first water

Felt good this morning. Finally. This week has been alternating days of good and bad. IMs had me breathing like a maniac but I stayed loose and kept good form; good for me, anyway. Even butterfly is starting to feel good. Not so good that I can finish two lengths with 1-to-1 kick, but better than days past, maybe better than ever.
da numbers:

• 2 x 100yd free
• 2 x 100yd free/zipperswitch
• 100yd fly kick
• 16 x 50yd IM alternating laps @ 1:30
• first 3 sets of 4 x 50 IM, fly lap, was 2-to-1 kick
• last fly lap I died 10yd from the wall on the way back
• this whole set was hard, from beginning to end
• last 50 free was fast, right at 30 sec - shoulders felt loose, arms were catching quick
• 200yd fly kick
• 4 x 50yd fly/back alternating lengths @ 1:30
• 300yd breast/fly kick
• 400yd apnea drill w/ short fins

total distance: 2400yd

first water

Today was hard.
da numbers:

• 2 x 100yd free
• 10 x 100yd free @ 2:00
• coming in between 1:20 - 1:25
• 300yd fly kick
• 3 x 100yd IM @ 3:00
• coming in between 1:40 - 1:50
• 4 x 100yd pull w/ paddles @ 2:00
• coming in between 1:20 - 1:25
• 200yd apnea drill w/ short fins

first water

I know my workouts are getting long when I dread having to type it out.
da numbers:

• 2 x 100yd free
• 4 x 200yd free @ 4:00
• coming in between 2:47 - 2:55
• 300yd fly kick
• 3 x 100 IM @ 3:00
• coming in between 1:50 - 1:40
• 400yd pull w/ paddles
• 200dy fly kick
• 200yd apnea drill w/ short fins

total distance: 2400 yd

first water

Note to self: if you need to wake up at 6:00 AM to swim, go to bed before 2:00 AM. This morning totally sucked. I was mega-slow and generally felt like road kill. And this week's daily yardage is pegged at 2400 yd, so yeah, I'll be going to bed way after 2:00 every night.
da numbers:

• 2 x 100yd free
• 1000yd/20min pyramid set
• 400yd
• time to finish = ~6:10, not good
• 300yd @ 8:00
• time to finish = ~4:30, not good again
• 200yd @ 14:00
• time to finish = ~3:00, not good
• 100yd @ 18:00
• time to finish = ~1:18, way not good
• 300yd fly kick
• 6 x 100yd @ 3:00 fly/back alternating lengths
• coming in between 1:50 - 2:00
• 300yd fly kick
• 300yd apnea drill w/ short fins

first water

IM is hard. Finishing this morning's requisite yardage was hard. Not a super motivating day in the pool. But I did some butterfly for 100yd distances. Well, kinda. I pulled once for every 3 kicks and I paused between lengths. But no more one-arm stroke drills. That's good, I suppose. Closer to good anyways.

da numbers:

• 2 x 100yd free/zipperswitch
• 100yd fly kick alternating back/front
• 8 x 100yd IM strokes @ 3:00
• 4 x 100yd zipperswitch/free alternating lengths @ 2:30
• 300yd fly kick alternating back/front
• 400yd apnea drill w/ short fins

total distance: 2200yd

first water

Good times at the Carpenteria Community Pool. I don't know what it is about that pool exactly that makes me really like swimming there. My main set was 10 x 100yd on 1:50. This is faster than I've been going for a 1000yd set. A couple weeks ago, 10 x 100yd on 2:00 felt hard. Needless to say, 1:50 is harder. And it felt that way.

da numbers:

• 2 x 100yd free/zipperswitch
• 10 x 100yd @ 1:50
• coming in between 1:20 - 1:25
• This did not feel like a super fast pace.
• 4 x 100yd pull w/ paddles @ 2:00
• coming in between 1:25 - 1:30
• 300yd dolphin kick alternating back/front
• 300yd apnea drill w/ short fins

total distance: 2200yd

first water

I've learned to be more intuitive about my workouts. That's the nice thing about not being on a team. If there's something I don't want to do, I might choose not to do it. Like today. My ambitious objective was to crank out 4 x 400 yd on 8:00. That's a lot for me right now. Additionally, today was to be my first session of 2200 yd, in recent years that is. But soon after waking up I realized the Eye of the Tiger was not with me. So, I opted for the following routine instead. And it was kinda enjoyable. It wasn't brutally excruciating, anyways. There is a balance, after all, between training my cardio-vascular and muscular systems, and performing the competitive strokes with proper technique. If I'm struggling just to complete a set, and there's certainly times when that's valuable, I may not be able to maintain good form, which is important, I feel, this early in my return to the pool. Adjusting workout intensity intuitively allows me to balance these two objectives more effectively. There are two concepts I'm not willing to compromise, though: total daily distance, and daily focus. No matter how I feel, I will complete the prescribed distance of each day's routine. Today's requirement was for 2200 yd, for example. My own concept of focus varies like this: The first training day of the week is dedicated to longer freestyle sets, involving intervals as long as 400 yd. For the next two or three days I step down interval distances until I'm sprinting for 100 or 50 yd. The final weekly swimming session is focused on IM sets, bettering each of the remaining three competitive strokes.

da numbers:

• 2 x 100yd free/zipperswitch
• step sets, starting at 0:00
• 400yd
• time: ~5:55
• 300yd @ 8:00
• time: ~4:20
• 200yd @ 14:00
• time: ~2:50
• 100yd @ 19:00
• time: ~1:15
• should have left @ 18:00
• 2 x 200yd pull w/ paddles @ 5:00
• coming in between 3:45 - 3:55
• 300yd dolphin kick, alternating lengths on back/front
• 300yd apnea drill w/ short fins

total distance: 2200yd

first water

I've been doing IM sets with 50yd for each stroke. Today I increased that to 100yd. And it was hard. My strokes are coming together though. Butterfly is even kinda working. After the IM sets I did tons of dolphin kick yardage.

da numbers

• 2 x 100yd free/zipperswitch
• 100yd fly kick
• 8 x 100yd alternating IM strokes @ 3:00
• coming in under 2:00, usually around 1:45
• Fly was tiring. I cheated a bit and threw in some lengths of kick
  
• of note: my second 100yd free was 1:11
  
• 400yd fly kick
• started to feel a better kick
  
• 300yd fly kick w/ short fins
• by this time my legs were hammered
  
• 200yd apnea drill w/ short fins
  

first water

The GVAC pool is not especially fast. In fact, it may be the slowest pool I've ever swam in. Maybe this is because it's 3.5 deep the entire length, or because it's cold or the lanes are narrow. Whatever, it's slow and it sucks. And this morning's pool session was brutal.
da numbers:

• 2 x 100 yd free/zipperswitch
• 10 x 100 yd @ 2:00
• coming in between 1:30 - 1:35
• 2 x 200 yd @ 5:00
• coming in around 3:20
• 300 yd dolphin kick w/ short fins
• 100 yd apnea drill w/ short fins

This is my third consecutive day at 2000 yards.

first water

Didn't feel as good as yesterday. Felt a little tight and times weren't stellar. Lots of yards though.
da numbers:

• 2 x 100 yd free/zipperswitch
• 5 x 200 yd free @ 4:00
• coming in between 3:00 - 2:55
• 4 x 100 yd free easy/hard @ 2:00
• coming in between 1:20 - 1:25
• 300 yd dolphin kick w/ short fins
• 100 yd apnea drill w/ short fins

first water

Good yardage this morning. I'm back to "distance Mondays", my day of the week to crank out some longer-than-usual sets in the pool. For instance, today's focus was on a couple 400 yd freestyle intervals. And my times were not that dismal, coming in right under 6 minutes on my second go, putting my splits under 1:30 for 400 yd. Not bad for me at this stage. Today's routine totaled 2000 yd, my longest session since returning to the pool. And this has me thinking about adding 200 yd ever week for a few months, maybe getting up to 5000 yd days and breaking my old swim times, particularly the 500 yd in under 5 minutes. That's almost a competitive time and surely nothing to be ashamed of amongst the masters swim crowd.
da numbers:

• 2 x 100 free/zipperswitch
• 2 x 400 free @ 8:00
• 1st 400 time: 6:07
• 2nd 400 time: 5:57
• 3 x 200 pull w/ paddles @ 4:00
• steadily decreasing times, between 3:10 - 2:55
• 300 dolphin kick w/ short fins
• 100 apnea drill w/ short fins

first water

I was tired this morning, forgot my watch and almost just went home. But I went through my stretches, dunked, and worked on butterfly. Yardage was a little short today, 1200 yd, with the focus on fly and a few fast free 100s. Today produced my first lengths of real fly. No more stroke drills for me.

da numbers:

• 2 x 100 free/zipperswitch
• 6 x 100 free @ 2:00
• First 3 were purposely slow, coming in around 1:35. The last 3 100s were nearer all-out, coming in about 1:27.
• 8 x 25 fly drill
• 4 x 25 fly
• Fly felt surprisingly good, albeit exhausting.
• 100 apnea drill w/ short fins

first water

Maybe it's not me. Maybe the Carpinteria Community Pool is fast. I gotta say, the water feels thick. And my times are inexplicably quicker. Either that pool is fast or the GVAC pool is slow. I prefer to think GVAC is slow. Yesterday's IM set at Carpinteria was actually enjoyable.
da numbers:

• 2 x 100 free/zipperswitch
• 20 x 50 IM strokes @ 1:30
• Felt good, concentrated on stroke mechanics, especially for fly. It's time I graduate to full on butterfly and not the variation I've been doing.
• 3 x 100 pull w/ paddles @ 2:00
• coming in between 1:15 - 1:20
• 200 dolphin kick w/ short fins
• 100 apnea drill w/ short fins

first water

After yesterday's 200 yd times, I thought today's 100s would be a little faster. Perhaps this is why I swam the 500 and not sprints. With 200s at 2:50, 100s should be better than 1:35. That makes my splits in the 200 faster than a straight 100. Who knows, sets aren't races. And today's 10 x 100 @ 2:00 was not easy. In fact, that's about as hard as I've gone recently. 1,000 yd in 20 minutes is decent. Additionally, today's routine totaled 1,800 yd, a little longer than usual. Focus on relaxing. 100s sometimes make me tighten up.

da numbers:

• 2 x 100 free/zipperswitch
• 10 x 100 free @ 2:00
• coming in between 1:30 - 1:40
• 3 x 100 free w/ dolphin kick @ 4:00
• coming in around 2:40
• 100 free pull w/ paddles
• 100 dolphin kick w/ short fins
• 100 apnea drill w/ short fins
  

first water

Went to a new pool this morning - the Carpenteria Community Pool. It's pretty nice. No long course but a sweet little short course of about 12 lanes. The temps were warm, which I've grown fond of as I've "matured". I used to hate warm pools when I swam the 500. At 6:00 AM though, cold water is massively un-inspiring. My times during a 200 set were good, easily ten seconds quicker than on recent days.
da numbers:

• 2 x 100 free/zipperswitch
• 4 x 200 free @ 4:00
• coming in between 2:50 - 2:55
• 2 x 200 pull w/ paddles @ 4:00
• coming in ~ 3:10
• 200 dolphin kick drill w/ short fins
• 200 apnea drill w/ short fins

first water

Swam some IM at GVAC this morning. IM's are tough, man. I try to stay relaxed as I get tired, resist tightening up, which is good for my stroke but hammers my lungs. I'm just panting like a dog during sets. Gotta be good for me, I suppose.

da numbers:

• 2 x 100m free/zipperswitch
• 16 x 50m alternating IM strokes @ 1:30
• tons of rest between 50's - I'm never coming in after 1:00
• 50m free's had me coming in between :30 - :35
• all strokes felt better today
• 200m free /w paddles
• 200m dolphin kick w/ short fins
• 200m apnea drill w/ short fins

first water

As I'm still not over my cold, swimming this week has not been stellar. I took all last week off - no climbing, no swimming, no anything not conducive to recovery. And I can't take it any more. My symptoms now are confined to my head and sinuses but I can't stand not training for another week. I won't do it. Anyways, worked on my stroke a bunch this morning. Counting strokes is harder than one would think.

da numbers:

• 2 x 100m free/zipperswitch
• 12 x 50m free @ 1:00
  
• coming in around :40
• This was not fast. I was trying to count strokes here and get that number reduced in an effort to stretch out my stride. As I said, counting is difficult, nearing impossible today. I was around 20 - 25 strokes per length.
• 4 x 100m free w/ paddles @ 2:00
• coming in around 1:40
• 300m dolphin kick w/ short fins
• 100m apnea drill w/ short fins
  

first water

today's swimming routine:

• 200m free/zipperswitch
• 5 x 100m free @ 2:00
• coming in between 1:30 - 1:35
  
• 5 x 100m free/zipperswitch alternating 25m @ 2:30
• 100m free w/ dolphin kick
• 100m pull w/ paddles
• 200m kick drill w/ short fins
  

first water

Went super easy today, lots of stroke drill stuff, working on form. I was feeling run down from training earlier this week, I think. Which is what I wanted.

da numbers:

• 2 x 100m free
• 10 x 100m alternating 50's stroke drill (zipperswitch or free w/ dolphin kick) & freestyle @ 3:00
• 4 x 50m zipperswitch w/ dolphin kick
• 200m apnea drill w/ short fins
  

first water

Today was an easy pool session, IM sets mostly, and at a slow pace. This worked out because I could tell I was a little flat to begin with.

da numbers:

• 200m free/zipperswitch/dolphin drill
• 20 x 50m alternating IM strokes @ 1:30
• 4 x 50m free w/ dolphin kick drill
• 200m dynamic apnea drill w/ short fins