June 2009

Yesterday I officially entered into the 2009 U.S. World Champ Trials! This will be the 2nd largest meet of my life behind the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials. The time cut off was even more aggressive than the Olympic Trials cut, 57.69 vs. 57.99. I will swim on "Day 2" which is Wednesday, July 8th 2009. I'm attending simply for the experience since I'm deep into my training and don't care to let up too much for this meet. I will do my best as always but I don't have any set time goal for the event. I will do a 4 day taper for this meet and hope for the best.

For the first time since college (or before college), I swam a meet and wasn't absolutely useless for the rest of the day. In the past I would swim "all out" and have a headache afterwards. This would last until I refueled my body with sleep, food and water and would usually take the rest of the day to start feeling normal again.

I'm up early and headed to the MSU Munley Memorial Long Course Meet. Because of my work schedule I only got 4 hours of sleep. I feel the slightest bit shakey this morning, probably from lack of sleep and food. I have a few bananas with me for the 1 hour drive to East Lansing.

It looks a little overcast at this point so I'm hoping its done raining (this is an outdoor meet).

I had a strong practice yesterday despite being quite tired from rollerblading. After a 2,000 meter kicking set, or main set was only 1,000 meters for the sprint group comprised of 5 other U of M men and women.

2 rounds:

5 x [50 Easy + 50 Fast] @ 1:00 (Descend +1 to -1 of 200 pace)
1:00 rest between rounds

I've filled today with quite a few activities. I woke up, worked, decided to get some sun while swimming at Fuller Pool. Today I just felt like cruising. I literally did zero hard swimming. I did some slow backstroke and moderate kicking and most likely got in about 1500 meters in 1.5 hours in the water! I ran into my friend Rodolpho Palma, the coach of Ann Arbor Masters. We caught up for a few minutes before he began training. Rodolpho has always been a fantastic resource for swim training and all things athletic.

I ran to swim practice again. I find I have much slower times when I start my practice like this. Today we swam:

8 rounds:

100 drill on 2:00
100 kick on 2:15
100 MAX on 2:00

I did 4 rounds backstroke and held 1:10 on each one. Then switched to freestyle and was a rock solid 1:03 on each one. As usual, I expected more but it was all I had. I've learned I'm just a meet swimmer, no matter how fast I train, I'll never be much of a practice swimmer and I'm ok with that. I can almost always rev it up for competitions.

I woke up and began "Phase 2" of the P90X program. Today was "Chest, Biceps and Triceps. It was solid amount of pushups, curls, seated dips and chest fly's. I finally found a piece of this workout system I am absolutely incapable of achieving on any level. The 1 arm pushup. I tried many times. I CAN NOT do a single 1 arm pushup.

I've been dragging my feet this summer on signing up for meets. I finally kicked it into gear and used the fancy new online registration for the USMS Long Course Nationals meet this August. The following times aren't necessarily my fastest because the USS times aren't in the USMS database. Here is my lineup:

It's been a busy few days but I've been keeping up with training both in and out of the water. Both Friday and Saturday were VERY rough practices for me, I was in survival mode. I was so broken down and I was just trying to make it through alive. Both days were Short Course Yards due to a large diving meet occupying the deep end of the pool. It was actually sort of nice to have some new sights to look at in the pool area, just a good change of pace.

Today I was excited to see the return of a great Eastern Michigan University athlete. A swimmer by the name of Tim Everett returned for the summer from the University of Chicago where he transferred last year to pursue a degree in Political Science. When I talk about Tim, I'm proud to say we attended the same college. He's a great teammate, a skilled swimmer and an all around good person with a very bright future. I was happy to hear he will be training with the workout group at EMU. As a fellow backstroker, Tim will push me each day in practice. Glad to have you back Tim!

I did a workout from P90X last night called "X Stretch". I fully admit I don't stretch enough, and my experience last night was evidence of why I don't. This workout was beyond boring. I understand it's probably impossible to make stretching an exciting event, but 60 minutes of static stretching was enough to put me to sleep, and it eventually did.

I know stretching is a necessary part of working out, and I will try to do it more, but this X-Stretch is tough to sit through. It was a nice evening of rest though, which is probably what it's meant for.

I climbed to the top of the waterslide for this elevated shot.

I did two swim practices today, the first time in a long time. Commonly referred to as "doing doubles", which I haven't had time for in my schedule for a long time. It felt great to swim that much in a day, however, my second practice was noticeably slower than the first.

We did quite a few 200m race pace 50's this afternoon, I was holding 30-33's on them. I wanted to be much faster but I was quite worn out. Our kicking set after warmup was fantastic. Right up my alley!

3 Times Through:
200 @ 4:00 Casual Kicking
2x100 @1:50 No Board Negative Split

I got in a mere 1,500 meters before sending myself home today. I forgot to eat 2 hours before practice and by the time I remembered it was too close to my training. I was feeling pretty shaky by the time warmup ended and I called it a day. I'll do P90X tonight and go to morning practice tomorrow to make up for my missed workout.

I felt kind of pathetic giving up in front of everybody but I know what's best for my body. Lesson learned.

As much as I like sharing my swimming experiences with friends and family, this blog is also a great tool for me to keep track of my training and health. Here's a little health rundown:

Sickness

I just dug up this photo from January 2008. The first Masters Meet at Lake Orion High School. I broke the pool record in the 100 Backstroke with a 51.22 (only to break it a year later with a 49.84). If I remember correctly, the local paper wrote a little article about the meet and mentioned my name. It was a great honor and the meet was great press for USMS!

I never got to do the Kempo X last night, my schedule has just been insane. I really want to finish a full week of swimming. This will be my first week of making all 6 days in the pool (if all goes well). The last few weeks something always comes up and I miss a practice. I've yet to make it a week of 12 practices (6 swim, 6 dryland). I've missed 3 days of P90X this week alone. I really need to get back on track. I can tell how much better I feel in the pool when I don't do P90X, it's really noticeable in fact.

Well, I just woke up from a totally unintentional nap sitting straight up in a chair. I had a great practice in the pool, somewhere around 6,000 meters. it consisted of 5 times through 4x50's and 4x200's FRIM on a descending interval. I was doing great on the 50's as well as the 200's up till the last two. The interval on the FRIM (Free, Back Breast Free... aka FRee/IM) had gotten down to the 2:50 long course. This was really pushing it for me. I held on for as long as I could, I made 2 of the last 4 of the 200's. I just had nothing left to give after the 18x200's.

I was tired BEFORE this afternoon's swim workout started. A late night of Yoga just ruined me... feels great though :)

It's interesting that certain parts of the Yoga workout have gotten easier and others have gotten harder. I still struggle with the "Twisting Half Moon" pose, which is held for 30 seconds per side. Doesn't sound like much, but this one is directly after other challenging poses. I have yet to make it through this pose successfully. My legs just end up giving out entirely.