Santa Rosa Masters Summer Party 2009

Summer is a special time of the year. It is Long Course and open water. Many of us can appreciate the daylight as practice begins and how the sun is warm and pleasant on our fragile yet strong bodies. We can swim when it is warm outside, not just in the pool, where the temperature of the water only varies a degree or two from 80 F, year round. We can go to the beach, and the river and the ocean and appreciate the aquatic environment. Our environment is not only concrete, tiled lined, and temperature controlled. It can also be cold, choppy, dark, and deceiving. Currents, tides, and other aquatic life forms may await some of us who venture beyond the pool.

We had another successful masters swimming season. The team membership grew to over 100 members, as listed in the Pacific Masters newsletter. There is now a noontime masters workout, new for this season. We had almost 20 swimmers at the national championships, and we were outstanding. Masters swimming in Santa Rosa is constantly gaining participants, as seen in the growth of the Santa Rosa Masters, SRM.

The summer party hosted by the Canales was a blast. Warren and Rich Swain were grillmasters and the salads, sides and desserts were of the highest quality, made with love, care and the best ingredients. Laura made the dish of the party, a wonderful banana cake with the best caramel/butterscotch frosting in the world. Recipe please.

The pool was the perfect temperature,, and all the children swam. The putting green was in service as well. Aqua volleyball was dominated by the Beals, of course.

It was a very nice day.

Cautiously Optimistic

Actually I was cautiously optimistic yesterday because I felt pretty good through the workout and I did some gentle butterfly motion with both arms simultaneously, which leads me to be cautiously optimistic about swimming and going back to work soon. I am scheduled to go back to full duty next Tuesday, September 1. This morning I was at the Finley Aquatic Center.
It was a simulated workout.

1500 swim, no right shoulder pain, the left pec is a bit sore due to 23 holes of disc golf yesterday.
5x100 free on 2 minutes, 1:45
10x50, 4 biondi butterfly, slow straight arms, 6x25 medium, 25 swim back on 1=1:30
150ez
2650 yaards

Sunday at Ridgway

1000 free
500 kick
6x50 free
4x50 boindi fly drill, with 2 arm recovery, straight arm
100 warm down ez
2100 yards

Okay

The doors to Ridgway did not open till 0930 and several of us were waiting. It seemed to be a regular Saturday workout, with J. Morales leading the way. I went along and did as much as I could to keep in rhythm, and I did.
I warmed up with 300 free

Workout consisted of
5x100 kick on 2:15
4x100 kick/swim on 2:00
3x100 on 1:30

16x25 on 40 sec, reverse IM order, descending
I did easy Biondi drill for butterfly laps and brought both arms through recovery motion for the first time.

the rest of the workout was
5x50 with rest off blocks

I swam down about 300 more yards.
2200 yards with kicks, but not too much to complain about. Perhaps I may have turned the corner, I need to stay easy.

Real Quick

Finley@0700.
Sore this morning. Did some cruise swimming early in the 1000 free swim.
250 swim breaststroke
250 1 arm fly
500 kick with fins on back

2000yards

I am going to Golden Gate Park Disc Golf Course for a tee time at 2PM.

Backing Down

I have lowered the intensity of the swim workouts and I am just going to concentrate on the prescribed physical therapy. I decided take this approach and determine if it makes a difference in my recovery, which is taking longer than I would have expected, although I am impatient and I always try to come back too soon.
I went in to p/t yesterday morning very cranky and sore. I had taken the preceding day off from swimming and I did not do any p/t either. I swam in the morning at Finley, and just about every stroke hurt. I swam 2000 and kicked 500, but there was no quality, except for the end, I did 2x50, 38 and 35. I was real sore, I did not take any NSAID either, and then I used the arm bike for 30 minutes. I went for a long, hot walk at the Stafford Lake disc golf course. I played the first three and the final 4 but it was too hot and I could not find the 4th tee. I was pooped, and I got a bit dehydrated. Whoops.
I recovered well enough and I stuck to the plan of backing down on the intensity of the swimming this morning. I only swam 1200 yards. I felt comfortable for about 1000 yards before the shoulder started barking. I went to p/t again this morning and felt better than yesterday. I am having some severe range of motion problems. There is still quite a bit of tightness and pain and there is now crepitus, or popping sensations. There seem to be looseness. I am concerned. I have been unable to do any butterfly.

7 Days In A Row

IRidgway looked normal today. I has cleared up considerably and I took a head count when I arrived and there were 25 swimmers. I got cleaned up and yakked for a while with Olympian Gail Roper. She is cleaning up the record books for her new age group and had had several articles in Swimming World recently.
I did not keep accurate count this morning , I swam about 2000 yards, and I did a 500 but it was a 7:45. I guess I am tired from 7 days in a row, plus I was at the Y this morning to do shoulder rehab including a 7 minute warm up on the rowing machine.