Endless Pool Swim (Kind of)

 Today and yesterday I swam with the resistance band in the Princess Discovery boat pool early (7am) before all the kids got there.  Felt good, and it was fun.  Swam 1 hour straight which I estimate is about 4000 yards both days. 

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Happy Thanksgiving swim

 This morning I got in the pool at Deck 16 Midship of the discovery Princess. I brought my rubber tubing band setup which I use for games with the swim team for doing a tug of war in the water but strapped one end to the metal grate at the end of the pool. Swam straight for 50 minutes and then a kid got in and I felt obligated to disconnect but then swam a few laps and then the kid got out. I resumed to another 4 minutes with the tubing and then another kid got in. 

So I called it quits at 59:30. Felt awesome. Got in over 21 miles according to the GPS. :) But hard to say since it was a resistance band swim. 

 

Mexican beach mafia

 So Austin and I wanted to swim out to a small island off the beach of La Isla de la Casa Cardon to Isla Cardones. About a one mile round trip. But after swimming only a couple hundred yards we were stopped by a banana boat driver who wasn’t even wearing a PFD that said we weren’t allowed. Pissed me off. I was wearing an orange cap and had a safe swim device with me. But no. Butthole. 

Apparently Mexico is not a free country. So we turned back. Only got in 300 yards. Sucked cause I was really looking forward to it.

Thinking about next week

 Next week (the week of Thanksgiving), I will be on a cruise so my swimming will suffer a bit.  There are pools on the ship, but nothing big enough for doing laps.  So I got some long rubber tubing, and a couple of clip belts, and plan to take that on the ship for some swimming with resistance instead of doing laps.  I actually got this for a game for today's workout with the high school kids, but since I've got it, I might as well take it on the ship and use it myself and see if it's really worth doing.

Here's today's workout:

Warmup:

• 300 Easy
• 400 kick with fins & snorkel

Main Set:

• 1200 Snorkel free pull with finger paddles
• 400 kick with fins
• 4 x 200's pull
• 5 x (100 free fast, 2 x 50's fast)
• 100 easy

Total: 4,200 yards

Pre Meet workout

 Not my meet, but my High School kids.  This afternoon we host our first home swim meet.  My first swim meet organizing it since Masters at South Davis.   I got some major help from Jason Udy and Kyle Kofoed on the computers.  Paul Welch arranged all the officials.  I just had to get the timer volunteers which we were able to get from some of the Layton Surf N Swim kids.  That was awesome.  

Here's the workout that Cathi actually put together for me:

Warmup: 

• 500 Free easy

Main:

• 10 x 100's IM on 2:30
• 5 x 200's pull with large paddles on 3:00
• 400 kick with fins
• 800 Snorkel

Total: 3,700 yards total

The meet went well.  Here are the details of how it went for the kids.

Even Number Building

• 200 Easy
• 400 Kick with fins
• 600 - 12 x 50's free fast
• 1-4 under :38
• 5-8 under :37 (with fins)
• 9-12 under :36 (with hand paddles)
• 800 - 4 x 200's
• odd IM
• even free
• 1000 Snorkel Free
• 1200 
• 5 x 100's pull free on 1:30 (land 1:18)
• 4 x 100's IM on 2:00
• 300 kick easy

4,200 yards total

I had to take Cathi to Syracuse Jr High to sub and I rushed to the pool and got started at 8:30.  Good thing I wasn't later than that, cause I finished just as they were closing down the pool at 10am.

Back at it

 Took yesterday off as I wasn't quite back to full health.  But this morning felt fine.  Got to the pool and in the water by 7:30am and did the following:

Warmup:

• 100 easy 
• 200 IM 

Main set:

• 300 kick with fins and snorkel
• 400 - 2 x 200 IMs
• 500 - 5 x 100's free fast @ 1:22 on 2:00
• 600 - 8 x 75's Rolling IMs
• 700 Snorkel Free
• 800 - 2 x 400's pull - 1st one normal paddles, 2nd one finger paddles
• 900 - 300 drill, 300 kick, 200 IM, 100 free easy

Cooldown: 100 

• 2 x over unders

Total: 4,600 yards

Tonight Northridge has a swim meet at SDRC with Viewmont and Layton.  I'm excited.  Should be good.

Wednesday's practice covered quite a bit of stuff.  Here are the details of the itty bitty techniques we covered.   One of the main things was to discuss my philosophy.  The values I want to imprint on these swimmers:

1. Dream - You need to have a dream in the first place if you want to accomplish something of value. This is about goal setting, or having a vision and writing it down. Followed by steps to how you intend to get there.  Which is where Hard work and Discipline come in.....
2. Hard work - As Capt Webb put it, "Nothing great is easy".  It's true.  If you can do something easily, it is of less value than something that is hard. If you work really hard, then the difficult becomes less difficult.  Which the average person who didn't work hard, will find impossible.
3. Discipline - If you are easily swayed by doing the right thing or are willing to sacrifice the future for the here and now, you likely are doing something out of lack of discipline.  When you make your mind up to do something, you need to follow through and not come up with excuses to do what needs to be done.

Second Shingles Shot Side Affects

 Yesterday afternoon I went in to get my second shingles vaccine in a two-series administration.  The shot

itself was painless, but later in the day, I started to feel a little soreness in the injection site.  Nothing major.  But this morning I felt some pretty serious body aches but went to the pool anyway.  Here's what I did:

Warmup: 500

• 300 Easy
• 200 Kick with fins

Main Set: 2100 yards 

• 8 x 50's free fast on 1:00 desc 1-4 (:42, :37, :34, :33)
• 6 x 100's Pull Build per 25 on 2:00 (Got 1:17 on all)
• 4 x 200's IM on 5:00 
• At this point, I was feeling especially lethargic and sore. 
• 2 x 400's Kick 1st, Choice on 2nd.  
• However, I only made it through 300 yards of the first of the two sets.  I realized that I was going downhill in a major way.  I plan to actually get in the water with the Northridge swim team this afternoon to go over some technique, so I will get a few more yards today.  
• I also had a terrible night's sleep last night thanks to the dogs. I put them outside to pee at 1:30 a.m., but I couldn't get back to sleep until around 4 a.m. I really need to take a sleeping pill every single night. It's not worth the insomnia I experience without it.  

Total: 2,600 yards

Veteran's Day Swim

 Got to the pool a little bit early and did the following:

Warmup: 800

• 400 IM
  
  
  
• 400 Kick with fins

Main Set: 3,300 

• 8 x 200's
• 1-2 Pull
• 3-4 IM
• 5-6 Free fast (2:38, 2:41)
• 7-8 Kick
• 2 x (100 free, 50 Fly, 100 Free, 50 back, 100 Free, 50 Breast, 100 Free)
• 600 Snorkel Free

Cooldown: 100

• 50 Grandpa swimming
• 50 Under/Over
• Completely swim 25 yards underwater and then 25 free recovery

Total: 4,200 Yards

Everyday is a Friday

 This morning I was prepared to sleep in and skip today's workout to give my achy muscles a break, but Oliver's obnoxious alarm clock woke me up at 6:30 and I got up to get his deep sleep broken up and get him up.  At that point I wasn't sleepy anymore so I figured I might as well go swim.  Here's what I did:

Warmup:

• 200 Easy
  
  
  
• 300 - 4 x 75 IMs
• 400 Kick with fins and snorkel

Main Set:

• 8 x 100's - 1 - 4 IM, 5 - 8 Freestyle on 2:00
• 4 x 200's First 2 Pull, third one kick, last one IM
• 3 x 400's Snorkel Free
• 4 x 50's sprint!  Goal was under :35, got :32 on all of them. on 2:00

Cooldown:

• 100 easy

4000 total

Near the end of my main sets I heard a woman a couple lanes down yell to another swimmer on the other side of me, "Hey Jeff!  It's Friday!".  It made me think.  Now that I don't work at Salesforce and I can coach which I absolutely love, everyday feels like a Friday!  That thought put a smile on my face.  I feel very blessed, even though my financial income is practically non-existant at this point.  I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have decent savings to live off, and was in debt.  Feeling very grateful!

Last night was Northridge's first swim meet. I was very pleased with how it turned out.  Every swimmer gave it there all, and out of the 27 individual swims, 17 of them were new PRs.  Outstanding!  Proud of those kids!

Achy muscles

 Swimming is so good for me. It seems all the various muscles in my upper back and last are a little sore. Took yesterday off since I stayed up so late watching the Presidential election results come in until 1:30am. Went to bed happy.

Ran out of time for cooldown

Here is what I swam today:

Warmup

• 300 easy
• 200 IM
• 100 kick

Main set:

• 6 x 50s freestyle drill on 1:00
• 30 x 50s all on 1:00

            6 x one arm fly

            8 x back

            8 x breast

            8 x free pull fast! Get all under :34

• 1500 snorkel free (22:33)

100 easy

4,000 yards total

Happy Birthday swim for Isaac

 This morning when I showed up to swim, the little white board on the front desk showed the water temp at 77 degrees.  I said "Woah, it cool today.  Love it!".  They chuckled.  Probably most people dislike when the water temp is cooler than normal.  I really do love it.  

Proud to swim in the best pool in Davis county.... Layton Surf N Swim!

Today is my son Isaac's birthday.  He turns 21 today.  So I added a set that involved 21....  In fact this

Isaac when he got a bike for his birthday as a kid.

morning when I woke up, I noticed he had texted me about swimming with me in the morning.  That would be so awesome!  He needs to get a suit, but hopefully he starts swimming with me!

Here is the workout:

Warmump: 400

• 400 IM Easy

Main Set: 

• 21 x 100's
• 4 IMs
• 4 kick with fins and snorkel
• 4 backstroke
• 4 Pull on 1:30 (got under 1:20 on these)
• 4 breast
• 1 one arm fly
• 1650 snorkel free - loved this!

Cooldown:

• 400 IM easy
• 50 easy

4,600 yards total

Then treaded with the 10 pound brick for 45 second.  Man that was hard!  I was considering another set, but just preparing for it, started cramping. 

Early Start

 Got up earlier than normal thanks to the dogs.  It was a very cold ride on my scooter to the pool.  Below freezing.  Good thing I bundle up well. During the end of today's workout, I went above and beyond the prescribed amounts because I was feeling so in the zone with the snorkel swimming.  Here's what I actually did:

Warmup: 500

• 300 easy
• 200 kick

Main: 3,700

• 10 x 100's pull free strong (1:20 and under on everything), on 1:45
• 400 kick 
• 2 x (200 free, 100 IM, 50 back, 100 breast)
• 1400 snorkel free (prescribed 1200)

4,200 yards total

Went home and created a Northridge swim team calendar to keep all the meets in a calendar format that is sharable.  Good day today.

Late Start

 Last night was Halloween night so I got to bed a little later than I'd like.  Had a hard time waking up.  But I eventually got my big butt out of bed.  I then had to go digging around to find my winter motorcycle gear.  It's below 40 degrees in the morning and I needed all my winter gear this morning, so I finally got it all together, and then noticed Oliver got up early and went to a friends house using my truck which has my swim bag in it.

So I went to get the swim bag from the truck which fortunately wasn't far, and made it to the pool at 8:15am.  Here's the workout:

Warmup:

• 300 easy

Main Set:

• 1000 Snorkel Free
• 400 kick with fins
• 4 x 300's pull - first 2 large paddles, second 2 smaller paddles on 5:30
• 10 x 100's - odd IM, even Free FAST!  Get under 1:20 on all.  Got 1:12 on the last one. 

Cooldown:

• 100 recovery backstroke

4000 yards total

The last 100 on that kicked my butt.  Worked hard, and felt great!  Got out at 9:55am.  Only 5 more minutes and I would have been kicked out.  Perfect timing.