Yesterday was the last meet in the Carol Chidester Swim Series--it was a series of six meets in Maryland starting last fall. Two of the meets were in Annapolis, one I went to in January and the one yesterday. In January, Dan and I went to the meet, and this time it was Dan, Meggie, and I.
Last time around, I swam the 50 back, 50 fly, and 100 IM. This time I just swam the 50 fly and 100 fly. I would have liked to swim the 100 IM, but it was the next event after the 100 fly, so I didn't enter in it. Good thing, too, since it turned out that there were only three heats separating my 100 fly and the heat I would've been in for the 100 IM. Whew. That would have been a terrible swim.
50 fly: When I swam the 50 fly at the meet in January, I went a 28.16. This time around, I had a great race! My start was decent--I wasn't the first off the blocks, but I had perfectly adequate reaction time, so I can't complain too much about it. At least it wasn't a slow start, right? Anyways, I intentionally went a bit deeper than normal off the dive--up till the last meet, I'd tried to stay pretty shallow and do no more than six fly kicks before surfacing; this time I stayed under long enough to do ten. Good speed on the first 25 and breathed three times, including the last stroke into the wall. It wasn't a flawless turn, but wasn't a shabby one, either. Good push off the wall and felt really good once I surfaced. Breathed six times on the way back, but probably could have dropped one or two of them. The important point is that I didn't feel any oxygen deprivation, which used to kill me on fly. Didn't have a great finish, but again, it wasn't a terrible finish. Got second in the heat (and event) with a 26.48! The meet last weekend was a short course meters meet and my time converted to a 26.76, but my best Masters 50 fly yards time was a 27.29. Heck, in the last yards meet I swam at, just three weeks ago, I went a 27.45. This was a great drop for me! Looked up my old times from highschool, and it turns out that this is a lifetime best, since my best in highschool was a 26.67! Booyah! At this rate, especially given that I'm not tapering at all, and had some pretty tough practices the two days before the meet, I'm pretty pumped that I could probably break a 26 at Zones or Nats!
100 fly: This one wasn't near as good. In the last week or so, I've had some big problems in practice with my back and arms tightening up pretty badly when I do more than a 50 straight of fly. Not really sure why, since I haven't been doing that much more fly lately than I have been in general. Weird. Anyways, my goal in this 100 was to take it out a bit easier than I normally do in hopes of not having that issue on the back half. To start off the race, I had a fantastic start--excellent reaction time, and from what I could see with my peripheral vision, I think I was the first off the blocks (I've been working a lot on my reaction time at meets, so it looks like it is finally paying off!). Took the first 25 out way too slow, at more of a 200 pace than a good 100 pace. Realized it at the turn, so I picked up the pace on the second 25. One note that will help explain how the rest of the race went--the pool does have the wide competition lanes (8 feet, I think?), but doesn't have the wave-eating lane ropes, just the standard old lane ropes that do diddly for blocking waves. That out of the way, back to the second 25--I picked up the pace just fine, and then about halfway back, I started catching the wake from the guy in the lane next to me (I was in lane 6 with a 1:01 entered time, and lanes 3-5 were guys who go in the mid 50s). When I breathe in fly, my mouth is just above the surface of the water. I was doing a 2-1 breathing pattern at this point (breathe for two strokes, no breath for one). I've got a huge lung capacity--last time I went to the doctor in highschool, I took one of those lung capacity tests and nearly maxed it--but I go through oxygen extremely quickly when I push myself to that level of exertion, so I breathe a LOT on fly. First mouthful of water was alarming, but not panic inducing. Even though I wasn't supposed to breathe on the next stroke, I did anyways...and got another mouthful of water. At that point, pure panic. I was almost entirely out of oxygen and not even halfway through the race. All thoughts of technique and speed went out the window and I pretty much launched half my upper body out of the water on the next stroke to get air. I was successful in finally getting air, but doing a stroke like that totally destroys the body motion and isn't conducive to fast swimming in the slightest. Decent turn, though, so I thought the third 25 would be better. Nope. It was worse, a lot worse. First breath on the 25 was fine, then mouthful of water, mouthful of water, mouthful of water, sheer panic stroke that gave me oxygen, then another mouthful of water, another of water, another panic air, one more water, and then the last two were air. Launching yourself that high up out of the water to get air is incredibly inefficient and tiring. Doing it once, your muscles feel it. Doing it three times in a race is very hellish. Decent last turn. At this point, I was so oxygen deprived that I was breathing every stroke (all but the first stroke--I'm proud to say that all my coaches over the years were actually successful in drumming the mantra of not breathing on the first stroke into my head). Got three more full mouthfuls of water on the last 25, took two more panic breaths, and got two partial mouthfuls of water. My back, arms, and shoulders were on fire, my legs were gone, and it was probably the most painful 100 fly I've ever swum. All that said, I think I did a low 1:02, which is just half a second off my Masters best time. I cannot emphasize how much I appreciate it when a competition pool has the good lane ropes in it that block 99% of the wake from one lane going into another! My splits, while obviously slower than I'd like, weren't too shabby: 28.0 something on the first and then a high 32. I'm actually quite surprised my second 50 was that fast--with how terrible it was, I thought it would have been closer to a 35! It looks like the fundamentals are there, so I should be able to easily go under a minute at Nats, since I'll be fully tapered up, shaved, and swimming in a top tier competition pool.
*****
On a side note, this was Meggie's (she's my sister roomie) first meet as a Masters swimmer, and first time competing since 2000 or 2001, I think. She did decently well in the 50, 100, and 200 free! Comparatively much better than I did in my first meet back in October!
Monday, March 26, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
I'm in a hurry to get things done, oh I rush and rush until life's no fun...
[Editor's note: This is a continuation of a blog post from a week ago.]
Toyota Venza: I've always been comfortable with Toyotas. As long as I can remember, my family has had a Toyota, and the car I've had for the last four years has been a Toyota. They're safe, dependable, comfortable, and generally all around relatively boring. All that being said, I'm on the market for a more exciting vehicle. With that in mind, I figured I'd go ahead and give the Venza the benefit of a courtesy test drive, since I haven't had any bad experiences with Toyota. For those of you unfamiliar with the Venza, it's kinda a cross between an SUV and a wago, and looks kinda funky. Anyways, I test drove a mid tier model and wasn't super impressed. For one, I knew going into going to the dealership that the Venza is a pretty pricey vehicle--loading it up with the options I want pushes the price up to the upper $30s. And given that the Audi Q5 that is my dream car is only low $40s, that's so not cool. Getting back to the point, my sister and I looked at the Venza and played around with it in the lot for a while before test driving it. The seats are very comfortable and there's plenty of room up front and in the back. The dashboard has a nice layout, although the fake wood trim looks pretty tacky. The seats also looked weird, appearing to be a leather/vinyl blend. Weird. There is plenty of storage room behind the back seats (34.4 cubic feet), and with them folded down, there's a ton of space (70 cu ft). Driving the car, the engine felt nice--it was the V6 and provided plenty of punch and power. However, there was one big thing that I didn't like--the suspension felt jittery, with it almost constantly bouncing with these tiny bumps. To clarify--it didn't bounce or waft over any actual bumps, but on a flat smooth road, it was constantly doing those tiny bumps. Very odd, and rather off putting. Overall, though, (discounting the jittery suspension) it was a solidly bland ride. No dice.
Hyundai Tucson: This is the Hyundai version of the Kia Sportage, so I was interested in checking out how good it was. However, there were about 15 people looking at cars at the dealership, and only appeared to be about 3 salesmen, so we never got a chance to do any test driving. The interior looks quite nice, and although I prefer the exterior of the Sportage over that of the Tucson, it still had a decent exterior. Plus, I like the color options that Hyundai has.
Hyundai Santa Fe: Like the Tucson, only got to look at the car, didn't get a chance to drive it. Sizewise, I prefer it over the Tucson, but the Santa Fe is getting old (current generation has been out for quite a while). It's getting totally redesigned for the 2013 model year, so I'd be pretty interested to see what the new one will look like later on this year.
Kia Sportage: I test drove an almost top of the line one--it had the turbo V4 and everything but navigation. Very sharp looking car, inside and out. Nice materials everywhere, and didn't feel like a cheap car at all. I was a bit concerned about the interior space before I got to check it out--my Avalon is freaking huge on the inside, so I've been quite spoiled when it comes to the interior of a vehicle, and like to have plenty of room for passengers and cargo. To my surprise, the interior was roomier than I expected, with plenty of passenger room up front and in the back. Cargo space is 26.1 cu ft behind the seats and 54.6 with them folded down. Sufficient room for my needs. Driving it, I found some downsides. With the driver seat, while the seat bottom is plenty comfortable, the seatback wasn't all that great. I've got fairly broad shoulders, so I could feel the bolstering on the sides of the seat, and there wasn't enough padding for my tastes. It wasn't an uncomfortable seat, per se, just not what I'm looking for. In addition, the engine, while plenty powerful, was kinda noisy under acceleration. At speed it was nice and quiet, just noiser than I expected when getting up to speed. The biggest downside I saw was the lack of visibility. To qualify--the rear window is pretty small, and the headrests obscure much of the bottom of the window, and having a passenger back there makes it even worse; the side windows, while providing a clear field of visibility through the available window area, are on the small side, since the car has a high belt line. Finally, from reading reviews online, the turbo V4 has pretty cruddy gas mileage in real life, although it has a pretty darn good rating from the EPA. All that being said...I could survive with that vehicle if it was my only realistic option. I didn't price out that particular model, but I think it was mid/upper $20s, well within my price range.
Kia Sorento: The Sorento was the last vehicle I test drove. When I'd done my online research, I'd been worried about the interior space of the Sportage, so I thought the Sorento (being bigger) might be more to my liking. I test drove a fully loaded SX V6 AWD model. I loved it! The interior is styled differently than that of the Sportage, and I prefer how it looks. The driver seat was much more comfortable to me--a good deal more padding on the back, and the bolstering wasn't an issue. There was plenty of room in the middle row, and there is a miniscule back row for if I'm ever carting my sister's cat, Argo, around. The middle row is also quite comfy. With both rows of seats down, it can hold 72.5 cu ft of stuff, so it's got more than plenty of storage. Being a fully optioned up car, it had the air cooled driver seat (if you've never been in a car with a cooled seat, it is AWESOME!), panoramic sunroof (also awesome), and nav/upgraded sound system. Driving the car, the V6 provided plenty of power, and did it pretty quietly and seamlessly--it also has a very solid and steady suspension, which is nice. A big improvement from the engine and transmission in my car. Visibility was quite a bit better than in the Sportage--bigger rear window, unobstructed view out of it, lower beltline and bigger windows on the sides, and bigger side mirrors. In addition, the gas mileage isn't half bad (for an SUV), with people reporting that they're getting around 22 combined with the AWD V6. Optioned up the way I want it, and taking advantage of the various promotions offered, as well as any negotiating I can do, the car would be in the general vicinity of $30k, give or take a grand or two. At that price, it's well within my price range to buy or lease.
I've decided to go with the Sorento AWD SX. I'll go in and get it next Saturday. Gonna take my car to Carmax to have it appraised before I go to the dealership, so I'll decide whether to trade or sell before I go to the dealer. This time next week, I should have a new car! Woohoo!
Hyundai Tucson: This is the Hyundai version of the Kia Sportage, so I was interested in checking out how good it was. However, there were about 15 people looking at cars at the dealership, and only appeared to be about 3 salesmen, so we never got a chance to do any test driving. The interior looks quite nice, and although I prefer the exterior of the Sportage over that of the Tucson, it still had a decent exterior. Plus, I like the color options that Hyundai has.
Hyundai Santa Fe: Like the Tucson, only got to look at the car, didn't get a chance to drive it. Sizewise, I prefer it over the Tucson, but the Santa Fe is getting old (current generation has been out for quite a while). It's getting totally redesigned for the 2013 model year, so I'd be pretty interested to see what the new one will look like later on this year.
Kia Sportage: I test drove an almost top of the line one--it had the turbo V4 and everything but navigation. Very sharp looking car, inside and out. Nice materials everywhere, and didn't feel like a cheap car at all. I was a bit concerned about the interior space before I got to check it out--my Avalon is freaking huge on the inside, so I've been quite spoiled when it comes to the interior of a vehicle, and like to have plenty of room for passengers and cargo. To my surprise, the interior was roomier than I expected, with plenty of passenger room up front and in the back. Cargo space is 26.1 cu ft behind the seats and 54.6 with them folded down. Sufficient room for my needs. Driving it, I found some downsides. With the driver seat, while the seat bottom is plenty comfortable, the seatback wasn't all that great. I've got fairly broad shoulders, so I could feel the bolstering on the sides of the seat, and there wasn't enough padding for my tastes. It wasn't an uncomfortable seat, per se, just not what I'm looking for. In addition, the engine, while plenty powerful, was kinda noisy under acceleration. At speed it was nice and quiet, just noiser than I expected when getting up to speed. The biggest downside I saw was the lack of visibility. To qualify--the rear window is pretty small, and the headrests obscure much of the bottom of the window, and having a passenger back there makes it even worse; the side windows, while providing a clear field of visibility through the available window area, are on the small side, since the car has a high belt line. Finally, from reading reviews online, the turbo V4 has pretty cruddy gas mileage in real life, although it has a pretty darn good rating from the EPA. All that being said...I could survive with that vehicle if it was my only realistic option. I didn't price out that particular model, but I think it was mid/upper $20s, well within my price range.
Kia Sorento: The Sorento was the last vehicle I test drove. When I'd done my online research, I'd been worried about the interior space of the Sportage, so I thought the Sorento (being bigger) might be more to my liking. I test drove a fully loaded SX V6 AWD model. I loved it! The interior is styled differently than that of the Sportage, and I prefer how it looks. The driver seat was much more comfortable to me--a good deal more padding on the back, and the bolstering wasn't an issue. There was plenty of room in the middle row, and there is a miniscule back row for if I'm ever carting my sister's cat, Argo, around. The middle row is also quite comfy. With both rows of seats down, it can hold 72.5 cu ft of stuff, so it's got more than plenty of storage. Being a fully optioned up car, it had the air cooled driver seat (if you've never been in a car with a cooled seat, it is AWESOME!), panoramic sunroof (also awesome), and nav/upgraded sound system. Driving the car, the V6 provided plenty of power, and did it pretty quietly and seamlessly--it also has a very solid and steady suspension, which is nice. A big improvement from the engine and transmission in my car. Visibility was quite a bit better than in the Sportage--bigger rear window, unobstructed view out of it, lower beltline and bigger windows on the sides, and bigger side mirrors. In addition, the gas mileage isn't half bad (for an SUV), with people reporting that they're getting around 22 combined with the AWD V6. Optioned up the way I want it, and taking advantage of the various promotions offered, as well as any negotiating I can do, the car would be in the general vicinity of $30k, give or take a grand or two. At that price, it's well within my price range to buy or lease.
I've decided to go with the Sorento AWD SX. I'll go in and get it next Saturday. Gonna take my car to Carmax to have it appraised before I go to the dealership, so I'll decide whether to trade or sell before I go to the dealer. This time next week, I should have a new car! Woohoo!
Fantastic meet this past weekend--three Masters personal records, one of which was the Nationals cut!
This past weekend, I swam in the last qualifying meet for Nationals. I age up to the 25-29 age group (which is the fastest age group for men) three weeks before Nats, so I've been struggling all season to swim fast enough to get cuts in that age group.
Anyways, this was a short course meters meet in Bethesda. I swam my normal events, the 50/100 fly and 100 IM. I got Masters personal records in all three, both in the SCM and converted SCY times! In addition, per the time conversion I used, I finally got the Nats cut in the 50 fly!
100 fly: This was my first event. It just felt off. My stroke felt slightly out of sync, my pacing felt pretty cruddy, my turns only felt so-so, and it overall was just a weird swim. My converted time (1:01.57) was still a couple tenths of a second faster than my previous best, so I'll take it.
100 IM: This was a BIG meet (240+ swimmers), so I had a bit over a three hour break between the 100 fly and the 100 IM. I read about half a book while I was waiting. Anyhoo, the swim itself felt much better than the 100 fly did. Had a great start, good fly-back turn, great underwater work, and I didn't totally die on the free like I have the last few times I swam the IM. That being said, my back-breast and breast-free turns weren't perfect--while I didn't completely misjudge my turns, I was a shade further out from the wall going in than I'd have liked, so the turns were a bit stretched out. Not enough to the point where I should have taken another stroke, but enough so that I glided a little bit on each. Sigh. My non-fly turns in general are killing me. All that said, my converted time (1:03.58) was a couple tenths of a second faster than my previous best, like in the 100 fly, so I'm happy about that.
50 fly: Hands down the best swim of the day. Fantastic start, very solid and pretty quick turn, and everything felt in sync. Up till this meet, I've been breathing twice down and twice back. This time around, I changed my breathing pattern and did three down and five back. I've been working a lot on making my breathing be more efficient in practice (that is, keeping my head inline with my body so that I don't ruin my body position when I breathe; thus allowing me to keep up the momentum whether I breathe or not), so I was able to keep my speed up and also not hit the oxygen deprivation at the end of the lap that my previous twice back breathing pattern subjected me to. It seemed to work! All total, my converted time was .53 faster than my previous best, so it was a great swim! And, for pure icing on the cake, the converted time I swam (26.76) was .02 faster than the Nats cut! To be fair, I probably could have not taken that last breath coming back and eked out a couple hundreths of a second more, but still, this was a very impressive swim for me.
Now, since I finally got a Nats cut, I can enter in 4 events at Nats, up from three. The deadline to enter is this Thursday, so I need to decide what the fourth event will be by then. I know I'm going to swim the 50/100 fly and 100 IM for sure. The events I'm considering are the 200 fly, 50/100/200 back, or the 200 IM. What do y'all think?
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Life is a highway, I wanna ride it all night long...
[Editor's note: This post does not explicitly have anything to do with this blog's general purpose of chronicling the author's weight loss/fitness progress.]
About 4 years ago, I bought a 2000 Toyota Avalon with approximately 110,000 miles on it for about $7,800. In the four years since, I've added approximately 75,000 miles to it, of which around 45,000 were added in the first two years. At roughly 185,000 miles now, it's decidedly been showing it's age since last summer. I had a $950 brake job last fall, and have had a total of about $2,800 worth of additional work done on it over the preceding 3.5 years, bringing the four year cost of repairs and tires up to about $4,200. At this point, the car is worth maybe $2,500, but on the good side of things, it's paid off. I took it into the shop this past week to have it checked out, since it is WAY overdue for a through checkup and maintenance. The shop came back with two lists of stuff that needs to be done--the safety related stuff that NEEDS to be done in the next few months, and the stuff that needs to be done by the end of the summer.
-Stuff that needs to be done as soon as possible: a bit over $3,300
-Stuff that needs to be done by the end of the summer: an additional $2,600 (including new tires)
Needless to say, I'm not particularly in the mood to pour nearly $6,000 into a car that is worth a good bit less than half that!
Prior to this ever so welcome revelation, I'd planned on either keeping my car for another 2-3 years or so, or getting rid of it next year and leasing a car for another year or two before buying an SUV. Either way, I was planning on buying a new SUV in 2014 or 2015. With this li'l bundle of love tossed in my lap on Friday, I'm on the market for a new car (preferably a small SUV or wagon) NOW.
Totally screwed up my financial planning, but I'm in a much better financial situation now than if this had happened at this time last year. Anyways, after sitting down and poring through my financials, I've determined that I can afford up to $800 a month on a car without affecting my current-debt payoff plan, rent, bill payments, savings, or monthly fun money allotment. A caveat--while I can afford to pay up to $800 a month without affecting my current plan, I sure as hell don't want to spend that much! With that in mind, I've set an effective limit of $600 a month, which opens me up to pretty much any small SUV on the market. I've been doing a lot of research into what's on the market since Friday, ranging the whole gamut from the cheapo Kia Sportage up to the BMW X3. I'm 99% sure I want to lease the vehicle for three years, unless I can get one heck of a good deal on a purchase. The main things I'm looking for, regardless of the particular vehicle, are a full warranty that will last at least three years, decent reliability, and a pretty decent level of luxury. I suppose you could say my Avalon has spoiled me on the luxury front--while it's not in anything near great shape right now, at its heart it's basically a Lexus without the badge. It was in better condition when I bought it, so that's the standard I somewhat subconsciously hold any car I look at to.
Anyways, here are the crossovers/small SUVs that are on my list. I've also included my thoughts for the vehicles I've already test driven.
I intend to lease whatever new vehicle I finally choose within the next few weeks, though worst case scenario, I could wait a month or two before taking the plunge.
So, any thoughts or comments/suggestions?
About 4 years ago, I bought a 2000 Toyota Avalon with approximately 110,000 miles on it for about $7,800. In the four years since, I've added approximately 75,000 miles to it, of which around 45,000 were added in the first two years. At roughly 185,000 miles now, it's decidedly been showing it's age since last summer. I had a $950 brake job last fall, and have had a total of about $2,800 worth of additional work done on it over the preceding 3.5 years, bringing the four year cost of repairs and tires up to about $4,200. At this point, the car is worth maybe $2,500, but on the good side of things, it's paid off. I took it into the shop this past week to have it checked out, since it is WAY overdue for a through checkup and maintenance. The shop came back with two lists of stuff that needs to be done--the safety related stuff that NEEDS to be done in the next few months, and the stuff that needs to be done by the end of the summer.
-Stuff that needs to be done as soon as possible: a bit over $3,300
-Stuff that needs to be done by the end of the summer: an additional $2,600 (including new tires)
Needless to say, I'm not particularly in the mood to pour nearly $6,000 into a car that is worth a good bit less than half that!
Prior to this ever so welcome revelation, I'd planned on either keeping my car for another 2-3 years or so, or getting rid of it next year and leasing a car for another year or two before buying an SUV. Either way, I was planning on buying a new SUV in 2014 or 2015. With this li'l bundle of love tossed in my lap on Friday, I'm on the market for a new car (preferably a small SUV or wagon) NOW.
Totally screwed up my financial planning, but I'm in a much better financial situation now than if this had happened at this time last year. Anyways, after sitting down and poring through my financials, I've determined that I can afford up to $800 a month on a car without affecting my current-debt payoff plan, rent, bill payments, savings, or monthly fun money allotment. A caveat--while I can afford to pay up to $800 a month without affecting my current plan, I sure as hell don't want to spend that much! With that in mind, I've set an effective limit of $600 a month, which opens me up to pretty much any small SUV on the market. I've been doing a lot of research into what's on the market since Friday, ranging the whole gamut from the cheapo Kia Sportage up to the BMW X3. I'm 99% sure I want to lease the vehicle for three years, unless I can get one heck of a good deal on a purchase. The main things I'm looking for, regardless of the particular vehicle, are a full warranty that will last at least three years, decent reliability, and a pretty decent level of luxury. I suppose you could say my Avalon has spoiled me on the luxury front--while it's not in anything near great shape right now, at its heart it's basically a Lexus without the badge. It was in better condition when I bought it, so that's the standard I somewhat subconsciously hold any car I look at to.
Anyways, here are the crossovers/small SUVs that are on my list. I've also included my thoughts for the vehicles I've already test driven.
- Audi Q5: This has long been my dream car. I test drove this car...several times...when it debuted in 2009 and have been in love with it since then. The main new development in the Q5 since 2009 was the introduction in 2011 of a turbocharged 2.0 liter V-4 engined model (the standard one has a 3.2 liter V-6). I took the 2.0T model on a long test drive yesterday and took the 3.2 on a test drive today. Still love it! That being said, I'd go for the 2.0T over the 3.2. It's a good 3-4 grand cheaper, has better gas mileage, and the performance feels about the same for both. Some of the main selling points for the Q5 (either model): verrrrrry nice interior, strong performance, great available options, including what is supposed to be a phenomenal audio system, and plenty of passenger and storage space for my uses. On the downside, it is a luxury SUV, and a three year lease would set me back in the ballpark of $539-600 a month, depending on how much I get for my car. That's at the top of my self imposed price range, but I personally think it's worth it. On a side note, Audi is supposed to bring the European 3.0 liter diesel engine over here in 2013. It apparently has the same performance as the V-6 we currently have, but gets insane gas mileage for an SUV--something in the ballpark of 31 or 32 combined mpg! That's the model that I've been planning all along to get in 2014 or 2015.
- Audi A4 Avant: I'm intrigued by the wagon concept, especially with how the Germans implement it--they manage to make a wagon drive very well, look pretty good, and not make you think of this thing. The A4 and the Q5 have the same chassis, with the A4's main difference being that it rides lower, has a lower interior height, and seems to have a longer body. I wanted to test drive one to see if I like the wagon concept as much in practice as I do in theory, but there don't appear to be any Audi dealers in the area that have any in stock, much less any new ones that I could potentially lease. Oh well, I'm sure I'll be able to test drive one at some point.
- BMW X3: I've been a bit leery about BMW ever since I first looked at SUVs in 2009. I think they're too flashy for my taste, kinda have the d-bag reputation, and I've heard horror stories about repair prices for them. Anyways, I researched the X3 and wasn't impressed. The base price is comparable to the Q5's base price, but almost every.single.thing that you'd want to add is extra. Leather? Extra. Heated seats? Extra. So on and so forth. I priced a X3 out to an equivalent spec level as the Q5, and it came out to be about $5,500 more, which would have put it at around a $750 monthly payment, if not around $800. Nope, that's a no go.
- BMW 3 series wagon: Same cost problem as the X3, so I didn't bother seeing if I could test drive one.
- Hyundai Tucson: I like how this one looks, and it's quite a bit cheaper than the Q5. I'm planning on test driving it next weekend.
- Kia Sportage: I like how the redesigned Sportage looks. A lot. I'm planning on test driving one next weekend. It's substantially cheaper than the Q5, too.
- Mercedes GLK350: Same issue with nickel and dimeing that BMW has, just not *quite* as bad. I test drove the GLK yesterday, and was fairly impressed by the vehicle itself. It's built like a tank, and feels like it, but in a good way. The interior didn't seem quite as nice as the Q5's interior, but that might be because the dealer didn't have a single non-pleather equipped GLK in stock. On the bad side, the fuel economy is terrible--it only gets 21 mpg on the highway! My bank gives a discount on Mercedes, but even with that applied, it's still about $2,000 more than the Q5, and the lease payment is about $650 a month, so it's over my budget. In addition, the sales rep flat out lowballed me on the trade in value of my car by a grand...which was displayed on his computer screen in my line of sight... Dude, that in itself is enough to turn me off to Mercedes. And it's just freaking terrible salesmanship! This one is a no-go.
- Toyota Venza: I'm rather intrigued by this one. I haven't test driven one yet, but I've seen them around and have looked at them online. Looks like it's got some pretty nice option packages, and even fully loaded, is still cheaper than the Q5. Planning to test drive it next weekend.
I intend to lease whatever new vehicle I finally choose within the next few weeks, though worst case scenario, I could wait a month or two before taking the plunge.
So, any thoughts or comments/suggestions?
Monday, March 5, 2012
The Road to Nationals...One qualification meet left!
So, there's only one meet left for me to get any qualification times for Nationals. There's a short course meters meet in Bethesda, MD on March 17th.
To clarify--I can swim three individual events at Nats without making a single cut (I can swim as many relays as I want). To swim more than three, though, I need to get some cuts. So cuts or no cuts, I'll swim at least the 50 fly, 100 fly, and 100 IM at Nats.
From my last meet, I'm within definite reach of the 100 fly cut for sure, should be able to get the 50 fly cut, and probably won't make the 100 IM cut at the next meet.
100 fly: I went a 1:07.75 at the meet yesterday, and the cut is a 59.09. I crashed and burned at the 75 yesterday--I'd swum the 200 fly the day before, and my back muscles locked up pretty badly as a result. Before the muscle issue, I was on track to a 57 or 58. My splits were a 27.84 and 33.91. Should have been around a 30.5 or so on the second 50, which would have put me under the cut with room to spare. Since I've got two weeks to train for this event before the next meet...and am not planning on swimming the 200 fly the day before, I should be set on the 17th.
50 fly: I just haven't had good luck with this event the past few meets. One thing or another has consistently gone wrong, whether it be my goggles flipping over/filling up and blinding me, or a terrible turn, or a horrible start, etc. The cut is a 26.78, and my best so far is a 27.29. If I finally have a problem free swim on the 17th, I should be able to make that relatively easily.
100 IM: Like with the 50 fly, it's the little things that keep messing me up. The cut is a 1:00.77, and my best is a 1:03.70. My first 50 is always much better than my second 50--for example, yesterday I took it out in a 28.77 and brought it back in a 35.16. My breaststroke is pretty shoddy, and my freestyle is never very good after the other three strokes--it's been like that as long as I've swum IMs, as far as I can remember. I think if I really tried, I might be able to shave off about a second on the back half, and maybe drop the front half down to around a 28.0. Maybe. My IM is just not progressing as well as I'd like it to. Admittedly, that's due in a relatively large part to me having focused more on fly in practice than on IM.
Butterfly is clearly (to me, at least) my best shot. My stroke is feeling great, and when I don't have revenge-of-the-200-fly-itis, the whole shebang runs quite smoothly and feels *relatively* fast. Over the next two weeks till the last qualification meet, I'm going to focus a LOT on fly in practice. I'm thinking that anytime we're doing sets that aren't on a fast freestyle pace and are manageable distances, I'm going to do fly instead of free or back. Most of the fly I've done in practice up to this point has consisted of 25s and 50s, with some 75s thrown in here and there, and a 100 or two thrown in once in a blue moon. Oh, I might do a lot of 25s/50s/75s in a practice, but I rarely do longer yardage in one go. Gonna up that distance and also get some speed work in on my own.
Time to pump it up!
To clarify--I can swim three individual events at Nats without making a single cut (I can swim as many relays as I want). To swim more than three, though, I need to get some cuts. So cuts or no cuts, I'll swim at least the 50 fly, 100 fly, and 100 IM at Nats.
From my last meet, I'm within definite reach of the 100 fly cut for sure, should be able to get the 50 fly cut, and probably won't make the 100 IM cut at the next meet.
100 fly: I went a 1:07.75 at the meet yesterday, and the cut is a 59.09. I crashed and burned at the 75 yesterday--I'd swum the 200 fly the day before, and my back muscles locked up pretty badly as a result. Before the muscle issue, I was on track to a 57 or 58. My splits were a 27.84 and 33.91. Should have been around a 30.5 or so on the second 50, which would have put me under the cut with room to spare. Since I've got two weeks to train for this event before the next meet...and am not planning on swimming the 200 fly the day before, I should be set on the 17th.
50 fly: I just haven't had good luck with this event the past few meets. One thing or another has consistently gone wrong, whether it be my goggles flipping over/filling up and blinding me, or a terrible turn, or a horrible start, etc. The cut is a 26.78, and my best so far is a 27.29. If I finally have a problem free swim on the 17th, I should be able to make that relatively easily.
100 IM: Like with the 50 fly, it's the little things that keep messing me up. The cut is a 1:00.77, and my best is a 1:03.70. My first 50 is always much better than my second 50--for example, yesterday I took it out in a 28.77 and brought it back in a 35.16. My breaststroke is pretty shoddy, and my freestyle is never very good after the other three strokes--it's been like that as long as I've swum IMs, as far as I can remember. I think if I really tried, I might be able to shave off about a second on the back half, and maybe drop the front half down to around a 28.0. Maybe. My IM is just not progressing as well as I'd like it to. Admittedly, that's due in a relatively large part to me having focused more on fly in practice than on IM.
Butterfly is clearly (to me, at least) my best shot. My stroke is feeling great, and when I don't have revenge-of-the-200-fly-itis, the whole shebang runs quite smoothly and feels *relatively* fast. Over the next two weeks till the last qualification meet, I'm going to focus a LOT on fly in practice. I'm thinking that anytime we're doing sets that aren't on a fast freestyle pace and are manageable distances, I'm going to do fly instead of free or back. Most of the fly I've done in practice up to this point has consisted of 25s and 50s, with some 75s thrown in here and there, and a 100 or two thrown in once in a blue moon. Oh, I might do a lot of 25s/50s/75s in a practice, but I rarely do longer yardage in one go. Gonna up that distance and also get some speed work in on my own.
Time to pump it up!
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Meet weekend recap!
This was a big weekend on the swimming front for me. There were two meets, a distance meet (200s+) in Maryland at UMBC on Saturday and a meet in Warrenton, VA today.
Maryland Masters Winter Meet at UMBC
The meet yesterday was a bit of a disappointment and rather frustrating. The meet director had sent out several emails in the weeks before the meet with the timeline for the events. There was a morning session for the mile, and then an afternoon session for the rest of the events that was supposed to start at 2:00 after a half hour warmup. I was entered in the 200 back, which was the second event of the afternoon session, and the 200 fly, which was one of the later events. Well, I got to the pool at 1:30...and discovered that they'd apparently started the second session a good 45 minutes or so early. I walked into the pool area as the heat before mine was getting in for the 200 back. Given that I didn't have my suit on, I had to miss the event. So not cool! As a side note, I looked into it and it turns out they did in fact have the earlier start time on the heat sheets...but didn't notify folks before the meet itself. Seriously, how hard is it, if you know the second session is going to start early, to send out an email before the meet and give everyone a heads up?!
Next was the 200 fly. I attempted to warm up for it in the diving well...which is about a whopping 40 feet long. I'd get in three full fly strokes before hitting the wall. Totally unhelpful for warmup purposes.
I've always (since I became a butterflier in highschool) had a complicated relationship with the 200 fly. For me, at least, it's much more of a psychological event than a physical event. Not to say it's not a physical event! It's probably the most physically taxing event I've ever done besides the 400 IM. Anyways, I hadn't done it since March of 2005, so I was pretty nervous. Standing behind the block waiting for the heat before me to swim, I started psyching myself out. A combination of being nervous, as well as not having done a full 200 fly swim in practice since highschool, resulted in me being pretty psyched out. The first 100 was decent. I think I took it out pretty slowly, so my pace, while clearly not fast, was relatively suitable. I started to feel the burn on the 3rd 50 and died on the last 50. My back muscles totally locked up, so I'm pretty sure my stroke looked awful. I ended up going a 2:32 something. With how much I psyched myself out, it actually wasn't that bad a swim! I'd set a goal time of a 2:25 beforehand, but all things considered, I'll definitely take it!
On to the natatorium itself at UMBC. Good grief. I've swum at some pretty crummy and depressing pools during my now 14+ year swimming career, but this place ranks as one of the worst. It was apparently built in the 70s, and definitely looks it. The pool itself isn't that bad, but everything surrounding it is flat out depressing and dingy. Pretty sure that didn't help me motivate myself before the race.
Dreaming of Spring Meet at the Warrenton Aquatic and Recreation Facility
In contrast to yesterday's pool, this place was great! Just one pool, but it's only a couple years old, very nice--fast water, real competition lane ropes, and very nice blocks. Kinda out in the middle of nowhere, which is pretty funny, but still one of the best non-college pools I've swum at. I've swum at some very nice pools, too--University of Kentucky, IUPUI, George Mason, the Sportsplex in Nashville, and a few others. This one, while not at that caliber, is definitely one of the top ones I've swum at. In addition, the whole experience was more enjoyable because three of my friends from the team were also swimming--Dan, Katie, and Sarah. Meets are much more fun when friends are there!
On to the events--I was entered in the 50 fly, 100 fly, and 100 IM. I also swam the backstroke leg on the 200 medley relay. Overall, a much better swimming day than yesterday was!
50 back: This was the second event of the meet. I got to do a total of about a 300 warmup before the race, since I'd gotten to the pool late. Good start, great underwater work, and pretty decent turn (not the best turn I've ever had, but better than my back turns have been lately). I went a 29.89, which is a full second faster than my previous best (as a Masters swimmer). I was very happy! My backstroke as a whole is just not clicking, and the only thing that seems to be going well for me in it is my underwater work off the walls. And I nailed the underwater work off the start and turn this time. Great start to the meet! Our relay ended up first, too, which was also awesome!
100 fly: This was my second event, about 20 minutes after the relay. As an aside, the meet today ran very quickly--I didn't have more than 20 minutes or so between any of my events. After my disappointing 100 fly at the Richmond meet a few weeks ago, I was anxious to do better this time. I got a good start, and felt fantastic during the first 50. At the flags going into the wall at the 75, though, the 200 fly from yesterday decided to come back and bite me in the rear. My back muscles and shoulders locked up then, so the last 25 was quite painful, and I'm sure it wasn't pretty at all. I still dropped 3.1 seconds from Richmond, and went a 1:01.75. My splits were pretty interesting--took it out in a 27.84 and brought it back in a 33.91. Uh, yeah, I definitely locked up on the second half! Should have been able to bring it back in a 30 or 31 if I hadn't locked up. Right now I'm 2.5 seconds off the Nats cut (it's a 59.09), so I'm definitely within reach, sans locking up! Very pumped about this swim!
As an aside, if I remember correctly, it took me 4 or 5 meets to break a minute in the 100 fly in highschool after I became a butterflier--I'm on track to potentially break the minute in the next meet, so it will have only taken me three meets this time around if that's the case!
50 fly: Sigh. This one was not all that good of a swim. I had a good dive, but my left goggle cup filled up as soon as I hit the water and the right one flipped off. I pretty much swam the race blind. That hasn't happened since my sophomore or junior year in highschool, and I'd forgotten how much it sucks and hampers my swimming. Completely guessed where the walls were, and managed to get lucky and have a decent turn, but the finish wasn't as good--still wasn't a terrible finish, but not the best one I've had. In addition, I hit the lane rope twice with my right hand, once going down and once coming back. All that said...I went a 27.45, which is only .16 slower than my best 50 fly so far. Sigh. Not great, but I'll take it. Still pretty confident that I've got a sub 27 in me, just need to actually have a great race for it to come out!
100 IM: Great on the fly, great on the back...and then it was just so-so. I generally try to do a back-breast flip turn, but I have to have an exact stroke count at the flags going into the wall for me to be able to do it. If I don't have that exact stroke count, I have to do an open turn. I was a bit off the stroke count this time, and then had a brain fart, so I kicked too long into the wall instead of taking an extra stroke for the open turn. Breast wasn't too bad, but my technique wasn't all that great. And then I died on free. At this point, my upper back was quite tight as a result of all the fly I'd done over the weekend, and my shoulders were starting to tighten up, too, so it was rather painful. I went a 1:03.93, which is off my best time of a 1:03.70, but still faster than when I'd swum it in Richmond, when I did a 1:04.52. I'll take it for now!
Overall, today was pretty satisfying! While I only got two best times out of the four events I swam, I was right there with the other two! One more meet in which to get any Nats cuts, so I've got my work cut out for me!
Maryland Masters Winter Meet at UMBC
The meet yesterday was a bit of a disappointment and rather frustrating. The meet director had sent out several emails in the weeks before the meet with the timeline for the events. There was a morning session for the mile, and then an afternoon session for the rest of the events that was supposed to start at 2:00 after a half hour warmup. I was entered in the 200 back, which was the second event of the afternoon session, and the 200 fly, which was one of the later events. Well, I got to the pool at 1:30...and discovered that they'd apparently started the second session a good 45 minutes or so early. I walked into the pool area as the heat before mine was getting in for the 200 back. Given that I didn't have my suit on, I had to miss the event. So not cool! As a side note, I looked into it and it turns out they did in fact have the earlier start time on the heat sheets...but didn't notify folks before the meet itself. Seriously, how hard is it, if you know the second session is going to start early, to send out an email before the meet and give everyone a heads up?!
Next was the 200 fly. I attempted to warm up for it in the diving well...which is about a whopping 40 feet long. I'd get in three full fly strokes before hitting the wall. Totally unhelpful for warmup purposes.
I've always (since I became a butterflier in highschool) had a complicated relationship with the 200 fly. For me, at least, it's much more of a psychological event than a physical event. Not to say it's not a physical event! It's probably the most physically taxing event I've ever done besides the 400 IM. Anyways, I hadn't done it since March of 2005, so I was pretty nervous. Standing behind the block waiting for the heat before me to swim, I started psyching myself out. A combination of being nervous, as well as not having done a full 200 fly swim in practice since highschool, resulted in me being pretty psyched out. The first 100 was decent. I think I took it out pretty slowly, so my pace, while clearly not fast, was relatively suitable. I started to feel the burn on the 3rd 50 and died on the last 50. My back muscles totally locked up, so I'm pretty sure my stroke looked awful. I ended up going a 2:32 something. With how much I psyched myself out, it actually wasn't that bad a swim! I'd set a goal time of a 2:25 beforehand, but all things considered, I'll definitely take it!
On to the natatorium itself at UMBC. Good grief. I've swum at some pretty crummy and depressing pools during my now 14+ year swimming career, but this place ranks as one of the worst. It was apparently built in the 70s, and definitely looks it. The pool itself isn't that bad, but everything surrounding it is flat out depressing and dingy. Pretty sure that didn't help me motivate myself before the race.
Dreaming of Spring Meet at the Warrenton Aquatic and Recreation Facility
In contrast to yesterday's pool, this place was great! Just one pool, but it's only a couple years old, very nice--fast water, real competition lane ropes, and very nice blocks. Kinda out in the middle of nowhere, which is pretty funny, but still one of the best non-college pools I've swum at. I've swum at some very nice pools, too--University of Kentucky, IUPUI, George Mason, the Sportsplex in Nashville, and a few others. This one, while not at that caliber, is definitely one of the top ones I've swum at. In addition, the whole experience was more enjoyable because three of my friends from the team were also swimming--Dan, Katie, and Sarah. Meets are much more fun when friends are there!
On to the events--I was entered in the 50 fly, 100 fly, and 100 IM. I also swam the backstroke leg on the 200 medley relay. Overall, a much better swimming day than yesterday was!
50 back: This was the second event of the meet. I got to do a total of about a 300 warmup before the race, since I'd gotten to the pool late. Good start, great underwater work, and pretty decent turn (not the best turn I've ever had, but better than my back turns have been lately). I went a 29.89, which is a full second faster than my previous best (as a Masters swimmer). I was very happy! My backstroke as a whole is just not clicking, and the only thing that seems to be going well for me in it is my underwater work off the walls. And I nailed the underwater work off the start and turn this time. Great start to the meet! Our relay ended up first, too, which was also awesome!
100 fly: This was my second event, about 20 minutes after the relay. As an aside, the meet today ran very quickly--I didn't have more than 20 minutes or so between any of my events. After my disappointing 100 fly at the Richmond meet a few weeks ago, I was anxious to do better this time. I got a good start, and felt fantastic during the first 50. At the flags going into the wall at the 75, though, the 200 fly from yesterday decided to come back and bite me in the rear. My back muscles and shoulders locked up then, so the last 25 was quite painful, and I'm sure it wasn't pretty at all. I still dropped 3.1 seconds from Richmond, and went a 1:01.75. My splits were pretty interesting--took it out in a 27.84 and brought it back in a 33.91. Uh, yeah, I definitely locked up on the second half! Should have been able to bring it back in a 30 or 31 if I hadn't locked up. Right now I'm 2.5 seconds off the Nats cut (it's a 59.09), so I'm definitely within reach, sans locking up! Very pumped about this swim!
As an aside, if I remember correctly, it took me 4 or 5 meets to break a minute in the 100 fly in highschool after I became a butterflier--I'm on track to potentially break the minute in the next meet, so it will have only taken me three meets this time around if that's the case!
50 fly: Sigh. This one was not all that good of a swim. I had a good dive, but my left goggle cup filled up as soon as I hit the water and the right one flipped off. I pretty much swam the race blind. That hasn't happened since my sophomore or junior year in highschool, and I'd forgotten how much it sucks and hampers my swimming. Completely guessed where the walls were, and managed to get lucky and have a decent turn, but the finish wasn't as good--still wasn't a terrible finish, but not the best one I've had. In addition, I hit the lane rope twice with my right hand, once going down and once coming back. All that said...I went a 27.45, which is only .16 slower than my best 50 fly so far. Sigh. Not great, but I'll take it. Still pretty confident that I've got a sub 27 in me, just need to actually have a great race for it to come out!
100 IM: Great on the fly, great on the back...and then it was just so-so. I generally try to do a back-breast flip turn, but I have to have an exact stroke count at the flags going into the wall for me to be able to do it. If I don't have that exact stroke count, I have to do an open turn. I was a bit off the stroke count this time, and then had a brain fart, so I kicked too long into the wall instead of taking an extra stroke for the open turn. Breast wasn't too bad, but my technique wasn't all that great. And then I died on free. At this point, my upper back was quite tight as a result of all the fly I'd done over the weekend, and my shoulders were starting to tighten up, too, so it was rather painful. I went a 1:03.93, which is off my best time of a 1:03.70, but still faster than when I'd swum it in Richmond, when I did a 1:04.52. I'll take it for now!
Overall, today was pretty satisfying! While I only got two best times out of the four events I swam, I was right there with the other two! One more meet in which to get any Nats cuts, so I've got my work cut out for me!
Thursday, March 1, 2012
"The pain train's comin'!"
"Pain used as a weapon is one thing. Personal pain, the kind that comes from just living our lives, is something else. Pain isn’t a lot of fun, at least not for most folks, but it is utterly unique to life. Pain-physical, emotional, and otherwise-is the shadow cast by everything you want out of life, the alternative to the result you were hoping for, and the inevitable creator of strength. From the pain of our failures we learn to be better, stronger, greater than what we were before. Pain is there to tell us when we’ve done something badly-it’s a teacher, a guide, one that is always there to both warn us of our limitations and challenge us to overcome them. For something no one likes, pain does us a whole hell of a lot of good."
That's a quote from one of Jim Butcher's books. He's one of my favorite authors, by the way. Good stuff.
For the most part, I love pain (for the sake of this post, I'm referring to physical pain) for the reasons that Mr. Butcher writes about.
Those who've followed my blog know that I've suffered from a list of physical ailments as long as my arm off an on since I started swimming again last fall. Up through last weekend, all of them but my left elbow had resolved themselves! So, sorta-masochist that I am, I decided to try play chicken with the pain train, courtesy of Terry Tate (...I'll give a brownie point to anyone who gets that reference).
A bit of backstory--when I lived in Charleston, I had a pretty tough running/pt/weights routine that I did four or five times a week, usually over my lunch break at work. However, the latter half of last April was really busy at work, so I only worked out a couple times after the beginning of the month. And then all last May was chaotic, what with my move up here at the end of the month. So, the result was that prior to this past weekend, I hadn't done any serious running, pt, or weights since the beginning of last April.
Back on track, last Friday after work, I lifted for the first time in roughly 10.5 months, then did a freaking awesomely tough spin class, then swam for an hour afterwards. My upper body was totally beat afterwards, and most of my muscles were on fire from spin and weights. Come Saturday, my arms/shoulders/lats were pretty sore. On Sunday, without the soreness having abated an ounce, I did a 1000 pushup challenge, to try and do 1000 pushups throughout the course of the day. Uh, not my most brilliant idea ever. From mid April 2011 to last Sunday, I'd done maybe a total of about 150 pushups. The day started off pretty well, and I hit the 400 mark without too much of a problem. After that, though, the soreness and my total lack of preparation set in, and I barely scraped my way through 750 pushups before bed.
On Monday, my arms, chest, and the front of my shoulders were in pain. I'm not referring to just being sore, I mean actual pain. It was awesome! The tendon thingy that goes from mid-forearm up the outside of the elbow to the bicep on both arms was freakishly tight. I couldn't straighten my arms without having some sort of weight pulling them straight--my arms weren't much straighter than C-3PO's arms are. Yeah, yeah, I know, needless nerd reference. Shoot me. I couldn't lift my arms up more than shoulder level in front of me without struggling to do so, and couldn't swing them further back than straight out to my side. I swam for an hour before practice Monday night, and it took the full hour before my arms were loose enough to let me do full streamline. The forearm tendon thingy didn't fully stretch out till yesterday, a good three days after the pushup day. They're still a bit tight, but I've got full mobility again.
One big advantage of my arms being super tight was that on Monday night, I did a fair amount of breast in practice without pain. Normally, that is a surefire trigger for the deep seated ache and twinges of pain just above my left elbow that've plagued me since October or November. No problems with that this time! Of course, I had a rather stilted breaststroke pull due to the arm problems, but it was quite nice to actually be able to swim an IM in practice without having to stop and massage my elbow after breast!
Tonight's practice will be the first one without any arm tightness, so I'll see if the elbow issue will be a factor tonight or not...
That's a quote from one of Jim Butcher's books. He's one of my favorite authors, by the way. Good stuff.
For the most part, I love pain (for the sake of this post, I'm referring to physical pain) for the reasons that Mr. Butcher writes about.
Those who've followed my blog know that I've suffered from a list of physical ailments as long as my arm off an on since I started swimming again last fall. Up through last weekend, all of them but my left elbow had resolved themselves! So, sorta-masochist that I am, I decided to try play chicken with the pain train, courtesy of Terry Tate (...I'll give a brownie point to anyone who gets that reference).
A bit of backstory--when I lived in Charleston, I had a pretty tough running/pt/weights routine that I did four or five times a week, usually over my lunch break at work. However, the latter half of last April was really busy at work, so I only worked out a couple times after the beginning of the month. And then all last May was chaotic, what with my move up here at the end of the month. So, the result was that prior to this past weekend, I hadn't done any serious running, pt, or weights since the beginning of last April.
Back on track, last Friday after work, I lifted for the first time in roughly 10.5 months, then did a freaking awesomely tough spin class, then swam for an hour afterwards. My upper body was totally beat afterwards, and most of my muscles were on fire from spin and weights. Come Saturday, my arms/shoulders/lats were pretty sore. On Sunday, without the soreness having abated an ounce, I did a 1000 pushup challenge, to try and do 1000 pushups throughout the course of the day. Uh, not my most brilliant idea ever. From mid April 2011 to last Sunday, I'd done maybe a total of about 150 pushups. The day started off pretty well, and I hit the 400 mark without too much of a problem. After that, though, the soreness and my total lack of preparation set in, and I barely scraped my way through 750 pushups before bed.
On Monday, my arms, chest, and the front of my shoulders were in pain. I'm not referring to just being sore, I mean actual pain. It was awesome! The tendon thingy that goes from mid-forearm up the outside of the elbow to the bicep on both arms was freakishly tight. I couldn't straighten my arms without having some sort of weight pulling them straight--my arms weren't much straighter than C-3PO's arms are. Yeah, yeah, I know, needless nerd reference. Shoot me. I couldn't lift my arms up more than shoulder level in front of me without struggling to do so, and couldn't swing them further back than straight out to my side. I swam for an hour before practice Monday night, and it took the full hour before my arms were loose enough to let me do full streamline. The forearm tendon thingy didn't fully stretch out till yesterday, a good three days after the pushup day. They're still a bit tight, but I've got full mobility again.
One big advantage of my arms being super tight was that on Monday night, I did a fair amount of breast in practice without pain. Normally, that is a surefire trigger for the deep seated ache and twinges of pain just above my left elbow that've plagued me since October or November. No problems with that this time! Of course, I had a rather stilted breaststroke pull due to the arm problems, but it was quite nice to actually be able to swim an IM in practice without having to stop and massage my elbow after breast!
Tonight's practice will be the first one without any arm tightness, so I'll see if the elbow issue will be a factor tonight or not...
Monday, February 20, 2012
Getting from Point A to Point B
Uh, yeah, getting from point A to point B...
In this case, point A is me being within reach of the Nationals cuts in the 50 fly, 100 fly, and 100 IM. Point B is me getting the Nats cuts in at least the two fly events. Not worried too much about the 100 IM, since I'm going to swim it one way or another. The same could be said for the fly events, but I've got a personal goal of not only getting back into fly shape, but aging up to a faster age group and getting the Nats cuts in the two fly events within six months of me starting to really practice again.
I've been strategizing how I'm going to get the two fly cuts in the next two spring meets, on March 4th and March 17th. A big part of said strategizing has included looking at my performance in the past few meets in those events.
Take my 50 fly performance in the 50 fly in the past three meets: Annapolis on January 21st, Tropical Splash on January 29th, and then Richmond on February 11th. Here is the time progression I had in those meets, and how those swims were:
On the other hand, look at my 100 fly. I've only swum it twice as a Masters swimmer, once in short course meters, the other in yards.
I've been doing a lot of fly in practice, as well as doing a few all-fly-with-fins practices here and there, so my shoulder endurance is pretty decent. Still got a good ways to go to hit my old level of fly endurance, but it's pretty darn good right now, all things considered. The first time I swam the 100 fly, at the SCM meet in early December, I didn't have the endurance, and my swim was terrible. Partly due to me not pacing it well, but mostly because I just died. When I swam it in Richmond, I didn't pace it well at all, and had the small issue of dying halfway through the swim--on a positive note, it was full body weakness, not specifically related to me swimming fly, so that at least is a good sign.
At the Richmond meet, I swam the 200 IM the day before I swam the 100 fly. I was in the lane next to a 33 year old guy who absolutely kicked my butt in the IM. I took it out too slow, and then had my elbow blow up. Bad swim all around. Anyways, getting back on point, here's a comparison of my fly in the 200 IM and the 100 fly:
If I do all these things well, come March 4th, I should be well on my way to Point B!
In this case, point A is me being within reach of the Nationals cuts in the 50 fly, 100 fly, and 100 IM. Point B is me getting the Nats cuts in at least the two fly events. Not worried too much about the 100 IM, since I'm going to swim it one way or another. The same could be said for the fly events, but I've got a personal goal of not only getting back into fly shape, but aging up to a faster age group and getting the Nats cuts in the two fly events within six months of me starting to really practice again.
I've been strategizing how I'm going to get the two fly cuts in the next two spring meets, on March 4th and March 17th. A big part of said strategizing has included looking at my performance in the past few meets in those events.
Take my 50 fly performance in the 50 fly in the past three meets: Annapolis on January 21st, Tropical Splash on January 29th, and then Richmond on February 11th. Here is the time progression I had in those meets, and how those swims were:
- Annapolis: 28.16. Just not a very good swim. Bad start, sloppy turn, not very good finish.
- Tropical Splash: 27.88. The swim itself was fantastic, but I dove for the wall on the finish a full stroke too early, so kicked the rest of the way into the wall. Conservatively, I lost at least half a second right there.
- Richmond: 27.29. Iffy start (went too deep) and totally screwed up the turn, but still had a decent time. Probably lost about half a second on the deep start and frigging terrible turn. Half a second would put me right at the Nats cut.
On the other hand, look at my 100 fly. I've only swum it twice as a Masters swimmer, once in short course meters, the other in yards.
I've been doing a lot of fly in practice, as well as doing a few all-fly-with-fins practices here and there, so my shoulder endurance is pretty decent. Still got a good ways to go to hit my old level of fly endurance, but it's pretty darn good right now, all things considered. The first time I swam the 100 fly, at the SCM meet in early December, I didn't have the endurance, and my swim was terrible. Partly due to me not pacing it well, but mostly because I just died. When I swam it in Richmond, I didn't pace it well at all, and had the small issue of dying halfway through the swim--on a positive note, it was full body weakness, not specifically related to me swimming fly, so that at least is a good sign.
At the Richmond meet, I swam the 200 IM the day before I swam the 100 fly. I was in the lane next to a 33 year old guy who absolutely kicked my butt in the IM. I took it out too slow, and then had my elbow blow up. Bad swim all around. Anyways, getting back on point, here's a comparison of my fly in the 200 IM and the 100 fly:
- First 50 of the 200 IM: Took it out in a 28.28. For the IM, that was a pretty darn slow start--should have been well under a 28.
- First 50 of the 100 fly: Took it out in a 29.67. WAY too slow! For one, that's nearly a full second and a half slower than I took out the 200 IM. I realize that I was still tired from the 100 back I'd done shortly beforehand, but still, that's an embarrasing split.
- Second 50 of the 100 fly: Brought it back in a 35.19. Again, embarrasing, although the whole dying thing played a pretty big part in that performance.
- Take it out in a high 27. That should be about a second slower than my 50 fly time, which is an acceptable difference between the 50 and 100.
- Bring it back in a 31 or 32.
- Nail the turns and breathing pattern.
If I do all these things well, come March 4th, I should be well on my way to Point B!
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Recap of meet in Richmond this weekend!
This weekend I had my first two day meet as a Masters swimmer. NOVA of Virginia Aquatics hosted the meet in Richmond. Saturday was the longer events, from the 200s up through the mile, and Sunday was the 200s and 50s/100s (people had the choice of swimming the 200s on either Saturday or Sunday). I entered in eight events, but scratched one (swam two events and scratched one on Saturday, then swam the other five on Sunday). In order, here were the events I swam across both days and their times:
I've got two areas of concern--my left elbow and the sternum issue. I'm hoping consumer strength ibuprofen is enough to take care of the sternum, and that it's not a return of the costochondritis. If it's back, it's gonna totally eff up my swimming if I have to deal with it for the next two years! For the elbow, I'm going to keep up the ibuprofen diet and refrain from swimming breast as much as I can this week, which will hopefully give it time to calm down. With the sternum issue, it's not as simple as just not swimming breast, since anything and everything can trigger it--since this morning, that has included looking before I change lanes while driving, extending either arm (sometimes), or a totally random movement that doesn't seem like it's connected to my sternum at all. Still not debillitating pain and is quite manageable, but I don't want it worsening. Since it's seemingly random, I'll keep up my ibuprofen diet this week and hope that takes care of both the elbow and the sternum.
Nats registration closes March 23rd. In the five weeks between now and then, I've got three meets to go, one distance meet (200s+) and two sprint meets. I'll probably do the 200 fly and 200 back at the distance meet for fun, but depending on the event order at the two sprint meets, I might only swim the 50/100 fly and 100 IM at those two meets, since those are the cuts I'm really trying to make...and actually have a shot at. Unlike most of the meets to date, when I've swum as many events as I could fit in, to try and eke out the best swim I can in each event, I might only enter in those three. I'll have to look at the event order to verify that, though. If the events are well spaced out, I might throw in another for fun. Maybe. Too early to decide, though, since the next sprint meet is March 4th, so I've got a while.
Until the next sprint meet on the 4th, and then the last qualifying meet after that on March 17th, I'm going to continue focusing a LOT on my fly in practice. 50 and 100 fly are the two main cuts I want to get. 100 IM would be nice, but I won't be heart broken if I don't get it in the next two meets. After fly, the next thing I'm going to focus on is my turns. My overall turn speed still isn't ideal, so that could squeeze out a few more tenths of a second per swim.
If I make those two (or three) cuts by March 23rd, then the two remaining meets, and the remaining month of practice time, before Nationals will be focused almost exclusively on fly, turns, and possibly back, depending on what I decide to swim at Nats.
5 weeks and counting!
- 200 IM - 2:22 something
- 200 back - 2:24 something
- 400 IM - scratch
- 50 fly - 27.29
- 100 IM - 1:04.52
- 100 back - 1:06.03
- 100 fly - 1:04.86
- 50 back - 31.17
- 200 IM: Ugh. This was my first time swimming it as a Masters swimmer. My energy level wasn't there, and I tweaked my left elbow. I'd say the energy level issue was due to having done a spin class the night before and having gone to practice that morning before driving to Richmond. To be fair, going to practice before the meet wasn't *exactly* a smart idea. Anyways, I must have pulled a tendon in my left elbow a couple months ago, and it has been flaring up off and on since then. The most common trigger is breaststroke (normally just breast, none of the other strokes) in practice, but ibuprofen before I do a lot of IM/breast work usually makes it a non factor. Well, not for this time. I'd tweaked my elbow in practice that morning, so dosed up on ibuprofen before the meet, and felt fine in warmup. Not in the IM, unfortunately. Elbow twinged off the start on fly, then hurt the rest of that stroke, was a steady burn in back, and was on freaking fire in breast, then just hurt on free. Totally screwed up my focus during the race--didn't think to do my back to breast turn, or the fly kick on the breast pullout, or work on any semblance of technique on my breast pull. Not cool!
- 200 back: Ugh. Like with the 200 IM, this was my first time swimming it as a Masters swimmer. Approximately a handful of ibuprofen later, the pain in my elbow had subsided to a dull ache, but it was still rather distracting. so I'm pretty sure my technique wasn't as good as it should have been. Didn't take it out fast enough, so I tried to turn it on in the second half...and my legs burned out at around the 150 or so. Sigh. Not exactly a stellar swim.
- 50 fly: I was feeling much better all around this morning--I'd been popping ibuprofen like M&Ms since the previous evening, so the elbow was peachy keen, and my energy level was up. Went a bit deep off the start, but got up and going without too much difficulty. Then promptly flubbed the turn. The pool has a metal gutter, and the metal extends down the wall about a foot or so. I've been working at not grabbing the gutter during open turns, so I tried that this time...and my hands slid straight down the slick metal of the wall as soon as they touched. Basically did an incredibly uncoordinated turn without my arms, for as much good as they did me. Still, I dropped .9 seconds from my previous fastest time and set a new Masters personal record! The Nats cut is a 26.78, so I've only got half a second to drop! I figure the flubbed turn alone cost me at least .3 seconds, so I'm right there in the ballpark for this cut. I've got two more meets to get the cut in--pretty confident that I'll get it.
- 100 IM: Eh, not so hot on this one. 4 years ago, I'd injured my chest--tore a small amount of the cartilage just to the right of my sternum, and inflamed the cartilage on the left side of the clavicle (the inflamation is called costochondritis). At the time, it would hit me in waves of literally debilitating pain--when the pain hit, I couldn't do anything, and one time when it hit while I was standing, I fell over. Took about 2 years and plenty of anti-inflammatory meds to fully get over the random waves of pain that would come through with no seeming rhyme or reason. Anyways, during my warmdown after the 50 fly, the left side of my sternum flared up. Nowhere near as painfully as it used to, but still pretty painful. So, going back to the 100 IM... Like the 50 fly, a bit deep on the start, but not too bad. My speed was a touch off, but again, not too bad. On the fly to back turn, the sternum flared up. Just on the turn, not during the back, although I could feel it every time I swept my arms in on breast. Took the first 50 out in a 27, so that was good, although as normal, the second half was cruddy. I have GOT to work on my breast and free in the IM. With a first half like mine, I should be able to go well under a minute, if my breast/free were halfway decent. I added about 3/4 of a second in the swim. My best is a 1:03.70, which is just under 3 seconds off the Nats cut. I've got two more meets to swim this event in, so I'm in the ballpark if I can nail everything in the race.
- 100 back: This was comparatively a better swim than the 100 IM, but my backstroke is just not where I want it to be. Good start, relatively good turns, and my stroke/kick felt decent. The last time I swam this event in yards was at the first meet of the season back in October, so I dropped a good 5.5 seconds since that swim. All of that and I'm still somewhere in the general vicinity of 8-9 seconds off my best 100 back time from highschool. I can't figure out why my back is so far off pace, since my fly is much closer to my old times (well, more on that below) than back is. Nats cut is a 1:01.53. With how relatively little progress I've made in my backstroke, I'm gonna have to write this event off as a pipe dream for this year's short course National Championship. GRRR!
- 100 fly: This race hurt. All of 15 minutes after my 100 back, I didn't have enough time to warm down sufficiently, and still had an elevated heart rate and faster breathing when I got up on the blocks. First 50 was good, although I think my pace was a bit too slow for a 100. About halfway down the third lap, my legs just died. Given the short rest between events, I'm gonna say it was due to the 100 back. Pulling the remaining 25 and a half was *slightly* painful. That being said, I've been doing a LOT of fly at practice the past month or so, so I was actually able to finish without feeling like I'd just swum a 1650 fly. Still, the pull put stress on my sternum, so that was a dull ache on the last 25. This was my first time swimming this event yards as a Masters swimmer, so I was pretty happy. I was aiming for a 1:03.8 (Dan, one of my good friends on the team, is also a flyer, and that's what he went at the last meet), so I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't make it...but feel pretty confident that without dying, I could have gone a 1:01 or 1:02. Nats is a 59.09, so it is conceivably within reach. I've got two more meets to try for that cut, and another five weeks of practice time to train for it. My fly in general is doing much better than my back at getting close to my old times. My 50 fly is only about half a second off my old best (I think my old best was around a 26.7), and my 100 fly is about 6-7 seconds off my old best.
- 50 back: This one was just ridiculous. Unless I miscounted, this event was only 13 minutes after the 100 fly, so I only had time to do a 200 warmdown before going back to the blocks and stretching out for a couple minutes before swimming again. Nowhere NEAR enough time to get ready to swim again! Besides the fly kicks off the start and turn, I had no legs, and my arms were apparently nonexistent. All that being said, I only added .3 seconds from my best. I'll count that as a success! Going back to the my-backstroke-is-not-very-good thing, my 100 back is 8-9 seconds off my old best, and my 50 back is about 3.25 seconds off. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why my back just isn't there. Everything feels pretty good--underwater work (what I think is my best aspect in back right now), kick, pull, turns, everything. I've even been working with my head coach, Drew, for the past month or so on my back pull to fine tune it. I'm improving...but slowly, much slower than my fly is improving, even though I do a good deal more back than fly in practice in general. Something just isn't right with back, and it's bugging me like crazy trying to figure it out.
I've got two areas of concern--my left elbow and the sternum issue. I'm hoping consumer strength ibuprofen is enough to take care of the sternum, and that it's not a return of the costochondritis. If it's back, it's gonna totally eff up my swimming if I have to deal with it for the next two years! For the elbow, I'm going to keep up the ibuprofen diet and refrain from swimming breast as much as I can this week, which will hopefully give it time to calm down. With the sternum issue, it's not as simple as just not swimming breast, since anything and everything can trigger it--since this morning, that has included looking before I change lanes while driving, extending either arm (sometimes), or a totally random movement that doesn't seem like it's connected to my sternum at all. Still not debillitating pain and is quite manageable, but I don't want it worsening. Since it's seemingly random, I'll keep up my ibuprofen diet this week and hope that takes care of both the elbow and the sternum.
Nats registration closes March 23rd. In the five weeks between now and then, I've got three meets to go, one distance meet (200s+) and two sprint meets. I'll probably do the 200 fly and 200 back at the distance meet for fun, but depending on the event order at the two sprint meets, I might only swim the 50/100 fly and 100 IM at those two meets, since those are the cuts I'm really trying to make...and actually have a shot at. Unlike most of the meets to date, when I've swum as many events as I could fit in, to try and eke out the best swim I can in each event, I might only enter in those three. I'll have to look at the event order to verify that, though. If the events are well spaced out, I might throw in another for fun. Maybe. Too early to decide, though, since the next sprint meet is March 4th, so I've got a while.
Until the next sprint meet on the 4th, and then the last qualifying meet after that on March 17th, I'm going to continue focusing a LOT on my fly in practice. 50 and 100 fly are the two main cuts I want to get. 100 IM would be nice, but I won't be heart broken if I don't get it in the next two meets. After fly, the next thing I'm going to focus on is my turns. My overall turn speed still isn't ideal, so that could squeeze out a few more tenths of a second per swim.
If I make those two (or three) cuts by March 23rd, then the two remaining meets, and the remaining month of practice time, before Nationals will be focused almost exclusively on fly, turns, and possibly back, depending on what I decide to swim at Nats.
5 weeks and counting!
Monday, February 6, 2012
Oof...the long road to Nationals just got shorter
At the beginning of the short course season back in October, I thought that you could get Nationals cuts up till a couple weeks before the meet. Well, they posted the online entry form last week, and you only have through March 23rd to get the cuts, a full month before the meet. I mean, I understand why they have it like that, I just assumed they'd give us more time.
My original game plan from December for the rest of the season was for me to go to a total of eight meets from January-April before Nats. The last meet before Nats is the Zone championship meet from April 13-15 (Nats is April 26-29). I had thought it would be like USA swimming, when you could go to the State B meet two weeks before the State A meet and still get A cuts.
With the shorter time frame, the last two pre-Nats meets are now meaningless on the cuts front, since there's a meet March 25 and then Zones.
Since I've now got a bit less than 7 weeks to get Nats cuts, I gotta move up my meet schedule. I'm trying to get Nats cuts in the 50 fly, 100 fly, 100 IM, and possibly the 200 IM. With those four events in mind, here's my new meet schedule for the rest of the eligibility session:
Four meets to potentially make four cuts. I can do this!
My original game plan from December for the rest of the season was for me to go to a total of eight meets from January-April before Nats. The last meet before Nats is the Zone championship meet from April 13-15 (Nats is April 26-29). I had thought it would be like USA swimming, when you could go to the State B meet two weeks before the State A meet and still get A cuts.
With the shorter time frame, the last two pre-Nats meets are now meaningless on the cuts front, since there's a meet March 25 and then Zones.
Since I've now got a bit less than 7 weeks to get Nats cuts, I gotta move up my meet schedule. I'm trying to get Nats cuts in the 50 fly, 100 fly, 100 IM, and possibly the 200 IM. With those four events in mind, here's my new meet schedule for the rest of the eligibility session:
- February 11-12: Two day meet in Richmond, longer distance events (200s on up) on the first day, sprint events (50s and 100s) on the second day. I'm swimming my full repertoire of fly, back, and IM events, minus the 200 fly.
- March 3: One day meet in the Baltimore area. It's a longer distance meet, 200s on up. I'm probably going to swim the 200 IM and 200 fly, maybe 200 back, too.
- March 4: One day meet in Warrenton, VA (about an hour away). It's a sprint meet, so I'll try to get in the 50/100 fly, 50/100 back, and 100 IM.
- March 17: One day meet in Bethesda. It's a short course meters meet, but they offer the full range of events. This will be my last chance to make cuts (converted times are eligible qualifying times), so I'll swim whatever events I'm close to the cuts in.
Four meets to potentially make four cuts. I can do this!
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Hard core meet in Richmond next weekend!
I've got my first hardcore meet next weekend! I'm going to a meet in Richmond that NOVA of Virginia Aquatics is hosting on Saturday and Sunday, my first two day meet since 2005.
Not just my first two day meet, it's also the first meet in which I swim some serious yardage. Saturday afternoon I'm swimming the 200 IM, 200 back, and 400 IM. Sunday morning I'm swimming the 50/100 fly, 50/100 back, and 100 IM. I haven't swum any of the Saturday events as a Masters swimmer yet, so I'm rather nervous about them.
Here are the made up times I entered myself with for the Saturday events, since I've got no clue where I'm at for them:
I'm much more comfortable with the Sunday swims, since I've done them all at least once.
Woohoo, turn the motivation this week up to 11!
Not just my first two day meet, it's also the first meet in which I swim some serious yardage. Saturday afternoon I'm swimming the 200 IM, 200 back, and 400 IM. Sunday morning I'm swimming the 50/100 fly, 50/100 back, and 100 IM. I haven't swum any of the Saturday events as a Masters swimmer yet, so I'm rather nervous about them.
Here are the made up times I entered myself with for the Saturday events, since I've got no clue where I'm at for them:
- 200 IM: 2:20.00. This should *hopefully* be an easy one to get. My 100 IM last weekend was a 1:03.70, so unless I utterly die in this event, I hope to break that with time to spare. Still, no guarantees! The Nats cut is a 2:11.51, so I would LOVE it if I managed to get that in this swim, though I'm not holding my breath on that.
- 200 back: 2:22.00. This one is up in the air. I haven't swum the 100 back since the first, disastrous meet, when I went a 1:11 something. I'm pretty confident that my 100 back time is closer to a 1:05 than a 1:11, so I *should* be able to go under a 2:22, hopefully. Nats cut is a 2:11.39, but I think that's out of reach right now.
- 400 IM: 5:20.00. I'm pretty worried about this one. I've only done a 400 IM a handful of times in practice, but will be doing it a lot on my own this week in preparation. Not worried about the fly or back legs, but the back half is a different proposition. My old time from highschool was a 4:30 something, so I hope I gave myself enough cushion time. I'll be pretty damn happy if I go faster than a 5:20! Nats cut is a 4:51.49, but I've got no idea whatsoever if it's a feasible time for me to get at this point.
I'm much more comfortable with the Sunday swims, since I've done them all at least once.
- 50 fly: Haven't gotten the official time from last weekend yet, so I'm entered as a 28.16. If I have a good swim, I'm fairly confident that I can hit around a 27 point, if not an upper 26. Nats is a 26.78, so that's what I'm aiming for, although I won't be completely heartbroken if I don't get it this time.
- 100 fly: 1:09.09. I've just got that converted time from the short course meters meet I swam at the beginning of December. Been swimming a LOT of fly since then, so I should be able to smash that time unless I totally die or flub all the turns or something like that. Nats is a 59.09. I don't know if I can break a minute, but I'm sure going to try!
- 50 back: 30.89. If I have a good swim, I hope to break a 30. Nats is a 28.22, but I don't think I'll be able to hit that at this meet. I'd love to get the cut with this swim, but ain't staking the meet on that happening.
- 100 back: 1:11.57. I haven't swum this event since the first meet, so I should be able to smash this time. As I mentioned in the 200 back above, I think my actual 100 back time is somewhere in the general vicinity of a 1:05, give or take two seconds. Nats is a 1:01.53. Unless my back is a LOT better than I think it is, I think that's out of reach this time around, but I'll still give it my best shot.
- 100 IM: 1:03.70. Nats is a 1:00.77. I'm very pumped about this swim, which should be the highlight of my meet! I've been working on my back to breast flipturn this past week, and will continue to work on it this week. I've also been working on my breast technique (by far my weakest leg of the race) with the coaches, so hopefully that'll help too. If I have a good race and have someone to race against at the end, the cut should be in reach!
Woohoo, turn the motivation this week up to 11!
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Things to focus on in the pool
There are two months and three weeks till Nationals. During that time, I've got several things to focus on in the pool. It seems that my backstroke isn't improving quickly enough for me to make Nats cuts in it this year (at least, not in the 25-29 age group, although some of the 19-24 cuts look in reach), so I will focus on fly and the IMs (at least the 100 IM, possibly the 200 and 400, as well).
- Flip turns: My flip turns are rather lethargic--I've got great underwater work coming off the wall, but my actual flip speed is pretty crappy, so I lose ground on that portion of the turn. If I'm neck and neck with someone going into the turn, they'll normally push off a fair bit earlier than me, but I can almost always catch back up to them, if not pull a bit ahead of them, by the time I get to the surface of the pool. If I can get my turn time down, I can give myself an extra boost in races. During my individual practices (not the team ones), I'll do a lot of 25s and 50s from the middle of the pool, working on increasing my flip speed.
- Open turns: My mechanics seem to be decent, but just don't have the turn speed. As far as I can tell, I'm staying low in the water, not popping up as I turn. Just have slow leg speed as I draw them towards my chest when I touch the wall. Same as the training for the flip turns--lots of 25s and 50s from the middle of the pool should help out on this.
- Back to breast turns: Up until this week, I've been doing an open back to breast turn in practice and in meets. I don't think it's a bad turn, it's just not a very fast turn. My senior (and possibly junior?) year in highschool, I did a back to breast flip turn, where I'd turn mostly onto my left side, touch the wall with my right hand, then flip and push off leaning towards my stomach on breast. I can only do it if I turn to that side--trying to do it to the other side is grossly uncoordinated. The timing and body positioning is very tricky--since I can only do the turn to the one side, I have to be at the exact same part of my stroke when I hit the flags every single time, otherwise the timing is off. And in regards to body positioning, if you cross the 90 degree line as you're coming into the wall and lean towards your stomach, DQ. But you have to be right about that 90 degrees in order to turn and flip in that short a distance, so that's a very tricky line to cross. I've been DQd once for that that I can remember. Likewise, when pushing off the wall on breast, your body has to cross the 90 degree plane leaning towards your stomach, or DQ. Gotten DQd for that once, too. Did that turn for the first time since highschool in practice on Monday night. Ooh boy. Timing was off, turned too much towards my stomach going into the wall, and was almost flat on my back coming off the wall. Yeesh. Been working on a lot of back/breast turns this week, and I've gotten the timing down now, but still am working on the body positioning. When the turn is done correctly, I used to be able to pull ahead by about half a body length over people who did an open back/breast turn. Got a long ways to go, so those 25s and 50s from the middle of the pool are going to be a big component of my workouts for the next two months and change.
- Hypoxic work: My lung capacity has improved quite a bit since I began swimming again last fall. That being said, my body requires a LOT of oxygen when I race. At the meet this past weekend, in my 50 fly and 50 free, I only took two breaths on both, one down and one back. Started to feel the oxygen burn pretty bad when coming into the flags at the finish on both races. I'd like to get to the point where I can do the two breath 50 without hitting that burn. I'll do more underwater 25s and more speed work with long breathing patterns.
- Fly endurance: Just keep on swimming lots of fly. I've gotten to the point where random 50s or 75s of fly here and there in practice are no big deal, and I can do sets such as 4 x 50 choice fast on :50 all fly without dying. Just need to keep increasing the yardage and get to the point where 100s are no biggie. I'm planning on doing an all-fly-with-fins practice this week, possibly on Saturday, to see how much my shoulders can take.
- Kick: My underwater kick is still my biggest asset when I race. Once I'm on the surface, though, my kick is just middling. Gonna keep pounding the kicking yardage in my individual practices, and will also incorporate vertical kicking at some point.
- Weights: So far, I've yet to hit up the weight room. Gonna make a concerted effort to make it there.
- Core work: Same thing as with weights. I think a stronger core will help my kick out, and also help tighten up my body position between the walls.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Tropical Splash meet recap!
My team hosted the meet today, the Tropical Splash. The pool is a kinda cruddy pool (compared to the competition pools at like the Sportsplex, the UK pool, IUPUI, George Mason, or any of the other top tier pools) and it was manual timing, but it was quite a good meet!
I swam a total of seven events, in order: 50 back, 100 IM, 100 free, 200 free relay, 200 mixed medley relay, 50 fly, and 50 free. I had some great swims, some good swims, and some decent swims. Had a bit of a problem with the walls/bottom/depth perception in the outside lanes, but other than that it wasn't too shabby.
50 back: First event of the meet, and it started off pretty well. Had a pretty good start, good underwater work, and felt like I had good arm speed. ...And then I missed the flags (foggy goggles), turned a stroke early, and barrrrrrely grazed the wall with the tips of my toes. Came to a dead stop, and that basically killed my race. I think I was neck and neck for first in my heat going into the turn, but came out of it towards the back of the pack. Second 25...once I actually started picking up some momentum again...felt pretty good. I was PISSED at that point, so I had a lot of energy on the back half of the race. All in all, it wasn't a terrible swim--I was entered as a 30.89 and went a 31.36. If I'd had a good turn, I most likely would have easily broken a 30.00. Sigh.
100 IM: By far my standout event of the meet. Last time I swam it, I died from lack of air on the back half of the race, so this time I tried to slow the first half down just a bit, and worked on getting plenty of air on the breast and free legs. Worked out quite well! Don't know what my splits ended up being (I think I took it out in a 27 or 28 or something), but I went a 1:03.70. Everything felt good on the race, although I didn't sprint all out on the free, since I was pretty far ahead of the rest of the heat and didn't have anyone to push me. VERY pleased with that swim, since I was entered as a 1:07.00! Even better, that puts me well within reach of the Nats cut, which is a 1:00.77. In the three meets I've swum the 100 IM at, my time has gone down from a 1:10.21 to a 1:03.70. If I've dropped 6.5 seconds already, then I can probably eke out another 3 seconds. Now my training goal for the 100 IM is to pick up the pace on free and get back to doing the back to breast flip turn thing I used to do. Much faster than an open turn, but tricky as all get out to get the timing down, not to mention doing it without getting DQd...
100 free: Those of you who've known me for a while know that I've never been anything more than a middling/decent freestyler. The 100 free has never been one of my favorite events, and still isn't. Hadn't swum it since early 2005 and had no clue where I was at in it, so I entered myself as a 58.99. I had a decent race, but had a *slight*issue with my pacing. I took it out at maybe a 200 pace, if not closer to 500 pace. Didn't think anything of the pace until I flipped at the 50, then realized how slow I was swimming. Not my best 100 free ever, but I still went a 57.52, so I beat my made up time. Hey, I'll take that!
200 free relay: Decent race. I went second on the relay, and have no clue what my split was.
200 medley relay: I swam the fly leg of this race, and had problems with the waves, along with a slow start (we haven't really practiced relay starts much, so my timing is awful). Our lane was sandwiched between two faster relays, and the lane ropes did almost nothing to stop the wakes of the other swimmers from crossing into my lane. My stroke on fly is just above the surface of the water, so if there's a wave, I'm going to hit it. It normally isn't an issue in an individual fly event, but it was a big problem in this race. I think I still split a low 27, but I splashed a LOT of water.
50 fly: Sigh. My other not-so-good swim. The race itself felt great, but I totally misjudged where the wall was on the finish. I thought the wall was one stroke away, so I took the stroke and then dove into where I thought the wall was....but I had done that a stroke too soon, so my finish was terrible. I thought the timer said I went a 27.75, but the ribbon I got said 29.75. Given that I was entered as a 28.16, and with how good the race felt besides the finish, I'm going to say my time was probably a 27.75, and they just had a data entry error when printing up the ribbons.
50 free: Again, it's a free event, so not really my forte. I was entered as a 26.93, and went a 26.13, so I'll take it. The swim portion felt good, and I had the correct distance from the wall on my turn, but it was just a slooooow turn--I really need to work on the quick flip, driving in and out of the wall. If I'd sped up the turn, probably would have been in the mid 25 range.
Overall, a pretty darn good meet, wall issues notwithstanding! A fair number of swimmers from my team came out (15, I think?), which is a big improvement over the 2-3 of us who normally swim at meets. I had a blast hanging out with them, along with all my other friends on the team who didn't swim, but came out to time or help run the meet, so I'd say this meet was an unmitigated success!
I swam a total of seven events, in order: 50 back, 100 IM, 100 free, 200 free relay, 200 mixed medley relay, 50 fly, and 50 free. I had some great swims, some good swims, and some decent swims. Had a bit of a problem with the walls/bottom/depth perception in the outside lanes, but other than that it wasn't too shabby.
50 back: First event of the meet, and it started off pretty well. Had a pretty good start, good underwater work, and felt like I had good arm speed. ...And then I missed the flags (foggy goggles), turned a stroke early, and barrrrrrely grazed the wall with the tips of my toes. Came to a dead stop, and that basically killed my race. I think I was neck and neck for first in my heat going into the turn, but came out of it towards the back of the pack. Second 25...once I actually started picking up some momentum again...felt pretty good. I was PISSED at that point, so I had a lot of energy on the back half of the race. All in all, it wasn't a terrible swim--I was entered as a 30.89 and went a 31.36. If I'd had a good turn, I most likely would have easily broken a 30.00. Sigh.
100 IM: By far my standout event of the meet. Last time I swam it, I died from lack of air on the back half of the race, so this time I tried to slow the first half down just a bit, and worked on getting plenty of air on the breast and free legs. Worked out quite well! Don't know what my splits ended up being (I think I took it out in a 27 or 28 or something), but I went a 1:03.70. Everything felt good on the race, although I didn't sprint all out on the free, since I was pretty far ahead of the rest of the heat and didn't have anyone to push me. VERY pleased with that swim, since I was entered as a 1:07.00! Even better, that puts me well within reach of the Nats cut, which is a 1:00.77. In the three meets I've swum the 100 IM at, my time has gone down from a 1:10.21 to a 1:03.70. If I've dropped 6.5 seconds already, then I can probably eke out another 3 seconds. Now my training goal for the 100 IM is to pick up the pace on free and get back to doing the back to breast flip turn thing I used to do. Much faster than an open turn, but tricky as all get out to get the timing down, not to mention doing it without getting DQd...
100 free: Those of you who've known me for a while know that I've never been anything more than a middling/decent freestyler. The 100 free has never been one of my favorite events, and still isn't. Hadn't swum it since early 2005 and had no clue where I was at in it, so I entered myself as a 58.99. I had a decent race, but had a *slight*issue with my pacing. I took it out at maybe a 200 pace, if not closer to 500 pace. Didn't think anything of the pace until I flipped at the 50, then realized how slow I was swimming. Not my best 100 free ever, but I still went a 57.52, so I beat my made up time. Hey, I'll take that!
200 free relay: Decent race. I went second on the relay, and have no clue what my split was.
200 medley relay: I swam the fly leg of this race, and had problems with the waves, along with a slow start (we haven't really practiced relay starts much, so my timing is awful). Our lane was sandwiched between two faster relays, and the lane ropes did almost nothing to stop the wakes of the other swimmers from crossing into my lane. My stroke on fly is just above the surface of the water, so if there's a wave, I'm going to hit it. It normally isn't an issue in an individual fly event, but it was a big problem in this race. I think I still split a low 27, but I splashed a LOT of water.
50 fly: Sigh. My other not-so-good swim. The race itself felt great, but I totally misjudged where the wall was on the finish. I thought the wall was one stroke away, so I took the stroke and then dove into where I thought the wall was....but I had done that a stroke too soon, so my finish was terrible. I thought the timer said I went a 27.75, but the ribbon I got said 29.75. Given that I was entered as a 28.16, and with how good the race felt besides the finish, I'm going to say my time was probably a 27.75, and they just had a data entry error when printing up the ribbons.
50 free: Again, it's a free event, so not really my forte. I was entered as a 26.93, and went a 26.13, so I'll take it. The swim portion felt good, and I had the correct distance from the wall on my turn, but it was just a slooooow turn--I really need to work on the quick flip, driving in and out of the wall. If I'd sped up the turn, probably would have been in the mid 25 range.
Overall, a pretty darn good meet, wall issues notwithstanding! A fair number of swimmers from my team came out (15, I think?), which is a big improvement over the 2-3 of us who normally swim at meets. I had a blast hanging out with them, along with all my other friends on the team who didn't swim, but came out to time or help run the meet, so I'd say this meet was an unmitigated success!
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Update on times and progress towards Nationals cuts
The meet director from the meet this past weekend emailed out the results yesterday. Here's what I got:
50 back: 30.89 (entered as 31.71, so I dropped .82 seconds, less than I thought)
50 fly: 28.16 (entered as 29.30, so I dropped 1.14 seconds)
100 IM: 1:07.00 (entered as 1:10.21, so I dropped 3.21 seconds)
On the 50 fly, if I hadn't flubbed the turn and finish, I probably would have been around a mid 27. 50 back felt pretty good, so I'm just not getting the times I want, for some reason. 100 IM splits were 29.81 and 37.19. The first split is quite good for where I'm at right now, while the second split is terrible, just terrible.
Anyways, for those three swims, here are the Nats cuts for the 25-29 age group, since I age up three weeks before the meet...grr...:
50 back: 28.22. That means I have to drop 2.7 seconds to make the cut. It MIGHT be possible, but I'm not promising anything. If I wasn't aging up, I would only have to drop 1.9 seconds, which seems more achievable. Sigh.
50 fly: 26.78. I've gotta drop 1.4 seconds. Pretty confident I can make this one, especially as I ramp up my fly time and yardage at practice over the next three months. Again, if I wasn't aging up, I'd only have to drop 1.1 seconds.
100 IM: 1:00.77. Not sure about this one, since I have to drop 6.2 seconds. Completely guessing here, I think I might be able to drop another 2 seconds or so from my current time in the IM just by not having a meltdown in the second half like I did last weekend. If I wasn't aging up, I'd only have to drop 4.1 seconds. That cut would be fairly achievable, I think.
My team hosts a meet next weekend. Unlike this past meet, we can swim up to five individual events, plus two relays. I'm going to swim the 50 fly for sure, as well as the 100 IM in an attempt to vindicate last weekend's terrible performance in that race. Besides that, no clue what I'll swim. Well, that's not entirely true. Last night's practice was a sprint/speed practice, and at the end (after I did a LOT of sprint fly) of the practice, we did two broken 200s (broken at each 50 for 10 seconds), one IM and one free. On the free one, even though I was quite worn out from all the speed work I'd done for the preceding 45 minutes, I still managed to go an adjusted 2:13. I figure there is about an 8-10 second fudge factor for that time, accounting for swimming it in practice, not wearing a meet suit, and not doing it from a dive. If that fudge factor is correct, that means my 200 free time could feasibly be in the ballpark of 2:03 in a meet. I'm tempted to put it to the test at the meet next weekend, although the 200 isn't exactly my most favoritist event ever...
50 back: 30.89 (entered as 31.71, so I dropped .82 seconds, less than I thought)
50 fly: 28.16 (entered as 29.30, so I dropped 1.14 seconds)
100 IM: 1:07.00 (entered as 1:10.21, so I dropped 3.21 seconds)
On the 50 fly, if I hadn't flubbed the turn and finish, I probably would have been around a mid 27. 50 back felt pretty good, so I'm just not getting the times I want, for some reason. 100 IM splits were 29.81 and 37.19. The first split is quite good for where I'm at right now, while the second split is terrible, just terrible.
Anyways, for those three swims, here are the Nats cuts for the 25-29 age group, since I age up three weeks before the meet...grr...:
50 back: 28.22. That means I have to drop 2.7 seconds to make the cut. It MIGHT be possible, but I'm not promising anything. If I wasn't aging up, I would only have to drop 1.9 seconds, which seems more achievable. Sigh.
50 fly: 26.78. I've gotta drop 1.4 seconds. Pretty confident I can make this one, especially as I ramp up my fly time and yardage at practice over the next three months. Again, if I wasn't aging up, I'd only have to drop 1.1 seconds.
100 IM: 1:00.77. Not sure about this one, since I have to drop 6.2 seconds. Completely guessing here, I think I might be able to drop another 2 seconds or so from my current time in the IM just by not having a meltdown in the second half like I did last weekend. If I wasn't aging up, I'd only have to drop 4.1 seconds. That cut would be fairly achievable, I think.
My team hosts a meet next weekend. Unlike this past meet, we can swim up to five individual events, plus two relays. I'm going to swim the 50 fly for sure, as well as the 100 IM in an attempt to vindicate last weekend's terrible performance in that race. Besides that, no clue what I'll swim. Well, that's not entirely true. Last night's practice was a sprint/speed practice, and at the end (after I did a LOT of sprint fly) of the practice, we did two broken 200s (broken at each 50 for 10 seconds), one IM and one free. On the free one, even though I was quite worn out from all the speed work I'd done for the preceding 45 minutes, I still managed to go an adjusted 2:13. I figure there is about an 8-10 second fudge factor for that time, accounting for swimming it in practice, not wearing a meet suit, and not doing it from a dive. If that fudge factor is correct, that means my 200 free time could feasibly be in the ballpark of 2:03 in a meet. I'm tempted to put it to the test at the meet next weekend, although the 200 isn't exactly my most favoritist event ever...
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Training plan through the end of April
I've got my training mapped out through the end of April, when the Masters National Championship meet is held. This week is only a half week for me, so it's an abberation from the schedule, but here's the normal weekly schedule. A note--the organized practices vary in intensity, some being pretty easy, while others rachet up the intensity to a pretty high level. There are four different coaches, and they all have their own type of practice they like to give us. Practices on my own are generally more stretched out and focus on stroke work and technique, since the organized practices often focus more on yardage and free than stroke and the fine stuff.
Several other things I'm adding in, or have just added in to my workout regimen:
- Monday: Two back to back morning practices, from 5:00-6:00 and 6:00-7:00. Evening practice from 7:30-8:30. If I only manage to make it to one morning practice, then I try to get in an hour long practice on my own before the 7:30-8:30 practice. If I don't manage to get in for either practice, then I try to get in an hour and a half long practice on my own before the evening practice.
- Tuesday: One morning practice from 6:00-7:00 and an evening practice from 7:30-8:30. Alternatively, I do the morning practice, then do an hour long evening practice on my own before spinning with my friend from 7:30-8:30.
- Wednesday: Two morning practices the same as Monday. There is no scheduled evening practice, so depending on if I missed a morning practice, I'll do either an hour or hour and a half long practice on my own. If I didn't spin on Tuesday night, then I'll try to spin on this night. Since the spin class is earlier (5:30-6:15), I don't know if Wednesday night spin class is very achievable, given how long it takes to get home from work and then get to the gym (it can take anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half from the time I leave work till I get to the gym, on a good day).
- Thursday: Same schedule as Tuesday, sans potential spin class.
- Friday: Same as Wednesday, except the spin class is at 6:00, so it's more achievable.
- Saturday: Morning practice from 8:00-9:00.
- Sunday: Hopefully nothing except for any swim meets, since those run on Sundays.
Several other things I'm adding in, or have just added in to my workout regimen:
- Resistance band training: I bought resistance bands this past weekend, so I'll be adding them in next week as part of a dryland training regimen either three or four times a week.
- Weights: On the non-dryland days, I'll start lifting weights again. I've been out of the weight room since last April. I think three times a week, Mondays/Wednesdays/Saturdays? Not sure where they will fit into the overall workout plan yet.
- Stationary exercises: The other half of my dryland routine--pushups, crunches, squats, calf raises, pullups/chinups, stuff like that. I need to work on my core, which is also something I haven't done since April of last year.
- Running: At some point in February (I haven't decided when yet), I'll add running into the mix. Probably just run two or three times a week. No clue on the distances, but when I stopped running last April, I was running 5 times a week for anywhere from 3-6 miles each time.
- Biking: In addition to the spin classes, I might add biking into the workout mix in February, probably about when I add in running. I'm thinking once, maybe twice a week, most likely on Saturdays.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)