Saturday, February 27, 2010

Swim Fast Saturday

This seems to be a common calling for the Saturday workout and it works for me too.

400 swim warm up choice

3x100 kick on 2:15
3x100 kick swim on 1:45
3x100 swim on 1:30

Main Set

Medley order, 4 times

50 kick
50 drill
2x50 stroke
50 stroke hard 37, 38, 34, 30
100 recovery

2700 yards
B

Friday, February 26, 2010

I did Not Swim Enough Today

I was just warmed up and ready to go when I had to go to the auto shop for an oil change. It was a very nice swim this morning because I arrived early enough to like up with the early birds and on the way out I said hello to the very beautiful and lovely Jessie, who just looked fantastic. Makes the day eh, fellas. The Ridgway swimmers were locked out this morning so many joined us at Finley this morning.

500 swim choice
1000 kick on back with fins, lots of aggressive dolphin kicking
500 back, 100, 2x200
5x100 free last one at 1:15, various interval
100 fly drill
2x100 fly broken
1x100 free/fly
4x25 fly on 30 sec, last one with full rest, 14.9

I am pondering whether to go knock out some sprint work before the hockey match at noon.

3000 yards
B

I must be on the track to something. I went to Ridgway at 1130 and should have been out by noon, but I got a bit chatty, and I missed ALL the USA scoring, because the match did start at noon, not like the other matches that started 30 minutes later than the announced start time. I got home and the score was 6-0 and there were 6 minutes left in the first period! I did get in some worthy 25s and totaled 1350 yards.

500 swim fast warm up
50 free
10x25 free on 30 sec
5x25 free/25 swim back on 1:15
5x25 free , no breathers/ swim back on 1:30 low 14s
50 free swim down

1350 yards
A

4350 yards day

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Good Warm Up Basics

I did leave my suits at IVC on Saturday and I can retrieve them any time. There was a butterfly clinic for masters swimmers last evening, and it was instructed by Coach Warren Lager.

The Maria Carrillo Lady Pumas basketball team was beaten by the Lady Gauchos of Casa Grande High School last night at Carrillo. Final was 51-40. Casa pulled away in 4th quarter after three quarters of solid defense and even scoring by both teams.

I arrived at Finley this morning and I found an open spot next to the pod and Warren was leading this morning. I heard him say there would be lots of rest in the set.

I had a good thorough warm up of about 2000 yards before I got to the butterfly part of the set. I thought that I needed to do the workout this morning because I thought the USA hockey game was at noon. Now it looks like it is on at 3PM.

Medical note: right arm region feels cranky, some point soreness at latissimus, tricep, and neck. Clavicle soreness. The cold seems to be easing up.

500 swim warm up
500 back
500 Kick on back with fins
4x100 5 seconds rest
200 free
16x25 breast kick
5x100 fly, various stroke combinations including alternating 1 arm with full stroke, full stroke lap/free lap
10x25 fly, wall work 4 strokes after turn
5x50 fly ez full stroke good rest
100ez warm down

3600 yards
B+

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Tuesday Morning and I Have to Swim

I am a bit fatigued from the double workout yesterday and the cold that I have been dealing with for a couple of days. I went to Finley this morning to swim it out. I could not swim too hard but it did feel good.

500 swim choice
5x100 free slow with 15 seconds rest
500 kick on back with fins
500 free slow
6x50 free, spl

2300 yards

That is it for the day. I have decided to not swim this noon hour, even though there is a pod of masters swimmers at the Ridgway pool. I just feel like I may need to rest this cold today.

I want to go and see the Lady Pumas basketball game this evening. They play the Lady Gauchos at MCHS in the first round of the North Coast Section D-2 playoffs.

Monday, February 22, 2010

No Need to Push

There was only the thought of a nice morning therapy swim and when I got in the pool it was so nice. Just right, nice and comfy, no chop or turbulence of any kind so I took it easy and did a simple lap swim, some backstroke, no fins or short axis swimming this morning. I entered the pool at 0715 and that allowed for a 45 minute swim, with only one rest stop along the way, and it was later with around 10 minutes left. I swam about 2400 yards. I also have a new cold and I have some strains in weird places and there may be a correlation with swimming LC at IVC on Saturday. Yesterday I swam a bit hard and I felt some of the same strains. here are new strains this morning, I will swim this evening.

2400 yards
B

I had a pretty good swim at Finley in the evening.

500 choice ewarm up
500 dps work
1000 kick on back with fins
4x50 kick on back with fins on 60 sec near 45-7 each
5x100 free dps work
2x100 fly, slow
3x100 free/fly/free/fly
200 ez
12x25 spl work down to 10 spl

3700 yards

6100 yards today

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Sunday with Dave

Warren advised us that he went skiing yesterday and he was soemthing or other so Dave came up with the workout this morning.

400 warm up

Main Set
5 times 600

500 free/100fly/back
400 IM, 100breast/free, 100fly/back
300 free, 100breast/free, 100 fly/back, 100 breast/free
200 IM, 100fly/back, 100breast/free, 100fly/back, 100breast/free
600 swim, including 400 choice and 4x50 fly ez

3400 yards less 50 on first 3 sets

3250 yards
B

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Indian Valley 50 Meter Swimming

I was invited to swim with the Marin Pirates Masters this morning. They swim at Indian Valley College in Novato California. We swam long course this morning and I really enjoyed it. I think I only swam long course two times last season. i really like swimming in a long course pool. There is much to like. The main advantage that I find in swimming long course is ther is a greater length of time to get in the proper rythym and focus without having to think about turning so much. There is a whole seperate thought process when turning and since half of the turns are eliminated from a long course workout, I find this to be advantageous.

Cokie Lepinski was the on deck coach this morning. I counted 15 swimmers at one time during the middle of the workout. There were 4 other swimmers in the lane with me. Ron Emhoff from TOC and Kent from USF as well as two other swimmers were with me in the lane.

200 warm up

Coached workout
4x100 on 1:35

6 times through
5x50 each round decending interval, 30,25, 20, 15, 10, and 5 seconds, choice
100 recovery

200 swim down

2900 meters
A

Friday, February 19, 2010

1650 Postal in the Morning

I had a pretty good swim this morning. I swam the 1650 and am submitting my time to the TAM 1650 postal event. TAM has named this event to honor Jon Steiner, the TAM swimmer that was very active in Pacific Masters and local masters swimming for many years. It is now officially called the Jon Steiner Memorial 1650 Postal Swim. It is contested in January and February and has been on the schedule for some time.

500 warm up choice

1650 swim 23:02.24. I swam 17 seconds faster thn last year. I held pace, only wavering a bit during some lost thoughts around 1200 yards. I am happy with the swim.

During warm up, I noticed that my spl was up and my rate was also fast. I carried this over to the swim, and I only reduced my spl towards the middle of the swim. I am not sure why this was so. I did not swim yesterday because Thursday has been my typical off day. I usually have fairly good dps after a day off but that was not the case today. Perhaps this change is stroke rate/distance can be attributed to the anticipation of the swim being contested competitively and I was a bit pumped.

200 warm down

2350 yards
A

I went to Ridgway for the noon swim and although the hammerhead pod was in the water I stayed on the periphery and did my own thing, due to the above workout in the morning.

500 free, try to increase stroke length
500 kick on back with fins
5x100 back all near or under 1:30, last 3 at 1:29
500 free ez
9xspeed play, 25 frees with wall work, break out stroke work. I started to get sloppy and a bit fatigued so I ended the effort.

2450 yards
B

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

One Workout at a Time

I thought I would get to the swim center at Finley a bit earlier and I got there at 0615 but I had nowhere to swim. I got in to circle and the other swimmer went to another lane to join in the workout being led by Warren. I stayed to form and did a B+ workout, tailoring it to my specifications. Today I cannot swim at noon. I have been joining the group swim on Wednesdays to swim broken 200s and butterfly workouts and I may still be a butterflier, so I did some fly work this morning.

500 swim choice free/back
5x100 free 5 seconds rest
500 kick on back with fins, dolphin
100 free
4x100 fly 200 pace
5x100 free smooth
5x50 fly/free on 90 sec
100 free
5x50 free/fly on 60 sec
200 warm down

3300 yards
B+

Late and Split Workouts Tuesday

I had to do an errand Tuesday morning and I could only get to the pool by 0900. I had to then decide to split the workout because another very important errand needed my attention at 1100. I had to sign my final retirement document at MCERA in San Rafael. Yeah. I went to Finley and swam a mini workout before I went to San Rafael. I went back to Finley at 5:30 and finished up for the day.

AM Finley
1600 straight swim

PM Finley
300 swim choice
10x100 on 1:45 with lane partners
5x(50, 50, 100)200 60 sec, 60 sec, 90 sec
100 swim down

2400 yards

4000 yard day
B

Monday, February 15, 2010

Monday Later Than Usual

Instead of going to Finley early this morning, I headed to Ridgway at 0930. I had heard that the weekend group with Warren, Morales, et al, were swimming. I said hi, and then did what I usually do on Monday and that is a recovery workout, or lap swim. Sundays with Warren usually are long and hard, so it has been appropriate to use the Monday morning workout as a recovery or short day.

1000 free/back
500 free/breast
500 dick on back with fins
500 free
700 choice, stroke work spl, dps, ez, feel the water

3200 yards
B

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Valentine Sunday

Special kisses to all the swimmers today. We had a special guest swimmer this morning who is not a regular on Sundays. I thought that we would be good for about 4 K today and I think I guessed about right. Let us see what we did this morning...

450 swim choice
6x75 2swim/1kick on 1:40

Main Set
4 times 1:50, 1:40, 1:30, and 1:20
modified last set with 75 back and 75 breast

100back
100breast
100free
2x50 free slow

12x50 kick no toys, IM order
12x50 kick on back with fins

150 warm down

3850 yards
A

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Saturday Morning Go Fast Day

Wow, tlhere were 15, 16 swimmers doing the ad hoc Santa Rosa Masters workout led by John M. this morning at Ridgway. The water was really good, but I did miss my warm up shower because the Neptune swimmers use all the hot water after their workout, which coincidently ends just before we get in the water. So we had 4 lanes and a swimmer swimming in a lane by himself.

500 swim choice warm up
3x100 kick 2 min
3x100 kick swim, breast kick/free 1:50
3x100 swim 1:40
6x50 IM on 60 sec

Main Set
4 times through

2x100 choice
100 IM hard 1:26, 1:27, 1:18, 1:13

200 warm down

3100 yards
A

Friday, February 12, 2010

A Nice Hour Swim

After a forced off day that I will tell about shortly, I was back in the pool this morning. I know that if I got to the pool too sooon, I would be swimming in the short lane, I mean shallow lane, and so I just hung around and talked with Mary, the lifeguard, for awhile. I got in that shallow lane to start swimming at 3 after the hour so the hour swim was only 57 minutes. For more details, I took a break after 1000 and I really needed another break shortly thereafter, but I kept swimming until 0800.

1000 swim
break
500 swim continuing to a full uninterrupted 30 minute swim of
1900 yards in 29:35
no warm down swim

3400 yards
B+

During the last 30 minutes of the session, I tried to stretch it out, spl, and tried to add some kicking. I had to pee for over 15 minutes and I was kind of distracted so I had a bit of a problem keeping my mind on my stroke form and count.

Yesterday I did not swim. I went for a walk in the morning around the time that I would usually walk and my back was sore from the beginning. I am going to walk now, after swimming this morning, and try to determine if there is any difference. I hope to be back in the water today, probably this evening to do some speed work.

I did make it back to Finley in the evening, and I did do some speed work. I ended up pretty tired. I met up with a group of swimmers swimming together, another ad hoc, spontaneous workout group, and it sounded like they were exactly that, a pick up workout group. It was cool seeing and I swam some with them.

500 warm up
5x50 free on 50
200 free
4x50 choice on 60
300 swim down

1450 yards
B

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Split Workout

Instead of calling the two swimming sessions for today a double workout, I will technically define the two sessions as a split workout. I swam the morning session at Finley as an aerobic workout, easy, but with purpose. I went to Ridgway at noon as we have been doing broken 200 workouts. We did the same today, although the group was very small and there were only 4 swimmers

Finley
1000 swim back/free
500 swim breast/free work the wall on breast turn including breakout stroke
500 kick on back with fins, alternating and dolphin
200 ez warm down

2200 yards
B

Ridgway

600 warm up

4 times through
200 broken at 60, 55, 50, and 45
1. fly
2. breast
3. back
4.fly, fly, free, fly
300 swim recovery, I missed about 300 total due to talking or slowness

4x50 fly on 45
100 ez warm down

2600 yards
A

4800 yards

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

The Need to Swim

Just as runners need to run, I, a swimmer, need to swim. That is what I did this morning at the Finley Swim Center. We as runners did not have the need to go to facility to pursue our passion for aerobic fulfillment. Sometimes I need to swim hard, sometimes I need to swim with analytical mindfulness. Several times during the season I need to swim fast.

500 free warm up
750 kick on back with fins/alternating
250 breast kick
100 free
4x100 back down to 1:36 on 2min
100 free
4x100 fly, down to 1:36 on 2 min
5x100 fly/choice/fly/choice, including back and breast
600 warm down, including many stroke/length drills. Got down to 11 for 25 and 23 for 50.

3600 yards
B

Monday, February 8, 2010

Just Swim Monday

I just wanted to swim today. I did not want to do any hard work this morning so I just swam some laps and thought about where I was in the water. Funny thing happened this morning. My timing was not too good and it was going to be circle swim for a while. Ir just so happened that the nice lady, Dorothy, saw that I was thinking of taking the last half lane in the shallower end and she offered me her spot circling with Brian and another swimmer. She kind of tricked me and I thought it was kind of funny. We laughed, and soon then she told me that she owes me one. It made the morning that much more fun.

I remembered again as I did yesterday that my 50 free turn was not very good on Saturday. I went into the wall tentative and I had a weak push off the wall. I did not have hardly any kick off the wall either. 1 breath down, 2 coming home, maybe 1.

This morning at Finley.

1000 swim
1000 kick on back with fins
500 back
500 breast
600 free
out ez

3600 yards
B

I want to go and work on my turns this noon.

Which I did, at Finley. I was only in the water for about 45 minutes and I did just what I went to do, I worked on my freestyle turns, including turning closer to the wall, which involves a tighter tuck. This technique differs from a distance freestyle turn because explosiveness in required during the push off the wall into streamline, followed by power kicks, either dolphin or alternating kicking into the breakout stroke. I did 12 power turns, followed by strong turns at the 50.

500 warm up free

12x50 free, power turn at 25, followed by strong turn at 50

10xmodified Texas 25/50s. I modified by allowing 1 breath before the turn, and swimming until hypoxic, then cruising into the wall. 8 and 9 were 1 breath 50s and the 10th was 50 no breather.

1600 yards
A

5200 yards

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Aftermath

The sun feels really good today, it has been winter time for several days. I think we should enjoy the sun today because it is still winter in California and more rain please. We need the water. Fill up the reservoirs, lakes and aquifers, now. Good day at the Ridgway, some talk about yesterdays meet, and then we got right to it and Warren led the way for about 8 of us. Thank you.
500 warm up, choice
8x50 free on 50

Did he call it a Hale set, hail?
400, 6 min
2x200 2:45
4x100 1:15
6x75 recovery

Kick same
400 kick, 8 min
2x200 kick 4 min
4x100 kick 1:45
That is what was the prescribed workout. I had to modify the swim set by 200, and I seriously modified the kick set to just kicking 1000

200 swim down

3300 yards, or so
B+

Santa Rosa Masters Roster at USF

How many of my teammates can I recall seeing and swimming at the meet yesterday. It starts with me,Todd W., Hermine the coach, Jenny the newbie, Joel B.,Hilary H., John M., Christine, Don F., and...I think that is it. And Sara J. And Iris. 11 total.

I asked Brian Andrews, whom I consider one of the meet directors, about the number of entries and he said that there were 400 or so swimmers. I believe that number exceeds last years turnout and it also represents one of the largest 1 day masters swim meets in the nation. I will have to do research, especially in New England and Arizona.

Another new direction was tried after the 200 free. The rest of the meet was mixed seeded heats, meaning men and women swam together. I like it. Some people do not. Elmer the meet director, was looking for feedback and I gave him some positive. I heard there were people in the other locker room that were totally against the idea of the men and women swimming together. The meet did move along extremely efficiently, since mixing the heats definitely speeds up the whole meet. I think it was over by or around 2:30.

I swam all but one of my events in a new Speedo brief, right out of the grab bag. I put on the fastskin for 200 butterfly, only because. I gotta head to the pool to see who is back in the water this morning. I can not have an accurate total of the yardage for yesterday, but I will do a pretty conservative guesstimate.

500 free warm up
200 free 2:19+
200 warm down
250 fly warm up
200 butterfly 2:59+
200 warm down
50 breaststroke in relay 34.high
50 free 26.90
200 IM 2:44+

1850 conservative yards
A-

Time to go swim

Friday, February 5, 2010

Donut Friday

I went by the doughnut shop without stopping this morning and I went straight home anticipating a bacon and egg extravaganza, but instead I went to the old standby, mush. Now I am being harassed by Joe. The USF Masters swim meet is tomorrow so I am ready.

500 choice, over half fist swimming
15 minutes kicking on back with fins, dolphin(750)
14x50 choice, all strokes

1950 yards
B+

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Two a Day The Easy Way

I think that my idea of swimming instead of going to the gym, rowing, lifting, or some other dry land activity is going to be easier than I think. It is swimming. I really like to swim and I will probably feel really good. I felt really good this noontime. I swam earlier in the morning, but just a bit.

Finley
1500 free/back, last 500 good back
good aerobic work easy
1500 yards
B

Ridgway at Noon
400 free swim
4x100 back swim

4 times
4x50 fly on 60, 55, 50, 45(broken 200)
300 free recovery
200ez

3000 yards
B

4500 yards total

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Good Day to Oversleep

That it was, I was zonked. I went to the 0900 Finley session and while I was warming up I realized that I totally messed up yesterday's entry. I did 3x200 fly and then some 50s. I do not think that I recorded such, I am going to revise yesterdays entry if needed. While I am here ia am going to record todays workout. My brain is telling me that it was bit warmer than necessary in the water, but I slugged it out.

1000 swim warm up
5x100 back
5x100 free
500 kick
100 free
20x50,
5x50, 60 sec
5x50 holding 37, 45sec
5x50, 60 sec
5x50, free/fly, 60sec, 38s
150 ez warm down

3750 yards
B

This evening, as I normally do, I went to another workout. In the past, I have mostly opted for a dry land workout of some sort, and I have experience with doubling up on the swimming as I have done double swimming workouts in the past. I am now seeing what changes, if any, will come about because of this change in the philosophy. This is one reason that my yardage is really climbing.

6:15PM at Finley
500 swim
5x100 back on 2 min
12x25 kick with board
5x100 free on 1:30
200 ez

1950 yards
B

Monday, February 1, 2010

Grade or Quality Rating Scale

I think I am going to start grading or rating the workouts. I thought of a pretty good scale by which to rank the intensity and quality of the workout.
A-prescribed workout, like a coached workout, well thought out sets,
B-self coached moderate intensity workout
C-aerobic, low intensity workout , lap swimming, drills
Below average workouts should be considered rest days, or therapeutic swims

This morning would be a B workout. We worked harder at the Warren inspired Sunday workout and I have been using the Monday workout as a recovery day with less yards and lower intensity swimming. Last Monday I think it was a C workout, as I was feeling the previous day's workout. I was feeling pretty good this morning, although I could still feel residual soreness. I also held the yardage back a bit.

400 back swim
600 free swim
100 free
500 kick on back with fins, dolphin
100 free
10x50 free/fly on 60 seconds, last 3 on 90
100 ez free

2800 yards
B-

I need to revise this workout. I was starting the workout on Tuesday and I remembered that I swam 3x200 fly this morning the above workout, so perhaps I swam an additional 600 yards, I don't know. I will keep the total yardage as entered here and on the FLOG and I will try to be more accurate in the future.