Long and Steady

This was the first workout of the week.  I didn’t feel very well the last two nights.  So I had to swim a little extra tonight.  I am really hoping that I can get one more workout in over the weekend, but that doesn’t usually happen. 

So tonight’s workout wasn’t that interesting.  I swam 4,500 yards straight.  But I think it is good for me to do long workouts.  I want to try to incorporate them more.

Just Do More

I was trying to figure out what makes this time different.  I have tried swimming on my own in the past, but I always falter.  This time I have a theme that has been working very well for me:  Do More.  It is that simple.  I have a baseline plan (a minimum of 3,000 per workout) and I try to do more at every workout.  For example, if I am planning to do 6x75’s kick, when I get to the third or fourth one, I think to myself, “Well, if I do two extra, then this set will be an even 600 instead of the 450.”  Then when I get close to the end I think that I might as well just do two more and make it an even dozen. 

This doesn’t have to go just for extra yards, you can do it for anything.  Let’s say you typically do two dolphin kicks off the wall.  All you have to do is think, “Why don’t I try it with one more?  It is only one more, maybe a ¼ of a second.”  You can take it into other parts of your life too.  I see so many possibilities!

Here is today’s workout, it is dedicated to my husband who persuaded me to go. Thankfully he is very persuasive.

600 warm up

10x125 Free @1:50

1.    25 fast/100 recovery

2.    50 fast/75 recovery

3.    75 fast/50 recovery

4.    100 fast/25 recovery

5.    125 fast

6.    100 fast/25 recovery

7.    75 fast/50 recovery

8.    50 fast/75 recovery

9.    25 fast/100 recovery

10.  125 recovery

4x250 Pull (distance per stroke) ~:15 rest

10x75 kick w/fins @1:10 (alternating flutter & dolphin)

400 cool down

4,000 yards total

Out with the ‘poo, in with the soap.

I caught you with that title, didn’t I?  Well, it is not as exciting as it sounds.  I have found that I don’t really like to use SHAMpoo and conditioner very much anymore.  It all came when I ran out of them during my swim-every-day-to-reach-my-goal-end-of-the-year-rush.  All I had was my soap (Dove Beauty Bar = soap to me), so I used that.  I found that I really liked it.  So now I just use that.  I have so much less to carry around.  And as soon as I run out a home, I think I will only use soap here too.  Maybe I am saving money because I don’t have to buy as many products? 

I had every intention of swimming over the weekend, it just didn’t happen.  I did get a decent workout in today.  Although, I wasn’t in the mood for anything too interesting, so I just did a set of longer stuff.  I was pretty stiff, and I think that is what led to the workout format.  I guess I need to swim more often.

Here is tonight’s workout:

1,000 warm up

1,500 pull (I was going to only do 1,000 here, but I added a little onto it)  I did this in exactly 20 minutes

500 kick w/fins (50 dolphin/50 flutter then 50 flutter/50 dolphin…repeat)

500 cool down

3,500 yards total

IM and Breath Control

Tonight was a tough workout for me.  I am still trying to get used to working out after dinner.  I really like swimming in the evenings, but it has been challenging for me to get used to it.  I also have to work on my “winding-down” skills.  I get a burst of energy after exercising.  That energy lasts for a while, so sometime falling asleep is difficult.

I love not having to stress out about getting tons of yards in at each workout.  I have the flexibility to do things like speed work and kick sets (ugh).  I think that I want to incorporate the long workouts like I did in my end of year rush.  I am planning to do them two or three times a month.  They are nice long, easy workouts.  I am surprised how much I enjoyed them.  And it definitely made it easy to plan what to do.

This is what I did tonight:

800 warm up

400 kick with fins (dolphin down/ flutter back)

200 IM Drill

12x50 fast IMO Down/easy Free on the way back @:50

8x150 pull (breathing 3,5,7 by 50) [the last one I did 3,5,7,9,11,13 by 25 and it was HARD] @2:10 or 1:50 I am not sure which it was

600 cool down

3,500 yards total

Swimmin' along in the New Year

The last few weeks have been pretty crazy with swimming.  In order to reach my goal, I had to swim every available day for over 5,000 yards.  That was quite difficult.  I mostly did it at night while Matt put the baby to bed.  It usually took about 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes.  The longest swim I did was 6,250 yards.  And it did it pretty much straight through, no real stops. That was exciting for me. 

Most of these workouts were pretty boring.  Things like 4x1500 or 3000. 2000, 1000 or 5000 straight, etc.  Whatever it took to get it done in the limited time that I left myself.  I am so thankful that Matt was there to support me and push me to finish my goal.  I would not have been able to do it without him!

Tonight was the first swim of 2015.  From my experience over the last few weeks trying frantically to achieve my 2014 goal of 130 miles, I found that I really love swimming at Steiner, just not with the Steiner Masters.  It is a great pool with lots of open lanes, most of the time.  Plus, it is only about 10-15 minutes from my house.  That is where I went tonight. 

This was today’s workout:

800 warm up

4x200’s descend

14x100 @1:25 pull

500 cool down

3,500 yards total