Happy Birthday, SB! (and we did it!!)

A hearty group of MIT Masters swimmers showed up to help SB celebrate his 50th birthday (that's him on the right). What is so crazy about this is that if you ever saw SB, you might think he is 40, but even that would be a stretch. One of our lanemates who will remain nameless was shocked, shocked! to find out he was 50. In any case, we did our 50 x 100 (actually 51 for good luck) and dare say, we had fun doing it. Even Ian "the hammer" and BB "I'm next" finished with a 50 fly. The anticipation of it was worse than the actual set, which given the intervals was very manageable. Here it is:

10 x 100
drill/swim on 2:00
10 x 100
descend 1-3,4-6,7-9 easy 10 on 1:50
10 x 100
1-2 pull, 3-4 swim on 1:45
5-6 pull, 7-8 swim on 1:50
9-10 pull on 1:45
10 x 100
odds IM, evens free
10 x 100
ascend 1-5, 6-10

AND

And a final 100 for good luck in the next year! 5100 total, awesome.

Great job all finishers: SB, BB, E, KBB, IW, BG, JK, KY, S, M,and moi. :) And a special thanks to coach Bill for coordinating it and getting us the extra time in the pool.

Variety pack

When I was a kid I used to love the variety pack of little cereals like cracker jack and lucky charms, all full of sugar and goodness. We were never allowed to get them, but the lure of the multiple flavors/types in one purchase is something I'll never forget. That's why today, when given a choice, I often go with the "sampler" of teas, variety pack of instant oatmeal, or even neapolitan ice cream which has variety built right in. There is something very appealing about variety, and that is why I liked today's workout. There was something for everyone!

300 on own
200 swim pace on :25r
150 going kick/choice/kick on :25
100 going drill/swim
100 stroke
50 easy
5 x 200 going:
odds free on 3:20
evens IM or pull on 3:40
3 x 50 free descend on :50
3 x 50 stroke descend on 1:10
3 x 50 free descend on :55
3 x 50 stroke descend on 1:05
2 x 50 free descend on :50
2 x 50 breast on 1:05
2 x 50 back on 1:05
2 x 50 fly on 1:05
50 free on :45
50 breast on :60
50 back on :60
50 fly on :60

My arms hurt today. Kevin and I were wondering aloud how we are going to do 50 x 100 on Thursday. Yes we can!

Premonition

As we all know, a premonition is a situation where future events are forecast. Like our friend Nostradamus who predicted everything from fires to famines to pasteurized milk. I am sure somewhere in one of his quatrains he predicted that we have a BIG DAY on Thursday as SB turns 50. We are doing 50 x 100 as a workout, but I can't say that I was thrilled to see 21 100s on the sheet today. At least we know that we won't repeat today's workout as it was all I could do to stay in the pool. I kept saying to myself "self, it will be different on Thursday because it's SB's birthday and we'll all be together, and 100s aren't that bad, and when we finish we'll be happy, and don't be so mad Bill gave us this workout today." So I thought this the whole time, which oddly prevented me from going into a negativity spiral. Here it is:

200 on own
5 x (2x50)
1-2 work on extension
3-4 work on catch
5-6 work on pull
7-8 work on finish
9-10 I forget but I worked on kicking
250 IM first and last 50 fly
4 x 100 on 2:00
6 x 100 on 1:50
8 x 100 on 1:40 going 1-4 first 50 fast, 5-8 second 50 fast
4 x 100 on 1:55
300 hypoxic

Trying to figure out my swim schedule this week to build up to Thursday. Maybe I'll just taper until then. :)

Disgruntled

I challenge anyone to come up with a "dis" word that is positive. I'm not sure you can, because as a prefix it means "lack of" or "not". I could only come up with "dis" words for the swim today. First, there was discomfort in getting out of bed, as I was deep in sleep. Then I displaced my keys, which woke me up running around my house at 5:40am. Then of course the workout was (in my opinion) discouraging and dissapointing. In other words, it was hard and I disliked it. I discarded the sheets, so this is all memory:

300 on own (or for Elaine, 700!)
200 swim on :20r
4 x 50 count strokes on :15r
200 drill/stroke on :20r
4 x 50 choice
50 free on :55
50 fly on :60
2 x 50 back on 1:05
50 free
2x 50 breast on 1:10
50 free
Main set is four times thru:
200 fast-ish on 3:05
50 easy on 1:20
50 sprint off blocks on :60
50 easy on 1:10
6 x 50 on 1:10

While I was typing this I came up with two words that were somewhat positive - discreet and Disney. The second might not count.

Distance with a twist

As someone who likes distance, I might have slept in if I knew that the main set was 2 x 1000. Mostly because that just sounds so boring! But it wasn't really boring at all the way we did it. Here's today's workout:

300 on own
4 x 50
25 free/25 free
25 breast/25 free
25 back/25 free
25 fly/25 free
3 x 100 kick
1000 going:
200 fast
200 hypoxic (7,3,5,3)
200 fast
200 hypoxic
200 fast
2 x 50 on 1:15
1000 going:
build within each 300
then don't forget the final 100
2 x 50 easy

What this did, especially on the third one, was break it up into 3 small sets of 100s. If you think about it that way, going easy, medium, fast then it is much more manageable. Great job all.

Open Water

There are some big open water races this weekend, most notably the Nubble Light swim in York, Maine. E and Bill G. are doing this, which is a 2.4 mile swim around Nubble light. There is some debate as to the water temperature, with Bill claiming it is 59 degrees and E saying 68. Let's hope they meet in the middle for a pleasant 64 degree swim. On the other end is the Charles River Swim, which is a one-mile swim in 80 plus degree water right downtown off of the Esplanade. BB and I are signed up, though high bacteria count may cancel it. Here's hoping it goes off - I have done this before and it really is incredible to see both Cambridge and Boston during a swim! No need to worry about the green fungus which gets in our suits - I believe it's all natural. :) Kudos to those who have worked so hard to clean up our river so it is swimmable.

Distance (kind-of) day. Conspicuously missing was Ian, who has been hammering, hammering, hammering in the pool every day.

6 x 50 swim on 1:05
2 x 100 kick
3 x 100 stroke/drill/fast :20r
2 x 100 kick
500 on 8:30 going:
200 fast
100 pace
100 build
100 fast
500 on 8:20 going:
100 fast
100 pace
300 fast, descending each 100
500 steady pace

Good job all. To the person who requested kicking: phooey on you.

Not gonna lie

Today we have a heat advisory - 100 degrees and humid. While everyone is all atwitter about the triple-H conditions, I am secretly delighted. You see, I love this weather because I don't get cold in this weather. Or at least I thought so until I got to my office to find the Snow Miser setting up shop RIGHT IN MY OFFICE. The nerve. I called dining services and let them know they could store meat in here today or at the least just pick the little guy up so my office warms up. So while all of you are sweaty and uncomfortable, think of me here (you may want to call me to see if I have hypothermia) in my summer dress with my space heater on, fighting with the Snow Miser. But the water was truly refreshing today, but again, not gonna lie and say the workout was refreshing, because it was hard.

Two times thru:
3 x 50 breast
1 x 50 free
100 choice
8 x 100 on 1:40
2 x 50 easy on 1;15
400 50 stroke/50 free
6 x 100 on 1:35
2 x 50 easy
4 x 100 on 1:35
2 x 50 easy

The last set of 4 was supposed to be on 1:30 but we changed the interval - while we may have made one or two of them, the rest would have been junk. Good job, all.