2008 October | Rob Aquatics Masters Swimming Blog

Helmets, Bike Shorts and Burger King…

Sunday night I got about 3 hours of sleep so when I got home from the pool I pretty much fell asleep on the spot. Hence a blog post in the morning as opposed to my usually late night blogging…

Over the weekend I pretty much just took it easy and gave my body a chance to recover a little bit. I’ve been really busy and just needed to take a little time to chill out, plus I’m racing at UCLA this weekend again already! I did a little bit of shopping to get ready for my bike thing coming up this month. I picked up a new pair of mountain bike shorts (I don’t find it particularly necessary or aesthetically pleasing to wear skintight clothing on my bike) and a helmet. Despite being disturbingly expensive I’ve found bike specific shorts to be entirely worth it. If you ride a lot and have never tried them, do it. Your balls will thank you. (there’s a sentence I never thought I would write…) I was also required to buy a helmet for this event… I’ve seriously never owned one, they kind of bug me. Plus I have a big melon and it’s kind of hard to find hats that fit me so I figured a helmet would be worse. The kid at the bike shop helped me pick something out and amazingly with enough adjustment it fit right on my dome. Later I went to the Bell website to read up on my purchase and the first line of their sales copy is: “Finally a good looking helmet for the extra large of head!” I’m pretty sure that they’re making fun of me now… jerks :)

Anyways, despite being tired out of my mind and having a belly full of Burger Kingly goodness I made my way out to the pool right after the sun went down. I would go earlier but a big piece of my ride is straight west towards the beach and into the sun… it’s a good way to get run over by people that can’t see out of their windshields. Once I got to the pool I got down to business with a short workout. Normally I’d breakout my workout but I can’t remember the whole thing. I made it up on the spot. Basically the important part was I made sure to mix in some butterfly action. I have to make my way through a 100 meters of it on Saturday!

So ultimately there were 10 miles on the bike and an undetermined number of yards in the pool.

Not My Best Work

I was dragging ass tonight… I just wasn’t all there. I think I’ve been really dehydrated this week between sitting in the sun all day in Davis on Sunday and the mini heatwave we had here in town. I just couldn’t drink enough water.

On the upside I did manage to talk one of my friends into coming out to the Candy Corn Classic with me later this month. The plan is to sign up for the 35 mile ride that runs through San Luis Obispo up to Morro Bay and back. It should be a good time. I’m still trying to recruit a few more people to join team Rob… it’s ultra exclusive, there’ll be tryouts later.

Tonight I hopped on the bike and rode out to the gym without much of a plan. My workout was pretty haphazard because I was feeling pretty crappy. I did a few 25 yard sprints that felt strong though. Now that I’ve finally done some short races I’ve gotten my feel for how “fast” feels.

Warm Up
200 free
100 breast

3 x 200 free

4 x 50 (25 kick 25 sprint)

200 free

1300 yards plus 10 miles on the bike

Swimming Unattached… My Thoughts So Far

*Update 7JAN08: I get a good amount of visitors to this post from people with questions about swimming unattached. If you have a question you want to ask me about it feel free to leave a comment or send me an e-mail at rob@robaquatics.com!

I’ve now competed in 2 masters events as an unattached swimmer, 1 open water and 1 in the pool. I was apprehensive about tackling my return to swimming unattached but it has proven to be a good thing so far. It’s not necessarily a complete experience though.

Pros

I can do whatever I want and train whenever I feel like it

I don’t have to pay team fees

I can go to any meet that I want, it doesn’t matter if my team is going or not

Masters swimming seems to be an inherently friendly organization and even if you’re not part of a team people you don’t even know will still be nice and support you. At the Naples Island swim the host team was friendlier to me than teams I have actually been a part of! At Davis I had strangers congratulating me on winning my heat in the 100 IM. Very cool.

(on a personal level) I can ride my bike to my current pool. The nearest masters team that seems decent is too far to do that and I don’t want to give up my cross training on the bike

Cons

It’s hard to write your own workouts and stick to them

There’s no one to hang out with, watch your stuff, cheer for you at a swim meet

There’s no coach to tell you what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong.

It gets a little lonely sometimes to train and compete alone

As it stands right now I’m happy swimming unattached. Swimming is an individual sport and being responsible for your own workouts and results isn’t a bad thing. I may breakdown and join a team someday but I don’t think that day will be coming anytime soon.

All Signed Up for UCLA

I sent in my entry form for the UCLA SCM meet coming up on the 18th of October. I’m going to swim the 50 free, 50 fly, 100 free, 100 fly, and the 100 IM. In the 50′s and the 100 IM I want to beat my times from Davis. In the 100 free I want to hit around 1:05 or better and in the 100 fly I entered a 1:15 but I want to be under 1:10… we’ll see how that goes… my ultimate goal for both is to break a minute.

Tonight I hit the pool more to cool off than anything… it was super hot today man, ocean breeze be damned it was pushing 100 here in Grover/Pismo Beach.

Warm Up
300 free
100 kick

2 x 400

100 kick
200 free

1500 yards

I had to do some stuff this evening so I was unwillingly out in the car instead of riding my bike – I really hate driving. The counter guy at the gym called me out though – “not riding your bike tonight man?” I let him know we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled program tomorrow :)

Davis Pentathlon Wrap Up

I just got back from Davis and besides being a little sun burnt I feel really good about my races. My times weren’t spectacular by any stretch of the imagination but they were respectable. (All the results are now online, you can see them here) Now that I have some real times for short course meters it will make it easier for me to sign up for the UCLA meet later this month.

I drove up to Davis Saturday morning and was at my brother’s place around 3 in the afternoon. The original plan was to save a few bucks and stay at his place. Once I got there I realized that wasn’t really the answer. His room was a stainless steel toilet away from being a prison cell. He offered up a gross couch in a common room… this wasn’t going to work out. I in turn hit up my old friends over at Expedia instead. The Best Western was totally worth the $100 bucks instead of getting some kind of mite from a questionable couch. After I checked in I went and explored all 4 blocks of downtown Davis. The thing I like best about Davis is the full acceptance of bikes as an actual form of transportation. There were bikes, bike lanes and bike racks everywhere. I wish I could get some of that action around here!

Anyways back to the action… after an unintentional tour of the Campus I found the pool. It’s really nice compared to what I’m used to. My one big complaint: no friggin shade anywhere. Davis is hot and sunny and the pool and pool deck are reflective so there is no escape if you’re there on a sunny day like, you know, today. Shit. I look like Hank Hill with my shirt off because I swim indoors so I was pretty worried about this whole sunshine thing. It felt about 85 degrees and I was out there in a sweatshirt with my hood up trying to not burn the crap out of myself… it didn’t work. Luckily I didn’t really start feeling it until hour 4 of my drive home, tomorrow is going to be awful.

The races went really fast which was nice. There were about 9 heats per event for the women and 10 for the men and they still managed to jam through 5 events in 3 hours. My main worry was starts from the blocks because I don’t have any to practice with. But once I did my first one I got over it really quickly. My starts were solid and my goggles didn’t leak on me. Turns out riding 50-60 miles a week helps with jumping :) My butterfly was good, back and breast were a little not so good but decent, and my free and IM were really good for me. I still have a lot of time to shave off my times but it’s a start. My 100IM in particular went really well. I pulled out to an early lead in the Butterfly leg and managed to hold off everyone else for the last 75. I got a little prize for winning my heat, a UC Davis swim cap, not particularly useful for a bald guy… but hey I like free stuff so it was cool. Plus I just like feeling like I won something.

Here’s my times for the five events:

50m Fly: 31.65
50m Back: 38.10
50m Breast: 39.37
50m Free: 30.86
100 IM: 1:17

Overall I finished in the middle of my age group. Everything except my backstroke was below my seed time guesses. I’d like to get my fly and free times under 30 by the end of the year. I’m going to have to put some more work into my backstroke, I used to be a decent backstroker back in the day. Ultimately it looks like fly is still going to be my non-freestyle goto event. Not sure when I want to get brave and try to race a 100 though. I really like doing the IM too. Not sure if I’m ready to race a 200 IM but the 100 is shaping up to be a new favorite event.

Ultimately I met my swimming goals (good fly and free, avoid embarrassing myself in the other events) and I got my just rewards… sweet, sweet, wonderful waffle fries… oh how I’ve missed you.

isn’t it beautiful?

Leaving for Davis in the Morning

Getting myself ready to trek up to NORCAL to do the Davis Pentathlon. I’m stoked to do a pentathlon specifically because it will give me a baseline in every stroke to see where I am at. This is going to be my first meet in a decade so I’m not sure exactly what to expect performance wise.

My big goals for this weekend are to swim a good 50 free, a good 50 fly, not embarrass myself in the other events, and get some waffle fries at a Chick-fil-a… that last one isn’t swimming related, I just love waffle fries and I haven’t had Chick-fil-a since I left Texas back in 2004. In preparation for the meet I did shave down… my head and most of my facial hair anyways :) I’m down to just a strip down the middle of my chin, I’m hoping it makes me go faster.

I’ll be tweeting my way through the weekend if you want to follow along at home.

Short and Hard Like a Body Building Elf

I got a little caught up in watching the VP debate and left the house later than I wanted… so my focus at the pool was on going fast not far because I didn’t have that much time.

Warm Up
200 Free
100 kick

12 x 50 (25 fast, 25 slow IM order)

200 Cool Down

1100 yards total plus 10 miles on the bike.

In other news… I got an e-mail from the Davis Pentathlon meet director letting me know that they have me signed up for this weekend. I’m excited to swim a meet, I’m just not excited about having to drive 300 miles each way.