Last week was a good swimming week for me since I managed to get in almost 5 miles of swimming! It worked out really well and two workouts really stood out for me. In between these two lunch time swims I read a recent blog post by pro triathlete Jesse Thomas on the Triathlete site. Titled, What's the Deal with the Old guy Jesse writes about joining the local high school team to improve his swim technique and speed. His nemesis...a high school girl! The overall moral of the story is that single sport athletes are always going to be stronger in their chosen sport than those of us that are multi-sporters.
Back to the workouts...on Monday the lunch swim group had a main set with 100m repeats done on a 2 min interval. In swim, the interval time includes your rest so that meant we were starting a 100m interval every 2 minutes. It was tough and I think I made it through 5 or so before I had to drop out of the workout and just swim easy to finish my distance.
Fast forward to Thursday and we had a set with 100m repeats on a 2:10 interval. It was amazing how much of a difference that extra 10 seconds made. I stayed in the whole workout and felt really great.
These workouts were fresh in my head last week when I started to read my August issue of Triathlete. In the Swim Training Tips section, Sara McLarty provides a quick comparison for switching between long course meters and short course yards times. I knew that 50m did not equal 50 yd but I just didn't think about it that much. I just trust my friends to come up with interval times and then I try to hang on! Little did I know!!! Turns out the normal intervals that I use for short course 100yds of (1:50-2:00) would equate to almost a 2:15 interval for long course. The 2:00 min interval for long course 100m that we have been doing is equivalent to a 1:45 on short course. Whoo...it pumped me up to figure this out. Sara's calculation is SCY time * 1.11 + 1.6 sec.
Now I know why I'm always scared to hear the interval times from my swimmer friends...the majority of whom are single sporters. They start at 2 min intervals normally and then work their way faster. It has been overwhelming but also really powerful to realize that I can hang with them on a faster interval if I just shut my brain up and swim. While I can't always last the whole workout at their intervals...I can last further than in the past. It has paid off in races too since I have noticed improvement in my swim times at races and also at our long course swim meet in June. I consider my swimming friends all my free coaches and am certain that they push me harder than I would on my own.
Needless to say, I definitely side with Jesse and have for quite a long time. If you want to be a better swimmer...swim with swimmers! Even if you swim freestyle only during the workout you will see improvement. I've been so lucky to have so many swimmer friends that let me swim with them. It's taken four years but I finally feel like I can keep up with the workouts.
Showing posts with label long course swim. Show all posts
Showing posts with label long course swim. Show all posts
Monday, July 16, 2012
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
2012 NWA Masters Long Course Swim Meet
Earlier in June was the Northwest Arkansas Masters Long Course Swim Meet at Memorial Park pool in Bentonville. This was my second time to do a long course swim meet and it was a great weekend for it. This year the meet organizers decided to do a two day meet format with the long events on Friday night and the sprints/mid-distance events on Saturday morning.
The normal meet format for Masters is that you can select five events to participate in but they allowed participants to do one event on Friday and up to five on Saturday. Bonus!
Some helpful tips if you are new to swim meets like me:
1) Read the meet registration form and look for important details like warmup and seeding information.
2) If you are unsure of a seed time, speak with the meet director and they will help you get in the right heat.
3) Take advantage of warmup and cooldown lanes. Usually 2 lanes will be provided for all the swimmers to use for warmup and cooldown during the meet. Prior to the start it is generally okay to utilize all lanes for warmup. Make sure you circle swim since this is the accepted practice with swimmers.
4) When you get to the meet, locate the heat sheets. Make note of your events and what heat and lane assignment you have been given. I usually bring a second registration form to keep track of this. I also will write down how many heats each event has as well as if any events are scratched.
5) You are responsible to be at the starting block on time for your events so you have to pay attention! Sometimes there aren't any entrants in an event and it will be skipped. The heat sheets will help you stay on top of that.
6) Most meets will post state and citizen records somewhere at the meet. If you think you could break a record for your age group and event, notify the starter and head timers. Record attempts require 3 timers to be official and it is your responsibility to tell the officials that you are going for a record.
7) If you are unsure of starting off the blocks or even diving from the edge, go ahead and do an in-pool start. There will be swimmers of all ages and abilities at a Masters meet so you have nothing to fear, all types of starts will be used!
8) Have fun and Swim Hard!!!
Back to the meet...this year I elected to do the 1500 Free for my Friday evening event. There was just one heat with about 5 of us entered. I put down 32 minutes as my seed time. This is a mental event more than a physical event for me. It's a tough distance to stay engaged and focused and keep a consistent pace. My previous time from this meet in 2010 was 32:35 so I was pretty happy when the timer told me I was under 29 min. I'm still waiting for the official results to be released but I pretty happy with a 3:30 minute improvement!
After the events on Friday, I headed to the club's board meeting. I had reached out to the president about getting more involved and it was fun to attend the meeting. I especially enjoyed the motion to elect me as Social Media coordinator!!! I'll be taking over the Facebook, Twitter, and Blog feed for the Arkansas Masters!
Saturday morning I got to the pool around 8:30 for the meet start at 9:00. I was super nervous since I was trying out a new event...50 m Breast stroke. I decided on 4 events for Saturday which were 50 Breast, 100 Free, 50 Back, and 200 Free.
First up for me was the 50 breast and I was in the 2nd heat. After the first heat, the official had a conversation with a participant about her stroke form and it appeared she was being DQ'd. That increased my nervousness even more. Turns out she was pulling below the waist which isn't allowed in breast stroke. My start was a little iffy since I initially forgot to kick properly and caught myself starting to flutter. Kick fix and I was on my way doing the breast stroke! About half way down the pool I realized that it's a long way, 3/4 of the way down I wanted to be done! My time was just under 1 minute...barely.
Up next after a quick rest was the 100 free. I swam in the 2nd heat and managed just over 1:30 for the distance which was a few seconds improvement over my time in 2010.
The 50 back was stressful since I was assigned lane 1 next to the wall and the official. In outdoor pools I struggle to stay in a straight line for back stroke. So I was worried about running into the wall and I was worried that somehow I would make a form mistake with the official watching. With those two things making me nervous I got started okay. For the first 15m or so I stayed straight and then I slowly moved to the lane divider on my left and promptly ran into it. That startled me and I tried to get back on course. I ran into the divider a couple more times but soon enough I spotted the flags and new I was just a few strokes from finishing! My time was just under 53 seconds which was in line with my previous time.
My last event was the 200 free. My finish time was around 3:18 which I was happy with since I stayed pretty close to the other competitor in my heat for most of the race. Overall, it was a good meet for me and I had a good time swimming the events and chatting with the other swimmers.
After the meet was over, we headed over to Greg's house for the meet social. Greg and his wife Kim had a great pasta lunch spread and a beautiful shaded deck where we enjoyed the meal. It was a perfect finish to the meet since I was starving given my nerves kept me from eating much before the meet!
The normal meet format for Masters is that you can select five events to participate in but they allowed participants to do one event on Friday and up to five on Saturday. Bonus!
Some helpful tips if you are new to swim meets like me:
1) Read the meet registration form and look for important details like warmup and seeding information.
2) If you are unsure of a seed time, speak with the meet director and they will help you get in the right heat.
3) Take advantage of warmup and cooldown lanes. Usually 2 lanes will be provided for all the swimmers to use for warmup and cooldown during the meet. Prior to the start it is generally okay to utilize all lanes for warmup. Make sure you circle swim since this is the accepted practice with swimmers.
4) When you get to the meet, locate the heat sheets. Make note of your events and what heat and lane assignment you have been given. I usually bring a second registration form to keep track of this. I also will write down how many heats each event has as well as if any events are scratched.
5) You are responsible to be at the starting block on time for your events so you have to pay attention! Sometimes there aren't any entrants in an event and it will be skipped. The heat sheets will help you stay on top of that.
6) Most meets will post state and citizen records somewhere at the meet. If you think you could break a record for your age group and event, notify the starter and head timers. Record attempts require 3 timers to be official and it is your responsibility to tell the officials that you are going for a record.
7) If you are unsure of starting off the blocks or even diving from the edge, go ahead and do an in-pool start. There will be swimmers of all ages and abilities at a Masters meet so you have nothing to fear, all types of starts will be used!
8) Have fun and Swim Hard!!!
Back to the meet...this year I elected to do the 1500 Free for my Friday evening event. There was just one heat with about 5 of us entered. I put down 32 minutes as my seed time. This is a mental event more than a physical event for me. It's a tough distance to stay engaged and focused and keep a consistent pace. My previous time from this meet in 2010 was 32:35 so I was pretty happy when the timer told me I was under 29 min. I'm still waiting for the official results to be released but I pretty happy with a 3:30 minute improvement!
 |
| I'm in green on the left side just before our 1500 start. |
After the events on Friday, I headed to the club's board meeting. I had reached out to the president about getting more involved and it was fun to attend the meeting. I especially enjoyed the motion to elect me as Social Media coordinator!!! I'll be taking over the Facebook, Twitter, and Blog feed for the Arkansas Masters!
Saturday morning I got to the pool around 8:30 for the meet start at 9:00. I was super nervous since I was trying out a new event...50 m Breast stroke. I decided on 4 events for Saturday which were 50 Breast, 100 Free, 50 Back, and 200 Free.
First up for me was the 50 breast and I was in the 2nd heat. After the first heat, the official had a conversation with a participant about her stroke form and it appeared she was being DQ'd. That increased my nervousness even more. Turns out she was pulling below the waist which isn't allowed in breast stroke. My start was a little iffy since I initially forgot to kick properly and caught myself starting to flutter. Kick fix and I was on my way doing the breast stroke! About half way down the pool I realized that it's a long way, 3/4 of the way down I wanted to be done! My time was just under 1 minute...barely.
 |
| Whoops, bad form with a way too wide kick! |
Up next after a quick rest was the 100 free. I swam in the 2nd heat and managed just over 1:30 for the distance which was a few seconds improvement over my time in 2010.
The 50 back was stressful since I was assigned lane 1 next to the wall and the official. In outdoor pools I struggle to stay in a straight line for back stroke. So I was worried about running into the wall and I was worried that somehow I would make a form mistake with the official watching. With those two things making me nervous I got started okay. For the first 15m or so I stayed straight and then I slowly moved to the lane divider on my left and promptly ran into it. That startled me and I tried to get back on course. I ran into the divider a couple more times but soon enough I spotted the flags and new I was just a few strokes from finishing! My time was just under 53 seconds which was in line with my previous time.
My last event was the 200 free. My finish time was around 3:18 which I was happy with since I stayed pretty close to the other competitor in my heat for most of the race. Overall, it was a good meet for me and I had a good time swimming the events and chatting with the other swimmers.
After the meet was over, we headed over to Greg's house for the meet social. Greg and his wife Kim had a great pasta lunch spread and a beautiful shaded deck where we enjoyed the meal. It was a perfect finish to the meet since I was starving given my nerves kept me from eating much before the meet!
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Don't Drink the Water
I had one vacation day left that I had to use by the end of this week so I took today off from work. I had a vet appointment scheduled this morning for Hershey but that was my only plan for the day. I normally go to lunch time Masters swim laps on Fridays but decided to go today since I was free.
I got to the pool right when it opened at 11:00 and my friend AJ was also pulling into the parking lot. We shared a lane and got started on the workout. We were slow to start since we thought another friend might be joining us but she must have gotten caught up at work. The warm-up we decided on was 300m of easy swimming. After the first 100m I had to jump out of the pool and switch goggles. The ones I started out with were leaking just enough to bother me.
After the warmup we moved to a 300m set that was mostly kick. We threw a swim in the middle for AJ to compare her kick while swimming to her kick during kick work. For some reason, she finds kick sets to be painful and we were trying to figure out if she was kicking differently.
Our main set for the workout was a descending ladder that started at 400m and went down to 300m, 200m, then 100m. The fun part was that the final 50m of each ladder rung was done on a fast pace. We took a 20 second rest interval between each ladder and that last one was tough!
We finished up the workout with some more form work by doing a variety set that included pull, back kick, free kick, pull, stroke, and free kick. This ended up adding 300m to the workout so we tacked on another 100m cooldown to end up with an even 2000m for the day!
The weather has been so hot lately so the pool was actually pretty refreshing. The water was really cloudy today which made it tough to see even the end of the pool. For quite a bit of my swim, I kept thinking of the song from Dave Matthews called "Don't Drink the Water" which kept my mind off the swim and distance. I also counted strokes during the long sets to keep myself focused and not slacking during the easy portions of the longer distances.
I got to the pool right when it opened at 11:00 and my friend AJ was also pulling into the parking lot. We shared a lane and got started on the workout. We were slow to start since we thought another friend might be joining us but she must have gotten caught up at work. The warm-up we decided on was 300m of easy swimming. After the first 100m I had to jump out of the pool and switch goggles. The ones I started out with were leaking just enough to bother me.
After the warmup we moved to a 300m set that was mostly kick. We threw a swim in the middle for AJ to compare her kick while swimming to her kick during kick work. For some reason, she finds kick sets to be painful and we were trying to figure out if she was kicking differently.
Our main set for the workout was a descending ladder that started at 400m and went down to 300m, 200m, then 100m. The fun part was that the final 50m of each ladder rung was done on a fast pace. We took a 20 second rest interval between each ladder and that last one was tough!
We finished up the workout with some more form work by doing a variety set that included pull, back kick, free kick, pull, stroke, and free kick. This ended up adding 300m to the workout so we tacked on another 100m cooldown to end up with an even 2000m for the day!
The weather has been so hot lately so the pool was actually pretty refreshing. The water was really cloudy today which made it tough to see even the end of the pool. For quite a bit of my swim, I kept thinking of the song from Dave Matthews called "Don't Drink the Water" which kept my mind off the swim and distance. I also counted strokes during the long sets to keep myself focused and not slacking during the easy portions of the longer distances.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Back in the Pool
It's been about two weeks since I've done a swim workout. Early morning lap swim started two weeks ago at our outdoor pool and I have yet to go to a workout. I'm not the best morning person but I'm hoping to go at least twice a week.
Today I stopped by the pool after work to pick up my pool pass I bought on the first day the pool opened, Memorial Day. Yep, that's a long time to skip the pool. My last swim was actually during my triathlon races the first weekend of June.
I managed to get there before the swim team kids and got a lane to myself. The lap timer clock was at the end of my lane and that motivated me to do a workout versus a mindless swim. I did an easy warm up and then settled into sets of 100m. I did 3 sets of 3 x 100m with a 50 m recovery swim between each set. I went on a 2 minute interval which allowed me about 15 sec rest after each 100m. I probably should have gone on a faster interval but figured since it had been awhile I should ease back into it.
It felt good to get back in the pool but I really need to get there during the lap swim hours. The pool is set up for long course then and there is a huge difference between long and short course especially when training for triathlons. Our Masters group is supposed to be offering workout suggestions during the early morning workouts so that will be an added bonus when I get my butt there! My goal will be to get there next week and until then I'll be looking forward to the lunch hour Masters swim on Friday afternoon!
Today I stopped by the pool after work to pick up my pool pass I bought on the first day the pool opened, Memorial Day. Yep, that's a long time to skip the pool. My last swim was actually during my triathlon races the first weekend of June.
I managed to get there before the swim team kids and got a lane to myself. The lap timer clock was at the end of my lane and that motivated me to do a workout versus a mindless swim. I did an easy warm up and then settled into sets of 100m. I did 3 sets of 3 x 100m with a 50 m recovery swim between each set. I went on a 2 minute interval which allowed me about 15 sec rest after each 100m. I probably should have gone on a faster interval but figured since it had been awhile I should ease back into it.
It felt good to get back in the pool but I really need to get there during the lap swim hours. The pool is set up for long course then and there is a huge difference between long and short course especially when training for triathlons. Our Masters group is supposed to be offering workout suggestions during the early morning workouts so that will be an added bonus when I get my butt there! My goal will be to get there next week and until then I'll be looking forward to the lunch hour Masters swim on Friday afternoon!
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Reverse Tri Saturday
Yesterday I got a little bit over-zealous for the great summer weather and went ahead and got in a run, bike, and swim. My day started with the Elm Tree Wildcat Rumble 5K race. Race report to follow in the next few days. It was a hot and humid race and I was happy with my performance given the conditions.
I had made arrangements in advance with my friend Kyla to do a bike ride after the race. We were getting our bikes situated when some of the guys that we ride with rode up. They had started earlier and were completing the first leg of their ride. They waited a few minutes for us to finish and then we all headed out together. We were only going out 10 miles for a 20 mile ride and the guys were going another 8-10 miles past our turn-around point so that they were getting more mileage. Some of them were doing 65 miles...kind of made our 20 seem puny but we had just raced a 5k!
Unfortunately at one point in the ride Kyla and I got exhaust bombed:( A pickup truck revved his engine as he passed us and blew out a huge mess of exhaust as he passed. It was disgusting and awful. We just tucked our heads down until it was safe to breathe again. That awful moment was quickly forgotten as we spotted lots of reptile life on our ride. We saw 4 turtles (2 alive, 2 dead and 2 of them were giant turtles.) We also spotted a large lizard just lounging on the shoulder. We also saw nearly 150 motorcycles riding out on the country highway we were on. There must have been an organized ride going on for Memorial Day.
After the ride, I headed to farmers market to pick up some veggies. I rushed home to shower and then headed to my haircut. While sitting in the chair at the salon I got super warm and got the inkling that I might have messed up with the sunscreen again. Yep, another unfortunate burn. I got my arms covered with sunscreen but forgot the racerback area of my shoulders and back. I was going to change shirts into one that had more shoulder coverage but changed my mind at the last minute. Big oops!
From there, I headed to lunch and an errand and then went to the pool. The outdoor pool was open Friday-Sunday for a kids swim meet. Lucky for me and Kyla, our friend Brent is on the swim team board and he let us in to swim at the end of the meet. It's been a long time since I swam long course but the water and sunshine felt awesome.
At the end of it all, I was worn out...Completely exhausted and famished. I downed some Nuun and got to work on eating and getting rehydrated. I was in bed early and slept well!
I had made arrangements in advance with my friend Kyla to do a bike ride after the race. We were getting our bikes situated when some of the guys that we ride with rode up. They had started earlier and were completing the first leg of their ride. They waited a few minutes for us to finish and then we all headed out together. We were only going out 10 miles for a 20 mile ride and the guys were going another 8-10 miles past our turn-around point so that they were getting more mileage. Some of them were doing 65 miles...kind of made our 20 seem puny but we had just raced a 5k!
Unfortunately at one point in the ride Kyla and I got exhaust bombed:( A pickup truck revved his engine as he passed us and blew out a huge mess of exhaust as he passed. It was disgusting and awful. We just tucked our heads down until it was safe to breathe again. That awful moment was quickly forgotten as we spotted lots of reptile life on our ride. We saw 4 turtles (2 alive, 2 dead and 2 of them were giant turtles.) We also spotted a large lizard just lounging on the shoulder. We also saw nearly 150 motorcycles riding out on the country highway we were on. There must have been an organized ride going on for Memorial Day.
After the ride, I headed to farmers market to pick up some veggies. I rushed home to shower and then headed to my haircut. While sitting in the chair at the salon I got super warm and got the inkling that I might have messed up with the sunscreen again. Yep, another unfortunate burn. I got my arms covered with sunscreen but forgot the racerback area of my shoulders and back. I was going to change shirts into one that had more shoulder coverage but changed my mind at the last minute. Big oops!
From there, I headed to lunch and an errand and then went to the pool. The outdoor pool was open Friday-Sunday for a kids swim meet. Lucky for me and Kyla, our friend Brent is on the swim team board and he let us in to swim at the end of the meet. It's been a long time since I swam long course but the water and sunshine felt awesome.
At the end of it all, I was worn out...Completely exhausted and famished. I downed some Nuun and got to work on eating and getting rehydrated. I was in bed early and slept well!
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