July 2010
The Joys of Fuller Pool
I decided to skip a day of EMU's practices and enjoy the sunshine. I headed out to Fuller Pool in Ann Arbor for the afternoon. It was much less insane than July 5th since parents had a higher chance of being at work today but the frustrating pool patrons were in full force as usual. I really wish my posts about public pools were more positive. The highlights are always watching parents spending time with their kids and the sunshine.
Swimming Slackers
Yesterday, I swam with slackers. Obviously I won't be mentioning any names, but it was pretty annoying. I have to admit the experience kinda reminded me of myself in the high school and college days. For reasons that don't matter, I just had way too many days of being overtired or overworked and it manifested itself into some really poor practicing. I just wasn't as motivated to improve as I am today. As annoying as it was to swim with people who obviously didn't want to be there, it was a reminder of how much I want to improv
Post-Practice Weight: 175 lbs
Inspirational Video
Really amazing what this guy has done without arms or legs, watch this video. Safe for work of course.
More IM
I notice when I swim a lot of IM that my shoulders start clicking. Not the best sound or feeling. I defaulted to some backstroke when I noticed it.
Over the past 2 days I've had some shaking in my arms, like I can't keep my hands stable at all. It finally went away tonight after I woke up from a nap. I'm chalking that one up to the result of doing some different type of manual labor I did a few days ago, I just think I over worked myself. All is well now.
300m Free
600m IM [50m Kick/50m Drill/ 50m Swim]
300 Backstroke
8 x [100m IM + 50m Easy]
16 x [50 Easy + 50 Fast D1-4 x 2] 4 of each stroke
400 Warmdown
I'm forgetting at least one set on this workout
Post-Practice Weight: 173.9 lbs
Practice Type: Active Rest
What's the hold up?
The 2008 Olympic Trials cuts were published on 11-2-05... a full 2.5+ years out from the trials. This time around we're 8 months past that mark at 1.9 years and still no cuts published. What's the hold up USA Swimming?! I want to see that 50 Free and 100 Fly cut :)
Really enjoying swimming Fly?
I think it's partially my moderate personal success of this past weekend, but I find myself really enjoying swimming butterfly all of a sudden. I like how it's difficult to have a bad butterfly race. I'm always pretty consistent in my times, even on an "off" day. Any experienced swimmer knows it's almost impossible to swim fly SLOWLY because it requires you to lift your body out of the water. This makes you move your arms and legs at a pace that typically translates into decent stroke rate. In short, it's tough to slack swimming butterfly, and that's sort of nice in a meet.
300m Free
300m BBF
300m Fly [25m Kick + 25m Swim]
12 x 50m @ 1:00 [Odd: Fast/Easy/Fast Even: Easy/Fast/Easy]
400m Casual Kick
400m [25m Fast + 25m Easy]
5 x 100m @ 1:30 HR 24-25
10 x 100m @ 1:25 HR 28-29
400 Easy
Post-Practice Weight: 175.9 lbs
59.87 in the LCM 100 Fly!
I had pretty low expectations for this meet and I surprised myself with a lifetime best time! At the last minute I felt as though I would benefit from a "rev up" swim. I seem to always swim better after I get one race out of my system. Therefore I decided to swim the 100 Fly LCM. My plan was to just bust out a good 50 Fly, then bring it home nice and slow with a legal finish so my 50 Fly time would count. I dove in and felt pretty good so I took it out pretty smooth, had a good turn, 5 kicks underwater and brought it home as quick as I could.
Post-Competition Weight: 174.4 lbs
Meet at EMU in the morning!
I get to swim my 2nd long course meet ever at EMU in the morning. I'm really looking forward to it! I doubt I'll have any respectable times to show for it, but it will be really nice to race in my favorite pool. I only glanced at the schedule but I'll try to tag my favorite events:
50 Back LCM
100 Back LCM
50 Fly LCM
100 Fly LCM
50 Free LCM
Depending on if there's enough people to do some of the relays I might try to combine some of those events into my relay swims. Looking forward to it!
Practice at U of M
I had the chance to train at 7am at EMU this morning yet opted to sleep in and go to the 11am-1pm practice at U of M. I've said it before and I'll say it again... being at U of M's facility just screams "ACHIEVE". Everything in that Natatorium just seems olympic-grade. From the starting blocks with the "M" actually molded into the top, all the way to the 2012 Olympic Games countdown clock which today read "748:04:02.xx Days". I think it would be an amazing place to train daily.
500m [300m Free + 200m IM drill]
300m [200m Free + 100m IM drill]
6 x 100m @ 1:40 [35m Cruise + 15m MAX + Turn THEN 35m Cruise + 15m MAX + Finish]
300m Cruise Kick
3 x 100m @ 1:40 MAX
4 x 100m @ 1:40 D1-4 (HR 22 increase to HR 28)
3 x 100m @ 8:00 MAX
400 Warm Down
Practice Type: Lactic Acid Tolerance
First Day Back!
I took a few days off for a vacation. My first day back went great. I think I only swam about 5,000 meters with the "taper" group which are currently bringing down their yardage for Sectionals at Purdue. I have a meet on Sunday so I didn't really want to beat myself up too much 2 days before competition. My meet is long course at EMU!
Post-Practice Weight: 175.2 lbs
Old Cadillac
I walked into practice in time to do some stretching before I hopped in. It was then that I noticed Mike, a U of M swimmer I trained with last year, he must have just started training with us this week. His comment on my presence there was classic, hilarious, insulting and honest all in one:
"Doak! Haha, you're here! Wow... you're... like... an old Cadillac.... (pause) Ya know... it's like... a great car and all, but ya don't expect it to still be running"
Shoulder = 100%
I had planned on taking a few days off but felt the need to enjoy the nice weather over the long weekend. Therefore I hit Fuller Pool for an hour or so yesterday afternoon for a quick dip. Since my shoulder was so questionable last week I figured it would take some time to heal. I could still feel some pain on Sunday but by Monday morning it was back to normal. I only swam about 1,500 meters LC but it was enough to put it through it's paces and see if it was bothering me. I think it's in good shape!
A few days off ahead
It wasn't planned but due to a trip, I'm going to give my shoulder a little break. I put in 12 hours in the pool last week and with a slight injury it was a bit too much. I already got Sunday off since it was the 4th of July. There is no practice on Monday because of the observed holiday. I'll be away through Thursday so I'll be ready to tear it up in the pool on Friday! The timing of everything was surprisingly ideal.
Pool,
I'll miss you. --Kevin
Friday and Saturday were ROUGH
Based on how my shoulders were feeling, I shouldn't have swam Friday. From all the IM stuff we did this week, my right shoulder was in some significant pain. I got through 80% of the workout Friday and ended up kicking 1,000 meters instead of swimming the pre-main set with the team. I opted to do an "Animal Kick" which is 10x100's on the SCY 1:30 best average. Since this was LCM I inquired upon coach as to what the sendoff should be, he replied "1:30".... I laughed, as did a few other swimmers.
Post-Practice Weight: 176.5 lbs
Practice Type: Lactate
Considering a Day Off
I was feeling great till I swam that IM set a few days ago. I've been sticking strictly with Backstroke because I find I don't injure my shoulders nearly as much. I will either take today off or do ONLY backstroke at practice.
Eat Eat Eat
It was one of the craziest practice's ever. It started out with a bad attitude. I was looking for any reason to get out of that pool. About 2,000 meters into the practice I was feeling shakey. Now honestly, I'm not really sure if I was really shakey or if I was just making up a reason to get out. The fact that I really hadn't eaten much during the day was further proof to myself that I needed to remedy the situation immediately.
Post-Practice Weight: 173.4 lbs