August 2011

I heard it from a few swimmers... "Today was the hardest day".  I could swear I was in basic training for the military.  My muscles was abused in ways I didn't know where possible.  We began the morning with a 1.5 mile run on the track which was interrupted every 200 meters by 10 pushups and boxing your training partner with boxing gloves on.  Each time we stopped, we would box in a different way, from twisting at our hips with left, right, left, right hooks, to sitting on our rear end and boxing upward to our partners hands.  It was a short set that certainly woke up my muscles.

We moved inside and began a 16 station training circuit.  Every machine and exercise was done.  Beginning ab twists against surgical tubing, to throwing medicine balls down 8 feet (we were standing on metal boxes), to squats and the swim bench, finishing up with as many pullups as you can do in 30 seconds.  I'm happy to report I was on par with everybody else however my last :30 second pullup attempt only yeilded 5 full pullups, wow.  It was the most rigorous training circuit I've ever done, I was dripping with sweat at the end.  Afterward we got changed for the pool and began what the coach said would be a "quick swim".  I don't want to get caught up in what "quick" SHOULD mean, but the 3,000 meter workout that followed redefined the word for me.  Again it was mostly aerobic on short intervals.  By doing backstroke, you could find me at the back of the group.  I hope my teammates realize I'm swimming a statistically slower stroke than they are, otherwise I probably look borderline pathetic.  I seem to hold my own in all the workouts.  As we ended the morning workout, a teammate looked at me, shook his head and said "see you in 3 hours".  It took the smile right off my face.  It really put the next 1 year of my life in perspective.  The workouts are scheduled 3.5 hours apart.  Really not much time to do ANYTHING, including sleep or eat.

The evening workout was a 2 hour swim practice.  We did aerobic swimming with lots of work on turns and starts, followed by a 40 minute set for just the post grads in the deep end which was a 4x circuit of:

25y no breather swim
50y double pulldown BR
4 x pushouts
25y underwater swim (yes, a full swim stroke)
50y kick on front, no board
3 x :25 on :15 off abs on pullup bars, lifting legs
25y blast FL
25y easy swim
200y hip driven free
3 x :40 on :20 off ab work (situps, etc) 

It was a manageable set because it was not on any interval, I found myself lagging behind the other 4 sprinters in the water but it didn't matter, I was doing everything as written, just not killing myself on the timing of it all.

Afterward, hot tub, food and sleep, followed by a night of work. There is zero chance I cannot improve my 100 Backtroke training like this.

During my "lazy" 3 days off, I did a very simple P90X ab workout.  It's only 16 minutes long and I got through it just fine with good form.  The next day I started feeling it.  Today my demolished hip flexer muscles were creating a dangerous (and hilarious looking) walking situation.  I found it most comfortable to walk around bent significantly at the hips, sort of staring at the ground.  Probably pretty funny to watch.  I looked like a geriatric patient walking around.  I'm not looking foward to a weights workout this morning with Club Wolverine.  I'm already pretty worn down after P90X and a single 5,000 meter workout.  As we used to say at EMU:

HERE COMES THE PAIN!

Here I am, 4 days after one of the hardest practices of my life and regular walking is still painful.  It's been a rough few days.  I'm struggling to find meaning in the ridiculously difficult practice we all endured last week.  Somebody smarter than me is going to have to explain why you would take a swimmer who hadn't run in years (like most of us there that day) and make them do sprints on a track.  It just doesn't seem to make any sense without a primer a few days before.  I'll be taking a few planned days off this week and getting away from the pool before the training starts back up for the whole team.  I'm still not sure if my nationals performances earned me a place on the team yet.  Perhaps a few days off won't increase my odds of that happening while this time is considered "extra credit" but I'm willing to take the chance to feel refreshed to continue training for the next 11 months straight.

After a few solid days of training with a few fellow CW guys, today was the first day back in the water at Canham with the Pro's.  It was one of the hardest practices of my life.  I had no idea what I was in for when I showed up.

We started out with some core exercies and V-ups.  We stretched it out and moved into the athletic training room to ride stationary bikes and walk on the treadmill.  We alternated moderate intensity and easy paces on the stationary bike.  The coach combined the bike work with some body position exercies while we were working out.  Afterward, we moved outside.  It was a muggy 85 degrees out and had just started raining.  We did lots of plyometric stuff.  Jumping, side skipping, high knee running, etc.  The running was combined with some dips and back exercises.  At this point I was feeling exhausted.  It had been over 45 minutes of exercises I hadn't done in months, if not years.  All 5 of us were struggling, it was obvious.  We were dripping with sweat and overheating.  Our final set outside was 4 x 50 meter sprints.  I was already worn out, I wasn't sure how I would finish up.  The coach lined us up and yelled "go".  My performance was pathetic, I was tying for 3rd while the 5th place guy was running barefoot on the grass (he forgot shoes).  I was feeling my head throb after just the first one.  We walked back to the starting line and did it all over again.  After the second one, I noticed my vision was getting dark.  It was clear that I hadn't eaten enough before practice... combined with the fact that my body was entirely unprepared for this type of exercise.  The 3rd race was sad, I came in 4th behind everybody with shoes.  When I finished, I was out of breath, dragging my feet and my vision was almost entirely dark and I was feeling slightly dizzy.  I knew it wasn't entirely dangerous to finish up the set, even though I wanted to quit.  I walked back to the starting line and got ready for one last race.  This is when it got ugly.  The new guy with no shoes came over from the grass and lined up with us.  I thought to myself, "please just don't lose to the barefoot guy".  The coach yelled and we all started sprinting.  Seconds later, we were finished.  I came in last behind everybody including the shoeless wonder next to me.  Nothing quite says "you suck at running" as when you lose to a guy without shoes.

Thankfully we moved inside to finish up dryland.  We did medicine balls, jumping, more plyometrics, lunges and then... kickboxing.  At this point we were all looking at each other like... will it ever end?  We finished up with some additional core work on the rings.  After 1 hour, 35 minutes, we were done with dryland.

We hit the pool for a moderate workout.  Nothing too tough, Coach Mark probably felt slightly guilty for almost killing us earlier in the practice.  I was happy to see half of the workout as "kick".  We did some 25's, 35's and 50's underwater with fins.  I finished up with a 300m with full equipment (fins, paddles) backstroke in 3:34.  Not bad.

That dryland was probably the hardest non-water workout I've ever experienced.

I joined a fellow CW swimmer at Fuller to get a jump on training.  I was pleasantly surprised he had modified the coach written workout to be entirely kick!  I knew a 3000+ meter kick workout was overdoing it considering it was my first day back in the water.  We hit the legs from all angles from freestyle kick, butterfly, underwaters, sprints and endurance kicking.  I could feel my hip flexers start to burn by the time I hit 1000 meters.  A day later I'm certainly hurting however I'm excited to build up my legs even before the team starts training again!

The irony is overwhelming.  Last Thursday I figured I would get the jump on some dryland training and begin with some pushups.  I used to pound out a few sets of 30 reps as a WARM UP to the rest of my weightlifting or dryland.  Today I figured I would start with 10 to get my muscles used to pushups again, then move on to additional sets.  I got to ten, stopped and realized, I probably couldn't have done too many more if I had tried.  I was literally maxed out at 10 pushups.  That's beyond pathetic.  Yet, not that surprising considering we did almost nothing for 5 weeks of taper, then I took a week off.  The ironic part being that I just got done quailifying for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials and I'm incapable of doing more than 10 pushups.  wow.

I was back in the pool today for a quick 2,100 meter workout.  The length of my practice was partially determined by my attention span (or lack thereof), and partially because my left shoulder was really bothering me.  Prior to Nationals, I did some manual labor, including deadlifting 80 lb boxes over my head.  The day after it felt as though I had just swam a few 10,000 meter swim practices in a row.  I definitely did some damage in there somewhere.  This week I will keep up with the core workouts but I may take a few days off of swimming to let it heal.

At the end of the workout I timed myself for a 50m backstroke from a push.  I was a 27.5 at the touch.  Not bad :)

I've had this PDF document open on my computer for months.  Looking at that number "57.59".  It's finally behind me and I'm feeling very relieved.  I can finally just hunker down and train without worrying if I will actually BE at trials next year.  I can finally tell friends and family that I'm going to Omaha next summer if they would like to come watch the competition.  It gives everybody a chance to save money on flights/hotels if they care to spectate :)

Today I'm taking a day off, letting my body rest while I catch up on some work.  Most of the team is still at Nationals and afterward, they will be taking 3 weeks off prior to starting training again.  Since I haven't been training as long as they have, I'll be in the water tomorrow.  No need for a break just yet.  I have lots of training to do!

I've gotten some very nice congratulatory emails and messages from friends and family, THANK YOU!

I'm surprised and happy to report that I achieved my Olympic Trial cut in the 100 meter backstroke this morning!  I was feeling great in warmup, had a few awesome starts, Coach Mike Bottom took my rates on a 35m swim and I was nearly at my ideal pace, just a little slow.  I did a bit more swimming, a few blast strokes to test out a faster pace and got out to warm up.  I watched my teammates swim the 200 Free while I talked to a few of the guys and stayed warm.  When the last heats of the 200 free were in the water, I chose to loosen up in the diving well prior to my race in heat 8.  I watched the first few heats of the 100 back, took off my warmups and headed over to the starting end of the competition pool.  As I passed Coach Mike Bottom, he smiled at me and asked, "how are you feeling"... I responded with... I'm ready.

I was prepared in every way possible.  My goggles were brand new, unscratched, and new bungie straps for high tension. I had a new Speedo Aqua-V, wrinkle free cap.  My suit was a new Speedo LZR jammer.  I trained with a great team for the last 2 months, learning about how to improve my stroke.  I tapered for 5 weeks, an amount of time I thought was too long, but turned out to be ideal.  I got 8 hours of sleep, a decent breakfast and arrived at the pool in plenty of time.  I warmed up exactly how I wanted to, actually found myself pacing Olympian Matt Grievers at one point.  I got out and was ready to go.

My race was as good as could be expected.  I hopped in the water, adjusted my cap and tested the traction on the pads.  They were the Omega pads, my least favorite to start on, but I was prepared.  The buzzer went off and I had a fantastic start!  Perfect underwaters and surfaced in 14 meters.  I purposefully came up early because the ref's were DQing everybody for anything possible.  I got right up and started turning it over in near perfect pace.  I flipped in a 27.09, my fastest split of all time, around 2 tenths faster than ever before.  I had acceptable underwater kicks and felt the pain set in as I passed the 25 meter mark.  I knew I was in trouble.  My old fashioned "fall apart at 75 meters" curse set in.  I felt my pace slow down and began to lose feeling in my legs.  By the 85 meter mark I couldn't feel my legs at all, I kept them moving but they weren't doing much for me.  My arms slowed down quite a bit.  A few guys in my heat passed me up.  I was giving it all I had.  I saw the flags pass by and knew I only had a few more strokes to go.  I did a shallow dive to the finish and touched the pad in:

57.44

I achieved the Olympic Trial cut by 0.15 seconds!  I did a quadruple take on the scoreboard to ensure I was seeing the right lane, as I looked to my right I saw my teammates and all three coaches with their arms up and huge smiles on their faces as they all realized what I did!  I had done it!  I gave a small fist pump when I saw that time, I just had to, it has been my goal for the last few years and I finally achieved it.

Thank you to all who supported me!  I'm headed to Omaha in 2012!

After quite a long morning of waiting around, I finally swam an hour after time trials started.  There was a bit of drama sorting out an error regarding which day I wanted to time trial.  After talking to 15 meet staff and officals, I was properly entered into the 50 free.  Since the 50 free starts at the opposite end of the pool, they needed to test the timing equipment at that end.  Add another 10 minutes of them blowing the whistle, me stepping up, them noticing an error, me stepping down... over and over again.  They finally gave up and gave me a verbal "step up" and just pressed the button.  I'd like to say I wasn't thrown off by it all, but I'm willing to bet it all contributed to sub par performance.

As I dove in, my hands didn't lock together in mid air, I hit the water and my arms crossed... a very bad beginning to a short race where every detail matters.  I tried to correct it and just surfaced to start swimming.  I felt like my stroke and tempo were pretty good overall.  I did drift toward the right of the lane at the end but I doubt that affected much.  I touched in a 24.00, slightly slower than my "I want to be faster than a 24.0" goal.  I had really hoped to be faster than my 2009 performance of 23.96 but I was right there considering the pre-race drama and horrible start.

I can't beat myself up too much, it was still among my fastest times and considering my start error, it was faster swimming than the clock represents.

Tomorrow (today) I have my one official event, the 100 meter backstroke.  I'm happy to report my heavily tinted goggles are performing just fine.  The overcast morning, combined with a mirrored goggle finish looks promising to help me deal with the bright California sun while swimming backstroke.  I know I will struggle with swimming straight without a ceiling to look at but I'll do my best.