05.28.09 - resistance

Ended up jumping in with the USS team.

600 ez
2 x {
4 x 50 IMO @1:00
3 x 100 desc @1:30
}

8 x {
25 DPS
12.5 tempo/12.5 ez
} w/blue bungee cord

4 x 100 K rec @2:00

8 x {
25 drill or K
25 hard
} w/parachute

4 x 100 K rec @2:00

6 x {
25 DPS
25 fast
} w/shoes on

4 x 100 K rec @2:00

16 x 25 sprint @40 IMO
8 x 25 sprint w/fins @40 IMO

warm down

I wasn't planning on swimming with the USS team, but they started later than they usually do this morning, at my normal workout time. So they were there and I was there and I figured, what the heck?

I like their workouts. They do a nice mix of speed and aerobic stuff. I wish I had that kind of program when I was younger. For me, the resistance work really helps to let me know where my stroke needs work because I get nowhere if I'm not swimming with good form.

05.27.09 - c-c-c-cold

I decided that I'm going to make the 20 minute trek to do some outdoor LCM this summer. I was going to just swim near my house all summer but swimming outdoor long course is too enjoyable. The break-even point on the summer pass is a little over 1.5 workouts per week, so I'm doin' it.

LCM @Carpenter

400 wu

4 x {
2 x 200 @3:00 (went 2:50 on first 2 sets, 2:45 on sets 3 & 4)
1 x 100 stroke @1:50
}

The water was Very Cold. Very. I didn't even warm down. Once I stopped moving on the main set, I just got out and went right to the hot shower. I thought I'd heard it was mid-70's before I got in but the official reading ended up at 67.

An interesting effect of the cold water was that I became hyper-aware of my stroke. It really made me focus on head position and really relaxing my hands and pulling with my forearms.

I need over 1000 yards/meters before I can work up into any kind of speed. If I try to go fast under that, I feel clunky.

05.26.09

700 ez w/snorkel, worked mostly on hand entry.

400 cruise w/snorkel
2 x 50 fast fr@55 - (33,32)
300 cruise
4 x 50 fast fr @55 - (held 30)
200 cruise
6 x 50 fast fr @55 - (held 30/31)
100 cruise
10 x 50 fast fly @1:05 (held 33 for first 7, then 34, 35 36 on 8,9,10)

200 ez

8 x (75 K fast, 25 ez) @2:00, odds fly, evens free. Held just under 1:05 on all fly, 1:04, 1:04, 59, 1:00 on the free.

300 swim w/paddles and strap (inner tube)

w/d

"Fast" is EN3/SP1 for me. The free swims were more on the low EN3 side. My HR was ~170 at the end of the 10 50s fly and those got anaerobic around 5.

400 IM Race analysis.

I went through my 400 IM video with a fine-tooth comb today. I counted my strokes and timed all turns + swim times. Then I figured out my DPS, stroke rate, and velocity in yards. Because the only data I have to compare it to is in LCM, I also did some conversions to meters times. I used the 1 yard = .9144 meters conversion factor and converted each length to its corresponding meters distance. I know that there is a larger discrepancy than just the straight conversion due to the extra turns, but I figured this would give me some ballpark figures to work with.

The quick numbers,
yards:
leg SR DPS Velocity
100 36.28 2.80 1.69
200 26.20 3.37 1.47
300 36.42 2.17 1.32
400 32.21 2.91 1.56

meters:
leg SR DPS Velocity
100 36.28 2.56 1.50
200 26.20 3.09 1.35
300 36.42 1.98 1.20
400 32.21 2.66 1.42

2000 OT Qualifiers:
leg SR DPS Velocity
100 50.72 1.85 1.55
200 36.08 2.33 1.45
300 41.57 1.75 1.24
400 43.90 2.12 1.61

There are many factors that don't make this an exact comparison -- the first original fastskin had just come out in 2000 and I wore an FS Pro, arguably a faster suit. I figured my DPS and velocities off of a conversion of .9144 meters to 1 yard. If I do some crude conversions using the Swimming World conversion utility, I get something like 5 seconds slower in fly, 9 in back, 7 in breast, 11 in free.

There are a few trends that jump out pretty quickly. My freestyle is the furthest off of the elite performance data, by almost .2 m/sec. My backstroke is next at .11 m/sec off, and my 2 short axis strokes are only off by .05 m/sec and .04 m/sec on the fly.

My stroke rate is a lot lower: almost 14 strokes/min on fly, 10 stroke cycles per minute in the back, 5 on breast, and 11 cycles per minute in free. My DPS is higher, but again, I get 2x as many turns.

That indicates, without a doubt that as an IM'er, freestyle is my weakest leg. It's interesting that the backstroke is the second weakest leg, since the 200 backstroke is arguably my strongest event right now.

Some thoughts on technique and turns after several viewings:
* My turns and transitions are pretty slow. I probably lost seconds on the walls.
* I came up pretty high on the fly. Need to keep the arms closer to the water.
* My left arm was not straight on the backstroke. It kept bending. Lani said I do this from time to time in prac. Not sure why the inconsistency.
* My breaststroke pullouts were decent. My DPS and stroke rate both fell off on the second 50 of my breast, though. My split reflects that.
* My turnover is too slow on the freestyle. I get good power but don't get my arms going fast enough. My turns were very very slow on the free... especially the 1st one.

Another thing I need to start working with in practice is tempo. I don't think I've really ever done any swims where I'm just trying to hit certain tempos. I get good DPS, sure, and pretty good power. I think, though, that it's like pedaling a bike uphill in a lower gear: I can get good power that way, but it's much faster and easier to put the bike in a higher gear and let my legs spin more.

5.22.09 - Drillin'

My free's been feeling like the stink-stink lately, so I got in and did several 50's and 100's drill. I don't remember how much of each but I did:

* body pos'n kick with hands at side, kicked ez and tried to maintain good posture
* superman swimming w/snorkel
* head up w/snorkel, watching hands
* swim w/ankle strap, worked on posture
* 1 hand on kickboard, 1 hand swimming to keep my left hand/arm from crossing over
* swim w/catch-up stick, mainly to keep my right arm from sweeping out

4 x 50 @15s K w/fins, arms at side. I alternated odds with a more relaxed posture, what I usually do, and evens with my neck extended more and flatter back. I did 2 moderate then 2 fast, trying to keep my kick at the same intensity and the turns the same across the 50s. The fast one was 2 seconds faster with the extended neck + flatter back.

2 x 100 @2:00, just working on everything
1:11, 1:08.8

50 free fast: 27.7
50 fly fast: 29.5

warm down

I might go back later to swim a workout with the Senior USS kids if I get out of work early enough. We shall see.

05.21.09 - Comfortably Numb

I made it over the pain hump to the comfortably numb stage. On Monday and Tuesday nights, my back and legs were stinging with all of the fresh acid from ramping up training again. As of this morning, everything feels nicely buffered and will probably stay that way until July sometime.

SCY @Meyers, Lani coached. I swam in the shallow end <5'.

200 K, w/snorks
6 x 50 - 25 body position K on side w/pull buoy in front hand/25 swim
3 x 100 desc @1:35 (1:14, 1:12, 1:10)

6 x 75 K @1:45, 50 fast/25 ez.
I did 2 rounds of dolphin, flutter, breast:
1 - 38, 39, 44
2 - 38, 35, 44

50 ez

5 x 400, thus:
400 - 100 strong/200 DPS/100 strong @5:30
(1st - 1:08, last - 1:09)
400 - 100 fly/300 mod free @6:00
(fly - 1:17)
400 IM @ 6:00
(1:14, 1:23, 1:26, 1:13)
400 - 100 fly/200 mod/100 mod+
(fly - 1:16, last - 1:12)
400 - 100 strong/200 DPS/100 strong
(1:09/1:09)

100 ez

4 x {
50 fast, 25 rec @2:00,
25 fast, 50 rec @2:00
}
(fly - 30.8, 13.7; br - 37.5, 17.7; fly - 30.18, 13.1; free - 28.5, 13.1)

long warm down

Getting my hands narrower sooner in the fly is definitely faster. My fast 50 fly swims felt a lot better. It feels stronger and I can turn it over faster.

On the 100s, it helped but I had to fight to keep my hands from drifting out on the last 25 when I'd get tired. I still have to work on a better glide at the top. I have a tendency to let my hands sweep in slightly right after the entry when I'm trying to lengthen it out (or when I get tired) and then my timing gets off.

On freestly, Lani pointed out that my right hand sweeps out at the top and my left hand sweeps in. This ends up steering me toward the right side of the lane. It also probably explains why I get knots in the muscles in the right side of my back but not my left... So I spent the whole set of 400s focusing on what my hands were doing up there. I had to watch those suckers sometimes to keep them from wandering. Looks like that will be a focus point on my free swims for a while until I get that little kink ironed out.

05/20/09 - lots of legs.

I rode my bike to the pool today, approximately a 15 minute ride. I wanted to do a lot of kicking and thought this would provide a good warmup. 3 minutes from my house, I realized I'd forgot my watch. My watch is nice to have but is not necessary, so I pedaled on.

After I got to the pool, though, I realized that neither my suit nor my goggles were in my bag. Crap-O-La. So I pedaled 15 minutes back to my house and again 15 minutes back to the pool. We'll call that dryland for today .

400 K/swim by 25 w/snorkel
8 x 50 scull/drill by 25 @15s rest

8 x 25 fly, odds drill, evens swim fast
I alternated btw 5 K/2 pull drill and 2 K @top/2 K @ bottom -- mostly to work on my timing.
went (14.7, 14.5, 14.7) on the fast ones

Test set: 3 x 300 @1:00 rest. Goal is to determine Anaerobic threshold. I went:
3:28.24 (1:07.52/2:20.72)
3:31.94 (1:07.9/1:11.29/1:12.75)
3:30.71 (1:08.83/1:12.00/1:09.88)

2 x 300 K @4:45 (4:42, 4:37)
4 x 75 K fast @1:30 (1:00.00, 59.85, 1:00.36, 59.76)

4 x 50 fr swim w/tennis shoes on @1:15.

warm down

Test set analysis:

I pulled the 3 x 3 test set from Salo and Riewald's Complete Conditioning for Swimming. The 300s are supposed to be swum fairly hard yet at a sustainable pace and your aerobic threshold pace is supposed to be your average 100 time across all 3. My average 100 time works out to be 1:10.1. I was hoping to average 1:09-low but the clock doesn't lie. My notes about this set:

* I missed turns on #2 and #3. #3 was particulaly ugly and I just barely got a toenail on the wall and almost stopped dead so I stopped my watch, turned around, went back to the wall, started my watch, and took off again.

* My splits were not great. I went out too fast on the first 2 and paid for it some. Probably would have been better taking those out easier.

* My head was all over the place. When I turned out to breathe, I was turning my head too far up. When I returned my head back to the water, I was rolling it all the way past center. I have to work on better discipline there and try to just let it turn with my body roll.

* My extension was ok, but not as streched out as it should be. I rarely felt like I was connecting my pull to my hip, which is how it feels when I get in a good rhythm for longer swims. I felt choppy.

I might try this set again next week and try to build the swims to see where that ends up. Of course, I'll have to ride my bike around for 45 minutes and then do the same in-water warmup to keep all of that constant .

Butterfly notes:
I watched the Eddie Reese on Butterfly video yesterday. That's where I grabbed the 5 K/2 pull and 2 K @top/2 K @ bottom drills. But, more useful than those drills was his comment on the underwater portion of the stroke.

He showed the long pull part under the body with the hands a lot closer together than I usually have them on my stroke. His hands were close enough to where "if you stuck your thumbs out, they would touch". I usually pull farther outside than that. So today I worked on bringing my hands in closer together on the press. It feels easier but smoother, more effective. Of course, I've only used it on 25s so far, so we'll see what the effect is when I do some longer fly swims.

05/19/09

600 drill/swim by 25
6 x 75 K/dr/swim @15s rest
300 K - 25 build/25 fast/25 ez

600 -- neg. split and descend last 3 100s
(3:48/1:13/1:12/1:11)
400 K - neg split, descend last 4 50s
(3:20/45/44/43/40)
200 IM done as 2 x 100 IM neg split
(1:20/1:16)

2 x {
3 x 100 Rotating IM 25 drill/50 swim, work tnx/25 drill @1:40
200 IM @ 3:00 (2:35/2:36)
}

3 x 200 pull @3:00 w/ankles bound

1. buoy + paddles
2. buoy
3. paddles

Next set, I'm not sure what to call it. It's all fly, 15s rest between each swim:
100/75/50/25
75/50/25
50/25
25
Held about 20s/50 except the last 3 swims, then picked it up (36, 15,15)

warm down

20 minute circuit on the weights and 5 minutes of stretching.

The 200 pulls with my ankles bound reminded me that I really need to press my chest into the water more. If I didn't, I got pretty vertical on those. I need to work on it even when I can kick.

Summer Season Plan

First, My goals:
1.) Improve my butterfly -- Colorado 30-34 200m fly record is 2:37 something. It's one of the softest records here for my age group. I'm going to try to get it. The larger goal and benefit of this work is to be able to take my SCY 400 IM out comfortably at 1:00 or better.

2.) Get faster in freestyle -- across the board, but particularly shorter freestyle events. I'm going to work on my speed in the 100/200. I'm going to swim those events in meets. I rarely do so and usually do middle distance stroke stuff and distance free. The main goal is to try to bring my 400 IM home in 1:00 or better.

Notice a theme here? It's all about improving my 400 IM. Last year was "breaststroke year" and I worked on it all year specifically to improve my 400 IM. Now I'm going to focus a little more on the bookends for a while -- building a long, strong easy speed fly, and working on speed in the free so I can sprint it home.

3.) Kick faster. My best 100 SCY Kick time last year was 1:15. I used to be under 1:10 for a flat out 100 and was able to do an animal kick set on 1:25, holding 1:18s. I'm going to try to get back down there, maybe even without a board.


Target Dates and meets:
There are 2 big events that I will be training toward at the end of this summer. I may do none, 1, or both. I'm mainly using them to plan out a training cycle.

1.) LCM nationals, August 6-10. Chances of me actually going to this are at ~30% as of right now. There's a good chance my parents might be out in Denver during this time. I'm going to start training for it though, and see what happens.

2.) Horsetooth 10K, August 16. I did this swim last year and will probably do it again this year.

There's also a State Games of the West dual-sanction meet at the Air Force Academy in CO Springs on August 2nd. It's SCY, and is at 6000+ altitude, so I probably will just train through it.

There are a multitude of open water options that I'll probably take throughout the course of the summer. I usually do a few of the 1 mile swim + 5k stroke and stride races up in Boulder on Thursday nights. There's also an aquaman series that offers various swim distances up to 2 miles on Tuesdays in July. I'll probably do some of those.

There aren't a lot of USMS meets here in the summer, but USS has something pretty much every weekend. I'm going to get a USS membership for at least this summer to get some pool racing in.

Training options:
1.) Get a summer membership for BAM again and do 3 days at Meyers/3 days in Boulder.
Pros: I could train outdoor LCM and will get a lot of distance freestyle work in. They'll be good Horsetooth workouts.
Cons: I don't get nearly as much quality kick/drill/stroke work as I like. I have to drive 20 minutes to the pool. It'd cost $200 for the summer + gas to drive back and forth.

2.) See about training w/USS team a few days a week and do Masters 3 days a week
Pros: I'd be challenged. It might make me step up a bit more. I could do almost all training close to my house.
Cons: I don't get my own lane every day (not really a big deal, but swimming butterfly is mighty nice when you don't have to dodge people). That's where the masters workouts come in though, I could do my own tailored workout in (most days) my own lane a few days a week. I'm not sure how often the pool will be set up for LCM, so I might not get in as much LC training as I'd like. It could cost extra money.

3.) Train w/JAM 3 days a week and do the other days on my own.
Pros: I could tailor my whole summer season to my whims. Training would be close to my house. It would be the cheapest option.
Cons: Not sure how much LC training I'd get. If I get the blahs it's harder to motivate (though I'm OCD enough to where I can usually push myself pretty well). I might have to write workouts.

I started out on 3 right now. I'm going to decide the main course of action soon though. I can also think about mixing and matching -- ie, get a BAM membership and go up there 1-2 times a week to get some LCM and do 4-5 days at Meyers by my house. I trained up in Boulder all of last summer and by far the biggest expense in doing that was the gas to drive up there and back 4-5 days a week for the whole summer.

My seasonal plan, if I train OMO.
If I lean more to option 3 above.

BASE PORTION:
As of today, I've started my base phase portion of the season. This base phase will last until the end of June and will be broken up into 2 smaller cycles of 2-3 weeks of building with 1 week, from June 4-11 of recovery. We're going to Wisconsin for a wedding then, so I'm just going to figure my workloads with that in mind and will try to get in some running for aerobic endurance and whatever swimming I have time for during that week.

I plan on doing more distance (both free and IM), lots of kicking, and a lot of butterfly on stroke specific sets. Drills, of course, will be done in every workout. I'm going to wear my green monster drag suit during this part of the year to build some strength in the water, but will wear a regular brief for faster swims.

I'm also going to try to do an average of 30 minutes per day dryland during this part. I might not do dryland every day and will do an hour or more some days, but I'm trying to break myself down pretty good for the next month and a half.

I'm going to try to do something fast on most days -- at least a small set of 25s/50s to keep my speed up.

COMPETITION PHASE:
I'll start increasing the race pace and speed work through the month of July. This often means days where the main set is broken 200s/400s/400 IMs. I'll probably drop the drag suit and go with jammers or briefs to unload a tiny bit.

I'll cut back on the weights some through July to where I'm doing dryland every other day, but I'll also start doing more parachutes, paddles, and in-water strength building.

"TAPER"
If I do get to go to LC Nats, I'll probably taper around 7-10 days for that. If Horsetooth ends up being my end-of-summer main event, I'll probably only rest a few days and will adjust my race pace training to include a lot of free pacing.

After that ??

05/18/09

SCY OMO @ George Meyers. I wore the green monster drag suit today.

600 drill/swim w/snorkel by 25
200 K w/snorkel
200 pull DPS w/snorkel - ~10 strokes per length

4 x 25 @40 IMO Fast

7 x 100 fr @1:20, descend last 3 (1:10/1:11, 1:11, 1:09, 1:08)
3 x 100 fr @1:30 strong (1:07s)
HR ~160

50 ez

3 x {
25 K/25 drill/25 swim
25 drill/50 swim
75 swim
} all fly, sets 1,2 @1:15, set 3 @1:20

50 K/25 swim fly @1:20
50 drill/25 swim fly @1:40
75 fly faster - 54
HR 170 after the last fly

12 x 50 K IMO, descend 1-3 @55

4 x 100 IM @1:30, long strokes, good glides on short axis

4 x 50 fast @1:00
1 - free - 29.58
2 - fly - 32.10
3 - dolphin K w/board - 41.13
4 - fly - 31.97

warm down

15 minute circuit on the weights and off to work.

05/16/09

LCM @George Meyers
300 ez
200 K w/snorkel
6 x 200 @3:30 prog descend 1-3 (3:00 --> 2:41)
400 IM - 25 K/25 dr/50 swim
2 x 200 IM @3:30 (3:05, 3:03)
3 x 50 fast fly/50 ez recovery @2:30
warm down

So ends my active recovery week. Next week, it's back to the beginning again with a couple months of base building and open water fun. Last summer, I did mostly lsd training all season. I'm going to do a good deal of that in this summer's base phase but I've resolved to get some speed work in there ~2 days/week.

05/14/09 - all the toys

200 ez
200 K no board
200 scull - 50 front, 50 mid, 50 rear, 50 mixed

7 x {
flutter K w/fins @20s ez, 20s HARD
dolphin K w/fins @20s ez, 20s HARD
}

2 x 100 breast drills w/snorkel, lobed fins, green paddles - played w/timing
2 x 100 fly drill w/snorkel, lobed fins - alt nemo drill, R, L, 3R/3L
200 fly drill w/snorkel, lobed fins, Phelps drill - 1R/1 full/1L/1full

200 ez pull

I don't generally use toys this much during a workout but it's an active recovery week so I'm mostly playing around with equipment and ideas. The USS coaches gave me carte blanche to use any and all of their team's equipment so I'm going through their closet and trying different toys.

05/13/09 just dryland

22 minute run with the dogs
25 minutes - IP/core/pull-ups/swim-specific lifts/jump rope

05/12/09

300 ez swim
400 K mod
300 of different butterfly drills w/snorkel
-Nemo drill (3-4 kicks, then a pull, to work on timing)
-1-arm fly, working on keeping my arms low
-whale drill, working on timing, high elbow catch position
?? pull w/snorkel- didn't count yardage, just played with my hand pitch and worked on the relaxed hand thing
200 K ez
200 swim ez

25 minutes of easy dryland - injury prevention, light lifting, core work.

5/11/09 - cross-training

I stayed out of the water today and did some cross training instead. I'm just going to do some easy swimming this week--lots of drills and such--and do some cross training to keep my aerobic base up.

30 minute run w/my dogs
30 minutes of external rotation/injury prevention exercises, pull-ups, jump rope, core + stretching

Floswim Videos

100 Breast
200 Back
200 Breast
400 IM

Man, I need to work on my butterfly. I was coming up awfully high.

'98 vs '09 -- 200 Back

1998:
PRE 29.17 - 31.35 - 30.24 - 30.58 02:01.34
FIN 29.60 - 31.59 - 29.85 - 30.78 02:01.82


2009:
3 Cox, Michael 31 CMS 2:04.97 2:00.42
28.52 59.01 (30.49)
1:30.10 (31.09) 2:00.42 (30.32)

'98 vs. '09 -- 400 IM

1998:
PRE - 27.67 31.57 33.08 32.17 37 87 39.64 34.38 34.85 04:31.23
FIN - 28.62 33.06 34.37 34.09 37.72 38.49 32.10 31.57 04:30.02

2009:
5 Cox, Michael 31 CMS 4:46.91 4:29.11
28.70 1:01.13 (32.43)
1:35.48 (34.35) 2:09.02 (33.54)
2:46.36 (37.34) 3:25.05 (38.69)
3:57.42 (32.37) 4:29.11 (31.69)

First off, I was very happy with this swim. I don't think I could have swum it much better. It's only the 3rd time in my life that I've been under 4:30, and 2 of those were prelims/finals of the same day. My splits were so close to that 4:30.02 swim, but slightly faster on all 100s except the freestyle :).

That said, I'd like to drop that last 100 to 1:00 or better, while holding the first 300 at least close to the same. There were quite a few who went 4:23-4:25 on similar 300 splits. Looks like one of my next training goals is to get faster in the freestyle.

05/06/09 - last taper workout

300 swim long
300 fr K, worked walls, SDK
200 IM dr/swim by 25

4 x 100 @1:30, DPS (1:08, 1:09s, 11 SPL, HR 140)

10 x 25 choice @whenever from mid pool, build into turns/good breakouts

1 x 50 breast cruise pace - 35.58, HR 150

200 ez

Everything felt smooth. My 50 breast was a nice, controlled, swim. Hopefully I can manage 4 of those in a row on the 200 breast :).

05/05/09 - Here it comes...

the taper energy rush. It started coming on at about 10 this morning. I was pretty sore and a little crusty the last few days, normal for taper. After practice (and my DDS appt.) this morning, I started buzzing.

Just in time :), I'm ready for a good weekend. I've had taper manifest in multiple ways, sometimes I feel cruddy until I'm on the blocks for my first race. I like to get through the cruddy feeling before then, though. It's always been a good sign to hit the buzz phase right before the meet.

When I drop in altitude, I should really be feeling good. As long as I race smart :).

Anyhoo:
300 swim
200 IM K
400 IM drill, really ez
4 x 100 @1:30 (all 1:08, 11-12 SPL, HR 140-150 range)
3 x 2-turn 50s, IM transition on 2nd turn fly/back, back/br, br/free
5 x 25 from mid-pool @25, focus on fast walls @45

2 x 50 br @2:00 rest - 34.2, 34.3
I felt much better on the 2nd one. I spun a lot going out on the first one and I swear it took me like 11 strokes to get to the wall. The second one, I settled down and got a better grab. I split them both 16 something/18.something.

warm down

I had a conversation last fall with my highschool friend and sometime swimming rival Marc. Marc coaches up in Aspen and was (and probably still is) an excellent IMer/breaststroker. I told him that I was shooting for a 1:15/1:16 breast split in the 400 IM this year and he thought that I should probably work on being able to go sub-35s from a push in order to get in that range. Well, here I am. At the very end of the year, I'm going sub 35s from a push. I sure hope he was right.

The spinning shouldn't be so much of a problem in the 400 IM because I'm usually tired enough to where I don't/can't start out the breast leg on blast. I'll have to be a little careful on the 100/200 breast, though, to just build that first 25 and not spin so much.

05/04/09

300 swim
300 IM K on back
300 IM 50 drill/25 swim

4 x 100 @1:30 (1:09.05, 1:08.57, 1:08.67, 1:07.36) - held 11 SPL for most.
SPL = Strokes per Length

4 x 25 IM order @45 FAST - 13.85, 15.12, 16.98, 13.76

3 x 50 IMO, no fly @2:00
bk - 31.26
br - 34.81
fr - 26.87

long warm down

05/02/09

300 swim
400 K
300 - 50 dr/50 swim
4x100 @1:30 (1:14, 1:11s)
4 x 50 @1:00 IMO
4 x 25 @45 FAST IMO

2 x 50 w/fins @2:00 - #1 fly/back, #2 br/free
3 x 50 @2:00
bk - 30.48
br - 35.54
br - 35.83

warm down

400 IM split times from college,

Mike Cox Fr Alma 4:41.64 4:35.58 4:32.04
PRE 29.66 - 33.81 - 33.55 - 32.39 - 39.32 - 39.35 - 33.49 - 34.01
FIN 29.05 - 33.67 - 33.60 - 33.14 - 38.30 - 39.24 - 32.59 - 32.45

Soph:
Mike Cox So Alma 4:42.11 4:31.23 4:30.02
PRE - 27.67 31.57 33.08 32.17 37 87 39.64 34.38 34.85
FIN - 28.62 33.06 34.37 34.09 37.72 38.49 32.10 31.57

Sr:
M Cox The Alma College 4:36.25 4:22.94 4:24.42
No splits up for that one, but I remember fly being 58.mid and feeling pretty easy.

I moved past my high school times this year at altitude. I'm now somewhere in my freshman/sophomore years in college, in-season times-wise.

Can I match my Sophomore year 400 IM?

I'd be happy beating my freshman times, but my real challenge (to myself) is to jump right out to the sophomore IM times.

05/01/09 - FS Pro swims

Regular suit + drag suit for warmup
400 swim
300 K
300 IM - 50 drill/50 swim
4 x 100 @1:30 descend (1:09, 1:07, 1:07, 1:04)
4 x 50 IM build @1:00
4 x 25 fast choice @45, did IM

changed into FS-Pro full body.

50 - 25 free/25 SDK, get count to 15m (13 kicks)
3 x 50 rotating IM, work on transitions @1:00

broken 200 IM, 15s @50.
(28.50, 31.96, 34.39, 28.89) - 2:03.74

200 ez

2 x 50 breast @2:00 - 33.91, 33.38

warm down

I tried out my new suit today because I wanted to get a gauge on how it would feel. It feels slippery, as if I had shaved down. It's basically a full body paper suit. My stroke count was down about 1 stroke per length across the board. I'm glad I tried it and got some times in it because I would have had no idea where I was at, pace-wise at nationals. That, and my strokes are a bit different in it. Breaststroke in particular is more slidey.

My initial goal on the broken 200 was to go ~400 IM pace feel. That went out the window when I took off on the fly. I swam the fly and breast harder than I'll go in the 400 IM. Back and free were closer to the right effort. Back was ~1-2s faster than my 400 IM goal 50 splits. Free was close to ideal as far as feel goes -- cranking it out with whatever I have left. As far as time goes, I would love to split 29s on the free. That would beat the heck out of my goal splits of 31s. I am wishing I would have signed up for the 200 IM. My broken 200 IM times are usually real close to my race swims, and I'm pretty sure now I could go a 2:03/2:04 at nationals. Oh well, another year I guess.

I threw in the breast swims because it's the most finicky stroke for me and I have to keep on it. And it changes a bit with the full body suit. Actually, if I swim it correctly with the suit on -- flatter and working on going forward vs up and down -- it feels pretty awesome because I feel like I'm really sliding forward. If I let myself get too much amplitude, I lose a lot of the benefit.

I noticed something about my breaststroke catch today, too. Sometimes I try to sweep out and up a little, and I bob my chest down when I do that. When I'm doing it right, I'm pressing down more and almost starting to curl my fingers (and hands, and then forearms) down toward the bottom of the pool.