Misery loves company

Nobody likes being miserable. But let's face it, when you are miserable, there is something very comforting about sharing the experience. Like when you are stuck in traffic, or the after affects of eating the macaroni salad that was left out all afternoon in 90 degrees, or when your neighbor's daughter is belting out Lady Gaga songs at midnight in preparation for her failed attempt at American Idol (all hypothetical, of course). So today when Bill slapped up the first sheet and said this workout was a request from an anonymous swimmer, nearly all of us groaned. Suspiciously, E was not groaning. Being the super-smarties that we are, we put two and two together and realized it was she who did this to us. So I guess that misery didn't have all the company today.

3 x 50 free
100 IM
3 x 50 count strokes
100 back
800 swim on 1:30 rest
4 x 50 back on 1;10
2 x 400 descend on 7:30 (we pulled #2)
4 x 50 back
800 swim AGAIN (we pulled 400, then did a 50 fast/50 easy for the last 400)

Wasn't pretty, but we did it. Good job BB, E, SB, S, and L.

Climb every mountain

Our lanemate KBB is off to Austria tomorrow, where I imagine he will frolick merrily through the hills and perhaps stop by the Abbey to see frauline Maria. And don't think we didn't hear you belting out "the hills are alive" in the men's locker room lately, KBB. Other than that, he'll probably do a little Ironman race. I know all of his hard work will pay off! First on deck, first in the pool, last out - you are ready Kim!!! He tapered today; smart, too, as this was a dreadful workout.

200 warmup
150 drill/stroke
2 x 50 count strokes
50 stroke
2 x 50 on :60
4 x 50 on :55
6 x 50 on :50
21 x 100 on 1:50

Ugh. We broke it up by going 5 x 100 swim, 5 x 100 pull, repeat. Not fun, but we did it. Good job all!

No inspiration

Kevin asked me last week how I come up with my blog ideas. As I have mentioned before, I count on being inspired between the time when I leave my house and when I arrive at work, at which point I take 5 minutes - no longer - to post the blog. I've got nothing today - nothing. The workout was fine, the drive in was fine, my coffee is fine - all fine, but nothing too exciting. So I can report that BB had an awesome swim at Chesapeake Bay - 2:02:20 - fantastic BB! And I can offer one more friendly masters tip to our new lanemate: Negative split means that you take the distance (let's say 300 for fun) and go faster on the last 150 than the first one. Doing the opposite is called ascending. Don't worry, we have patience and will get you up (or down) to speed. Either that, or one of our more mild mannered lanemates think (KBB or IW)may lose it and who knows what will happen.

2 x 100 drill/swim :20r
2 x 100 stroke/swim :20r
200 50 stroke/50 swim on 5:25 (ha!)
200 pace on 3:15 (ha!)
200 negative split
3 x 100 kick
300 50 stroke, 50 free on 5:30
300 pace on 5:15
300 negative split on 5:00
6 x 50 on :60
400 pull on 6:40
400 negative split

Nice job everyone.

Good luck, BB!

On Sunday, BB is going to swim 4.4 miles across the Chesapeake Bay under the Chesapeake Bay bridge. Coach Bill has done this before and today gave BB some well-needed advice, like don't run into the bridge, watch out for crabs (the kind that inhabit those waters, of course), and don't let the big boats hit you. Sound advice, I'd say. BB is definitely ready to go, as evidenced by his ability to do multiple 50s on 45 seconds today. Good workout by all:

warmup on own
50 drill
50 breast
100 IM
50 drill
50 back
100 IM
50 drill
50 fly
100 IM
8 x 100 on 1:55
2 x 250 pull hypoxic 9,3,7,3,5
2 x 50 stroke on 1:05
8 x 50 free on :50
2 x 50 stroke on 1:05
6 x 50 freee on :50
2 x 50 stroke on 1:05
4 x 50 free on :50 (:45 for BB and Sarah)

Friendly masters tip of the day: if you plan on leaving in the middle of a set, go to the back of the line so you don't mess up your lanemates' intervals.

The porpoise and the hare

With apologies to Aesop, I have slightly altered the title of this famous fable because this is, of course, a swim blog. But the story of the tortoise and the hare has meaning even today, and by today I really mean today at swimming. In summary, the fable is about a young, speedy hare who mocks the older, slower tortoise, who challenges the hare to the race. I saw this play out right in our own lane today! Let's just pretend that SB was the papa tortoise and our young water polo friend was the hare. Here's how it goes: the hare jumps out and races the warmup and beginning set. The tortoise sits back and slowly picks his way through the lane to take the lead. Mama tortoise (me) finally has a word with the hare and reminds him that he needs to leave 10 seconds, not 3 seconds, behind the tortoise (I mean it's only fair, right? Tortoises are supposedly slow). The end of this story is much like the end of the fable: the tortoise reigned supreme and then got out to go to the gym.

400 warmup on own
8 x 100 free working on catch, pull, finish, streamline on :20r
200 kick
8 x 150 going:
1-3 pace on 2:55
4-6 descend on 2:50
7 easy on 3:30
8 fastest of the day!
4 X 100 free on 1:50
6 x 50 stroke on 1:05

Well done, everyone.

Now I know

I'll admit it. I used to laugh when a distance set was posted and my sprinter-type lanemates would groan. I'd happily lope along with not a care in the world, not too slow, not too fast, with nary a kick to my name. Today, I was not so glib. When Bill posted the workout I groaned too, along with the small but hearty group who showed up today. The photo says it all: 800s. Here we go:

2 x 50 breast on :20
100 drill/swim on :20
2 x 50 back
100 drill/stroke
2 x 50 fly
100 drill/choice
800 swim steady pace
800 pull 400, :20r, negative split 400 swim
800 holding each 200 same pace
a bunch of kicking

Great job S and IW! I have no update today on the lane shenanigans, stay tuned until tomorrow.

Back to reality

I would much rather be where I was in the photo to the right than at the pool today - just being honest here. I awakened (at 4am, mind you, when the birds started to sing) to rain and thunder, which was rather harsh compared to 85 and sunny. But I am glad I got up because there were tons of poeple in L3 today, and we had a great workout!

200 on own (or whatever)
100 drill variety - (all on :20r)
50 stroke choice
50 fly
100 free
100 side kick/drill/choice
6 x 50 kick
4 x (4x100)
1-4 on 1:45 even pace
5-8 on 1:40 descend
9-12 on 1:50 hold pace
13-16 on 1:45 descend
400 pull going:
50 breath weak side
50 bilateral
50 strong side
50 every 5 strokes, repeat
9 x 50 swim

Quick "talking to" update from last week: Bill tried to restore order in the lane but this little project may take awhile. When SB gets riled up during the warmup ("are we doing a WARMUP set right now?" said at top of lungs) you know we are all in trouble. No worries, everyone. I will only let this go on so long before it gets out of control. :)