2.5 mi easy run, 1025 yd swim, 5.1 mi easy run

3 x 100 on 1:30
200 on 3:30
5 x 100 on 1:30
25 kick

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

main set at masters last night

3 x 100 desc 1-3 on 2:00 (last one was a 1:06, but felt like an easy 1:06 :-)
100 drill/swim recovery
4x75 @ 1:30 build each 75 and descend 1-4
100 easy drill swim
5 x 50 @ :60 descend 1-5 (down to :31)
100 ez drill swim
20 x 25 @:30 every 3rd one fast (fly).

3000scm total.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Did my first 2 hour day a couple ago, last workout was an easy type swim of 2k. Today was a good medium hard effort, feeling fitter and fitter as I up the yardages a bit;

15x200- 3swim@3;15(2;52/51/50)2IM kick@4;15(3;56/53)8pull@2;45(2;36/36/35/35/35/34/34/32)2IM kick@4;15(3;54/49)
8x25 fly@;30/breast@45(fly 16/17's//breast- 22/23's)
3200SCY

Yesterday

2x500yds
2x400yds
2x300yds
2x200yds
2x100yds

3000 yards total

Today 1x3500yds :)

Thats a beaut!! Nice work. Good set.

Today we did 2 main sets again. Ill take the second one as the first one had drills in it.

1 x 150 on 2:00 at 80%
1 x 50 on :50 at 70%
1 x 100 on 1:30 at 90%
1 x 25 ez on :35
3 x 100 recovery 1:20 (just make the interval)
1 x 25 ez on :30
And repeat the set 3 times.
150s by round 1:37, 136, 135
50s by round 33,32,33
100s by round 101, 100, 100 (tried to break 1 but couldn't !!ugh)
On the set of 3 x 100s my goal was to ave 110 or better. I was close. The final 100 was a 114 so I admittedly shut down.
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Good set after some fast 100s in the first main set.
again, admittedly I was higher than 90% on those 100s but today, fatigue had set in. Its been a couple good weeks of swimming since the 100runs in 100 days gave me a stress fracture in my femoral neck and I cannot run so ive upped the swimming intensity and biking.

Good focus today on faster flips during my turns. Trying to get my feet on the wall as fast as possible from the moment I tuck my chin. I was also playing with a massive over-balance before initiating the flip and that really helps.

daved

ps workout was done per usual in a 25 yard pool
Ill prob head to harvard in the coming weeks as they are now LCM... thank god

Main set today

200m IM at 400IM effort followed by 100 free steady.

Repeated the above 8 times. Mainly working on turns and tactics. I am finding pushing off the wall really hard for backstoke and then just coasting in a streamline emerging past the flags is probably faster for me vs dolphin kicking under water because I am less gassed when I emerge from oxygen. Or maybe what that says is my backstroke is so bad, I go into so much oxygen debt that I need the walls to rest from the stroke, because on freestyle I can do 4-6 dolphin kicks off the wall and be more or less fine when I emerge

Had the surgery consult yesterday, on the first test (the old turn your head and cough type), the surgeon said, "yep, you have a hernia". It's in a place where the scrotal nerve splits, which is why I felt pain in the groin, thinking it was a groin pull. And just like the hernia I had in 2015, no outward bulging at all. Surgery is scheduled 4/25, so I'll be on the shelf for a while, and my racing season is shot, no nationals.

4/19
w/u
300
8 x 50 bound (26 SC, 25 hard)
4 x 50 kick
m/s
100
200
300
200
100
w/d
200 mixed, tried some breast stroke, still hurts like crazy
600 straight, water running

4/20 (if I keep getting injured I may need some 420)
w/u
6 x 50
8 x 100 alt bound/free
m/s
4 x 200 w/paddles
4 x 50 kick easy
w/d
100 mixed
3 x 300 water running

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The secret of a long life is you try not to shorten it.
-Nobody

Wow. Good luck on surgery and recovery.

This afternoon:
500 Swim
1500 snorkel as 500 no equipment, 500 pull buoy, 500 no equipment
2000 Swim (29:50)
5 x 200 @ :08-10 rest, alternating no equipment and pull buoy
1000 paddles (100 kick and 100 breastroke in the middle of the 1000)
1000 Swim
800 as 50 back+150 free

7800m long course

I raced at the Surf City Tri. Huntington Beach at low tide (and probably at any other tide) has a double break, and in between the breaks is a massive cross-current. Many, including pros got caught swimming against it to reach the first buoy. They had us self-seed and released 6 at a time (5 second intervals). I seeded at 25 minutes, but passed hordes of swimmers along the way. Also for AG, they set up cones 100 yards down the beach and made us run down there before entering. I think for most part, that wasn't enough. I had a chuckle at those that aimed straight for the buoy, while I swam straight out and let the current carry me to it... actually, it was strong enough that I had to swim against the current just a bit to make the buoy, I also had fun seeing those beside me lose a good 10 feet diving under the waves. On the return, I hit murky water and realized the rip I hit, so I swam to the right a bit, where the water cleared and continued on in. Many stayed, & swam in place, more or less, while battling that! It's good to have been a lifeguard and understand these things! The top racers swam in the 19-20 minute range, while I hit it in 22. I was very happy with that.
I haven't been cycling as much as I should, but held a fairly decent 21.4 mph for the nearly 25 miles. Somewhere during that, Chris Vargas (a beast) passed me. Otherwise I held 2nd into T2. A 'brilliant' transition setup with no equalizer run out from the bike in, so the racks closest to the gates was the shortest run through transition, which is where I was racked. A bit slow, though, in T2 as I put socks on... hate blisters!
The run sucked for me with my jacked up back, torn something in my hip. I could only muster an 8:41 pace and couldn't even get my heart rate up that much. I got passed by another in my AG at around 4 miles in the 1/4 mile sand stretch. I thought maybe my legs would open up once back on the asphalt and I might catch him. Didn't happen and I wound up third. First place gets a free Alcatraz entry while second and third get a full-price offer ($750) to the otherwise closed event. Thanks, but umm, no thanks.

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Proud member of FISHTWITCH: doing a bit more than fish exercise now.

Thats awesome Steve, seems like your body should have done the sprint instead??

And that guy that beat you, I used to play water polo with him in a summer league in our youth, he was world class along with his brother. I started seeing his name pop up in AG races in his 40's, and it seems he has held and bettered his times over the years. One of the advantages of not having been a pro, where you go downhill around 40..(-;

He also does OW swim races, see him once in awhile at the Hermosa to Manhattan pier to pier swim. It was good you beat him in the swim, he is very good, but seems he is running very well now as a 60+ year old too.

Heal your body up there dude, breaking something now could mean forever..

I would have loved that swim, maybe could have kept up with the men pros even with some wave luck coming in!!!!

congrats on your 3rd place!

---

maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

Saturday a 10k race, first FOV 47:14, felt good and just had an awesome run in enough rain to have some parts of the course flooded.
Sunday off
today 6.7 mi easy run, 525 yd swim (500 swim + 25 kick), 30 min stairmaster, and a km walking.

---

maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

Congrats on the race, you would've smoked me as I can take about 10 steps in a running gait before I crumple to the ground.

Knowing now I have a hernia I stayed away from any breast stroke this morning.

Short and sweet this morning.

w/u
300
4 x 100 (bound w/paddles)
m/s
2 x (3 x 150 = 50 k)
w/d
200 back/free x 25

May try to to squeeze an hour in on the bike this afternoon.

---

--------------------------
The secret of a long life is you try not to shorten it.
-Nobody

Swim today seemed tough, I did tighten up the intervals on the 300's, but could recover somewhat on the kicking:

6x(300s/150 IM kick@3;30) 1 swim@1;30base(4;17)1 pull@1;20 base(3;52) 1 breast@1;40 base(4;56) 1pull@1;20 base(3;50)1 fly/free@1;30 base(4;26)1 pull (4;02) kicks(2;59/53/50/50/59/56) 50 SD

2750SCY

loving all the IM kicking you do. Thats strong. I dont think I could handle that.
Our second of 2 main sets today was this:
9 x 50 on :50 dec 1-3 (x3) easy-mod-fast
Then right into
15 x 50 on :45 all fast -- similar to the last 50 of the dec set previous.
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This was scy and some of the younger guns showed up this am. Super impressed with how hard they can push themselves! on the dec 50s (the fast ones) I was going 31s and this kid (18 year old) beside me was ripping off 28s.
But I had to smile when he asked if we were taking extra time before the 15x 50s... of course I said NO! and then it was on.
We managed to hold 29s and 30s for the most part on the first 5.
After 5 he asked how many left and I had to chuckle as I told him we still had 10 to go.
We both suffered more holding 30's and 31s through #10
And oddly once past 10, the last 5 felt pretty good. Managed to get back to 30 range choosing to do 30s with tech and engagement than slashing through 28s or 29s.
----
Its been a pretty good couple weeks of swimming, whatwith the femoral neck stress fracture and all. And mother nature is smiling on the NE finally, so maybe a long easy ride tomorrow with... oh jeez.. sunscreen??? nahh.. ill take the burn.
---
Time to get the watch out and post some times for the virtual meet!

all the best,
daved

Monty, I am getting better at IM kick sets. I think this will be the key to improving all 4 strokes for me, especially with the challenges controlling my left leg with my disc issues. When I just to leg kick sets, it forces me to isolate my left leg. Yesterday after lane swim, they have public swim, and I just spent 30 extra minutes doing IM kick sets of widths of the pool. Perfect use of my time and I don't get in the way of everyone like doing it in the actual lane swim with the slow pace of my kick.

Today's swim was awesome

400m warmup
2000m continous 50m fly-100m free up to the 1400m point at which point I launched into a 200 fly-200 free+ 100 fly - 100 free
short rest, then easy 400 IM

Monty I know you said that with the 200 fly the "piano on the back" is limited by arm pulling, but I THINK my problem is I have not been kicking hard enough. Today, the 200 fly I did was in the middle of the a long set with no rest, but what I did was 2 really hard kicks for every pull. I just treated it like a hard dolphin kick set. When I kick harder, my upper body comes up ever so slighly more out of the water giving my shoulders more room to clear the water in recovery mode and "dive down" into the next stroke. I have been going on the "low undulation" fly, but it's too "flat" and I am pushing too much water instead of riding and getting on top of a wave.

I am cautiously optimistic that my events in my swim meet next weekend will be better.....400IM, 100 fly, 1500 free Friday PM, 400 free, 100 IM, 200 fly on Saturday. At the surface the lineup looks stupid, but I know that no matter how cooked I am, I can do a 1500 free, it's just "how slow will I go".

 but what I did was 2 really hard kicks for every pull. //

I think without seeing you that you are doing kick, kick, pull fly. Are you pausing even for a millisecond on your reach out to make sure you are getting the kicks in? If so, then that is the drill I was talking about to be able to do a lot of fly without too much failure.


Today I did that 300 fly/free, and my whole core was screaming at the end, like I said, you have to do fly to be able to race it. My arms felt like they were hitting way outside, but at least I was not up and down, that is the final failure posture in fly...

Monty, I am going to try the folloing today:

50 fly with 4 kicks and one pull with breathing
100 fly with 4 kicks and one pull with breathing

If I can do the above, I will try to do this for 200m.

This would simulate what you would do if you breath every second stroke, but without the second fly stroke pull, just all 4 kicks. Once I am done all that I will try to some real fly breathing every second pull and every pull.

mck414, so, surgery to fix it?

---

maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

AM
5.2 mi easy run 45:36
875 yd swim

500 swim
50 kick
300 swim
25 kick


PM
1625 yd swim

300 w/u
50 kick
12 x 100 on 1:30 avg 1:19
25 kick
25 back
25 kick

---

maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

scy
500 tempo untimed
6x100 IM on 2:15 as 1:40,42,43,42,41,39
100 hard 1:08
5x50 on :50 as 35,6,6,6,5
250 easy mixed stroke

squeezed it in between two conference calls at work, would usually try to do more of a warmdown..
these times are as good as it gets when swimming just once or twice a week. More swimming always gets me faster, just don't have time..

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"It is a good feeling for old men who have begun to fear failure, any sort of failure, to set a schedule for exercise and stick to it. If an aging man can run a distance of three miles, for instance, he knows that whatever his other failures may be, he is not completely wasted away." Romain Gary, SI interview

those are impressive times..

never realized I could get :23 for free off a 1650 at altitude.. but I'm still at 23-something ;-)

4500y @ 59:00

(This part is for Dr Tigerchick):
25 easy C-D

4525y

Running late, missed the first 20 mins of masters. So what I ended up with:

100 ez warmup
4x100 pull desc 1-4
100ez
4x75 kick with board, no fins every other one fast (1:10 and 1:05 dolphin)
100 ez
4x50
100 ez
3x (6x25 every 3rd fast, 100 ez). Mixed strokes on the fast ones)

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Nice! And 4500 yd in 59 min is rocking.

today - very tired
3.1 mi run 28:25
825 yd swim (500 swim + 50 kick + 100 swim + 25 kick + 125 swim + 25 kick)
4.5 mi run 40:30

---

maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD