the17thman

No 6am Swim Due To Rain

2008-12-15T06:14:00.001-08:00

Well that is one way of getting out of doing 10x100's! It's raining hard so the pool didn't open this morning. Oh well!

Sunday Swim

2008-12-14T18:00:00.000-08:00

I biked over to hit the 3pm Sunday afternoon swim feeling in a swimming mood. But once in the water it became clear that my body had other plans. I warmed up about a 100 before our warm up set:
2x
150 Drill
4x50's Kick
100 Swim
I skipped 3 of the kick 50's with a pee break and some chit chat.

Then we did 6x75's IM (no free) on 1:05. Then 4x50's on 40. I think we did something else but don't remember. Maybe 2x25's?

Main Set:
400 IM on 6:00
3x100's Free on 1:20
300 IM on 4:30
4x100's on 1:20

Then I stopped. I wasn't feeling that good and had a pain. Might have been dehydrated. Decided to stop and it was 4pm so one hour give or take a few minutes was a decent workout. I don't get out of workout that often so it's not so bad. After this week I'll be on vacation in Florida and won't be doing much working out so why kill myself this week?

Monday 6am Random Swim Set: 10x100's

2008-12-14T13:29:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow at practice we have our 10x100's and to be honest I don't want to do them. Now I could skip workout but that would mean one less workout for me this week. That is an option but the other option is to have a little protest during workout and do my own thing. Mind you I don't want to disrupt the workout and mess up anyone who want's to do the 10x100's. I've been thinking of alternatives to the 10x100's. Some of these alternatives are 10x100's but not done all out. For those of you who has never swam the 10x100's set it can be easily explained as swimming ten 100 yards all out sprint freestyle on a three minute interval. The point of the set is to make you puke at seven in the morning. Actually the point is that after you swim the set and look at the times you'll have a sense of how you are doing and gauge your training. Now this set following short course regionals is pretty pointless as I know how I am swimming in regards to my training.
The 10x100's set is normally done on the 1st Monday of the month but was pushed back one week due to regionals. We will do this set again on Monday, January 5th and then again once a month up to Nationals in May. Once again this set is to gauge how one is in training leading up to Nationals or IGLA. Mind you anyone who would be swimming to be in competition most likely swam last weekend at regionals like me and know how they are doing.

So what to do about tomorrow? I had thought I'd do the 10x100's but kick them all. But that seemed boring. Okay it's 10x100's on 3 minutes so I can kick 30 minutes non stop. Do I really want to kick that much? No. Plus if I share the lane with someone who wants to do the prescribed 10x100's I'd screw them up which isn't fair. Hmm...what to do? How about a relay? If I have one other person we could each swim just a 50 of the 100 and try to beat our times each one. A 50 is easy enough, right? That really doesn't sound much different from the 10x100's though. Come on brain, think! Oh! Eureka! How about a raffle! What? I'll have a hat on deck with folded slips of paper which will have written one of the following on each paper slip: butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle, kick, underwater, freestyle breathing every 3, every 5, every 7, etc.. Before each 100 I'd pick a slip of paper and I and anyone so inclined would swim the 100
how we picked at random. I'd write each selection on ten pieces of paper so in theory I or we could be forced to swim 10x100's breaststroke. Yeah, I'll be doing the 10x100's but at least it'll be fun and not mind numbing and pain inducing all out 100's!

I'm Number Three

2008-12-12T19:26:00.000-08:00

I didn't even know they compile results like this but it seems I finished 3rd in Men aged 35-39 as the Individual High Point Award at the 2008 SCM SPMA Regionals. Wahoo. I'm #3! LINK

Monday, Rain and 10x100's.

2008-12-12T19:19:00.000-08:00

Monday is the kickoff for our once a month 10x100 Check Off Challenge or the Breakthrough Challenge. The last time we did this set was in April and I'm not looking forward to doing this again.

A little about the 10x100's Sets:

In a race/meet environment, our bodies produce higher levels of lactic acid, higher heart rates and inevitable fatigue. ‘Breakthrough Sets’ call for high-intensity repetitive swimming on a specific work-to-rest ratio, giving our bodies enough rest to recover partially, but not completely, between each of the 100s. Breakthrough Sets, when pushed to our personal maximum speeds, improve our ability to perform consistently for an extended time at high speeds, despite this increased level of lactic acid.

These sets are designed to be difficult and should be painful (in a good way). With that, if you plan on attending one of Monday’s ‘Breakthrough Sets’ workouts, please mentally prepare for a challenging and valuable practice.

Now besides the fact that I really don't like these anymore it will be raining on Monday. So we may be swimming in the rain. Oh Joy! Read about past 10x100's Set LINK

Friday Morning Swim

2008-12-12T07:51:00.001-08:00

After swimming last nights killer workout is was back in the water this morning to get beat up some more. I jumped in the pool and did about a 200 warmup before we started our warm up set.

3x
150 kick
100 drill
4x25's swim
first round free / second round backstroke / third round IM

Main Set:
6x100's Free alternating intervals 1:20/1:15
4x50s fly on 50
we took an extra 30 seconds rest at this point.
4x100's Free on 1:15
4x50s back on 50
2x100's Free on 1:10
4x50's breast on 50

I was so beat after that set. I was shocked I made the breaststroke interval.

8x50's on 50 Freestyle Pulling breathing 3/5/7/9 by 50 and repeat.

And that was it. I was going to sleep in and swim tonight but my internal clock woke me up so I decided to swim. Saturday will be my recovery day and I may just do weights on Sunday. I have yet to take a day off after last weekends swim meet so I need to at least take Saturday off. I do dread starting up weights again as it's been two weeks since my last gym visit. But I can't put weight training off forever.

Thursday Night Swim

2008-12-11T21:10:00.001-08:00

I told myself I was going to take today off from swimming and all forms of working out. Well as they day wore on I felt like swimming. So I headed to the 7pm swim practice at the WeHo Pool. One thing for sure is that it's warmer at night then it is a 6am. Maybe I should consider sleeping in all winter.

Warmup seemed to go on forever. I didn't count my laps but I can guess that I did somewhere between 600 and 700 yards.

Warm Up Set:
3x
25 Drill
50 Drill / Swim
50 Swim (free/stroke)
25 Swim
I don't remember much of this set just that each round was one stroke IM order.

3x200's on 2:50 Pulling. 1st breathing 3/5/3/7 by 50, 2nd one build each 100, 3rd one breathing 3/5/5/7

Main Set:
100 Kick on 2:00
75 Kick on 1:30
50 Kick on 1:00
25 Kick on 30
Right into 3x
150 2:15 (i think) 50 free / 50 stroke / 50 free
2x75's IM on 1:05
100 Kick on 2:00
75 Kick on 1:30
50 Kick on 1:00
25 Kick on 30
okay i took 5 seconds extra rest to regroup and see the next round on the board
3x again
150 free the 4th lap was underwater only breathing twice. shit, i don't remember the interval.
2x75's free on 55

Damn that set was hard. Those 75's in both the IM and Free kicked my ass. The worst part was that my lane mates couldn't handle the intervals so they sat some of it out and did free instead of stroke. I was getting pissed off by this. I know it shouldn't matter but when I'm doing IM barely making the intervals and the person behind you is doing free that sucks. Then in the free round the one guy who was left swam the 4th lap never going underwater w/ only 2 breathes. So of course he'd catch up to me at that point.

Final Set:
3x
100 on 1:30 25 fly / 50 free / 25 fly
75 on 1:00 25 fly / 25 free / 25 fly
25 on 30 fly

I moved over to the other lane during the final set. I made a comment to the swimmer I was with about him swimming free while I did stroke. He apologized saying that he was in the wrong lane as he expected a slower fast lane like we have sometimes. I didn't care at that point as the workout was done and over with. This workout was a tough one and boy am I still feeling it. I should sleep in and just swim tomorrow night instead. We will see, we will see.

Wednesday Morning Brrrr.....

2008-12-10T09:34:00.001-08:00

A cold snap is hitting Los Angeles right now and it's only going to get colder over the next few days. Then when the cold snap is at it's worst the rain will be coming down. This weather will be a factor in how much I'll be swimming next week. A mini-vacation may be in order and just in time. After last weekend's swim meet my body needs some time off. Swimming the last three days of workouts after the meet has left my body fatigued. I already plan on taking Thursday and Saturday off this week and next week I'll play it by ear.

This morning it was tough taking of my warmup clothes to get in the pool. While on deck I looked at the main set from last nights practice. It was an interesting set so I jotted it down thinking I'd use that set for myself.

Here was the set: Descending in each group of 4
4x200's Freestyle on 2:30 / last one fast but on 4:00 (the slower fast lane was 2:40/4:00)
4x150's Freestyle on 1:55 / last one fast but on 3:00 (the slower fast lane was 2:00/3:00)
4x100's Freestyle on 1:15/ last one fast but on 2:00 (the slower fast lane was 1:20/2:00)
4x50's Freestyle on 40

After jotting it down and chatting with team mates it was time to get in. Brrr...when I did get into the pool for once I was happy that the water was hot. Normally I'd be the first bitching about how hot it was but it felt great to be in the warm water. Plus I didn't plan on swimming too hard today so the temp was not a factor. I mentioned to the coach on deck that I liked the workout that they did the night before so the coach decided that we'd do the set this morning. Me and my big mouth.

As for warm up I swam a 100 free before doing a 200 IM by 25 kick / 25 drill. We then broke up between stroke lanes and freestyle lanes. I decided to do stroke since if I had swam free I'd be lapping whomever I'd swim with. I figured doing stroke would even it out a bit. We did two extended warm up 400's . The first one was mostly kick 100 kick / 50 swim / 100 kick / 50 drill / 100 kick. I did it fly for the first 150, back for the second 150 and did the final 100 kick IM. The second one I did IM and it was 25 Drill / 75 Swim (25 technique / 25 build / 25 fast).

Main Set: Descending in each group of 4
4x200's IM on 3:30 / last one fast but on 4:15 (I messed up and did the last one on 3:15) opps!
4x150's Back on 2:20 / last one fast but on 3:00's I think
4x100's IM on 1:45 / last one fast but we did it on 2:30
4x50's Butterfly on 50

Oy! I was dying in butterfly! We then finished up with a few 25's before warming down. The set looked fun freestyle as for IM not as much. I had too much rest but that was okay. It's still a recovery week for swimming.

1500 SCM Freestyle

2008-12-09T17:19:00.001-08:00

Here are my official splits in this past weekends 1500 SCM Freestyle LINK:

32.58
1:07.77 (35.19)
1:43.84 (36.07)
2:19.60 (35.76)
2:55.62 (36.02)
3:31.81 (36.19)
4:08.00 (36.19)
4:44.01 (36.01)
5:20.45 (36.44)
5:56.73 (36.28)
6:32.94 (36.21)
7:09.37 (36.43)
7:45.66 (36.29)
8:21.89 (36.23)
8:58.01 (36.12)
9:34.21 (36.20)
10:10.33 (36.12)
10:46.47 (36.14)
11:22.85 (36.38)
11:58.71 (35.86)
12:34.90 (36.19)
13:11.19 (36.29)
13:47.69 (36.50)
14:24.04 (36.35)
15:00.67 (36.63)
15:37.20 (36.53)
16:13.76 (36.56)
16:50.87 (37.11)
17:27.11 (36.24)
18:02.14 (35.03)

So my new official time is 18:0214. I finished 1st in my age group 35-39. I then checked to see the top swims for all age groups for the men in this event:

1. 16:40.10
2. 16:34.06
3. 16:54.69
4. 18:02.14 ME!
5. 18:05.92
6. 18:07.37
7. 18:09.29
8. 18:24.20
9. 18:39.00
10. 18:43.97

Damn. I need to drop another minute still! After this swim I had made my new goal time of breaking 18 minutes but now I'm shooting for 17:30! I got one year!

And you can't go with out giving props to the 80 year old man who swam the 1500 in 32:07.74. That man is truly a great swimmer!

My Top 10 List

2008-12-09T17:10:00.000-08:00

After the end of each swim season (SCY, LCM, SCM) USMS releases the Top 10 Times for each age group for every event. I personally consider my Top 10 Individual Listings a pride of honor. So I get upset from time to time when I hear or read things like this (from USMS Forum):

- if you are desperate, 1500 and 200 Fly are always calling.

- do a 200 fly or 800 or 1500. You might have a better shot in those events.

While it is true less people will swim the 200 fly or the 1500 freestyle compared to swimming the 50 freestyle it should be no less of an honor. It's not like you just show up a USMS swim meet, jump in the pool, swim 60 laps and automatically make the Top 10 list. In fact I didn't make the Top 10 list the first year I started to swim distance events. Then in 2006 I received Top 10 times for my 1500 Freestyle and my 200 Butterfly. Both of those times I achieved at the 2006 Chicago Gay Games which I trained my ass off for. Then came 2007 a year that I didn't swim the 1500 freestyle and I actually missed the list in butterfly even though my time did improve. I was on the preliminary list for the butterfly but got bumped. As it stands now I'm on the 2008 LCM Top 10 Preliminary list for the 200 Butterfly and the 1500 Freestyle. I spent a lot of time in the pool this summer working on my swimming.

In some ways I think that is may even be easier to make the Top 10 List in sprint events as swimmers have more opportunities to swim these events at meets. While swimming the 1500 is usually limited to longer bigger meets. I usually only get to swim it once or twice per year. Talk about making a tough event even tougher when you don't get the chance to swim it that often.

Making comments about having a better shot at swimming the 1500 freestyle really is not fair to those who spent countless hours working on pacing to swim this event. Us distance swimmers spend just as much time swimming and working on our events as the sprinters. My previous 1500 SCM Freestyle time was 18:52 until earlier this year when I did an 18:26. I then spent countless workouts swimming sets designed for me to learn to find my pace and set it. At SPMA SCM Regionals all that pool time helped me do a time of 18:02.14.

As for 2008 SCM Top 10 times I compared my times this weekend to last years list and I have a very good chance of having 4 Top 10 times in the 200 fly, 200 back, 400 free and the 1500 free. I'll know in March for the SCM Season and sometime this month for the LCM Season.

3,300 LCM Swim

2008-12-09T17:08:00.000-08:00

I warmed up a 400 Swim / 300 Pull / 200 Kick / 100 Swim. (1,000)

10x50s odds free on 1:00 evens stroke on 1:05. did them IM Order. (500/1,500)

> 4x300's (1200/2,700)
> 1st 50 fly / 50 back / 50 breast / 150 Free
> 2nd 50 fly / 50 back / 100 breast / 100 Free
> 3rd 50 fly /100 back / 50 breast / 100 Free
> 4th 100 fly / 50 back / 50 breast / 100 Free

finishing up with 6x100's Free on 1:30.
I descended them but was only able to get to a 1:14. (600/3,300)

I still feel fatigued and sore from this weekends swim meet. Skipping weight training today. Figured I can start this weekend. Give my body a week to recover. May start to run again this week!

the17thman blog

2008-11-23T13:51:00.000-08:00

this is the backup blog to the17thman blog for the17thman click on this LINK. I only post to this blog when typepad is down and want to post before I forget something. Once again please check out the blog LINK.

Friday Swim

2008-03-21T11:23:00.000-07:00

I don't know why but I wasn't feeling it. I did the workout even when I wasn't making the intervals. I just did a flip turn and kept going. I should have made the intervals but I just felt sore and fatigued and gave up.

Warmed Up a 300

Warm Up Set

150 Dril

4x75's Kick

150 Drill

3x50's Kick

150 Dril

2x25's Kick

Main Set:

100 on 1:10

4x50's Fly on 50

100 Fast Fly

3x100's on 1:10

4x50's Back on 50

100 Fast Back

4x100's on 1:10/1:10/1:20/1:10/1:10

4x50's Back (everyone else did breast but I don't do breast)

100 Fast (did a 75 of it breast and gave up and swam a 25 free)

3x100's on 1:10

4x50's Free on 40

1x100 Fast

Then we did a 200 pull breathe control 3/5/3/7

3x50's over unders

Tuesday Night Swim

2008-03-18T22:05:00.000-07:00

Warm Up
400 Swim
300 Pull
200 Kick
50 Swim

6x75's Kick. 2 Free / 4 Fly / 2 Free

Main Set:
500 on a 1:20 base
1x100 on 1:15
400 on a 1:20 base
2x100 on 1:15
300 on a 1:20 base
3x100 on 1:15
200 on a :20 base
4x100 on 1:15
1x100 on a 1:20 base
5x00's on 1:20

6x75's on 1-3 back on 1:15 4-6 fly on 1:20

Tuesday Quick Run

2008-03-18T08:03:00.000-07:00

It hit snooze for about 40 minutes this morning cutting my run down to just 2 miles. To be honest I wasn't feeling to great on this run as I kept getting a pain in my side. I blame the alcohol from St Patty's Day for that. So not only was it a very short run it was a slow one with some walking. I grabbed the Nano and ran with my Nike+ this morning instead of the iPhone. I'll upload that info later. I did the run under 20 minutes so it wasn't the worst run in the world. Hopefully I'll be motivated enough to run tomorrow night after work.

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2007-03-27T16:41:00.000-07:00