Don't forget the big picture

After last weeek's 6 mile swim I took it easy for a few days, and in my desperation to heal quickly used my HSA account to order four shoulder straps that apply heat and cold to each shoulder.  They arrive early next week.  I rested it this week only swimming 3 miles during the week.  

Yesterday I met Chad and the Ebay Media expert, Kip, at Bountiful Lake where we were interviewed about our experience preparing for Chad's English Channel swim.  We then got in and swim about 1/3 mile out to the southern most fishing dock and swam back while Kip flew his hovercraft overhead.  It was pretty neat.  

This morning I coached SDM, and considered going to join Will Reeves at his 12 hour challenge, but had to consider that doing a really big swim would damage my shoulders more, and I was not prepared or properly trained to be able to swim that long.  So I opted to put together my own long workout that was still going to push me, but within limits.  So here's what I swam:

100 easy

200 IM

300 - 4 x 75's build on 1:15

400 kick with fins

500 - 5 x 100s free :15 rest

600 - 3 x 200's Tic Toch on 3:15

700 - 2 x (100 fly, 100 back, 100 breast, 50 free)

800 - 4 x 200's free no equipment 

900 - 900 snorkel free

1000 pull

1500 - 15 x 100's free get 1:20 on 1:45

1000 pull

900 - 900 snorkel free

800 - 4 x 200's free no equipment 

700 - 2 x (100 fly, 100 back, 100 breast, 50 free)

600 - 3 x 200's Tic Toch on 3:15

500 - 5 x 100s free :15 rest

400 kick with fins

300 - 4 x 75's build on 1:15

200 IM

100 easy

12,500 yards total = 7.1 miles

This swim was better than last weeks as I had food with me on this swim and I kept fueled.  No I'm tending to the shoulders.  Gotta get them healing faster!

Longest swim since my birthday last year!

This year I'm swimming the 250 mile Virtual open water race, and the two years I participated I won.  This year, I want to step it up and see if I can take it again.

Yesterday I swam 3,600 yards with SDM, then 1.05 miles in Bountiful Lake yesterday after work.  This morning I wanted to put in a significant workout so I got to SDRC at 6am and swam Blair's workout:

WARM UP

400 Free
200 Kick
8 x 50 on 0:50 (25 IM order/ 25 Free)

DRILL

16 x 25 Breakouts on 0:30
(Begin in the middle of pool)

MAIN SET

200 Kick
4 x 100 Free (Odd - Easy, Even - Strong)
4 x 50 Free (Odd - Easy, Even- Strong)
4 x 25 Hard
REST 2 MINUTES

200 Pull
4 x 100 Free (Odd - Easy, Even- Strong)
4 x 50 Stroke (Odd - Easy, Even- Strong)
4 x 25 Stroke (Hard)

REST2 MINUTES

200 IM
4 x 100 IM (Odd - Easy, Even - Strong)
4 x 50 Stroke (Odd - Easy, Even- Strong)
4 x 25 IM (Hard)

WARM DOWN

200 EASY

TOTAL: 4300 YARDS

Then I went to the other side of the pool and did my own thing:

100 easy
200 IM
300 - 4 x 75's build on 1:20
400 Kick with fins
500 freestyler paddles
600 - 3 x 200's middle one IM
700 - 2 x (100 fly, 100 back, 100 breast, 50 free)
800 - 4 x 200's alternate free and IM
900 snorkel freestyle
1000 agility paddles
1200 - 400 kick no fins, 2 x (4 x 100's descend first four, ascend last four)

Ran out of steam at the 700s, but got a second wind with the 900 free snorkel.  I focused on making my hips do all the work instead of my shoulders.  In fact, last night I had Lucy put some KT Sports tape on both shoulders using this video as a guide:




The shoulders felt fine and when I got out, I took the tape off.  They feel fine.  I think I'll do this for those extra long swims.  I got a roll of 20 sheets for around $9.50 on Amazon Prime.  I also ordered a Finis Tech Toc on Friday.  I'm excited to try that out on Monday.  I really want to focus on taking my rotation to the next level so that my shoulders can last the rest of my life instead of having trouble another 5 years down the road or something.

Total for the day: 11,000 yards (6.25 miles)
This is my longest swim since my birthday of 2014!  That's almost a year and a half ago!

I took a look at my spreadsheet of all my swims and I can hardly believe I've had such a underwhelming amount of swimming over the past 17 months!  I guess it's been a long enough break. No more being Mr Excuses.

Hip Driven

Today I intensely focused on having my stroke be hip driven.  Meaning I really made sure to take all drive away from any pull, and focus on rotating my hips either right before, or at the same time as my upper body.  Instead of the other way around.  I felt a huge improvement in the level of effort as well as strain on my shoulders. It was awesome.  I bought some KT tape after talking with Kevin at South Davis.  I think I'll apply it a few times to my right shoulder to see if it helps on long swims where some extra support would be nice to have.  But I'll have to have Cathi apply it while watching this video:



Except after today's swim, not sure it's necessary as my shoulder felt awesome.  In fact, my left shoulder felt more sore than my right one which is a huge relief!  Here's the workout I did:

100 free easy
200 IM
300 - 4 x 75's build on 1:20
400 - 2 x 200's free
500 free
600 - 3 x 200's middle one IM
700 - 2 x (100 back, 100 breast, 50 free, 100 one arm fly)
800 - 400 kick, 2 x 200's free
900 snorkel easy
1000 pull
500 free
400 kick
300 - 4 x 75's build on 1:15
200 free
100 easy
50 grandpa swimming

7,050 yards total (4 miles)

The lazy swim blogger

I have actually been swimming, just not blogging the workouts.  Yes they are structured, and I'm not slacking and I'm having fun again and that's the most important part.

This morning was even more structured than normal and I got through the whole workout as planned.  Now for some ice cause October is when my season officially starts and things get real, really quick.

Here's the workout:

Tuesday, October 6th - 8,100

400 easy
1600 - 8 x 200’s free on 3:10
800 - 2 x 400’s - 1 IM, 2 kick
1200 - 4 x (150 build, 100 fast, 50 easy) :10 ri
1000 pull
1000 - 10 x 100’s fast on 1:30
2000 - 2 x (50 breast, 100 free, 50 back, 100 one arm fly)
         400 kick with fins
2 x (50 breast, 100 free, 50 back, 100 one arm fly)
        400 kick with fins
100 easy

8,100 yards total


But the highlight of the day was this poem from Donal Buckley.  Genius:

http://loneswimmer.com/2015/10/06/i-touched-your-foot/

Post Bluefins swim

After coaching the bronze kids I got in and swam.  Oct 1st is the start of my base building season, so I had to an OK start:

100 free easy warmup
200 kick
300 free
400 - 2 x 200's strong :20 rest
500 agility paddles
600 - 3 x 200's free on 3:00
700 - 2 x (100 back, 100 breast, 150 one arm fly)
800 - 4 x 200's with snorkel :20 rest
900 pull

4,500 yards total