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
Friday, August 28, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
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
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
Monday, August 24, 2009
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
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
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
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).
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).
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, July 20, 2009
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)
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)
Saturday, July 18, 2009
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.
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)
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