Swimming Unattached... My Thoughts So Far

I've now competed in 2 masters events as an unattached swimmer, 1 open water and 1 in the pool. I was apprehensive about tackling my return to swimming unattached but it has proven to be a good thing so far. It's not necessarily a complete experience though.

Pros

I can do whatever I want and train whenever I feel like it

I don't have to pay team fees

I can go to any meet that I want, it doesn't matter if my team is going or not

Masters swimming seems to be an inherently friendly organization and even if you're not part of a team people you don't even know will still be nice and support you. At the Naples Island swim the host team was friendlier to me than teams I have actually been a part of! At Davis I had strangers congratulating me on winning my heat in the 100 IM. Very cool.

(on a personal level) I can ride my bike to my current pool. The nearest masters team that seems decent is too far to do that and I don't want to give up my cross training on the bike

Cons

It's hard to write your own workouts and stick to them

There's no one to hang out with, watch your stuff, cheer for you at a swim meet

There's no coach to tell you what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong.

It gets a little lonely sometimes to train and compete alone

As it stands right now I'm happy swimming unattached. Swimming is an individual sport and being responsible for your own workouts and results isn't a bad thing. I may breakdown and join a team someday but I don't think that day will be coming anytime soon.

All Signed Up for UCLA

I sent in my entry form for the UCLA SCM meet coming up on the 18th of October. I'm going to swim the 50 free, 50 fly, 100 free, 100 fly, and the 100 IM. In the 50's and the 100 IM I want to beat my times from Davis. In the 100 free I want to hit around 1:05 or better and in the 100 fly I entered a 1:15 but I want to be under 1:10... we'll see how that goes... my ultimate goal for both is to break a minute.

Tonight I hit the pool more to cool off than anything... it was super hot today man, ocean breeze be damned it was pushing 100 here in Grover/Pismo Beach.

Warm Up
300 free
100 kick

2 x 400

100 kick
200 free

1500 yards

I had to do some stuff this evening so I was unwillingly out in the car instead of riding my bike - I really hate driving. The counter guy at the gym called me out though - "not riding your bike tonight man?" I let him know we'll be back to our regularly scheduled program tomorrow :)

Davis Pentathlon Wrap Up

I just got back from Davis and besides being a little sun burnt I feel really good about my races. My times weren't spectacular by any stretch of the imagination but they were respectable. (All the results are now online, you can see them here) Now that I have some real times for short course meters it will make it easier for me to sign up for the UCLA meet later this month.

I drove up to Davis Saturday morning and was at my brother's place around 3 in the afternoon. The original plan was to save a few bucks and stay at his place. Once I got there I realized that wasn't really the answer. His room was a stainless steel toilet away from being a prison cell. He offered up a gross couch in a common room... this wasn't going to work out. I in turn hit up my old friends over at Expedia instead. The Best Western was totally worth the $100 bucks instead of getting some kind of mite from a questionable couch. After I checked in I went and explored all 4 blocks of downtown Davis. The thing I like best about Davis is the full acceptance of bikes as an actual form of transportation. There were bikes, bike lanes and bike racks everywhere. I wish I could get some of that action around here!

Anyways back to the action... after an unintentional tour of the Campus I found the pool. It's really nice compared to what I'm used to. My one big complaint: no friggin shade anywhere. Davis is hot and sunny and the pool and pool deck are reflective so there is no escape if you're there on a sunny day like, you know, today. Shit. I look like Hank Hill with my shirt off because I swim indoors so I was pretty worried about this whole sunshine thing. It felt about 85 degrees and I was out there in a sweatshirt with my hood up trying to not burn the crap out of myself... it didn't work. Luckily I didn't really start feeling it until hour 4 of my drive home, tomorrow is going to be awful.

The races went really fast which was nice. There were about 9 heats per event for the women and 10 for the men and they still managed to jam through 5 events in 3 hours. My main worry was starts from the blocks because I don't have any to practice with. But once I did my first one I got over it really quickly. My starts were solid and my goggles didn't leak on me. Turns out riding 50-60 miles a week helps with jumping :) My butterfly was good, back and breast were a little not so good but decent, and my free and IM were really good for me. I still have a lot of time to shave off my times but it's a start. My 100IM in particular went really well. I pulled out to an early lead in the Butterfly leg and managed to hold off everyone else for the last 75. I got a little prize for winning my heat, a UC Davis swim cap, not particularly useful for a bald guy... but hey I like free stuff so it was cool. Plus I just like feeling like I won something.

Here's my times for the five events:

50m Fly: 31.65
50m Back: 38.10
50m Breast: 39.37
50m Free: 30.86
100 IM: 1:17

Overall I finished in the middle of my age group. Everything except my backstroke was below my seed time guesses. I'd like to get my fly and free times under 30 by the end of the year. I'm going to have to put some more work into my backstroke, I used to be a decent backstroker back in the day. Ultimately it looks like fly is still going to be my non-freestyle goto event. Not sure when I want to get brave and try to race a 100 though. I really like doing the IM too. Not sure if I'm ready to race a 200 IM but the 100 is shaping up to be a new favorite event.

Ultimately I met my swimming goals (good fly and free, avoid embarrassing myself in the other events) and I got my just rewards... sweet, sweet, wonderful waffle fries... oh how I've missed you.

isn't it beautiful?

Leaving for Davis in the Morning

Getting myself ready to trek up to NORCAL to do the Davis Pentathlon. I'm stoked to do a pentathlon specifically because it will give me a baseline in every stroke to see where I am at. This is going to be my first meet in a decade so I'm not sure exactly what to expect performance wise.

My big goals for this weekend are to swim a good 50 free, a good 50 fly, not embarrass myself in the other events, and get some waffle fries at a Chick-fil-a... that last one isn't swimming related, I just love waffle fries and I haven't had Chick-fil-a since I left Texas back in 2004. In preparation for the meet I did shave down... my head and most of my facial hair anyways :) I'm down to just a strip down the middle of my chin, I'm hoping it makes me go faster.

I'll be tweeting my way through the weekend if you want to follow along at home.

Short and Hard Like a Body Building Elf

I got a little caught up in watching the VP debate and left the house later than I wanted... so my focus at the pool was on going fast not far because I didn't have that much time.

Warm Up
200 Free
100 kick

12 x 50 (25 fast, 25 slow IM order)

200 Cool Down

1100 yards total plus 10 miles on the bike.

In other news... I got an e-mail from the Davis Pentathlon meet director letting me know that they have me signed up for this weekend. I'm excited to swim a meet, I'm just not excited about having to drive 300 miles each way.

iz mai pool

Just took it easy today... so you get a LOLcat... err tiger, instead of a real blog post.

So I Might Mix in a Bike Event

**Update: I rode in the Candy Corn Classic this weekend and you can see some pictures and read my wrap up here

There's a bike event here in SLO coming up called the Candy Corn Classic that I heard about today and I'm thinking about signing up to do it. It's more fun than racing oriented and I kind of get an open-water-esque kinda vibe from the whole thing. They have a 15, 35, 62, and 100 mile rides available. I'm not quite ready to tackle a century, even though I'd like to complete one some day, but I think the 35 mile ride might be cool to do. I have a few friends that might be interested in participating but I'm not sure what distances they'd want to do so I'm waiting to see if anybody is going to sign up for real before I pick a distance.

The Candy Corn Classic is going on Saturday the 25th of October when the UCLA meet was originally scheduled to happen. It gets started at 7AM for everything except the century. It's $40 to sign up and the proceeds go to charity.

Getting back to my aquatic interests... tonight I rode out to the pool and went through a decent workout. Plus I got to demoralize someone who got into the pool looking really confident about his aqua powers. After I casually lapped him a few times he wasn't looking so confident and retreated to the hot tub. As it turns out young muscle-y people hate getting passed repeatedly by bald fat dudes :)

Warm Up
200 free
100 kick
100 breast

10 x 100 free (the last 100 was all out, I went about 1:10... kinda lame really. I can't wait to do one for real soon)

150 cool down

1550 yards plus 10 miles on the bike

Tomorrow is a big day at the office... end of month report time, boo. So I might not make it to the pool, but I'm planning on swimming Thursday and having a short workout Friday. Then Saturday I have to drive up to Davis and Sunday I'm doing the pentathlon, yay!

An Unexpected Training Partner

So today on my ride home from the pool I had the added motivation of a big ass pit bull chasing my bike to make sure I kept going fast. At about 8th street as I made my way east up Grand Ave this big dog comes bounding across the street at me. I jammed on the brakes so he wouldn't knock me off the bike. He nudged his head against my front tire and then came around on my right side and jumped up on me. Luckily he was friendly. I pet him on his head while I used my other hand to check his neck for a collar. Unfortunately he didn't have anything on him so I couldn't try and get him home. I tried to get him off the street and onto the sidewalk but he decided to run back across the street again into the darkness. I thought we were done here so I started riding towards home again. Once I got moving again my new canine friend decided to follow me all the way down to about 16th street! That guy was fast, I was going about 14-15 mph and he was right behind me the whole way. Eventually he got bored and made his way off to more exciting things.

Anyways... back to the swimming... I focused on turns and did some sprinting.

Warm Up
200 free
100 kick

10 x 25 sprints from mid pool w/ focus on turns
(2 free, 1 fly, 1 fly to back, 1 back, 1 back to breast, 1 breast, 1 breast to free, 2 free)

4 x 50 sprint IM order

100 IM Fast

50 kick
100 easy with focus on form
50 kick

200 cool down

1250 yards total plus 10 miles on the bike

I like dogs and I don't mind a little company when I work out but I'm hoping that I don't have another pit bull training partner the next time I ride my bike!

My Hobbies Combined...?

If only I could ride my bike underwater... two birds with one stone right?

This picture came from an ad campaign for Insight... since you can't actually tell from the picture, it's a clothing brand. Anyways they have some really cool pictures out there and you can check out more at booooooom.com.

27 Miles and a Trip to the Pool

I got my money's worth out of today man. I hopped on my bike this morning and rode out through Oceano, up Hwy 1 in to Pismo, up the coast through Shell Beach, and then took the Bob Jones Trail out to Avila Beach. I sat by the ocean for a little bit, refueled with a hot dog and a bottle of water from a street vendor and then made my way home. All told I rode about 27 miles today. I'd like to go further but that kind of seems like the longest I can tolerate a bike seat.

the view through the fog from my rest stop in Avila

After resting a little bit I made my way to the pool to get in a little yardage and mainly stretch out. I think I was the only person in the pool under 80 years old this afternoon. Most of the folks in the pool were walking and noodling but nobody bothered me churning along out in the far lane.

My swim was basically 10 x 100 whatever I felt like. It was a mix of freestyle, kicking, breast stroke and an IM for good measure. It wasn't a real serious workout I just wanted to swim a little today. This coming week I need be a little more structured to get ready for the Davis Pentathlon. I need to focus some effort on turns and if no one else is around some starts from the pool deck (the pool has no blocks to start from). I'm still figuring out the details for my 300 mile trek, but I know I want to at least be moderately fast!

Need to Find Some More Lights...

I rode my bike out to the gym again tonight, I think I want to make this a regular part of my routine. 4 trips a week to the gym plus my regular commuting would mean that I get in at least 60 miles a week which is about where I'd like to be. The last couple months I've bounced between as little as 30 and as much as 70 in a week. I do however need to do some research into bike lights. There a few sections of my ride that are too dark and I need one light to see the road and one light to see in front of me. I almost ran down a pedestrian dressed all in black on a stretch of Hwy 1 with no street lights!

I brought a swimplan.com workout with me but forgot it in my locker. I had committed most of it to memory though and already knew what I was going to change. Here's my workout:

Warm Up
200 free
100 kick
100 breast

Main Set
3 x 400 free (paced at about 1:30 per 100)

Cool Down
100 kick
100 breast
200 free

2000 yards total plus 10 miles on the bike

My left shoulder is still crunching and aching in a way that I'm concerned about but it seems to be fading a little bit every day. I've got about a week left before the Davis Pentathlon and I want to be as close to 100% as possible when I go.

In the Beginning...

I was going through my Twitter stream today looking for a few specific conversations to use as an example for a talk I'm giving next month on social media. I came across this tweet of my first day back in the pool... a pathetic 200 yard struggle. Still kind of embarrassing when I think about. Anyways... if you're debating a return to swimming after a long hiatus and your first outing sucks don't sweat it. I started at 200 yards and within a month I was back to swimming 1000-3000k yards. It all comes back you just have to build up a tolerance!