Exciting changes

Yesterday evening the SLOW board met online to discuss several things.  The biggest change is that all the Utah open water races will now be completely independent of USMS.  This may have a minimal effect on USMS, but potentially a huge effect on the open water participation in the state, which was limited to Masters swimmers.  In that sense it's very exciting.  We have a lot of work ahead of us to get the young swimmers to catch the vision of swimming outside, but with a little experience and training I think it'll catch on.

As for this morning's swim I did a shorter workout not because I was hurting or lacking motivation.  There is an intra-squad meet tomorrow that I'd like to really perform on.  Today I got in 500 yards before Pat's workout:

350 warmup
450 - 6 x 75's kick/drill/swim on 1:10
1600 - 4 x 400's (4 free, 4 back, 4 breast, 4 IM) on 1:30-1:40
400 - 4 x 100's (2 x 50's free, 2 x 50's back, 2 x 50's breast, 2 x 50 IMs) on :50
200 - 4 x 50's (free, back, breast, IM)
100 - 4 x 25's (free, back, breast, IM)

100 easy

3,700 yards total in 1:10

Not to be negative, but what I like least about swimming

This morning I swam at NWRC and definitely was NOT feeling it.  I did end up doing the following before getting out though:

600 - 6 x 100's free on 1:30
1000 - 5 x 200's 1&2 kick no fins, 3 - IM, 4&5 kick no fins

1,600 yards total in 30 minutes

I looked over and saw my Mom walking in the river and decided to go talk with her for a bit.  Someone posted a topic on marathonswimmers.org that I didn't really like:  "What do you dislike about swimming?"

My Mom and I at the
Guinness World Record
museum in Los Angeles.
Me being a total goof.

I had a hard time coming up with a really good answer, but today I realized what my answer is.  Swimming is something that to do efficiently, you need to put your face in the water, which also means that you can't carry on a conversation with someone next to you at the same time.

So this morning I took 20 minutes and had a conversation with her while we both did her morning routine of walking laps against the flow of the extremely warm pump generated river.  We talked non-stop the whole time on a wide variety of topics.  It was so fun!

I'm not a very talkative person.  But I really enjoy people who are.  I'm not in favor of cloning because I would literally hate myself.  I would be no fun to hang out with.  Get me with someone who is talkative and we both have a good time.  Cathi being the perfect example of that.

My very supportive parents.  They're coming with me to
MIMS.  It's gonna be so fun!

So today's workout wasn't a complete waste of time.  I was glad I didn't just skip it.  Reminded me of the time I took the time to swim heads up breast stroke with Jim out at GSL once.  Got to know so much more about him in 30 minutes than I did in over a year of swimming together.  So the answer to the question: I don't like that the actual act of swimming disallows carrying on a conversation with someone you are with. In that way it makes it a very isolating kind of sport.

However that negative aspect is blanketed with a strong bond that exists between swimming friends.  They may not be talking while swimming, but the friendship seems to continue to grow in and out of the water.

Double Dipping Disorder

This is Kris' favorite workout, which was tough.  I got in 1000 yards prior to starting with Masters, then did her "Crazy 8's workout":

Warm-up:   100 free, 100 kick, 100 drill, 50 easy

                                                Crazy 8's                                                  (1200)
8 x 25's Free                           8 x 50's Free                   8 x 75's Free
2 x 25 @.35                             2 x 50 @.50                     2 x 75 @ 1:10
2 x 25  @.30                            2 x 50 @.45                     2 x 75 @ 1:05
2 x 25  @.25                            2 x 50 @.40                     2 x 75 @ 1:00
2 x 25  @.20                            2 x 50 @.35                     2 x 75 @.55
.30 Rest                                         .45 Rest                               .60 Rest
                                                Crazy 6's                                                    (900)
6 x 25's Free                           6 x 50's Free                   6 x 75's Free
2 x 25  @.30                            2 x 50 @.45                     2 x 75 @ 1:05
2 x 25  @.25                            2 x 50 @.40                     2 x 75 @ 1:00
2 x 25  @.20                            2 x 50 @.35                     2 x 75 @.55
.30 Rest                                        .45 Rest                                        .60 Rest
                                                Crazy 4's                                                    (600)
4 x 25's Free                           4 x 50's Free                   4 x 75's Free
2 x 25  @.25                            2 x 50 @.40                     2 x 75 @ 1:00
2 x 25  @.20                            2 x 50 @.35                     2 x 75 @.55
.30 Rest                                        .45 Rest                                .60 Rest

                                                Crazy 2's                                                    (300)
2 x 25's Free                           2 x 50's Free                   2 x 75's Free
2 x 25  @.20                            2 x 50 @.35                     2 x 75 @.55

Sprint like Crazy
1 x 25  get under :15(:14)              1 x 50 get under :30 (:31)      1 x 75 get under :48 (:49)

Cool Down:                              100 EZ                        

Then moved to the north side and did:

400 kick with fins
300 easy

Total: 5,300 yards in 1:30

I need to start bringing in my own shampoo instead of using the dispensers that are on the shower wall.  Today I noticed that handle was lathered up with bubbles.  Pet Peeve alert:  When you shower, I appreciate your desire to get clean, but please refrain from cleaning out your rectum in a public facility, save that level of thoroughness for home please!  

I have some very graphic visual images that haunt me from my teenage years at Deseret Gym where I was victimized to witness an old dude clean out his chocolate tunnel so vigorously that blood was streaming down the inside of his leg.  No lie!  I'm sorry, but digging in there with a soaped up hand is just plain wrong.  It's gotta be delving into the mental disorder realm.

So when I saw the soapy handle on the dispenser it made me think about where those lathered up hands might have been and made me shutter.  Double dipping the hand dispenser might have been involved there.  Yuck!!!!

Beta waves

Tonight I swam again at NWRC, and this time the locker room wasn't quite in the shambles, which was good to see.  I swam the following workout, which I based on a workout from USMS' Scott Hoftiezer, who puts together the workouts for the High Volume workouts.  I've viewed several different coaches workouts and I like his the best.

Warm Up:

800 - 200 Easy, 200 Kick, 200 Pull, 200 Choice

Set 1:

600 - 8 x 75 with 20 sec. rest Drill, Kick, Swim by 25

Set 2:

20 x 100 with up to 20 sec. as needed

Rotate through 5 times:

100 IM on 2:00

100 Free at 75% effort (get under 1:18) on 1:30

100 Free at 85% effort (get under 1:13) on 1:30

100 Free at 95% effort (get under 1:05) on 1:30

Set 3:

1 x 1000 Free for time (Get under 14:00) - ended up with 13:40

Set 4:

3 x 300's 1 - Bilateral, 2 - left/right side by 25, 3 - Bilateral on 4:30

Set 5:  

8 x 200's 2 x (1 - kick with fins front, 2 - kick with fins back, 3 - large paddles, 4 - finger paddles) :10 ri

100 easy

I cramped up pretty bad on the 6th set of 200's half way through these so I only did 100 on the last set of kicking with fins. So I ended up with 7,000 yards. The entire time was spent thinking about the future of GSLOW and SLOW club in general. My brain couldn't just relax and enjoy the swim, it was constantly in thought about events and possible changes in how we are currently doing things. The SLOW leadership is meeting Thursday evening to discuss. There sure is a lot to plan and figure out.

It appears that the future of our currently held open water events may undergo a shift, focusing more on the youth which is great. Open Water swimming is commonly more recognized and practiced by adults. Very few teenagers get involved with it because the structure and organization of swim teams with USA swimming already exists and well established. Trying to think about how to introduce open water swimming to youth without being in competition with USA Swimming, but rather in a partnership.

Total: 7,000 yards in 2:00

From clean to disgusting

One of my favorite features about NWRC is how clean it is.  I usually get there when it opens at 6am.  It's immaculate.  Today however, Cathi worked so I had to get the kids off to school.  So I swam tonight at 6pm. Wow, the locker room was a mess.  Kids had their wet swimsuits all over the place and there was litter spread around on the locker room floor.  There was a custodian in there cleaning.  That man deserves a raise!  I had no idea it got this bad in the evening.

I swam all three categories of workouts that I have planned for my South Davis Swimmers on March 21st:

500 Warm Up: 200 Easy 100 Kick 200 Pull Set 1: 6 x 100 Kick with 15 sec. rest Build 1-3 & 4-6 Set 2: 6 x 150 Free with 20 sec. rest Descend 1-3 & 4-6 Set 3: 4 x 300 Pull with 20 sec. Desc 1-4 200 Cool Down Total Workout: 3,400

400 Warm Up: 150 Easy 100 Kick 150 Pull Set 1: 4 x 100 Kick with 30 sec. rest 1&3 - easy, 2&4 - strong Set 2: 4 x 150 Free with 30 sec. rest Descend 1-4 Set 3: 4 x 300 Free with 60 sec. Desc 1-4 200 Cool Down Total Workout: 2,800

200 Warm Up: 100 Easy 100 Kick Set 1: 2 x 100 Kick with 15 sec. rest 1st one easy, 2nd one strong! Set 2: 3 x 150 Free with 45 sec. rest Descend 1-3 Set 3: 2 x 300 Free with 60 sec. Desc 1-2 350 Cool Down Total Workout: 1,800 (8,000)

8,000 yards total in 2:07

Swimming with Pole Vaulter

This morning I met Sarah Jones at Layton Surf N' Swim at 7:15am this morning.  It was a little crowded.  While waiting for the front doors to open, I wrote up this workout on a piece of paper:

600 free warmup
400 kick with fins
11,100 - 10 x (200 free fast on 2:30, 8 x 50's IM order on :50, 400 pull, 100 easy)
400 kick with fins
4000 - 5 x (2 x 200's 1-IM, 2- free, 2 x 100's fast on 1:22.5, 100 back recover, 2 x 50's sprint on :37.5)

16,500 yards total in 4:30

A couple things of note:  About halfway through the workout a couple ladies came in and at the far end of the pool put in a long pole and while one would hold the pole at the top, the other would sit on the bottom of the pool holding the pole and then flip up and launch herself towards the surface and up and over the lane line.  Pole vaulting practice apparently.  Pretty cool.  I should have taken a picture with my waterproof camera.

Then near the end I had a female swimmer join me in my lane.  I stopped at one of the intervals and she talked with me and I immediately recognized her.  It was Jayme Jorgensen, Jacob's High School coach.  We talked briefly about the meet in April and she said she's swimming the 1650 free and the 200 fly.  In fact she swam at least 200 fly today and I was tired just watching her.  So glad I'm a freestyler.

This made me thing about an article that I read recently in Swimmer magazine.  They always throw in a subject that is up to debate.  The latest is whether race directors should extend cutoffs for open water swims to allow those who want to swim the race in a special stroke the time to be able to do it.  The guy arguing for extended times invented a new dolphin stroke that involves only dolphin kicking and using fins.  I'm sorry.  I'm open minded about inventing new strokes, as long as it doesn't include equipment.  As soon as you introduce something to propel you through the water faster, that's cheating brother.  You might as well strap on a motor.  And as for extending times to accommodate <1 1="" a="" absurd.="" and="" can="" coach="" faster="" get="" if="" mph="" nbsp="" p="" race="" s="" serious.="" so="" swim="" t="" than="" that="" you="">

Driven

This morning SDRC was closed thanks to JOs, so I went to NWRC, and I finally succumbed and was driven to just buy an annual Gold Access pass which not only gets me into Northwest, but any SL County facility for the year which is great cause I'm really looking forward to that outdoor LCM pool up at Steiner. Can I say again how much I love Northwest Rec Center!  That place is a hidden gem.

300 easy
400 kick
800 - 2 x 400's on 6:00
1650 pull
500 free strong
200 free on 3:00
1000 - 2 x (5 x 100's) :5 ri

1-back, 2 kick, 3-IM, 4-Free, 5-Breast/Scull drill

300 - 4 x 75's drill/free drill by 25 :5 ri

5,300 yards in 1:45

Yesterday, bought the airline tickets to Newark NJ for this summer.  All the hotel accommodations are obtained as well. It's coming into focus now.

Getting a little nervous

This morning I had another realization about how so uneducated I am about New York City.  This morning at the end of my swim I was talking with a fellow swimmer about New York and she gave me a long list of things to go see.  Some of them I already was planning on, but some other things I hadn't heard about.  I'm nervous about getting there and failing to have sufficiently prepared myself geographically.

I have certainly done my swimming homework, but need to do more tourist homework.  Actually I'm going to see if I can delegate most of the itinerary planning to my Dad and Cathi.  I still would like to be educated about certain landmarks around the border of Manhattan especially.  That way when I see them, I recognize them and can understand their significance rather than note another cool looking building without knowing a thing about it.

Last night I had penned together this workout:

500 free
4200 - 4 x (3 x 75's drill,
                  5 x 25's sprint,
                  4 x 100's desc 1-4,
                  6 x 50's pull) rotate stroke IM Order :10 ri on each
2400 - 6 x 400's, kick w/fins/pull/free
1000 - 5 x 200's free on 2:50
400 - 4 x 100's desc 1-4 on 1:20
150 - 3 x 50's easy
100 IM

8,700 yards total in 2:50

Getting excited just thinking about it.

Breaststroke work

Did 1800 yards before joining Masters which Kirsten coached.  Lots of Breast work today:

300 free
200 kick
100 IM

200 free
800 - 2 x (8 x 50's free on :40) second round pull
200 free

200 breast kick
400 - 8 x 50's breast on :50
200 IM

500 - 4 x 125 IM's on 2:00

Went first in my lane on these and had to go up against Matt in the next lane.  First time in a long time that I've swam full fly consistently in a workout, so I must have been feeling good.  I was able to hang with him for the first 25, but after that he smoked me.

200  warmdown

Moved to north side and did:

400 kick easy
100 free
200 IM
300 - 4 x 75's drill free on 1:10
400 - 4 x 100's free on 1:25 moderate effort
500 pull
200 grandpa swimming

7,200 yards total in 2:10

Well March is here and the end of the three month USAT club competition that Rory Duckworth got the SLTC invovled with is over.  Out of 3000 participants nationally, I came in 373rd overall.  Not too bad considering all I did was swim.  4th place overall in the swim.  

Progression

Yesterday I asked Joelle to come up with today's workout or a portion of it.  She provided the first three sets and I immediately saw a pattern and in order to get the 15K yards goal for the day I added two more long sets following the same pattern.

We met up at Layton Surf N' Swim at 0700 and did Joelle's Progression Workout:

Warmup
500 kicking, alternating 50s dolphin/flutter back and front

Main Set:
2100 - 3 X [3 X 100 on pace/push R: 10 sec + 400 free R: 45 sec]
3300 - 3 X [3 X 200 hold pace breathing on R and L each 25 R: 15 sec + 500 free R: 45 sec]
4500 - 3 x [3 x 300’s Pull R: 20 sec + 600 free R: 45 sec)
5700 - 3 x [3 x 400’s first - free, second IM, third Kick with fins R: 25 sec + 700 free R: 45 sec)

16,100 yards total (9.1 miles) in 4.5 hours

After the first set I got out real quick to use the restroom and when I got back Joelle was gone too and some old dude was in our lane.  Our equipment/feeds were still laid out at the end of the lane with the workout posted on the wall. 

I jumped in and waited for Joelle to return.  I said hello to the guy and he kept swimming even though the lane next to us was also empty.  When Joelle got back I asked nicely if he would mind moving over to the next lane so Joelle and I could resume.  It was empty, so I figured it wouldn't be a big deal to ask him to move.  I explained that we had taken a quick bathroom break and didn't want to move our stuff.  

He rolled his eyes and tightened his lips like I just asked him for a really big favor.  But he didn't fight and moved over.   Whew!  I've been reading lately on the marathon swimmers forum the worldwide drama that so many lap swimmers have to deal with.  I was hoping that this wasn't going to turn into another one of those.  Then again if he put up a fight I would have just moved all our equipment, and nutrition stuff to the next lane.  No problem.  Just glad that the pool wasn't terribly busy or it could have got nasty.

When we to through the last set the lifeguards were just taking the lane lines out for public swim so we rushed through it and it was perfect timing!  We finished just as lap time was over.

Joelle told me this was her longest pool swim to date.  Nice!  A new PR!  She did great!  I was on top of my nutrition throughout the workout and used good form and mental conditioning, so I didn't have any struggles on this workout.  Shoulder held up just fine!  I really lubed up my right shoulder with channel grease and the chops served their purpose.  No chaffing to deal with.