Week 5: I love my friends.

As said before.....beer is not the same as water.


I love having friends who think being properly hydrated for intense distance swim training isn't necessary.

Week 4: Lessons Learned

1: Swimming less than a mile 2-3 times a week is not going to cut it if I want to cut time off my 5K. I really need to be going 2000-3000 3-4 times a week. I know this, but my body doesn't want to believe it.

2: I was clearly an idiot when I decided to test a 1000 every two weeks. That @#%# hurts! I did my second one today in a time of 17:33.1. That was 6.8 seconds faster than I did two and a half weeks ago. I was hoping for a bit more improvement, but considering how much swimming I have actually done since then, I am "on my knees, kissing the ground" grateful for an improvement at all. Here are my splits:
1:38.9
1:46.3
1:46.6
1:49.4
1:44.2
1:45.8
1:47.8
1:43.8
1:46.9
1:41.0

3: The best motivation comes from imagining the face of someone you want to impress or shame with your impressive feats of athleticism. Or boys you like. whatever.

4: Beer is not the same as water, even if it is Bud Light.

Week 4: Breakthrough

I have my feel back!!!

It may have taken a week and a half, but I swam 1500 meters yesterday that felt really good. I could feel and pull on the water and actually felt strong in the water. Not strong enough to do more of course, but that was a little victory for me. Especially since I got very little sleep over the weekend. Too much partying.....ooops!

Cycle today.

1000 for time tomorrow.

Week 4: The Lies We Tell Ourselves

A 700 is more than just a 700 if it is a continuous 700 Freestyle.

Right?

Week 3: What A Difference a Week Makes!

On my last post, I mentioned that I would be leaving down for a couple of days for a swim meet. I didn't think that I would be able to swim, but would try to get at least one or two workouts in.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah that totally didn't happen.

Four hour drive, three 12+ hour days in the sun, and another 4 hour drive doesn't not bode well for me wanting to do anything but sleep. I didn't even get that much sleep. But I have a really awesome sunglasses tan and my hair is just a bit blonder than it was last week.

I finally got back into the water on Wednesday and pretty much floated up and down the pool for 30 minutes. I have completely lost my feel for the water! I struggled for months trying to feel strong and efficient in the water and a week takes that away? It took about 1200m for me to feel warmed up and then I had to get out and start my afternoon practices. I was a little discouraged, because I felt like I was stepping back in my training.

I got back into the water on Thursday, breaking my no-swimming-two-days-in-a-row rule, but knew it was necessary to getting back into the groove ASAP. The swimming did not feel any better, it actually felt worse. My arms were dead and I had no pop, no spark, nothing. I forced about 1300m and got out. I did redeem myself later that afternoon in spinning. On Thursday afternoons, I do a spin/indoor cycling class for my Senior swimmers. This week, I let one of the girls run the class, so I was just along for the ride. I felt sluggish, but pushed through to get a really great sweat.

Today is a mystery. I don't know what it will bring. I'm hoping to get some more land workouts this weekend and praying that the swimming will feel better next week.

Week 2: Test Day

Normally I think I will do my test day on a Friday, I like the way it finishes out a week. I had to do this today because I leave tomorrow afternoon for a swim meet. I have been alternately excited about this and dreading this. I was excited because I knew that I could blow the time from the 1st 1000 of my test 5K out of the water. I was dreading it because I have had a sore throat since Sunday, have a had a dry throaty cough, and have been unable to breathe through my nose in two days. None of that was going to stop me though!

The Turvinator and I made an appointment for her to time my swim around 10 this morning. She would just be getting out of the water, then she would time my swim, and then she would head out for her training session. (She is doing the run leg of our still up-in-the-air triathlon relay.) I get to the YMCA from my morning practice at the outdoor pool and discover that ....... I don't have a swim suit. How is it possible that not only did I forget to bring a suit, that I don't have one in my size lying around my office, AND Turvy decided to bring home and wash the suit I lent her four months ago. Our best laid plans thwarted and we decided to try again at 2pm.

I did finally get in my swim, although my body did feel like it was completely made out of lead. My final time was 17:39.9. I was pretty pleased especially since I was gasping for breath the entire way and groaning on my turns. My splits ended up as this:
1:41.9
1:49.0
1:48.7
1:47.1
1:43.9
1:47.2
1:46.5
1:45.5
1:48.3
1:41.3

If I was doing a 500 it would have rocked. You can definitely tell that is where my body naturally wanted to stop. And then it wanted to stop again after the 800. I am hoping to get my body accustomed to distances longer than 500s. I also hope that very soon I will be able to take a deep breath without breaking into a coughing fit. Cheers!

Week 2: Today's Workout

1 x 1000 Free

10 x 100 Fr Kick with Fins @ 2:00

2 mins vertical dolphin kick with fins

1 x 500 Free

2500M - 60 minutes

My sister randomly decided to get in the water today and swam 3000. I hate her.

Week Two: Training Plan

Having put Week One behind me, I now need to get serious and structured about the rest of the summer. If I am going to be successful, I need to make a plan and follow it. I've been trying to lose weight for like, my entire life, but have never been super structured about it. Therefore it has never happened. I will not be letting that happen this time.

My Training Plan:

• In the water training sessions 3-4 times a week, but never two days in a row. My swim training plan is to slowly increase the distances of freestyle I can swim without resting. I am concerned about my shoulder, so I need to make sure I get full recovery. (Getting old sucks).
• I plan to do at least one session where I do a long moderate swim, increasing yardage every week. I want another session to be faster paced mid-distance repeats. A third session will be at least 50% kick to progress my aerobic endurance(AE) but giving my shoulders a rest.
• Test a 1000 for time every two weeks. My boss, Mr. SPD suggested that I do the 5K several time this summer to mark my progress. Not going to happen. I do think that a timed 1000 will work just as well. I was really pleased with how I split my test 5K and how little rest I took, I just need to be able to swim faster with the same rest.
• I plan on supplementing the swim training with dryland training, again increasing AE, but giving my body and mind variety. This shouldn't be to difficult. I do a indoor cycle class with my senior swimmers once a week and occasionally yoga. My apartment complex has a great fitness center I frequent a lot on weekends.

Week Two will be interesting, because life doesn't stop. I will be leaving on Thursday afternoon for a swim meet in Hickory, NC (just shy of four hours away) and will be gone until Sunday. I don't expect to get a lot of swimming done, but have been promised that the hotel fitness center is pretty good. Wish me luck!

Week One: Lessons Learned

Here are some of the lessons I have learned in Week 1 of this project.

1) I am old. Maybe it is better to say that my body is getting old and doesn't recover the way I think it should be able to. After the 5K on Wednesday I gave my body a full 48 hours out of the water. I did a cycle class on Thursday and was surprised at how good I felt, so I was determined to get in the water on Friday. It was bad. I managed to swim 1600 meters fighting through the most fatigue my shoulders have ever felt. I didn't feel actual pain in my shoulders until Saturday night playing Just Dance on the Wii. Really?

2)Non-swimmers think I am crazy. Former competitive swimmers are proud, impressed and glad that it is not them. My current swimmers are unimpressed. The general response is "So, we do at least that much every day, most of the time more." They obviously do not understand the toll that 10-15 years, 50 more pounds, and 10 years of being out of training does to the body.

3) Recreational lap swimmers are unimpressed. Floated in the middle of a 50M lap lane for twenty minutes is the same exact thing that I am doing.

4) I will never be able to wear nail polish ever again. The pool water just eats it and I am far too tired to keep touching it up every night.

Week 1: Your body is capable of far more than your mind thinks it is.

Test Day. 1:44.:25.50.
Every couple of years I have a moment where I think, "Damn, did I just do that?" I finished my test 5K in 1 hour, 44 minutes, and 25.5 seconds. I just wanted to make under 2 hours. For those of you who are extremely curious, here is the breakdown in workout form.

Before Picture-1 x 1000 Free
-:30 rest to defog goggles and drink-
1 x 100 (50 Back - 50 Breast)
1 x 900 Free
-:30 rest to defog goggles and drink and complain that my goggle are too tight-
1 x 100 (50 Back - 50 Breast)
1 x 400 Free
-:45 sec rest to adjust the strap on my goggles because they were digging a hole into the bridge of my nose.-
1 x 500 Free-:30 rest to defog goggles and drink and make sure my lap count was right.-
1 x 100 (50 Back - 50 Breast)
1 x 400 Free
-:30 rest to defog goggles and drink and contemplate stopping at 4K-
1 x 500 Free
1 x 50 Back
1 x 50 Free1 x 100 (50 Back - 50 Breast)
1 x 300 Free

stop and drown.
To those of you fellow coaching nerds out there:
500 - 9:08.9
1000 - 18:31.9
1500 - 29:22.7
2000 - 38:52.4
2500 - 49:59.7
3000- 1:00:34.7
3500 - 1:11:43.7
4000 - 1:22:42.2
4500 - 1:34:18.7
5000- 1:44:25.5

For about twelve hours I was prouder of myself than I perhaps have ever been in my life. Then I realized that I have to spend the next nine weeks training to do it again and faster. D'oh!