I finished out the week of 9/21-9/27 with some major Beetsdown training that included three pool PRs. Remember just a few posts ago I was lamenting my lost youth when it comes to running. Probably one reason I focus on swimming so much now is I am still improving at it. At my age, to get better at anything athletic gives me a real charge. Bad news for Randy Beets. But since it is so late in the week, let me begin at the beginning.
Monday, John and I went to Twin Rivers. The water has begun its Fall cool down and was 84 degrees, warm enough most likely to kill Shawn C. Turner but decidedly cooler for us. I swam
1,000
5 X 400 @ 9:00
3 X 300 @ 6:45
2 X 150 @ 3:1total: 4,200 meters.
Tuesday I arrived at the pool after a 9.22 mile run and the water was 82. I struggled through 4,800 meters. That much running always kills my swim. I cramp and have low energy. Wednesday the water was even cooler at 81 and for some reason, which I have already forgotten, I only swam 2,500.
Thursday, however, the water was still 81 and fireworks began. They went like this:
1,400
400 FT 6:44.31
200 easy
300 FT 4:55.83 (a PR!)
200 easy
200 FT 3:14.91
200 easy
150 FT 2:26.51
200 easy
100 FT 1:34.31
200 easy
50 FT 44.56
500 easy
total: 4,100
Friday, after a day of quality, I went back with the idea of going long and easy. The water was all the way down to 80. John and I waded in about 12:00 pm, and I started a straight swim that lasted four hours and twelve minutes. I did 13,000 meters with no nutrition, not even water. This was my longest pool swim ever, hence a second PR. The first 10,000 also was a personal best at 3:12:26. I didn't get my 5K split, which no doubt would have resulted in a fourth PR.
Saturday I ran 6.16 miles in the morning and lifted weights in the afternoon. For the week, I
ran 23.42 miles,
biked to work and home five times (5.0),
swam 28,600 meters,
walked 3.38 miles, and
lifted weights one time.
Showing posts with label PRs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PRs. Show all posts
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Five PRs
My last post ended with the week of 2/17-2/23. Lately I've had trouble keeping up. I hope that changes starting with today. Being off work next week, one thing I hope to do is revise and post some of the narratives I've written in the past. I'm thinking I'll do more of that in the future. Now, I just need to bring the training log up to date.
For the week of 2/24-3/2, I
swam 10,916.0 meters,
ran 10.67 miles,
lifted weights none, and
walked .81 miles.
Not much training, as you can see, but I'm still coming back from a pretty substantial injury. Nevertheless, my motivation has been lagging a bit. I don't know what is wrong.
I did have one really interesting swim that week. Our coach told us ahead of time that he would be out Thursday, February 28th. He assured us that someone would be there to coach us. Usually, however, when the coach is out I opt to do my own thing. When the cat's away as they say. So I got to looking through my swim records and noticed two things: I noticed that some of my PRs were set in 2010. I'm thinking anything I did in 2010 (in water, not on land) I can beat. My 2010 times were the 1,800 and the 600. I also noticed a couple of blanks. I didn't even have a 250 or 150 time. Once, I remember mentioning this to Cagri thinking he would write those distances into our practices. Instead, he told me I didn't need to have a time at those distances. "It's enough," he told me, "to know what you should swim because you have a 100 and a 400 time."
Well color me crazy, but what in the heck does need have to do with anything I do outside of my job? I swim because I want to (well, maybe there is an inner need), I run because I want to, I eat ice-cream because I want to. Nobody needs ice-cream. Need has nothing to do with most of what I occupy myself with. Why should it?
To make a short story long, that Thursday I did a 1,000 warm up and then swam 1,800 for time. My old record was 31:40. My record now is 27:15. After swimming an easy 200, it was time to go for my 600 PR. The old record was 9:44. I knocked this one off in 8:55. I swam another easy 200, drank some water, and reset my watch. It was then time for an assault on the 250. Actually, since I didn't have a time for that distance, I was guaranteed a PR. Still, I swam it as hard as I could and set my mark at 3:41. Another gentle 200 had me ready for an all out 150 which I did in 2:10. While I swam the 200 recovery, I hatched upon the idea of doing a 125 and a 75. For reasons I can't explain, I somehow forgot the 125 and swam 75 instead. Not only that, but when I swam the 75 I didn't start my watch so I had to do it over. I set that mark at 1:03.
All in all, five PRs in one night is not bad for a fifty-seven year old man.
For the week of 2/24-3/2, I
swam 10,916.0 meters,
ran 10.67 miles,
lifted weights none, and
walked .81 miles.
Not much training, as you can see, but I'm still coming back from a pretty substantial injury. Nevertheless, my motivation has been lagging a bit. I don't know what is wrong.
I did have one really interesting swim that week. Our coach told us ahead of time that he would be out Thursday, February 28th. He assured us that someone would be there to coach us. Usually, however, when the coach is out I opt to do my own thing. When the cat's away as they say. So I got to looking through my swim records and noticed two things: I noticed that some of my PRs were set in 2010. I'm thinking anything I did in 2010 (in water, not on land) I can beat. My 2010 times were the 1,800 and the 600. I also noticed a couple of blanks. I didn't even have a 250 or 150 time. Once, I remember mentioning this to Cagri thinking he would write those distances into our practices. Instead, he told me I didn't need to have a time at those distances. "It's enough," he told me, "to know what you should swim because you have a 100 and a 400 time."
Well color me crazy, but what in the heck does need have to do with anything I do outside of my job? I swim because I want to (well, maybe there is an inner need), I run because I want to, I eat ice-cream because I want to. Nobody needs ice-cream. Need has nothing to do with most of what I occupy myself with. Why should it?
To make a short story long, that Thursday I did a 1,000 warm up and then swam 1,800 for time. My old record was 31:40. My record now is 27:15. After swimming an easy 200, it was time to go for my 600 PR. The old record was 9:44. I knocked this one off in 8:55. I swam another easy 200, drank some water, and reset my watch. It was then time for an assault on the 250. Actually, since I didn't have a time for that distance, I was guaranteed a PR. Still, I swam it as hard as I could and set my mark at 3:41. Another gentle 200 had me ready for an all out 150 which I did in 2:10. While I swam the 200 recovery, I hatched upon the idea of doing a 125 and a 75. For reasons I can't explain, I somehow forgot the 125 and swam 75 instead. Not only that, but when I swam the 75 I didn't start my watch so I had to do it over. I set that mark at 1:03.
All in all, five PRs in one night is not bad for a fifty-seven year old man.
Friday, January 3, 2014
Slow Start to a New Year
The year 2014 is here, and I am off at a snail's pace. A slow snail. Who can't crawl well.
But things could be worse. People who know me probably think I am most likely a frustrated and dangerous man right now due to my forced inactivity. Actually, I am a frustrated and dangerous man right now, but not as frustrated or as dangerous as one may have thought. I've surprised myself in that I have taken things in stride and done what I could without pulling out the rest of my hair.
But what I could is not much. I've watched a lot of quality television, like Moonshiners, Finding Bigfoot, and Ax Men. And college football. I've watched a ton of bowl games and as a huge SEC chauvinist, it's been pretty nice until last night. DO NOT mention the Alabama game in my presence unless you want to find out what frustration and danger is all about.
I've also read some, which I don't do nearly as much as I once did. My latest book is A Certain Tendency of the Hollywood Cinema, by Robert Ray. This is an analysis of the changing cinematic and thematic emphases in the American movie industry from the 1930s until 1980. Pretty good stuff, but it's worn a blister on my brain.
Physically, all I've done is to lift weights a couple of times per week. About all I can manage alone in the back yard gym is bench presses, seated rows, and a move I call the swim pull. That may not be much, but its the core of my upper body work for swimming. Last night, I did make it to the pool for the first time in several weeks. I drove myself and hobbled in on my crutches. The pool was set up for long course!!! I think there was a high school meet there recently. Slim chance it will stay that way, but I love long course because I feel like it's much better training for the kind of swimming I do (triathlons, a long charity swim, and the Suck, a ten-mile race), and for my injured leg, I don't have to do nearly as many flips and pushes off the wall. I fear I will forget and push off with both feet after a flip turn. We swam
1,000
8 X 50 as 4 @ 25 fast/25 easy and 4 @ 25 easy/25 fast
8 X 50 as 4 @ breathing 3 and 5 by 25 and 4 @ breathing 5 and 3 by 25
4 X 100 as 2 @ first and third 25 fast and 2 @ second and fourth fast
100 easy
Total: 2,300 meters.
It felt good to be back in the water, and I want more. The leg is improving and the doc wants me to gently ease into putting some weight on it as I walk with the crutches, comfort being my guide. For you who may not know, with a stress fracture the bone is not cracked all the way through. If you don't take care of it, a stress fracture can become a full fracture. But on the flip side, you often can regain your feet much faster than with a total break. His hope is that I can gradually wean myself from the crutches to the walking boot alone by my next appointment a month from now. I've been doing that, and to put even a little weight on the leg makes ambulating a thousand times easier. My hope is that in a week or so the woumded limb will be good enough that I can work my way into my wetsuit. There is a lot of tugging, pulling, and straining involved in getting into a tight neoprene body-wrap, and right now I would not even attempt it. But at the rate the tenderness is disappearing from my lower shin, I feel that it won't be long before suiting up is a possibility. If I can get into my suit, I can crawl from the truck into a fish pond, and crawl out again. Then I will be back in business.
All in all, my prospects for the Chicot Challenge look good. Our four-day work schedule is still in place, and with the tentative schedule my sister has set up for Mom's care, I will have time to train. The stress fracture itself may even be a blessing. I need an off season, and this year I have had one. Another blessing is I have decided to run much less when I am able to resume shuffling. Last year, there was an problem with the two sports due to my volume of swimming and running. The two activities actually complement each other, and they don't present issues with specific muscular recovery. However, my overall fatigue level was way too high for way too long. I shall be much smarter in my training this year with the emphasis, through the completion of the Challenge, on the swim.
Looking back, 2013 was a good year, athletically at least. I
swam 743,258.09 meters = 461 miles, and I
ran 1,236.95 miles.
I set a number of personal records in swimming: longest swim (16 miles), 200 short course, 400 short course, 500 short course, 50 long course, 100 long course, 400 long course, 500 long course. It's nice to still be improving at something at the age of 57. Also, I beat Randy Beats at Swim the Suck Ten Miler for the third straight year. I even beat his whole relay team at the Heart O' Dixie Triathlon. Life is good.
I set no records running; those days may be past, but I was able to be on my feet for more miles last year than in any of the previous four. I did a few one day runs, and I set out on The Great Noxapater Journey Run. Although that effort ended in pain and failure, I had a lot of fun while I was out there. I'll do it again.
Last year was also the year my dad died, and even that should motivate me throughout 2014. Since his passing, whenever I swim or run, he is constantly on my mind. He left me a legacy that goes all the way back to my boyhood. I can't escape it, nor do I desire to.
I don't have any New Year's Resolutions, only some goals: I want to do the Chicot Challenge again and swim even farther this year. I want to set some more personal swimming records. I want to make my Film as Literature class even better than last semester when it was the best course ever taught on a college campus in the history of the world.
But things could be worse. People who know me probably think I am most likely a frustrated and dangerous man right now due to my forced inactivity. Actually, I am a frustrated and dangerous man right now, but not as frustrated or as dangerous as one may have thought. I've surprised myself in that I have taken things in stride and done what I could without pulling out the rest of my hair.
But what I could is not much. I've watched a lot of quality television, like Moonshiners, Finding Bigfoot, and Ax Men. And college football. I've watched a ton of bowl games and as a huge SEC chauvinist, it's been pretty nice until last night. DO NOT mention the Alabama game in my presence unless you want to find out what frustration and danger is all about.
I've also read some, which I don't do nearly as much as I once did. My latest book is A Certain Tendency of the Hollywood Cinema, by Robert Ray. This is an analysis of the changing cinematic and thematic emphases in the American movie industry from the 1930s until 1980. Pretty good stuff, but it's worn a blister on my brain.
Physically, all I've done is to lift weights a couple of times per week. About all I can manage alone in the back yard gym is bench presses, seated rows, and a move I call the swim pull. That may not be much, but its the core of my upper body work for swimming. Last night, I did make it to the pool for the first time in several weeks. I drove myself and hobbled in on my crutches. The pool was set up for long course!!! I think there was a high school meet there recently. Slim chance it will stay that way, but I love long course because I feel like it's much better training for the kind of swimming I do (triathlons, a long charity swim, and the Suck, a ten-mile race), and for my injured leg, I don't have to do nearly as many flips and pushes off the wall. I fear I will forget and push off with both feet after a flip turn. We swam
1,000
8 X 50 as 4 @ 25 fast/25 easy and 4 @ 25 easy/25 fast
8 X 50 as 4 @ breathing 3 and 5 by 25 and 4 @ breathing 5 and 3 by 25
4 X 100 as 2 @ first and third 25 fast and 2 @ second and fourth fast
100 easy
Total: 2,300 meters.
It felt good to be back in the water, and I want more. The leg is improving and the doc wants me to gently ease into putting some weight on it as I walk with the crutches, comfort being my guide. For you who may not know, with a stress fracture the bone is not cracked all the way through. If you don't take care of it, a stress fracture can become a full fracture. But on the flip side, you often can regain your feet much faster than with a total break. His hope is that I can gradually wean myself from the crutches to the walking boot alone by my next appointment a month from now. I've been doing that, and to put even a little weight on the leg makes ambulating a thousand times easier. My hope is that in a week or so the woumded limb will be good enough that I can work my way into my wetsuit. There is a lot of tugging, pulling, and straining involved in getting into a tight neoprene body-wrap, and right now I would not even attempt it. But at the rate the tenderness is disappearing from my lower shin, I feel that it won't be long before suiting up is a possibility. If I can get into my suit, I can crawl from the truck into a fish pond, and crawl out again. Then I will be back in business.
All in all, my prospects for the Chicot Challenge look good. Our four-day work schedule is still in place, and with the tentative schedule my sister has set up for Mom's care, I will have time to train. The stress fracture itself may even be a blessing. I need an off season, and this year I have had one. Another blessing is I have decided to run much less when I am able to resume shuffling. Last year, there was an problem with the two sports due to my volume of swimming and running. The two activities actually complement each other, and they don't present issues with specific muscular recovery. However, my overall fatigue level was way too high for way too long. I shall be much smarter in my training this year with the emphasis, through the completion of the Challenge, on the swim.
Looking back, 2013 was a good year, athletically at least. I
swam 743,258.09 meters = 461 miles, and I
ran 1,236.95 miles.
I set a number of personal records in swimming: longest swim (16 miles), 200 short course, 400 short course, 500 short course, 50 long course, 100 long course, 400 long course, 500 long course. It's nice to still be improving at something at the age of 57. Also, I beat Randy Beats at Swim the Suck Ten Miler for the third straight year. I even beat his whole relay team at the Heart O' Dixie Triathlon. Life is good.
I set no records running; those days may be past, but I was able to be on my feet for more miles last year than in any of the previous four. I did a few one day runs, and I set out on The Great Noxapater Journey Run. Although that effort ended in pain and failure, I had a lot of fun while I was out there. I'll do it again.
Last year was also the year my dad died, and even that should motivate me throughout 2014. Since his passing, whenever I swim or run, he is constantly on my mind. He left me a legacy that goes all the way back to my boyhood. I can't escape it, nor do I desire to.
I don't have any New Year's Resolutions, only some goals: I want to do the Chicot Challenge again and swim even farther this year. I want to set some more personal swimming records. I want to make my Film as Literature class even better than last semester when it was the best course ever taught on a college campus in the history of the world.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
PR Harvest
The countdown to the Chicot Challenge has begun. As I write this, the swim is five days away, and I must confess that I'm getting a little nervous. I woke last morning around 2:00 am and failed to go back to sleep. That is a pretty unusual for me. My mind kept going over and over the things I may face Saturday. The training is done, and all is left is to rest, get my gear together, and show up and swim.
I finished last week with a six mile run Wednesday and another three miles of shuffling Thursday with 3,200 meters of swimming at Twin Rivers. I swam 500 for time and got a PR of 8:07.86. Tuesday at DSU, I turned in a PR at 50 meters long course with a :38 second effort. Friday I went back to Twin Rivers for a short 1600. I swam 300 for time and that produced a PR of 4:41.8. Since I was on a PR roll, Saturday I went after my 250 time and bested it with a 3:55.7. That makes makes four PRs in one week. No doubt I am swimming my fastest ever. I just hope my endurance is at the highest ever.
For the week, I
swam 24,158.43 meters
ran 22.19 miles
walked 6.04 miles and
lifted weights two times,
which puts me for the year at
348,253.01 meters swimming (+22,483) and
469.12 miles running (+282.96).
That was a bit of a drop down after Monday when I had my big swim. This Monday I swam a mere 1,800 meters at a relaxed pace and ran seven miles. My plans are to do an even shorter swim tonight and take the rest of the week off.
I finished last week with a six mile run Wednesday and another three miles of shuffling Thursday with 3,200 meters of swimming at Twin Rivers. I swam 500 for time and got a PR of 8:07.86. Tuesday at DSU, I turned in a PR at 50 meters long course with a :38 second effort. Friday I went back to Twin Rivers for a short 1600. I swam 300 for time and that produced a PR of 4:41.8. Since I was on a PR roll, Saturday I went after my 250 time and bested it with a 3:55.7. That makes makes four PRs in one week. No doubt I am swimming my fastest ever. I just hope my endurance is at the highest ever.
For the week, I
swam 24,158.43 meters
ran 22.19 miles
walked 6.04 miles and
lifted weights two times,
which puts me for the year at
348,253.01 meters swimming (+22,483) and
469.12 miles running (+282.96).
That was a bit of a drop down after Monday when I had my big swim. This Monday I swam a mere 1,800 meters at a relaxed pace and ran seven miles. My plans are to do an even shorter swim tonight and take the rest of the week off.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
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.
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.
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