As far as swimming a solo workout goes, today was about the best possible situation! I had my own 50m lane all to myself for 4000 meters on a sunny Saturday afternoon! How great is that? The only bummer about today was I forgot to charge my SwiMP3 before hitting the pool so I had to swim to my own internal soundtrack.
200 swim 200 kick 200 pull
Repeat x 3 500 swim 200 kick
800 swim 200 kick
300 cool down
4000 meters total
In the middle of my workout I met a guy 2 lanes over who reads the blog and follows me on Twitter. It always catches me off guard when people know who I am, but I’m always glad when people say hi! If you see me out at the pool or a meet drop by and say hi, I’m all about meeting new people!
I’m still playing with my new camera, here’s a little video and some pictures… the video has a very retro video vibe, I think it’s from little streams of water running over the lens while I was kicking.
The view from my kickboard… I’m squinting in the sunshine
65 and sunny is way more my kind of January afternoon! Looks like we’re done with the rain for at least a little while and it felt great to get out in the sunshine and swim at lunch today. We were 3 guys deep today, the 3 of us seem to be getting pretty regular with the Tuesday/Thursday workout which is good because I think we’re all about the right speed to push each other.
There wasn’t a planned workout today so we made one up at the wall. I got in 400 yards before the other guys got in, and then did about 2000 yards with them.
200 swim 200 kick 200 pull
6 x 50 kick @ 1:15
12 x 100 alt. IM & Free @ 1:40
12 x 25 sprint @ :40
2400 yards total – I got in 45 minutes on the elliptical machine tonight too
In other news… I got a blog comment tonight pointing me towards the blog of someone else that was at the Las Vegas Masters meet last weekend. Check out Jinxi’s recap of the meet over here, this was her first meet in 20 years! Congrats on the comeback!
Since I’m still playing with my new waterproof camera, here are some shots from the pool today!
random artsy looking shot
kicking during warm up
have I mentioned I love having a waterproof camera?
I think my increased yardage mixed with starting to go back to doing some time in the gym on the elliptical is starting to pay off. I’m feeling a little skinnier and about 3/4 of my muscles are sore at any given moment! Today was just a swim day because I started to run out of time and I have a bunch of stuff to get done tonight.
For tonight’s swim I did the stock warm up and then switched up to some 100′s at a fairly quick pace and 200′s at a medium pace. I was swimming solo tonight so I broke out the SwiMP3 and kind of retreated into my own little world.
I spent a lot of time contemplating what events to enter for the Rose Bowl meet coming up soon. I’m really not sure what to do with myself since as a general rule I avoid pool events ≥ 200 yards and that’s the only kind of stuff they have available. I’m thinking maybe the 500 free which I haven’t done since high school and possibly the 200 fly? Or since I have a lot of open water to prep for do all the freestyle races (500/1000/200)? I don’t know… I’m going to keep agonizing over it in my spare time :)
200 swim 200 kick 200 pull
4 x 100 @ :15 rest
4 x 200 @ :15 rest
200 kick
100 easy
2100 meters total
I’ve got a bunch of writing and thinking and buying of stuff to do tonight! I should have a new product review and my plans for short course yards season online in the next couple days…
Rose Bowl Masters are having a meet on the 6th of February and it’s time to go get registered online for it! The meet is all 200 yard events and above, it’s a good chance to get in a lot of these longer events that aren’t offered at every meet.
I really like the Rose Bowl Masters and I’ve spent a lot of time with their team at swim meets. This was the only SPMA SCY meet that I missed last year and I’m excited to finally get down there and swim at their pool!
After a short break from the rain it came back again today. It’s not storming like it was last week, now it’s just raining… a lot. I figured a rainy Tuesday was the perfect opportunity to bring my monofin since I shouldn’t have to share a lane, and it was as good a day as any to try out my new waterproof camera that I got back in December.
up on the pool deck… beautiful day huh?
On deck it was pretty miserable, but the pool felt great. It was nice and warm and there was a little layer of steam on the water. I got in the water right away and waited for eveyone else to get in. I dunked my camera to make sure it was really waterproof and proceeded to mess around with buttons and take some pictures.
Our main set had a big chunk of kicking in it and I decided to use my monofin for most of it. I love how fast you can go with these things! I will say though that you get gassed out pretty fast because you’re moving so much water. I’m going to have to start bringing this to Santa Maria more often while the weather is bad and not as many people are swimming.
200 swim 200 kick 200 pull
4 x 100 @ 1:30 10 x 50 kick (did 8 w/ monofin) 4 x 75 swim @ 1:15 18 x 25 pull @ :25 4 x 50 @ :40
2450 yards total
I capped off my day with a trip to the gym for some dryland action yet again. I did 45 minutes on an elliptical machine and was drenched in sweat by the end of it so I guess it worked :)
I took some random video in the pool to check out that feature… here’s the view from my kick board and a little bit of me swimming!
Once I’ve had my camera for a little longer and used it more I’ll do a review of it.
USMS Executive Director, Rob Butcher, is on the Tuesday installment of Swimming World Magazine’s Morning Swim Show. In the segment Rob talks about how the suit decision came to be and a little bit about his feelings on the matter.
All I’m saying is bring your A Game to Atlanta for SCY Nationals in May! I have a feeling that we’re going to see some unreasonably fast swimming and maybe even some elite people that normally wouldn’t swim masters that want to get back in the water with a tech suit!
I was extra motivated today for whatever reason and did a swim and dryland workout tonight! I started with a swim at Kennedy in SLO. I did about 1600 meters by myself and then joined up with another one of the guys for the rest of the workout. We were joined by a third a little bit later. I wasn’t feeling super fast in the water, but it felt really good to get in the water to work out all the stiffness and soreness from a couple of flights and a swim meet.
1000 swim 300 kick w/ fins 300 pull
4 x 200 free
100 IM 300 Free 100 IM 200 Free 100 IM 100 Free
3300 meters total
After my swim I went home for a little bit to put on my shoes and turn around to go to another branch of my gym to do some dryland action. I spent about 40 minutes grinding out an elliptical machine workout. I hate the elliptical but I have a feeling it’s good for me. What I really need to do is get back out on my bike… hmmm… maybe I should get it tuned up this week and start riding again, it’s been a while!
Go Swim has been launching a bunch of cool stuff recently (don’t forget to go get their free iPhone app!), and I think their most recent project is very cool and very useful for swimmers without coaches or those that want a second opinion. For $15 you can upload video of you swimming and they’ll deconstruct your stroke and give you their analysis of your swimming. Check out the video below for tips on how to take video of a swimmer in motion.
For more details on the program and a tutorial on how to upload your video for evaluation go here!
I have a new waterproof camera that has yet to go on its maiden voyage… I think this may be the perfect motivation to get it wet and figure out how it works!
2 flights and a quick drive later I finally got to the pool!
Today was the first SPMA meet of the SCY season and it was hosted in Las Vegas! Not a bad place to start the year! Both of my flights were on time this morning and I actually got to the pool early which turned out to be a really good deal. I ran into Rowdy Gaines as I got into the pool area and got a chance to talk with him for a while. Rowdy is such a nice guy and it’s always cool when I get a chance to talk to him a little bit in person! He’s in town for something with the local age group team… I tried to talk him into deck entering but unfortunately he was a little busy. He did swim a little bit though during warm up, I got to swim beside him for about 1000 yards which was very cool for me!
Once warm up was over I had a good chunk of time to hang out before I actually raced. This meet starts with the 500 free and that tends to take a while to work through. I hung out with the Rose Bowl Masters today since this wasn’t a team meet for CVMM.
I started out with the 50 fly today and my race went pretty well. I swam a 26.8 which is a pretty decent showing for the first meet of the season. I haven’t done much short course speed work recently and I didn’t dolphin kick as far as I usually do so all that being said I think I might be able swim a low 25 this year.
Up next was the 50 breaststroke which is typically a “palate cleanser” for me. I’m not a b-stroker. I had a pretty decent swim, good pull down with a dolphin kick (that’s new for me) and besides an awkward extra stroke at the 25 I had no major mistakes. My timer was having a stopwatch meltdown during my heat so I didn’t get a time at the end of my race. Amazingly when I checked the results on the wall later I found out that I won my age group! I swam a 33.15 which isn’t a best time but really good for me.
In theory my 3rd event was the 100 fly but I missed it. The acoustics in the pool were really bad and I didn’t hear the event announced. All the heat and event announcements were very Charlie Brown’s Teacher-esque. Wahh wah wah wahh wah wah… On the one hand I’m bummed I missed the 100 fly, on the other my body was starting to cramp up.
I finished up with a 50 free and it wasn’t exactly my best work. My calf cramped up on the blocks and I just wasn’t all there for it. I swam a low 26 and I have a little video for you below… as usual I’m the handsome bald man in the bodysuit :)
I got a few pictures throughout the day… here’s some of them!
apparently we had some Elvis’ in attendance
That’s Rowdy Gaines doing a flip turn
… that’s me swimming next to him!
the Desert Breeze Park Pool
I present you snow on a mountain :)
Now I’m at New York New York about to go run all over Vegas and have some fun! I’m flying back tomorrow!
The Las Vegas Masters Free Play meet is going down tomorrow at the Desert Breeze Park facility just a few miles away from the Strip. I fly out tomorrow morning and weather willing I’ll be there just in time for warm up. I’m planning on swimming the 50 fly, 50 breast, 100 fly, and 50 free.
In other news… I got a new bag of suits today! Splish is doing a big Grab Bag Suit Sale where they’re selling guys’ suits for $10 and girls’ suits for $20. I don’t know how long it’s going on for but it’s a pretty good deal and I scooped up 5 for myself! If you want some new workout suits for cheap that still have some personality run over to Splish.com.
