Obliques. I wants them.

When I swim, I can tell that I am not rotating enough, or easily enough, and when I get tired I tend not to do it consistently. I'm sure this is because I have zero abdominal strength. Ergo, I headed to my first Pilates class yesterday. I think it's going to be exactly what I need, because everything from my ribs to my hips is sore today. Sadly, I think I'm only going to be able to get to one class a week at the gym--the others are too early in the day--so I think I'll get a DVD to try on my own and see how that goes. Plus, straight-up crunches never hurt anybody.

I did notice, though, during one of my post-workout inspections, that I *think* I might be getting the faintest shadow of baby obliques. They're not visible to the naked eye (only my own highly optimistic eye) but I do think they might be there. ;)

Baby steps.

A few small milestones:

-tonight the masters coach a) told me I had a great fly, and b) gave me a simple way to improve it: apparently it's not necessary for me to haul my entire chest out of the water when I breathe! I hadn't even realized I was going that, but the next lap of it that I did sure as hell felt instantly easier.

-I've dropped my stroke count on 25 yards from 20/21 a few months ago to 16/17.

-we did a breathing set at the end of practice tonight, and I didn't even feel out of breath when I finished the underwater 25. Then we were to do a 50 free on 3 breaths, and I did the first 25 without any, and only took 2 on the back end.

-oh, and I still don't have any abs, but I haven't given up hope that they'll eventually show up... and in the mean time, I am kind of frickin' stoked about my arms.

Next goals:

-get strong enough to do 50 fly without feeling like I'm going to collapse

-drop stroke count even more

-drop my intervals

-tighten up my turns

-do a timed mile, straight through. I have been avoiding this, because I'm vaguely nervous that being able to swim for two hours with breaks won't translate into being able to swim for half an hour without stopping, but I really ought to try it just to set a baseline and see where I'm at.

Hundreds and Hundreds

At masters this morning, we had a set of 10 x 100, odds fast with an out of water start (off the deck not the blocks) evens recovery. 

My times were:

1 - 1:05

3 - 1:05

5 - 1:06

7 - 1:08 (oops!)

9 - 1:06

So, not that bad. I felt pretty good until number 7, at which point the piano fell. Hard. I was able to pull it together again for number 9, although I had gotten to the point where I could no longer really feel my arms. I was just trusting that they were doing what I told them to, and I'm pretty sure I was flailing.    

If only I could hold that pace for 4.4 miles!!  

So, things to work on - holding a faster pace for longer distances. Not losing technique as I get tired. And ramping up the yardage. 

I'm aiming to do a T-30 this weekend. Any bets on whether I lose track of my laps? Ok, that's not a fair bet. Any bets on how far into the 30 minutes I lose track of my laps?

12/27/08

Grappledunk & Nerf, at Grappledunk's pool. Zero hot swimmer ass sightings. But we did:

200 S, 200 P, 200 K, 200 choice, 200 varied speeds

3 sets of:
200 kick/drill
200 pull
200 swim
-first set free, second set IM, 3rd set choice (we did a mix of breast and fly)

4 x 50, down underwater back easy (I did all 25s underwater with no problem!)

200 cool down

total: 3200 yards.

It was as easy for me as 2000 was a month ago, so I'm psyched!

Holy shit!

Masters practice tonight. I wound up not doing quite as many yards as everyone else cause I am a lot slower, but here is my best estimation of what I did do:

200 free warmup
200 drill (free, alternating between anchor drill and catchup)
1800 main (400 free, 200 kick/drill, 200 free, 400 pull, 200 kick/drill, 400 free)
100 timed
200 easy
300 IM (4 x 75)
300 (this was supposed to be a pyramid, but at that point I was just trying to keep swimming, so I wasn't timing or anything)
200 breathing set (4 x 50)

So, about 3300 yards. Holla! That's by far the most I've ever done; and not only did I surprise myself with how much I was able to do, but the fly portions of the IMs were no problem at all, even though they fell near the 3000 yard mark when I was already really tired. I mean, I remember the first time I went swimming with Grappledunk around Labor Day, I could barely make it to the end of a 25 fly lap when I'd only been swimming a few minutes. And the breathing set at the end was supposed to be 4 x 50 yards, breathing five times, then four, then three, then two. I did five, then six, then three, and was sure I could never do the two breath 50 that the coach wanted me to--but I did! I did the first 25 with no breaths at all.

So, I guess I am gradually making progress, even though sometimes it doesn't feel like it... now that I know I can do over 3000 I will just have to keep pushing until I can do it consistently, and can polish off 4000.

12-16/08-12/17/08

Yesterday I did 43 minutes on the elliptical, at a pretty high resistance (including the handles) and then ran on the treadmill for 17 mins, mixing in lots of sprint intervals. The day before that, I had a pretty shitty, weak swim. I HAVE to break 2000!

Mornings...

I'm not sure why, but somehow I can get up to swim before work easier than I can make myself swim after work. Which is great, because I've been getting waaay too much sleep as it is...sigh

Wednesday morning I swam a 500 pyramid working strokes and drills and kicking, but with the 100 and the second 200 working my open water pace. The 100 was ok. The 200 was pretty slow. Baby steps, right?

Now I'm trying to figure out when I'm going to deal with my car registration, and my address change with the DMV (which I neglected to address - ha!- when I moved a year and a half ago...)

 I'm afraid it's going to seriously infringe on my swimming/grappling/other important stuff time this Saturday.

12/15/08

400 swim, 200 kick, 400 pull, 200 kick, 400 mixed breast/back, and then 400 alternating whatever it took to get me through to the end--followed by 50 sculling, just to really wear me out. I'm pretty whipped. Next goal--to get through 2500!

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

After two weeks of hardly working out at all and only making it to the pool once, I went back to the Y tonight. It's possible I'm imagining things, but I swear it seems cleaner and somehow less cold than it was last time I was there. Didn't have a great workout, but that's no surprise since it had been a while; they key thing is that it didn't fill me with despair. Oh, and if I were to avoid eating half a dozen fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies (I am warming up for Christmas) a couple hours before getting in the water, that would probably help.

Theoretical workout schedule

Who knows how close to this I will actually get. But barring awful work hours, headaches, fatigue and general demoralization, here is where I would like to be:

Monday: AM weights
Tuesday: AM swim
Wednesday: Am weights, PM swim (this will be swim class once the next program session starts)
Thursday: AM swim
Friday: AM swim
Saturday: AM weights, PM swim
Sunday: PM swim (Masters practice)

It's not really meant to be a 7-day schedule, but I know inevitably the day off I take will vary from week to week, and the weekends are actually my best times to get in good workouts. It's going to be tough to get to bed early enough that I will be willing to get out of bed at 6:30, but I gotta do it; I've been working till 7 or 8 a lot lately and it's pretty much impossible to summon the motivation to go to the pool after that. So let's see how this goes.

12/06/08

The good news is, my second workout (I only worked out twice! Blurgh!) of this awful awful hellish week was actually a good one. The bad news is, I wasn't swimming. I worked all day yesterday and didn't have the concentration or energy for a swim, so I just hit the treadmill instead. I ran four miles in 36 minutes (which is exciting to exactly no one other than me; the first time I timed myself at it I took 40 minutes, and then 38 minutes another time), and then after I caught my breath I ran another mile just for good measure. Shockingly, now my legs are tired and I'm wondering exactly how bad I will be at masters practice tonight...

Short - but not as bad

Here's today's workout:

W/U: 400 free, 250 stroke, 5x50 e, m, f, m, e

200 pull

100 kick 

500 test swim: I went a 6:17. Meh. I suppose it wasn't too horribly bad for just the second week of swimming...

3x100 pace

200 pull

100 kick
I'm actually proud I got in the pool today. My usual pool (seen here:

 was closed due to some arts and crafts fair (arts and crafts?? why close the pool for that??) so I had to go waaaay out of my way to this one:

It was strangely dark in there. I wonder if they forgot to pay the electric bill. I like my usual pool better, but it served the purpose...

Is there such a thing as pool rage?

Ok, it's a few days late, but here's what I did on Wednesday:

W/U: 300 swim,  

          4x100 IM (this is where I realized this was going to suck.)

Free set:

5x100 on 1:30

4x100 on 1:25

3x100 on 1:20 (this is where I got really pissed at myself and stopped the set. I had another 2 100s on 1:15 and one on 1:10 left to do, plus another whole set that I didn't do.)

5oo swim - 50 free, 50 back, trying to loosen up and get my stroke feeling somewhat normal.

15 minute hot shower, which felt great until I realized I was going to be late for work. Dammit.

30 minutes of road rage in rush hour traffic.

--2400 yards

12/03/08

In summary: blurgh. I was tired and gaspy; didn't count laps because I was too busy sulking over how gaspy I was; only swam for about 45 minutes before giving up due to persistent chill and horrible foot cramps. Grappledunk, do you have any advice/suggestions re the foot cramps? I get them sometimes in the arch of my foot, but tonight I was even getting them in the muscles of my toes. Fun!

Saturday, November 29 - Distance Per Stroke workout

Lots of stroke counting today... It was good to focus on distance per stroke, since I feel like a spaz for a while after a long pool layoff. Nerdy Fashionista hung in for a good 2000 yards while feeling like crap, so that bodes well for future, non-crappy feeling workouts!

W/U: 200 sw, 200 pull, 200 kick, 200 choice, 200 variable speed = 1000 yd

450 pull
count strokes each length for the first 150; 2nd 150 stroke count -1; 3rd 150 stroke count -2
(my stroke count was 17, 16, and 15)
200 kick
450 swim
same as first 450
(I managed a length with a 13 stroke count on the last 150!) =2100 yd

4x75 faster, stroke count -1 =2400 yd

200 drill
100 kick
100 fast drill = 3200 yd

100 warmdown
=3300 yd

11/28/08

Workout:

-200 swim, 200 choice, 200 swim drill kick swim (interrupted midway by pressing matters requiring our attention on deck)

-2 x 400 (50 drill, 50 swim, each stroke)

-100 time test

-50 mellow

-400 pull, descending

=1950 total, plus special Remedial Flipturn Clinic for NerF.

100 yard test times:

Grappledunk, leading the way: 1:05 (31/34)

Pigwee, barely behind: 1:11 (33/38)

NerF, gasping into view: 1'25" (41/44)

Other notes:

Spotted: 1 piece truly righteous hot swimmer ass. Mystery Braddock Road Dude, we salute you.