Redneck IM

After missing Masters Thursday because of a weather cancellation, I was eager to find out if the pool would open Friday. It did and I went. I saw Don Smith there. Don used to be a Dam swimmer before he went solo and swims at lunch three times a week. Seeing him reminded me a favorite set of his, the Redneck IM. What's that you ask? Basically the Redneck IM is the IM minus the butterfly, which few of us non-real swimmers ever learned.

Since the pool is currently set up for short course, I decided on a RIM set. What does short course have to do with it? Well, my endurance on the breast stroke is marginal at best. Doing one full length of long course is just about me limit, but short course 25s are doable. That makes 25 free, 25 back, 25 breast, 25 free. I found the set to be challenging. The whole workout looked like this:

1,150 19:59
4 X 100 RIM @ 2:00 (1:40-1:42)
1,150 19:47
10 X 50 @ 1:00
1,150 19:40
10 X 25 @ :30
total: 4,600 yards = 4,204 meters.

I did a small shuffle when I got home and that finished up my day of training.

Penny and I were scheduled to eat out with John and Patsy. Remember John? Like me he is itching for Twin Rivers to reopen so we can start training again. We eat out with them once a month. This time he called and said Patsy just couldn't make it but asked if we could come by and pray for Patsy. She has been having some severe health problems and the strain has been taking a toll on them both. If you pray, please add John and Patsy to your list.

My wife and I have now lived long enough to see firsthand how difficult getting old can be. It presents challenges that the rest of our lives leaves us ill equipped to deal with. I saw it with my dad. I am seeing it now with my mom. We saw it with Penny's mom. We are seeing it with her dad. We see it with John and Patsy.

Take care of your health while you are able. Enjoy your health while you can. Thank God for your health while you have it.

Brag

Brag alert! If a little boasting disagrees with you, maybe you want to skip this post. Normally I don't crow too much except when I best Randal Beets in some sort of swimming event. And I am well aware that any real swimmers who happen to see this blog will think my times are a) shockingly slow, b) pathetic, or c) embarrassing. Probably the correct answer is d) all of the above.

But I am an adult-onset swimmer, and I'm excited about the progress I have made especially over the past year. At Masters practice last night, I broke my 400 short course PR not once but twice. And I wasn't even swimming all out. The instruction from our coach was to go hard but not full speed.

I never can remember my own records, but I dutifully record my workouts and records in a training dairy. Among other things, we swam 3 X 400 hard but not full speed. When I got home and checked my records, I discovered I had broken my 400 time not once, but twice, from 5:52 to 5:50 and then 5:48. It's been a good year like that.

It was 2006 when I joined the Masters group at DSU. I didn't swim that much in '06, but it was the most I ever had swum. Each year I did a little more. Only in 2010 did I swim enough that I started totalling everything up. I swam 311 miles in 2010, 409 miles in 2011, and this year I am at 506 miles and counting. I guess you can see the trend.

This year I have set all sorts of distance records like most meters in one week (42,000), most distance in one day (13.94 miles), biggest pool workout (12,100 long course meters) and many others. Also, almost every distance I have swum for time has produced a new PR. Long course has seen me PR in 50, 100, 400, and 500. For short course, I PRd in 300, 400, 500, and 800. In the open water last July, I smashed my half-mile best by 46 seconds at the Heart O' Dixie Triathlon lowering it to 11:56.

I'm a little excited.

I hope the records continue to fall, but I know at some point they will fail to do so. When that happens, I'm sure I can still be happy because I love to swim for its own sake. In fact, I love that all-day pace more than the lung busting effort it takes to set a PR in the pool. I'd rather swim long than fast. What I really want, however, is to swim long and fast at the effort I love to swim at now. That feeling I get when I am swimming smooth and feel like I can go all day is one I can't get enough of.

Well, If you've read to this point, the brag is over. Last night we swam

1,400 warm up
2 X 800 as first 800 50 back kick/50 swim with fins; second as 25 kick/75 swim with fins
5 X 400 as 1,3,5 hard, 2 and 4 as 50 back kick/50 swim no fins
200 easy
Total: 5,200 yards = 4,752.8 meters

Also, Monday I ran 2.01 and Tuesday I ran 4.32 miles. Today, I need to lift some weights.

Pool, Pool, and Pool

I went back to work this week so it's been a little harder to get to the blog. Also, I have experienced computer issues at work. But I have managed some pretty nice pool practices. Monday I did

1,500
10 X 100 @ 2:30
400
8 X 100 @ 2:15
400
6 X 100 @ 2:00
400
Total: 5,100 LC meters

Tuesday I went to Masters at DSU. We did

800 by 200 SKPS (swim, kick, pull, swim)
3 X 500
16 X 25
400 no wall (flip just before the wall)
400 kick with fins
600
Total: 4,100 SC yards = 3,747 meters

Wednesday I went back to Twin Rivers

400 (forgot a chore and had to leave but came back)
1,200
15 X 200 @ 4:15 (every other one with paddles)
100 experimenting with Tempo Trainerr
100 experimenting with Tempo Trainer
300 small paddles
100 easy
Total: 5,200 meters