 25

2 x { 25 underwater dolphin kick /25 free / 25 back kick }

3 x 100, 25 back kick / 25 back / 25 breast kick / 25 breast

250, 50 free / 50 fly / 100 free / 50 breast

250, 50 free / 50 back / 100 free / 50 back

150 free

2 x 50 free, sprint

50 breast sprint

100 free (warmdown)

Total: 2050 SCM (2250 SCY)

Honestly, I really loved the sprints at the end of this workout, because they were relay races. I had one guy in my lane with me, and the coach separated out everyone so there were two people per lane. The first relay was 200 free, so we each had to alternate fifties. He asked me to start, so I swam the first and third 50s. I'm proud to say that, despite my partner being quite a bit slower than most of the people in the group, my lane got first. :) I swam my brains out, so I was glad to bring us out on top.

The second sprint was 50 back, then 50 breast. My lanemate said he was awful at breaststroke, and even though I am as well (seriously), I offered to swim it. Needless to say we got our rearends kicked, but it was a heck of a lot of fun attempting to sprint breaststroke. Let's just say I don't think I'll ever be doing that in competition, heh.

2100 (14700/223550)

2009-06-11T09:25:00.003-06:00

Masters Practice, Santa Clara Edition

So this post is a little special because I headed to Northern California on June 10th to spend some time with my good friend Alix. The big plan for the weekend was to go see the Santa Clara Grand Prix, which was the sixth and last meet in 2009's Grand Prix series swim meets. Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens, Scott Spann, Nathan Adrian, Matt Grevers, Dave Walters, Stephanie Rice, Dagny Knutson, Mary Descenza, Lacey Nymeyer, Kirsty Coventry, and tons of other elite swimmers were competing, a lot of them getting ready for World Championship Trials.

Anyway, Alix swims Masters with the Santa Clara Swim Club, and they happen to practice part of the season at the pool where the meet was taking place. It worked out that the first day I was in town was the last day at the International pool, so despite having VERY little sleep (my flight out of Denver was massively delayed and I didn't get into SJC until 12:30, and not into bed until almost two AM), we got up and went to practice, where I got to swim with their Group 2 Masters in the competition pool (pictured above; photo taken right after I'd finished practice).

I'm probably just a spaz, but it was cool getting to swim in the same water that the people I mentioned up there would be swimming in the next day. Hee.

Anyway, the Group 2 coach was AWESOME and pointed out two things that were wrong with my freestyle stroke that I had NO idea I was doing wrong. Let's just say that now all the high elbow drills and the catchup drill make WAY more sense now. Hah. The workout was only 60 minutes, and shorter than I'm used to, but it was so fun swimming outside (we don't do that much in Colorado) and I was spending so much time fixing my stroke that it didn't matter ultimately. :) The set is below.

100 free (warmup)

100 breast (warmup)

2 x { 2 x 100 pull with paddles, 25 catchup / 25 swim / 25 catchup / 25 swim // 100 build by 25 }

3 x 100 pull, 50 back / 50 free

50 fly / 50 free

50 breast / 100 free

50 back / 150 free

50 back / 50 free

50 breast / 100 free

50 back / 150 free

100 free (warmdown)

Total: 1900 LCM (~2100 LCY)

2750 (12600/221450)

2009-06-09T10:45:00.005-06:00

And now I post a billion swim workouts. I felt weird about posting them when I hadn't finished my triathlon post, so I typed them all up and then didn't post them. Heh. Anyway, please excuse the clutter as I go back and enter all of these things. At least I don't remember much about them, so there will be very little commentary!

--

300 swim (warmup)
10 x 50, odds kick, evens swim, build 1-5 on 1:30
4 x 100, 25 12 kick hesitation / 25 10 kick hesitation / 25 8 kick hesitation / 25 6 kick hesitation on 3:00
3 x 100, 25 left arm / 25 right arm / 25 fist / 25 swim on 3:00
4 x 100, 2 x 25 zipper / 25 fingertip drag on 2:15
4 x 100 Victory sprints on 2:15
200 pull (warmdown)

Total: 2500 SCM (~2750 SCY)

550 (9850/218700) aka Tri Take Two

2009-06-06T10:45:00.003-06:00

Pre-race thumbs up. Click the picture to see my Facebook gallery. :)

Okay, so this is very, VERY late, but life has been interesting and I haven't been able to type this up until now.

I have to say, I was MUCH more relaxed before this tri than I was the first one, even though the swimming part still scared me a little. I figured there was no way it could be worse than the first time I did it, especially since the swim part was 300 less meters, and the bike (which I was massively confident about) was longer. My goal for this tri was to be faster than 18 MPH average on the bike part.

The day before the tri, Kimberley got a hold of me and invited me to carpool to Boulder with some girls from her Tri group, and I agreed. This pushed my wake up time back to 4:15 AM. I forewent the prerace shower and just had some breakfast (yogurt with raspberries and cereal) and ran out the door to drive to the home of a gal named Shaudin. She and her husband are the owner of a giantic van and a four-bike trailer hitch bikerack, so she volunteered to drive herself, her nextdoor neighbor Margaret, Kimberley and myself to Boulder. We stopped on the way to meet up with another carful of triathletes (and have some Starbucks), and then we were off.

We got to the reservoir a little early, but that gave us ample time to unpack the van, get setup in the transition area, get marked, and empty our bladders before getting into our wetsuits. I got a different suit this time by Blueseventy, but I'm not sure I liked it. The neck was pretty tight, and it made my arteries bulge out all scary-like. One of these days (hopefully soon) I'd like to just own a wetsuit. In the long run it's going to save me money, make it easier to do training swims, and keep me from having to run across town to reserver/pickup/dropoff a wetsuit.

I was in the second swimwave (pink caps this time), which ended up with a ten minute delayed start (they sent men under thirty, then men over thirty before us). It was really sunny at the reservoir, which excited and worried me at the same time. I was glad that the sun made it all feel way less ominous to me than the Windsor swim, but the reflection off the water was pretty bad, even with my tinted goggles. Once we were swimming, though, spotting the buoys wasn't too hard.

This swim cource was basically just two 90º right hand turns, like a big square out into the reservoir. I got all the way past the last buoy before I needed a break and took a few seconds on my back to calm my breathing down. I was a little nervous going in, but not scared at all once I was out in the middle of the water. I think my problem at this point is that I'm still swimming too hard. Someone told me (belatedly) that they hardly ever kick until the end, whereas I kick pretty strong the whole way.

Climbing out of the water was way easier this time around too, beacuse the beach is sand and just a gentle slope, rather than the hard shore at Windsor Lake. As I was running to the swim exit arch, I heard them announcing the names of everyone crossing the line as the top ten swimmers in our heat. I was literally in shock when I heard them say my name, the tenth person to finish! Turns out I did the 500 meters in 8:23, which puts my 100 meter pace at around 1:40. I'm still surprised I could go that fast! Goes to show what adrenaline can do for you. :)

However all that kicking bit me in the ass when I got back to the transition area and I got a massive Charlie horse in my left calf, which made getting my wetsuit off and bike shoes on interesting. It also made my T1 time longer than I wanted at 4:36.

But then I was off on my bike, the part of the race I was most excited about. I felt great about my swim, and started flying on my bike, until I started hearing a strange noise, and noticed that my front tire had gone completely flat. At this point I hadn't even made it five of the 17 miles. I found a safe-ish place to pull off and started getting my front tire off, which proved to be a pain as I hadn't done it before on that tire. I pulled out my spare tube and got it installed and aired up, then finally I was back on my way after losing probably between 10 and 15 minutes replacing the tube.

Then things started getting strange again, and a survey of my tires showed that my REAR tire was now losing air. I had no more tubes, so I jumped off and aired it up, glad to see it was at least holding air. The air in the back tire lasted about 2-3 miles tops, so I kept having to get off and repump my tire with my hand pump. One nice lady stopped along the way and gave me a CO2 cartidge filler that made the refilling easier, but it only lasted that one refill and it was back to the hand pump after that. I tried to pull off every time I passed a checkpoint with police or volunteers posted, so I could avoid getting killed by the highway traffic.

Finally, one hour, twenty-four minutes, and thirty-six seconds after I'd started the bike ride I made it back to the transition area. At that point I was just proud that I'd managed to finish, though I was disappointed in the time it took, as I'd been hoping for something closer to fifty minutes.

But there is a lesson learned here. Back when I first planned to do triathlons, my friend Shirley said that I shouldn't even necessarily bet on finishing my first race, because something could happen and I could get two flat tires on my bike. At the time, I thought there was no way that someone could be that unlucky. Obviously I know better. Next time I'll have at least two spare tubes with me, and different expectations.

By the way, I wasn't even the only person in the race that had this happen. The gal who actually won as highest fundraiser had two flat tires as well, and she had to finish with one or both completely FLAT. Also, I'd originally thought that my back tire problems were due to the patch I already had on that tube leaking, but it turned out to be a completely separate puncture. I'm just lucky that way, I guess. :)

At that point I was exhauasted, hot, filthy from bike grease and road dirt, and the last thing I wanted was to run 3.2 miles. But after my second transition (1:21, not bad!), I was off on the 5K run. For some reason, this 5K was WAY harder than the last three I'd done. I'm not sure if it was beacuse of the heat (every other 5K I'd done before this had been in overcast, cool weather) or because, as I discovered later, I'd completely forgotten to take my maintenance asthma medication AND my allergy pill in my hurry to get out of the house on time. I felt like I was sucking wind the entire run, and even had to fast-walk some parts of it, because my lungs were aching. Even with the walking, I managed to finish the run in 31:53, which was only 90 seconds slower than my last tri with my pace only being 43 seconds slower at 10:31. My final time for the race was 2:10:48.

I keep thinking that, if I'd been able to keep my bike pace up like I'd wanted, my final would have been closer to 1:35, but really, the bike problems were part of it. Sometimes things don't cooperate, and getting through them and finishing was a success for me, even if I didn't get the time I wanted. I really enjoyed the race despite the issues, and I can't wait to do another one. In fact, there is a similar sprint in September on the same course and I'm about 99% I'm going to do it, just because I loved the first one so much.

I wasn't even the last person on the team to cross the finish line, which made me feel a little better. Though later on I found out that Margaret had been in a bike accident and hurt her leg a little (she managed to accidentally hit a dead deer on the course, trying to avoid some other cyclists - scary!). But there was lunch and beer awaiting us, and I partook in both. The beer was really good, and I had one of the best brownies ever in my sack lunch. :)

Kimberley and I tried to get well deserved massages as well, but the line was long enough that we never managed to get them before we had to leave. We headed back to Fort Collins in Shaudin's awesome van where we parted ways with hugs.

Like I said, this triathlon was so fun that it didn't matter how many things went wrong. I enjoyed it so much that I wish I could have the chance to do it over again without the bike failure. Maybe in September I'll have a different story.

Thank you to Rob, by the way, who asked about how things went WEEKS ago. Sorry for the delay in posting this. :)

3000 (9300/218150)

2009-06-05T08:12:00.003-06:00

200 swim (warmup)
200 kick (warmup)
4 x { 3 x 50 free, first easy, second moderate, third sprint, all on 1:00 }
24 x 25 spins (freestyle sprint with fins) on :35
200 free easy
3 x 100 free, 1 and 2 sprint, 3 easy on 2:00
6 x 50 free, sprint down, easy back on 1:10
10 x 25 free, all sprint except 4 and 8, :05 rest
150 pull (warmdown)

Total: 2800 SCM (~3000 SCY)

Lately I haven't been having time to write these until right before I leave work for the night, and I just want to go home now, so I'm going to keep it short.

Evan was gone for a swim meet (coaching), so Reu coached today. I like it when he coaches, because he spends extra time with us slow kids to teach us technique. Today he pointed out that I'm not finishing my pull all the way before I pull my arm up for a stroke on freestyle, so I fixed it and wow, what a difference. It definitely helped my speed and strength, though it did make my triceps hurt a little. My wrists are sore now too, which might be part of it as well.

Lots of sprinting. Reu said he felt bad about it when I told him I was doing a tri tomorrow, heh.

We were really short today, possibly because a lot of masters are swim parents and the kids' meet is out of town this weekend, but also maybe because of practice yesterday morning. Either way, there were so few people that the slow lane got two lanes for four of us, so we each got to split and run to sets together, which was a lot of fun. All of us (me, Vicki, Lori, and Amanda) pace really close to each other that way. It's kinda neat. :)

Okay, I'm outta here. Gotta go get my wetsuit and then probably a beer. I have to try and go to bed early-ish tonight because I'm carpooling to Boulder and we're meeting at 5:00AM, which means I need to get up around 4:15. Good times.

Happy weekend, all.

3200 (6300/215150)

2009-06-04T07:45:00.002-06:00

200 swim (warmup)
6 x 50 free
600, 150 free / 50 back
2 x 300 pull
50 fly
50 free
50 back
50 free
50 breast
50 free
6 x 50, odds kick, evens swim
6 x 100 free

Total: 2900 LCM (~3200 LCY)

Long Course Pool is Long

First day of long course meters. So far, I like it. At least for freestyle, anyway. Stroke at 50m per length is a little rough. My 50 fly was more like 35 fly, 15 free, heh. Still, it was fun to try it, and having ten or so people per lane wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. Our lane was the slow-medium lane, and while I went second or third to last most of the morning, I only got lapped once (and that's because I got hung up a bit by the girl in front of me and ended up farther back than I'd started). The only issue was that we made the rather uninformed decision to start on the diving well end of the pool, all ten of us spent most of our between sets time clinging to the walls and the lane lines, where if we'd started on the other end, we could have just stood on the bottom.

All that said, it was harder than I expected it to be. Plus I had some lung and sinus issues, the former which might have been stamina related, or caused by the latter. The weather the last few days has been yo-yoing between rain and sun, so the barometric pressure changes have been wrecking havoc with the pressure in my head. I had a hard time sleeping last night because of those problems, and then during my pull sets today so much had built up that I felt like my brain was going to explode out the sides of my head.

I'm excited to do it again, though. Next week I have to miss Thursday and Friday practices, as well as the following Monday because I'm going to be in California to see the Santa Clara Grand Prix and hang out with my good friend Alix, woohoo! There are some tentitive plans to swim with her Master's group while I'm there, though, which I'm very excited about. Yay swimming!

Swimming is a Contact Sport

In other news, I managed to damage myself again, this time by smashing hands over the lane line with someone in the fast lane. It hurt pretty bad at the time, and I now have a pretty purple bruise that covers about half of my right index finger. When it comes out better, I think I'll have to snap a picture. Bruises from swimming. I am awesome.

3100 (3100/211950)

2009-06-02T08:33:00.005-06:00

300 swim (warmup)
150 kick (warmup)
50 drill (warmup)
4 x 50, 25 kick / 25 swim
2 x 200 free on 4:15
2 x 200 free on 4:05
2 x 200 free on 3:55
3 x 50 free on :50
50 free on 1:30
3 x 50 free on 1:00
50 free on 1:30
3 x 50 back on 1:10
50 back on 1:30
8 x 25 kick, odds fast, evens easy
100 swim (warmdown)

Total: 2800 SCM (~3100 SCY)

This was the swim from yesterday morning, which was my 30th birthday. I had the day off, but I got up to swim anyway. Which is good, because I'm a massive failure as far as getting anything else done.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the swim. Thursday is the first day of LCM, so we'll see how that goes. I'm partially looking forward to it (I've never swam LCM before, should be interesting), and partially not (two lanes for the entire masters team, um, wee?). Training for the tri this weekend is massive fail, but I'm going to do it anyway. Even if it sucks and the weather is going to be horrible again.

I'm in a great mood right now. I'm sure you can all tell. Bleh.

3200 / 950 (37150/208850)

2009-05-27T07:51:00.004-06:00

Masters Practice

100 swim (warmup)
200 drill (warmup)
300 pull (warmup)
100 kick (warmup)
4 x 100, stroke/free by 25
4 x 75, 50 drill, 25 free
4 x 50, odds fast
4 x 25, fast (3rd 25 easy)
100 free on 1:55
50 easy on 1:20
3 x 100 free on 2:00
50 easy on 1:20
2 x 100 free on 2:05
50 easy on 1:20
100 free on 2:10
50 easy on 1:20
6 x 25 fast kick on :50
150 pull (warmdown)

Total: 2900 SCM (~3200 SCY)

--

Afternoon Swim

100 swim (warmup)
3 x 50 swim (warmup)
500 free, no walls
50 drill
50, 25 sprint / 25 back kick

Total: 850 SCM (~950 SCY)

--

The morning swim was pretty fun. I like short sets on 100s, even if there isn't a lot of rest between them. I think my lane did a pretty good job with the intervals Evan gave us, and it felt like a good, strong workout to me.

The afternoon swim was just kind of a lark. I played softball on Tuesday night with Kimberley and Ann and we all decided to swim at lunch today. I messed around, mostly, but then Kimberley and I figured out a way to sort of mimic open water by not touching the walls and making wide turns at each end of the pool without touching the bottom. I did pretty good - 500 meters in about ten minutes (which is pretty much right on for me). We'll see if I can do similarly in the Boulder Reservoir in a week and a half.

Yup, I'm doing another triathlon already. Kimberley asked if I wanted to do it, and with a 500 meter swim, I couldn't say no, heh. Also, the fund raising for this one is done where you can pick a charity, so I'm doing mine for the Western Border Collie Rescue. My donation page is here, if anyone is interested:

http://www.active.com/donate/TFYCJune62009/LFuller71

So yeah, the tri is on Saturday, June 6 in Boulder. The swim is 500m in a clockwise square into the reservoir and the buoys are on the right, which means I should have a better time spotting them in this case. Then there is a 17 mile bike ride (I should be able to do this in just under an hour if I can keep myself at my 18 MPH pace that I did last time) and another 5K run. Not bad. I don't mind the longer bike ride for the shorter swim. :)

900 (33000/204700) aka The Triathlon Post

2009-05-24T14:22:00.003-06:00

So yesterday was my very first triathlon. And this is my race report, as suggested by my very supportive friend/hockey teammate, Shirley. :)

Start with Friday night. Or Friday all day, really. Work was a little slow for a change, so I had a lot of time to think about the impending race. And I was really, really nervous.

I tried to work through that, mostly by getting things ready. When work was over, I headed over to Super Target to get a waterbottle cage for my bike, a bike bag for my tire tools and a replacement tube (which I went to get at Peloton Cycles a little later), some Gatorade, and some stickers to label my bike with its name (Hikaru, for the interested). I then went and got my wetsuit, and my replacement tube.

Back home I installed my waterbottle cage and my bag, put the stickers on, and loaded my bike into my car. Then I packed my bag, used Shirley's check list to make sure I had everything, and attempted to sleep at about 11:00PM.

Sleep didn't come easily, but I wasn't up much longer than half an hour. I'm going to attribute that to being up at 5:00 that morning for Masters practice. My alarm went off at 5:00 and I got out of bed to have a shower, which was almost too nice. I never shower in the morning, and it felt good yesterday, especially since it had a nice calming effect. After the shower I got dressed in my tri clothes, put some long pants and jacket over the top, and had some breakfast (cereal and vanilla yogurt) before heading out.

I parked in a lot at the Windsor Middle School, which was about a quarter mile from sign-in/the transition area. I ran into Kimberley (I'm not sure if I've mentioned her here before, but I met her at stroke clinic and she plays softball with us now - she invited me to do this tri with her) as soon as I got there, and also into Jenny (who swims with my Masters team). Kimberley found a friend from her tri group - Molly - who we hung out with all day as well.

After getting my race packet and going to body marking (which was interesting, having someone writing on my arms and legs with a huge marker - I was number 80, which went on both upper arms, and had my age - 29 - on my right calf), Jenny, Kimberley, and I went and racked our bikes together. The racks at this race were awesome - little short ones that only held two bikes per side. That meant everyone got some space to the side to lay out their towels and stuff.

So I started getting ready. I had no idea how I wanted to do things, so I just made it up, mostly. Laid out my bike and running shoes and socks together, as well as my ballcap (for the run) and some towels. We decided to get part way into our wetsuits in the transition area before walking over to the swim start, which was about half a mile away. Wetsuits on to the waist, we put our pants into the drop bags they gave us and headed over. Once we got to the swim start, we put our jackets/sweatshirts into the drop bags (it was about 55º out at 7:30AM) and got our wetsuits, swim caps, and goggles on then got some photos (on Molly's camera, so I don't have them back yet) before we waded out into the lake to get acclimated.

At this point I was feeling nervous but not scared. All of us were in the second wave (women 39 and younger) but Molly, who was in the first wave (29 and younger). Our caps were baby blue (wave one were red, and wave three were yellow). Kimberley and I, plus another gal from the tri group named Liz, went over to the far right toward the back of the wave two swimmers once wave one went into the water (7:55AM). That's when I started feeling a little afraid of what was about to happen. I thought maybe it was just me being anxious to get things started, and was babbling a little, trying to calm myself down.

At 7:58, the buzzer went off, signaling our wave to start. I ran into the lake (which was reportedly 63º) and didn't feel cold at all. I kept walking until the water was up to my chest, then dove into start swimming.

And immediately started having a panic attack. The farther out I got, the more I panicked, and probably made it about 100 meters before I had to roll onto my back and just float because I was hyperventilating. A couple other swimmers from my wave came to ask if I was okay, and I told them I was having a panic attack. They asked if I wanted one of the boats to come get me, but I said no. If you get rescued by a boat, none of your times for the rest of the race count. The older guy who was asking if I was okay stayed with me for a long while, telling me to swim slowly, put my face in and swim just like I was in the pool. He really helped me by assuring me that I was okay, that he was a strong swimmer and that he'd be there to help me if I got into trouble.

I was doing a lot better about halfway there, but I'd still freak out every 50 meters or so and have to flip onto my back to catch my breath. I veered off course a lot, and would get scared every time I got too far from the buoys, but I kept at it, and just tried to power through once I spotted the red flags at the swim exit. I just kept thinking how bad I wanted out of the lake, back where my feet could touch the bottom. Finally I found the shore, got my feet under me, and stumbled my way back up to land. A pair of volunteers helped me out, and I swear, I felt like I was going to pass out, there was so much adrenaline coursing through me. I don't remember how the ground felt on the shore under my feet, or the pavement on the way to the transition area over to my bike. All I can remember was how hard I was breathing, and how lightheaded I felt. I was literally shocked when I got to my bike and saw that I'd beat Kimberley over there. I was sure I'd been in that lake forever. In reality, it was just over twenty minutes.

The T1 transition was a blur. I was shaking really hard and almost fell getting my wetsuit off. I got my helmet and my jacket on, then tried to leave with my bike without my shoes. I re-racked my bike, got my shoes on, and jogged to the bike mount line. That transition was just about three minutes.

The beginning of the bike ride was all about me slowing down my breathing and getting my focus back. It really didn't take long, and the whole ride went by so fast it was shocking. It turns out the bike portion was actually 11 miles, and I did it in under 35 minutes. I felt awesome on the bike, fast and strong and powerful. I passed a lot of people, didn't have any trouble at all with any of the hills, even with the fairly substantial headwind. The best part was, and I don't even know how this is possible, that my butt didn't hurt at ALL. Riding my bike the 6.75 miles to work, I always feel sore about halfway through. I'm not sure if it's because of the adrenaline/endorphins, that I wasn't wearing anything under my shorts, or that they were wet from the swim, but it was the most comfortable ride I've ever had on that bike since I got it. I loved every second, and wish I could have just kept going on my bike.

T2 was way smoother, and a lot quicker than T1. I think it was around two minutes (I looked at my results yesterday, but there were a lot of people crowded around a tiny printout, and they haven't posted the results online yet). At the start of the run I spotted on of my FAST teammates - Reubin - and he told me I was doing great.

The run was about as hard as every other 5K I've done. Running is definitely not my favorite part of the triathlon. My race number was damp because I'd had to pin it on before the swim, and it got kinda messed up in the process. But Jenny has an extra race belt (ah HA, that's what those are for), and she said she'd bring it to Masters practice next week for me. Yay!

Anyway, the run went down a little over a mile on a bike path and then turned around to come back past the transition area, along the same path we used to get to the swim start, and across the grass a bit to end near the main stage. The first third felt okay, then I started sprinting too early because I didn't know exactly where the end was, so I had to slow down a little. I passed Kimberley going the other way just after the turn around, then saw Reubin again at the end of the transition area when I had just under a mile to go. The closer to the end, the more volunteers they had to cheer you along. I felt like I was never going to see the end of the thing, but finally someone told me I had 100 yards to go, and I picked the pace up again. Then, finally, the finish. The clock at the end was almost exactly 33:00:00, which meant I ran the race in ninety minutes, with my three minute delayed swim start.

I was elated! I didn't think there was any way I'd hit an hour and a half on my first sprint tri. My run was just over thirty minutes, which is my fastest 5K to date!

After I crossed the line, I found Molly, Liz, and Allana, who is the coach of the tri group. They all cheered for me when I finished. :) We waited a bit for Kimberley, then we all headed over to get some food. I went and changed into my dry pants and sweatshirt, then had a couple of de-meated sandwiches and some lemonade.

Unfortunately, that's when it started to rain. I decided I wanted to head home, so I waked back to the transition area and gathered up my stuff, then started the .25 mile walk back to my car, where I proceeded to get soaked. It was really, really unpleasant, and I was more than ready to stop being wet.

The drive home took about 15 minutes, and then I threw myself immediately into the shower. It was heaven, even better than the one I'd had about 6.5 hours earlier. And then, finally, DRY CLOTHES. Aaaah. I relaxed a bit before rinsing my wetsuit and taking it back to Runner's Roost, then home for a snack and a long nap.

And thus concludes my write up for my first triathlon. It didn't go like thought it would, in some cases worse (the swim went horribly) and in others better (finished 15 minutes faster than I'd predicted, even with the swim fail). I'm hoping I can do at least one open water practice before the Tri for the Cure in early August, because I think that if I can keep myself from freaking the hell out, I could probably really do well with these things. :)

But now, I can finally say it: I'm a triathlete!

Edit: I found my results!

Swim: 20:29

T1: 3:31

Bike: 33:23 (avg. MPH 18)

T2: 2:22

Run: 30:23 (run pace 9:48)

Total: 1:30:06

Gender Rank: 69th (out 0f 109)

Division (30-34 year-old women): 12th (out of 20)

Overall Place: 192nd (out of 258)

3000 (32100/203800)

2009-05-22T08:42:00.003-06:00

400 swim (warmup)
300 drill (warmup)
100 kick (warmup)
4 x 100 pull, descend interval by :05 each 100 (starting at 2:10)
100 IM
75 drill (back)
50 build (back)
25 sprint (haha, back)
100 free
75 free drill
50 free build
25 free sprint
100 fly (with fins)
75 fly drill (with fins)
50 fly build (with fins)
25 fly sprint (again, ha! - with fins)
300, 3 x 25 stroke/75 free
200, 2 x 50 stroke/50 free
200, 2 x 75 stroke/25 free
100 IM

Total: 2750 SCM (~3000 SCY)

This workout was a little hard considering all the stroke stuff, but it didn't end up being too horrible. I was really sore and tired this morning, but outside of some hockey related aching in my wrists and neck, I'm feeling okay now.

Today is the day before my first triathlon. I'm trying to hydrate without having to pee every twenty minutes, and I'm eating a ton of carbs, though not necessarily on purpose. Tomorrow I will get up at 5:30 and shower/eat/drive to Windsor and get this thing started.

Thinking about it makes me so nervous I feel like I'm going to throw up. It's like before I played hockey the first time, like pretty much every time I go up to bat in a softball game. It's the fear of failing, I think, the worry I won't be good enough, won't make it. But this race is only against me. I can take as much time as I like. There is no better reward than crossing that finish line and knowing that I can do it, I didn't fail. I walked a marathon last June. It was probably the hardest physical feat I'd ever attempted up to that point (and so far, still). And days later, when I was still sore and my toes were bruised, I realized that I can do a lot more than I thought I could.

I'm going to rock this thing.

3200 (29100/200800)

2009-05-20T08:09:00.003-06:00

200 swim (warmup)
200 pull (warmup)
3 x 50 free, streamline to flags
3 x 50 back, four dolphin kicks off the wall
2 x 75, back/free/back
500 free
100 free
100 pull
500 free
2 x 100 free
500 free
3 x 50 free, head up (open water practice - warmdown)

Total: 2900 SCM (~ 3200 SCY)

I totally thought the yardage today was shorter than Monday, but they were identical, huh.

I am totally wrecked today. Yesterday I rode my bike to work, then afterward to the bank and then to Runner's Roost to reserve my wetsuit for Saturday and then home from there. I'm guestimating about 8-ish miles from RR to my house, so not quite as far as I have to ride on Saturday. 10 miles isn't a big deal, but my rear still doesn't like my bike seat much. Yay owieness.

Anyway, I also did a brisk walk at lunch, played a softball game, and ran for about 15 minutes before the game. My quads were all lactic acidy this morning in the pool, and my arms are really sore now. Yes, I realize I'm a wuss. :p

That set up there is a little wacky, but that's because Evan wanted to cut down our 500s to 400s and we bargained with him to leave those and cut some of the 100s instead. Which is good, becuase I can definitely use the distance training before this weekend. They were a little rough, but not too horrible. I think I can manage 300 more continuous meters.

I have a hockey game tonight and plan to ride my bike Thursday and swim Friday morning. The triathlon starts at 7:55 on Saturday, and I have a feeling I'll be done by some time between 9:30 and 10:00. I swiw a 50 (yard) free in about :55 when I'm pacing myself, and 800 meters is around 900 yards (so 18 50s), which would estimate my swim time to be about 16:30. I have a feeling it will be closer to 18:00 because of the start (where I'm expecting to get kicked in the head a bunch and flail trying to get used to swimming in a) a pond, b) a wetsuit, c) a gigantic group of people). My cycling speed is about 4:15/mile, so the ten miles will be just about 43 minutes (give or take), and my 5K run is 32-35 minutes (depending on deadness), bringing my total to around an hour and forty minutes, plus transitions making it about 1:45 or so. I'm guessing.

Yeah, that all was mostly for me. I think I will be okay with it as long as I don't go over two hours, and manage to finish the thing without dying.

3200 (25900/197600)

2009-05-18T08:12:00.003-06:00

200 swim (warmup)
200 kick (warmup)
200 drill (warmup)
4 x 150, odds swim/kick/swim, evens kick/swim/kick
6 x 50, odds drill, evens descend 1-3
400 pull, breathe 3/5 by 50
300 swim, negative split
200 drill
100 IM, negative split
3 x 100, 50 fast kick / 50 easy drill
2 x 50 swim (warmdown) - head up to spot for open water practice

Total: 2900 SCM (~ 3200 SCY)

So the pool was set to short course meters this morning, which was interesting. I don't feel like trying to keep track of yards and meters separately, so I'm just going to convert and round to yards for my distance tracking.

As soon as school is 0ut we're going to change our schedule so we practice Monday, Thursday, and Friday, with Thursday being long course meters. I think it will be fun, since I've never swam long course before, but will also suck, because masters only gets two lanes, so we're going to have a ton of people sharing with a wide range of skill/speed. I guess we'll see how that goes.

The workout today was good. Not too challenging, but I think it was a technique day, so that's okay. A new gal named Karen was in our lane today. She normally swims with Vortex, but apparently they are totally messing with their pool at the moment. First they didn't have a women's locker room (they had to change in the bathroom and could only get a deck shower) and now they aren't heating the pool (as they're working on the heating system), so she came to our practice instead. She's an older lady, and a little slow, but she's really pretty hardcore (apparently she swam a 10K last year).

This weekend I have my first triathlon, so I'm doing a little bit of swimming at the end with my head up to spot a target so I can get used to that in open water. To be honest, I'm alternately terrified and completely calm about the whole thing. We'll see how I am when I actually have to DO it. It's only 800 meters, but I haven't had any open water practice, and I'm mildly scared of what might be lurking in the dark (and not being able to touch bottom if I inhale lake water or something), but I will be in a wetsuit, so I'll have that extra buoyancy, and 800 meters is really pretty short (just under 900 yards). Yeah, I can do this. Or something.

Two weeks from today is my 30th birthday. I have the day off from work, but I'm going to get up and swim anyway. I'm not sure if I should tell Evan it's my birthday or not. He mentioned something before about having to swim a 50 fly while everyone splashes you on your birthday. Maybe I'll wait until the very end of the workout. ;)

3200 (22700/194400)

2009-05-15T08:14:00.003-06:00

200 swim (warmup)
150 kick (warmup)
6 x 50, odds fast kick, evens kick down, swim back on 1:20
4 x 150 pull, 100 DPS, 50 fast
200 free smooth
2 x 100 free fast (avg. 1:30)
200 free smooth
4 x 50 free fast (avg. :42)
200 free smooth
8 x 25 free fast (avg. :17)
200 free smooth
8 x 25 free, V sprints (25 easy/fast, 25 fast/east, 25 build, 25 sprint x 2)
300 pull (warmdown)
50 kick (warmdown)

Total: 3200

I loved this sprinting this morning! At first I had a feeling it would be another fail day with Vicki and Alex in the lane, but I can generally sprint faster than Vicki, so I swam second instead of last in the core part of the workout and it felt really nice to be able to keep up and turn in some good times. :) Swimming = win today.

3300 / 3200 (19500/191200)

2009-05-11T07:57:00.004-06:00

Masters Practice, Monday, May 11

100 free (warmup)
100 back/breast (warmup)
4 x 75 kick, desc 1-4
4 x 50 free build, desc 1-4
4 x 25 free, easy / fast / drill / fast
5 x 200 free^*, fifth fast for time (3:05)
4 x 50 drill
5 x 200 free^*, fifth fast for time (3:09)
400 pull (warmdown)

Total: 3300

--

Masters Practice, Wednesday, May 13

300 swim (warmup)
8 x 75, 25 kick / 25 drill / 25 swim, IM order
300 pull, descend by 100
200 IM
100 kick
4 x 25 fly on 1:00
300 IM (with fins)
200 kick, sprint/moderate by 25
100 pull, 90% effort
4 x 25 back on :45
300 kick, 75 each stroke (with fins except whip kick)
200 pull, descend by 50
100 IM
4 x 25 breast on 1:00
200 swim (warmdown)

Total: 3200

I have never felt so dead after a swim practice before. About an hour later at the grocery store, I almost dropped both a pineapple and a carton of juice because of how tired my arms were. And they're still tired, as are my quads. I think I'm going to blame all that butterfly, plus the bike ride from yesterday. My muscles are on hiatus.

I was actually pretty cranky about practice this morning. Alex is back, and he's lovely, but he doesn't seem to believe in rest. So I didn't really get much, and I was gassed the whole time, and sucking pool water like crazy because I couldn't breathe, blah blah blah. It was just one of those days where I got reminded how much I suck at everything. And yeah, I know I suck, I've only been swimming like this for about 5.5 months, but some days it's harder than others to be the slowest person in the slowest lane in the pool.

Moo. I felt marginally better at the end when I talked to Tasha (who coached today so Evan could swim with us) and she said she thought our lane did an awesome job, especially with the IM stuff and the amount of it we did. Still, I want to be better. Like, immediately. I've always been one for instant gratification. I know it's not even remotely realistic, but that's just the way I am.

Anyway, swimming has been okay. I've been mostly happy with it, and that's a good thing. A bad thing, however, is that there won't be any more stroke clinic until August at the earliest. Normally it takes a break from June until August anyway, but Chris, the instructor, has some major vitamin deficiencies and has to be on some nasty medicine that makes her light-headed, so she hasn't been teaching since last Monday, and they just canceled the clinic all together.

Because of this, I want to add another day a week to do drop in, probably after work. I'm thinking Thursdays, since I have softball on Tuesdays. We'll see, I guess. I skipped last week, but I'm planning to go tomorrow. Let's see if I actually do it.

3050 / 2750 (13000/184700)

2009-05-06T07:53:00.003-06:00

Masters Practice, Wednesday, May 6

125 swim (warmup)
125 kick (warmup)
100 drill (warmup)
3 x {100 kick / 2 x 25 kick fast }
13 x 50 free, every fourth 50 fast on 1:00
12 x 50 free, every third 50 fast on :55
8 x 50 free, every other 50 fast on 1:10
4 x 50 free, all fast on 1:30
400 pull, breathe 3, 7, 3, 5 by 100

Total: 3050

--

Masters Practice, Friday, May 8

300 swim (warmup)
100 kick (warmup)
100 drill (warmup)
3 x 50 breast drill
3 x 50 free, descend 1-3
200 free smooth
100 free, fast-ish
3 x 100 free drill, 9-kick hesitation/6-kick hesitation by 50
200 free, smooth
150 free, fast
3 x 100 back drill, 25 kick/25 right arm/25 left arm/25 swim
200 free, smooth
200 free, fast
3 x 100 free drill, fist/catchup by 50

Total: 2750

1200 (7200/178900)

2009-05-04T23:02:00.003-06:00

Stroke Clinic

100 free

2oo, free/back by 25

200 dolphin kick (fins)

50 fly (fins)

300, free/dolphin kick by 50 (swimmers snorkel)

50 pull with paddles

200 free, sprint/easy by 50

2 x 50 free

Total: 1200

3000 (6000/177700)

2009-05-04T08:04:00.004-06:00

300 free/back by 50 (warmup)
150 dolphin kick (with fins, warmup)
8 x 25 kick on :45
200 free on 4:10
100 IM on 2:30
8 x 25 free/fly by 25 on :45
200 free on 4:10
100 IM on 2:30
8 x 25 free/breast by 25 on :45
200 free on 4:10
100 IM on 2:30
8 x 25 free/back by 25 on :45
200 free on 4:10
200 IM
8 x 25 free/free fast by 25 on :45
250 pull (warmdown)

Total: 3000

As usual lately, I don't really have time to post much commentary here, but I must be getting better at fly, because I can do more of it now before I die. That 200 IM was a little rough (saddest 50 fly EVER), but otherwise, it wasn't so bad. Huh.

3000 (3000/174700)

2009-05-01T07:38:00.003-06:00

100 swim (warmup)
100 kick (warmup)
100 pull (warmup)
4 x 100 IM
8 x 50 free on 1:05 (concentrate on flipturns and finish)
4 x 50 free on :55
2 x 300 free on 5:30
4 x 50 free on 1:00
300 free on 5:15
4 x 50 free on 1:00
300 free on 5:00
100 pull (warmdown)

Total: 3000

Meant to post this last Friday right at the end of my shift, but Blogger choked on it and it didn't go through. Luckily it saved as a draft, because there's no way I would have remember this workout otherwise.

Since it's been three days, I don't have much in the way of reaction to this, except that, wee! I did four 100 IMs! Which, not really that impressive, but I was proud of myself anyway. Heh.

1200 / 2950 / 1250 (46300/171700)

2009-04-29T07:35:00.006-06:00

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)

2009-04-27T07:46:00.002-06:00

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)

2009-04-22T08:55:00.003-06:00

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)

2009-04-20T08:29:00.003-06:00

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)

2009-04-19T15:19:00.003-06:00

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)

2009-04-17T07:43:00.003-06:00

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)

2009-04-15T07:41:00.003-06:00

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)

2009-04-13T13:41:00.003-06:00

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)

2009-04-13T08:25:00.004-06:00

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)

2009-04-10T08:51:00.003-06:00

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)

2009-04-08T08:00:00.003-06:00

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)

2009-04-06T14:03:00.003-06:00

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)

2009-04-06T07:47:00.004-06:00

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)

2009-04-04T21:13:00.003-06:00

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)

2009-04-01T07:41:00.002-06:00

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

3150 (25200/125400)

2009-03-30T08:15:00.005-06:00

100 swim (warmup)
100 kick (warmup)
100 swim (warmup)
100 drill (warmup)
100 reverse IM
100 IM
100 free, fast on 1:40
50 free, easy
100 free, fast on 1:40
50 free, easy
100 free, fast on 1:40
100 free, easy
100 free, fast on 1:40
150 free, easy
100 free, fast on 1:40
200 free, easy
100 free, fast on 1:40
300 free easy
25 free, fast on :30 (with fins)
25 free, easy on :45 (with fins)
25 free, fast on :30 (with fins)
50 free, easy on :45 (with fins)
25 free, fast on :30 (with fins)
75 free, easy on :45 (with fins)
25 free, fast on :30 (with fins)
100 free, easy (with fins)
6 x 50 kick (with fins) on :35-:40
150 free, 100 easy / 50 fast on 3:15
150 free, 50 easy / 50 fast / 50 easy on 3:15
150 free, 50 fast / 100 easy on 3:15

Total: 3150

I almost bailed on swimming this morning SO many times. The crazy 30 MPH wind woke me up at about 4:45 (which is fifteen minutes before my alarm) and I really considered resetting my alarm for seven and just sleeping through practice. I ended up playing six hockey games between Friday night and Sunday, five of those at around 30 minutes of ice time. My body is pretty tired and sore, and the idea of not doing anything remotely resembling exercise for a month sounds pretty appealing. But I dragged my ass out of bed and got dressed anyway.

Then my cat was being particularly adorable when I left my room, and I considered just curling up on the couch with her for a couple of hours.

I didn't. Obviously.

When I got to the pool I found lane one was closed. The caulking on some of the tile is really coming up and actually floating around in the lane in the way of swimming, so Lori and swam in lane two with Lance today. It actually didn't work too badly even though Lori and I were doing slightly slower intervals. I did cut about 200 yards (50 on four different sets) worth of the recovery sets up there between the 100 sprints so I could keep up and not get in Lance's way. I think if my arms and legs didn't feel like they were falling off I could have done better there, but I don't feel too bad about it.

I'm really glad I ended up swimming this morning. It felt really good once I got into it, even though I feel like I've been hit by a bus now that I'm out of the water. I'm skipping stroke clinic today (mostly because I need to work through my lunch break so I can go to a charity thing tonight), so I can recover a little before Wednesday morning.

As far as my yardage, I think I'm just going to call March a wash. Between my vacation, being sick, and snow closing the pool, I'm only at about 50% for the month (a little over 14 miles). I'm going to start swimming one other day of the week now that women's hockey is over, so hopefully I can make up the 19 or so miles I'm behind for the year over a few months.

1050 (22050/122250)

2009-03-25T16:19:00.002-06:00

Stroke Clinic

250 pull (warmup)
2 x 50 breast
2 x { 50 whip kick with board / 50 breast }
25 back
200, 50 free / 50 breast / 50 back / 50 breast
25 fly
2 x { 50 dolphin kick with fins / 50 dolphin kick without fins }
3 x 50, 25 back kick / 25 free

Total: 1050

There were a lot of people at clinic today, and I spent a bunch of time chatting, so I didn't really swim that much. I probably would have done more fly, but I ended up sharing a lane right after I finished all that dolphin kick (with a lady who wasn't in the class), so I ended up doing those back stroke kick / freestyle sets instead.

My yardage is so low this month, what with my vacation and the death plague I had last week. Only 12-ish miles. Lame, man. And I can't swim this weekend because I have to play at least five hockey games between Friday night and Sunday night. Ah well.

3000 (21000/121200)

2009-03-25T07:45:00.004-06:00

200 swim (warmup)
4 x 50 dolphin kick on 1:10
4 x 50 flutter kick on 1:30
6 x 100 non-free, 75 drill / 25 build (back, back, breast, breast, back, fly) on 2:10
5 x 200 free on 3:45, 1-3 pull, 4-5 swim
300 free, smooth
200 IM, broken by 50 (:10 rest between each 50)
100 free, fast (1:35)
200 pull, breathe every 5 (warmdown)

Total: 3000

My butterfly continues to get worse and worse. I don't know if it's because I'm getting discouraged, or I'm just still getting back into shape after the Spring/head cold break, but it makes me sad faced. I like butterfly. I want to get good at it. Perhaps I will ask to do some today in stroke clinic. Assuming my triceps don't succeed from the union of my collective arms.

Also, I need more work on breath control. On that 300 free smooth I forced myself to swim at a pace that allowed me to breathe bilaterally the whole way. Generally, I can only do that for about 100 yards, then I have to switch to breathing right only. I think this is affecting my endurance. Blah blah blah, long story short, breathing needs work.

3200 (18000/118200)

2009-03-23T14:07:00.001-06:00

300 swim (warmup)
8 x 75, 50 kick / 15 swim (fins)
2 x 400 swim on 7:20
1 x 400 pull on 7:40
4 x 100, 50 free / 50 back on 1:50 (fins)
1 x 400 swim on 7:00
100 easy
4 x 50, 25 kick / 25 swim on 1:00 (fins)

Total: 3200

And this was today's. I LOVED this set. A couple of months ago, if you'd said I'd have to do that many 400s, I think I would have died. But now, 400 isn't really a big deal anymore. I love that I'm actually getting better, conditioning and endurance wise.

2500 (14800/115000)

2009-03-23T14:06:00.003-06:00

200 swim
100 IM kick
200 pull
100 IM drill
200 back
100 IM
8 x 50 fly kick (fins)
2 x { 4 x 100 pull / 100 IM / 2 x 50 back fast }

Total: 2500

This one was Sunday, March 22. I actually quite enjoyed this set. I cut about 500 off the end (12 x 25 fly kick/swim and 200 warmdown) because I had to go to hockey practice. Swam for just about an hour.

2350 (12300/112500)

2009-03-23T14:03:00.002-06:00

300 swim (warmup)
200 drill
100 kick
10 x 50 from middle of pool, two flipturns per 50
10 x 75, 50 drill / 25 swim
250 pull
2 x 125, build by 25

Total: 2350

This was Saturday, March 21. I got really sick Thursday, March 12 and missed masters practice on Friday morning, then we were off for Spring Break, and I took most of the week easy so I could recover from the nasty head cold thing I'd picked up.

I had to cut the workout short because I had softball practice and only got about 50 minutes in the pool.

1250 (9950/110150)

2009-03-11T16:53:00.004-06:00

Stroke Clinic

2 x 100 free (warmup)
100 pull (warmup)
25 superfly drill/25 teacup drill
25 front dolphin kick/25 back dolphin kick
50 fist drill
50 one arm drill
6 x 50, 25 sprint/25 slow technique (fins)
50 shark fin drill
2 x 50 free sprint
50 shark fin drill
2 x 50, 25 sprint/25 slow technique
100 free hard, pull
50 back kick (warmdown)

Total: 1250

So, I went. And my instructor took pity on me and let me do a ton of drills, rather than a lot of distance or sprinting (though there was some, it wasn't bad). Chris also gave me a good squeeze at the end after I'd unloaded some of my stress on her. She's a sweet lady.

3450 (8700/108900)

2009-03-11T07:53:00.004-06:00

50 swim (warmup)
4 x 100, stroke/free by 25
3 x 75, 25 right arm/25 left arm/25 swim
2 x 50 DPS
25 head up
3 x 200 free
3 x 150 free
3 x 100 free
3 x 50 free
4 x 175 pull
2 x 125 back
50 kick
2 x 75 kick

Total: 3450

So, mostly due to work/personal stress, I didn't end up signing up for the meet in April. Which is probably a good thing, because I totally suck at swimming.

I was late today because I tried really hard to oversleep. I turned off my main alarm, but my backup woke me up. Somehow I left the house five minutes late, then got behind this person for the first four miles of the drive that could not drive the speed limit (or even close, a couple times). All signs were pointing to me going home and going back to bed.

But I went swimming. And it sucked. About halfway through our first set a new person came to our lane, which put us at five swimmers. And all four of them were fast enough that I was getting my ass run over. I had to keep stopping to get out of their way, so after one of those 150 frees up there, I got out of the pool. I contemplated leaving, but decided to go swim in one of the lap lanes in the diving well.

All those sets up there had intervals, but I couldn't make them, so I gave up. Also, I totally screwed up the pattern at the end because switched lanes twice because I thought some lady needed my lane. Arg.

Today I hated swimming. I'm supposed to go at lunch and there is no swimming next week (because of spring break) so I should go. Plus I haven't seen Chris since before I left for New York. But I'm really, really not feeling it. At all.

3000 (5250/105450)

2009-03-09T07:47:00.004-06:00

200 swim (warmup)
100 kick (warmup)
100 swim (warmup)
3 x { 50, 25 fly/25 back // 50, 25 back/25 breast // 50, 25 breast/25 free }
150 pull, breathe 3/5/7
150 pull, breathe 5/3/choice
150 pull
400 free
4 x 100 IM
300 free
75 back/free/back
75 breast/free/breast
75 back/free/back
75 breast/free/breast
200 IM
100 pull (warmdown)

Total: 3000

I did all my IMs with fins. Because they kill me otherwise. Still, wee IM!

So I have this meeting in Denver all day for work, so this is going to be short today. But the set this morning was fun and challenging. Also, my coach may have convinced me to swim an event in the state masters meet in April. Which, OMG HORROR. I'm going to suck SO HARD. YAY FOR BEING INSANE WEEEEE!

2250 (2250/102450)

2009-03-06T07:19:00.005-07:00

250 swim (warmup)
6 x 75, 25 kick/25 swim/25 kick
4 x 200 free
50 free sprint (from dive, for time) - :38.0
3 x 150 free, descend
50 free sprint (from dive, relay)
200 easy (warmdown)

Total: 2250

So there's a huge age group swim meet at my pool this weekend, which condensed our practice into 50-55 minutes instead of 75 (the meet started at 7:00AM, so we had to be out of the pool around 6:40). Also, the pool configuration changed for the meet, so we were swimming lap lanes that were in the diving well (which are the racing lanes for the meet). Which was... Interesting. I actually got a little dizzy when I'd get to that part of the pool, because the depth would change and mess with my head when I was looking at the black line at the bottom.

Both the sprint and relay were fun. I didn't think I'd be able to pull off a decent sprint after a week out of the pool, but 38.0 is a personal best for me on a 50y free, so yay! I think Lori was :37 and change, so not too bad! Then the relay, they had the three of us from lane one (me, Lori, and Alex) go first in three lanes, and I beat Lori to the wall on my lap. My lane got second over all, even though we were leading handily after our second swimmer. Our third swimmer and the third from lane three were right on each other, but our anchor had some trouble with his turn at 25 and lost some ground there. It was nice to get to race against other people around my speed, because I didn't feel like such a supreme failure at the end of my swim.

Also, my coach was so cute this morning. I was planning to tell him I was going to be out of town (I missed Monday and Wednesday because I was in NYC) at practice last Friday, but he was gone (for a meet) and he asked me this morning where I'd been and said he'd missed me. Aww! <3

All in all, I didn't feel too horribly out of shape this morning. It was kinda nice to have a shorter workout than usual to get back into the groove, and this one was a lot of fun since we were messing around with our dive starts because we were in the diving well. Yay swimming!

P.S. Holy crap, it's March! When did that happen?

2850 (47750/100200)

2009-02-27T07:30:00.003-07:00

200 swim (warmup)
200 kick (warmup)
200 pull (warmup)
8 x 50 kick, non-free/free by 25
2 x 100, 25 right arm/25 left arm/25 fist/25 swim
2 x 300, 100 free/100 back/100 free
200 free on 4:00
2 x 100 back on 3:00
2 x 50 free on :50
2 x 25 fly on :50
200 free (pull) on 4:00
2 x 100 back on 3:00
100 free (warmdown)

Total: 2850

1400 (44900/97350)

2009-02-25T13:42:00.003-07:00

Stroke Clinic

300 swim (warmup)
300, back/breast/free by 50
200, 100 breast/100 back
2 x 100 breast
50 pull
50 dolphin kick with fins
50 dolphin kick with fins on side
2 x 50 free, 25 slow/25 normal
2 x 25 free, slow
100 free

Total: 1400

Uuuum, yeah. I got nothing.

3400 (43500/95950)

2009-02-25T07:38:00.005-07:00

200 swim (warmup)
50 kick (warmup)
300, 100 pull on 2:10/100 kick on 2:30/100 stroke (back) on 2:10
2 x 300 free, 100 9-kick hesitation/100 6-kick hesitation/100 swim
400 swim on 6:10
400 choice on 6:30 (pull)
400 swim on 6:10
4 x 100 free on 2:10
4 x 100 free on 1:55
250 pull (warmdown)

Total: 3400

I really liked this swim today, too. I was having trouble focusing on the clock until the 100s at the end, so I have no clue if I was making my intervals, but all three of the 400s felt great to me. I did flipturns on the last one, and those were less great. Still, I'm finally feeling like I have some endurance, and doing a 400 doesn't remotely kill me like it used to. So... yay?

I really liked the 100s, too. Those intervals aren't too difficult for me, and give me enough rest that I don't feel like dying.

The only complaint I have is that Joy is back. And I like Joy, she just doesn't do lane sharing very well. She gets tired fast and stops a lot, but never gets out of the way when she does, which messes up my flipturns (or my ability to attempt one). Also, for those last four 100s, she was wearing fins so she could keep up, and I was worried the whole time she was going to mow me down.

My stomach is totally rebelling today. I think it might be that I drank most of my water after my warmdown, so I put 750 ml into the system all at once. I thought eating would help, and it is a little, but oog. Not shiny.

1550 (40100/92550)

2009-02-23T15:32:00.002-07:00

Stroke Clinic

100 swim (with fins)
2 x 50, sprint/swim by 25
3 x 50, kick/swim by 25
2 x 100, drill/swim by 50
200 pull
50 pull
50 swim
25 dolphin kick
25 fly
3 x 50 sprint
100 build
10 pushoff/glide (~50) - I did some three stroke fly in here too, just to amuse myself
2 x 50 torpedo
50 modified torpedo
50 corkscrew

Total: 1550

This was fun today too. We spent most of this working on our body position for freestyle, and did a bunch of rolls and side glides and stuff. I also got to share my lane with one of the cute guards for a little bit at the beginning, which was just fine with me, heh.

2950 (38550/91000)

2009-02-23T07:39:00.003-07:00

100 swim (warmup)
100 drill (warmup)
100 kick (warmup)
100 swim (warmup)
50 kick (warmup)
10 x 50, kick drill by 25, odds fist drill, evens head-up drill, 6-10 with fins
3 x 200 pull on 4:15
6 x 50 drill on 1:10 (catchup/fist/one arm x 2)
2 x 200 swim on 4:00
4 x 50 drill on 1:10 (catchup/fist x 2)
300 swim on 4:30
2 x 50 drill on 1:10 (catchup/fist)

Total: 2950

I really liked this workout today, but then technique day is always my favorite. Unfortunately I lost track of the yardage and didn't realize I was ending so close to 3000, or I would have warmed down at least a 50. We got interrupted in the middle of the main set by a PT guy who came to give a talk about some services we can try out. I'm not sure I'm going to give it a shot, but it's nice to know it's out there. Unfortunately it shorted our workout a little bit. Oh well. Life goes on.

3000 (35600/88050)

2009-02-21T16:55:00.003-07:00

100 swim (warmup)

100 kick (warmup)

50 fly drill (3-3-3)

2 x 25 fly

50 fly drill (one arm, left then right by 25)

2 x 25 fly

100 fly kick (on back)

100 flutter kick

2000 pull

100 back kick

100 whip kick

200 swim (warmdown)

Total: 3000

Just an extra swim today by myself. Jeff wanted to go to stick and puck, so I went along and swam while he skated. The 2000 pull started as me wanting to pull a mile (1760, so 1800) and deciding to just make it an even 2000. It actually felt pretty good.

I'm still a mile behind my goal for February, and a about two for the year. I might be able to gain some ground next week, but then I'm missing a bunch of swims the first week of March (two masters practices and two stoke clinics), so I'll be nice and behind again after that. I'm thinking I'm going to start swimming on Tuesdays now that my fitness class is over, either before work or after. Hopefully that way I can get back on track.

2650 (32600/85050)

2009-02-20T07:47:00.004-07:00

100 swim (warmup)
100 kick (warmup)
6 x 75, kick/drill/swim by 25 (free/free/breast/free/back/back)
2 x 100 free, build by 25
12 x 50 free on 1:00, every fourth sprint
10 x 50 free on 1:10, every third sprint
8 x 50 free on 1:20, every other sprint
4 x 50 free on 1:30, sprint
100 pull (warmdown)

Total: 2650

Speed day. I wasn't feeling it at all. We did a lot of skating in hockey practice last night, and I could immediately tell the lactic acid hadn't been flushed out of those big leg muscles when I started kicking today. Also, I ate right before bed, and ended up with a fun stomach ache this morning (which has become nausea again - bleh, should eat breakfast but I feel horrid). On top of that I donated blood last night too, so I think my body is just done with me.

Aaand I just made the mistake of going into the break room (to fill up my water bottle) where people are preparing food for lunch today. BBQ sauce. Cooked beef. Vomiting was an actual concern. Ugh, and I can kinda smell it at my desk, too. Gah.

I'm just going to rant here because I can't really anywhere else: Just because I'm a vegetarian it doesn't mean that I consider a large mushroom to be an acceptable alternative to real food. I like portabello mushrooms just fine, but sliced and incorporated into things, not as a sandwich filling. See, mushrooms a) never seem to get cooked enough, and b) cool down pretty fast, so halfway though it's like eating wet paper towel on a bun. And the really annoying thing is that I feel obligated to eat it, because I'm one of two vegetarians at the company, so they had to get the stupid mushrooms specially. I hate BBQ day. HATE. With the white hot passion of a thousand suns.

Blah blah blah. Sprinting today was hard. The main sets were actually 16 and 12, but Evan cut them to 14 and 10, and I further cut the first one to 12 because I thought I was going to die. I was really rather shocked I made it through the last two sets. I didn't think there was any way in hell I was going to be able to. Notably the last 50 we did from a dive, and I ended up swimming a 40.1 off a dive from the deck. Not too shabby, esepically after all the previous torture.

Tonight we have a get together over at this guy Karl's house. I wasn't sure if I was going to go or not, but I promised Lori I'd be there, so I need to at least put in an appearance. Maybe I'll just go and fall asleep on his couch, heh.

1050 (29950/82400)

2009-02-18T13:46:00.005-07:00

Stroke Clinic

100 swim (warmup)
3 x 100 pull, breathe every 5
2 x 50 back
50 breast
100 whip kick
2 x 50 breast
100 breast drill (glide)
50 breast
100 breast drill (one pull, two kicks)
50 breast

Total: 1050

I ended up having an anxiety attack right before clinic (long story), but mellowed out in the middle of the pull 100s. Also, my stomach settled down a little, and Chris gave me a huge brownie afterward that I devoured immediately. Mmm.

I swear I felt like I did more than 1050, but going over it several times, I don't think I did. Oh well.

3450 (28900/81350)

2009-02-18T07:55:00.003-07:00

100 swim (warmup)
100 drill (warmup)
100 kick (warmup)
100 back drill (warmup)
50 back (warmup)
4 x 75, kick/drill/swim by 25 (1 and 2 free, 3 and 4 back)
100 back dolphin kick (with fins)
175 drill/swim by 50 (free)
250 free build
325 drill/swim by 50 (back)
400 pull
100 back dolphin kick (with fins)
150 drill/swim by 50 (free)
200 free build
250 drill/swim by 50 (free with snorkel)
300 pull
100 back dolphin kick (with fins)
150 free build (with fins)
2 x 100 pull (warmdown)

Total: 3450

Um, yeah. I got to work and drank some nuclear coffee and currently feel like tossing my cookies, so this is probably going to be short.

Swim was okay. I liked the main set today. Drill day is always my favorite, especially when there's that much pulling. Plus drills break things up, and when my brain is more involved the swim usually goes faster. Just swimming long sets I get that whole, 'okay, 300 more to go, god my arms hurt, I can't breathe, gonna die, 250 more, I can't wait for this to be over' thing going and it makes swimming feel like a chore.

Lori and I shared lane two today since we were lower in numbers. Erin (she's been swimming with us for about two weeks) was in lane one with a new guy whose name I didn't catch who apparently could swim pretty fast, but was really slow on drills. The girls' high school swimming season is over now (hallelujah), and the boys' has started, with it a lot of yelling by their coach. I'm glad I don't swim for them, or I'd probably cry daily. I'm just happy to have my quiet locker room back. Heh.

Blah blah blah, I really wish I had some kind of bread product to soak up the evil in my stomach. I don't think my banana is going to make me feel better. Urg.

3200 (25450/77900)

2009-02-16T07:52:00.004-07:00

200 swim (warmup)
200 drill (catchup/fist/one arm/back one arm - warmup)
100 kick (warmup)
50 back kick (warmup)
800 pull, broken into 150 free, 50 stroke (back, fly/back, breast, back/fly)
200 free on 3:30
200 free on 4:30 (recovery)
200 free on 3:20
3 x { 150 free (easy/hard/easy) on 2:50, 100 free build on 1:50, 50 hard on 1:00) }
75 back (warmdown)
75 back kick (warmdown)
50 fly (with fins, for fun)
150 back kick (warmdown)

Total: 3200

I did not swim this weekend, which was probably a good thing, since I had two hockey games. On the other hand, I'm pretty far behind my monthly goal at this point (25450 yards is about 14.5 miles, and I should be at 16 if I want to be on track). I finished January a mile behind, and last week was kind of thin on yardage, so that's probably where the disparity is coming from.

Of course today I'm missing stroke clinic so I can go eat Indian food for lunch. Not that I'd consider that a bad trade off, it's just going to put me a bit more behind. If I can get 3200 on both Wednesday and Friday morning and 1000 at stroke clinic on Wednesday, I'll be about 1.5 miles back on Friday. If I swim this weekend (2700 yards) I can catch up for Friday, at least, but I'll still be two miles behind on Monday. And then, of course, I will be missing two morning practices and two stroke clinics the first week of March when I go out of town. I might just have to plan on swimming a couple thousand yards on either Saturday or Sunday for the next few weeks. Or maybe I can go on Tuesday nights after work, once I get done with my fitness class this week. That might be an idea.

Blah blah blah. The workout today was pretty good. Challenging but not enough to totally kill me. Lane one was just me and Lori today, which was nice and relaxing since I didn't have to worry about crashing into anyone. I am starting to wonder what happened to the three guys who I'd been sharing my lane with recently (Jim, Tom, and JD). I haven't seen any of them in about two weeks.

My lungs behaved most of the beginning of the main set, but then crapped out at the end of the third 200. I started the Pulmicort like I planned on Saturday, but the inhaler thing is weird and I honestly can't tell if I'm getting any medication out of it or not. The directions say that you might not be able to tell that you've inhaled the medication and NOT to take a second dose, even if you don't feel like you got one. There's a counter on the side, but it hasn't moved much since I started taking it. I took my fifth dose this morning and the little thing has only moved a tiny fraction. I have no idea, man. And since I got it mail order, I didn't have a pharmasist telling me if I'm doing it right or not. If it keeps feeling weird, I might call my doctor and ask. This stuff is way too complicated for me, apparently.

Pulling fly and breast, by the way, is weird. Fly was easier, but tiring. I was trying really hard to use the motion of my torso to help me move forward in the water, but I have no idea if I'm doing it right or not. Breast was just really, really slow.

Man, I wanted to stay in bed this morning. I'm glad I didn't, but it was so appealing. Ugh, Mondays.

2600 (22250/74700)

2009-02-13T07:40:00.004-07:00

200 swim (warmup)
8 x 50 kick, descend by 50 (1-4, 5-8) on 1:15
8 x 50 swim, descend by 50 (1-4, 5-8) on 1:05
250, 100 free / 75 back / 50 breast / 25 fly
250, 25 fly / 100 free / 75 back / 50 breast
250, 50 breast / 25 fly / 100 free / 75 back
250, 75 back / 50 breast / 25 fly / 100 free
200 free
4 x 50 stroke (back/breast/back/breast)
100 free
4 x 25 stroke (fly with fins)

Total: 2600

Another short one for me today. I only managed 200 of the 500 warmup because I was late, and it was hard to get in because the pool was cold (there's an age group meet today). Whine whine. Also, my hockey coach had us doing breakouts until about a quarter after 11:00 last night. The 8 x 50 kick set about killed me.

I'm really wondering if I'm having a bad reaction to the 250/50 Advair I've been taking. I didn't have a problem with the 100/50, but my doctor is only having me taking the 250/50 once a day, since it's got 1.5 times more of the sterioid (fluticasone propionate) in it. And, reading up a bit on it, apparently I have experienced a couple of the no-no side effects (rash, for one, which I dismissed as hockey gear related and shortness of breath that doesn't respond to my rescue inhaler), plus nausea (I actually got sick again this morning). The funny thing is that the allergy I'm exhibiting is to the salmeterol, of which the new inhaler has the same amount as the old one I was using. I don't know, but I can tell that I'm having a harder time breathing when I'm swimming, and even when I'm not. I got my Pulmicort yesterday, but I was putting off starting it because drugs are expensive and that Advair was free. However, in light of all this, I think I'm going to start the Pulmicort tomorrow.

Butterfly sans fins still = disaster. Butterfly with fins = pretty decent. Apparently I need bigger feet? Actually, I think my kick is kinda weak, so the fins make up for it. Must work on this.

Because I've been so short this week, I'm getting a little behind on my "Mile a Day" goal for 2009. I might have to swim this weekend. We'll see how I feel Saturday, I guess. Wee.

800 (19650/72100)

2009-02-11T13:54:00.004-07:00

Stroke Clinic

100 swim (warmup)
4 x 50 back
25 breast / 25 back
4 x 25 whipkick
50 breast
50 whipkick (on back)
25 whipkick (on back)
25 fly / 25 back kick
2 x 50, 25 free sprint / 25 back kick
25 back kick

Total: 800

This one was especially short today. I'm not sure why, though Chris did have us doing core work out of the pool again today, so maybe that was it. I didn't mind, though, since my neck is still bothering me. She made me one of those rice neck thingers and gave it to me today, and I think I'm in love. Mm, heat.

3000 (18850/71300)

2009-02-11T07:52:00.005-07:00

300 swim (warmup)
50 back kick (warmup)
300 dolphin kick with fins, back/front by 25
3 x 50 fast flutter kick (with fins) on 1:15
4 x { 100 kick (with fins) / 100 pull / 100 swim (all on 2:15) }
2 x { 3 x 50 free sprint on 1:30 / 200 free (recovery) on 4:00 }
4 x 75, evens 25 swim/25 drill/25 swim, odds 25 swim/25 sprint/25 swim on 1:30

Total: 3000

I loved the 12 x 100 set we did today. Lots of rest (since I was averaging 1:45 on my 100s), getting to change things up a lot, and pulling. I'm not sure I can describe how much I love pull sets. I'd rather do a 1000 pull than a 200 fast. Bring it on.

Also, I got to see myself swim for the first time today. Evan brought out this huge flat mirror and they put it on the bottom of the pool. Most of the day it was in lane two, but for the 75s at the end they moved it to lane one so we could use it. Evan wanted us to use it for practicing streamlining off the wall, but I really wanted to swim over it so I could see my stroke. He said we can do that another day. I thought it was fun to see my streamline, and I was actually sort of shocked by how good it looked. I cheated on my last 25 sprint and started my stroke early so I could see it, and it looked pretty nice too. Or I thought it did, at least.

And wow, I forgot to post this for several hours. I should probably do that now so I can put in my workout from stroke clinic. Heh.

1250 (15850/68300)

2009-02-09T14:02:00.003-07:00

Stroke Clinic

250 free (warmup)
50 back (warmup)
25 free
100 pull
25 free
3 x 50 free, 25 blind swim, 25 swim
200 free (with fins)
50 dolphin kick (with fins)
50 free sprint (:40)
200 back
100 free, pace with snorkel
50 free (warmdown)

Total: 1250

Nothing to say, move along...

2800 (14600/67050)

2009-02-09T07:47:00.005-07:00

300 swim (warmup)
3 x 100 kick (free/back/breast)
6 x 50 drill, 25 fist/high elbows, 25 fist/catchup
200 pull
2 x 150 free fast
3 x 100 drill (25 fist right arm/25 fist left arm/25 catchup high elbows/25 fist catchup)
4 x 50 free fast
200 pull
150 free fast
100 drill (25 fist right arm/25 fist left arm/25 catchup high elbows/25 fist catchup)
2 x 50 free fast
5 x 50 kick with fins
100 back kick (warmdown)

Total: 2800

I'm going to preface this post with the information that taking prescription anti-inflammatories on an empty stomach is a Bad Idea.

This weekend I had a late hockey game on Saturday night in Denver (which is about 65 miles from where I live). I played my game and drove home without any problems. Then, as I was getting undressed to take a shower, I managed to move my left arm in just the right way to twinge my neck and pinch some nerve in there that caused me to have shooting back and neck pain for the rest of the weekend. I spent Sunday in a Vicodin induced stupor, then had to play in another hockey game that evening. It didn't go too badly and actually loosened up the muscles in my neck quite a bit.

Still, there was enough pain when I got up this morning that I decided to go ahead and take another anti-inflammatory before practice this morning. I forwent the painkiller because I was afraid it would upset my stomach. Ha.

I was mostly okay until the first 150 fast, and then I started to feel pretty unwell. The 50 free sprints were worse. And then, in the middle of the 5 x 50 kick set... well, we'll just be thankful there wasn't anything in my stomach to throw up.

Also, in light of the neck pain, I did all of the 100 drill sets and two of the three 150 free sets with the snorkel. Evan was actually really happy with my using it, and was excited to help me work on my stroke form since I didn't have to worry about my breathing. Which is good, because it was sucking today, too. I'm still getting a catch right in the center of my chest, probably around the bronchial tubes. I'm still waiting for my new maintenance medication to come in the mail (they're putting me on Pulmicort because it's tier one and a lot cheaper) and I'm currently taking a different strength of Advair that I was before (250 instead of 100), so I'm not sure if it's the new Advair or what that's causing the lung trouble.

Blah blah. Probably the only other notable thing today was that I did :42 and :44 on my fastest 50 free sprints. I think I've gotten a :39 before, so not great, but not bad considering.

3400 (11800/64250)

2009-02-06T07:54:00.003-07:00

200 swim (warmup)
100 kick (warmup)
100 drill (warmup)
6 x 50 free (from center of pool, flipturns at both walls, three strokes before breath) on 1:05
4 x 200 free on 3:45
4 x 50 kick, 25 free / 25 choice
600 pull
2 x 75, 25 swim/25 drill/25 swim
400 free (7:30)
2 x 100 choice (back/breast)
200 free fast (3:26)
150 pull (warmdown)

Total: 3400

Wow, my lungs hurt right now. Ow.

So today it was just me and Lori (whose name I've been spelling wrong this whole time) in lane one and it was awesome. We split, so we could go our own pace, and even though she was ahead of me most of the set today, I actually felt pretty good about it. Evan timed my last 200, and he said that Lori only beat me by :04 on hers, so yay! He said I did better on the speed part. Which is awesome considering that last 25 I felt like my arms were going to break off. Though I did think about an excerpt from a book that Joel McKenna posted a bit ago about what it feels like to push yourself, and even though I'm not in that much pain, I focused on what I was feeling and burned through it.

I also spent most of that 400 focusing on my breathing, how I paced it, how I rolled my body and how far I tipped my neck to make the whole action more efficient. It was actually feeling really good by the end, and the 7:30 was a time I was happy with (puts my 50s at around :52, which is about right for me on distance).

On those 50s with flip turns I think I was doing pretty close to :52-:53 as well, but holy cow that three strokes off the wall without breathing killed me. I felt like my chest was going to explode afterward, which I think is why my 200s after that suffered. We were supposed to be swimming them on 3:45, and I made the interval all four times, but I ended up having to take an extra 20-30 seconds rest between all but the first and second one.

My whipkick is actually feeling pretty good these days. Lori and I were doing that kick set together and she was doing flutter kick and I beat her to the wall by a good five seconds doing whipkick. My dolphin kick is sloooow. But it's good for my core, so I won't complain (too much).

Blah blah, swimming today actually felt pretty good. Evan only cut 450 yards off the main set for me and Lori, which isn't too shabby. Could really use a nap about now, though, hehe.

1150 (8400/60850)

2009-02-04T13:48:00.004-07:00

Stroke Clinic

100 swim (warmup)
100 pull
50 pull
100 back
4 x 50, 25 free sprint / 25 back kick
100 dolphin kick
25 butterfly / 25 free
100 dolphin kick
2 x 50 dolphin kick with fins
2 x 25 butterfly with fins
50 butterfly
50 free slow
200 free (with snorkel - warmdown)

Total: 1150

More butterfail. But maybe I'm getting better? I kick butterfly's ass when I'm wearing fins. I think it might be a power issue with my legs, and Logan (one of the guards) was giving me a bunch of tips about my streamline and my entry, my kick action and my timing. It's probably just something that needs a bunch of work. I should just go to the pool on the weekend and swim butterfly until I die.

Er, beyond that, I got to practice diving some more today. I'm still not good, but getting better maybe? Oh, who knows. Bah!

2650 (7250/59700)

2009-02-04T07:57:00.004-07:00

200 swim (warmup)
100 kick (warmup)
150 swim (warmup)
6 x 25 dolphin kick (with fins) on :40
6 x 50 free build on 1:05
2 x 75, fly/free/fly by 25 (with fins) on 1:50
2 x 75, back/free/back by 25 on 1:50
2 x 75, breast/free/breast by 25 on 1:50
200 IM on 4:00 (haha, more like 4:30)
200 free on 3:50
200 free on 3:40
200 IM (as 2 x 100 IM) on 4:00 (again, more like 4:30)
200 free on 3:50
200 free on 3:40
100 kick (warmdown)

Total: 2650

I always feel like I was being lazy when my total yardage is below 3000, but Evan always tells me that he has to give us more rest when we're doing stroke sets, etc. I probably could have done a bit more warmdown, but I wanted to get to work by 7:30-ish, so. Anyway, my shoulders are killing me today from doing pull-ups yesterday.

Ugh. My butterfly is still the saddest thing ever. I think I have even less stamina now than I did a couple weeks ago, as far as my fly goes. The reason that second IM got broken into two 100s is because I couldn't make 50 fly, and then on my second 100 I couldn't finish the 25 fly either. I'm hoping it's because my arms were tired from yesterday and not just because I'm that pathetic. Blah.

I did make all my intervals today, though, outside of those IM sets. So yay? We got an extra lane today, so the faster contingent from lane one (Laurie and Alex) got lane two to themselves, and everyone else got bumped over a lane. I was swimming with Jim and Joy in lane one, and they're both slower than me, so I got to lead (except in the fly parts, because Joy is really good at that).

Blah blah blah, I'm tired. Nnng.

1200 (4600/57050)

2009-02-02T13:32:00.005-07:00

Stroke Clinic

100 free (warmup)
100 pull (warmup)
25 free (check)
2 x 50 free
25 free (check)
50 back
200 whip kick
150 backstroke kick
2 x 25 free (demo)
6 x 25 free (with snorkel, pace)
3 x 50 free (with snorkel)
50 free sprint (with snorkel) - :40
50 back kick

Total: 1200

Lots of snorkel today, mostly because I twinged my neck playing hockey (got shoved over backward after blocking a shot and hit my head pretty hard on the ice) and Chris thinks the neck injury was pulling my stroke offline a bit. It was a bit of a nice ego boost to be demoing and pacing for some of the other swimmers today, though. At least I can be helpful at clinic.

Being able to breathe whenever you want is helpful on the sprint too, obviously.

3400 (3400/56050)

2009-02-02T08:47:00.005-07:00

200 swim (warmup)
150 kick (warmup)
9 x 50 free (from center of pool, flipturns at both walls) on 1:10
2 x 200 pull on 3:40
200 free, 3 strokes off wall before breath on 3:40
150 free, 3 dolphin kicks off wall
3 x { V Sprints - 25 easy/fast // 25 fast/easy // 25 build // 25 sprint, each 25 on :40 }
325 - 150 free / 25 fly / 150 free
275 - 100 free / 75 sprint / 100 free
225 - 100 free / 25 back / 100 free
175 - 50 free / 75 sprint / 50 free
125 - 50 free / 25 breast / 50 free
75 free sprint
200 pull (warmdown)
50 free kick (warmdown)
100 back kick (warmdown)

Total: 3400

Despite that final total, today sucked. It was just me and Alex in the slow lane, and I got to go back to my old method of being the only special kid in class, getting shorter sets. Laurie got bumped to lane two, and I imagine this is where she'll stay from now on, since we obviously weren't crowded in lane one today.

Anyway, I had a depressing weekend and swimming today only really cemented my feelings of being a worthless failure. Then some other things happened this morning to make it suck even more. I really could have used a mental health day, but I have a meeting this afternoon I can't miss, so I'm here. Doesn't mean I have to be happy about it.

3100 (52650)

2009-01-30T08:00:00.004-07:00

2 x { 100 swim / 100 kick } (warmup)
6 x 100, 50 drill (headup, right/left arm, fist) / 50 swim
5 x 100, 25 free / 25 non / 25 free / 25 non (fly, back, breast, back, breast)
4 x 100 free on 1:55 (1:39, 1:42, 1:46, 1:44)
4 x { 2 x 50, 25 drill / 25 swim // 200 free } (last one pull for warmdown)

Total: 3100

OMG, massive lung fail today. I even had to take my rescue inhaler a couple times, and I still got a really nasty stitch on two of those 200 frees. I could actually hear myself wheezing when I was breathing.

Though this did clear something up for me. I attempted to do 25 fly in the 25 free / 25 non and I sputtered and died halfway through the lap. The stroke takes so much power and when I'm not properly oxygenated, I can't even remotely get my arms and legs working enough to get my head out of the water to breathe. I've been kind of irritated at my inability to swim 50 fly consecutively with any consistency because I feel like I should be able to do it. However, after my spectacular fail today, I think my theory about endurance (or the lack there of) is probably pretty accurate. I just don't have the endurance built up enough to swim that much fly in a row. Yet. I will get there, dang it.

I am, however, rather pleased with my times on my 100 free. They aren't great, but I was just more than happy I was making the interval and still getting 10-15 seconds rest. I tried to time my 200s, but I had some issues with running into the two swimmers who were using fins for that whole set (their turns were funny, and they came off the wall really slowly, so I had to stutter in my stroke a bit) and I only got a time on my third one, which was 3:33. At that point we were supposed to be descending from 3:30, so I should have been at 3:10, but bleh. I swam two thirds of that 200 with a stitch that felt like someone was stabbing me in the side.

Whine whine, I know. My lungs were not my friend this morning.

3150 (49550)

2009-01-28T07:53:00.004-07:00

200 swim (warmup)
100 backstroke kick (warmup)
2 x { 75 9-kick hesitation / 75 6-kick hesitation / 75 swim }
800 pull, breathe 3/5 by 50s
4 x 50 DPS on 1:15
800 free, build by 200
4 x 50 choice (back) on 1:20
200 pull (warmdown)
100 kick (warmdown)
100 backstroke kick (warmdown)

Total: 3150

Man, it's been a tough week for 5:00AM. Today my backup alarm (5:15) woke me up, and even though I rushed, I still left the house four minutes late, which put me at the pool four minutes late. I missed about 300 yards of warmup, but I did get 300, so it ended up being okay.

After warmup, Laurie got graduated to lane two because we had five people (Laurie, JD, Jim, myself, and Alex was back, finally) in lane one. She left before I got a chance to talk to her, so I don't know how she held up (they had about 800 more yards than us today, though I'm not sure if they finished that core set or not). I haven't seen Tom this week so far. I'm not sure if he's busy, or if he decided he'd had enough, heh. Jim's still sticking it out despite the fact that I can tell it's hard on him, especially the distance sets. It sounds dumb, but I'm proud of him for staying.

Alex lead most of the laps (because he's way the heck faster than me - he apparently used to play water polo in Brazil, and you can totally tell by his physique), and it worked pretty well. He did lap me on that second 800, but my goal on that one was just to finish without stopping, so I didn't mind. And I did finish it, and surprizingly felt really strong in my last 150. I thought I was going to die, so it was defintely a confidence booster to complete the set and to do it without feeling like I was going to expire.

I did squats and lunges yesterday and it hurts like holy hell to walk, stand up, use stairs, etc. Kicking, however, didn't bother me at all today. Win. I felt really good on all my sets today, actually. My backstroke is feeling really good now too, fast and symmetrical and actually less difficult than it used to. I was getting between :57 and 1:02 on those 50s, which isn't bad considering I still don't really do a turn on those. I need to work on that.

As far as DPS, I was getting right around 37-40 strokes per 50, which again, not too shabby. Joel McKenna says he got 38 on a 50 free the other day, and he's been swimming masters for five years (and has two top ten rankings in USMS events), so I don't feel bad about my stroke count. I really think my freestyle stroke is getting to be really efficient. I have a really smooth exchange, and I do a decent job of having high elbows when I do my pull. I think if I can get my kick to be a bit more active consistently, I could start getting a lot faster.

Finally, mostly for my reference: JD was telling me today about this crazy guy named Pavel Tsatsouline and his sort of radical stretching and strentgh techniques. He has a (horribly designed) website which I might attempt to check out later.

1000 (46400)

2009-01-26T14:01:00.003-07:00

Stroke Clinic

100 free (warmup)
100 pull (warmup)
50 back
25 free / 25 back (the free was because I had to go get one of the guards to tighten the lane line, and the guard office is at the far end of the pool, heh)
2 x 50 back
50 breast
5 x 50 breaststroke kick
2 x 50 breast
2 x 25 fly / 25 backstroke kick
100 pull (warmdown)

Total: 1000

Chris took me and Ann to the diving well to practice diving again. I'm getting better at it, I think. Maybe. It's a bit of a slow process.

Other than that, the only thing I wanted to note here is that I learned the difference between frog kick and whip kick today. And that is the width of your straddle when you straighten your legs. A whip kick can not be more than the width of two fists between your knees apart. If that makes sense. Anything wider than that is a frog kick. Incidentally, frog kick is illegal in competitive breaststroke (resulting in a DQ).

I, of course, was doing a frog kick. Which is why I got to do all those laps of whip kick, to fix it. Chris said I was doing much better after all the laps with the board, so yay. I also think I've managed to fix my backstroke catch between this morning and this afternoon, which is another win. Let's just hope I remember all this by Wednesday, hah.

3200 (45400)

2009-01-26T08:01:00.004-07:00

200 swim (warmup)
200 pull (warmup)
100 kick (warmup)
8 x 50, even kick / odd drill (back/free/fly/breast) on 1:00
400 pull
400 negative interval
200 non-free (back)
100 fly kick fast
400 negative interval
250 non-free (back)
200 negative interval
100 fly kick fast
150 pull (warmdown)
200 back (warmdown)
4 x 25 fly recovery on :30 (warmdown)

Total: 3200

General feeling of the day: ARGH.

We had snow last night, which means my drive to the pool this morning was the "taking your life into your own hands" sort. Which means a) not fun, and b) I was late. Shock and awe.

I had the late hockey game last night (9:30), so I wasn't in bed until midnight, and I woke up at 4:00AM for some reason, so when the alarm went off at 5:00 I really, really considered rolling over and going back to bed for another two hours. Plus Jeff (the boyfriend) is off on Mondays now, so he was still up and watching the 2003 World Series (of all things) on TV, and the idea of curling up on the couch with him was pretty appealing too.

But I swam anyway.

Holy cow, though, it was irritating today. That main set up there (starting at the 400 pull and ending at the warmdown) is nothing like what our coach wrote on the whiteboard for several reasons. The most prominent of those is that Laurie can't count/remember directions, and the other gal who was in our lane today was really slow, and kept stopping on random 25s.

Laurie was driving me bonkers. She can't count on good days, but she was really off today. And she ends up leading most of the time because she's the fastest swimmer in our lane. Because of the counting issues, we lost 100 pull, a 200 negative split, and about 150 non-free. We ended right at 7:00 before the warm down, so we wouldn't have finished the set anyway, but it was making me crazy.

Also crazy making are the people who can't/don't want to swim the freestyle sets. It's really, really hard for me to make a 400 negative split when my lanemates are randomly switching to backstroke or breaststroke in the middle of a set. Maybe it's because of the order I learned my strokes in, but freestyle is by far my fastest, so it always confuses me when people would rather swim breaststroke or fly or something. Those strokes kill me, and they are so slow it's not even funny.

Blah blah blah. I didn't plan those 25 fly recovery sets, but when I got done messing with my backstroke, Leigh Ann and Evan were doing them and Leigh Ann invited me to do them too. The way they work is that you start with three strokes fly, then finish the 25 with freestyle. You do four 25s that way, then you do four 25s with four strokes fly, then with five strokes, all the way to seven. I, obviously, only did the three strokes set, partially because it was getting late and I needed to get to work, and partially because I was tired.

Still tired, still sore, but I'm going to stroke clinic anyway because I have to miss it on Wednesday to go to the dentist. Woo. :p

2700 (42200)

2009-01-23T07:38:00.004-07:00

200 swim (warmup)
100 kick (warmup)
100 drill (warmup)
4 x 50 free on 1:05
50 non (back) on 1:30
4 x 50 free on 1:00
50 non (back) on 1:20
2 x { 175 free on 3:30 / 125 free fast on 2:30 }
2 x { 150 free on 3:00 / 125 free fast on 2:30 }
10 x 50 dolphin kick with fins, evens with board, odds streamline on back on 1:10
25 free sprint (from dive)
25 free
100 pull (warmdown)

Total: 2700

Low yardage again today, but I don't care because I love swimming and I love my coach and I love my teammates and my lanemates and my new swimsuit and and and... Yes. Everything. I'm so, so in love with this sport.

About the only thing I don't love about it (besides having to share the locker room with the high school girls after practice) is getting up at 5:00AM. I had hockey practice last night, and that goes until 11:00, so it was 11:30 before I got home and it took an hour or so to wind myself down (plus I had to eat dinner part two), so I didn't get into bed until 12:30, and didn't fall asleep until after 1:00AM. Nng. I have a feeling I'm going to be really, really tired about three this afternoon.

So, today. I swam a 50 back in :59! Which is totally lame, but it made me happy as hell. My 50 frees are getting to be about :51 when I'm not sprinting, which I'm not sad about either. And then that 25 we had to do from a dive I got, like, :18 on or something. I really think I lose a lot as far as overall time on things because my turns are so awful. I do these lazy sort of open turns because I'm always tired, and I really should at least work on making them stronger, if not forcing myself to do more flip turns.

It was Reubin's fault that we ended up doing the dive start, but it was fun! I'm still terrified to go off the blocks (because Chris told me a story about a guy who broke his neck doing it, so now I'm freaked), but I went off the side of the pool and didn't do too badly. I was talking to Evan after practice and he said he could help teach me to go off the actual bulkhead, since Chris isn't allowed to do that. So yay! I can't wait!

Blah blah blah, in conculsion, swimming, ILU!

1250 (39500)

2009-01-21T17:32:00.003-07:00

Stroke Clinic

2 x 100 free pull
2 x 100 back pull
5 x 50 free pull, breathe 5/7 by 25
3 x 50 free
25 fly / 25 drown (free)
4 x 100 free/back by 25

Total: 1250

I told Chris when I got to the pool (which was between five and ten minutes late) that my quads were dead. And she, being the charitable woman she is, told me go to ahead and pull a bunch of my workout at the beginning. Hence the four 100 pull sets at the top. I did the 200 free as my warmup, then did 200 back with Ann and Kimberlee as part of their warmup. Or something. I think we were all slacking today.

Pulling on my back, btw, still sucks. Every time I stroke with my right arm, my face goes underwater. I actually put my nose clip on so that I would stop inhaling pool water. I don't know if it's because I can't find my buoyancy point with the buoy yet (I tried about four different placements with nothing but extra fail) or issues with my stroke or what. Ick.

The next set was obviously breathing control, and Chris sent us on breathing every 3/5 per 25, but it was way too easy considering I was still pulling, so I did the second through fourth set as 5/7, and then did my last 50 breathing every 9 or so (which ends up being between 2-3 breaths per 25).

After that we did a drill where we were supposed to chase each other and attempt to touch each other's feet. If we got our foot touched, we'd have to start the 50 over. Except it turns out none of us were mean enough to force each other to do extra 50s, and, to be honest, I had a serious advantage over my lanemates here. I lead the first 50 and swam my ass off, then spent the next two 50s attempting to not run them over but staying close enough that it forced them to keep swimming fast.

Of course then Chris wandered off and we got bored, so they swam another 50 free and I attempted a 50 fly. But my thighs were still so sore than I only managed 25 fly and then about 1/3 of the second 25 before I switched to freestyle.

The last set was a warmdown type set, four 50s alternating between free and back by 25s. For some reason I didn't lead these ones, so I spent the whole time trying to give my lanemates enough lead time that I didn't run into them. I used these pauses to practice my front and back dolphin kick off the wall, though I wasn't feeling energetic enough to do flipturns at all.

2800 (38250)

2009-01-21T07:44:00.003-07:00

300 swim (warmup)
6 x 75 (25 side kick right / 25 side kick left / 25 swim) - 5 x 75 free, 1 x 75 fly
3 x 150 (50 9-kick hesitation / 50 6-kick hesitation / 50 swim), last 150 with fins
8 x 75 (25 right arm / 25 left arm / 25 swim) on 1:45 (free/back/fly/free/back/fly/free/back) with fins
100 free, breathe every 5
200 IM/stroke (back)
300 free, breathe every 3
200 IM/stroke (back)
100 free, breathe every 3
100 pull (warmdown)

Total: 2800

I've never been so glad to be done with a swimming set in my life.

Yesterday in my fitness class we did lunges. I don't think I've done a lunge since I was a member of Pulse, and that's been at least three years ago. My quads and my glutes are killing me today. It hurts to walk up stairs. Hell, it hurts to walk period. So kicking this morning? Supreme pain. My dolphin kick was so bad as a result that my butterfly looked more like butterdie. And felt like it, too.

So much kicking, too. The hesitation drills are a ton of kicking, then those one arm sets make your legs compensate a little more and ugh. JD asked me how my legs were feeling before the 300 free and I said it felt like I was being stabbed by a hundred knives. I can't think of a more accurate way to describe the agony.

Speaking of JD, he told me that he was attempting to swim fly for half an hour straight on Monday. I told him my arms hurt just watching him, and he said that's the only reason to do it, for the pain. I can totally buy that. OW.

Oh, I timed one of my 50s of those 200 back sets and it looked like it was about 1:10, which isn't horrible I guess, considering the afore mentioned 100 knives thing my legs were doing and the fact that I have no turn whatsoever on backstroke. Evan timed us on our last 100 free and I got a 1:34 on it, which puts my 50s at about :47 (though I can pretty much guarantee my first 50 was a lot faster than my second). That's really not bad, especially at the end of practice. Improvement at the very least.

Of course I'm still planning to go to stroke clinic today, despite the fact that I'm walking around like someone punched me in both my thighs. I have a meeting at 1:30 today, though, so I might duck out a little early.

1000 (35450)

2009-01-19T13:38:00.006-07:00

Stroke Clinic

100 free (warmup)
4 x 25 back kick/25 back
6 x 50 dolphin kick with fins/snorkel
2 x 25 dolphin kick/25 fly with fins
3 x 50 back with fins
6 x 25 back

Total: 1000

At the end I practiced more racing starts, this time just by diving into the well without any real push off. The landing was vastly improved this way, ha. No belly flopping for me. We're supposed to work on this more tomorrow, but I have a meeting at 1:30, so I need to make sure I'm out of the pool right on time.

My backstroke is feeling much better lately. I think I'm finally getting the arms right under the water, and I'm feeling more powerful than I ever have with this stroke. I was racing a girl who was freestyling and we were staying right up at the same speed, so I think that's definitely an improvement. I haven't timed a 50 lately, but I think I will tomorrow, just to see where that is now.

3300 (34450)

2009-01-19T07:50:00.004-07:00

300 swim (warmup)
50 back kick (warmup)
125 fin kick
200 non-free (breast)
125 fin kick
200 free, build each 50
400 free, breathe 3/5 by 50
600 pull, build by 200
400 free/non by 50 (free/back/free/breast x 2)
200 free, fast
12 x 25 free, odds drill, evens breath control (descend 7 - 2 breaths per 25)
200 pull (warmdown)
200 back kick (warmdown)

Total: 3300

I'm tired. Ugh. Monday mornings are always rough, generally because I manage to break my sleeping schedule over the weekend. But I got into the pool on time to do my warmup, so yay?

Not much to say about this workout. I loved that 600 pull so much I wish I could do it every day. Pull buoy, never leave me. The 200 free fast was more like a 200 free flail (I think it ended up being 3:37 or something pathetic like that). I actually stopped at 50 and let JD pass me, because I was going so slow. Ugh. I think my big problem is I never recovered from those breathe every five stroke 50s I was doing, and I just ran out of gas.

The breath control later was better, though the last one was hard on my legs. Stupid greedy leg muscles, wanting more oxygen. It felt like a good way to end the workout, though.

I also managed to punch the lane line about four or five times today (three times in a row at the end of one lap - wtf?), and I've got a nice bruise to show for it already. Go me?

JD, btw, is an insane person. He did all his non-free as fly (I found out later this is because he can't back or breaststroke), did some extra fly when we were doing free drills, and then moved to lane two after practice was over and was doing laps and laps and laps of fly. I was doing my 200 back kick and he did at least that much fly, and was still doing it when I got out of the pool. It made my arms hurt just watching.

Oh, also, my knee held up fine during hockey last night. I wrapped it in an ace bandage below my normal brace and didn't have any issues at all. I actually had one of my better games, even. I felt like I was skating really well and making good passes/defensive plays, etc. We ended up tying, which was good considering we were down 0-2 for quite a while there.

Tonight is volleyball again. I'm wearing my badass brace, so hopefully I can get through that without destroying myself. Here's hoping.

2450 (31150)

2009-01-18T15:12:00.003-07:00

300 free

100 kick streamline

200 choice (100 breast, 100 back)

100 kick streamline

4 x 50 kick (with fins)

4 x 50 kick

8 x 50 free (evens drill, odds hesitation)

2 x 300 pull

100 IM

100 free

100 back

25 fly

25 free

Total: 2450

This is a bonus swim that I actually did yesterday afternoon. This workout is a modification of one of the ones our coach gave us for the Christmas break. I really like this one, because it's a technique set, so there's not a ton of distance and there's a lot of different things incorporated into it. Mostly I cut it short, because I only had an hour-ish, and I skipped a set of sprinting (200 free, easy/fast by 50) because my arms were pretty tired.

I felt better after swimming yesterday. My knee is still pissed off, but I have a hockey game tonight so we're going to have to see how it holds up under higher impact. Right now I can't bend it all the way without pain and resistance, but I do wear a brace when I skate and I'll be wearing shin pads, so hopefully that will be enough protection. I'm crossing my fingers, anyway.