RAAM vs. MOPO

Today in the locker room I posed a challenge to my dear friend Maggie - come up with a theme for today's blog.  She did not disappoint (when does she ever disappoint?). But you might be asking yourself - what is RAAM  and what is MOPO? The first the Race Across America, and some friends of ours are riding and crewing this event that starts on Saturday.  It is a grueling bike race across - you guessed it! - America. It starts in San Diego and ends in Annapolis. These cyclists race either as singles or teams and it's pretty intense. Juxtapose that with MOPO, an event that many of us are participating in this weekend.  Notice I said "event". You see, the Morses Pond Swim is just a swim. There are no prizes, no posting to coolrunning.  Maggie was a bit shocked to find out this morning that MOPO was not a race (I mean, why even do it if I can't get a prize? thought she). But it begs the question: is something somehow less appealing because the competition factor is taken out? Do we need to push ourselves or others toward something to make it meaningful?  I'll let all of you ponder that on this rainy Wednesday. We got our butts kicked today at distance day.

100 warmup (lame)
Four times through:
50 drill/50 stroke on :25r
50 build up/50 build down on :25r
300 fast on 4:30
200 easy on 3:30
500 keep pace on 8:15
300 fast on 4:30
200 easy on 3:30
500 keep pace
8 x 100
2 on 1:35
2 on 1:45
2 on 1:55
2 on 2:05

While we are leisurely frolicking in Morses Pond this weekend (shown above, very serene), you can follow team Live4Life on twitter, @RAAMLive4Life.

Bait and Switch

I think there are laws that prevent false advertising. A typical bait and switch (in the retail sense) lures customers in for a product or service at a low price, and when they get there they discover that the advertised good is no longer available and are  "switched" to a costlier product.  Well, that is exactly what happened this morning, but it happened part way through the workout when we were already in the store.  As we all know, Wednesday is distance day, and there is a specific mindset needed for d-day, something akin to "keep calm and carry on".  With this in mind, I was pleased that the first set was an 800 swim, nice and easy, clearly leading up to a faster 800 or, at worse, two 400s.  But here is the switch: No more distance, but 200 sprints.  Now usually I love 200s, but just like flip flops and socks, "sprint" and the number "200" don't go together. The young kids with their names on their suits were tickled pink at this turn of events, while the 35+ crowd tried to keep it real.  It's not fair, we usually swim circles around them at the end of the workout on d-day. But we'll probably keep shopping here anyway.

300 warmup
100 swim
2 x 50 stroke
100 swim
2 x 50 stroke
100 (25 gallop, 25 swim)
2 x 50 stroke
4 x 100 kick
800 swim watch your splits
200 sprint (15 seconds FASTER than you fastest split in the 800)
2 x 50 easy
200 sprint (keep that pace!)
2 x 50 easy
200 sprint (don't die on me now!)
2 x 50 easy.

Happy Summer 2012!

It's Memorial Day, the official start of summer, so fire up the grill, get in an open water swim, and attend a Memorial Day parade to honor those who have served or are currently serving in our military. The photo above is from the Boston Common, where 33,000 American flags have been planted representing all of the soldiers from Massachusetts who have died since the Civil War.  If you are in town, you simply should not miss this.  A great day at the pool, lots of good communication, negotiation, and consensus happening in the lane, and an overall solid workout.

10 x 50 swim/drill
5 x 500 going:
500 pull :60r
300 fast/200 easy on :60r
5 x 100 on 1:50
500 easy going 200 swim/50 stroke repeat :60r
500 going odds fast, evens easy
6 x 50 choice

Dislike

I feel obligated to post today's workout even though I really, truly disliked it. But to my credit, I did not get out, I stayed in and finished the set.  All I can say is that I hope that tomorrow's workout (the first in long course) has some distance in it!

300 warmup
6 x 50 count strokes
4 x 75 drill/swim
100 free
100 stroke
4 x 225 going:
225 pull hypoxic
225 75 fly, back, breast
225 pull hypoxic
225 75 fly, 50 back, breast, free
100 kick
50 x 25 in sets of 5
combination of swim, stroke, kick, drill and off the blocks on between :30 and :40

Shake, shake, shake

That describes what I was doing after practice in the locker room after today's workout, and I was not dancing.  I suppose the old adage is true: if you don't feel like being sick after a hard workout, you didn't work hard enough.  I worked hard today.  Great job by the men actually descending the fast 200s, impressive.

300 warmup
200 kick/swim/drill/stroke
4 x 50 count strokes
100 kick
4 x 50 count strokes
6 x 50 middle of the pool, working turns :50
6 x 225 going:
200 on 2:40
25 on :45
50 easy
4 x 200 IM going:
odds: 100, rest :15, 100, rest :30
evens: straight swim
4 x 75 ascending on 1:15

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