Rec swimmers

Good morning to all and welcome back from four days off. Some of us went to the pool on Saturday (a lot of us, actually!) to help our friends like E who are training for the meet. Going to the pool on a weekend only reinforces how lucky we are to swim masters. Let's be honest here. Rec swimming is as hazardous as riding your bike on a bike path on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. If you can't commandeer a lane, you are in big trouble. I don't want to sound uppity at all, but we all know how challenging it can be. First it's the evil glance you get when you ask if you can either split a lane or - God forbid - circle swim. Then there's Carmen's favorite - the "I just want to chat the whole time" swimmer. Worst of all, it's the swimmer who decides they want to "race" you while you are doing a warmup. The whole thing gets really wacky when we go long course and everyone has to circle swim. Anywho, it was great to be back this morning after indulging for four days.

200 warmup
4 x 75 drill 50/swim 25
4 x 50 stroke
4 x 50 drill, kick, drill, swim
5 x 200 on 3:05
4 x 50 on 1:05 stroke
4 x 25 easy on :35
4 x 150 on 2;20
4 x 50 stroke
4 x 25 easy on :35
5 x 100 on 1:25
4 x 50 stroke
4 x 25 easy

Good job E leading us on this set and SB, Dr. Bob, and C for making it through most of the workout. Note: none of us lasted for the whole workout!

Giving thanks

It has been awhile since I have been in the pool, so it was great to be back in the water today with my peeps! Since it is Thanksgiving, I want to take time today to give thanks. I have so much to be thankful for - my wonderful family, new and old friends, a great job and academic life, my health, and a parking spot right outside of my house. :) But this is a swim blog so I want to pay special attention and gratitude to MIT Masters and my fellow lanemates and morning swimmers. In a nutshell, I am thankful for:

1. Coach Bill. He is simply the best. Who else always has a smile on his face at 6:15 am (or 6:28) every morning? I am thankful to swim with him.
2. My lanemates. I have swam with some awesome people in the past (some of whom swim with me now) but as a group, I can't remember having so much fun at swim practice as I do now. It's great motivation to get up in the morning. So thanks, L3ers.
3. The morning swimmers. We just have a rockin' morning group, in all lanes. We may not swim the same intervals but we share the same fear of jumping in every day. It just takes Joel a little longer than most.
4. Towel service. I love the towel service, even if some days you get a spa towel and some days you get a hand towel. What other masters team has towel service?
5. Our pool. I don't care what anyone says about that pool across the river, we have the best pool in town.
6. BB leading the lane. I know that he could easily leave us for faster waters like Kevin did, but he stays with us through thick and thin. And he wears the suit.
7. Elaine for designing our line of L3 swimwear. I think she just may have to design a morning suit so we can all look dorky together.
8. The treadmill bank upstairs. Where else can you not swim, but swim at the same time? And critique your friends? I might start charging for my advice.

So to all of my lanemates - BB, E, IW, SB, Dr.B, KBB, CM, RS, KY - and all other morning swimmers - THANKS!

Now for our workout:

2 x (4x50) various drill
3 x (3 x 75) stroke/choice going:
3 on 1:25 (we did these IM)
3 on 1:15 (we did these random)
3 on 1:05 (we did these free)
400 going 100 IM, 100 free, 100 IM, 100 free
then:
2 x (3x100) OFF THE BLOCKS going
93%
96%
100%
on 3:00

While not much yardage today, much exhaustion. I pretty much despise sprinting but made it through. See y'all next week or even this weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Holiday gift ideas

It's never too early to start thinking about what to get your favorite swimmer this holiday season. Imagine the delight in you loved one's eyes when they open that shiny new pair of goggles (TRY Racetech), speedy new technical swimsuit (size 32), or adventure vacation (Bahamas, preferably.) But this morning a new gift idea came to me like a vision, right there on deck! Yes, it is the 2010 "Men of Lane 3" calendar! I can already see Dr. Bob with his stethoscope, SBB stretching on deck with his trusty pull bouy by his side, BB with his Blackberry and New York Times, or an action shot of IW doing research. And there is plenty of room for coach Bill and the men in other lanes, too (there is a reason why we have twelve months in a year!) Why did I envision this? Because all the men (minus SBB) had their L3 suits on today. E, the mastermind behind our uniforms, was watching it all from above. It was pretty hilarious, and I won't go into details, but will just say that it is hard to laugh and swim at the same time.

Now, for our workout:

300 on own
25 swim
50 gallup kick
75 drill
100 IM or stroke
25 kick
50 swim
75 drill
2 x 100 IM or stroke
6 x 50 backstroke kick with fins
MAIN:
500 work it on 7:30
500 pull on :60r
5 x 100 on 1:25
500 work it on 7:30
500 fast

We ran out of time so did our fast one fourth and did a 200 at the end. BB was on fire today, 6:08 for the 500 and IW a 6:30. I did my best at 6:32, but was reminded that when it's time to get up and go, my speed got up and went. Fun day today, happy weekend.

p.s. don't worry, the women of L3 will have our photos on coffee mugs or something
p.p.s. I am serious about the calendar, boys

Whatever it takes

I saw the most bizzare thing this morning driving to work after swim practice. I'm on Beacon Street and this woman in a fancy matching sweatsuit was power walking with what appeared to be weights of some kind. But on closer inspection, they were not weights at all but were two twelve-packs of Budweiser. While this may not be odd in St. Louis, it's definitely odd in Brookline, particularly at 8am. The thing is, no liquor stores are open at this time so this was intentional. Anyway, the takeaway message might be that Bud can be good for your health. I guess.

150 warmup
3 x (4x50), count strokes, reverse IM, drill
10 x 25 ascend/descend
2 x (3x100)going:
75 fly, 25 back
75 back, 25 breast
75 breast, 25 free
2 x 200 on 3:05
2 x 300 on 3:00
2 x 200 on 2:55
2 x 200 on 2:50
2 x 200 on 2:45

Carmen apparently emailed this set to Bill (who knew we could do that!) but then didn't show up. The intervals were perfect and not too stressful given I have not swam masters in a week. It was nice to swim with BB, E, and KBB. And I did burn some calories, E.

Casual Friday

Yes, it's casual Friday, which means I am just getting around to posting the workout from today and it's 7pm! Most of us walk onto deck on a Friday morning knowing we can chat a little longer, change the warmup a bit, or get out early. I mean, it's Friday! Dr. Bob celebrated casual Friday with his "basic black" new suit. But then we saw Mariah on deck (at 6:15 I might add) and we knew this would be no regular casual Friday. She means business. As BB says, it's like having a substitute teacher. But the difference is that rather than make fun of the substitute teacher we respond with a combination of fear and respect with Mariah. Here is the workout:

200 wu
200 swim
4x100 drill/swim
4x50 build
200 IM 3:00
3x100 1:45
200 IM 3:10
3x100 1:30
200 IM 3:20
3x100 1:20
200 IM 3:45
100 fr 1:15
50 ez
4x50 kick odd 55 even 1:10
4x50 swim odd 40sec even 50sec
4x25 kick
4x25 odd 20 sec even 25sec

As always, a great workout. Thanks Mariah!

The Biggest...Eater?

I am slightly embarassed to reveal that for the last two weeks I have found myself watching the show The Biggest Loser. For those of you are unfamiliar with this show, it's basically a reality show where people compete to lose the most weight by exercising a lot, learning about good eating habits, and getting yelled at by skinny personal trainers. All good things, however I don't really know what this show says about our culture, but I will hold my social commentary for another time. What I can tell you is that I eat more while watching the show than the contestants do the whole episode. I can't help it. They choose between a piece of cake and an apple, I go make brownies. They eat a delicious salad, I do the same but include 3 slices of pizza. And yesterday they walked by an ice cream truck and opted for a piece of gum while I walked to my freezer and got out the Ben and Jerry's. Maybe I knew that I would swim hard the next morning so it was okay, who knows. But today Dr. Bob gets the award for Biggest Fashion Statement (or perhaps Biggest Small Bathing Suit) for his new L3 suit. I can't post a picture because he is a renowned physician and doing so may hurt his career, reduce his invitations to talk shows, and prevent him from winning the Nobel Prize for something. But he is brave, and I for one look forward to the day when all the men of L3 wear their suits in solidarity.

100wu
4 x(3x50) kick/fr, drill/fr, stroke on :15rest
4 x 25 fly on 35sec
100 free pull on 1:35
200 descend by 50's on 3:00
3 x 100 pull 1:35
400 descend by 100's on 6:00
600 fr 8:30
400 fr pull on 6:00
200 IM 3:20
50 ez
200 IM 3:20
500 free hold pace
50 ez
3800 yards--wow!

Fantastic day! Great job BB, J, Dr. Bob, and IW.
Great job, everyone!

Just like a coctail party...

It's rare to have a place where so many different people with different careers, opinions, and outlooks can gather in one place and all get along (for the most part.) That is masters swimming. There are certain things that we swimmers rarely talk about at practice, like politics, work, or religion. It's kind of an unwritten rule, just like when you go to a coctail party but there is no alcohol and nobody cares that you are scantily dressed. But it's amazing how little we really know about all the people we swim with. We stick to topics like the pool, our coach, who said what to whom and in what tone of voice, who crashed during the workout, etc., and that's pretty much it. There are, of course, exceptions for some of us who are friends outside of the pool, but the truth is that we are in a swimocracy every morning. In your day job you may be finding a cure for cancer or solving the nation's financial crisis but between 6am and 7:30am, it's really all about whether you kept the intervals.

150 warmup
12 x 25 going drill/build
3 x 100 count strokes
6 x 50 middle of the pool
100 on 1:20
50 stroke on :60
2 x 25 on :40
100 on 1:15
50 stroke on :55
2 x 25 on :40
100 on 1:20
50 stroke on :50
2 x 25 on :40
100 on 1:15
50 stroke on :45
2 x 25 on :40
100 stroke on 1:45
50 free on :50
2 x 25 on :40
100 stroke on 1:40
50 free on :50
2 x 25 on :40
100 stroke on 1:45
50 free on :50
2 x 25 on :40
100 stroke on 1:40
50 free on :50
2 x 25 on :40
4 x 100 going odds swim, evens kick

Let the record show that I did the kick set today. Lots of L3ers today, BB, E, IW, C, SB, and me. What happened to Lane 4? Nobody showed up, so we got to use your lane, thanks.