first water, cold

It was cold this morning. Once in the water, things are fine. It's the walk to and from the pool that really suck. And I ran in to a nurse that took care of me when I was sick - Cyndi. Most memories from that time are not super clear but the more she talked the more I remembered. She's always happy and smiling it seems, and I remember how good that was to have around me when I was sick. After talking to her, I did some good butterfly lengths - her influence, I know it.

last water

The Los Banos pool was cold last night. Actually, the pool felt OK - the walk to and from the pool was friggin' frigid. Last week kept me out of the water because of this stupid cold, so last night's evening session was my first in a while. I did a bunch of different things for a total of 1200m - OK considering my condition and the variety of strokes and drills. About normal, actually. Butterfly feels better than ever.

first water, I believe I can fly

I did a length of butterfly today, my first 50m long course of fly ever. It was rad and tiring at the same time. What else was rad was doing fly with 2 kicks after the catch, which helps kind of a lot cuz straight butterflying for 50m is way tiring. Other than that, I went through a bunch of the usual drills, zipperswitch with flutter and fly kick, some kicking, back and breaststroke, and some easy freestyle. Total distance: 1300m.

first water, better butterfly

I'm not doing much freestyle this week. Instead, I'm focused on bettering my butterfly stroke. Butterfly is rad, obviously, so I've been pretty psyched on morning pool sessions the past few days. On the other hand, putting in a full-distance workout without much freestyle is not super easy, nor is it super fast. It took me about an hour to log 1500m this morning. No worries - I'm psyched I don't have to swim free 'til I puke. Those other strokes are getting done too, back and breastroke, or whatever. And lots of drills, especially zipperswitch w/ flutter and fly kick.

da numbers:

• I don't even know, lots of different stuff

total distance: 1500m

first water, something different

I did a bunch of different strokes and drills today, and not much freestyle. In recent days I've caught myself dreading the freestyle sets I've been putting myself through lately. So, I worked on the other strokes, mostly butterfly, and did some stroke drills like zipperswitch and one-arm fly. Not a lot in terms of contiguous sets here, few turns, and maybe 200m of freestyle in all. But it all added up to 1100m. And it was fun instead of grueling, for whatever that's worth.

first water, over easy

I really wasn't feeling the Eye of the Tiger this morning. So, what started out as a 1000m swim turned in to 3 x 200m freestyle then just turned in to random IM stuff, mostly butterfly. It's cool though - I'd rather stay psyched than keep beating my head against the wall with distance freestyle.
da numbers:

• 150m easy free
• 3 x 200m free @ 5:00
• ordinarily, I would do 200's @ 4:00 - this is pretty slow
• coming in between 3:20 - 3:25
• 50m easy free
• 100m zipperswitch drill
• 200m fly drill
• 200m 1/2 length fly
• 100m catch-up drill

total distance: 1400m

first water, IM

I thought I would mix things up by taking a break from freestyle to work on the other strokes, especially butterfly. It was rad.

da numbers:

• 100m easy free
• 200m fly stroke drills
• 200m backstroke
• 200m 1/2 length fly then free
• 100m breaststroke
• 100m kick

total distance: 900m

first water, sprint

I just wanted to do 1 fast 100m today.

da numbers:

• 400m easy free/zipperswitch/catch-up drill
• 3 x 50m free
• 100m free
• time: 1:17
• 150m easy free/zipperswitch/catch-up drill
• 200m kick

total distance: 1000m

first water, faster at a price

I repeated last weeks set of 12 x 100m @ 2:00, bettering my split times by about 3 seconds for most of the 100m intervals. And it wasn't magical. I wasn't faster because I implemented some new technique. I just pushed harder. And it hurt more. But I suppose if swimming hard felt good everyone would be in the pool. Which would really suck.

da numbers:

• 50m easy free
• 2 x 50m catch-up drill
• 12 x 100m @ 2:00
• every 100 was under 1:45, which is what I wanted
• 50m easy free
• 2 x 50m catch-up drill
• 200m fly drill

total distance: 1700m

first water, subtlety

There's a subtlety to good technique. Some training sessions are devoted entirely to technique, to developing the form in which you swim, run, lift, or otherwise contest your sport. For points-based sports like gymnastics or diving, I don't know; but for those scored on indisputable metrics, such as time or distance, there is the concept of proper form, there in most cases to optimize the contestants' speed, efficiency or power. And most athletes will do best to implement at least a variation of this concept.

Athletes of every echelon of all sports benefit from continually practiced technique, though no doubt new practitioners focus here more heavily. And while the importance of such training for all athletes is seldom argued, the serious athlete should recognize when his thoughts are to be consumed by form development. For a boxer, that time is not in the ring on fight night. Nor is it appropriate for a swimmer to be distracted by technique before taking her mark on the starting block. It is at these moments the athlete should be in a mental state that will allow her to exert a maximum effort, leaving nothing in the pool or the ring or on the track that could have bettered the performance. I try to think about that sometimes when I'm swimming in the morning. Sometimes I imagine how I would feel next to an athlete in a race, how my effort would intensify and how that would affect my form. Any change to my technique near race intensity would have to be done smoothly so that my time would not suffer. I really need to focus on moving forward, directing all movement in that effort, not on some new detail of my stroke. Any change to my form would have to be subtle. I've swam long enough that I instinctively swim in basically good form. Most of the recent change to my stroke has happened subconsciously, from my body naturally becoming efficient mechanically and physiologically.

Swimmers maybe appreciate more than other athletes the importance of subtlety. Humans do not intuitively perform well in the water and the skill can not be rushed. It is only after many miles over many sessions that a swimmer will start to look comfortable in the pool. I swam almost 80 miles this summer but I'm amazed how much more efficient competitive swimmers look. They've adapted their technique, sometimes consciously but, I suspect, mostly in subtle ways they are unaware of. For highly developed athletes technique would have to be second nature, so they clear their minds of any such distractions, dealing instead with the psychological impact of physical exertion near human potential. To them, any conscious effort to adjust technique would be very subtle.

da numbers:

• 150m easy free
• 1000m free
  • time: 18:30
• 3 x 50m free
• 200m fly kick
• 100m catch-up drill

total distance: 1600m