Austin's first flipturn

Was in a bad mood when we left. The house was in shambles and kids weren't responsive.

300 Warmup
1000 - 2 x {5 x 100's pulling descending} on 3:00
200 - 200 IM
100 - Chasing Austin down once he get's halfway. Austin was eaten every time.

1600 Total

He asked me for some coaching on doing flip turns so Jacob, Austin and I worked on those for the last few minutes. Austin was able to do one, but pushed off on his back. I told him that whenever he does a turn to never do a hand touch turn. He must practice these in order to figure out how to perfect them. Cathi doesn't do flip turns and it add about 3 seconds to her time every length.

They both need to get out of the "ball" when they complete the turn so they can better push off the wall and then turn over on to their stomachs. Not bad for a first try though.

New Record

Tonight I wanted to push the limits so since I was in charge of the workout here is what I came up with:

3000 - 30 x 100's free on 2:00

3000 total

Austin came and he swam 2000. That is a new record for the boys as well. Feel good about the distance tonight, but don't really plan to beat that for quite a while.

Cathi's power workout

Today was a busy afternoon. I went in to work early so I could leave by 3:15.

• I helped Cathi with her Webelos teaching First-Aid at 4pm.
• Then accompanied Cathi's Music to my ears group at 5pm.
• Had dinner at 6pm.
• Had Bulls patrol at 7pm (first aid for Tenderfoot)
• Prepared for swimming and watched a bit of Biggest Loser at 8pm and left to go swim at 8:45 pm.

Today Cathi came up with the workout:
500 - 500 Warm up
50 EZ
1950 - 3 x {300 Free, 200 Free, 100 Free, 50 Free}
50 yards Grandpa swimming with Cathi
2550 Yards total

Jacob came this evening and swam 1100 yards. His PR is 1200. He did alot of breast stroke, which technically has alot of flaws which I tried to help him weed out, but at least he's moving and working hard.

I called today Cathi's power workout because she was swimming fast and strong. She was on my feet basically the whole time. On the 300's I would have at most one length on her and when she got to the wall she rested for a short bit and then went ahead to the 200's. She was awesome today and a great partner.

Austin's first mile

Today we took Austin and since Jacob's last record breaking I think it turned on the competition between the two. Here is my workout:

1100 - 500 free, 300 free, 200 free, 100 free
750 - Breath control. 15 x 50's (first 50 breath 15 total, down to one breath on the last 50)
250 - 5 x 50's (Over Unders - 25 Free EZ, 25 underwater swimming no breath)
50 fast (:30)
--------------------
2100 yards total

Austin swam nearly the whole time. He rested at most 1 minute. He kept track of his yards and did 1800 yards. So proud of that boy!

At least its better than sitting in front of the TV

Tonight's workout on paper doesn't look that tough. But tonight my chest was sore. We were a few minutes late getting to the pool and I wasn't in the mood to start with. But we got through it. The hardest part about this workout was the backstroke. I seem to get water in my nose and swallow more water than I should when doing backstroke. My technique is really flawed I think. I'm having trouble staying level in the water. I end up bobbing quite a bit. Then instead of kicking myself for having a crappy day I said to myself "Even a bad day swimming is better than a good day sitting at home watching TV".

800 - 200 IM, 200 Back, 200 Breast, 200 Free
300 EZ
800 - 200 IM, 200 Back, 200 Breast, 200 Free
100 Warm down

2000 yards total

Jacob came this evening and swam 900 yards. Gave him some pointers on how he should originate his kicks from his hips and not his knees. Looks better already.

Getting touchy

Today while swimming one of the 200's on the last 50 of the set I noticed that I could nearly lap Cathi, so I picked it up just a bit to see if I could. That was the first time I've done that. Well Cathi noticed and gave me a piece of her mind. She was upset with me the rest of the workout! We only did one repeating set:

2100 - 6 x {200 Freee, 100 Free, 50 Free}

Austin came today and I noticed that he wasn't kicking very much and that his arms were coming out way too prematurely. I stressed pushing the water with his forearm all the way through behind him so that he gets a full stroke. His stroke improved greatly by the end of the workout. He swam quite a bit and didn't rest more than 1 minute. He broke Jacob's record of 800 yards by swimming 1200 yards. Not bad for only an hour to do it in!

Nothing too difficult

300 Warmup
1800 - 3 x {100 Pull, 50 Fly, 100 Pull, 50 Back, 100 Pull, 50 Breast, 100 Pull, 50 Free}
200 - 2 x 100 IMs

2300 Total

Jacob came tonight and he swam 800 yards. Half of it was kicking. His biggest flaw with his stoke is his kicking. Because his legs are so deep in the water his upper body isn't parallel with the surface and his head come too far out of the water. Trying to get him to kick harder. His kicking cycles are too shallow, he needs to kick higher and deeper. I would love to get Austin and Jacob to a decent competitive time.

Tonight's swim was fine considering last weekend's procedure. In fact I couldn't even tell a difference from before. Swimming is the best non-impact activity possible!

Swimming with Jacob

Yesterday the pool was closed and today I tried weaseling out of today's workout, but Cathi made me come. Jacob came too. Holy crap that boy is a good swimmer. He swam 650 yards this evening with us. Cathi came up with her typical 2000 yard workout:

600 - 500 Free, 100 EZ
500 - 400 Free, 100 EZ
400 - 300 Free, 100 EZ
300 - 200 Free, 100 EZ
200 - 100 Free, 100 EZ

2000 Total

I told Jacob to push off the wall whenever I did two flip turns. I noticed he was only 10 yards behind me when I got to the other end. Pretty fast little kid.

Breathing and Butterfly

750 - 15 x 50's Free Descending Breathing starting at 8 breaths down 7 back, 7 down 7 back, 7 down 6 back.... finish on 0 down 1 back. Success on all of them Last one wasn't as bad as I thought. Next time I'll go for 0 down 0 back.
250 - 10 x 25's Butterfly on 1:00
1000 total

Austin came with us today. I had a very tight fitting speedo that I quit wearing and it fit him perfectly. He swam 500 yards today and has quite a bit of cleanup on his form, but he was getting better and I was surprised with how well he was doing even at the end he did a 50 free straight and didn't feel overwhelmed. He said he wants to come everytime with us. We'll see. I told him he could come twice a week. I'm selfish. When I come I want to swim, not coach.

Fairly tough 2600 Yards

1000 - 1000 free pulling non-stop
100 - free to let Cathi catch up
1500 - 10 x {100 free on 2:00(@1:20), 50 free on 1:30 (@:45)}

2600 Yards total

Lifted Shoulders today at lunchtime. Tonights workout was tough. Cathi came up with it. Would've been worse if the 1000 at the beginning was NOT pulling. Pulling for me is easier than normal swimming. Not so for some. Last Saturday was torture for me and it was only 1500 yards. Today was more and not as bad. Tomorrow will have to do some speed work as I felt like we swam 90% of the time and didn't get a whole lot of rest.

Slacker workout

Today Cathi and I started biking to the pool again. I was in a bad mood to start. It was cold and the biking wasn't as easy as I had hoped. Cathi was going fast and I just got a call only 2 minutes from home that Jacob was teasing so bad that it was torture for some. I told Cathi I would just turn around and take the car (with the bike rack) and meet her at the pool.

I went back home and gave Jacob a severe scolding, put the bike rack on my little car and drove to the pool. Surprisingly Cathi beat me there. I locked up her bike and we swam until they kicked us out. The lap swim time ends at noon. So we swam the following:

500 - 200 Swim, 250 (5 over unders (25 easy, 25 complete submersion swimming w/no breath)), 50 easy
500 - 5 x 100's on 2:15
500 - 100 Free, Breast, Free, Breast, Free

1500 Total

Not bad considering that we swam five times this week and normally only do four. Cathi swam 1700 and then ran home. She surely showed me up today.

After Thanksgiving Swim

500 - 250 EZ, 200 IM, 50 EZ
200 - Let Cathi catch up - swim with her
600 - 6 x {75 bilateral breathing, 25 no breath}
400 - 4 x 100 IMs
1000 - 4 x {100 (25 slow, fast, slow, fast), 75 (25 slow, fast, slow), 50 (25 fast, slow), 25 fast)
50 Grandpa swimming
2750 Total

Cathi biked to the pool, I drove to Big O Tires and then biked from there. Then after this workout we both biked to Big O to pick up the car, and Cathi ran home while I loaded up the bikes.

It was cold this morning! Good workout.

21 Nov 2007

Forgot to log the details, but we swam around 2300 yards today.

20 Nov 2007

300 - Warmup
800 - 3 x 200 IMs
600 - 6 x 100's Free Descending on 2:30 (1:18, 1:15, 1:13, 1:10, 1:10, 1:10) Pull
900 - 3 x (150,100,50 free)

2400 Total

Tough workout. The 100's (especially the last three) kicked my butt.

Backstroke racing

Today I converted my old blog to this blogger format.

Yesterday Cathi came up with this familiar workout:

600 - 500 Free, 100 EZ
500 - 400 Free, 100 EZ
400 - 300 Free, 100 EZ
300 - 200 Free, 100 EZ
200 - 100 Free, 100 EZ
200 EZ

50 Yards backstroke sprint (Race the clock / Cathi). Did the 50 back in :39. Cathi did it in :45. She was pretty sore. She said I was being proud. But I wasn't. Just wanted to do something different to give her a challenge. Not a big deal. I can do 50 of any stroke, but if we did 100 back I don't think I could have beaten her time.

2250 total
Lifted arms today. Feels great.

15 Nov 2007

600 - 2 x 300's (first 100 sprint (1:02)- took video, but camerawoman messed up.)

800 - 4 x 200's free on 4:00

600 - 6 x 100's free on 2:15

400 - 8 x 50's free on 1:00

2400 total

Had pack meeting just before this swim and Cathi was late getting back afterwards so we had to hustle to get off today. All the lanes were taken by the time I got there. I got in a guys lane and he moved over with his buddy so I was able to push my way into a lane for Cathi and myself. Was happy with the 1:02 on the 100 free. Another month and I bet I get under a minute. I'm really thinking about lifting at lunch rather than ping pong starting Monday.

14 Nov 2007

500 - 500 free

2100 - 7 x {200 free on 4:00, 100 free on 2:00}

100 - 100 free Sprint (Got it in 1:05)

2700 total

Cathi came up with this workout. The 200's were getting tough. Felt like seeing what I could a 100 in at the end of the workout. Swam strong and did it in about 1:05. Would like to try it at the beginning of the workout sometime. Mayble I'll take some vid and post it.

13 Nov 2007

100 - 100 IM Warmup

500 - 500 free

100 - Grandpa swimming (so Cathi could catch up)

1200 - 6 x 200's on 4:00 (Pulling)

300 - 3 x 100's on 2:00

300 - 6 x 50's on 1:00

100 - Grandpa swimming cool down

2600 total

The 500 felt great. I was able to finish strong and I was in the zone. The 200s were good cause I was pulling and I felt like I was going so dog slow, but was going at a good pace. The 3 x 100's afterwards felt like I was not getting efficient strokes, but most of that was because I quit using the big hand paddles from the set before. Very good workout. Personal record since Cathi and I started on the distance swam in the one hour we have.

8 Nov 2007

2100 - 3 x {500 free, 200 free}

100 - Grandpa swimming

2200 total

Met Cathi at the pool since I drove directly from work. Had to stay late to monitor a lengthy processes which was running to make sure it didn't run out of memory after making a tweak. Didn't eat very good at all today and while in the middle of the big set I got out and went to the front desk to a get a drink of water. Was getting dehydrated. Cathi came up with this workout. The 500's were torture!

7 Nov 2007

200 - 200 Warmup

750 - 10 x 75's free (First 25 slow, Second 25 build up, Third 25 strong and fast)

1000 - 5 x 200 IMs

250 - Cool down

2200 total

Lack of sleep is catching up with me. Need to sleep in a little tomorrow. Good workout considering I didn't have much energy to start with.

6 Nov 2007

600 - 500 free, 100 free

500 - 400 free, 100 free

400 - 300 free, 100 free

300 - 200 free, 100 free

200 - 100 free, 100 free

300 - Grandpa swimming with Cathi

2300 total

Very hectic evening. Got home just in time for Cathi's Music to my Ears group. Got a bowl of grape nuts real quick before rushing off to Austin's class field trip to the Apple Store in Salt Lake City. Each kid had a slightly different edited version of the same movie. With the content of each movie being the same it got really boring and I could see right through the salesmanship of many of the young and "hip" young salespeople, who danced to any type of music playing in the films. They must have taken hundreds of minutes of film coverage with each sales person (probably 4 of them) taken pictures and video constantly of us watching the repeating film.

Some of the kids did a dance which got me looking at the clock. I needed to be home in time to swim so when Mrs. Sorte wanted to take all the kids to Ben and Jerry's afterwards is when Austin and I bailed. The evening in my opinion was a waste of time and thought that the way the kids could have learned how to edit things could have been done better. Instead of having each kid edit the same film. Have the content be different too. At least so those watching all of them don't have to watch the same stuff over and over.

Crap! This is a swimming blog, not a rant blog. So I'll stop there. Night from hell! Made it in time to swim so that's good.

5 Nov 2007

200 - 200 Warm up

900 - 2 x 150 free, 3 x 100 free, 2 x 150 free

600 - 3 x 200 free pulling

300 - 3 x 100's free fast

150 - 3 x 50's on 1:00

100 - Grandpa swimming with Cathi

2250 total

The pulling set felt slow, but it was just that I'm using super massive hand paddles. When I went to the 100s it felt like I would take 50 strokes to get to the other side. But it was just the contrast with only taking probably 10 strokes when using paddles. Really enjoying swimming and not killing myself either.

Cathi and I are running together in the morning 3 times a week for a total of 4 1/2 miles. (I run exactly half when using my GPS (run .05, walk .05)) Will lessen the walk part as time goes on. I've never been a runner and Cathi is running out of partners so I'm doing this purely as a way to give her a partner. I hate running, but I'm doing it now out of sympathy for her working out alone. That's the worst. She thinks I'll get addicted, but so far its a 9 (out of 10) on the "I hate this" scale.

1 Nov 2007

600 - 500 free, rest, 100 free

500 - 400 free, rest, 100 free

400 - 300 free, rest, 100 free

300 - 200 free, rest, 100 free

200 - 100 free, rest, 100 free

100 - 50 fly sprint (:35), 50 Grandpa swimming

2100 total

First time doing 500 without stopping in years. Got a second wind around 350 or so. The other sets were relatively easy as well. Felt good about my 100's (Got them all 1:10 - 1:15) and 50 fly (:35) as well as the distance sets. Very good day and having fun!

31 Oct 2007

Cathi and I rushed the kids to bed after all the Halloween fun and rushed over to the pool to swim. But it looked closed. Cathi went up and pushed on the door and no it was open! She went in but was quickly approached by the cleaning lady we see every night. Apparently the alarms had gone off and the door was supposed to be locked. I walked up to the front as well and she was shaking her head "No" and was trying to tell me that the alarms would go off. So she took Cathi around to a side door to let her out

Thing that bothered me was that there as no sign that we read the night before stating that they would close early. Oh well. Cathi found that the cleaning lady's name is Irene and she is from Lithuania.

Cathi and I went home and did the following. While I biked, she would run and vice versa:

Bike 10 minutes

Jog 5 minutes

Bike 10 minutes

Jog 5 minutes

Bike 10 minutes

40 minutes total of aerobic activity.

30 Oct 2007

300 - warm up

1500 - 5 x {200 free on 4:15, 100 free on 2:15} Middle set IM kicking

200 - Grandpa swimming

2000 total

Good thing about swimming is that it puts Cathi in a good mood. She was being snippy before the workout which she apologized for after the warm up. And after the workout when we got home, she couldn't keep her hands or lips off me.

Also - weighed in at a record 229 pounds. Happy to be in the 220's again. Looking forward to getting in to the 210's!

29 Oct 2007

350 - warm up

1200 - 12 x 100's pull on 2:30

400 - 4 x 100 IM's on 2:45

50 - Grandpa swimming

200 - EZ free

2200 total

Went to work early this morning (got there at 6:30am) and on the way out of my car noticed that I didn't have my laptop. I had a hard time finding some shoes to wear. The kids put my shoes in the wrong place last night when asked, and I had to search a little and get Cathi to help me. In the hustle and bustle I left my laptop in the garage on the stairs. So I went all the way back home to get the laptop. I could see that traffic coming into Salt Lake was a nightmare. So I decided to just take the day off.

I had a good day with the family. We too the kids swimming and Sam went over to Rose Mitchell's. We had a fun time and went through three sets of waves. Played Starcraft with the boys. Reinstalled windows on Austin's machine. Then went swimming with Cathi in the evening. Hoping that I don't have that scenario of leaving the lap top home too often. This is the first time (out of taking the laptop home about 100 times.

25 Oct 2007

200 - warm up
800 - 8 x 100 IM's on 2:30
100 - ez
800 - 2 x 200's on 4:00, 2 x 100's on 2:00, 4 x 50's on 1:00
100 - EZ
2000 total

Sure had a crappy nights sleep last night.Here's why.
I was feeling good about the IM's. I did the 25 Fly on all of them without too much trouble. Cathi and I came up with this workout on the way to the pool. On the way back home we stopped at Walmart and got new pillows and a new matress cover, and then did a ton of washing of sheets and pillow cases using our new Washing machine. Didn't get to bed till about midnight. Tomorrow night is table tennis! My game lately has not been as good. Hoping its just one of those biorhythm things.

Decided yesterday that table tennis is fun, but it really doesn't do much for my body. Sure I sweat, but my physical strength and definition are not doing well. So I have decided that after the 2007 National Open Tournament in Las Wegas just before Christmas, I will give up playing at lunch time and start lifting again. In fact I put out a want ad for some help.

24 Oct 2007

200 - warm up

1250 - 5 x {2 x 100's Pull on 2:15, 50 (25 fly, 25 breast) on 1:30}

300 - 6 x 50's kick (free, fly, free, breat, free, back) on 1:30

250 - 250 straight EZ (The most I've done at once since I started last week)

2000 total

Feeling so good! Feeling strong and fast and not breathing like a asthmatic person anymore. Looking forward every day for this swim.

23 Oct 2007

150 - Slow and Easy warmup (waiting for Cathi to get in)

1800 - 3 x {200 on 4:00, 150 on 3:15, 100 on 2:30, 75 on 1:45, 50 on 1:15, 25 (Rest for 3 minutes at end of each set)}

50 - Grandpa swimming

2000 Total

The 200's and 150's were tough. But I got through them. We had a very busy afternoon and almost arrived late. Today's workout was good and first time that Cathi and I swam the entire workout together (minus the warmup). This one pushed Cathi more that she normally would. Cathi claims that I am starting to enjoy this more than she is. Probably true.

22 Oct 2007

500 - 3 x (25, 50, 75) free, 50 EZ

500 - 4 x 25's (on:45), 4 x 50's (on 1:15), 2 x 100s free (on 2:00) Cathi swam this set with me

600 - 4 x (75, 50, 25) Cathi swam this with me too.

200 - 100 kicking (cramped up), 100 easy (one arm fly)

1800 Total

Very pleased to do one mile. Strange this was it wasn't a killer. Never got out of breath and it was fun swimming with Cathi. A little crowded today. For family night we took the kids swimming. They wouldn't let Sam in since he is still in a diaper so I took him to McDonalds to get a soft serve gone which he loved, then I sat in the van in the parking lot for 45 minutes singing songs for Sam and Oliver to make time pass. Took them home, helped everyone get into bed and then went back just with Cathi and had a great workout.

18 Oct 2007

Looked up workout from 9 October 1989 and used a portion of that for today:

1000 - 2 x 25's on :30, 2 x 50's on 1:30, 2 x 75's on 2:00, 2 x 100's on 2:30 rest for a few minutes then work your way back down

200 - 4 x 50's free/breast/one arm fly/breast

250 - Grandpa swimming

1450 TOtal

A woman asked from the ledge if she could swim in our lane with us. I said sure and she came in from the ladder. As she was making her way over to our lane Cathi got there and I said "We need to start circle swimming". Cathi said "Why? There are other lanes with just one person!". I was trying to keep Cathi's voice down since she was right there and heard. Granted Cathi's logic was correct. But I come from a school of thought where lanes are absolutely open and public and there should never be a concept of ownership for lanes. When I was working as a lifeguard many years ago I would see human nature in practice and the greed that many adults expressed about their lanes. Unbelievably childish.

Anyhow the girl heard Cathi's outburst and looked over at me and said, "Yes I'll just go over there, sorry.". I was disappointed. I like circle swimming. It provides a little bit of motivation to go faster. But I definitely was wondering what her intent was in asking us when every other lane only had one person. Perhaps it was because the other lanes had grandpa swimmers and at the time I was going at a fairly decent speed and she wanted to swim with other people who weren't just gracefully floating in a forward motion.

17 Oct 2007

500 - 20 x 25's on :30

300 - 6 x 50's kick (alternate breast/fly/free

200 - 2 x 100's strong (1:20 each)

200 - Easy

200 - Grandpa swimming

1400 Yards total

Today was much easier. If I were to 50's on 1:00 that would be pushing it for me, but doing 25's on :30 aren't that bad. Today was much much better than the last two days.

16 Oct 2007

Sore and not in the mood, but I'm locked in cause we bought a family year pass today.
500 - 5 x 100's Free on 2:30 (get them under 1:30)

500 - 5 x 100's First 50 Breast, Second 50 Free (get them under 1:45)

200 - Grandpa swimming

1200 Yards total

Breathing like a fat fat man which makes sense since I am. Getting a rash on my right shoulder from the stubble on my chin rubbing up against my shoulder when I breathe. Cathi is stoked about swimming, but I'm feeling a bit defiant of the whole thing, but do so knowing that it is working (weighed in this morning at 233.6 pounds which for me is a milestone. I'm hoping to be in the 220's by Tuesday, Oct. 23rd. I'm also watching what I eat and not being a pig like normal).

Cathi getting me off my butt

Well Cathi has talked me into working out with her. Lately it's all been Table Tennis, not even any lifting weights. So she did some calling and found that we can swim at Layton for an entire year for $350 and that's for the whole family and includes racquetball which I think would be just as good for me to get back into. Today's goal was just to do 1000 yards. I knew it would be tough. Here is what I did:
500 - 10 x 50's Free on 1:00 (rest an extra minute every 200 yards)

450 - 3 x (50 one arm fly, 50 breast, 50 free)

150 - Grandpa swimming

1100 Yards total

Wasn't pretty. That's for sure. Cathi and I got home and ordered new Speedo's online. Felt the free sets in my Triceps and when I got home also felt stiffness in my Lats and back. This should be good.