My team hosted the meet today, the Tropical Splash. The pool is a kinda cruddy pool (compared to the competition pools at like the Sportsplex, the UK pool, IUPUI, George Mason, or any of the other top tier pools) and it was manual timing, but it was quite a good meet!
I swam a total of seven events, in order: 50 back, 100 IM, 100 free, 200 free relay, 200 mixed medley relay, 50 fly, and 50 free. I had some great swims, some good swims, and some decent swims. Had a bit of a problem with the walls/bottom/depth perception in the outside lanes, but other than that it wasn't too shabby.
50 back: First event of the meet, and it started off pretty well. Had a pretty good start, good underwater work, and felt like I had good arm speed. ...And then I missed the flags (foggy goggles), turned a stroke early, and barrrrrrely grazed the wall with the tips of my toes. Came to a dead stop, and that basically killed my race. I think I was neck and neck for first in my heat going into the turn, but came out of it towards the back of the pack. Second 25...once I actually started picking up some momentum again...felt pretty good. I was PISSED at that point, so I had a lot of energy on the back half of the race. All in all, it wasn't a terrible swim--I was entered as a 30.89 and went a 31.36. If I'd had a good turn, I most likely would have easily broken a 30.00. Sigh.
100 IM: By far my standout event of the meet. Last time I swam it, I died from lack of air on the back half of the race, so this time I tried to slow the first half down just a bit, and worked on getting plenty of air on the breast and free legs. Worked out quite well! Don't know what my splits ended up being (I think I took it out in a 27 or 28 or something), but I went a 1:03.70. Everything felt good on the race, although I didn't sprint all out on the free, since I was pretty far ahead of the rest of the heat and didn't have anyone to push me. VERY pleased with that swim, since I was entered as a 1:07.00! Even better, that puts me well within reach of the Nats cut, which is a 1:00.77. In the three meets I've swum the 100 IM at, my time has gone down from a 1:10.21 to a 1:03.70. If I've dropped 6.5 seconds already, then I can probably eke out another 3 seconds. Now my training goal for the 100 IM is to pick up the pace on free and get back to doing the back to breast flip turn thing I used to do. Much faster than an open turn, but tricky as all get out to get the timing down, not to mention doing it without getting DQd...
100 free: Those of you who've known me for a while know that I've never been anything more than a middling/decent freestyler. The 100 free has never been one of my favorite events, and still isn't. Hadn't swum it since early 2005 and had no clue where I was at in it, so I entered myself as a 58.99. I had a decent race, but had a *slight*issue with my pacing. I took it out at maybe a 200 pace, if not closer to 500 pace. Didn't think anything of the pace until I flipped at the 50, then realized how slow I was swimming. Not my best 100 free ever, but I still went a 57.52, so I beat my made up time. Hey, I'll take that!
200 free relay: Decent race. I went second on the relay, and have no clue what my split was.
200 medley relay: I swam the fly leg of this race, and had problems with the waves, along with a slow start (we haven't really practiced relay starts much, so my timing is awful). Our lane was sandwiched between two faster relays, and the lane ropes did almost nothing to stop the wakes of the other swimmers from crossing into my lane. My stroke on fly is just above the surface of the water, so if there's a wave, I'm going to hit it. It normally isn't an issue in an individual fly event, but it was a big problem in this race. I think I still split a low 27, but I splashed a LOT of water.
50 fly: Sigh. My other not-so-good swim. The race itself felt great, but I totally misjudged where the wall was on the finish. I thought the wall was one stroke away, so I took the stroke and then dove into where I thought the wall was....but I had done that a stroke too soon, so my finish was terrible. I thought the timer said I went a 27.75, but the ribbon I got said 29.75. Given that I was entered as a 28.16, and with how good the race felt besides the finish, I'm going to say my time was probably a 27.75, and they just had a data entry error when printing up the ribbons.
50 free: Again, it's a free event, so not really my forte. I was entered as a 26.93, and went a 26.13, so I'll take it. The swim portion felt good, and I had the correct distance from the wall on my turn, but it was just a slooooow turn--I really need to work on the quick flip, driving in and out of the wall. If I'd sped up the turn, probably would have been in the mid 25 range.
Overall, a pretty darn good meet, wall issues notwithstanding! A fair number of swimmers from my team came out (15, I think?), which is a big improvement over the 2-3 of us who normally swim at meets. I had a blast hanging out with them, along with all my other friends on the team who didn't swim, but came out to time or help run the meet, so I'd say this meet was an unmitigated success!
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Update on times and progress towards Nationals cuts
The meet director from the meet this past weekend emailed out the results yesterday. Here's what I got:
50 back: 30.89 (entered as 31.71, so I dropped .82 seconds, less than I thought)
50 fly: 28.16 (entered as 29.30, so I dropped 1.14 seconds)
100 IM: 1:07.00 (entered as 1:10.21, so I dropped 3.21 seconds)
On the 50 fly, if I hadn't flubbed the turn and finish, I probably would have been around a mid 27. 50 back felt pretty good, so I'm just not getting the times I want, for some reason. 100 IM splits were 29.81 and 37.19. The first split is quite good for where I'm at right now, while the second split is terrible, just terrible.
Anyways, for those three swims, here are the Nats cuts for the 25-29 age group, since I age up three weeks before the meet...grr...:
50 back: 28.22. That means I have to drop 2.7 seconds to make the cut. It MIGHT be possible, but I'm not promising anything. If I wasn't aging up, I would only have to drop 1.9 seconds, which seems more achievable. Sigh.
50 fly: 26.78. I've gotta drop 1.4 seconds. Pretty confident I can make this one, especially as I ramp up my fly time and yardage at practice over the next three months. Again, if I wasn't aging up, I'd only have to drop 1.1 seconds.
100 IM: 1:00.77. Not sure about this one, since I have to drop 6.2 seconds. Completely guessing here, I think I might be able to drop another 2 seconds or so from my current time in the IM just by not having a meltdown in the second half like I did last weekend. If I wasn't aging up, I'd only have to drop 4.1 seconds. That cut would be fairly achievable, I think.
My team hosts a meet next weekend. Unlike this past meet, we can swim up to five individual events, plus two relays. I'm going to swim the 50 fly for sure, as well as the 100 IM in an attempt to vindicate last weekend's terrible performance in that race. Besides that, no clue what I'll swim. Well, that's not entirely true. Last night's practice was a sprint/speed practice, and at the end (after I did a LOT of sprint fly) of the practice, we did two broken 200s (broken at each 50 for 10 seconds), one IM and one free. On the free one, even though I was quite worn out from all the speed work I'd done for the preceding 45 minutes, I still managed to go an adjusted 2:13. I figure there is about an 8-10 second fudge factor for that time, accounting for swimming it in practice, not wearing a meet suit, and not doing it from a dive. If that fudge factor is correct, that means my 200 free time could feasibly be in the ballpark of 2:03 in a meet. I'm tempted to put it to the test at the meet next weekend, although the 200 isn't exactly my most favoritist event ever...
50 back: 30.89 (entered as 31.71, so I dropped .82 seconds, less than I thought)
50 fly: 28.16 (entered as 29.30, so I dropped 1.14 seconds)
100 IM: 1:07.00 (entered as 1:10.21, so I dropped 3.21 seconds)
On the 50 fly, if I hadn't flubbed the turn and finish, I probably would have been around a mid 27. 50 back felt pretty good, so I'm just not getting the times I want, for some reason. 100 IM splits were 29.81 and 37.19. The first split is quite good for where I'm at right now, while the second split is terrible, just terrible.
Anyways, for those three swims, here are the Nats cuts for the 25-29 age group, since I age up three weeks before the meet...grr...:
50 back: 28.22. That means I have to drop 2.7 seconds to make the cut. It MIGHT be possible, but I'm not promising anything. If I wasn't aging up, I would only have to drop 1.9 seconds, which seems more achievable. Sigh.
50 fly: 26.78. I've gotta drop 1.4 seconds. Pretty confident I can make this one, especially as I ramp up my fly time and yardage at practice over the next three months. Again, if I wasn't aging up, I'd only have to drop 1.1 seconds.
100 IM: 1:00.77. Not sure about this one, since I have to drop 6.2 seconds. Completely guessing here, I think I might be able to drop another 2 seconds or so from my current time in the IM just by not having a meltdown in the second half like I did last weekend. If I wasn't aging up, I'd only have to drop 4.1 seconds. That cut would be fairly achievable, I think.
My team hosts a meet next weekend. Unlike this past meet, we can swim up to five individual events, plus two relays. I'm going to swim the 50 fly for sure, as well as the 100 IM in an attempt to vindicate last weekend's terrible performance in that race. Besides that, no clue what I'll swim. Well, that's not entirely true. Last night's practice was a sprint/speed practice, and at the end (after I did a LOT of sprint fly) of the practice, we did two broken 200s (broken at each 50 for 10 seconds), one IM and one free. On the free one, even though I was quite worn out from all the speed work I'd done for the preceding 45 minutes, I still managed to go an adjusted 2:13. I figure there is about an 8-10 second fudge factor for that time, accounting for swimming it in practice, not wearing a meet suit, and not doing it from a dive. If that fudge factor is correct, that means my 200 free time could feasibly be in the ballpark of 2:03 in a meet. I'm tempted to put it to the test at the meet next weekend, although the 200 isn't exactly my most favoritist event ever...
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Training plan through the end of April
I've got my training mapped out through the end of April, when the Masters National Championship meet is held. This week is only a half week for me, so it's an abberation from the schedule, but here's the normal weekly schedule. A note--the organized practices vary in intensity, some being pretty easy, while others rachet up the intensity to a pretty high level. There are four different coaches, and they all have their own type of practice they like to give us. Practices on my own are generally more stretched out and focus on stroke work and technique, since the organized practices often focus more on yardage and free than stroke and the fine stuff.
Several other things I'm adding in, or have just added in to my workout regimen:
- Monday: Two back to back morning practices, from 5:00-6:00 and 6:00-7:00. Evening practice from 7:30-8:30. If I only manage to make it to one morning practice, then I try to get in an hour long practice on my own before the 7:30-8:30 practice. If I don't manage to get in for either practice, then I try to get in an hour and a half long practice on my own before the evening practice.
- Tuesday: One morning practice from 6:00-7:00 and an evening practice from 7:30-8:30. Alternatively, I do the morning practice, then do an hour long evening practice on my own before spinning with my friend from 7:30-8:30.
- Wednesday: Two morning practices the same as Monday. There is no scheduled evening practice, so depending on if I missed a morning practice, I'll do either an hour or hour and a half long practice on my own. If I didn't spin on Tuesday night, then I'll try to spin on this night. Since the spin class is earlier (5:30-6:15), I don't know if Wednesday night spin class is very achievable, given how long it takes to get home from work and then get to the gym (it can take anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half from the time I leave work till I get to the gym, on a good day).
- Thursday: Same schedule as Tuesday, sans potential spin class.
- Friday: Same as Wednesday, except the spin class is at 6:00, so it's more achievable.
- Saturday: Morning practice from 8:00-9:00.
- Sunday: Hopefully nothing except for any swim meets, since those run on Sundays.
Several other things I'm adding in, or have just added in to my workout regimen:
- Resistance band training: I bought resistance bands this past weekend, so I'll be adding them in next week as part of a dryland training regimen either three or four times a week.
- Weights: On the non-dryland days, I'll start lifting weights again. I've been out of the weight room since last April. I think three times a week, Mondays/Wednesdays/Saturdays? Not sure where they will fit into the overall workout plan yet.
- Stationary exercises: The other half of my dryland routine--pushups, crunches, squats, calf raises, pullups/chinups, stuff like that. I need to work on my core, which is also something I haven't done since April of last year.
- Running: At some point in February (I haven't decided when yet), I'll add running into the mix. Probably just run two or three times a week. No clue on the distances, but when I stopped running last April, I was running 5 times a week for anywhere from 3-6 miles each time.
- Biking: In addition to the spin classes, I might add biking into the workout mix in February, probably about when I add in running. I'm thinking once, maybe twice a week, most likely on Saturdays.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Swim meet yesterday!
Had the first swim meet of 2012 yesterday in Annapolis. The Maryland LMSC puts on the Carol Chidester Swim Series, which is a series of one a month meets that the LMSC offers at various pools throughout Maryland. They're free to Maryland swimmers, and cost $15 for all non-MD swimmers. Besides the drive, it's a pretty darn good deal! I'm planning on the one they offer in March at the same pool, and possibly the February meet, once they say where it is.
Anyways, Dan (one of the other serious swimmers) and I were the only two from the team at the meet. He's a flyer and freestyler, while I'm a flyer and backstroker. I won't hold the freestyle against him... :-D
I swam the 50 back, 50 fly, and 100 IM, in that order. I don't remember what my exact times were (I didn't write them down, and they won't release the results till later this week), but I dropped a decent amount of time in each event from what I did at the first meet, back in October. I swam a second meet in December, but it was SCM, so the times aren't a straight comparison. Anyways, I think I dropped about a second and a half in both 50s and a bit over three seconds in the 100 IM.
50 back: By far the best start I've had since I started swimming again. On the finish, I realized that in the process of the start, I'd pulled the touch pad AND the velcro it was attached to off the top of the gutter where it was affixed. Oops. Apparently I had a death grip on it... Anyways, my turn was a shade longer than I'd have liked, but wasn't that bad. Finish was likewise a bit long, but still within the ballpark. I think I did right around a 30 flat, but will find out for sure when they send the results out. Overall, I thought it was pretty good, though my stroke got kinda short during the last 15 yards or so. I focused on the three main critiques from Saturday's video session--lifting my head before the breakout stroke, a stronger kick, and not over rotating my arms towards the 12:00 mark on entry. I think I was successful with the head position and the kick (at least, the kick felt stronger to me), but I'm pretty sure I started to regress towards 12:00 on the hand entry towards the end of the race, just out of muscle memory, since I've been entering my hands there as long as I can remember. Still, pretty good race, and I dropped time, so I don't have anything serious to complain about at this point!
50 fly: Had a great start and mostly good swim. My mind blanked when I got past the flags at the turn, so while the turn itself was fine, my stroke tempo was off going into the turn. Hmph. Had a great tempo on the second 25 and didn't want to ruin it by breathing more than once, so I started to feel the oxygen deprivation going into the finish. The finish, I can only imagine, looked extremely uncoordinated. After my last full stroke into the wall, I was still about a half stroke out, so my brain said to take the half stroke...while my body said to just do a long finish. The result was a bizarre mix of the two, so I kinda flopped into the wall. It felt awkward as hell, so I can only imagine it looked about the same as it felt. Went about a 28.1, which is around a second and a half faster than October, I think. If I'd nailed the turn and had a good finish, most likely would have been under 28, easy.
100 IM: Had a fantastic first 50! Excellent start, great underwater work, strokes felt great, perfect timing on the fly/back turn, and pretty good timing on the back/breast turn. At that point, I think I was at least a body length ahead of the rest of the pool. And then I had a spectacular meltdown. For some reason, I wasn't able to get a single full breath on breast, so I was getting very oxygen starved going into free. Breathing issues continued throughout the free 25, so my muscles all locked up and pretty much shut down. Technique went out the window and I slowed way down. Ended up only touching out the guy in the lane next to me by about a tenth of a second. Still won the heat and placed 7th overall in the event, but the second half of the race was PAINFUL! Dropped about 3.5 seconds from the last time I swam the IM (I went around a 1:07 flat, I think), so that was good, but I imagine that I'd have been a few more seconds faster than that if I'd been able to breathe properly for the second 50. No idea why I crashed and burned so spectacularly on the IM, but it was still a decent swim in the grand scheme of things.
Overall, I was pretty pleased with the meet! It was great having Dan there--he's got a coaching background, I believe, and knows technique like it's second nature, so he was able to give feedback on my swims. I tried to do the same for his swims, but his technique overall is a lot better than mine, so I didn't have much to tell him.
Anyways, at this point, all I'm concerned about is dropping time. Once I'm in the ballpark of the times I've set as my goal times for 2012, then I'll start to work on the specifics at meets. Still got a ways to go till then, so for now it's just dropping time that's important. And from that point of view, this meet was a total success!
Anyways, Dan (one of the other serious swimmers) and I were the only two from the team at the meet. He's a flyer and freestyler, while I'm a flyer and backstroker. I won't hold the freestyle against him... :-D
I swam the 50 back, 50 fly, and 100 IM, in that order. I don't remember what my exact times were (I didn't write them down, and they won't release the results till later this week), but I dropped a decent amount of time in each event from what I did at the first meet, back in October. I swam a second meet in December, but it was SCM, so the times aren't a straight comparison. Anyways, I think I dropped about a second and a half in both 50s and a bit over three seconds in the 100 IM.
50 back: By far the best start I've had since I started swimming again. On the finish, I realized that in the process of the start, I'd pulled the touch pad AND the velcro it was attached to off the top of the gutter where it was affixed. Oops. Apparently I had a death grip on it... Anyways, my turn was a shade longer than I'd have liked, but wasn't that bad. Finish was likewise a bit long, but still within the ballpark. I think I did right around a 30 flat, but will find out for sure when they send the results out. Overall, I thought it was pretty good, though my stroke got kinda short during the last 15 yards or so. I focused on the three main critiques from Saturday's video session--lifting my head before the breakout stroke, a stronger kick, and not over rotating my arms towards the 12:00 mark on entry. I think I was successful with the head position and the kick (at least, the kick felt stronger to me), but I'm pretty sure I started to regress towards 12:00 on the hand entry towards the end of the race, just out of muscle memory, since I've been entering my hands there as long as I can remember. Still, pretty good race, and I dropped time, so I don't have anything serious to complain about at this point!
50 fly: Had a great start and mostly good swim. My mind blanked when I got past the flags at the turn, so while the turn itself was fine, my stroke tempo was off going into the turn. Hmph. Had a great tempo on the second 25 and didn't want to ruin it by breathing more than once, so I started to feel the oxygen deprivation going into the finish. The finish, I can only imagine, looked extremely uncoordinated. After my last full stroke into the wall, I was still about a half stroke out, so my brain said to take the half stroke...while my body said to just do a long finish. The result was a bizarre mix of the two, so I kinda flopped into the wall. It felt awkward as hell, so I can only imagine it looked about the same as it felt. Went about a 28.1, which is around a second and a half faster than October, I think. If I'd nailed the turn and had a good finish, most likely would have been under 28, easy.
100 IM: Had a fantastic first 50! Excellent start, great underwater work, strokes felt great, perfect timing on the fly/back turn, and pretty good timing on the back/breast turn. At that point, I think I was at least a body length ahead of the rest of the pool. And then I had a spectacular meltdown. For some reason, I wasn't able to get a single full breath on breast, so I was getting very oxygen starved going into free. Breathing issues continued throughout the free 25, so my muscles all locked up and pretty much shut down. Technique went out the window and I slowed way down. Ended up only touching out the guy in the lane next to me by about a tenth of a second. Still won the heat and placed 7th overall in the event, but the second half of the race was PAINFUL! Dropped about 3.5 seconds from the last time I swam the IM (I went around a 1:07 flat, I think), so that was good, but I imagine that I'd have been a few more seconds faster than that if I'd been able to breathe properly for the second 50. No idea why I crashed and burned so spectacularly on the IM, but it was still a decent swim in the grand scheme of things.
Overall, I was pretty pleased with the meet! It was great having Dan there--he's got a coaching background, I believe, and knows technique like it's second nature, so he was able to give feedback on my swims. I tried to do the same for his swims, but his technique overall is a lot better than mine, so I didn't have much to tell him.
Anyways, at this point, all I'm concerned about is dropping time. Once I'm in the ballpark of the times I've set as my goal times for 2012, then I'll start to work on the specifics at meets. Still got a ways to go till then, so for now it's just dropping time that's important. And from that point of view, this meet was a total success!
Underwater video session on Saturday
We had an underwater video session on Saturday, the second one I've gone to on the team--the first was about a month ago. Since the first session, I've worked a lot on my technique, at least the stuff that the coaches had critiqued the first time. One of the big differences was that I swam at a pretty loafing practice pace the first time around, while this time I swam at a decently fast pace.
Fly: The biggest critique I got the first time around was that I paused a bit at full extension and drove my head and chest too far down in the water (not that my head was moving up and down, just that I was pushing my whole upper body too far down). This time around, swimming at a speed closer to race speed, that wasn't a problem. However, it turns out that I bring my hands too close together at full extension, and am splashing a lot of water as I do so, causing unnecessary drag and resultingly not giving myself enough room for the underwater portion of the pull, so it is a pretty narrow pull, rather than the full keyhole I should be outlining. In addition, my kick wasn't as strong as it could have been.
Back: Similarly to fly, my hands enter the water at the 12:00 position, rather than at 1:00 and 11:00 where they're supposed to enter. There were two main critiques from the first video session, that my hands were cocked at about a 45 degree angle when pulling through the water and that I paused at the end of the pull before lifting them out of the water. Neither of those were an issue this time. Also similar to fly, my kick wasn't as strong as it should have been. Oh, one other issue--when I started my breakout stroke just before broaching the water, I lifted my head slightly, breaking the plane of my body, which although just about half a second before I hit the surface, still produces a fair amount of drag.
Breast: Ugh, the coaches tore this one apart the first go-around. The main critique was that I was REALLY diving my upper body down at full extension, so I had a pretty pronounced up and down motion in the water, rather than shooting forward with each stroke. As an aside, that was an overcorrection on my part, since Mike (my coach up through highschool) always told me that I wasn't driving my chest down far enough at extension, so I guess I corrected that issue...and went to the opposite extreme. Anyhoo, while I still press a bit too far down, I have more of a forward than up and down motion now, so it's within the tolerance limits now. My kick is pretty narrow on the outward sweep of my feet, though. I've got some small issues with hand placement during the pull, but the kick is the main issue.
Free: This was also all ripped up from the first video session. I'd been dropping my elbows, pausing on my strokes (at least that particular issue was a result of loafing), and overrotating my body from side to side. This time around, I didn't have a problem with the dropped elbows (in fact, I think this is the first time in my entire swimming career that I've had good underwater pull mechanics in free!), the too long strokes, or the overrotation. However, when my left hand enters the water, I'm doing something funky with it, so it enters with a lot of bubbles, causing extra drag. Not entirely sure what I'm doing with my hand, so I'll have to play around with it to see what I'm actually doing wrong.
Overall, while this one brought up some new issues to work on, I think this was a very productive video session, and I'm heartened by how many of the issues from the first session a month ago have been resolved!
Fly: The biggest critique I got the first time around was that I paused a bit at full extension and drove my head and chest too far down in the water (not that my head was moving up and down, just that I was pushing my whole upper body too far down). This time around, swimming at a speed closer to race speed, that wasn't a problem. However, it turns out that I bring my hands too close together at full extension, and am splashing a lot of water as I do so, causing unnecessary drag and resultingly not giving myself enough room for the underwater portion of the pull, so it is a pretty narrow pull, rather than the full keyhole I should be outlining. In addition, my kick wasn't as strong as it could have been.
Back: Similarly to fly, my hands enter the water at the 12:00 position, rather than at 1:00 and 11:00 where they're supposed to enter. There were two main critiques from the first video session, that my hands were cocked at about a 45 degree angle when pulling through the water and that I paused at the end of the pull before lifting them out of the water. Neither of those were an issue this time. Also similar to fly, my kick wasn't as strong as it should have been. Oh, one other issue--when I started my breakout stroke just before broaching the water, I lifted my head slightly, breaking the plane of my body, which although just about half a second before I hit the surface, still produces a fair amount of drag.
Breast: Ugh, the coaches tore this one apart the first go-around. The main critique was that I was REALLY diving my upper body down at full extension, so I had a pretty pronounced up and down motion in the water, rather than shooting forward with each stroke. As an aside, that was an overcorrection on my part, since Mike (my coach up through highschool) always told me that I wasn't driving my chest down far enough at extension, so I guess I corrected that issue...and went to the opposite extreme. Anyhoo, while I still press a bit too far down, I have more of a forward than up and down motion now, so it's within the tolerance limits now. My kick is pretty narrow on the outward sweep of my feet, though. I've got some small issues with hand placement during the pull, but the kick is the main issue.
Free: This was also all ripped up from the first video session. I'd been dropping my elbows, pausing on my strokes (at least that particular issue was a result of loafing), and overrotating my body from side to side. This time around, I didn't have a problem with the dropped elbows (in fact, I think this is the first time in my entire swimming career that I've had good underwater pull mechanics in free!), the too long strokes, or the overrotation. However, when my left hand enters the water, I'm doing something funky with it, so it enters with a lot of bubbles, causing extra drag. Not entirely sure what I'm doing with my hand, so I'll have to play around with it to see what I'm actually doing wrong.
Overall, while this one brought up some new issues to work on, I think this was a very productive video session, and I'm heartened by how many of the issues from the first session a month ago have been resolved!
Friday, January 13, 2012
No pain, no peaches...quite true!
When it comes to swimming and general fitness, I love pain.
Pain makes you feel alive. That sudden hot poker sensation in your muscles, or that feeling of your muscles completely giving out while struggling during a high intensity set, gives you that sense that you're alive, that your body and brain are firing on all cylinders.
Over the last three weeks, I've been amping up my workout intensity and frequency, and it's been paying off. All things considered, I'm feeling great out of the water and also feeling great in the water. I've got more energy and feel more alert during the day (well, except for days when I don't get enough sleep). That being said, I've got a long litany of ailments that I've been living with for the last month or so, since I started to up my workout intensity:
Given that I can remember aching all over in highschool after a really hard workout, I'm pretty happy that I'm so sore and tight, although I could do without the leg cramps. I'm heading down to Charleston next weekend for a mini vacation, and I'm hoping to get a massage with my old masseuse, since I haven't gotten one in a good six months and could certainly use one!
Pain makes you feel alive. That sudden hot poker sensation in your muscles, or that feeling of your muscles completely giving out while struggling during a high intensity set, gives you that sense that you're alive, that your body and brain are firing on all cylinders.
Over the last three weeks, I've been amping up my workout intensity and frequency, and it's been paying off. All things considered, I'm feeling great out of the water and also feeling great in the water. I've got more energy and feel more alert during the day (well, except for days when I don't get enough sleep). That being said, I've got a long litany of ailments that I've been living with for the last month or so, since I started to up my workout intensity:
- Both Achilles tendons--I pulled them about two weeks ago, and they are still very tight and prone to excruciating cramps at rather inopportune times in the pool. In addition, they are fairly sore. I've been popping ibuprofen lately, which has mitigated the inflammation, but hasn't taken care of all of the cramping. Popping pills and started adding bananas to my diet today, so hopefully that will help the cramping.
- Left ankle/top of the foot--I injured it at some point back in November, and up until this week, it was extremely painful to kick when I'd first get in the water. The past week, though, it's only been painful once, and that wasn't for very long at all. I'm cautiously optimistic that it's not an issue anymore.
- Calves--I've had a LOT of calf cramping the past few weeks. Ibuprofen, tons of water, lots of stretching, and now bananas has helped a lot, but a few cramps still sneak in every now and then, like the Achilles tendon cramps, at the most inopportune times.
- Both knees--Both of my knees are wonky in breaststroke, although my left knee is decidedly the more wonky of the two. Based on its symptoms, I believe I'm missing a large amount of the cartilage behind the kneecap. It will flare up from time to time when swimming breast and make the kick rather painful.
- Hips--Quite tight during the day until I get my first practice in, then they're usually fine till the next morning. Several days this past week, they've been horribly cramping when I get out of bed, so I hobble around like an octogenarian for a while before they loosen up enough for me to walk upright.
- Left elbow--Pulled a tendon in it a week and a half ago. Practice that night was terrible, as it hurt like the dickens to apply any pressure on the elbow through its range of movement, so I had to forego swimming breast and had to do left arm straight arm fly/free/back. Lots of ibuprofen has mostly taken care of it, but if I do more than a 50-100 of breast without popping ibuprofen beforehand, it starts to twinge again.
- Lats--These have been tight for quite a while now. Yesterday I did a 3600 mostly IM practice before the scheduled evening practice, since I missed the morning practice. Given my luck, I should have guessed that the coach would then have us do a practice with a heavy IM focus. Due to the approximately 1000 fly I did over the two practices, my lats are currently extremely tight and sore. While they've never been painful, per se, I can definitely feel them any time I extend my arms to initiate the pull in all four strokes and when I'm in streamline.
- Shoulders--I'm putting a lot of stress on them, and they are holding up admirably so far. No pain, just a heaping helping of tightness.
- Triceps--See what I said about my lats.
Given that I can remember aching all over in highschool after a really hard workout, I'm pretty happy that I'm so sore and tight, although I could do without the leg cramps. I'm heading down to Charleston next weekend for a mini vacation, and I'm hoping to get a massage with my old masseuse, since I haven't gotten one in a good six months and could certainly use one!
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Kick Happens
I've always been a kicker.
Kick and turns, those were by far my biggest strengths in the water in the past. Turns are still up at the top of my list now, but my kick, while passable, hasn't felt comparatively as strong as it used to. Saturday and yesterday I put it to the test.
Saturday I did a 2012 yard kick set to ring in the new year, and yesterday I did a 2300 kick set before the evening practice, much of it with fins. I capped off last night's kick set with three 100s free kick with a board and no fins, to see where my sprint kick was at.
Uh, not very good at all. Back on Tritons (my team throughout the time I lived in Louisville, before going off to college), my favorite test set was a 1000 kick for time. My best time in it, and a team record, I believe, was a 14:36. That averages out to roughly a 1:28 per hundred. If I recall correctly, my best 100 kick free without fins time was a 1:18 or 1:19. I think my best free kick time with fins was around a :57 or :58.
Given, my 3x100 sprint kick were after a 2000 kick set, but the kick set had been relatively low intensity, focusing on high yardage over high effort. I did the 100s on 2:30. Their times, in order, were a 1:32, 1:31, and 1:31. I had been hoping for something in the mid 1:20s, so I was quite disappointed.
I’ll try to get to the pool tomorrow night after work, since there is no practice Wednesday evenings, and get in a kick set of a 1500 or so. After I do a short warmup, I’ll jump straight in with 4x100 sprint kick free and back, to see how my times are before I do the main set. Hopefully I can break the 1:30 barrier on all four.
I know I create substantially more drag in the water than I used to, given that I’m about 60 pounds heavier than I was in highschool, but having seen video of myself swimming a few weeks back, I didn’t notice that I was markedly lower in the water than I used to be. If the drag isn’t the issue, then I’m just not comparatively good a kicker as I used to be.
So, in addition to the extra fly that I’ll be swimming in practice for the rest of the season, I’ll try to get in three or four evenings during the week and get some good kick sets in, since we generally don’t do much kick at practice. Hopefully that will increase both my kick speed and endurance, which can do nothing but help my swim times!
Kick and turns, those were by far my biggest strengths in the water in the past. Turns are still up at the top of my list now, but my kick, while passable, hasn't felt comparatively as strong as it used to. Saturday and yesterday I put it to the test.
Saturday I did a 2012 yard kick set to ring in the new year, and yesterday I did a 2300 kick set before the evening practice, much of it with fins. I capped off last night's kick set with three 100s free kick with a board and no fins, to see where my sprint kick was at.
Uh, not very good at all. Back on Tritons (my team throughout the time I lived in Louisville, before going off to college), my favorite test set was a 1000 kick for time. My best time in it, and a team record, I believe, was a 14:36. That averages out to roughly a 1:28 per hundred. If I recall correctly, my best 100 kick free without fins time was a 1:18 or 1:19. I think my best free kick time with fins was around a :57 or :58.
Given, my 3x100 sprint kick were after a 2000 kick set, but the kick set had been relatively low intensity, focusing on high yardage over high effort. I did the 100s on 2:30. Their times, in order, were a 1:32, 1:31, and 1:31. I had been hoping for something in the mid 1:20s, so I was quite disappointed.
I’ll try to get to the pool tomorrow night after work, since there is no practice Wednesday evenings, and get in a kick set of a 1500 or so. After I do a short warmup, I’ll jump straight in with 4x100 sprint kick free and back, to see how my times are before I do the main set. Hopefully I can break the 1:30 barrier on all four.
I know I create substantially more drag in the water than I used to, given that I’m about 60 pounds heavier than I was in highschool, but having seen video of myself swimming a few weeks back, I didn’t notice that I was markedly lower in the water than I used to be. If the drag isn’t the issue, then I’m just not comparatively good a kicker as I used to be.
So, in addition to the extra fly that I’ll be swimming in practice for the rest of the season, I’ll try to get in three or four evenings during the week and get some good kick sets in, since we generally don’t do much kick at practice. Hopefully that will increase both my kick speed and endurance, which can do nothing but help my swim times!
Sunday, January 1, 2012
New Years resolutions
Man, 2011 was quite a tumultuous exercise year! Started really running, did an awesome mud run, moved to the DC area, stopped running and working out for five months, started swimming again after six years off, busted my left ankle...
Anyways, with 2012 now here with a bang, here are my physical fitness goals:
Anyways, with 2012 now here with a bang, here are my physical fitness goals:
- Get back into top competition shape in the pool
- As part of that, I'm aiming to get back to or beat at least three of my old best times in the pool. Doesn't matter what events (although I hope it's in fly and back), just three times.
- I aim to average 10-12 practices a week (at least during short course, not sure what the long course practice schedule is). That would be doubles Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, singles Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings, and at least two other practices from the evening practices offered on Monday/Tuesday/Thursday. The ideal schedule would be all the morning practices (singles and doubles), Monday night, and Tuesday or Thursday night (if not both).
- Get up to that all fly practice by the end of April
- Provided my left ankle can handle it, start running again.
- I don't know what I did to it, but sometime in November, I hurt the top of my foot/bottom of my ankle and it has hurt off and on since then. It usually hurts like blazes for the first 300-400 of practice every time I get in the water.
- If I can get back into running, train for a mud run and a half marathon.
- Get back in the weight room.
- I was pretty active in the weight room and also did stationary exercises (pullups, pushups, crunches, and the like) up through this past spring, then I moved up here and haven't gotten back into it.
- Continue losing weight to my target of ~180.
- Even with how fitful my swimming regimen has been these past few months, I've still lost about 10 pounds from my peak. Once I start working out again, it'll be harder to lose the weight, since I pack on muscle rather quickly, but as long as I hit that weight range by the end of the year, I'll be happy!
- Continue making good friends and strengthening existing friendships.
- Down in Charleston, I had plenty of friends at work who were workout companions who'd motivate me to workout (Jeff, Matt, Jennifer, Mark, Laura, Meredith, Brian, and all the others, if you're reading this, I'm referring to YOU!).
- Up here, I don't have that big network of friends, so I've had to make them in the process of my own training. So far, that's just been in the pool. A BIG kudos goes to the friends I've made in the pool who've motivated and encouraged me to push myself and get back into it: Drew, Katie, Dan, Amanda, Michelle, Jon, Francisco, Jennifer, and all the others.
- The folks I've mentioned have been my main source of motivation and helped make 2011 one of the best years I've had in quite a while, so I hope to continue to strengthen those friendships while creating new ones!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)