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It's been a REALLY useless week for training. Between pool closings and personal things, I haven't been the water in 6 days. Today I made a change and began training again. I won't be in nearly the shape I had hoped to be for Lake Orion on the 10th. Oh well, life happens.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Its always tough to make time to train during this time of year. I've taken a few days off of physical activity to enjoy friends and family. I'll be back in the pool on Monday to gear up for the Lake Orion masters meet in early January.

I was thrilled to stumble across another VHS video of Club Wolverine swim camp back in the early 90's. I'm unsure of the date but I was still in the cute phase of life so it must have been before middle school! If I ever get around to it, I'll transfer those videos to digital and throw them on the site. I was quite disappointed with my stroke in the video. I'm not joking at all. If I was a coach at that time, and had seen a child with that type of stroke, I wouldn't even hesitate with a... "That kid is goin NOWHERE!"

Unfortunately I took 3 days off swimming due to a busy work schedule. I completed my 2nd (out of 90) day of P90X tonight. The workout was "plyometrics" which is also called Jump Training. I didn't warm up my hamstrings enough before the 1 hour workout and I fear I probably did some temporary damage somewhere down there. This time of year is usually difficult to maintain a consistent swim schedule due to holiday pool closings. I have a feeling the next two weeks will be more dryland training than pool time simply due to availability.

Nothing much to report. Training is going great... Swam this morning and decided to kick 1/2 of the practice. I did my 2nd session of P90X tonight. At this rate I should finish the 90 Day program sometime in 2012. I feel more relaxed about it this time. When I tried the program this summer I was swimming 1 to 2 times a day as well as doing a 1.5 hour P90X workout each day. It was really quite draining. This time around I'm combining the P90X workouts with my own dryland workouts and taking it a little slower. I think it's a better balance for me.

I had a single impressive moment during tonights practice when I paddle pulled a 1:03 backstroke. I'll have to consult the judges, but that's gotta be near a personal best. I spent a few hours on my times database last night. I loaded even more time an rebuilt some tables to accommodate even more details of each swim! I'm excited to finish it up... Someday.

After a few days off P90X I'm ready for more.

After a brutal first day back on the P90X workout program combined with catching a cold, I decided to take both Saturday and Sunday entirely off. That upper body workout really tore me up, I probably overdid it with the pushups and pullups entirely. My arms have been mostly useless all weekend. They sort of just flop around, it's pretty sad looking really. I've been typing with my nose and ears. It's taken me about 45 minutes to get this much written.

Tonight was the first day back on the P90X workout regiment. I wasn't exactly 100% rested going into it which certainly didn't help the situation. I used light hand weights and low reps however it still tore me up. By the end of the 1 hour "Arms and Back" workout I actually failed on the last exercise. I literally couldn't lift my body off the ground a single time. I'm proud that I completed all but one exercise on my first day back. I'll be in the pool again very soon!

Time to get all ripped up with P90X! Poor planning on my part and unfortunate open swim times meant I couldn't train in the water today. Therefore my best option is a 1+ hour P90X workout in my humble abode. I'm moderately excited to try another one of these workouts. I'm not really looking forward to the moderately corny host and his silly quips so the MUTE button might be my best friend this evening. Here we go!

I've found that day to day consistency plays a large part in my training. By maintaining a "feel for the water" helps both my strokes as well as my personal confidence. The last few weeks I've been swimming 3,000-4,000 yards a day 5-6 days a week by myself. Today was the first day where I really thought I was getting that "feel" back. I did some paddle pulling today and hit a 1:04 for 100 yards (swimming them on the 1:30). The rest of the set were 1:10's to 1:05's. My arms are feeling strong, which is a huge change compared to the last few months.