Back to everything

This week marks the beginning of the return to work, school, routine. The pool will start to be more crowded and traffic will again be ridiculous. Just a word of warning: today and tomorrow will be the worst possible time for you to drive in Boston. Like the swallows of Capistrano, students will return in the tens of thousands to the Boston area, clogging roads, hitting parked cars in their rented U-Hauls, and taking their MIT swim test. For those of you who don't know, to graduate MIT you must pass a swim test, which frankly I think is an awesome requirement. I noticed the other day that the students who take the test early in their first year are the confident ones - they zip back and forth and get the thing over with. It's the seniors who have delayed it four years who make it interesting. Come to the pool in late May to witness what some MIT students say is their hardest exam. Go figure!

Another doozey to remember today. Here we go:

200 on own
4 x 100 drill/stroke odds, drill/free evens on :20r
2 times thru:
50 free
50 back
50 breast
50 fly
2 x 50 on :45
50 easy on 1:05
4 x 50 on :40
50 easy on 1:05
6 x 50 on :45
50 easy on 1:05
400 IM on :30r
3 x 200 on 3:15
50 stroke fast on :50
50 easy on 1:05
2 x 50 stroke on :55 (first one fast)
50 easy on 1:05
3 x 50 stroke on :60 (first one fast)
50 easy on 1:05

Welcome back, BB and SB (even though SB returned 10 days ago).

Brain game

I am beginning to think that coach Bill has been reading up on books that help people keep their brains stimulated such as "brain teasers for the 40+ crowd" or the like, because the workouts over the last week or so make my head hurt from thinking too much. It's the combination of many different sets, various intervals within said sets, and sets that end in a 25. Not sure about the rest of you, but I realize lately how much that little sheet of paper with the workout and itervals on it is a crutch, and when it's not there it's kind of stressful. While I am somewhat used to forgetting the whole workout after I get out of the water, it's quite another thing to do so while you are still swimming. Ginko biloba in our water bottles might help.

Warmup
6 x 50 various work on stroke on :60
3 (4x25) on :35
1-4 breast, 5-8 back, 9-12 fly
300 going 100 extension, 100 drill, 100 power
6 x 75 going:
1-2 on 1:15
3-4 on 1:10
5-6 on 1:05
3 (3 x 225s): These are 200 work, 25 easy
1-3 descend on 3:30
4-6 descend on 3:25
7-9 descend on 3:20

First of all, 200s are my fave so this was my cup of tea. The key is to really go nice an easy on the first of each set, swim pace the second, and go hard the last one. It was harder to go real easy on the final set if you wanted some decent rest, but a great set overall. Thanks for the company KBB.

Buckle up

Today was one of those workouts where you really never knew where the road was leading you. Usually halfway through you get a sense of what you are up to for the day. It's like driving to get on the highway - lots of short roads with turns and stoplights (the warmup), then you get on the highway and you know your destination (main set). Yet by 7am, we weren't sure if we were still approaching the onramp or taking a secondary road not usually on googlemaps. Then it became clear, and we did what any self-respecting masters swimmers would do: we changed the workout. Now, now, before you get all uppity about us defying authority, we did so with the coach's blessing. Here is what we did. What we were supposed to do is in parenthesis. The late adjustments were for time; the earlier adjustments were because we could not bring ourselves to swim 6 more 100s.

200 on own
200 free on 3:20
8 x 50 various drills/stroke work on:60
3 x 100 drill/swim on :20r
3 x 100 kick on 2:20
4 x 25 free, fly back, fly
8 x 100 on 1:30
4 x 25 on :35
3 x 200 pull on 3:00 (6 x 100 0n 1:40)
4 x 25 on :35
2 x 100 on 1:20 (4 x 100 on 1:35)
2 x 25 on :40
2 x 100 stroke/swim by 25 on 1:45 (2 x 100 on 1:20)

Guest Blogger KBB: All he wants to do is have some fun...

Our guest blogger is lane 3 superstar KBB, who is out in Santa Monica. Note the beautiful, long course, outdoor pool. Sigh.

Can't get that Sheryl Crow song out of my head. Today's workout was 50 meter long course with the Southern California Aquatics Club (SCAC) at the Santa Monica College outdoor pool. Plenty of company, must have been 12 people in my lane. Yes, swimming outdoors as the sun comes up. Barely up. It gets light much later out here, and practice was from 5:30 to 6:30. Which wouldn't be bad as my body is still on East Coast time. Unfortunately, my flight into LAX was late, so bedtime was not until 11 PM. Ouch!!

Today's set (long course meters)
300 on your own
4 x (2 x 50 kick, 100 swim)
3 x 100 @ 1:40
1 x 50 fast
1 x 150
3 x 100 @ 1:40
1 x 100 fast
1 x 150
3 x 100 @ 1:40
1 x 150 fast
1 x 50
3 x 100 @ 1:40
1 x 200 fast

Sorry, I can't recall the times on the entire set, be there was never more than 5 sec rest. At least not for me.

The grass will be greener...

on the other side of this rain! I'm going to try not to complain about the last 3 days of rain, mostly because I can't remember the last time it rained here. We have been so lucky! Or unlucky, if you are not a fan of droughts. But I did notice that the grass seemed a lot less brown this morning. And how pretty is that picture? Must admit, though, that it is harder to get out of bed when the rain is pounding on the roof and it never seems to get light. Ok, enough. We did swim today, and here is our workout:

200 on own
3 x (4 x 50) on :20r going:
50 stroke drill
50 free fast
50 stroke fast
50 free dill
6 x 50 middle of the pool, work on turns on :60
2 x 25 fly on :30
2 x 25 fly on :35
2 x 25 fly on :40
200 IM on 3:15 (ouch)
500 free pace on 8:05
100 easy on 2:00
500 free faster on 7:30
200 IM, break at 100, last 100 2:15
500 free on 7:05

Congrats to all finishers. I finished by swimming to the car mechanic.

Summah is ovah

Not literally, we know that officially happens in mid-September, or for many after Labor Day. But for all intents and purposes, for us distance swimmers, it is over. The pool changed to short course yards from long course meters. While there was glee in the locker room for most, it was a sense of gloom and doom for some of us who love the smooth, not-interrupted-by-walls water. But it's interesting that all of a sudden I realized how dark it was this morning, or how much colder the pool felt, or how much I stink at flip turns. But Bill snapped some of us out of our short course funk by this workout. KBB, I missed the last set so please fill us in.

5 x 100 on :20r going
swim
drill/swim
stroke/swim
kick/swim
swim
6 x 25 back on :30
50 easy on 1:10
6 x 25 breast on :35
50 easy on 1:10
6 x 25 fly on :30
50 easy on 1:10
6 x 75 on :60
100 easy on 2:30
6 x 75 on 1:05
100 easy on 2:30
6 x 75 on 1:10
100 easy
one more set I didn't catch

Good luck to all racers this weekend - big triathlon in NH and open water swims in Gloucester and Salem!

How many degrees does it take...

I added up how many college and graduate degrees were swimming in lane 3 today. No, the degrees themselves were not wrapped in a ziploc and floating on a kickboard board or splashing and playing around on the blocks. It was the people swimming - 5 that I know of - who have 11.5 undergraduate, graduate, and terminal degrees combined. The half is because one is still in progress. In any case, it's a crazy group of smarty pants. So when we finished the set today, it was comical that none of us could add up how much we did. I don't even know what new math is, but we could have used some old math at that point. After a grueling 5 minutes of back and forth we figured it out. Phew. Now people can go back to saving lives and changing the world.

6 x 50 alternate drill/swim on :15r
200 free stretch out
6 x 50 going breast drill, breast, back drill, fly drill, back, fly
5 x 100 count strokes/free descend on 1:55
400 going breath weak side, bilateral, strong side, every 9 by 50 and repeat
1000 for time
100 easy

That is 2700 for the record. Good job BB leading the 1000. All that pizza, bratwurst, and beer from last night fueled you well.

Sprint day

We didn't do very many meters today, but it felt like we did. Today was sprint day, and unlike distance day one never knows what day of the week sprint day will be. Sometimes we don't have sprint day at all for weeks, then BAM! there it is. The comedy of today was watching Bill (see image above) trying to send 4-5 heats off on one end, then sprint himself on the deck down to try and send off the first group on the other end at :45. After about two he gave up, likely realizing that this workout scheme where he blows the the whistle and gets our time on his stopwatch only works in yards. Here it is:

12 x 50 going twice thru:
1-2 free
3 drill
4-5 stroke
6 drill
4 x 100 free/back on 2:00
Main set 4 times thru:
50 sprint off blocks on :45
50 pace on :55
50 easy on 1:10
50 sprint stroke on :50
50 pace stroke on :60
50 easy stroke on 1:20
5 x 100 pull hypoxic:
100 breathe every 9 on 1:50
100 breathe every 5 on 1:45
100 breathe every 7 on 1:50
100 breathe every 5 on 1:45
100 breathe every 7 on 1:50

2700 meters total, but quality. Nice job all.

Wednesday is always distance day

Wednesday is distance day at MIT Masters, so it should be no surprise that we did distance. We always do distance on Wednesdays, even our resident stroke person S diligently does distance without complaining. But apparently it was a surprise to one person who swims infrequently in lane 3, who said "are you doing a separate lane for IM?" Coach Bill seemed taken aback by the request because, after all, Wednesday is distance day. But being the accommodating coach that he is, he moved her to lane 1 while the rest of us did distance. Because it's Wednesday. That is why we did distance.

300 on own
4 x 50 free build down, build up, easy, fast
4 x 50 stroke build down, build up, easy, fast
8 x 50 kick odds on :60, evens on :55 (right!)

1000 going:
400 pace (get time)
200 IM
400 pace

800 going:
300 pace
200 stroke
300 pace

400 going: faster than the first 400

Great job everyone. You get a gold "D". :)

Going bananas

So I am on Storrow Drive this morning and the woman driving the fancy German SUV in front of me rolls down the window and throws a banana peel out onto the road. Now if you know me, you already know that littering in general riles me up. But what really gets me is when people think that throwing things like banana peels, apple cores, etc. is not littering. "It's organic", they say. Okay, so imagine if everyone just decided to throw their biodegradable food waste on the road, in your front lawn, or while strolling down the street. It would be a dump, wouldn't it? So please don't do it, in this state it is considered littering and there is a fine. It take a banana peel 3-4 weeks to decompose. And you wouldn't want to be swimming through that at Walden either (see, I tied this into my swim blog somehow!). And, E was going bananas at the workout this morning. :)

300 on own
9 x 50 going 50 drill, stroke, backstroke, repeat
200 kick
300 swim hard on 5:15
6 x 50 IM order on 1:10
300 pull on 5:00
3 x 100 back/free on 2:10
300 swim hard on 5:15
3 x 50 backstroke descend on 1:05
3 x 50 free descend on :60
300 pull hypoxic 7,3,5 by 100

Happy Monday, everyone!