Owning our Weirdness

Master's swimmers can be a little quirky. Given that many are organized and driven during their day jobs, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that many swimmers want some structure during workouts. Case in point, there is a general rule that you don't finish a set or a workout on a 50, like 3250 or 4650. You will always swim that extra 50. Similarly, while it is okay to finish on an odd number for a hundred, you never finish on an odd number if you are close to a big-time even number. For example, 3700 is fine, but 3900 is not fine. You are too close to 4000 so you pretty much have to swim the extra 100. This sounds crazy, but most swimmers are reading this and saying "yup". Today was a little tough for any swimmers with mild to moderate compulsive tendencies. The paper was up on the board, but we realized quickly that we would not be able to finish the workout in the allotted time. This caused a great deal of consternation amongst a majority of swimmers. So we got through 3/4 of the workout and the time expired, leaving many people wonderful "what if..."

400 warmup
2 x 100 going: 25 drill - 25 swim :20r
3 (4 x 25) IM order :30
200 free :15r
8 x 50 IM order :55
Main set:
100 on 1:40
200 on 3:00
300 on 4:15
400 on 6:00

500  on 7:05

600 on 8:30
500 on 7:05
What we did not do:
400
300
200
100

Nicely Done, Joe

Our friend and MIT Masters teammate Joe Kurtz returned to the pool today, just three days after running in the Boston Marathon. Joe had an amazing race, and those of us who saw how hard he was training knew that this day was important to him. As we saw him run by us at mile 18, he had the biggest smile on his face. But many, like Joe, most likely will never celebrate their races because of what happened. Joe penned his thoughts after the event, and I wanted to highlight them again because they capture what many of us are thinking and feeling. Well done, Joe, all around.

Read Joe's comments

Thank you to Charlie Abrahams for posting this.

The workout today:

200 swim
200 free (25 drill - 25 swim)
2 x 100 (reverse IM)
200 free (make each 50 faster)
5 x 100's  free focus on extension, catch, power, finish, recovery
Three times thru:
200 free  3:00
100 free  1:15
50 stroke  :50
100 free  1:20
50 stroke  :55
150 free   2:00
100 free   1:45
150 free   2:00
100 free   1:40
6 x 75
1-2: :60
3-4: 1:05
5-6: 1:10

Unthinkable

Today is another beautiful spring weather day in Boston, much like the beautiful day we had yesterday before the unthinkable happened. It's hard for many of us to put into words how horrible the events of yesterday were. On Patriot's Day, the best day of the year in the best city in the country, families took their kids to watch the marathon and someone decided that their lives would end or be changed forever. Honestly, it really never crossed my mind that this would happen. Today all of my energy and prayers are with the families who lost loved ones, or who are clinging to life, or who lost their hearing, or who are still in shock over what they experienced or saw firsthand. In days to come we learn more about why this happened, hear of people we know who are impacted, and we will put our energy into helping the people and their families who bore the brunt of this evilness. We will be reminded of the psyche of this great city, which is filled with strong-willed and resilient people.

Close to Me

I absolutely love my new Keurig coffeemaker, because in addition to making a delicious cup of coffee, it makes it so fast that I can sleep in an extra 10 minutes in the morning before going to swim practice (yes, I am open to selling advertising space here  - call me!). The only problem I have found is that when I turn it on and the water starts to heat up, the noise sounds EXACTLY like the first few bars of The Cure's song "close to me", a cult favorite from the 80's. To those of you with those machines I apologize in advance, because what will happen is that you also will hear what I am talking about, and you will have that song in your head for the rest of the day. I now have to play other songs in my car on the way in to to swim to get it out of my head. I love The Cure, but not in my wildest dreams did I think that my new coffeemaker would bring me back to my college days. I got my butt kicked today, which is a good thing. I need to get back into a routine.

200 warmup
three times thru:
25 underwater swim
50 all drill
75 free: build by 25
75 IM no free
4 x 50 count strokes free on :45
4 x 50 count strokes stroke on :55
100 on 1:20
200 on 2:40
300 on 4:05
400 on 5:30
500 on 6:40
4 x 200 stroke or IM on :40r
200 pull

An Affair to Remember

It is not unusual for master's swimmers to have one or more "swim spouses". The swim spouse is your go-to person for swimming, and you know their strengths and weaknesses and they yours. The beauty of the swim spouse is that there is nothing hidden from the full-time land spouse/partner. In fact, the land spouse sometimes gets tired of the constant chatter about sets, the incessant texting, and the drama that often comes with master's swimming. But they know it comes with the territory and are tolerant if not amused. Slightly less common is for a swimmer to have an "affair" with another teammate's swim spouse, but that is exactly what happened today. Greg, who is training for his ice swim next weekend, is the swim spouse of E2, my friend and teammate who completed her ice swim in 2012. But this morning E2 was not there at 7:30 and there was Greg, swimming alone, and there I was, sitting on the pool deck alone. As the Steven Stills song so eloquently states, "swim with the one you're with" and that is what I did. E2 did catch us in the act an hour later and had no problem with loaning her spouse out for the morning. A great set, and after being out of the water for a week it felt good to swim with someone.

Twice thru:
2 x 200 on 3:00
4 x 100 on 1:30
8 x 50 on :60
400 swim (pull) on 6:00
400 swim on 6:00 (once)
4 x 100 descend on 1:35

March Madness

We are halfway through the two craziest days of March Madness, and one of us (Elaine!) actually picked Harvard to advance. In doing so, she is one of only 6% of the population that made this wise choice. Our workout was a bit of a basketball-themed swim, as we went for three (hundreds), had a layup up on the first part of the 200, and launched the 100s at the buzzer. I will definitely add this to my favorites. And as for my bracket, there is only one team I care about advancing: Go Bucks!

200 warm up:

1st set:
2 x 50 free :50  
 2 x 25 fly  :30  
100 free   1:30
2 x 50 BR  :60  
2 x 25 fly  :30 
100 free  1:30
2 x 50 back on :60  
2 x 25 fly  :30  
100 free  1:30
2 x 50 fly  :60 
2 x 25 choice :30 
100 free   1:30
Main Set:
3 times thru:
1 x 300 free  pull: hypoxic by 50  [3, 5, 7] on 4:30
200 free negative split on 3:00
100 Free fast on  1:20
1 x 50 wicked ez on 1:20

Literally ridiculous

Sometimes I am overly attuned to grammar and language usage, so I amusingly roll my eyes when people use terms like irregardless or phrases like somewhat unique. If you are laughing with me, read on, if not, skip directly to the workout. My newest obsession with language is the more frequent inappropriate use of the word “literally”, as in “I literally blew up during that swim workout”. If you actually did blow up that would be bad – you would die, the pool would get closed for weeks, and it would be on the news. Everyone knows what you are talking about because we have all been there (blowing up during a workout, figuratively speaking). But the truth is I have heard this word being used (not at master's of course!) of late as a throwaway exaggerator, as in “my blood was literally boiling when I heard that”. Literally means actually, and I actually do not want to see boiling blood. What’s my point here? I guess it is a suggestion for us to stick with the old tried and true figurative descriptors like “I totally bonked” or “we just swam the English Channel in that workout today”. Unless, of course, you literally did swim the English Channel, in which case you can ignore all of this.

200 warmup

6 x 25 odds free, evens stroke

6 x 50 count strokes free :55

4 x 75 IM order on 1:30

6 x 250 going:

odds: 100 easy, 50 stroke, 100 fast on 3:50

evens 100 on 1;30, 50 stroke on :55, 100 fast on 1:20

6 x 150 going:

1-3 pull on 2:20

4-6 going 50 free on :50, 50 stroke on :60, 50 fast on :40

50 easy

200 free pace on 3:00

200 pull on 3:00

200 IM/choice