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Following a 40 minute warmup and pre-main set, we began a set of 30x100's. It was a challenging set for me but I held it together quite well. As usual, I wanted to be much faster, but I held my heart rates exactly as directed:

10x100's @ 1:35 [5 white + 5 pink]
2x200's @ 3:00
10x100's @ 1:40 [5 pink + 5 red]
2x200's @ 3:00
10x100's @ 1:45 [5 red + 5 blue]
2x200's @ 3:00
1:00 Rest
100 ALL OUT

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:

I've been so focused on training, I've lost track of my 12 Month Goal! I only have 4 months to drop some huge time.

SCY (Short Course Yards)... I've almost already run out of time, I need to achieve 4 Lifetime Best times in some of my best events. Since I made the goal at the beginning of the SCY season, I had literally only a few months to both get in shape and achieve all my times due to the "seasons" of the courses available... poor planning on my part! At this point it will be tough to find a meet to compete in before October.

SCY (Short Course Yards)

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.

I'm excited to finish my first month of the P90X tonight! Its been a rough month and a half regarding life and schedule but I'm happy to say I'm 1/3rd the way done with the program!

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!

The phrase of the day is "White Knight". I've never heard this one used in any sort of training context until today. During a warmup set, a swimmer in the next lane was apparently sandbagging most of the set only to go all out during the last 200 meters. The phrase I heard was... "and then went White Knight on the last one". We all laughed at the comment and I immediately filed that one away for the blog :)

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.

Today I was recruited to create a backstroke lane. It ended up being me, and 4 other swimmers including Lori Morton, the incredible kicker. I was really feeling sore today after 3 workouts on Sunday. Not that I didn't expect that to happen, but I really should have taken it easy with the weights in the morning. The lunges and squats causes me to classify my rear end and legs as "DEMOLISHED". I have a hard time sitting down in cars and walking is fairly painful as well. The swimming seemed to help loosen my leg muscles up a little.

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