first water, more fun

Swimming was pretty good today. I concentrated on finding a good rythm in my freestyle.

da numbers:

• 200m easy free
• 3 x 200m free @ 4:00
• coming in between 3:30-3:35
• not real fast but smooth and felt manageable
• 100m easy pull w/ paddles
• 200m fly kick

total distance: 1100m

first water, rad

I don't know what happened this morning. I just wanted to swim hard for some reason. Clearly, I didn't want to swim fast. Just hard. For the first time in a while I had to stop before something, maybe bad, happened. Or should I say, before having an epiphany in the pool, before breaking in to a realm of enlightenment. I don't know, but I can tell you my face was so friggin hot I was glad to be in the water just so I could cool it down and my back is on the verge of a record-breaking cramp-athon. Honestly, I could have puked. And that would be embarrassing in Los Banos del Mar. Not to say I haven't puked in a pool before. I have. Just not that pool. I don't think they're ready for that.
da numbers:

• 200m easy free
• 300m free
• time: 5:12
• went hard, meant to do a 400 but lost count
• 400/300/200/100m (without the 100m)
• 0:00 - 400m free
• time: 7:07, went hard
• 8:00 - 300m free
• time: 5:35, feeling pretty tired at this point
• 14:00 - 200m free
• time: 3:40, just trying not pass out here
• couldn't keep going, skipped the 100m
• 100m easy pull w/ paddles
• 200m fly kick

total distance: 1700m

first water, better

So, at least I counted right today. I'm able to record a time for 1000m instead of 900m. Things felt OK. A straight 1000m freestyle is kinda hard for me so just to get through it is good, let alone record a better time than last week. I would like to get my time down to 17:30 fairly soon, making 100m splits 1:45 on average. In the more distant future, this should be 1:30 splits, coming in at 15:00 for 1000m. That seems respectable.
da numbers:

• 1000m free
• time: 18:12
• 400m fly kick

total distance: 1400m

first water, learning to count

I didn't feel ultra-good this morning. Things were just OK. I'm nursing this shoulder thing and generally did not have the Eye of the Tiger for the straight 1000m freestyle I had scheduled for today. And stupidly, I lost count and ended up doing a 900m free instead. So, I'm not counting today. It used to be if I lost count I would start over, counting that is, not the swim. My punishment this time: do it again tomorrow. And try not to fuck it up this time.
da numbers:

• 900m free
• came in @ 16:40 - not blistering pace, about the same as last week's 1000m free in 18:30.
• 300m fly kick

total distance: 1200m

first water, not energetic

I must be spent from the last 2 mornings of swimming. Getting out of bed today was easy and everything was coming together for what I expected would be a great session in the pool. Wrong. Energy was low, my left shoulder hurt, and I just could not get things moving. The previous 2 days' swims were kinda intense so this maybe should not come as a complete shock. Today turned in to a focus on fly kick drill, which actually went well.

da numbers

• 200m easy free
• 4 x 100m free
• First 3 were slow, around 1:40-1:45, then I think the last one was just under 1:30. I was surprised, but did feel faster. If true, and I guess it is, the focus during sprints should be purely on maintaining momentum, not stroke mechanics.
• 3 x 100m pull w/ paddles
• these were coming in around 1:30
• 400m fly kick

total distance: 1300m

first water, 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - puke

This week's theme is distance. Yesterday, 1000m straight. Today, the dreaded 400/300/200/100 pyramid I "loved" from short course yards. Porting short course workouts over to long course is good, I feel. That is, it's hard. And hard workouts make for good fitness. Today's set did not disappoint. It hurt and I'm happy to have finished the thing.
da numbers:

• pyramid:
• @00:00 - 400m free
• @08:00 - 300m free
• @14:00 - 200m free
• @18:00 - 100m free
• 100m fly kick drill

total distance: 1100m

first water, one big swim

It's been kind of a lot of years since I swam 1000m straight. It hasn't gotten easier.
da numbers:

• 1000m free
• time: ~18:30

Not super fast. This puts my 100m splits at ~1:51 on average. So, that's not pathetic, but I'd like to get that under 1:45, which puts total time at 17:30. That shouldn't be too bad. Well, that's not very hard to write. Remembering back to how I felt during the 1000 however... I'm happy to have finished the thing.
In more interesting news, Micah showed up to the pool - kind of interesting if one considers he should be in Greece. I took this unexpected opportunity to finish my workout after nineteen minutes and call in sick to work.