If you think this is a problem...

... raise your hand.


The swim coach at Master's swim tonight put out a bucket to puke in before the beginning of the first set.

Yeah, awesome. Fortunately, there was no need although I did consider it after the second set. I had to pull myself out and sit on the side while I tried to keep my lunch and snack where it belonged.

Our workout included...

•warm up 6x100 descending
•75s with fins and kick board - start on 2:00 for 2 and descend :05 every other. So 2 75s on 2:00, 2 75s on 1:55, 2 75s on the 1:50, 2 75s on 1:45, etc. Made it to 1:05s. (24 75s total)
•50 ez
•11x50: start in deep, dive in, sprint 25, climb out, 5 push ups (started with 10, but that only lasted for 4 50s), dive in, sprint 1/2 way back and coast in
•75 ez
•2x300 ez free with every 3rd 25 fast stroke
•warm down: 100 ez kick

3775 yards total


Sometimes it is super nice to have different coaches with different approaches to workouts but there is a downside as well. For some reason, the college aged coaches that we swim for tend to think that my lightening fast swim buddy (LFSB) and I need the hardest workouts they can think of. That somehow, it will "challenge" us and make them better coaches in some odd, sadistic way. The problem is that I can't do three hard swim workouts a week for weeks on end and have anything left for my other stuff (or another swim workout).

Anywho, my LFSB was a little annoyed and aggravated with the coach before all was said and done. I can't say that I blame him, though I believe the problem is more of a communication issue between coaches. Hopefully everything gets straightened out because otherwise I am going to have to create a few of my own workouts!

Stay warm out there all!

Swimming machine

I have been swimming like crazy! I know, I know E, too much swimming and not enough biking and running!

But tonight we did a 500 warm up, a set of 4x150 with the outside 25s as easy as you could make them and the middle a very fast, 90% effort 100 IM.

We then did 4x25 fly, ez/fast/ez/fast, 4x50 back ez/fast/ez/fast, 4x75 breast ez/fast/ez/fast, and 4x100 free ez/fast/ez/fast. :10-:15 rest interval.

I would just like to say that on the last 100 of that 1000 yd set, I swam a 1:18. My lightening fast swimming buddy has decided that I could swim a sub 1:10 if I was fresh and got a good strong start off the blocks. Yay!

Anywho, hoping for a little snow here in the next couple of days and trying to decide if this is the year for a HIM. There is one in the middle of June or one at the end of August. I will be comparing pros and cons in the coming posts.

I will leave you with this picture of Kona, asleep on the bed with her tongue hanging out. Not sure what that means but hilarious.

Swim, then swim again

As I was swimming with Masters this evening I was thinking about counting laps. When I am seeing out-patients in the clinic, I usually have them count their reps. If I ask them how many they have done and they say, "oh 5 or 6", I make them go with the lower of the two. The patients learn quickly that they should keep track. This is the same way that I swim. And you know what? It really makes me want to keep track more closely. In a way, I feel like if you swim enough yards each practice, 50 here or there shouldn't make that much difference but then the triathlete/PT in me kicks in and I think, every single yard, every single minute counts. So I came up with a solution.
One day my coach had me swimming the following as part of my workout...

1x250 (hard)
1x500 (medium hard)
1x750 (medium)
1x1000 (race pace)
1x750 (medium)
1x500 (medium hard)
1x250 (hard)

I did okay keeping track of the 250s and the 500s. That 1000 is where I start to lose count. I began to use the alphabet. 1A, 2B, 3C, 4D, etc. As I swim my first lap I think of all the words I can that start with the letter A; muscles, names, places, things, etc. Lap 2 is the letter B and so on. And if in fact I do get confused I always go with the lower of the two yardages I am wavering between. A good way to review anatomy, practice for Scategories, and keep track of laps.

A quick update: Kona is doing well. I mentioned two entries ago that she cut her foot open. After 4 trips to the vet we finally got the OK to change the bandage ourselves. She still has to wear her satellite dish collar and the stitches don't come out for at least another week but we've got it down to a science. She even has a little boot that she has to wear outside in the snow so things don't get wet. The vet jokingly told us that he would totally expect that a PT would have a boot like that for their dog. Ha ha.