State Meet: Post Meet Write Up

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

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

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

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)

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)

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)

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

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

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)

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)

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)

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

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

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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!