I skipped going to the pool Thursday night because Heidi made my favorite dinner (smoked chicken mmmmm…) and I promptly fell into a food coma when I was done… no swimming was to be had last night. As a “make up” I decided that I would go to SLO again early this morning and get in an LCM workout there.

I’m still getting used to long course… I really like it for distance freestyle, but it is very weird feeling for my other strokes to go so far without hitting a wall. This time I swam in the fast lane by myself for most of the workout. I was right next to a team swim and I think it was a mix of senior age groupers and some masters… not totally sure. Maybe I need to suck it up and drive to SLO on a regular basis to swim coached workouts. Anyways, towards the end of my swim I got a lane mate that I gained 50m per 100m swam on. I would let him get to the far wall before I pushed off and I’d catch him at the end of the 100. He didn’t really get the concept that if somebody gains that much on you you should stop at the wall and let the faster person through. Ahh the joys of showing up during lap swim.

Here’s this mornings swim:

400 free
100 kick
400 free

8 x 50 odds stroke (fly, fly, breast, fly) evens free

300 free

1600 meters total

I felt the urge to go further but I had to get to work. Next time I need to get there right at 6 so that I have enough time to get in a swim and get back to the office in time for work.

I wrapped up my day with a late trip to the gym for a little dryland action. I’ve been feeling a little heavy and as much as I don’t like it, the elliptical machine really seems to help me slim down. I sweat like a beast on that thing! I spent about 30-35 minutes grinding on the elliptical and a few minutes playing with some weights just because. Tomorrow I’m probably going to end up in the pool in SLO again because I need to take Heidi’s car in for an oil change… I don’t really miss an excuse to swim in a nice pool do I? :)

I know a lot of swimmers out there workout every morning… that’s not me. I’m usually in the pool around 8PM. I would workout even later if my pool were open later, I’m just wired like that. Last night I spent an hour on the elliptical instead of swimming with the idea that I would swim this morning. Amazingly I actually woke myself up at around 5:50 (in the morning!) to go and swim LCM at the pool in San Luis Obispo. After finding all my swim stuff and stumbling around the house for a bit I hopped on the bike and pedaled over to my office to get my truck. After getting to the pool I spent a few minutes on deck looking for a hole in a lane with somebody fast enough that sharing wouldn’t be awkward. There are some slow, medium, fast signs for the different lanes but they aren’t necessarily relevant to what is going on in the water. I hopped in with a guy that was moving along pretty decently (in the “slow” lane) and we kept a solid 50m between each other until he got out. My lane mate was replaced a few minutes later by somebody who did the exact same thing, I totally lucked out there. As much as I hate sharing a lane, sharing a lane in a 50m pool isn’t that bad because you have to cover sooo much distance to pass somebody.

My workout was pretty simple, 1500ish meters all free except for one length of butterfly. I only stuck around for about 30 minutes because I had to make my way back to work. I’m trying to make this a semi-regular occurrence to hit the pool and swim long course. When LCM season rolls around I think the work I’m doing now to get used to the distance will pay off. Depending on how my day goes I might swim tonight as well.

While I’m still basking in the excitement of hitting my goal time in the 100 fly, I am faced with the reality that I have to keep working if I want it to happen again. After a lazy Sunday of just sleeping, watching tv and writing e-mails I had to get back to swimming today. I’m feeling pretty sore in my lower back and in the outer parts of my shoulders but not in a bad way. I hit the pool tonight and put in a pretty decent swim. I’m still doing a lot of butterfly. One of these days I want to be that crazy guy who signs up for the 500 and does it all fly like it’s nothing… that day isn’t anytime soon, but it’s on my list.

Warm Up
400 free
100 kick
400 free
100 kick

25 fly
50 fly
75 fly
100 fly
75 fly
50 fly
25 fly

100 free easy

4 x 50 (breast, back, breast, fly)

100 kick

200 cool down

2000 yards total

In other news… I bought a second neck to ankle type of swim suit. You can see me in it there on the left checking my shoulder straps. Instead of getting another nice fancy one like my Tracer Light (which I love so far), I got a cheap one in the name of science. I was on the USMS Forums and some people were talking about some of the cheaper off brands coming out of China like Ying Fa. Since there is no US distributor for these brands you have to get them on Ebay. One of the posters recommended a seller based in Illinois (most selling this stuff are in China) and I decided to pick up a suit for cheap and see what happens. I bought a suit that is equivalent in coverage to my Tracer Light for about $70 delivered. The suit I ended up with is branded with NSA on it which apparently stands for National Sports Association… which nation and which sports I don’t know, but hey who cares it was only $70. The suit showed up today and I’ve already tried it on. The construction is decent and the seams are stitched in the similar flat broad way my TYR suit is. The material itself isn’t as nice though. It feels like that same sort of stuff a regular workout suit is made of. It is however stripy like a Speedo fastskin type of suit but only in looks, not function. The suit also doesn’t compress your body like the higher end suits do, it really just feels like an overgrown workout suit. I’ll have to reserve my final judgment until I actually get a chance to race in it. I’m curious to see how it stacks up at less than 1/3 the price of the more popular speedsuits.