Back to my Happy Place

I want to close the loop on the traumatic locker situation from last week. To recap: I was booted from my locker accidentally (oops! sorry!), but thankfully it all worked out and I (and my suits) are back in business. As evidence of this, please see the photo on the right. A special thanks to Grace and Maggie for their help in staging my locker for the photo shoot. In all honesty, if a stranger had walked in on us they might have thought that we were doing a photo shoot for Swim Lockers Monthly, because it took a few times to get the money shot. Of particular note is the placement of the new Aveda products, new shelf from the Container Store, and of course my suits from swimoutlet.com. The little stickers are courtesy of E. And in case you are wondering why the product placement is so important, I am seeking sponsors for my new memoir entitled Lane 3: The Real Story. Today's practice gave me a lot of material (yes, Don Johnson made an appearance). Here is the workout:

200 swim
100 stroke
150 drill/swim
50 back
100 swim
2 x 250 on :40r going:
100 free
50 stroke
100 free
1500 swim (we did a pattern: 200 easy, 100 fast, 100 easy, 100 fast x 3)
500 going odds stroke, evens free

Bill suggested that we watch this 1500 race. Well worth it!

Good Luck SB!!!

Our friend and lane mate SB is in Lake Placid this weekend doing a little race called an Ironman. We are all very excited for him and expect great things, especially with his swim. Several of us did the over/under this morning and while it would be great to see SB break an hour, with one massive swim wave and a very narrow course (read: it's a line at the bottom of the lake) we settled on 1:05. We also should factor in that he does not have his wubbie with him. His little blue friend has seen Steve through a lot of good times and bad, through 50 x 100 on his 50th, and through a number of IM sets where he had no business using a bouy. Nonetheless, We created an honorary wubbie for him with lots of positive energy and good thoughts for a great race!

300 swim
200 drill/swim by 50
2 x 50 stroke
100 free
2 x 50 free
100 drill/swim
12 x 50 going:
1-3 free on :60, :55, 50
4-6 stroke on 1:05, :60, :55
7-9 free on :50, :45, :40
10-12 stroke on :60, :55, :50
4 x 100 descend on 1:35
4 x 100 hold pace on 1:30
4 x 50 stroke/free on :60
3 x 100 on 1:30
3 x 100 on 1:25
2 x 50 easy
3 x 100 cool down

I want to make a special shout-out to Mrs. Edwina O'Toole, a follower from the great state of Virginia. I am happy to report that her daughter attended swim practice today.

You and your stuff - Get Out!

I am still trying to recover from the harsh reality of being evicted from my pool locker on Monday. In short, I arrived at the pool to find my lock had been cut off and all of the contents removed. Poof! Gone. When I inquired at the front desk (while presenting the evidence that I renewed my contract weeks ago), I was met with blank looks and a large trash bag with all of my items. Quickly realizing their mistake, the front desk re-assigned me to my locker and gave me a new lock and combination. It must have been pretty hilarious to see my dragging this bag (I had a lot of stuff in that little locker) past the pool where my lane mates were looking quizzically at me. The hard part was going through the suits, goggles, swim caps, and other items and realizing that several of the shampoo/soap caps were not on tightly when they gently (said with sarcasm) and unceremoniously dumped the contents. I can just see the aforementioned dumper saying maniacally  “take that, lawbreaker. That will teach you not to renew your locker! Wuahhahahahaha”.  So, to whoever had to do the dirty deed, there is a silver lining to all of this: new hair care products and a trip to the Container Store!

200 swim

6 x 100 going:

50 fly/50back

50 back/50 breast

50 breast/50 free

repeat

16 x 50 going:

1-4 on :50

5-8 on :45

9-12 on :60

13-16 on :55 holding pace of 5-8

1000 swim each 250 do something different; I alternated fast/easy by 100

400 ascend by 100

Heat Advisory

Those of you who know me know that I rarely complain about the heat and always complain about the cold. I love 100 degree temps and consider the Heat Miser my buddy. Mr. Freeze, not so much. So it is with some wariness that I report that this heat wave we are experiencing has hit home, with home being the Z-center pool.  It was just darn hot today, even for me. Even the air was warm. Adding insult to injury, there were two huge hairballs the size of Plymouth Rock in the deep end. Overall, not a particularly welcoming swim environment.  Juxtapose that with a little 20 minute swim I did with E2 in the harbor on Saturday where the temps were in the upper 50s upon entering the water, literally taking my breath away. It's therefore only fitting that Mr. Freeze and Heat Miser appear together in this photo.

200 warmup
8 x 50 going:
25 drill/25 swim
25 drill one arm/25 swim
25 drill choice/25 stroke
25 drill stroke/25 stroke
repeat
6 x 100 on :30r
50 fly/50back
50 back/50breast
50breast/50free
repeat
2 x 50 choice on :60
100 fast on 1:50
4 x 50 choice on :55
100 fast on :50
6 x 50 choice on :45
100 fast
3 x 400 going
200 fast/200 cruise on 7:00
100 cruise/200 fast/100 cruise on 7:00
200 cruise/200 fast on 7:00

What Would Janet Do?

Olympic trials are next week, which prompted coach Bill to pose a question to the team today: What Would Janet Do? Of course he is referring to our favorite distance swimmer who is still rocking the trials at age 40. It also happens to be that BB knows Janet personally, so with two degrees of separation, we feel like we know Janet personally too. But back to the question at hand: WWJD? I am pretty sure she did not get where she is today by choosing the "master's option" at workout, e.g. choosing to do freestyle when the set requires fly or taking extra rest because, well, you can. No, the lesson learned today is that if you want to go to the Olympics, don't use your pull buoy (SB!) when one is not required by the coach. At least I know why I never reached that top level! We will all be watching Janet next week and Conor Dwyer (our friend Pat's son!) as they go for the Olympic team. Go Team USA!!!

200 warmup
200 drill/swim by 50
4 x 50 count strokes :15r
100 swim on :15r
4 x 50 stroke on :15r
Main set:
100 IM on 2:00
100 free on 1:40
200 free on 3:25
2 x 50 breast
300 free hypoxic 5,3,7,3 on 4:30
2 x 50 back
400 negative split :30r
2 x 50 fly (or freestyle with master's option)
500 fast
6 x 100 on 2:00
2 going 50breast fast/50 free
2 going 50 back fast/50 free

2 going 50fly(free) fast/50 free

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.