Distance Day

I am not sure how to tie in the photo to the right except to say the man texting behind home plate never made it to swim practice today.  Note that the guy at the plate just got hit and BB is very busy keeping people up to date on the game.  About an inning later he disappeared and reappeared with a fancy new Red Sox hat to keep him warm. This is a screen shot from a warm living room where we followed BB's every move.

Three times thru:
100 drill/swim
75 stroke
50 free
25 kick
5 x 600 going:
600 swim (200 4 kicks off wall, 200 head up, 200 descend)
600 swim steady pace
600 going 3 x 200 IM no stopping
600 descend by 150
6 x 100 pick a pace on 1:45

A nice way to mix it up - it didn't really feel like a distance day with the stroke in there.

Ice Cold

I could be referring to many things with this title, from the pool temperature (refreshing!), how I like my beer, to the chilling stare we get from coach Bill when we disobey him. But today it's about the showers. They were ice cold. The ironic thing is that we were greeted with a big sign saying "CAUTION! Water temperature is very hot - please use care when turning on shower". So I carefully turned on the shower, awaited my scalding water, then turned the handle some more (it's going to get me, that hot water!), then more (your cautionary note means nothing - bring it on!) and finally reached the end. No hot water. I looked at my watch and it was not April first but May first. The joke was on all of us! Best quote of the day from BG "you think they would figure this out - isn't this the Massachusetts Institute of TECHNOLOGY?" IW, please take care of this. :)

200 warmup
3 x 100 k/drill/swim :20r
200 free 25r
200 stroke
3 x 200 IM on 3:10
3 x 50 free dr/swim :60
6 x 75 fast free 1-3 on :60, 4-6 on 1:05
3 x 100 IM on 1:50
2 x 50 stroke :60
6 x 75 fast free 1-3 on :60, 4-6 on 1:05
400 pull hypoxic 3,7,3,5
6 x 50 free working on turns :60

A new sheriff in town?

Coach Bill wore a little Sheriff's badge today on deck. I don't know exactly what the badge said but it was gold and shiny and made us extremely fearful of coach Bill. As if we weren't already petrified of him! He even taunted us with a little game called "what is extension"? After three people gave what I thought were legitimate answers, he gave partial credit and kicked us all out of the pool and told us to come back when we could describe extension with 100% accuracy. Ok, while that might be a stretch, some of us probably wanted to be kicked out before the main set as it was tough. A tough workout from a tough coach. We love you coach Bill!

300 warmup
6 x 75 drill/swim on :15r
200 kick
9 x 50 work on EXTENSION on :50
4 x 300 on 4:30 going:
FAST 150, stop at wall, get time
150 cruise
800 swim
2 x 4x25 (underwater,choice, stroke, choice)
2 x 50 kick

The prodigal son has returned after three weeks of adventure and fun! Welcome back BB.

Would you like some cheese with your whine?

Yes, please. Today was a Doan's Pills day in the lane - present company included. If you don't know what Doan's pills are, you are probably too young and likely rely on that chic newfangled drug Advil for your occassional soreness. You are also likely not part of the group this morning complaining about aches and pains and tiredness like most of us were. I used to laugh at the commercial with all those old people and their sore backs. We laugh no more. In full disclosure I have never used Doan's pills but I just might give them a try.

12 x 50
1-3 drill on :60
4-6 kick on :60
7-9 descend on :60
10-12 descend drill on :60
75 50 fly/25 back on 1:15
75 50 back/25 br on 1:15
75 50 br/25 free on 1:15
75 50 free/choice on 1:15
4 x 100 on 1:35 swim/build
Three time thru:
200 cruise on 3:10
50 fly
3 x 100 on 1:20
2 x 25 ez on :30
Four times thru:
75 fast on 60
50 cruise on 1:05 head up for 3 strokes

Have a great weekend everyone!

D-Day return

It was my first distance day in awhile - probably two months, but I am glad I did it. I have been slacking on this blog (for very good reasons!) but today's workout is worth posting. As H said when asked what we came in on for our fast 500: "pain". Well put.

200 warmup
Twice thru:
100 s/d/k/s on :20r
2 x 50 breast on :60
100 s/d/k/s on :20
2 x 50 free on :45
2 x 50 back on :55
10 x 50 free
1-3 on :55
4-6 on :45
7-9 on :40
10 easy
500 steady pace on 7:30
500 pull on 7:20
500 fast on 7:05
5 x 100 50s/50f on 1:50
500 (300 because of time) fastest of the day

Thanks to E2 for sharing this awesome pic. I love it!

Leisure Time

If you didn't know better, you'd think that everyone at MIT Master's was on vacation this week. As I leisurely strolled onto deck at 6:20 only Sarah was lined up and ready to jump in. So I did what any respectable teammate would do: I tried to stall her from getting in the pool by trying to engage her in discourse about the weather, our health, and general wonderment about how empty the pool was. Unsuccessful, I continued my quest of procrastination by chatting up with my friend Chris, who also seemed antsy to get in the pool (come on people! Master's is for socializing)! Undeterred, I sat at the edge watching Bill write the workout and staring at an empty lane. As I got up the nerve to jump in, out sauntered E2, so of course I felt obliged to say hello. But then I got in. And she continued to talk with Bill for 10 minutes on deck. As each 100 went by I felt better about my own dilly-dallying as E2 delayed her own swim. But instead of giving out a slacker award, we get a champion award because Bill mixed up the sheets and gave us Lane 1's times for the main set. We made it but I wondered why they got so much rest and we were working our butts off.

100 warmup
4 x 50 25 drill/25 kick
4 x 75 reverse IM order :20r
4 x 100 on 1:45
50 fly/50 free
50 back/ 50 free
50 breast/ 50 free
50 choice/ 50 free
4 x 25 cruise/sprint on :30
4 x 25 alternate underwater/easy swim on :35
4 x 25 sprint on :40
300 long on 4:15
50 fast on :50
250 pull on 3:35
50 fast on :50
200 swim on 2:50
50 fast on :50
150 swim on 2:15
50 fast on :50
100 swim on 1:30
50 fast on :50
2 x 75 cruise on 1:25
2 x 72 descend on 1:10
2 x 75 cruise on 1:30
2 x 72 descend on 1:05
2 x 75 cruise on 1:35
2 x 72 descend on :60
50 esay

Ladies Day

Short post today! All of the ladies showed up today as lanes 2 and 3 were filled with the gals. And wouldn't you know it, we all had on different colored swim caps and different suits. That is fashion at 6am! It was a great workout to boot, thank you coach Bill. I wanted to capture it because it's worth it if you want to do this on your own.

100 IM on 1:45
100 free on 1:30
2 x 100 IM on 1:45
2 x 100 free on 1:30
12 x 125 going
1-3 swim on 2:00
4-6 50 fast on :35/75 easy on 1:20
7-9 75 fast on :60/50 easy on :60
10-12 swim on 1:55
1650 swim
(we did it 500 swim, 500 pull, 650 swim)

Not too bad at all!!