Spooky Swim

Yesterday was a busy day at work getting our pumpkin scene ready, and also had to get off early so I could make it home in time for a halloween 5K run that Cathi commanded me to join her on.  She was Bert and I was Ernie and she said she'd be mad if she had to show up without Ernie.  So I had to sacrifice yesterday's swim for the sake of family unity.  But I think I made up for it with today's long swim, which is a modified version of this one from swiminfo:


1000 - 400 Free and IM, 200 choice
800 - 8 x 100's kick IM on 2:45
1600 - 16 x 100's pull on 1:30
800 - 4 x 200's Drill (100 left/right arm, 100 fingertip drag) on 4:00
400 free build each 100.  1:00 ri
600 - 2 x 300's free build by 150.  1:00 ri
600 - 3 x 200's free hard (MUST GET 2:30 or your rest gets cut by :15!) on 3:30
400 - 4 x 100's free fast (must get under 1:15) on 1:30
300 - 6 x 50's free sprint
400 - 4 x 100's choice moderate 
300 Easy


Do the above workout all over again!


14,400 yards total

Calm mind

Felt really good this morning.  My mind was free of commotion and was able to swim strong as a result:

500 free warmup
2500 - 10 x (100 fast/50 easy on 2:30, 75 IM/25 free on 2:00)
1000 - 5 x (75 free/25 kick on 2:00, 25 kick/75 free on 2:00)

really focus on free technique and not so much about speeed.

4000 - 800 free pull strong :20 ri, 600 kick :20ri, 400 - 4 x 100 IMs on 2:00, 200 free strong.  Then do the same set backwards

200 easy

8200 yards total

9000 yards and The Parable of the Foolish Swimmer

3000 yards free
3000 yards pull
1000 yards kick with fins
1000 - 5 x 200's odds IM drill, even free
900 - 6 x 150's (100 sprint (get under 1:15), 50 breast active recovery) on 2:30
100 - 50 sprint, 50 back easy

9000 yards

Here's something I put together in my mind during today's swim.  Totally fictional, purely a parable that is similar to an actual event, but not related to swimming.  Sorry.  It's kinda long:

The Parable of the Foolish Swimmer


Frank always enjoyed swimming ever since he was a kid.  He swam on his High School Team and made lots of friends.  He had progressed to the point of being one of the fastest swimmers on the team.  He was good friends with Jon and Rick also were very fast swimmers on the team, but typically we assigned to swim in different lanes.  Frank had earned a reputation for his hard work and for taking first place in nearly every event he competed in at meets.

Many years passed, Frank had varying levels of motivation to swim.  He didn't swim with groups anymore, and rarely pushed himself to the point of exhaustion like he did when he was on a team.  One day he thought it would be cool to swim the Catalina channel.  So the next month, he drove to California, hired a pilot and started the swim.  He knew it would be tough, but didn't realize there were currents, marine life, and salt water to deal with. During one of the first couple feedings, he exclaimed, "I've never seen a seal before in the water with me".  The pilot crew tried to hide their amusement when they realize Frank is in over his head.  Once Rick gets about halfway he is beyond the point of exhaustion and can go no longer.  The pilot crew pull him out of the water and he heads home defeated.

Frank resolves to learn from this and to do: open water swims, extend his training to higher levels, do more research on marathon swimming.  He begins his research and reads a book where an English Channel swimmer makes light of the obstacles to marathon swimming and almost mocks anyone who nonchalantly attempts it.  This book disgusts him to the point of giving up and he goes back to swimming at the pool focussed again on just sprints with his workout total never getting higher than 3500 yards.

A couple years later, Frank's girlfriend, Jenny, hears about a sweepstakes put on by Swimming World where the winner of the sweepstakes will win a free trip to Dover including payment for a pilot to swim the English Channel.  The drawing is in 1 week.  Jenny asks Frank if she can enter him in the drawing.  Without really thinking about his past experience with the Catalina Channel he agrees thinking that he wouldn't win the drawing anyway.  A week later he gets a call, he just won the drawing and will need to take a week off work the next month to swim the English Channel.

Frank was mortified.  He knew he wasn't prepared, but he'd won the drawing and didn't want to waste the opportunity.  Every morning for the next month he went swimming in the local pond.  Frank and Jenny went to visit a psychiatrist to help him stay positive, and be mentally strong during the swim.  When the time came, he flew with Jenny to Dover.  Two days before his Channel swim, the pilot sent two of his assistants to take Frank on a training in the harbor.  He was to swim 8 miles in 60 degree water.   He arrived at the Harbor and noticed the waves were huge!  The water was freezing.  He finished the swim, but had to grab the boat a couple times, and at the end had moderate hypothermia and had drank alot of seawater.

The two pilot assistants reported back to the head pilot of what happened.  The pilot had heard of Frank's abilities through his old High School teammates Jon and Rick who had recently successfully swam the English Channel.  They both spoke highly of him and respected his speed when they swam together in High School.  Because of that recommendation and the fact that he actually did finish the training swim, (even though it was executed pathetically), they decided to allow him to continue to make the attempt two days later.

Once Frank heard they approved his attempt and he was scheduled to swim, he was surprised and horrified.  He knew he was totally unprepared to be successful.  At this point he called the whole thing off.  He resolved to go home, hire a personal trainer who had experience with marathon swimming, take his training seriously, and come back and make the attempt once he was satisfied that he had taken the proper steps to not just "make the attempt", but to be able to swim it confidently and powerfully.

There is no denying that Frank was foolish, but what was his most foolish decision?

Please answer the poll to the right at the bottom.

Reward for not being a chicken

I'm rewarding myself with a long workout this morning doing what I love!

1000 - 1000 free (every fifth lap kick on back)
1000 skips (swim, kick, IM, pull, swim)
1000 - 20 x 50's (5 fly, 5 back, 5 breast, 5 free) drill on 1:15
1500 - 10 x 150's (50 swim, kick, pull (no buoy, just paddles) on 3:00
2500 - 5 x 500's pull descend 1-5 on 7:30
800 - 4 x 200's :10 ri  odds IM, even free
200 EZ

8000 yards total

Felt like just getting out at the 7000 mark, but figured I'd just finish it up as planned.  Feels good to finish and not giving in to being lazy.  Especially going really strong on the IMs at the end.

Swimming with Butterflies

No I didn't do any fly stroke, I'm talking about butterflies in my gut because I'm nervous about something going on in my life outside the pool.  Anyhow so today's workout it was hard staying focused on my stroke or form.

1000 - 4x4x4
800 - 2 x (4 x 100's free descend 1-4 on 1:30)
2000 - 10 x 200's pull on 2:45
1000 - 5 x 200's kick with fins on 4:00
200 easy

5000 yards total

Helping Jacob with his swimming

This morning Jacob was insistent that we go earn his Mile Swim.  Jacob got tired quick and had to resort to backstroke after 200 yards.  Then he started straying from a straight line and got in other swimmers way who were sharing the lane so I called off his mile attempt so we could focus on technique.  We took this video at the end.  I don't mean to be overly critical, but here are some common mistakes that young kids make that are still learning.

Thing is.  I really need to have someone video me so I can SEE what things I'm doing wrong, cause I bet I have a ton too.  Video feedback is awesome!

I ended up swimming 1200 yards with him during this morning's lesson.  

20% of Lake Huron

So my quest to Swimming Lake Huron is 1/5th of the way complete after today.  I will have just over 50 miles logged since October 1st.  Here's the workout I swam this morning and then will swim again at SDRC this evening while the boys are playing Table Tennis at the club:

1000 Warm up Pull
1000 - 4 x (75 free on 1:30, 75 - (25 kick, 50 breast), 50 back, 25 kick)
2000 free using Tempo Timer set at :57.  Get under 30:00
1000 - 400 kick, 300 pull, 200 fast (got 2:32), 100 grandpa

6000 yards total

Times 2 for doing twice today....

12000 yards total for the day

Coach Smith's workout

Doubled this workout:

800 - 8x 100's odd free, even choice on 1:30/1:45
600 - 12 x 50's IM on 1:00
450 - 6 x 75's 25 kick then 50 free on 1:15
500 - 50/100/200/100/50 :10 ri
400 - 4 x 100's pull on 1:30

500 - 50/100/200/100/50 :10 ri 

400 - 4 x 100's kick w/fins on 2:00

300 - 4 x 75 IM drill on 1:10

400 - 2 x 200's free on 3:00

Now do the same workout going backwards.

8700 yards total


Felt great about the IM work. My fly is getting better.

Got my Lake Huron shirt yesterday, very cool.  I also practiced more on the bubble rings.  Did much better today.  Even though the best ring I did only lasted about 3 feet before it collapsed out of a ring formation.  More practice needed.  Fun stuff.

Todd's workout

Got this workout from "Todd":

500 - 5 x 100's free on 1:30
750 - 6 x 125's kick w/fins on 2:20
1200 - 6 x 200's pull on 2:45
1000 - 10 x 100's IM on 2:00

I added this set as an addition to get an 8150 total. Felt great about this set. was holding 1:25-1:28 on all of these

500 - 1 x 500 free on 7:30
800 - 2 x 400's free on 5:30
1800 - 2 x 3 x 300's free on 4:15

Triceps starting to fizzle out at this point

800 - 4 x 200's free on 2:50
500 - 5 x 100's free on 1:25
300 Warmdown

8150 Total

Saw this very cool video on Rob's blog:

All Strokes - Blowing Bubble Rings from Glenn Mills on Vimeo.

So I tried it myself. Not so easy. Notice the guy demonstrating has like zero body fat. With me when I laid on my back at the bottom of the pool, I was rising to the surface and not able to stay on the bottom. My bubbles didn't even resemble a ring at all. I'll have to practice....here's my very lame attempt:

Licorice

Got this modified workout from here.

1000 - 200 swim, kick, IM, pull, swim
500 - 5 x 100's kick on 2:10. 1,3,5 dolphin, 2,4 free
1800 - 2 x 100's on 1:30, 4 x 100's on 1:28, 6 x 100's on 1:25, 4 x 100's on 1:28, 2 x 100's on 1:30
1800 - 3 x 600's pull free descending on 9:00
1000 free get time

I wanted under 13:40, but got 13:52. But I wasn't too upset I was really working it.

800 - 4 x 200's drill 1 of each stroke
200 Easy

7100 yards total

My back is at about 95%. Still a little annoyance, but I was happy to be able to make the 100's times.