19Mar14

Alarm went off at 0430! SCORE

1000 WU
1000 with snorkel
1000 every 5th lap was sprint
500 pull
5 x 100 must go under 1:20
10 x 100 choice first 50 free 2nd 50
10 x 50 - 3(1EZ, 2 breathe 5, 3 breathe 9) 10 EZ
500 snorkel

6000 SCY

Felt fine swimming.  When I was in the shower, my right lower back seized up on me.  I now have a major knot in my lower back and it hurts every time I move.  Not sure if I slept funny or what but I'm walking around right now like an old man and wincing every time I have to move my trunk.

18Mar14

Forgot to turn my alarm back to 0430 so I once again was late getting to the pool.   Felt foolish about it today.

1000 WU
500 with snorkel
ladders by 50 up to 250 repeat back down.  Every 5th lap was back.  Going back down the ladder was all negative splits
10 x 50 on the :50

3000 SCY

17Mar14

MEH day!
Overslept my alarm by an hour.
Did not sleep well so my energy was not there today.

500 swim WU
500 I checked the time and got 7:22 - wasn't even pushing myself AT ALL
5 x 100 with snorkel
500 with snorkel
4 x 125 IM  50 fly then 25 rest.  Move the 50 to next stroke etc
500 easy

3000 SCY

13Mar14

Good workout today.

400 swim
300 K
300 with agility paddles
3 x 300 pull - buoy at ankles
4 x 200 Desc 1-3 easy on 4
4 x 300 pull  My arms started to fall apart a bit during the last 300
3 x 200 Desc 1-3
2 x 100 fast
500 snorkel
200 back
100 CD

5500 SCY  I plan on going back after work to get in another 2k.  It will be EASY stroke work.  I really felt it when I got out of the pool today.

Back to pool after work.
10 x 50
5 x 100
Broken up 1000 easy

12Mar14

"rest" day today.  I got to sleep in until 0530...it was beautiful!
500 WU
500 with snorkel
5 x 200 IM (IM stroke down then free back)
5 x 200 Odds Free Evens Back

3000 SCY

Arms were really sore when I started but loosened up quickly.  I did 7k yesterday and I plan on doing 2 swims tomorrow so didn't feel like pushing it.

11Mar14

Sick today.  I ingested something yesterday afternoon that had my stomach cramping up.  I went to my bed as soon as I got home and stayed there.  Got up once to sit with my family at the dinner table.  This turned out to be a bad idea.  I asked for some toast so that is all I have had since lunch.  I felt a TINY bit better this morning and decided to try a swim anyway.  No real food since 1100 yesterday and I'm tired.  Time to go to my fall back of feeling the water but not caring a bit about time workout!

200 swim then 50 choice of back or breast.
Repeat until my counter hit 100.  I had to get out several times to go to the bathroom.  Stomach is still in knots.  I'm hoping to feel better this afternoon.  I was hoping to do two swims today.

5000 SCY

Went back after work and did 2k more

10 x 50 on the minute
5 x 100 with snorkel
5 x 100
10 x 50

10Mar14

Fun swim today.
Tough getting out of bed this morning.  I'm not going to be one of those lame crybaby adults that is going to blame "daylight savings time" on me being tired this morning.  I was just being lazy and would have prefered to stay in bed!

1000 WU
10 x 50 K
5 x 100 pull with buoy at ankles
5 x 100 - must go under 1:20 - I did
10 x 50 on the :50 - must go under :40 - made all of them
5 x 100 odds IM evens back
500 with snorkel negative split.  Arms and shoulder muscles were really complaining and tired at this point.
12 x 75 sprint going away from start wall and easy going back to start wall.
100 easy
500 steady pace

5500 SCY

SWEET news today.  I am several miles ahead of my goal pace for 500 miles this year.  I need to keep this going.   I go on a cruise soon and not sure how much swimming I'll be able to do for that week.  Best news is that I'm already over 100 miles.  This is the fastest I've ever hit this milestone. HOORAY ME!

7Mar14

No work today but I went to the pool at 0500 anyway.  I was planning on doing 10k today.
Did my ladder workout.  If I went to 700 going up by 50's then repeat the 700 then back down by 50, that would put me at 10500.
I was going "up" the ladder I was sore as expected.  Around 1500-2000 is when I start to feel good.  Today I felt worse.  I've put in some good yards this week and have been working new large muscles.  I never really gave them a day off.
At around 4000, the sore that had been increasing turned to pain.  I fought through it but after another 750, I knew it wasn't going away and would only get worse.  I don't feel like pushing it and risking hurting myself, even though it was my muscles that hurt.  Did my last few laps real easy then called it good at 5k.  I made it up the ladder but that was enough.  I'm honestly good with averaging 5k per day.  Next week is Spring Break for college so I might do a couple days of 2-a-days. 

5000 SCY

6Mar14

Turns out I'm going to live!  What has been going on is that it was noticed that my aortic valve is enlarged.  This can be a bad thing if it gets too large or continues to grow.  If it does, it can tear or burst and you bleed to death internally if you don't get opened up and worked on immediately.
I had another CT scan done last week then an echo test.  The question was if my valve was growing and if it was, at what rate.  Fortunately for me I had a CT scan done 6 months ago and the cardiologist said there was pretty much no change.  My next CT scan is in a year and he is comfortable waiting until then to take another measurement.  If it has grown, then we will go from there.  If it has not grown, then I get another year of no worries.  Inevitably, it will grow too large and I will need open heart surgery.  That is unavoidable.  It is just a matter of when.  It could be 2 years or it could be 20.  Soooo, since my heart gave me such a good scare, on my way back to work, I decided to "punish" my heart.  I went to Wendy's and ordered a triple Baconator and a large Frosty.  That should do the trick!
Had a LONG day at work yesterday and it was parent teacher conference...which I can't stand.  Got home wiped out.  It was tough getting up this morning.  I had to revert back to picturing a blank spot on my FLOG calendar to get me to move.

600 swim
400 pull no buoy
4 x 50 pull with buoy at ankles
4 x 50 pull no buoy
4 x 50 pull at ankles
4 x 50 pull no buoy
100 to 500 by 100's.  Evens pull  Odds swim
500 to 100 by 100's.  Descending.  I used snorkel for 400 and 200.  Sprinted the 100
4 x 50 on the :45
500 CD

5500 SCY

Arms were really tired today.  I know I've amped up my yards.  I could feel my muscles complaining the entire swim.  Long swim tomorrow then a really short swim Sat....maybe.  The only reason I would swim Sat is to get to 20 miles even.  It would be neat but not caring about averaging 20 a week yet.

5Mar14 - Distracted

The echo exam on my heart yesterday showed some things that I am concerned with...and so are they.  I will go into more detail later once I have met with the cardiologist Dr. today and have more info.  I went swimming anyway but was EXTREMELY distracted.  It took tons of will power to focus on my stroke.  The good news is that I know my stroke is getting better on my left arm because my tricep and my lats were SORE.  They were really sore at the end.  My shoulder felt great and my large muscles were tired.  Good!  I'm not working my small muscle groups anymore.  That leads to problems.
I knew my mind would be all over the place today so I just made up my workout as I went along.  Focused on my stroke and hip rotation instead of speed.
8(200 swim then 50 choice (can't be free))
4(Same as above but IM order.  For the free I did 50 K)
5 x 100 breathe by 4 only on left
5 x 100 breathe by 4 only on right
1500 easy

5500 SCY

4Mar14

Stroke work today.
After feeling the pull coming from my elbow pivot instead of my hands yesterday I focused todays workout on pulling correctly.
Never did any hard or challenging sets.  I had to really focus on paying attention to my technique.  I did notice an immediate difference.  When I would pull focusing on my elbow, I could feel my triceps and lats engaged.  Just to test it, I would randomly pull focusing on my hand.  I would immediately full a twing in my shoulder.  I know I was swimming slow but I did not care at all about speed today.
I didn't even go in with a set workout.   I just made it up as I went along.
500 WU
500 K
1000 snorkel
500 pull
....I really don't remember!  lol  I don't care either.  I never did any set less than 500
The last 2 things I did were doing 25 kick hard then 50 swim FAST with no rest for 9 laps.  50 easy
The last 500 was grandpa pace which put me at 5500.

5500 SCY

My arms and part of my sides and back are sore. That is GOOD.  It's much better than a specific part of my shoulder hurting.

3Mar14

Good swim today.
1000 WU
5 x 200 (needed to go under 3:00)
1000 pull.  I did take TINY breaks randomly to adjust buoy.
5 x 200 IM - IM order.  IM stroke down then free back
10 x 50 pull strong
10 x 50 - Fast down easy back
5 x 100 meh pace

5500 SCY

Left shoulder is starting to bug me some.  I might be pulling with my hand during the catch phase too much instead of my pivot coming from my elbow which engages my tricep and lats more.  Need to swim more with agility paddles to get rid of swimming with my hands as much.

DOUBLE DIP
Went to the pool after work and did 1000 SCY.  It had been bugging me all day about my left arm pull so I wanted to feel it in the water.  I felt an immediate difference.  

1Mar14

I had a church assignment to do at 0900 so I had to make the workout a bit short.
Arrived at 0700 when the pool opens on Sat and was already in my Speedo.  I was in the pool and swimming my first lap at just under 0702.  I was pushing to get 5k in today. 

5 x 1000 
Only a min rest to get a drink

Was ahead of time so I coasted the last 500 REAL slow.  Got out at 0830

5k SCY