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Unfortunately I did this set from home where I can't do pullups or dips, but my situps and pushups improved slightly.

Last week I was 86 Situps in 2:00
This week I was 100 Situps in 2:00
(Issue: I run out of strength)

Last week I was 20 Pushups in 1:00
This week I was 43 Pushups in 1:00
(Issue: I run out of strength)

I took Tuesday off to recover a little. I was back in the pool tonight to squeeze in 3,000 yards before the EMU meet. I did some fast 100's and fast 50's. My 100's were all under 1:00 with less than 30 seconds rest. The 50's were around 24-25 seconds. I'm satisfied with my performances but I can't say I really felt rested after a full day off. I'm excited to visit some friends in Indianapolis this weekend and compete in the TYR Grand Prix series meet at IUPUI. I have been practicing some IM drills to prepare myself for the 100 IM SCM I'll do this weekend.

It's been a few days! I've been in the water every day and done weights twice since my last post. Last night I was sort of running out of steam in the pool. I only did about 1800. I was sore and tired. I'm taking today off to recover while getting some projects done. I can share this news because it's swimming related. I redesigned a website I manage for Eastern Michigan Swimming:

www.emuswim.com

Due to a crazy work schedule that put me behind in my day, I was gently pushed out of the pool by the team half way through my 1 hour practice. I decided to finish up by doing lots of starts and 25's in an extra diving lane (generously provided by EMU Diving). I did:

10x25 yard sprints on the 1:00 backstroke from a push.

I squeezed in a 3300 yard practice today after a long day of work. My chest is sore from the mediocre benchmarking set yesterday. I had a coach time a 50 yard kick from a push. It was done butterfly kick on my back with a flipturn. I clocked a 26.6. I was slightly pleased. I think that's a solid performance. I believe frequent small benchmarking sets keeps my confidence high and motivates me to keep training day after day. One of the few benefits of training alone, anytime I want to benchmark myself, I do.

Tonight I tried a bodyweight strength benchmarking set we used to do in college. I admit I performed much lower than my expectations. It was bad enough that I considered not even posting my results at all. However, I embrace sub par performances because they motivate me to work harder and improve.

Max Number Situps on 2:00 - 86
Max Number Pushups on 1:00 - 20
Max Number Pull-ups (Palms In and all the way down) - 13

I'm officially registered for the 2008 ConocoPhillips SCY Nationals. This will be the first national meet I've ever been a part of (exlcluding trials). I'm excited to be a swim at this level again! I'm swimming the 100 Back and 50 Freestyle. The meet is in early December in Atlanta.... not a horrible time to be down south!

Posting daily keeps me on track with my training. Although I don't feel like I need a day off, I think it would be best to enjoy a day of rest before beginning a challenging training week. Today I will catch up on work and life.
Also, great job to my friends at the masters meet this weekend: Sarah, Skip, Todd, Sally and others.

Last week I set a goal of lowering every single best time I have recorded for myself within the next 12 months. This goal encompasses 23 total events from all three courses (SCY, SCM, LCM). Yesterday I dropped my lifetime best time in the 100 IM from a 53.39 to a 52.63. What's crazy is that I dropped 95% of that on the first half of the race. The Fly and Backstroke legs of the race are my best out of all four. I dropped from a 23.59 to a 22.88 split on the first half. I really thought I had maximized that portion of my race.

With only ~40 competitors, they were flying through the meet. I had a little more rest before my 50 Back due to the 15 minute intermission. I went a 23.47. Not a horrible time, but a half a second off my best. Due to the "Omega" pads, I didn't get the best start. My 100 Back which was 10 minutes later was a 51.69. By this time I was really quite worn out. I could feel myself swimming slow and not optimizing my distance per stroke. I enjoy doing lots of events, but I think next time I'll just focus on a few and perform better with more rest. It was a great meet overall.