Workouts keep coming at +/- 5000 yards a day (a little shy of 3miles) consistently now 5 times a week. So I have jumped from the 20k to 25k weekly average and good news is that its mostly being done in single longer workouts of 90 minutes each. While this step-up has been seemingly small I have found that the winter doldrums are here and I'm tired. Its just another step I suspect but even on days when i don't feel so hot I am still clipping off 1:20 - 1:25 100's pace with little to no rest over the entire distance so not too hard on myself.
The left shoulder is slowly getting better as I have been doing inner and out rotator cuff stretch cords consistently as well as stretching specifically for this. Keep working on other core as well and will add in weights slowly. I am back down to my college weight and eating everything in sight. Been starting taking cold only showers and it was horrible but now peanuts. Its amazing how mental some of this stuff is...
Still planning open waters swims but for sure looks like the US masters nationals in Indianapolis (6 miles but in warm dirty lake water, This could tough as warm water swims very different than cold); training in san fran bay for a week or two & golden gate to oakland bay bride race in July which will be a cold water (<60f); maybe huntington mile in Indiana for kicks; possible harbor springs 10k in upper lake michigan which would be cold; Lake Wawasee double crossing late spring while water is cool; big shoulders in lake michigan in Sept. and then in October my 6 plus hours (actually 8 plus just to really test the meatballs) qualifying attempt for the channel.
Finally, Year to date I have booked 99.73 miles of swimming (175,532 yards)...who could have thunk...keeps me out of trouble.
Feb 6, 2010
Kicking, Kicking and more Kicking
Finished the week with just over 25,000 yards (just about 15 miles) and year to date 61 miles under the watchful eye of coach Marcia Cleveland during a nice long 6100 yard workout that included 2000 yards of stressed fin kicking. Needless to say I had my lunch handed to me but kept a good pace throughout.
Marcia tells me that stressing kicking now will have big pay-off later. Now it lets me work through big yardage without over stressing my shoulders (which my left is still tender but getting better with stretch cord work on the interior rotator muscles) but also helping me become more balanced in my freestyle stroke when breathing on both sides.
Continue planning open water swims for 2010 leading up to my 6 hour cold water qualifier in October. In July there is the Golden gate bridge to Oakland Bridge race that is 6 plus miles (but and this is a big but...its with a flood tide of almost 4 knots, which in open water swimming is like flying) so you end up swimming a little over 3 miles. The water is expected to be 55f to 61f and without a wetsuit possibly a good early look at some extended cold water time in rough SF Bay.
May 1st if water is above 50f its time to "take a dunk" a begin the cold water...CRAZY. I figure April no more warm showers should be a good start...
Marcia tells me that stressing kicking now will have big pay-off later. Now it lets me work through big yardage without over stressing my shoulders (which my left is still tender but getting better with stretch cord work on the interior rotator muscles) but also helping me become more balanced in my freestyle stroke when breathing on both sides.
Continue planning open water swims for 2010 leading up to my 6 hour cold water qualifier in October. In July there is the Golden gate bridge to Oakland Bridge race that is 6 plus miles (but and this is a big but...its with a flood tide of almost 4 knots, which in open water swimming is like flying) so you end up swimming a little over 3 miles. The water is expected to be 55f to 61f and without a wetsuit possibly a good early look at some extended cold water time in rough SF Bay.
May 1st if water is above 50f its time to "take a dunk" a begin the cold water...CRAZY. I figure April no more warm showers should be a good start...
Feb 1, 2010
US Masters 1 Hour "Postal" Race
During the month of January the US Masters Swim organization sponsors a 1 hour national race (i.e. swim as far as you can in 1 hour) which I participated.
I enlisted my daughter, Rachel, in a little pay-back effort to keep track of all my splits for each 100. I ended the hour swimming 4350 yards or just a hair shy of 2.5 miles (similar to an ironman tri-athlon distance). This was a good distance for me, so happy. Goal was to swim 100's at a steady pace below 1:30's and ended up clocking them off at a modest 1:24 per 100 in a very comfortable, long and steady swim. Could have easily kept on going.
Focused on breathing ever other side or rotating sides (not easy for me) to learn how extended periods of doing this lesson stress on my shoulders. It worked great, plus it was a nice distraction from going back and forth for an hour. As for the mental "blaa's" of going back and forth this was not what I expected. Once I got going, I was trying to track distance but simply gave this up and just relaxed and swam. I was comfortable enough to not look at the clock all but 3-4 times. This was good practice of "letting go, mentally" but I suspect much more of this will come in the months ahead.
We'll see how I stack up against others nationally when the results come out in March. I'll bet my coach, Marcia Cleveland and some of her fellow swimmers kicked my butt... They are very accomplished and this makes for good training goals although I am learning this is really just about "me".
On the fund raising/charity side, appears I have good interest from one national organization and keep working or organizing others. I would hope formalize these after I complete my successful 6 hour "qualifying" channel swim later this year.
I enlisted my daughter, Rachel, in a little pay-back effort to keep track of all my splits for each 100. I ended the hour swimming 4350 yards or just a hair shy of 2.5 miles (similar to an ironman tri-athlon distance). This was a good distance for me, so happy. Goal was to swim 100's at a steady pace below 1:30's and ended up clocking them off at a modest 1:24 per 100 in a very comfortable, long and steady swim. Could have easily kept on going.
Focused on breathing ever other side or rotating sides (not easy for me) to learn how extended periods of doing this lesson stress on my shoulders. It worked great, plus it was a nice distraction from going back and forth for an hour. As for the mental "blaa's" of going back and forth this was not what I expected. Once I got going, I was trying to track distance but simply gave this up and just relaxed and swam. I was comfortable enough to not look at the clock all but 3-4 times. This was good practice of "letting go, mentally" but I suspect much more of this will come in the months ahead.
We'll see how I stack up against others nationally when the results come out in March. I'll bet my coach, Marcia Cleveland and some of her fellow swimmers kicked my butt... They are very accomplished and this makes for good training goals although I am learning this is really just about "me".
On the fund raising/charity side, appears I have good interest from one national organization and keep working or organizing others. I would hope formalize these after I complete my successful 6 hour "qualifying" channel swim later this year.
Jan 18, 2010
2010 Swim Plans
Planning 2010 training and swims: well underway and have spent time with my distance coach, Marcia Cleveland, laying out an increased base load of yardage during these winter months with the goal of larger benefits later in the year. Can you say boring.... Beginning this week I start a slow ramp-up of yardage with the goal being 30,000 yards per week come the end of May. This is when open water season begins and cold lake michigan swims. I have a 1 hour postal event sometime this month (thats a swim as hard as you can for 1 hour to see how far you can go activity. I'm betting somewhere over 4000 but we'll check back and see how that goes). In July, I will try the 10k US Masters Nationals in Indianapolis, its the open water championships in Morse lake and between now and then sprinkle a number of 1.2 and 2.4 mile races for fun and probably a couple lake Wawasee crosses for an excuse to go to the Frog. Later in the fall, I'll be back at San Francisco for the Alcatraz race but this time maybe a 3 miler around the island and back or possibly the "bridge to bridge" (from golden gate to oakland bay bridge, a tough one for sure). Most important however will be my English Channel qualifying swim likely in October when the water is 60f (location yet to be determined) and I will need to go a minimum of 6 hours, likely 7 or 8 so I can learn about "hitting the wall physically and mentally in cold rough water. I do have some reservations, but not scared, just need to take this one step at a time and learn from the successes and failures...
On the charity front, finally making some progress. I have hooked up with the "swim across america - Cancer charity folks" and am hoping some type of relationship for fund raising either locally or nationally but have yet to learn of their interest. I have also received positive news from the Goshen School district for further discussion on how this might apply to the Dollars to Scholars Program. The biggest challenge is finding the mechanism to track and raise the funds and then marketing it without this becoming its own job. So if anyone has ideas please let me know.
Finally, for you old Goshen swimmers heres a laugh. A few events sprinkled in to remind the old muscles that sprinting, if you can call it that, is good physically happened this past weekend. Had a local masters swim meet and did the 1000, 500 free consistently clipping 1:17's per 100 which for my current long distance was good and then to remind me of old swim club days I tried backstroke and IM's. Well my 50 bk was a 29.6 and 100 was pathetically a 1:05 and same for my 100 IM. I guess its ok, just that old competitive thing... The longer races were good from a pace and practice stand point. I did find however that in a 25 yard pool under race conditions you tend to use your legs much more pushing off the walls, turns etc. More leg training will help this.
On the charity front, finally making some progress. I have hooked up with the "swim across america - Cancer charity folks" and am hoping some type of relationship for fund raising either locally or nationally but have yet to learn of their interest. I have also received positive news from the Goshen School district for further discussion on how this might apply to the Dollars to Scholars Program. The biggest challenge is finding the mechanism to track and raise the funds and then marketing it without this becoming its own job. So if anyone has ideas please let me know.
Finally, for you old Goshen swimmers heres a laugh. A few events sprinkled in to remind the old muscles that sprinting, if you can call it that, is good physically happened this past weekend. Had a local masters swim meet and did the 1000, 500 free consistently clipping 1:17's per 100 which for my current long distance was good and then to remind me of old swim club days I tried backstroke and IM's. Well my 50 bk was a 29.6 and 100 was pathetically a 1:05 and same for my 100 IM. I guess its ok, just that old competitive thing... The longer races were good from a pace and practice stand point. I did find however that in a 25 yard pool under race conditions you tend to use your legs much more pushing off the walls, turns etc. More leg training will help this.
Dec 27, 2009
Successful early winter test - 10,000 meters (6.3 miles) for fun?
Completed my 10,000 meter swim this morning (100 x 100's) averaging 1:30 per 100 on an interval of 2:10. We have 5-6 folks per lane so it was a little crowded early on before others dropped out. The last time I did this was either high school. Rachel, my daughter came along for moral support.
My distance coach, Marcia Cleveland has said a curious statement several times when describing training for the Channel; you have to "let go ... don't try to control things". Little did I know how true this was to be when no sooner did I walk into the pool to learn yards became meters. The pool was a meter vs. yard pool, that means about 10% longer distance. My original 10,000 yard swim quickly became a 11,154 yard (10,000 meter) swim but this didn't phase me as I knew the distance was not an issue. My goal all along was consistency of time per segment.
I knew to play it cool early on as the "kids" thrashed away the first 20 or 30 sets while I averaged 1:30's per 100 meters. I felt very relaxed the whole way, keeping my heart rate at 130 beats per minute. By the end I was swimming as fast or faster than a good portion of these same kids consistently finishing between 1:20 and 1:25 per 100 for each of the last ten. Then of course Rachel, my daughter, said "come on dad can't you go faster, she said dad I swim my 100 free in a 1:03? ... with only the look of a proud father she could see, I said good point and said "well I probably should make the last one the fastest, so I clipped off a 1:13 and with that finished just a hair over 3 hours.
In the end a nice training swim and thats another 6.3 miles in the bag or as I am becoming fond of thinking ... that was 25% across the English Channel.
My distance coach, Marcia Cleveland has said a curious statement several times when describing training for the Channel; you have to "let go ... don't try to control things". Little did I know how true this was to be when no sooner did I walk into the pool to learn yards became meters. The pool was a meter vs. yard pool, that means about 10% longer distance. My original 10,000 yard swim quickly became a 11,154 yard (10,000 meter) swim but this didn't phase me as I knew the distance was not an issue. My goal all along was consistency of time per segment.
I knew to play it cool early on as the "kids" thrashed away the first 20 or 30 sets while I averaged 1:30's per 100 meters. I felt very relaxed the whole way, keeping my heart rate at 130 beats per minute. By the end I was swimming as fast or faster than a good portion of these same kids consistently finishing between 1:20 and 1:25 per 100 for each of the last ten. Then of course Rachel, my daughter, said "come on dad can't you go faster, she said dad I swim my 100 free in a 1:03? ... with only the look of a proud father she could see, I said good point and said "well I probably should make the last one the fastest, so I clipped off a 1:13 and with that finished just a hair over 3 hours.
In the end a nice training swim and thats another 6.3 miles in the bag or as I am becoming fond of thinking ... that was 25% across the English Channel.
Dec 15, 2009
Alcatraz swim with my sister
Forgot to tell everyone early this fall but the day after I swam my Alcatraz race, Katie did the same as part of a triathlon race. Her she is with her husband Ted after.
10,000 for Fun
Decided that an early winter endurance test of my training might be fun and something different to see how both physical as well as the mental training (i.e. spending long periods of time going back and forth in a pool) are shaping up. Decided to try the 100 x 100 yards (10,000 yards or 5.6 miles) race at the Latoff Chicago YMCA on December 27th. I figure it should take me a little over three hours at a relaxed pace of 1:30 per. This should be simple for the first 50-60 but later as the mind begins to tire I suspect it will become a little harder, but thats the point, work on the mental toughness since 400 laps.
Training otherwise keeps plugging along at 20k yards this past week. Adding weights has gotten my shoulders sore but working through it. Last night at practice we did a whole workout in sweat shirts. I brought along my trusty old heavy duty Indiana sweatshirt (what the hell was I thinking??). Needless to say I felt like a drowning rat but managed to keep going through 4000 yards (2+ miles). for awhile I thought i was back in Goshen swimming a "Rathke" practice with Steve Conder in lane 1?
Training otherwise keeps plugging along at 20k yards this past week. Adding weights has gotten my shoulders sore but working through it. Last night at practice we did a whole workout in sweat shirts. I brought along my trusty old heavy duty Indiana sweatshirt (what the hell was I thinking??). Needless to say I felt like a drowning rat but managed to keep going through 4000 yards (2+ miles). for awhile I thought i was back in Goshen swimming a "Rathke" practice with Steve Conder in lane 1?
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