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!

Third meet of the season under my belt...

Well, that was definitely a hit or miss kinda meet! There was a three day short course meters Masters meet this past weekend at George Mason's Manassas campus. I didn't compete in November, so this was my first meet since October. I swam the 100 back on Saturday and the 100 IM/100 fly on Sunday.

First off, I do not like short course meters. Nothing against that distance itself, but the only time I ever swim SCM is in a meet, so I'm not used to the distance. I'm a yards swimmer through and through, although I can adjust to long course meters if needed. But SCM? No thank you. It's that middle distance that is just long enough to make my turn timing awkward, while not long enough to necessitate the mindset change that is LCM.

100 back

Ugh, I just don't have any speed. In warmup I tried doing some pace 50s and was holding 36s, which converts to a high 32/low 33 in yards...or about 2 seconds off my desired pace. That's how my backstroke has felt all season--nothing feels fundamentally wrong with the stroke itself, I just haven't been able to eke out any speed.

On the start, my right foot slipped off the pad, so I pretty much had a one legged push. I went long on the first two turns and just ran out of steam towards the end. Even before running out of steam, though, it just felt like I was swimming through molasses, with no speed. My final time was a 1:13 and change, 2 seconds slower than the last time I did the 100 SCM back, in March 2013. On the plus side, it was a second faster than when I did the event in December 2011!

100 IM

After Saturday's annoyingly bad 100 back, I was psyched up for Sunday's 100 IM. The 100 IM is one of my favorite events, and I'd been bummed when I had to scratch the IM events in the spring and summer due to my bum knee. I swam the 25 breast in October, but this was the first *real* race that tested my knee. I had a good start and felt fantastic on the fly and back. Got a big confidence boost on the fly/back turn when I came off the wall just a shade after the guy in the lane next to me, but then came up to the surface almost a full bodylength ahead of him! Breaststroke was very flat, uncoordinated, and felt like I was getting no power from my kick, but the important thing is that it didn't hurt! My free felt really good, too, the best it's felt in an IM since at least the 2012-2013 season. Usually by that point I'm sucking wind and my technique falls apart.

The only downside to this race, besides the cruddy breaststroke leg, were my turns. None of them were quick. Kinda like my 100 back, while my turns felt technically sound, they just were slooooow. Still, all that said, I pulled out a mid 1:10, just a couple tenths of a second off my best time from the runup to 2012 nationals, and 1.5 seconds faster than my time from spring 2013. Given my complete lack of breaststroke training this year (the most I've done in a practice since February has been about a 50) and lack of speed training since the summer, I will count the 100 IM a rousing success!

100 fly

...And I came crashing back down to earth on the 100 fly. I've been doing a lot of fly training in the past few months, since I think my main event at nationals is going to be the 200 fly. I haven't been doing any fly sprint training, though, just getting in bulk yardage. I've been able to put together some decent 100 fly repeats in practice at a moderate pace, but haven't haven't worked on 100 pace. I'll touch on that again in just a second.

My start was good, first 50 felt great, and I was only barely starting to feel it going into the 75 turn when it all fell apart. Curling my legs into the wall on the last turn, both of my hamstrings cramped up, and coming off the wall I could only do the downkick, not the upkick. Attempting to overdrive the arms to compensate for the loss of leg propulsion, my lats cramped up, too. The end result was me going vertical for the last 15 or so meters of the race. Sigh. I was happy about two things, though. One of the main things I've been working on in practice has been increasing my underwater time off the walls. Historically, I've done 4-5 dolphin kicks off the wall on the 100/200 fly, and I've been working to increase that. I did 9 off the start, 7 off the first wall, 6 off the second wall, then 5.5 spastic kicks off the third wall. On top of that, I've been trying to force myself in practice to mostly keep to a 2-up-1-down breathing pattern (only exception is the last stroke into the wall--I want to breathe on that stroke), and I was able to hold to it in this race, even when I went vertical! I'm very pleased with that part! I ended up with a 1:12, I think (might have been a 1:13, but don't quote me until I see the official results), which is about 3.5 seconds off my time from the leadup to the 2012 nationals, but 4 seconds faster than I was at this time in 2011.

I'm really starting to wonder if there's something wrong with my fly training. Ever since the summer, I've been able to do aerobic fly training with no out of the ordinary issues, but when I've raced fly since the spring, I've had massive lat cramps towards the end of the race, whether it's the 50 or the 100. At long course nationals in August, I swam the 50 fly twice, once on a relay and once individually. On the relay I kept it relaxed and stretched out, while still going at around 90% effort. No cramping issues then. Later, I did the individual race, bumped it up to 100% effort, and developed massive lat cramps around the 40 meter mark. Similar effect when I did the 100 in October, and same thing this time around. This one was by the simultaneous hamstring cramps, which is a first for me. Even when I have done fly speed work in practice, I haven't had the lat cramping issue that so far has only stuck in meets. I don't know what it is, or what I can do to prevent it.

All in all, I was fairly pleased with this meet. I did way better than I expected in the 100 IM, and the best part was that I had no knee pain, so maybe I can swim the IMs again! I'm beginning to wonder if this is going to be another "lost" season for backstroke, like my '11-'12 season was. That season I proportionally did markedly better in fly than back, then I reversed that the following season. So far this season is shaping up to follow the '11-'12 season's pattern. I'll see how things stand in February, which will give me time to change up my training strategies as necessary in preparation for nationals in San Antonio in April.

First masters meet of the season!

We had the first masters meet of the season yesterday at George Mason. I swam the 100 free, 100 back, 100 fly, and the 25s of each stroke. None of my times were anything to write home about, but I was fairly pleased with most of my swims.

100 free

I usually only swim this sucker once a season as an individual race, and then a couple times a year as part of a 400 free relay. I can't remember the last time I actually trained for the 100, and have never really cared enough about it to try in a masters meet. This time around, though, I figured I'd actually give it a shot. Trying something new, I decided to try galloping (deeper pull on one side, shallower pull on the other, breathing only to one side). I took it out in a 27.71 and brought it back in a 30.00. I probably could have taken it out about a second faster, but it's been so long since I've actually *raced* the 100 free that I don't really know how to pace it anymore. Anyhoo, it felt really good! I felt strong and smooth, and felt like I had a powerful kick (for the first time since the spring!). My third turn was too long (I was just far enough from the wall that it was either glide in to the turn or take a half stroke, and I picked the former), but everything else was good. Probably lost at least .5 on that turn. As far as my energy was concerned, I didn't fade too much down the stretch, and just really had a great all-around race. That 57.71 isn't anything to write home about, but is my third fastest masters individual 100 free, with my fastest being a 56.73 from Zones last spring. I was so pleasantly surprised by how good the race felt that I'm considering breaking my tradition and adding it to my event lineup at a handful of meets this season! Later in the season, as my fitness improves and I have a better aerobic base, I might creep down towards a 55.

100 back

Ugh. I have absolutely no idea what has happened to my turnover. Ever since last spring, I just haven't been able to turn my arms over quickly. I knew I was having turnover issues going into this meet, so I decided to drop the 50 back, since it would be completely pointless. I had a correspondingly slow swim, going a 1:05.39, a full 2 seconds slower than my slowest in-season time from the 13-14 season. That being said, my splits were good, taking it out in a 31.49 and bringing it back in a 33.90 (they were both slow, but I view anything less than a 2.5 second gap between the two 50s to be a good split...at least for me...). This was my first short course race wearing a nose plug, and I like it! I think it really helped on the turns, especially off the first wall. My underwaters felt really good, too, but I consistently got destroyed on the surface. I recovered from a partial slip on the start (left foot slipped down a few inches on the start, and I went really deep), but my underwaters were the only good thing going for me for the rest of the race. Sigh.

100 fly

This one was so aggravating! I haven't done any butterfly speed training so far this season, so I was rather leery of how I'd swim. I had a good start and fantastic first 50. My shoulders started to tighten up a bit heading into the 75, but nowhere near as badly as they did over the summer when I swam. Unfortunately, the turn at the 75 was a disaster. As I was bringing my feet in to the wall, both of my quads locked up. My legs locked into a bent position, and not only did I get almost no push off the wall, I don't think I kicked underwater. I came up right about the flags and I'm pretty sure my legs were deadweight for the whole last 25. My shoulders were on fire as they took on the full load, and I limped down the stretch. By the time I finally touched, I was in major pain. I couldn't fully straighten my legs, or bend them past about 90 degrees. I managed to pull myself out of the water and hobble back to the warmdown pool, but man, that was painful! In regards to the splits, I nailed the first 50, taking it out in a 30.02, but brought it back in an abysmal 35.20 for a 1:05.22. The first 50 felt phenomenal--I felt smooth and on cruise control, with my fly feeling better than it's felt in over a year. Except for my quads locking at the 75, I would like to think I would've been a 1:03, which would've been my fastest in-season time since Zones in 2013. So frustrating!

25 fly

Haha, this one was hilariously bad. I had really good reaction time off the block, but I entered the water a bit too deep and ended up completely misjudging how close I was to the surface for my breakout. Thought I had one more kick to get to the surface...and ended up coming to the surface still in full streamline. Oops. Lost most of my momentum on the non-existent *breakout* and couldn't make up for it. I went a 12.76, almost a half second slower than last year.

25 back

Didn't have any problems with slipping on the start, I just had a very anemic push (quads started hurting again), and then had problems getting any sort of speed with my dolphin kicks. Conversely, once I got to the surface, I actually felt like I had a good turnover. I went a 15.22, which is .6 slower than last year.

25 breast

This was the first time I'd done a full lap of breaststroke since screwing up my left knee last winter. Felt fine till the last two strokes, when my knee started to twinge. I went a 12.91, .3 slower than last year.

25 free

This time I went too shallow on the start (after a quad induced anemic start), and only got 4 dolphin kicks before surfacing, vs the 7-8 I normally do off the start on free races. Managed to hit the lane rope with my left hand, too, which was awesome. I went a 12.76, which was almost .5 off my time from last year.

All in all, I enjoyed the meet! Besides not being able to sprint backstroke and the unfortunate quad cramping issue, I'd say it was a pretty successful outing. I'm quite happy with my 100 free and the first 75 of my 100 fly. Good to know that even with no speed training and a less-than-ideal aerobic base, I've still got decent speed...at least in a 75 of fly... And the 100 free was a very pleasant surprise, so who knows, I might actually be able to do some free events this year and not make a complete fool of myself.

Training plan for the 2014-2015 season

After a more or less disappointing Nationals meet last weekend (disappointing solely due to myself), I'm re-energized and ready to hit the pool hard for the fall and spring. As mentioned...uh, several times...in the previous post, I do not like long course. More to the point, though, I don't like swimming outdoors at the pools we train at during the summer. Half of them don't have flags or clocks, and some have cruddy lighting, so swimming in the evening is an exercise in futility. I'm an indoor swimmer through and through. Give me flags, a clock, and no worry of storms or losing my place in the lane, and I'm happy.

With all that in mind, I'm pretty pumped for Nationals in the spring. It's going to be in May at a brand new facility, presumably state of the art facility in San Antonio. The competition pool is an outdoor 50m pool, with the pool split into two 10 lane 25y courses (there's another, older, 50m pool and a 25y diving well inside). While it's outdoors, the lighting and signage should be just fine. I'll have to get used to swimming with mirrored goggles prior to then, though. On top of all that, there's an outside chance we can convince Alaina to go, so I'm going to try my best to get in tip top shape and drag her with me! :-D

I want to focus on two events this training cycle, the 200 fly and 200 back. As I've seen over the last two years, I can't seem to be able to find that top gear in my sprint backstroke, and to a slightly lesser degree the same for butterfly, so I'll focus on the events that don't rely on that top gear.

Training for those two 200s will also take care of their respective 100s, so I'm just going to focus on the longer distances. Successfully training to improve in those events will require significantly different training than I've done over the past 3 years. In the past, I've trained just doing Masters practices, and while they work well for general conditioning, they are really pretty terrible for competition training. Our practices are generally written for the lowest common denominator, so there isn't much competition focused training. This time around, I'm going to try and get in a good amount of competition focused training. Here's how I am currently planning to have my training schedule break down each week:

• Monday: Swim 1 hour short course on my own, focusing on technique and underwaters
• Tuesday: Swim 1.5 hours long course with age group team's senior prep group
• Wednesday: Swim 1 hour short course on my own, focusing on stroke yardage
• Thursday: Swim 1.5 hours long course with age group team's senior prep group
• Friday: Swim 2 hours short course with age group team's senior prep group
• Saturday: Swim 1 hour with Masters team
• Sunday: Rest day

Tuesday and Thursday will really serve to bring my aerobic base and endurance up--long course training kicks my behind, but will really help the back end of my 200s come San Antonio. I'll focus on stroke specific training on Monday and Wednesday on my own, focusing primarily on getting in a lot of quality stroke yardage (fly and back) and working my underwaters. Fridays will serve to get me used to high yardage workouts, which will also help the back end of my race. Saturdays will serve as a more or less recovery swim for the week.

I have three key focuses with this training plan:

1. Get my yardage base up high enough that I develop a good back end on my races. Looking at my best races from the past couple of years and comparing them to my best races back in the day, while I can take them out nearly as fast, my back end isn't even remotely close to what it used to be. Building up a high aerobic yardage base with the kids will directly impact my ability to bring races back.
2. Underwaters, underwaters, underwaters. I'm comparatively much stronger underwater than I am on the surface in backstroke, and also stronger (albeit to a lesser degree) in butterfly. Especially since I'm focusing on the 200s, that's a lot of underwater time that I can capitalize on if I can improve my underwaters. Every time I swim on my own, I'm going to work on breath control and my underwater dolphin kick. Hopefully by the end of the season I'll see a marked improvement over my current underwaters.
3. Racing technique. I know there's something jacked up with my fast fly and back, but I don't have the same problems when I swim at a slower pace. Hopefully I can work with the age group coach to identify what I'm doing wrong and how to fix it.

If I can nail those three things over the course of the season, I should be able to have some monster swims in San Antonio. I had a monster swim in the 200 back in Indy in 2013, and that was without those three--with them, who knows? I could theoretically put lifetime bests in the 200 fly and back in my sights. I'm a lot stronger now than I was as a teenager, swim a lot smarter than I did then, and *should* have better technique, so I think it's just a matter of putting all the pieces together. I haven't been able to do that yet, but hopefully this season will get me closer!

Also, one final point--I'm planning to compete in as many Masters and age group meets as I can. All the training in the world means nothing if you can't put it into play when it counts, so I intend to race as much as possible in order to get used to putting it all on the line.

If all this training plays off, here are my goal times for San Antonio:

200 backstroke	2:08.50
100 backstroke	58.50
200 butterfly	2:12.50
100 butterfly	58.50

I don't know what the other two events I'll swim at San Antonio will be, but I fully intend to swim these four and try to hit these times.

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Outside the pool, I'm going to focus on three things, too.

1. Getting stronger. From this past weekend, I can tell my lats and hamstrings aren't very strong. I'm going to add in a dryland program a couple times a week that will include squats/lunges/pushups/ab work/pullups, as well as some medicine ball and resistance cord work. If I can, I'll also join the Golds a block from my office and add in some weight lifting. Even without all that, I'm stronger than I was as a teenager, so hopefully I'll get substantially stronger with that training.
2. Flexibility. I'm woefully unflexible right now. When I got my massage at the meet, the massage therapist had to actively push my legs into positions that I used to be able to just swing them into with no assistance. I'm really tight and can't really extend or contract my hips and lower back like I used to. I'll have to add in a stretching routine at least a couple times a week, too.
3. Massages. I felt fantastic after the massage at the meet, so I think I'm going to look into getting a sports massage once a month going forward. With the amount of training I plan to do, I can't see this being anything but a good thing.

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Yep, I know I've set some pretty darn lofty goals, but I'm hoping I'll have enough motivation from friends and Alaina to push me to hold my goals!

2014 USMS Summer Nationals recap!

Man, I am not a fan of swimming or racing long course!

I never particularly cared for it back in the day, and don't like it now. At least back then I was in good enough shape and had the endurance to swim events without a gazillion walls. I don't have that endurance right now (to be fair, that is totally on me, since I didn't train much this summer), but only swimming one long course practice a week sure doesn't help get you ready to race long course, either.

Nationals was at the University of Maryland at College Park. I haven't swum at this pool before--I've swum multiple meets at UMD Baltimore County, but not at the College Park campus. It's a fantastic facility! Lots of space, good ventilation, deep pool from end to end (many are shallow at one end and deep at the other--while this one was deeper at one end, it was still 8'-9' deep at the "shallow" end), excellent gutters, and just felt fast. The blocks were cruddy, though, but that's the only downside in my experience.

Anyhoo, here's how my Nationals went.

Friday

50 back

Ugh. This was not a good swim. I had a good start and almost fantastic underwaters (went a shade too deep and took one dolphin kick more than I had planned for). Once I came up to the surface, I tried to spin my arms at the rate necessary for a dead sprint...and failed miserably. It felt like I could only get them moving at about my 100 turnover pace, which doesn't work at all for a 50. On top of that, my lats started to tighten and cramp up towards the end, which slowed my stroke rate down even further. Sigh. I went a 34.76, which unfortunately was slower than my 34.40 entry time from my only other masters long course meet two years ago. A quite disappointing start to my meet.

Men's 200 free relay

I was the third person on our relay and had a rather slow start. I thought our second guy was going to glide and do the extended stroke into the finish, but he took a short, faster stroke instead, so my timing was off. Not the slowest relay start I've ever done, but still left probably close to half a second on the block. Felt really good for the first 30 meters or so, then had to take a breath. For sprint free, the problem I've had over the last year is that I have a really good rhythm while swimming without breathing, but taking a breath destroys that rhythm and I noticeably slow down while doing so. Ended up taking a total of three breaths in the 50 due to catching more water than air on the second breath, and slowed down correspondingly. I went a 28.87, which is right on my estimated split entry time (I'd estimated a 28.80), but isn't very good in the grand scheme of things. Like in the 50 back, my lats started to lock up in the last 5-10 meters of the race.

I've really gotta figure out how to keep my technique in sprint free. In the 100 and 200, in the few times I've swum them as a masters swimmer, I have no problems keeping my technique when I breathe. But in the 50, with the much higher turnover rate and much lower breathing rate, it totally jacks my stroke up when I take a breath. I'm going to experiment with galloping over the upcoming fall/spring season and see if I can figure out how to sprint at top speed using that technique. I've played around with galloping off and on for the past two years, but haven't put any serious effort into it. I've also never galloped at 100% effort before, so while I can breath just fine at 90% effort while galloping, I haven't experimented with that last 10%. Something to think about over the next 9 months.

Saturday

200 back

I felt better during warmup than I had the day before, and it more or less carried through to this event. I asked Chris (our on deck coach for the day) how I should pace the 200, go all out and try to hang on, or take it out long and strong and build the back half. He said to follow the latter strategy, so that's what I did. I felt long and relaxed for the first 150, but going into the last turn, I felt like I had too much energy left. I upped the pace on the last 50, and felt really good till my lats yet again locked up in the last 15 meters. Not looking at the speed, just *how* I split the race, I swam it quite well: 40.07, 43.55, 44.84, 42.52, for a 2:50.98. My time from 2 years ago was a 2:57.67, so I'll definitely take the almost 6 second time drop! That said, I had been hoping to go closer to a 2:45. I suppose I might have been able to lop a second or two off the first three 50s, but I don't know if that would have caused the lat cramping to start even earlier than it did.

Mixed 200 medley relay

I swam the 50 back leg on our relay. I was tired after the 200 back and just didn't have much gas in the tank, not to mention the whole lat cramping issue, which cropped up again on this race. Went a 35.49. It was just an icky swim.

Sunday

Men's 200 medley relay

I swam the fly leg on this relay. It felt really, really good! I kept it long and relaxed at about 85% effort. I knew there was enough of a gap between us and the relay ahead of us that there'd be no point in me sprinting it, so decided to just relax and enjoy myself. It was the best my fly has felt all year. Again, I had a slowish relay start (same guy that I went off of on the free relay also swam breast on this relay, and did another short stroke into the finish, messing up my timing), but I had a good entry, underwater, and then good swim. I went a 32.55, which is right around what I had hoped for. Even better, my lats felt fine!

100 back

Eh, this wasn't a terrible swim, but the last 15 meters were painful. While I didn't have any problems with my lats on the relay, they started to tighten up at the turn and had completely locked up by the 85m mark. Looking at how I split it, it wasn't a terribly paced swim at 37.03 and 39.59, for 1:16.62. On a plus note, I dropped exactly 2 seconds from  my time from two years ago. I was definitely starting to run out of steam at this point in the meet--I'd estimate it felt like I was running at about 80% energy.

50 fly

This was my last swim of the meet and felt like my worst one. Like with sprint freestyle, I have problems conveying my good technique from 90% effort to 100% effort. My stroke felt choppy and a little bit off, and the ever present lat cramping monster reared its head at about the 40m mark. I could barely push my arms forward at the end, my lats were so tight. Blegh. I went a 32.02, just marginally faster than on the relay. It was faster than the 32.50 I went two years ago, though, so I suppose that's a good thing.

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After I finished swimming on Sunday, I got a massage--they have on deck massage therapists at the national championship meets, and man, are they worth the money! I got a 30 minute massage and had the lady focus on my upper back, lats, and hamstrings. She said my upper back was insanely knotted up, and likewise with my lats. While my hamstrings weren't quite as bad, she did say that my hip flexors are really stiff. She recommended, due to my proposed level of training in the fall and spring, that I get a sports massage at least once a month, as well as starting a comprehensive stretching routine. I got a referral to a sports massage place in Alexandria, so I'll check them out in the next few weeks.

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All in all, it was an ok meet. I didn't swim very well compared to my in shape times, but for the most part I swam better than I expected, coming off my off and on knee injury and lack of conditioning. I'll take it!

Kia Cadenza test drive review

I test drove the Kia Cadenza this past Saturday. For the most part, I liked it. Like the Avalon and Azera, it's a step down from the Genesis, so I'm going to directly compare it to the first two rather than the Genesis.

It's got a decent looking exterior, although I prefer the Avalon and Azera exteriors. As far as the interior goes, I like it better than the Avalon's. The console is much more logically laid out in my opinion, and doesn't look nearly as funky--looks quite classy. Plenty of storage space, although the cupholders are the non-adjustable kind. Very comfy seats, although I'd have to play around some more with the adjustments, since the seating position felt just a little bit off and I wasn't able to fix that in the 10 seconds I spent fiddling with the seat. Good visibility all the way around, although there is a blind spot off the front right of the car, with the pillar and side mirror blocking a fairly large swathe of scenery. Plenty of room front and back--even with the front seat pushed all the way back, I had at least 3-4 inches of knee room sitting in the back.

Under way, I was a little bit disappointed. The engine seems very revvy, and didn't have as much insulation as the Avalon. There was also a tad bit more wind noise at speed, although it's well within my tolerance level. Along with being revvy, the engine shifted gears a lot, and though it didn't cause any jerkiness or anything like that, it is kind of odd to hear the engine change pitch that much in a near-luxury car. I could definitely get used to it, but it just struck me as odd and a bit out of place. Acceleration was good and the ride was smooth enough for my liking. It would make a good highway cruiser, as well as being quite tolerable when sitting in the 395/495 parking lot going to and from work. Nice level of amenities inside: upgraded stereo, cooled seats, panoramic sunroof, etc. Only nitpick there is that the nav's street/guidance display looked very similar to nav displays I've seen in ~2009 era cars, not nearly as "new" as the other cars I've looked at.

All in all, it was ok. I'd rank it a bit above the Avalon in everything about the interior, but slight demerits for the nav display, wind/engine noise, and exterior styling. I think that puts it about tied with the Avalon, but definitely a step below the Genesis.

First round of large sedan test drives - Toyota Avalon and Hyundai Genesis

I've test driven half of the cars on my large sedan test list, the 2014 Toyota Avalon and 2015 Hyundai Genesis.  I test drove the Avalon two weekends ago and drove the Genesis this past weekend.  My plan is to do the Hyundai Azera and Kia Cadenza next weekend.  Here are my thoughts on them.

I'll do a blog post after each round of test drives with my impressions of the vehicles.

2014 Toyota Avalon

For the most part, I liked it.  It's a bit longer and wider than my 2000 Avalon, but didn't feel quite as big while driving (felt more like a mid size car).  The engine is more powerful than the old Avalon (268 hp vs 210 hp) and accelerates quite a bit faster (6.4 seconds to 60 vs 8.7 in the old one).  It also gets better gas mileage, at 21/31, vs the old Avalon's 19/27.  Quite comfortable ride--the suspension soaked up all the minor imperfections of the road, and I was directly able to compare the ride in the Avalon, Mabel (1998 Corolla), Harvey (Meggie's new Mazda 3), and Alaina's 2007 Corolla over the same route--big bumps are a bit harsh, but anything smaller than that is smoothed over.  Especially on the highway, it takes a lot of the vibration out of the road.  There's not much road noise at all, but there is a bit of wind noise around the mirrors.  The interior feels upscale, although the nav/dashboard control thingy would take some getting used to.  Nice level of amenities--leather, heated and cooled seats, sunroof, upgraded sound system, nav, etc.  The car felt effortless under all types of driving--I did city driving and then a loop on the highway--no strain or unevenness when accelerating, cruising, or doing stop and go.  The seats are quite comfy and there's a ton of leg and hip room, front and back, although there's zero side bolstering on the seats, so I slid around when I went around a full curve.  The car also has a massive trunk.  Very good visibility all the way around--that's something I'm very leery about, as when I drove Harvey a few weeks ago, I noticed that the high and angled belt line results in limited rear visibility; not a problem with the Avalon.

The only downsides that I noticed are pretty minor.  The two cupholders in the center console are small and don't have the adjustable prongs on the inside. The sunroof is just a single sunroof, while the other large sedans on my list (Kia Cadenza, Hyundai Azera, and Hyundai Genesis) all have panoramic sunroofs. I looooooove panoramic roofs, so that's a ding against the Avalon.

Overall, I liked it.  I'd give it a solid A and will keep it on my list to review again later on in the search process.

2015 Hyundai Genesis

I liked it, I really liked it.  I think the exterior looks the best of any of the large sedans on my list, hands down (on a side note, I think the ranking then goes Avalon>Azera>Cadenza).  Hyundai used the 2015 redesign to take the Genesis further upmarket, and it shows.  It looks and feels very nice on the inside, a full tier above the Avalon.  There is quite a bit of room front and back, and the seats are fantastic, with plenty of padding in all the right places and good bolstering on the sides--I didn't have the sliding problem going around curves that I did with the Avalon.  It has a more staid console design than the Avalon, which is just fine with me.  The controls seemed to be in logical places for the most part, which I was looking for after the Avalon test drive when I had to hunt for some of the controls.  Even higher level of amenities than the Avalon--along with the heated/cooled seats and nav, the leather seemed higher quality and the sound system sounded better (not a knock against the Avalon's sound system, just that this one sounded even better).  To top it off...literally...the Genesis has a massive panoramic sunroof, which I LOVE.  In terms of functional storage space, there is plenty of storage space up front, and one of the two cup holders in the console is larger, while the smaller one has the adjustable prongs on the inside.  That's a step up from the Avalon, which had two small ones. It also has a huge trunk (slightly smaller than the Avalon's, though).

As far as driving goes, I was very impressed.  The car is QUIET.  Very good soundproofing all around--we were stopped at a stop light and a maintenance crew was using weed eaters on the median next to the car and it was just a minor background noise, not distracting at all.  No wind or road noise, which is an improvement on the Avalon, which had some wind noise.  The car is very poised, steering without any drama and its suspension soaks up all the bumps we drove over.  The acceleration was quite good, both in town and on the highway--it effortlessly and quickly accelerated from about 20-70 on the on ramp to the highway.

I originally wanted to look at the AWD version of the Genesis, but it gets terrible gas mileage, at 16/25.  The RWD I drove gets better mileage at 19/29.  The Avalon's 21/31 is better, but 19/29 is acceptable (my only standard for fuel economy is that it must be better than my old Avalon's 19/27).  Given that the Genesis has 311 hp and ~4100 pounds vs the Avalon's 268 hp and ~3500 pounds, the gas mileage difference is understandable.

I'd give the Genesis an A+.

Verdict

Not having to worry about price, I'd take the Genesis over the Avalon.  I think the looks, performance, and features are better than the Avalon's, though it's not a slam dunk by any means.  However, more or less optioned the same, the Genesis is about $4000 more than the Avalon.  If I lease, it should still be in my budget, but purchasing would knock the Genesis out of my range, since purchasing runs about $100-200 more a month than leasing does.

Round 2, fight!

Whelp, here I go again.

2 years ago, in the spring of 2012, I was car shopping.  At that time, I was still driving my 2000 Avalon, and it needed about $2500 of work done ASAP and another $3300 of work done soonish.  Rather than sink in that kind of money, I decided to get rid of the car and buy or lease a new one.  I ended up leasing a loaded 2012 Kia Sorento, which I loved.  I had it for three months and then took it in to have a check engine light checked out, and was told that they needed to replace a part in the engine...and it ended up staying in the shop for over a month while they waited for the seemingly endlessly backordered part.

I got no rental assistance from the dealership and had to continue making my monthly payments, too.  After being about $1200 in the hole (car payment plus rental fees for about 6 weeks) during the time the vehicle was in the shop and not being to drive my own car, I turned it back in under the Virginia lemon law.  For the two years since then, I've utilized a combination of rental cars and Mabel, Meggie's 1998 Toyota Corolla, to get myself from point A to point B.

I bought Mabel from Meggie for $900 (which was probably too much, but that's neither here nor there) this spring, and am not planning to hold onto Mabel past this summer.  Too much work needs to be done for too much money to make it worth holding onto.  With the amount of money I've spent over the last two years on rentals and buying/leasing two cars, I should have just kept onto my Avalon, spent the money on the necessary repairs, and would have come out ahead.

Anyhoo, all that aside, I'm now on the market for a car.  I pay off the first of my college era loans in August, so I'm planning to roll that $450 monthly payment straight over to a car payment without it impacting my current budget.  On top of that, I'm in significantly better financial straits than I was in 2012, with a higher salary and about an extra $500-600 a month from my two coaching jobs, neither of which I had then.  All that leads to my monthly price range of up to $1000 a month that I can afford without negatively impacting my savings/bills/fun money allocations.

I don't want to spend anywhere near that much a month, but it is nice to have the income to give me that flexibility.  My goal payment is anything under $700 a month, which would result in a monthly payment of no more than $250 more than what I pay now.

With all that in mind, here are the cars I'm currently considering and planning to test drive over the course of the summer before making the purchase/lease in August or September.  My requirements are an upscale interior (minimum of leather and a sunroof) and enough room to fit 4 people and gear for carpooling to meets and concerts; I'm fine with a smaller car, as long as folks would be able to sit in the back for at least an hour without too much discomfort.  The car must also have good performance and at least decent gas mileage.  Good visibility is also a must, as is a good sound system.  Besides that, I'm pretty much open.

Large sedans

• Hyundai Azera
• Hyundai Genesis (redesigned 2015 model)
• Kia Cadenza
• Toyota Avalon

Midsize sedans

• Hyundai Sonata (redesigned 2015 model, should hit dealers soon)
• Kia Optima
• VW Passat TDI

Compact Cars

• Audi A3

SUVs

• Audi Q5 TDI
• Hyundai Santa Fe Sport

I originally had the Hyundai Elantra GT and Kia Forte5 on the list, but I've decided against them.  I test drove the Avalon last weekend and enjoyed it--seemed like a significant upgrade on my old Avalon and worth a second look after I make it through the rest of the cars.

I'm planning to knock out at least the Azera and Genesis this weekend.  Won't be able to check the Sonata till later this summer, and plan to hit up the Santa Fe on the same day I check out the Q5.

Gonna be a lot of fun!