Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah!

I feel very lucky to swim at MIT Masters with wonderful people. We have fun, we work hard, and get to swim in the best pool in town with coach Bill. So l'chaim to my teammates celebrating Hannukah and Feliz Navidad to those who celebrate Christmas! Today's pool temp a bit up from Monday but still cool. Hopefully in ten days it will be up to a balmy 79 degrees.

800 warmup (600 in warm pool, 200 in cold pool)
200 free on :20r
200 stroke on :20r
200 kick on :20r
2 x 100 free on :15r
2 x 50 back :10r
2 x 100 free :15r
2 x 50 breast on :15r
12 x 150 going:
1-4 on 2:50
5-8 on 2:40
9-12 on 2:30

Wetsuits Optional

It started before practice, with a sign on the door of the locker room. "WARNING" the sign said, "POOL TEMPERATURE IS 75 DEGREES. IT COULD TAKE A COUPLE OF DAYS TO WARM UP". It's ironic how this coincides with the coldest night of the year. Undaunted, we all plunged into the crisp, clear cold water. It was almost like swimming outside except we weren't outside, we were inside, where the water is supposed to be warm. Some of us (me) even went to the warm pool first. But a funny thing happened. We never really warmed up. Usually after a 500 even the 79 degree pool feels good. Several people got out and nobody really seemed to enjoy it. So please - next time you swim, bring a cup of hot, steaming water and pour it in the pool. That should do it. Coach Bill wasn't there today so we made up our own workout. Hope all is ok, CB!

500-700 "warmup"
10 x 50 drill/swim by 25 on :60
10 x 200 going:
1-2 free on 3:30
3-4 IM on 4:00
5-6 pull on 3:15
7-10 odds free on 3:30, evens IM on 4:00
"cool down": 4 x 50 stroke

Rehashing a Favorite

So the good thing about swimming on your own is that you get to pick the workout, which I gladly did this morning when a bunch of us went to Alumni pool because the Z center was closed. When I said that I wanted to do one of my favorites, BB already knew what was coming. E probably did too. And everyone else knows I love 200s and I love variety, so this workout was a combination of everything. Today's workout was a little like those Russian Matryoshka dolls, you keep opening it up and you get something you love, but just smaller (or shorter, in this case). But never fear, if you didn't like this I have other favorites that I am happy to share! Special shout out to E and Grace who were there with me at 6am sharp!

400 warmup
5 x 200 (you were right, BB!)on :20r
200 drill/swim by 50
200 swim
200 pull
200 IM or stroke
200 choice
Main set: 4 x 500 broken
500 swim on 7:30
2 x 250 pull on 3:45
5 x 100 free odds free on 1:30, evens IM on 1:45
50 easy
10 x 50 odds sprint on :45, evens easy on :60
2 x 75 on :60
2 x 75 on 1:05
2 x 75 on 1:10

Santa's watching?

I really thought that the only person who saw me cut out part of the kick set today was Ian. And when I chose to pull one of the 200s to break it up a bit, again, I only thought Ian noticed. But as we finished the set, all I heard was "Santa is watching". Of course this harkened me back to my earliest memory of my mom picking up the phone to call Santa when we were misbehaving (no, she was not on the phone with Santa ALL the time). And to this day, I still think the big guy was on the other line, because instead of getting the pretty pink ballet tutu like my sister did, I got the black one, and then my family filmed me dancing gracefully into the Christmas tree. True story. Black swan had a totally different meaning back in 1970. Anyway, I'll try to atone for my kick set, SC. Plus, I think he was a little busy with the 800 age group swimmers who descended on deck at 7:15am.

400 on own
6 x 50 drill/swim on :60
6 x 75 - 2 on 1:30, 2 on 1:10, 2 on :60
4 x 75 kick (or in my case, 3 x 75 and one by 50)
Eight times thru:
200 on 2:55
25 on :45
6 x 50 going underwater 25, swim 25

Wha happen?

There are some things in life that are to be expected. For instance, when you go to the tropics, you expect sun and surf, when you eat ice cream every day, you expect to gain weight, and when you go to Whole Foods, you expect fresh vegetables and impatient people. Most importantly, when you swim at MIT masters on Wednesdays, you expect distance. So you can only imagine our surprise when we got to the pool and the workout was short/sprint/stroke. Due to the swim meet (is anyone actually swimming in the meet besides E?) coach Bill mixed it up for us this week. Surprise! I usually love surprises, but in this case it was just tolerable. But sprints are good for us, so is stroke, so here we go:
400 warmup
twice thru:
4 x 25 drill :30
2 x 50 sroke :60
2 x 50 free :60
100 on 1:35
4 x 75 on 1:20
12 x 100 going:
1-3 and 7-9 fly/back, back/breast, breast free on 1:55
4-6 and 10-12 free on 1:35
2 x 25 sprint fly on :25
1 easy on :40
2 x 25 sprint back on :25
1 easy on :40
2 x 25 sprint breast on :25
1 easy on :40
2 x 25 sprint free on :25
1 easy on :40
3 x 25 sprint fly on :30
1 easy on :40
3 x 25 sprint back on :30
1 easy on :40
3 x 25 sprint breast on :30
1 easy on :40
3 x 25 sprint free on :30
1 easy on :40