Update on 2015/2016 training plan and progress so far

I'm doubling down this season and really striving to have it be my best (training) season since my first Masters season, the 2011/2012 one. During that season, I was getting in shape in the water again and losing weight. I was swimming 5 practices a week on average, and managed 7 a week during that winter, although I hit less during the fall and spring.

I went from weighing around 215 to 178 from October-April of that season, with the 178 being the weight I clocked when I hopped on the scale after doing the full shave for Nationals that spring.

Unfortunately, since then, I averaged about 2.5 practices a week during the '12/'13, '13/'14, and '14/'15 seasons, and it showed in two main ways: performance at meets and weight.

My meet performance has been all over the place. 2013 spring Nationals, my backstroke was lights out, my fly had regressed a bit from 2012 spring Nationals, and my IM was right there with 2012. 2014 summer Nationals was largely a disappointment, and 2015 spring Nationals was only a success in my breaststroke events and the 200 fly, and the latter was only a success because I set a pretty darn low bar for it. During in season meets, I've laid some real stinkers, but also a random smattering of good swims. I attribute that to low yardage and lack of time spent on training the strokes I want to focus on.

My weight has gone up and down in the 3.5 years since April 2012, with my weight at 2013 spring Nationals coming in at 187, my weight at 2014 summer Nationals (didn't do spring Nationals) coming in around 195, and my weight at 2015 spring Nationals right around 200. My weight peaked this summer/early fall at around 215. Over the last month, it has dropped to the 207-210 range (depending on how accurate my scale is--it varies a couple of pounds day to day).

My goal weight for April is 185-190. Unlike in 2012, I'm also doing dryland, so I expect I'll be putting on muscle mass which will counteract some of the weight loss.

Okay, all that aside, now that I'm two months into the season, here's my training plan. Unlike how I've set my training plan before the season in years past and failed miserably to actually execute on the plan, I've been making solid progress towards it for the past 3-4 weeks, and don't foresee any issues with it moving forward.

Weekly training plan

• Monday: 45-60 minute stroke focused evening solo practice if work permits
• Tuesday: 60 minute morning Masters practice, 45-60 minute stroke focused evening solo practice, (solo practice if work permit)
• Wednesday: 60 minute stroke focused evening solo practice
• Thursday: 60 minute morning Masters practice, 60 minute stroke focused evening solo practice, (solo practice if work permits)
• Friday: Rest day
• Saturday: 60 minute morning Masters practice
• Sunday: Rest day

So far I've been consistently doing the Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday portions of the training plan, and added in the Tuesday evening practice this week. That's a total of 5 practices a week. I plan to add in the Tuesday morning practice next week, which will put me up to 6 per week. Monday is probably going to be the iffiest practice to make, since I coach from 6:00-8:30 in the evening, and that really cuts it close as far as my potential work schedule goes. It'll be a stretch goal--if I can get my work schedule to permit it, it'll be a great additional practice that'll let me train for another stroke.

To date, I've been using my solo practices to do fly training, specifically focused on bulk fly yardage to get my endurance up. I've been doing a lot of fly yardage with fins on, specifically focused on approximate 200 pacing, underwater kicks off the wall, and distance per stroke. Besides doing general fly yardage, there have been three fly fin sets I've used as my target sets to see how I'm doing from practice to practice (I rotate through the sets, don't do them all every time I swim on my own):

Set #1

4 x 50 on 1:00, trying to hold 200 effort level/pace

3 x 100 on 2:00, trying to hold within 1 second of 50 pace

2 x 150 on 3:00, trying to hold within 2 seconds of 50 pace

1 x 200 on 4:00, trying to hold within 3 seconds of 50 pace

Set #2

6 times through

1 x 100 on 2:00, aiming for 200 effort level/pace

1 x 50 on 1:00, aiming for 3 seconds faster than pace on 100

Set #3

6 x 150 on 3:00, aiming for 200 effort level/pace

I've failed both times I've attempted Set #3 so far. The first time, I made it through number 5, then physically was unable to complete the last 150 without breaking stroke. I'd held a pretty consistent pace on the first 3, with the third one being about 5 seconds slower than the first one, then added about 5 seconds on number 4, about 10 seconds on number 5, and didn't make the last one.

The second time I failed was last night, when it was my third practice in 24 hours. I did the first 150 and was just so sluggish in the water that I knew I wouldn't be able to make it past the third 150, so I switched to doing Set #2, instead (only did 5 rounds, though, instead of 6)

I did pretty well on it! I went 1:05, 1:06, 1:06, 1:06, 1:06 on the 100s, and was :30, :31, :30, :29, :29 on the 50s. I've really been working on the underwaters and distance per stroke the past few weeks. Of course, when the fins come off, I'll have to work on it all over again, but building that muscle endurance base with fins works pretty well for me. Anyways, my 100s were consistently 5, 5, 5, and 6 strokes per lap, with 8, 8, 7, and 6 underwater kicks per wall. 

If I can get the DPS and underwaters to where I'd like them (no more than 7 strokes per lap, and at least 5 underwater kicks, all without fins), that should go a long ways towards getting me to the point where I no longer feel like I have an entire cargo train's load worth of pianos falling on my back on the last 50 of the 200 fly.

If I can maintain the practice schedule going forward, I intend to keep the solo Wednesday and Thursday practices fly focused, and rotate between back, breast, and fly on the Monday and Tuesday solo practices.

Pending my work schedule (tentatively start at the new job next week), I feel like the training plan is definitely achievable if I can keep my motivation up.

With all that said, here are my focus events this year, along with my recent best time (from spring 2013 through the most recent meet), goal time for this season, and stretch goal time for this season. I'm standing by the goal time, and have set stretch goal times in case my training goes even better than I expect and I blow the doors off in the spring. The bolded goal times are the events whose goal times are the Nationals cuts. The 400 IM is a stretch goal for me this season. I'm not going to do it in a meet till January or February. If it's a bad swim at that meet, I'm not going to go for it this season; if it's a good swim, I'll try to fit it into my training regimen, although I won't do it at Nationals.

Realistically, the 200 fly is my primary focus event this season. I'm not doing much backstroke training (at least compared to the lead up to the '13 spring Nationals when I went lights out in my backstroke events and spent that entire season almost solely training backstroke), so the backstroke goal times for this season are off my best times. I really like the breast events, but it's a matter of devoting time to training for them, time that will be taken away from my fly training. The IM training is primarily my training for the individual strokes and building up my aerobic base, not doing much specific IM training.

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Event	Recent Best Time	Goal Time	Stretch Goal Time
200 fly	2:28.71	2:19.30	2:15.00
100 fly	1:00.18	59.75	59.50
200 back	2:12.90	2:15.00	2:12.90
100 back	1:00.40	1:01.00	1:00.40
200 breast	2:43.20	2:40.00	2:38.50
100 breast	1:11.41	1:11.00	1:10.50
50 breast	32.07	32.00	31.75
200 IM	2:20.25	2:19.30	2:17.00
100 IM	1:01.56	1:01.16	1:01.00
400 IM*	5:09.40	4:59.93	4:55.00

I've got my work cut out for me!

First (awesome) meet of the season, baby!

Yesterday I had my first meet of the season. Every October, there's a sprint meet at George Mason. The longest events are the 200 free and 200 IM, with their being 25s, 50s, and 100s of all the strokes, and the 100 IM, as well. It's a fun, fast meet, and usually serves as a pretty good barometer for how I'm going to do that year.

Well, I had a great meet! Hopefully this year will be a great year!

I swam 7 events: 100 breast, 100 IM, 50 back, and then all four 25s in IM order. Here's how they went down.

100 breast

While swimming the race, I was disappointed. I'd had some fantastic starts in warmup, but it felt like I basically just fell off the block in the race. Good reaction time, but no explosiveness, and I was merely middle of the pack on the first underwater pullout, versus leading the pack as I normally do. Finally felt like I was picking up speed going into the first turn, though, and the middle 50 felt phenomenal. My biceps started to lock up really bad on the last lap and I could feel myself slowing down, but I kept at it. I did way better than I was expecting with a 1:12.84. That's my fastest in-season 100 breast time and is only 1.47 seconds off my shaved and tapered time from Nationals in San Antonio. My two other in-season 100 breast times are a 1:13.77 from this past March, and a 1:14.18 from February 2013.

After watching video of my breaststroke races from San Antonio and watching the pros swim breast, I've been working on shooting my hands forward faster than is habitual for me. This was the first race I've done that at, and I feel like it really made a difference.

Maybe there's hope for my breaststroke after all! :-P

100 IM

This was another great race! I had a great start, fly felt like I was stuck in 6th gear instead of 7th gear, but body rhythm surprisingly felt good (on a side note, for the past few years, I have had a really hard time getting the proper body rhythm on fly when I sprint--I'm fine on the 100 and 200, but body rhythm has been all out of whack on the 50 or 25). Back was good, although I botched the timing of the back-breast turn--I had the timing down to do the crossover turn, but had a brain fart and ended up doing a slower open turn. Breast and free surprisingly felt great. That's where I always fall apart in the IM, no matter if it's a 100, 200, or 400. I was going to be happy if I swam a 1:05 (last time I swam the 100 IM, February 2014, I went a 1:06 and change). My gast was truly flabbered when I looked up at the scoreboard and saw that I went a 1:03.48! That's my second fastest in-season time, with the only faster in-season time (1:02.78) coming from February 2013. The 2012-2013 season was my best season to date, so to see that I'm just a shade over half a second off my best in-season time from my best season, and it happening 4 months earlier in the season, to boot, is awesome!

50 back

This was my only "disappointing" swim of the meet, and it was only disappointing in that it wasn't as good as the other swims. I had a simply rotten start and turn, resulting in me being stuck underwater for way too long. I may or may not have surfaced past the 15m mark off the start, but there were no judges on the side to look for it, thankfully. On the turn, my feet hit too high on the bulkhead, so I went straight down. Came up before the 15m mark that time, but stayed underwater for 4 dolphin kicks longer than I wanted to. Even with all that (I figure I lost half a second due to being stuck underwater, at least), I went a 30.07. In season, that's the fastest I've been since this same meet in 2013, when I went a 30.06. My best in-season time is a 29.32 from February 2013, when all I was training was backstroke. With better underwaters, I would have been in the ballpark for my best in-season time, so I'll take it!

25 fly

Meh, I can't sprint fly. Let me rephrase that...meh, I can't sprint, period. That being said, it was a good race! Like I mentioned earlier, I've had issues the past few years with getting a good body rhythm going on sprint fly. Well, I had that here, and it felt like I stayed completely flat in the water. Oh well, I still went a 12.89, which is a Masters best by .02. :-)

25 back

Much better start on this one than on the 50 back. Came up when I wanted to and went a 14.25, which is a Masters best by .36.

25 breast

I had a much better start on this one than on the 100 breast, going a 15.12 and setting a Masters best by .30 in the process.

25 free

I was a 12.09 on this one, completely botched the finish--thought I was a stroke further out from the wall than I actually was and pulled with my right arm, and as it was coming out of the water on the recovery, right before I started to pull with my left arm, my left hand hit the wall. Oops. Turns out this one wasn't a Masters best, missed it by .06. Should have been under 12 if I'd actually finished appropriately!

********************

I am beyond pleased with how this meet went! It's the best in-season meet I've had in 2.5 years, and since I've got another 6 months of training to go in this season, I now have high hopes for what April will bring in Greensboro!

Woohoo, Nationals, baby!

The 2015 USMS Spring National Championship was this past weekend in San Antonio. It was a great meet! Phenomenal pool (new outdoor, state of the art Myrtha 50m pool) and mostly good weather. I swam a total of 8 events: 100 fly, 50 breast, 100 back, and 50 free leading off our 200 free relay on Friday; 200 back, 100 breast, 200 fly on Saturday; 50 back leading off our 200 medley relay on Sunday. Here's how it went.

100 fly

Oops. All in all, this wasn't a terrible race, but I botched it pretty badly. I'd been psyching myself up so much for the 200 fly last week that from the time behind the blocks to about the 40-45 yard point, I was thinking I was doing the 200 fly. I was happy with how stretched out and relaxed I felt, and it wasn't till going into the 50 that I remembered I was doing the 100. Tried to kick up the pace accordingly on the second 50, but was only moderately successful. My splits were 28.93 and 33.73, for a 1:02.66. I should have been out at least 1.5 seconds faster, and would have liked the second 50 to have been closer to a 31-32 pace. Oh well. 1:02.66 isn't a terrible time for me, and is the fastest I've been since Nationals in 2013. On a side note...it helps to make sure your suit is tied *before* the ref blows the whistle to get up on the block...

50 breast

Argh, so close! After swimming a great 50 breast at Zones two weeks prior, I was hoping to break a 32 on this race. I had a good start (not a great one, though--I was still getting used to having the kick pad on the block and it was a bit rough) and great first 25. My turn was a bit sloppy, having been slightly off on my timing of the last stroke into the wall. Started to fade a bit on the last 10 yards and ended up with a 32.07. That was a Masters best by .65, but I still wanted to break 32! For next season, I'm going to try to add in some breaststroke to my training mix, since I did more breast while at meets (warming up and in the races) this season than I did in practice. While I'm thinking I may have to give up on any hope of being able to transfer standalone breaststroke speed to being able to split a good breast leg in an IM, I would really like to be able to throw down some good times in the 50/100/200 breast next year and maybe add them to my event lineup.

100 back

This wasn't a very good race. I had a terrible start--I've never learned how to properly do a backstroke start while holding onto the handles, so I've always held on to the gutter; this pool didn't have a lip, so I was holding on to the maybe .25 inch thick top of the pad, which provides nothing in the way of grip. I lost a lot of ground off the initial wall, and then upon coming up, I just couldn't get my arms moving fast. I hadn't done any speed training in backstroke this season (and only a little bit of backstroke training at all), but I didn't think it would have affected me as much. The rest of the race, while slow, was solid, even with an abysmal turn at the 75 (I hit the top of the pad and pushed it up, which resulted in me going straight down). I went 30.38 and 33.24, for a 1:03.62. That's the fastest I've been since 2013 Nationals.

(Alaina had some camera issues at the beginning of the race, but you can watch my race from the 25 on...)

200 free relay

This was disappointing! I had what I thought was a great start, and felt really good the whole time. Had what was probably one of my best sprint free turns (usually I royally botch the timing of the turn when I'm doing the 50) and felt good coming down the stretch. I took one breath down, one breath back. It felt like a really good race, but I only went a 25.81 (coincidentally, that's the exact time I went the last time I swam the 50 free, at the Sprint Classic meet in the fall of 2013). Dan said it looked like I ran out of steam on the last 12.5 yards, but I totally didn't feel like it!

200 back

This was a much better race overall than the 100 back! I had a good start, but my right goggle filled up when I hit the water. I couldn't see very well, so I decided to err on the side of caution and took my first three turns pretty long. Felt pretty good during the race and split it quite well. I went 31.55, 34.88, 36.07, 36.53, for a 2:19.03. That's the fastest I've been since 2013 Nationals, and right at my in season times during that season. Given my aforementioned lack of backstroke training this season, I'll take it! On a side note, this was a very wide spread heat--fastest time was a 1:48, slowest was a 2:21. Not really any competition there... :-)

100 breast

I went another Masters best in this event, after going a MB at Zones two weeks prior, but faded pretty hard down the stretch on the last 25. I split 32.67 and 38.74, for a 1:11.41, a MB by .28. I was hoping for a 1:10, but I guess I'll have to settle for a 1:11. :-)

200 fly

I went a Masters best in this event and finally broke 2:30! I just focused on staying relaxed and had a comparatively great swim. As always, I died towards the end, but it was a much more evenly paced showing than every other time I've swum it in Masters. My splits were 31:48, 36.52, 39.46, and 41.25, for a 2:28.71. As an aside, my best swim in the past couple of years had been at Zones two weeks previously, and I had been a 2:34, with my last 50 being a 46. I still have a ton to work on, but after 3 years of working on this event, I finally broke the glass ceiling that is the 2:30 mark! My goal is to break 2:20 for 2016 sprint Nationals in Greensboro. Ideally I'll be able to take it out in a 1:05-1:06 and bring it back in a 1:13-1:14. Lots of work to be done, but I'm finally happy with this race!

200 medley relay

This was my and Alaina's last event of the meet, and we left for the airport right after it. I did back, Lindsey did breast, Dan did fly, and Alaina did free. I had a surprisingly good (well, relatively good) 50 back, and went a 28.94. That was only the third time I've broken a 29, and my second fastest Masters time, after the 28.21 I went after a season of backstroke training at 2013 spring Nats. I'll take it! Of course, Matt Grevers led off his team's relay in the heat after us with a paltry 21.51. I was less than 7.5 seconds slower than him!!!! :-)

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All in all, it was a great meet! I did better in some races than in others, with my highlights being the 200 fly, 50 breast, and 50 back on the 200 medley relay.

Looking forward to the 2016 Spring Nationals in Greensboro, NC, I'm going to continue to focus on the 200 fly and add in some actual breast training. Tentatively, I'll swim the 100/200 fly and two of the 50/100/200 breast, and the 100/200 back. Except for the 200 fly, that's all up in the air. 

Last competitions before championship season, baby!

This past weekend was filled with the last non-championship meets of the 2014-2015 season for me. The kids I coach had their last short course meet of the season Friday-Sunday, and I had a Masters meet on Sunday. I mostly had my Nationals lineup already set, I just wanted to see where I was in my training a month out.

On Friday, I swam the 400 IM with the kids, then swam the 100 breast and 100 back with them on Saturday. I then swam the 200 fly, 50 breast, 200 back, and 50 back (on the medley relay) on Sunday. On top of all that, I spent an additional 9 hours at the pool on Saturday coaching the kids, most of it on my feet. I was definitely feeling it on Sunday! Anyways, with all that said, here's how everything went down.

400 IM

Hahahahaha! I hadn't raced this in two years, and the last time I'd swum it, I'd taken it out to fast and horribly crashed and burned on the back half. Behind the blocks on Friday, I kept telling myself to take it out easier and not kill myself on the front half...and proceeded to psyche myself out. I took it out criminally slow on the front half and was a 1:13 or 1:14 on the fly, then felt like I was barely inching along on the back. The breast didn't feel too bad, and the free wasn't a complete trainwreck like the 2013 swim, but the whole thing was slow. I went a 5:24 compared to that meet from two years ago's 5:11. My fly split alone was 6 seconds slower, so I can only imagine that the back was probably a similar amount slower. The results from the meet haven't been posted yet, so I don't know what my splits looked like except for the fly.

Oh well.

I plan to cut my kids coaching schedule back by two nights a week next season, so that should hopefully give me a solid 4-5 opportunities to practice each week, up from my current 2-3. Maybe then I'll finally be able to actually train for the 400 IM!

100 back

I wasn't feeling all that great going into this swim. I hadn't left the pool the previous night till around 8:00, and then was up at 5:15 to head back to the pool. Hadn't slept all that well, either, so it was just a bundle of fun. On top of all that, since I was actively coaching kids in the morning session, I'd had time for a whopping 300 warmup going into the race. Not my best preparation, I'll admit.

Anyhoo, onto the race itself.

I had a very lethargic start, but then kicked it (ha, pun intended!) into high gear once I was underwater. Totally killed the rest of my heat underwater, especially the kid next to me, but they were all better on the surface. I came up with about a half bodylength lead on the field, but they'd all caught up to me by the turn. I proceeded to pull ahead again off the 25 turn, but then lost the lead going into the 50 turn...then messed up my stroke count and turned about a foot away from the wall. Lost most of my momentum and had a resulting weak push off the wall, but made up enough ground underwater to pull even at my breakout. From there on I was behind the pack, ran out of steam on the last 25, and ended up 6th out of 7 in my heat with a 1:04.7.

Given my complete lack of backstroke training since the holidays, and everything else going on, I'm quite happy with that swim! It's the fastest I've been since last January, too. I'm hoping that with the more optimal conditions of Nationals (rest, taper, shave, better suit, an actual warmup, etc), I'll be around a 1:01.

100 breast

This was the first time swimming it since spring of 2013. Given my utter lack of breaststroke training since I busted my left knee last February (I've done maybe a total of 500 yards of breast since then), I had very low expectations. In addition, like with the 100 back, I had only a 300 warmup going into the event and was still a bit tight from the earlier race.

And yet I did much better than I thought!

I had a good dive and excellent underwaters throughout (seeing a theme here?), but got crushed on the surface. Going off the kid next to me, I'd routinely pull out a bodylength lead underwater, then he'd catch up to me by the next wall. Rinse and repeat. I really started to feel the 100 back around the 75, when my lats and shoulders started to burn, but pushed through it and ended up 4th in my heat of 7 with a 1:13.7, my 2nd fastest Masters time! My Masters best is a 1:11.74 from Zones in 2013, so I'm hoping I can get close to that at Zones or Nationals in April. I actually really liked this race and might add it to my repertoire next season, rather than having it be a pretty much one-off event.

200 fly

Oof. Again, not a great setup for the race. Although I had gotten a full night of sleep and was more rested than I was for the 100 back or 100 breast on Saturday, I was feeling rundown from the 11.5 hours at the pool the previous day. Energy level was at maybe 75%, and to put a cherry on that sundae, I had forgotten to seed our relays before the meet and spent most of the warmup time period putting them together, resulting in only about a 400 warmup. Definitely a pattern this weekend!

All that said...it was a good swim!

I made the switch to breathing every stroke (except the first stroke off the wall) in training a few weeks ago and this was my first meet putting that into play. I think it helped! I started to run out of steam at about the 160 yard mark, but it wasn't like at Tropical Splash in January, which felt more like this guy's 200 fly. Rather, it was a tightening up of the lats and shoulders, followed by a deep seated burning in my traps at the 175. Still managed to keep it legal...unlike my two DQ swim in January...and the pacing wasn't as abysmal as it could have been. My splits were 32.04, 38.80, 42.53, and 45.27, for a 2:38.64. Given my low energy level going into the event, I think I could have taken off a handful of seconds under better circumstances. Even though that swim was 2 seconds slower than January's swim, it was a much better race.

My Masters best is a 2:32.90 from 2012, so I'm right in the ballpark. Of course, my lifetime best is a 2:11, so I'm not gonna go there... ;-)

If all goes well at Nationals, I'd like to think I have a shot at going sub-2:30. I've got a month to work out the kinks on pacing and the little things in the race.

50 free (200 free relay)

This was a pretty cruddy swim. I felt terribly uncoordinated in the water and everything felt out of sync. While I think I had a decent start, my underwater off the start felt lethargic, and I turned a bit too early, then started my breakout about 6 inches too deep. Blegh. I went a 26.36, which is pretty darn slow time.

50 breast

After my surprisingly good 100 breast on Saturday, I was actually looking forward to this race. I only had a couple of minutes to warm down between the 200 free relay and this event, so I was kinda nervous about how well I'd do.

I had a great start and pullout, great first 25...and then botched the turn. Sloppy body movements during the actual turn itself, didn't seat my feet properly and pushed off slightly twisted, resulting in me pushing off at an angle and swerving from the middle of the lane to almost under the lane rope on one side. Tried to recover back to the middle on the pullout, but my, uh, lateral movement shenanigans cost me a noticeable bit of speed. Still managed to get more speed and distance underwater than the woman in the lane next to me, but much less so than off the start. Still, I went a 33.64, which is only .3 off my Masters best! I think I would have crushed my Masters best if I hadn't screwed up the turn!

I'm hoping to go around a 33.0 at Zones or Nationals.

200 back

I was really running low on energy by this point, so I figured that instead of killing myself and trying to go a great time, I'd step it back a notch and just aim for a respectable time. I had a decent start and good underwater, then just tried to keep it controlled during the race. I had some breathing difficulties around the 125 and was having trouble getting enough air in through my mouth, and spent that whole 25 debating how much of a time penalty it would be if I ripped my nose clip off, and if I could do it without getting DQd. Decided to keep it on, though, and finished the race out pretty well. Coming off the last wall, I wasn't anywhere close to oxygen deprivation, which is usually where I'm at in that portion of the race, so I probably could have attacked the middle 100 of the race harder and shaved off a few seconds. Oh well. My splits were respectable, at 33.04, 36.44, 37.31, and 36.77 for a 2:23.56. While that time is nothing to write home about, it's right on my best time from last year.

I'm hoping for a sub-2:18 for Nationals.

50 back (200 medley relay)

Ooh boy, this one hurt! It was just a few minutes after my 200 back, and my quads were completely locked up and felt like they were on fire while I was standing on the deck getting ready to jump in. It felt like I did the 50 backstroke pull, but I managed to put up a 30.36, which is honestly way faster than I expected, and is only about a second off my in shape, in-season time. Given how wiped out I was by that point in the meet, I expected to be much slower than that. Huh, maybe there's some hope for putting up a good split on our medley relay at Nationals!