Friday, February 28, 2014

28Feb14

Slept through my alarm which didn't bother me very much since it is Friday and I normally take it easier on Friday.

Was considering bagging it but decided to just do easy stroke work today.  If I got moving, I could still get 1500 in before I had to get to work.  I would arrive at work later than normal but still earlier than contract time.  Lets do it!

200 swim then 50 back/breast
Repeat until my finger counter said 30

Never went hard and never even really warmed up.

1500 SCY

Thursday, February 27, 2014

27Feb14

Great workout today.
I saw my Urologist at Huntsman Cancer Hospital yesterday.  Mixed results.  The leftover cancerous lymph nodes are all but shrunk into non-existence. There was also a fluid sack of who knows what left over from surgery above my liver.  That too is gone.  Those are great.  He did point out that my CT scan showed that my aortic valve is enlarged.  He is not a heart Dr. but he does know what the notes said and could explain it to me.  He doesn't think it was anything to be worried about but is going to turn it over to his cardiology buddy to look at.  I'll have an answer soon.
Decided to "test out" my valve today.
500 WU
2(100K then 100 drill)
8 x 50 on the :50
8(125 IM 50 fly then 25 of each.  Next 125 is same but the 50 is on back and so forth)
8 x 100 - Odd free and Even back
8 x 50 Agility paddles
10 x 50 pull on the :50
500 holding just under :45 per lap
10 x 50  Desc 1-4 5-8 9=all out and 10 easy CD

5000 SCY

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

25Feb14 - Inspiration

KEARNS was a bit warmer today.  At times I could feel warm water being pumped in. GRRRR  Why do people go out of their way to wreck a good thing or piss the people off it was designed to make happy.  I think George Lucas in in charge of the pool temp!

Did my 100 x 100 workout but cut in half.  Did same 10 sets but only 5 of each x 100
Swim
Snorkel
odds drill even kick
pull
odds fast even slow
breathe left only
IM
breathe right only
snorkel
swim

5000 SCY  Made it in plenty of time.  Rest was minimal.

2 side notes here
1)  Last night I grilled burgers then had some ice cream.  I made my burger the way I like it, double patty, double cheese, TONS of bacon and lots of hot sauce with onions.  It was delicious.  Later I went an bought some ice cream and shared it with my girls.  It was a small amount compared to what I used to consume daily.  I PAID FOR IT this morning.  My stomach was in cramps.  I went to the bathroom before the swimming and felt fine until around halfway.  Stomach started to hurt again and I had to go back to the bathroom.  I really need to be more careful about my diet.

2) As I was leaving, there was an old guy 2 lanes down from me still swimming.  He was OLD.  At least mid 70's and no goggles or cap.  Just heads up breast then laying on his back doing elementary backstroke.  He probably was taking 2 min per length.  Seeing people like this inspire me more than Olympians do!  I'm not kidding.  I honestly pray that when I'm that old, I'm physically able to still swim and still have the DRIVE to swim no matter how slow I am.  I stood there and watched him for a few minutes.  He saw me and smiled.  I said no words but have him a guy's head nod (The one guys give each other that speak a 1000 words while most women have to actually SAY those 1000 words...) and a thumbs up.  He knew I had a ton of respect for him and he was right.  Rock on old guys!

Monday, February 24, 2014

24Feb14

KEARNS is open again!!!
Too bad I'm sick!  I was sick the entire weekend.  Felt bad starting Fri night so I scratched my double swim for Fri.  Went to bed early hoping to get up Sat and do a long swim.  I woke up and my throat was on fire and my head was stuffed with gunk.  Started to feel a bit better Sat night but when I woke up Sunday, I felt WORSE.  My entire body ached.  I've had my muscles less sore after 10 mile swims.

Slept in an hour but forced myself to the pool.
Had very little energy and was still sick and sore.

20 x 50 on the minute
4(200 swim then 50 back)
10 x 50 on the minute

2500 SCY

Friday, February 21, 2014

21Feb14

I planned on doing a shorter swim this morning then another swim tonight that would be much longer.  Double swim and then I could have weekend off.
2 problems came up:
1) I had a horrible night of sleep.  I had one of those nights where I woke up every 15 minutes convinced I had overslept my alarm.
2) I'm getting sick.  I woke up with my throat starting to get sore and my nose congested.  I'm hoping it does not fully develop but something is definitely in me that is not right.
I decided to make my swim a tiny bit longer on the chance that I am not up to swimming tonight.  If I still feel tonight like I do now, I'll bag the swim with zero guilt.
Since I had such a bad sleep, I scrapped my planned swim and did easy ladders.
Did ladders by 50 up to 400 repeat 400 then back down by 50's.  Really fond of this workout.
Once I was done, that put me at 3600.  Knowing me, I can't stop on such an ugly number.
8 x 50 on the minute.

4000 SCM

One cool thing is that I'm now a tiny bit above my pace for the USMS FLOG site.  I'm at 72 miles and 8th in the nation for my age group for accumulated miles.  I'm at the point now where I look forward to my morning swims and getting out of bed is not a chore anymore.  Really proud of myself for keeping with it.  Now that I'm in the "habit" of swimming pretty much daily, I'm going to start slowly increasing my yards per day.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

20Feb14

Easier day today swimming and no mix ups in the bathroom.  Actually, when I walked into the men's changing area, I immediately saw something that made it 100% clear I was in the right location!

1000 WU mainly doing 200's of free, back, and drills with no rest
500 with snorkel
3(100 hard - 50 easy)
50 easy
500

2500 SCM


Wednesday, February 19, 2014

19Feb14 - 24 hour gym

Interesting morning to say the least!
I got a week long membership to the 24 hour gym last night.  KEARNS is closed for cleaning and I don't want to take a week off from swimming.  I got a tour of the place and it is actually a pretty nice place.  It was only $35 for 7 days which is $5 a day and completely normal for any community rec center for a day pass.  I really like that they are open 24/7.  LOTS of machines, a basketball court/gym, free weights, etc.  The pool is even 25M.  That little extra distance adds up and I was hopeful.  Maybe when my membership at KEARNS runs out, I'll come here.  That way I can start my swim at 0300 and do REALLY long swims whenever I want.
Today was day 1....did not start off well.
Yesterday I went to the mens changing area and checked it out.  Lots of room, full length mirrors everywhere and the showers have COLD available.  Fantastic.
This morning I went in the changing area and put all of my stuff in the locker.  I went to the bathroom when I noticed something.  Next to the toilet paper dispenser was a female hygiene trash box.  Took me a few seconds to realize they ONLY have these in women's bathrooms.  I had to replay where I walked into in my head.  I thought I had gone to the same bathroom/changing area.  It looked the EXACT same.  Normally women's bathrooms are 300% bigger, have a sparkly fountain, and couches in them which gives them away.  This one was an exact carbon copy of the mens.  I was 99% sure I was in the wrong place.  No one else was there which was nice...don't want to get arrested this early!  I grabbed my swim bag and headed to the pool.  Once I was in the pool area, I looked behind me to see "Women's Locker Room" sign right there.  OOOOOOOPS!!!  Just because I'm half a man does not give me the right to use the women's changing area.
Great...Now I have to GO BACK and get my clothes!  I did with great caution and a little bit of speed in my step.
Went through the pool area and put my stuff in the men's locker room.  I STARED at the sign before walking in this time!
OK, got my gear put away and technically got away with a minor crime.  Time to swim.
Got in and the pool felt warm.  It read 82 which is not bad but still too hot for my liking.
Halfway through my workout an older lady came in.  She had the typical "gramma" look and swimming attire on.  I told myself to just swim away before she said what I KNEW she would say.  Don't do it Goody...don't stay here....DON'T!  I then made a bet with myself and couldn't resist seeing if I was right.  The FIRST and I mean THE FIRST thing to come out of her mouth, "Wish this water wasn't so cold".. DING DING DING  We have a winner.  I knew it.  I won the bet that the first thing that would come out of her mouth would not be Hello or Good Morning, it would be her bitching about the temp!  This is a 3 lane 25M pool.  This was CLEARLY built for lap swimming only.  It's way to hot for even that.  This pool is not meant for pool exercise or aquatic aerobic classes.  Anyhow...........

1000 WU  Mixed in some breast and back but mainly did free
500 with snorkel
10 x 50 pull on the :60                      
6(25k-hard then 50 swim) then 50 easy  
10 x 100 75% pace                
4 x 50 fly - not too bad but still a struggle
50 easy
200 pull
50 easy

4000 SCM

OK, here is the wrap up of the pool.  The gym itself is actually pretty nice.  A lot of equipment and is aesthetically pleasing.  Bathrooms/changing areas are nice...both of them! The biggest problem is with the ONLY reason why I'm there.  The pool was not that great.  25M is nice but the water was a bit too warm.  I could overlook this fact.  It would easily be replaced with me being able to start a swim at 2 in the morning and be alone for several hours.  What I could not overlook was how cloudy the pool was.  Visibility was 10M at best.  YUCK.  Even with that aside, the temperature also changed.  Half of the pool was cooler than the other half.  There is a hot tub next to the pool and the heat from it warms the air and thus the entire area near where my gear would be.  I could feel the water getting cooler as I swam away and warmer as I swam back.  I tried to overlook this too.  What I could not overlook and simply can not STAND was the parade of people coming in REEKING of perfume or cologne before they sit in the hot tub for 30 min.  I'm trying to breathe here and I'm chocking on your fumes.  If I were to swim here consistently, this would not be an isolated incident.  Over time, it would wear me down and piss me off too much.  I really started to miss KEARNS.  KEARNS is clean, has serious swimmers in it and besides warm water here and there, is an amazing place to train.
I will keep going this week and I know that I can use this place in a pinch if needed.
The gym, locker room, and showers I'd give an A
The pool I'd give a D.
I wish it was the other way around.  So much potential for this pool to be great to train in but the people that run this place clearly have the aquatic area on the bottom of their list.
I miss KEARNS and I am all the more eager to one day open my own pool.  Yes, my OWN pool.  It will be 25M, 2 lanes and be kept between 65 and 70 degrees year round.  All of my swim friends will be able to swim there for free.  I am debating whether I'd even let others use the place.  I think I'd lose my temper if I ever had someone come in and utter one word of complaint about the temperature.  REAL swimmers would LOVE it at that temp.
On a positive side note, I did get to walk around a women's gym locker room completely naked and got away with it!  Not many men can make this claim...I don't recommend it either.

Monday, February 17, 2014

17Feb14 - President's Day swim

Gordon posted on FB a long workout for the day off today.  I decided to join him at Northwest gym.  He planned on doing 10 miles.  I planned on doing LESS than 10!

2000 WU, sets of 200 no rest.  I mixed in free, kicking, back and breast, drill etc
2000 - 200 back 200 free repeats
2000 - 100-200-300-400 repeat back down
2000 - 900 swim 100 back repeat
I then did my own thing
20 x 100  This put me at 10k but I wanted to go a bit more
20 x 50 - This put me at 11,000 and a little over 6 miles.

Glad I got the distance but was disappointed in a few things. 
1) Took me almost 2000 yards before my shoulders did not HURT while swimming.  Gords gave me some Vitamin I and it helped.
2) Around 5k, my right knee felt a sharp pain.  I played with my school kids all 3 PE classes on Friday and twisted my right ankle and hurt my knee then.  Felt fine Sat but it definitely hurt now.  Hurt so much that I went dead leg swimming for my right leg for at least an hour.  Finally started to feel better.  I could not do flip turns either and 90% of the power from my wall push offs were with my left leg.  It hurt so much I was wondering if it was seriously messed up.  Sore is one thing but this was sharp and specifically area pain.  NOT FUN!
3)  I could NOT go fast to save my life today.  I was actually struggling to get :45 times averaging on the 50.  Pathetic.  I would pull stronger and glide a bit more but it did not help.  I was about 4k when I threw in the towel on speed.  I just focused on the distance.  Not sure if I slept bad, didn't eat well, getting sick or what but I could not get the engines going today.  Only 2 of my 8 cylinders decided to work today.

All in all I'm happy with 11k.  I've only been back to swimming for 6 weeks and already doing 11k workouts.  It was good to swim with Gords again.  We didn't get to swim any sets together.  He dropped me immediately and I could only make small chit chat between sets.  I tried to minimize talking so he could keep on his splits and so would I!

Really glad I did it though.

11,000 SCY

Saturday, February 15, 2014

15Feb14 - QUAC meet

At the pool and ready to swim at 0900. 
1500 WU then I did my events.

200 Free - 2:30  Pretty pissed a this time.  I've gone well under this during training swims
500 Free - 7:08  Not too bad.  I ran out of breath at the 200 which is SAD
100 Fly - 1:31 - Happy with this
100 Free - 1:05 - Happy with this too.  I was pretty beat by this time and my stroke was not that strong.

I also did the 50 fly for our relay team and 50 free for relay.

Between the warmups, cool downs and killing time, I accumulated 3200 yards.

Good meet as usual.  The BIGGEST problem was they mixed people with completely different heat times all together.  People with completely different speeds and abilities were mixed in with the faster people.  It was a complete waste of time.



14Feb14

Easy workout today before swim meet tomorrow.  Was going to go before work but wanted to sleep in.
Got in after work and did 10 x 100 on the 2:00  Nice and easy

1000 SCY

Thursday, February 13, 2014

13Feb14

Harder workout today.  LOTS of pulling.  I've never really liked pull sets even though they are really important.  I just always feel like I am doing my stroke wrong.  The WORST is when a long pull set is over and you swim normal.  It feels like your hands are pencils.  Am I going anywhere?  Am I pulling?

200
2 x 200 k/drill x 50
3 x 200 desc
4 x 100 pull breathing 3-5-3-5
5 x 100 pull on 1:25
6 x 100 pull on 1:30
7 x 50 desc 1-3, 4-6, 7 easy on the :50
8 x 50 odds breathe 7-3 even easy :60
9 x 50 desc 1-3, 4-6, 7-9
10 x 50 3(1 EZ, 2 breath 5, 3 breath 9) 10 easy
100 CD

Did a total of 1500 pull which is the most pulling I've done in a long time.  Shoulders were pretty spent after that.  I made my times but my right shoulder was tired and my left started to hurt.  Not a sharp pain but definitely a "WTF Goody?" pain.
Easy swim tomorrow then QUAC meet Sat.  Pool is closed all next week for maintenance so I need to find a pool for next week.
4500 SCY

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

12Feb14

Rest Day today

After doing 10k in the pool then the family funeral, I was wiped out yesterday.  I nearly fell asleep driving back from class last night.  Emotionally and physically I had enough.  Decided even before getting into bed last night that I would take the day off.
Not the slightest big guilty either!

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

11Feb14

Good swim today.  I had a family funeral to attend in the afternoon so that left my morning free to do a long swim.
I elected to do 10,000 yards.  I have not done this distance in quite some time so I just focused on the distance being done and not any specific or impressive times being achieved.
In the pool right after 0500.
Here are the sets.  I did 10 of each and each distance was 100 yards

Free
Snorkel
Odds drill, even kick
pull
odds fast evens easy
breathe left only
IM
breathe right only
snorkel
free

I felt pretty good until I got around 6k.  Shoulders started to get tired and my pull got weaker.  Had to remind myself that today is about distance and not time.
Sue came in around 8500 and helped give me some energy.  There is just something nice about swimming with friends.  Always feels better.
REALLY happy I hit 10k.  Good mental accomplishment for me and a nice step in my training.  I'll go a shorter distance tomorrow to "rest" and then a hard workout Thursday then taper Friday for the meet Sat.

10,000 SCY

Monday, February 10, 2014

10Feb14

Stayed up TOO late watching the Olympics last night.  This was me last night....Go to SLEEP...ok, one more run....go to sleep, ok, one more run...repeat until it was over an hour past my usual bedtime.
Alarm went off at 0430 but I slept in an extra hour.

1000 (200s, 200k, 200s, 200k, 200s)
10 x 50 with no pull paddles or fingerless paddles W/E
500 with snorkel

2000 SCY

I am going to a family funeral tomorrow at noon so I plan on going to the pool and probably doing 100 x 100.

Friday, February 7, 2014

7Feb14

Glad to be back in the water.
Did not feel as energetic this morning as usual.  I decided to keep it shorter today.

1000 WU (200 swim, 200 k, 200 s, 200 k, 200 s)
5 x 100 on the 2:00 - hit 1:20 or under or it does not count
500 with snorkel
10 x 50 on the minute - get under :38 or it does not count
500 CD -  2(200 swim 50 breast)

3000 SCY

Thursday, February 6, 2014

6Feb14

Just an update
I have not been to the pool the past 2 days.
Yesterday I was up most of the previous night with a stomach problem.  I did not sleep and my stomach was bugging me too much to try to even go to the pool to get even a 500 in.  I knew I was too sick to swim when I mentally pictured my FLOG calendar and when I saw the blank spot that would be there, which has motivated me in the past to get up, I did not care.  It was the right decision.  It was not until 1100 that I could even drink water without my stomach complaining.

Last night my wife's grandfather passed away.  It was expected but difficult still.  It is more important for me to be there for her than to go for a swim.

I will be back in the pool tomorrow.  2 days off won't kill me.  Not happy I'm missing 2 days but illness and death in the family trump personal workout time.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

4Feb14

I'm experimenting with my workout schedule this week.  This Saturday and most of the weekend I was pretty wiped out from getting up daily at 0430.  I'm going to try to do M, W, F at 0430 and do 4500 to 5000 yards.  I will get up Tue and Thu at 0530 and swim only 2000 to 2500 yards.  This way not every day is such an early day.  I get daily swims in and "maybe" not be so tired from my long work/school days.  Might be more motivated to swim more than 5k on Sat.
Got to the pool at 0600 and got right in.  I wanted to do some shorter and quicker sets.
500 WU
100 swim hard then right into 50 kick.  I repeated this 6 times
2 x 100 sprint (1:13 then 1:10) Not too bad.  I put 1:15 down for my 100 free time for the QUAC meet.  Guess I'll be under that!
100 easy
4 x 50 sprint
100 easy
500 CD mainly doing stroke work and some breast mixed in.

2500 SCY

I really pushed myself on some of my sprint work.  Still trying to get the balance between going all out and not letting my stroke go to hell in the process.  I find that if I focus on all out speed, my stroke falls apart and I do some of my pulls in already disturbed water which is a wasteful pull.  If I focus on stroke work, then I don't go as fast.  The pool is my Carnegie Hall...practice, practice, practice!

Monday, February 3, 2014

3Feb14

Ate WAY too much greasy and bad food last night while watching the Super Bowl.  Paid for it this morning.  I'm not used to eating that much bad food in one sitting anymore.  Body loved it going in but hated it once it got there.
I had this great workout planned but as soon as I got to the pool, I knew I had to scrap it.  it was not going to happen.
100's on the 2:00 - did this 40 times.  90% of my times I hit 1:30.  Every time I tried to pick it up faster than 1:30, my stomach would tighten up then I would have gas for at least 25 yards.
1000 of 200 swim - 50 choice

5000 SCY slow and easy.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

1Feb14

Had ZERO motivation to swim today.  I was at the Jazz game last night and did not get home until after midnight.  I'm normally in bed around 2100 so by the time I relaxed enough and started to fall asleep, it was close to 0100.  I slept in until 0700 but was still tired from yesterday.
I was not able to go at 0700 which would have made it a bit easier.  Patricia had something to do in the morning so I did not get to the pool until 1000.
200 free
50 choice - can't be free.  I mixed in mainly back and breast.
Repeat until my lap counter hit 100.
I stopped every 1000 for about 30 seconds to get something to drink.

I was doing around 47-49 second laps.  SLOW  I had no motivation, no energy, and no care.  I just swam nice and easy.

5000 SCY