Go the Distance 2013

My final tally for the USMS Go The Distance fitness log for 2013 was 616 miles or 1,085,329 yards. Will be bumping that total up for 2014. New goal is 750 miles. Better get started!

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.

Pool Malaise?

Monday and Tuesday workouts at Riva have been sluggish at best. Feels like my arms are just dead. Probably because I am not used to interval training and have some catching up to do. 3000ds Monday and 4000yds Tuesday (Nov. 11 and 12)

Saturday, Nov. 9th Getting Chilly...

Met up with Alison at Elk Neck State Park. She's always so good about coming to Annapolis so I thought I would do the road trip this time. We headed to the Boat Ramp about 10am and prepared to swim from a small beach, which of course is posted "No Swimming." The water temp measured 51.8 from the dock and 52.5 at the beach so we averaged it out to 52 (ish).
I waded in to my waist and was having much difficulty deciding to take the plunge. Wasn't sure I could do it. I splashed my face and shoulders and even dunked down in the water before I finally got the guts to push off and swim. After keeping my head up for a bit, I put my face in the water and swam. The cold headache was immediate and in general it felt like pin pricks on my skin.
At 60 degrees and even 54 after about 200 yards the disconfort went away. This time it did not. I doubted I would swim far at all, but we both gave it it a shot. After a while I decided to swim to the half mile turn around point Alison told me she and Lanie did in the past. But Alison was a little bit behind me and I worried about separating too much so I circled back. Eventually we met up and swam to the dock together. At that point, Alison got out and I swam another loop to finish off a mile. I would say after about 3/4 of a mile my headache was gone and I felt acclimated. But truthfully I was glad to get out after a mile. It took about an hour to fully stop shaking. Blueberry pancakes helped.

Tuesday, Nov. 5th

Pool Swim at Riva

600 w/u
8x50 drill/swim on :50
2x400 pull on 6 min
3x150 stroke sandwich on 2:20
2x300 swim on 4:30
3x150 stroke sandwich on 2:20
2x200 swim or pull on 3 min
2x150 stroke sandwich on 2:20

Right shoulder hurt for most of the workout. Need to get back on my stretchcord exercises.