Going legit

The time has come to pay the piper. And by the piper, I mean the MIT parking and transportation office. After years of taking our chances that the police would not be up at 6am to ticket our cars, not only have we received lots of tickets of late but BB had his car towed. Yep, towed, as in off-to-Somerville towed, with a hefty price tag of $200. He seemed to take it all in stride (as many repentent law breakers do upon getting caught) and has agreed to join me in paying for parking. How does this relate to a swim blog? Well, no car = no swimming. How's that?

Distance day today

200 warmup on own
2 x (4 x 50) on :55
Ascend
Descend
Easy
Fast
2 x (4 x 50) on :60
1-4 IM order
5-8 stroke
800 free on 1:30r
100 easy on 2:45
800 free on 1:30r
100 easy
6 x 50

Tough, but fun.

Mixin' it Up

I am not sure why Coach Bill feels the need to apologize to us freestyle swimmers every time he gives a stroke set. Really, it's not so bad. I am often asked by non-swimming friends why any distance swimmer or triathlete would ever do a stroke workout. My initial reaction is that anyone who calls themself a swimmer should be doing all of the strokes. But truth be told, mixing it up with different strokes makes you a stronger swimmer overall. And our lanemates who love stroke put up with us and our distance freestyle sets, so all is fair.

300 warmup
200 free pace on :20r
2 x 100 IM on :15r
6 x 50 count strokes on :10r
200 kick on :20r
2 x 100 free
5 x 100 fly/back on 2:10
4 x 100 free on 1:50
5 x 100 back/breast on 2:15
4 x 100 free on 1:50

It was especially nice to swim with people who swam the whole set, thank you BB, KBB, and S (plus our other friend). Dr. Bob we hardly knew ye!

Seemed like more than it was...

I'm having one of those days. As I write this blog entry it's 1:15pm, but it feels like 5pm. I've done so much since I got in this morning that I feel that the time of day should reflect the amount of work I have accomplished. The same could be said for today's workout. When we finished, I thought, "wow, we just did 4000 meters!" But then we added it up, and without including our 300 warmup, it was only 2900 meters. I wasn't the only one surprised, KBB added it up twice. Maybe it was the number of sheets Bill put up in front of us, but it felt longer.

300 on own
Three times thru:
2 x 50 front quad :15r
100 going 25 drill/25 build :20r
4 x 50 on :45
4 x 50 on 1:05
4 x 50 on :50
4 x 50 on 1:05
4 x 100 on 1:45
2 x 50 easy on 1:20
4 x 100 on 1:40
2 x 50 easy on 1:20
4 x 100 on 1:45
2 x 50 easy on 1:20


That's 3200 meters total. E said "only the strong survived today." True, except SB who tore his calf (not swimming) which really stinks. But my favorite saying still holds true: it's not how you start, it's how you finish.

Long Course is Back!

To the delight of some, and to the dismay of others, the pool was converted to long course meters today for the entire summer. It's like a gift that keeps on giving for 4 months. But even to those of us who love distance, the end of the pool can seem very, very far away. But we did it - of the six who started in our lane, only three survived.




300 warmup on own
5 x 100 drill/swim by 25 on :25r
Three times thru:
50 swim 7 breaths max on 1:10
50 build on 1:05
50 stroke on :60
50 fast on 1:05
3 x 300 steady pace on 5:20
4 x 200 DESCEND on 3:30

Great job E DESCENDING the last set! Descending (for those who need a refresher) means that you go SLOW on the first one, a little bit faster on the second, even faster on the third and the last one is FAST. Believe me, it is not easy to do as you are pretty darn tired at the end.

Seis de Mayo

The day after Cinco de Mayo is always a bit tough if you've had one of the items pictured to the right the night before. And it was only fitting that Bill gave us five 400s to remind us of the venerable holiday, which contrary to popular belief is NOT to celebrate Mexico's Independence Day. It's to celebrate Mexico's victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. There you go.

Good to swim with E, C, and Dr. Bob today.

400 swim (only E did this)
5 x 100 IM odds break at 50 for 10 sec on :20r
5 x 100 free, odds break at 50 for 5 sec on :15r
5 x 400*
400 swim steady pace on 6:20
4 x 100 descend on 1:40
400 faster than the first on 6:00
6 x 75 odds on :60, evens on 1:15 (*450)
400 fastest of the day
100 cool down

Happy Friday and weekend, everyone! Nice job today by all.