07/31/08

SCY
1000 swim
3 x 100 breast kick on my back w/pull buoy,
1 x 100 fly no board
1 x 100 free no board
all on 1:55
5 x 600 descend @ 9:00
I went 7:51, 7:37, 7:33, 7:31, 7:28
200 wd

4700 yds

I think I've reached a point of distance stress. I was pleasantly surprised last Friday and Monday with the time drops I'd had in my LCM swims, but then after Tuesday's 4000m open water swim, Wednesday was back to my normal times. Today also did not show those nice time drops.

My stroke felt pretty good for the most part. There are a few factors that may go into the slow down:
1.) I've been out of coffee since Monday, so no morning coffee
2.) I started running again; my kicking has probably fallen off
3.) My distance went up quite a bit these last two weeks.
4.) I haven't really taken a recovery day

I picked up some coffee again, so by tomorrow we'll see if 1 is a factor. I'm doing the stroke and stride tonight, though, so 2, 3, and 4 definitely won't be mitigated.

07/30/08 dryland

bench(machine) - 12 x 95, 9 x 105, 5 x 115
lat pulldown - 10 x 105, 8 x 115, 5 x 125
tricep pulldown - 12 x 45, 10 x 55
shoulder press(machine) 10 x 75, 9 x 85, 5 x 95
seated rows - 10 x 95, 10 x 105, 6 x 115

10 min on Elliptical, HR 140-150 range

thought about my stroke today

Today I think I was "closing" my entry too much. If there is a line going straight down the middle of my body, it means my entry is going too far in to the center. I need to enter my hands out wider from that imaginary center line.

07/30/08

LCM.
200 w/u
150 free/50 stroke
100 free/50 stroke
50 free/50 stroke
3 x (50 build @ 1 min, 50 fast @ 50 sec, 50 ez @ 1:10) I did breaststroke, went 45s on the fast ones
2 x
{
300 mod @ 4:30, I went 4:20/4:15
150 (50 ez/50 mod/50 fast) @ 2:30, I went 2:10
3 x 50 fast @ 50
}
2 x
{
200 (75 mod/50 fast/50 mod/25 fast) I went ~2:50s
200 broken 100/50/50 w/10 secs rest. I was going 2:39s (2:59 total)
100 ez
}
300 wd

3400m

I was a bit slower today than I've been the last few practices, so I didn't bother going for extra sets after practice. I figured I needed to just get out and take some recovery.

The jets in the pool were really bad today, though, so that may have been a factor. I wasn't having any issues keeping up with the faster people in our lane -- they were just as far in front of me as usual so I had to wonder if there was a uniform factor.

Still, I needed to rest.

07/29/08 dryland

run 35 min
standard abs

07/29/08

Swimmin' in the Res today
4 loops, ~1000m each

~4000m

Prob'ly a little more than that. I'm getting somewhat better at sighting.

07/28/08

LCM
300 ez w/u
5 x 150 (50 drill, 50 swim, 50 stroke) @ 3rd person RI
3 x 75 (K/Swim/K)
3 x 75 build
2 x 75 FAST
1 x 50 FAST
All @ 4th person.
200 swim (went 2:40)
100 IM
50 ez
300 swim (went 4:00)
100 IM
50 ez
400 swim (went 5:30)
100 IM
50 ez
500 swim (went 6:55)
100 IM
50 ez

200 kick
100 swim ez
200 fist swim
200 breaststroke
4 x 125 (100 swim/25 stroke) @ 4th person RI
4 x (100 IM, 50 fast) @ 4th person RI
200 ez

5700m

Freestyle's gotten faster since I changed my stroke. My right shoulder feels funky, though. I'm not sure yet if it's just because I'm getting used to a different stroke or if it's injured.

I played around with my new breaststroke pull. When I get the timing right, it flows really nice and feels fast. Sometimes I pull back too far and swamp myself, though. I just have to keep working with it.

07/21/08 - 07/25/08 Weekly Total

21530m
23545y

Taking tomorrow and probably Sunday off to go camping. I had a hell of a good week in the water.

07/25/08

LCM
500 swim
4 x 50 K
4 x 50 drill
4 x 50 swim
All @ 3rd person RI
5 x 100 descend. I went 1:16 on the last one!
4 x 200 (25 stroke/150 swim/25 stroke) @ 3:10. I did breast, went about 3 min on all
3 x 300 @ 4:40 descend. I went 4:20, 4:12, 4:05.
200 ez
200 breaststroke
400 kick
300 breaststroke
200 kick
100 breast
150 free
150 free
50 stroke
100 IM
150 free
4 x 200 backstroke @ 3:15. I went 2:55 on #3, 3:00 on #4. Didn't see the times for the first 2, but they were faster.
300 ez

6400m

I did the first workout, did a bunch of kicking and breaststroke, and then jumped in for the last 20 minutes of the second workout.

My new front crawl stroke is awesome. I love it. The whole time that I was doing it, I just thought about poking my extension out in front of me instead of rolling to it. I also really worked on keeping my right arm close in when I breathed to the left. The best part was that when I wanted to go fast, my turnover was much better and I could feel that I was moving in a more linear fashion. I knew it was going well when I went a 1:16 on that last 100 descend. Then, my times on the set of 300s were by far the best free swims I've done all summer in practice. This after being pretty beat up from all of yesterday's open water shenanigans.

The video analysis session was the best thing I've done for my swimming in a long time.

07/24/08 Stroke and Stride

I did the stroke and stride tonight 1500m swim + 5K run. The swim loop ended up being long, 815m, so I ended up swimming 1630m

Swim(1630): 11:20 23:22(12:03)
Transition: 2:14
Run (5k): 23:16
Total: 48:52

I know the splits don't quite add up on the swim, but that's what the results say. No warm up. I could've gone faster with the warm up.

My transition time was near the bottom :). I took my time getting my shoes on. That was sweet.

07/24/08 Dryland

Bench(Smith): 12 x 145, 10 x 155, 7 (+2) x 165, 2 x 185
Lat pull-down: 10 x 105, 7 x 115, 3 x 125, 10 x 85
Seated Row: 10 x 95, 9 x 105, 5 x 115
Front Db Raise: 3 x 10 x 10

Standard Ab Set

I felt strong on the bench today.

7/24/08

Open Water swim this morning @ Boulder Res.
3 x around course
The course was a bit over 1000m. I'll round to 1K per loop

3000m

I worked on my new technique today. I'm glad I went to SwimLabs last night and got some video analysis done, because I think it will help shore up some things in my stroke. I felt as though I could get a lot quicker turnover in my stroke when I wasn't rolling so far to get to my catch. I started out on the first lap really focusing on the technique: getting that entry out there, poking my extension forward, and then getting a good EVF out on top of my head.

On the second lap, I played around with the tempo some. I felt like I could get a better tempo with my improved stroke without getting so tired. My right arm still wanted to drift from time to time, but I really worked on trying to keep it in line.

My lats were sore at the end. I took that as a sign that I was doing my new stroke at least somewhat correctly because the new stroke is supposed to utilize the lats a lot more.

07/23/08 SwimLabs analysis discussion

I finally went to SwimLabs and got videotaped last night and I'm sure glad I did. I now have refined my stroke models for breaststroke and freestyle and I have some concrete things to work on to make them better. No more random tinkering.

Freestyle:

One thing I picked up was that I need to enter my hand farther out in front of me, then extend with a shrug motion. I was entering my hand closer to my head and then extending through the water using a side roll. That caused me to take a lot longer to get to my catch. Mike Mann, the analyst, told me that I had a good catch, but the way in which I got to it was not so efficient.

My model of arm extension, then, was off. Instead of rolling to extend my lead arm, I needed to stay flatter and just shrug it forward. The roll comes in at the end of the stroke, where I should be using my hips to accelerate the finish. I don't roll to the catch so much as I just shrug to it. It feels more like I'm just trying to reach out to poke something in the water in front of me.

I also learned that I want to have my upper arm almost parallel to my head and then drop my forearm down as though there was something holding my elbow up. After the forearm goes vertical, then I can get a pretty long pull using my side muscles. My left arm was pretty good on this account, especially after I adjusted my mental model of arm extension. My right arm needs work, especially on a breath.

In my old way of swimming, my right arm would sweep way out when I'd breathe to my left. Apparently, this is not uncommon. It causes me to then need to use the next part of my pull to sweep back in and stabilize my body in the water. So, I'm expending my energy sideways rather than straight back. I need to focus a lot on that right arm :).

For the longest time, I had thought that my left arm was weaker because I'm generally pretty right-dominant. These last few weeks, I've suspected that my left arm is actually more efficient and stronger than my right due to how my motion in the water has felt. The video session and analysis confirmed that, so now I don't have to wonder and try to randomly adjust things.

So, to rehash freestyle, I need to get my hand entry out farther, shrug to the catch, and then drop my forearm vertically as though something were holding my elbow. Then get a nice long pull using that push-down motion.

Breaststroke:
There are two things I really need to work on in my breaststroke. The first of them is that my pull is too wide and I end up pushing down toward the bottom of the pool rather than straight back. We adjusted my pull so that it's a lot narrower. The model we used for this is to think about pulling myself forward over the lane line, so I've got my hands and forearms in a lot more and I'm just pulling straight back. Not only did it feel like I had a pull, it was a lot more comfortable and I felt like I was expending less energy.

The second thing I need to work on is really shooting my hands forward on the recovery as fast as I can. No matter what. If I'm doing easy breaststroke, the rest can come in the length of my glide. It's important to shoot those hands forward as fast as possible and get into the glide position.

07/23/2008

LCM
300 ez
3 x 50 free @ 55
2 x 50 back @ 1:05
3 x 50 free @ 50
2 x 50 breast @ 1:05
3 x 50 free @ 45
2 x 50 fly @ 1:05
50 ez
4 x 100 alt breathe on 1:40
3 x 300 w/ paddles @ 4:25
2 x 300 @ 4:40. I went a shade under 4:20s
4 x 200 @ 3:00. I did 2 x 200 back on 3:20, 2 x 200 free on 3:00
1500 swim
200 ez wd

5500 m

I tacked the 1500 swim on the end, and did some lengths of it fist swim. I stopped a few times to check my pulse. It was 130-140, which was around where I should be on a moderate 1500 at the end of practice.

I felt like I had a eureka today on my pull. If I try to get water on my forearm and use my hand-forearm unit more like an oar, I feel like I'm getting a better pull. My left arm, again is pretty good with it. My right arm is not finding that water as easily.

07/22/08 dryland

5 AM
Stepper for 22 minutes. 2 min warmup, 18 min mod->hard, 2 min wd.
Avg pulse 136, Avg Watts: 141.
I don't know if the pulse that the machine takes is accurate.

9 PM
Stepper for 15 more minutes. 2 min warmup/warmdown. 13 min mod->hard.
On the very steep parts of the program, I was around 270 watts and 145 hr.
Bench (Smith): 11 x 145, 8 x 155, 6(+2) x 165, 6 x 135
Lat pull-down: 7 x 115, 12 x 95, 10 x 105
Military (Smith): 10 x 105, 6 x 115, 4 x 105, 6 x 95
Db lateral raise: 3 x 10 x 10
Db rows: 10 x 30, 10 x 35, 10 x 40

07/21/08

LCM
6 x 100 (50 free/50 non-free)
10 x 50 - odds free drill @ 1:05, evens stroke @ 55. I did breaststroke from 4 on and went some of them of 45.
250 free @3:30 (just made it)
200 IM @ 3:30 (I went 3:05)
150 K @ 3:30
150 K @ 3:30
200 IM @ 3:30 (I went 3:00)
250 free @ 3:30 (just missed it)
250 free @ 3:30 (went 3:34)
200 IM @ 3:30 (went 3:09)
150 K @ 3:30
1500 Swim mod pace
100 fist swim
3 x 100 (50 fist swim/50 K)
200 fist swim/swim

5000m

My breaststroke feels very good. I was making 50s on 45-47 today. I missed on some of the free swims. I'm not going to think too much about it until I get that video work done.

My second 200 IM swim was 3:00. I was pleasantly surprised there. Fastest 200m IM practice swim I've done, and I wasn't even going all out.

Weekly Total, 07/14 - 07/20 2008

20200 meters
4200 yards
------------

24040 meters
26290 yards

Runner's World Exercise Ball Routine

I got this exercise ball routine from the July 2008 issue of Runner's World:
1. Wall-ball squats: back against the ball
2. Pushups w/feet on ball
3. Lunges, 1 foot on ball
4. Plank -- face down, straight as possible, engage abs for x amount of time
5. Dips
6. Situps on ball
7. Back extension, torso on ball
8. Oblique Twists on ball

07/20/08 dryland

standard ab set
2 x Exercise ball routine
20 reps of everything.
1:20, 1:10 for Plank exercise (see 07/20/08 post about Exercise Ball workout)

Weights:
Bench(Smith): 12 x 135, 8 x 155, 5 x 165, 7 x 135
Lat pulldown: 8 x 115, 5 x 125, 4 x 125, 2 x 95
Military(Smith): 10 x 105, 6 x 115, 4 x 125, 6 x 95
Seated Row: 12 x 95, 10 x 105, 7 x 115
12 minutes on stair stepper, got heart rate up to 130+ after 3 minutes, 140+ after 7

07/20/08

LCM
3 x (100 @ 2:00, 4x50 @ 1:00) set 1 - mixed bk/free, set 2 - breast, set 3 - bk/free
5 x 200 "creeper" (200 free, 50 stroke/150 free, 100 stroke/100 free, 150 stroke/50 free, 200 stroke) @ 3rd person rest. I did breaststroke for all of the stroke.
6 x 100 kick/swim @ 15 sec rest
200 ez wd

2700m

Pretty easy day today. I swam mostly easy free to just wash out yesterday's swims and worked on breaststroke some.

07/19/08

LCM meet at Lowry. I'm really starting to enjoy LCM. It's too bad we don't do more meets. Ah well.

Warm Up:
400 swim
200 IM
100 Kick
4 x 50 IM order moderate pace
100 ez
2 x (25 fast w/start, 25 ez)

400 IM: 5:42.55, only split, fly: 1:13.18
So I was out fast in the fly, and it cost me a little, but not much. That was ok, though. I'd like to start getting more aggressive on the fly. Now I need to work on being more aggressive in the other strokes, too.

200 ez warm down

200 Breast: 1:28.27 3:04.66(1:36.39)
This was my best swim of the day. I was pretty happy with it and felt like I was executing on a lot of things I'd been working on. I dropped 3 seconds off of my last swim in this event.

100 ez warm down

200 Fly: 1:17.45 2:49.37(1:31.92)
I was a little disappointed here. I was the only person in it, though, so that made it a bit tougher. My first 100 was not bad, but I kind of sacked it up after that. I should have swum harder on that 3rd 50, but I was afraid of the piano so I held back.

200 ez

200 Free: 2:29.66
Meh. Knew I'd be swimming the 1500 after this one, so I didn't go too hard.

200 ez

1500 Free: 20:55.61.
1:19.03 2:42.05(1:23.02) 4:06.21(1:24.16) 5:29.86(1:23.65) 6:53.40(1:23.54)
8:17.48(1:24.08) 9:41.67(1:24.19) 11:05.39(1:23.72) 12:29.67(1:24.28) 13:54.05(1:24.38) 15:18.48(1:24.43) 16:43.04(1:24.56) 18:07.73(1:24.69) 19:32.58(1:24.85) 20:55.61(1:23.03)

8 seconds slower than the first time I swam it in this pool, but I also swam a lot more beforehand. None of my 100 splits went over 1:25 this time, either. So I split it better. All in all, I was pretty happy about this one.

500 ez wd

4800m today.

A lot of fast swimming today. I felt good about it and was pretty happy, given the load. My breaststroke is really feeling good. My turnover is improving and I feel like the timing is starting to click for me. I wish they had gotten 400 IM splits, because my breaststroke felt pretty good there, too.

I need that freestyle to start coming around a bit more and then I might be able to throw down a fast 400 IM at States next Spring. It felt pretty clunky at the end of the 400 IM today. I wouldn't be surprised if it was 2-3 sec slower than the last time.

I could probably have swum faster times if I only did a few events, but I haven't been doing enough speed work to make that worthwhile. Plus, the Horsetooth 10K is coming up in 3 weeks, so I wanted to load myself, especially for that last mile.

07/18/08

LCM
400 ez
3 x 50 free
3 x 50 back
3 x 50 free
3 x 50 breast, all on 3rd person RI
600 build
rest 30 sec
400 IM fast. I went 6:15
rest 30 sec
200 peppy. I went 2:48
7 x 100 @ 1:40. I did back, held 1:25s
2 x (50 fly, 50 back)
2 x (50 breast, 50 free)
2 x (50 free, 50 fly), all 50's on 1:05
I held 50 on breast, 39-40 on free, 45 on back, 40-45 on fly.
200 ez wd

3700m

My backstroke is my best long course stroke. It's almost as fast as my free. I do yank on the lane line once in a while, probably as often as I run into the lane line.

I messed around with breathing every stroke on some of my free swims. It feels pretty good when I do it to my right side, pretty sloppy when I do it to the left side. Still not sure about stroke depth. I swam a lot of my free swims with a pretty deep stroke today, trying to get down further and grab some water. It moves me farther, that's for certain. It's harder to turn over, though.

I guess it's just 400 IM week this week. I wasn't planning on doing much fly/IM work today, but that's just how the cards were dealt. I just took 'em and played with 'em.

standard ab set

When I say "abs", this is what I usually do:
sit-ups
raised-leg sit-ups
double leg lift, arms flat on floor
right side crunches (lay on left side, crunch to ceiling)
right side curl-ups (", to right leg)
left side triangle raises (legs straight, left elbow on floor, relax+contract left side)
bicycles
push-ups
left side crunches
left side curl-ups
right triangle raise
ankle touches
twists
dips

As of right now, I do 20 of each

07/17/08 dryland

I've been taking a break from weights until next week, but I did an exercise ball workout from Runner's World. It's a good, quick set I can do when I can't get out to the weight room.

20 wall squats
20 ball pushups
20 ball situps
20 ball lunges on each leg
15 dips
20 back extensions
20 oblique twists to each side
"plank" pose for 1:10

Then I did the standard ab set

07/17/08

SCY today.
600 swim
600 pull
600 kick
4 x 450 @ 7:30, descend. I did odds free, even IM + extra 50.
I went (400 IM time in parens):
1.) 6:00, 2.) (5:22) 6:00, 3.) 5:32, 4.) (5:16) 5:59
50 ez
7 x 50 stroke @ 50. I went IM order (no free), back, breast, breast. My breast times were 42, 41, 40.
200 ez wd

4200 yards

I was pretty happy with my 400 IM swims. My butterfly felt good today, nice and long. The extra fly swims that I've done in the last few weeks are really starting to pay off. I think it really helps the 400 IM because that first 100 fly doesn't beat me up for the rest of the 400.

Still playing around with my freestyle; can't wait to get some video and really start to get a handle on it.

I realized that in order to swim some fast breaststroke this year, I have to put good effort into it. I tend to try to take this long power stroke. In order to get some speed with it, though, I've got to start working the turnover.

IN fact, turnover is an overarching theme in a lot of my strokes. My perception of fast turnover when I'm in the water seems off. And I think that's because I'm applying more energy in trying to really power through each stroke. I need to apply that energy to quicker turnover during a race.

Swim Times History

Mike Swim Times History

Below is how I pieced much of this together.

My parents managed to save a pretty large cache of my high school and college swimming documents. Our high school team managers usually compiled a booklet of yearly meet results. Our YMCA coaches were pretty good about providing us similar result documentation. As a result, my high school career is pretty well documented, time-wise.

My college times were not so well documented. We had a booklet at our year-end awards banquet listing, some years listing the best times for each swimmer and which meet those times occurred at, and some meet only listing that swimmer's main events. So, I have a smattering of times for each year, mostly representing the best times for that year. And the DePauw invitational results from each year in which I was able to participate in that meet.

I really wanted to get more of my splits, especially for the 400 IM during my senior year at Alma. But alas, most of those were not tracked in the results. I also don't have my best off-event swims from my senior year at Alma... I remember going ~1:54 in the 200 free and ~5:19 in the 500 at the Olivet Meet in 2000. But alas.

The upshot of going over my results is this: it often took me quite a few swims to realize time drops. My times would drop some, fluctuate up and down in the same general region for a while, then drop some more. The summer training I did after my freshman year really showed in my results from the beginning of the following year. I reached the conclusion that I am going to have to race breaststroke in many meets over the next year to get faster.

07/16/08

LCM
300 ez
2 x (4 x 50, 25 drill/25 swim IM order; 4 x 50 free descend 1-4) @ 4th pers reset (set 1), 3rd pers. rest (set 2)
6 x 100 @ 1:30. I held 1:21-1:23's
400 swim strong. I went 5:35
6 x 50 @ 50 (fly,back,fly,back,fly,free)
200 IM strong. I went 3:05
100 swim ez
2 x (3 x 50 IM order @ 1:00, 100 @ 1:30)
200 ez wd

3500m

I don't really know what to do with my freestyle. I am not sure now what kind of depth I should go to. ON the one hand, I get faster turnover when I don't reach as deep. On the other hand, I get a longer stroke. Either way that I do it results in about the same time. I'm looking forward to getting my free filmed and critiqued next Wednesday. I think it will help me a lot.

One thing I can say for sure. No matter what I do, I'm better off in trying to get a continuous motion going on my pull. It's the main thing I can think to work on for the next week.

My strokes felt good. Leading with my head and looking down when I breathe helps my fly and breast a lot. I feel like it keeps me going forward more.

07/15/08

LCM
100m ez
8 x 50 @ :50, (odd - free, even - back)
3 x (3 x 100 (50 free/50 stroke)) @ 1:40/1:35/1:30 by sets of 3. I did set 1 fly, set 2 back, set 3 1/2 back, 1/2 fly
300 swim
3 x 100 @ 1:25
200 swim
4 x 50 @ :45 (I did fly, free, free, free)
100 swim
4 x 25 @ :30 (I did fly, free, fly, free)
10 x 50 (25 stroke/25 free) @ 1:00. I did breaststroke for the stroke
200 ez w/d

3300m

Ok. I learned something, I think, about my free. I need to reach deeper. My idea on high elbows may have been off. For quite some time, I've been trying to keep my elbows nearer to the surface of the water and just leverage myself past my elbow. I think, though, that I can keep my elbows high and reach deeper. I noticed a marked difference today in my DPS when I would try to reach deeper. At least, I felt like I noticed a marked difference -- it FELT like I was moving farther. I forgot to actually get some counts to see if that indeed was the case.

I made an appointment to get my stroke videotaped next Wednesday evening at SwimLabs here in Denver. I'm going to give it a shot because I don't think I've had my strokes videotaped since swim camp. It's time to do it to get an idea of what I really need to do because I've spent a lot of time playing around with my stroke without actually seeing what it looks like.

I learned something about breast and fly, too. Lead with your head. It really helps to guide the undulation portion of the stroke and keep it smoother. Especially on my breaststroke. Gotta keep working on it.

07/14/08

Home again, home again.

LCM @ Scott Carpenter

300 swim ez
200 K IM order
300 pull
4 x 50 ez/mod/fast/ez
4 x (50 fly 200 pace, 50 ez free)
200 K IM order
200 ez swim
200 IM mod/fast, went 3:02
200 ez

2200m

I felt pretty slow after being on the road in the car for 21 hours. I was just trying to get back into the water a little bit to get the long course feel back. The 200 IM felt good at the end, shaking out the cobwebs. I tried to stay strong without going too hard.

07/12/08

2 x 1/2 mi swim
2 x 50 m fast fly
some ez swimming

~1700 m

Weekly totals:
6200 m
2800 yards
----------
8760 m
9580 yards

07/11/08

1/2 mi swim
50 m fast fly

7/10/08

Abs, core work
30 min run (~3.5 mi)
20 min kayak
Casey Lake:
300 m free
200 m free build
100 m fly fast
100m free mod
200 IM mod
100 m free mod
50 m breast/50 m free

~1100 m

I didn't bother writing down the stroke counts here. I just did a few strokes over my 50m count and called it even.

07/09/08

SCY @ PEIF pool

200 swim ez
300 w/snorkel
2 x 100 @ 1:15
300 K
250 fly broken 100/50/50/50 FAST, 10 secs between
went 2:25 @ 200, 3:00 @ 250
150 ez recovery
400 IM broken by 100s, 10 secs between
went 1:10 (fly), 1:15 (bk), 1:25 (br), 1:08 free - 4:58 total
200 ez
500 pull
4 x 25 IM order FAST
200 ez

2800 yards

My breaststroke felt pretty good, but the split was slow, I felt. I was happy that I was able to bring the free home faster than the fly leg on the 400 IM. That's something I don't usually do.

07/08/08

Casey Lake :)
Free:
75 strokes out
83 back in
80 out
92 in
105 out
107 in
(~700 m)

Fly:
25 out
25 in
105 strokes fly
(~350 m)

Free:
75 strokes out
75 back in
(~200 m)

Fly:
136 strokes (30 out/30 in, 12/12, 15/15, 11/11)
(~300 m)

Free:
160 strokes (80 out/80 in)
(~200 m)

25 strokes fly FAST
swim back ez free

15 strokes fly FAST
swim back ez free

sauna/rest 5 min

15 strokes fly FAST from running dive
swim back ez free

21 strokes fly FAST from running dive
swim back ez free

rest/sauna 5 min

30 strokes fly FAST from running dive
swim back ez free

rest/sauna 5 min

31 strokes fly FAST from running dive
swim back ez free

(~600 m sprint set)

~2350m

07/08/08 dryland

Resistance Tube workout:
12 pushups green tube
30 rows purple tube
pushups, purple: 14, 11
rear delt pull, purple: 4 x 20 reps
front raise, purple: 15, 2 x 12
chest fly, purple: 3 x 20 reps
butterfly pull, purple: 3 x 20 reps
pull ups: 5, 4, 3, 3, 3
standing rows, purple: 2 x 20, 35
dips: 15, 20, 21

07/07/08

20 min run
~200 m swim
1 hr Swedish massage

~200m swimming

07/06/08

20 min kayak
1/2 mi. swim
(93 strokes fly @ end of 1/2 mi)
62 strokes fly
100m ez
sauna
63 strokes fly
sauna
82 strokes fly
100 m ez

~1500 m swimming

Totals for week of 06/30/08:
10500 m
+ 4200 yards
----------
14340 m
15682 yards

07/05/08

20 min kayak
1/2 mi swim w/Erin... so I did a lot of swimming back/forth, treading water
42 strokes fly
100 m ez free
45 strokes fly
100 m ez free
Sauna
50 strokes fly
sauna
60 strokes fly
100 m ez free

~1500m swimming

07/05/08

07/04/08

Ran 5 K race - 21:14
1/2 mi. OW swim
Kayak, 20 mins
42 strokes butterfly (~100 m)
rest
42 strokes butterfly (~100 m)
20 min Kayak

~1000m swim total

Before I left, I figured out that it takes me ~21 strokes butterfly to go 50m. In the open water, without walls, 42 strokes is probably bit less than 100 m.

07/03/08

Here I start the dump of my vacation training log :).

On the road.
Ran for 24 mins around KOA kampground
55 pushups
30 dips
Abs

1992-1993, HS Freshman

This starts a series about the history of my swimming. I'm back at my parents' house in Michigan and I've managed to dig up a box full of my high school and college swim results.

My freshman year in high school was my first year of competitive swimming. Someone had the good idea to put together a matrix of everybody's times throughout the year. I'll list them here by date, event, time.

12/10/92
Medley Relay, 50 free: 30.6
50 free: 34.2
400 free, split: 1:24.9

12/22/92
Medley Relay, 50 back: 36.4
200 fr relay: 30.8
100 back: 1:26.3

1/6/93
50 Free: 29.8
200 Fr. Relay: 30.7
100 back: 1:18.3
400 fr. relay: 1:10.5

1/12/93
medley relay, 50 bk: 36.4
100 free: 1:07.1
200 fr relay: 30.7
100 back: 1:19.1

1/14/93
medley relay, 50 bk: 36.2
100 free: 1:08.4
200 fr. relay: 30.2
100 back: 1:19.7

1/19/93
medley relay, 50 bk: 34.8
50 free: 30.4
100 back: 1:20.7

1/27/93
medley relay, 50 bk: 34.0
500 free: 6:47.9
100 back: 1:15.8
400 fr. relay: 1:12.6

2/3/93
100 free: 1:07.0
200 fr. relay: 29.3
100 back: 1:15.0
400 fr. relay: 1:07.1

2/11/93
200 free: 2:32.7
100 back: 1:14.8

2/20/93
200 free: 2:24.66
100 back: 1:11.5 (DQ!)

So ended my first year of swimming :).

07/02/08

LCM.
2 x 100 - 25 kick, 25 drill, 50 build
12 x 50, @ 1:05, :55, :45 by 3's. Did fly on the middle 50
15 x 100 @ 1:45/1:40/1:35, 1:40/1:35/1:30, 1:35/1:30/1:25, 1:30/1:25/1:20, 1:30/1:25/1:20. I did fly/back on most of them up to #10
12 x 50 50 kick, 50 fast, 50 ez @ 4th pers. rest. Did fly on the fast ones
100 wd

3000m.

At the end of the set of 15 100's, I remembered that I need to work on pressing my chest down more. That helps me swim more "out in front".

open water training ideas

My next week and a half will be spent traveling with my wife and my dog. My training will be unorthodox, or at least, varying from MY normal routine of pool/weight workouts. This is going to be Rocky IV-esque. As a substitution for weights, I plan on doing a lot of "ups": push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, and dips. We have a set of stretch cords I bought for about 20 bucks. I'm going to take those and do that resistance training I've been neglecting.

And I'll be doing my workouts in a lake. With a meet coming up the weekend after I get back, I've been mulling over ways to train for pool-based events in the open water. I'm not sure how re-acclimating to altitude will affect my meet swims. We'll see. But the least I can do is keep up my training.

I talked to Jeff today about some ideas for doing interval-type training in open water. He suggested counting strokes, since I won't really be working with known distances. For instance: 100 strokes hard/100 strokes ez, etc.

Initially, I had thought of using a watch, 2 minutes hard, 2 moderate, 2 easy, and so on. But the stroke counting idea is a better one because I won't have to check my watch.

It has occurred to me that it will be a good time to work on stroke tempo training, also. I can count strokes, look at my watch, and figure out my stroke rate. One thing I've talked about trying to do is get my stroke rate higher. I won't be able to check my distance per stroke very easily. That's ok, though, because it will keep me from trying to track too many variables at once. Simple. Hopefully.

Tomorrow, I'm going to try to get stroke counts for 50m of all strokes. That way I can get an approximate idea of how many strokes I'll want to set as a goal for my efforts. That way, if I want to swim an IM "set", I'll just swim x number of strokes butterfly, x number of strokes backstroke, x number of strokes breaststroke, and x number of strokes freestyle for each rep.

I'm going to attempt to train for a run at the 30-34 LCM 200 fly state record. It's a soft one, at 2:37. I took my 400 IM out in 1:15.02, and that felt pretty relaxed, so I have a real shot at beating it. The thing is, I have one shot this year, 6 days after we get back from Michigan. So one thing I hope to do while I'm in Michigan is overdistance fly. In the lake. Rocky IV style.

The much more difficult challenge will be not overindulging in all of the food my family will have available for me.

07/01/08

SCY today.
500 swim with snorkel/forearm fulcrum
500 ez/mod, ~39 sec/50
1000 moderate, ~38 sec/50
250 br kick w/buoy
250 br kick alt front/back
2 x (150 free, 100 free/50 stroke, 50 free/100 stroke, 150 stroke) @ 2:15 per 150
set 1:fly, set 2:breast
6 x 50 @ :45 - I went IM order, back, back
200 ez wd

4200 yards

I'm trying to get my fly endurance up, so I did the first set of 150's butterfly. It felt ok. I went 2:04 on the 150 fly without going too hard. Everything else felt pretty slow. I went 2:12 on the 150 breast when I thought I was faster. Not too bad, though, being at the end of a stroke set on a moderate interval. 3 months ago I was going 2:50-2:55 on a hard 200 with a lot of rest.

My free felt sluggish. I was gliding a lot and didn't ever get my turnover up much. Still feeling a little fatigued from Saturday, maybe. If we weren't leaving for Michigan tomorrow, I might have skipped and recovered today. I'll get up tomorrow and swim long course, then Thursday I'll rest.

After that, it's on to a few days of open water swimming at our camp in Michigan.