A Million and Counting

Exceeded 1,000,000 yards in the USMS Go the Distance Challenge for 2013. Currently standing at 1,024,929 yards. Will try to squeak in a few more chunks before year end.

Solstice SCM Meet

I swam my first masters meet since last May over the weekend. The Solstice Short Course meters meet was held in Gaithersburg. Nice pool and a good turnout. I swam the 100, 200 and 400 free. having not trained for speed lately i did not know what to expect. The 200 free was the first event. I paced the first 100 and managed to increase my effort for the second 100. Man, I really felt spent though. It is amazing how a short burst of intensity can waste you as much as a long swim. In the 100 I felt as if I was spinning my wheels. Sprinting is truly not in the cards right now. In the 400 I again held a steady pace for the first half and tried to pick it up for the second 200. I felt pretty good and managed a respectable finish. Even though my times were not great I believe speed training and doing meets will help my conditioning for the open water season. I am not one to do 10,000 plus yards a day. My schedule and shoulders will not allow it. Training for meets will heilp me build my base. That's my theory at least.

Indoors and Loving it?

After a short (very short) dip in 48 degree water in the Magothy a couple weekends back, I am now committed to working on my conditioning in the pool. The cold swims are great for acclimatizing but at the colder temps I am not really getting any swim training out of it. While I greatly respect the accomplishment of my Ice Swimmer friends, I do not see this boy going below 50ish.
So now I am focused on some pool swimming and cross training to ad strength over the winter. I have singed up for a meet on December 7th and will try to do a number of meets between now and May. I find that the focus on speed and conditioning for meets is beneficial for my open water swimming too. I do not want to overlook conditioning for speed and strentgh as I prepare for the open water season. The one adjustment I will make to years past is that I do not anticipate tapering as much for meets. I will probably ramp up my yardage and just keep swimming through the various meets. Perhaps I will taper for Zones in April. At this point, I am undecided about going to nationals in California.
So without listing every workout, I have been doing 4000yds on the weekdays. I have resisted doing extra because my shoulder has been acting up some.
Over the Thanksgiving break I missed a lot of workouts, but I was able to meet up with Elaine Howley and Bob Frenald on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Elaine and I did 100 x 100 on 1:35. Bob stayed with the fast kids and did the set on 1:30. It was a nice 10,000 yd set which my ABC group will do in February as well.
Yesterday (Sunday) I did a 60 min Spin class and in the evening I did an hour of TRX workout. My goal is to ramp up the TRX over the winter quite a bit. I know it is great for my core and for my shoulder strengthening.
Monday (today) back to work from holiday after a nice 4000yd workout at Riva. Indoors is not nearly as rejuvenating as swimming outside but I do get better conditioning with timed sets.