Tremonte's Swim Blog

Back in the saddle

2008-12-03T18:08:00Z

After a 3-week "mental break," today marks Day One of my serious training for the 2009 season. No more staying out 'til 4am... No more drinking 8 beers the night before a 5k... Nope, today I swam with Dave at Samena for the first time in quite awhile:

warm-up: 1000
2x400 @ 5:15 descend (4:55, 4:44)
2x800 @ 10:15 descend, 2nd one faster than sum of two 400s above (9:22, 9:06)
1600 neg split, faster than the two 800s above (18:30)
500 ez
10x50 Tennessee Tumbler @ :45
1000 ez -- some kicking, some drills, some swimming

I'll do a back-dated post one of these days to fill in all of my swim workouts between Tinley's and now -- probably not all that many.

Tinley's

2008-10-08T03:52:00Z

Thu 2 Oct: no swim. travel day to SLO.

Fri 3 Oct: race prep. about 1k

Sat 4 Oct: Scott Tinley's Adventures. ~19:30 for 1500m. Exited w/ John Dahlz.
about 2500m total including warm-up

Sun 5 Oct: no swim. travel day

Mon 6 Oct: no swim

Tue 7 Oct: masters swim at Pro Club. 3250 yds. 60min
warm-up: 200 S/K/P
12x25 K @ :30 (:23-24)
3x500 @ 6:40 at 80% effort (5:58 56 55)
150 "sprint" (1:35) ... we didn't quite sprint it...
10x50 breath control -- breathe every 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 strokes by 50
cool down

Wednesdays with Dave

2008-10-01T18:50:00Z

Wed 1 Oct: Dave's "UT Set" -- 7000 yards, 2 hours
warm-up: 1000
continuation: 10x100 @ 1:40 as kick/swim by 50 (all 1:20-1:25... faster w/ fly kick, slower w flutter kick)
main set:
   3x{300 hard @ 3:30, 250 ez @ 3:30} (3:20, 3:18, 3:15)
   3x{100 hard @ 1:10, 50 ez @ 1:10} (1:03, 1:03, 1:02)
   2x{300 hard @ 3:30, 250 ez @ 3:30} (3:16, 3:14)
   2x{100 hard @ 1:10, 50 ez @ 1:10} (1:04s)
   300 hard @ 3:30, 250 ez @ 3:30 (3:15)
   100 hard @ 1:10, 50 ez @ 1:10 (1:03)
cool down: 8x100 ez @ 1:30

This was a tough set but I felt pretty good throughout and I feel like this is as fast as I've been since college. I even beat Dave on the last few 300s! A bit longer than I'd wanted to go today but I got in a lot of pace-changing work like I wanted.

Less Catch-up than last time

2008-09-30T20:03:00Z

20 Sep 08: ITU Portland race. 2k including warm-up. 1500m in 19:20 during the race

21 Sep 08: no swim

22 Sep 08: no swim

23 Sep 08: solo swim at pro club. 4000 yards. 60min
warm-up
2x5x200 @ 2:40 (2:23 19 14 12 10; 2:23 xx 11 12 09)
cool down & drills

24 Sep 08: AM swim w Dave. 6500 yards. 1:45.
warm-up: 1000
2x{500 @ 6:30, 10x50 alternating hard/easy on :45} -- 500s in 5:50 and 5:40
Long pull set
shorter kick set
hypoxic ladder: 25, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 175, 200, 225, 250 w/ a breath limit of 1 on first 25, 2 on second... 5 on fifth.... then back down to 1 on the tenth length. Get it?

25 Sep 08: pro club masters. 3200 yards. 53 minutes.
memorable set included a bunch of 200s as (50 choice, 150 free) and I went about 2:20 for each. THe sendoff was like 2:50...

26 Sep 08: no swim

27 Sep 08: no swim

28 Sep 08: solo 4k workout at pro club. 60 minutes
warm-up: 200 fr, 200 bk, 200 K, 200 P, 200 P-bk
5x200 desc @ 2:40 (2:21 18 13 12 12)
ez 200
10x100 @ 1:10 (1:03 4 5 6 6 6 7 7 7 7)
cool down

29 Sep 08: no swim

30 Sep 08: Update: masters workout. 3650 yards. one hour.
warm-up: 100 s, 100k, 100p, 200 drill
3x300 @ 4:00 as 1-cruz, 2-build, 3-fast w zoomers (3:34, 3:26, 3:09)
ez 50
3x200 @ 2:40 as 1-cruz, 2 & 3 hard w zoomers (2:18, 2:02, 2:00)
ez 250
3x100 @ 3:00 all fast w zoomers (:56 :55 :55)
ez ~800

Another month of catch-up posts

2008-09-20T00:28:00Z

I intended these posts to be a bit more frequent and to have more commentary, but at least I've managed to post at least summary info from every workout... so if I end up going from Xxx speed to Yyy speed we'll have a really vague instruction manual. Yay!

25-Aug-2008 5200yds 80 min. solo swim at Lk Samm. 2100 free, 1k IM, 6x250 w/ middle 100 HARD, 600 ez
26-Aug-2008 4000yds 60min. PM Masters(?)
27-Aug-2008 no swim. travel day.
28-Aug-2008 300yds 10min. ez/social open-water "swim" w Steve
29-Aug-2008 5280yds. 80min. 3 miles in wetsuit at Barton Springs
30-Aug-2008 150yds. 5min. even more social "swim" at Hamilton Pool w Steve
31-Aug-2008 1200yds. 20min. race prep at Barton Springs
1-Sep-2008 2500yds. 40min. Austin Triathlon
2-Sep-2008 8400yds. 130min. solo AM swim incl 2x5x200 @ 2:40 descend (2:23 21 18 15 12; 2:27 23 18 17 13). 4200 yards in 60 minutes. PM masters incl 2x3x(4x100, ez 50) @ 1:20, 1:15, 1:10 by 4… 63-65 for last four each time. 4200 yards in 70 minutes.
3-Sep-2008 7000yds. 115 minutes. AM swim w Dave incl 2x1650 w 0sec rest (20:10, 19:04).
4-Sep-2008 2850yds 1hr. masters swim incl 3x(4x50 HARD stroke @ 1:05, 200 ez pull) - backstroke; 34hi x4, 34 x4, 33h 34 33h 33h. Wow…
Fri 5-Sep-2008   no swim.
Sat 6-Sep-2008 500yds. 15min. EZ swim at Lk Wa w Hans.
Sun 7-Sep-2008 4000yds. 55min. 11am solo swim incl 2x5x200 @ 2:40 descend (2:21 18 14 10 07; 20 14 10 09 08). Yay! The power of the Guinness!!
8-Sep-2008 3550yds. 50min. PM solo swim - same workout at yesterday - 2:20 16 15 12 09hi, 2:24 19 14 12 08hi
9-Sep-2008   no swim.
10-Sep-2008 3550yds. 50min. lunchtime solo swim incl 2x5x200 @ 2:40 … trying to be a bit more mellow, but then got into it! (2:22 20 17 15 12; 2:22 17 14 11 08hi)
11-Sep-2008  no swim. travel day.
12-Sep-2008   race prep. short swim
13-Sep-2008 2500yds 40min. Triathlon at Pacific Grove.
14-Sep-2008 700yds. 10min. evening swim at Green Lake w/ Leif... in the middle of our ez run...
15-Sep-2008 4000yds. 61min. ez solo swim - 1k SKP then 1k back/free by 200
16-Sep-2008 7000yds. 110min. PM solo swim - 1k w/u, 2x5x200 descend (2:23 19 16 14 12; 2:15 21 16 13 08hi), then Pro Club Masters incl 2x400 P, 4x200 desc @ 2:45 (2:21 15 12 08) and 8x100 desc @ 1:25 (1:13 09 09 07 05 04 03 03)… still a bit sore from lifting yesterday
17-Sep-2008   no swim. track intervals in the evening
18-Sep-2008 2200yds. 33min. short solo swim before drive to Portland. 600 wu, 4x200 descend @ 2:45 (2:20 15 12 11), 4x100 descend @ 1:30 (1:10 06 03 01), 4x50 desc @ :50 (34 32 30 29)
19 Sep 08: race prep. one 1500m lap in Hagg Lake

Analysis: you can see that I am swimming almost every day although a few of the swims have been very short "splash arounds" lately. But I've been averaging 17-18k/week despite traveling & racing a lot... I've adopted this 2x5x200 descending workout as my new favorite, ever since that post-Guiness day. I feel pretty good about my swim fitness although I didn't nail it at PG. We'll see how things go tomorrow at Elite Nationals!

After Boulder

2008-08-25T01:43:00Z

I only stayed in Redmond for one night before heading to Kelowna for the Apple Triathlon.

Fri 15 Aug: 1500 yards in Kelowna. open water.

Sat 16 Aug: 2000 yards in Kelowna. open water.

Sun 17 Aug: Kelowna ITU race. I'll giv emyself credit for 2500 yards including warm-up.

Mon 18 Aug: nada. got home from Kelowna at 2:30am, up for work at 7am, dinner w family, watch the Olympic triathlon, went out w my brother & his girlfriend... long day!

Tue 19 Aug. Here I start making up for lost time. Lunchtime swim in Lk Samm w Dave Messenheimer. 3200 yards. Pro Club masters plus a few extra yards beforehand. 4600 yards.

Wed 20 Aug: long AM swim w Dave Kays. 6250 yards.

Thu 21 Aug: solo swim at pro club including Mess's set from FoCo - 3x(50 100 150 200 150 100 50). I did better down here, holding 1:07-8 pace on a 1:20 base. 4000 yards. I also put on my first Transition Clinic this morning. Look for the video soon on my main blog.

Fri 22 Aug: no swim

Sat 23 Aug: solo evening swim at pro club
1500 swim
200 kick
300 pull
2x5x200 swim @ 2:40 descend (2:27 26 25 24 21; 2:28 28 28 28 25)
5x200 pull, alternating free & back by 200
50 ez
total: 5050 yards

Sun 24 Aug: the same swim but first thing in the morning instead. I ran into (coach) Justin and he swam parts of the 2x5x200 with me, pushing me to swim a lot faster than yesterday. Somewhere in the middle of the set I said, "I'll thank you for this in the long run."
splits: 2:21 19 17 12 11; 2:25 20 18 16 10. Yay!

In Boulder

2008-08-25T01:29:00Z

another catch-up post... Most of my swims in Boulder were ez or "moderate" pace. That first breath off the wall was really fierce those first few days at altitude.

22-Jul-2008: arrive in Boulder. 4000 meters at Scott Carpenter (LCM)
23-Jul-2008: solo swim - 2900 meters at Scotty.
24-Jul-2008: solo swim for about 3k, then joined in w a masters group at Scotty. 6400m total.
25-Jul-2008: no swim. Lefthand Canyon ride... ez run...
26-Jul-2008: solo swim at East Boulder Rec Center. 4000 yards including 5x4x50 free descend... (not much of a descend at this point in the trip). 3x50 reps on the Vasa trainer.
27-Jul-2008: solo swim at Scotty. 3100 LCM.
28-Jul-2008: solo swim at Scotty. 4000 LCM.
29-Jul-2008: solo swim at Scotty. 3000 LCM.
30-Jul-2008: solo swim at Scotty. 3200 LCM.
31-Jul-2008: Stroke-n-Stride race. very painful run-outs at altitude. warm-up + race = 2500m
1-Aug-2008: solo swim at Scotty. 4000m
2-Aug-2008: ez swim at Indian Peaks after watching Mess race. 1200 yards.
3-Aug-2008: evening swim w Markie V at East Boulder. 40x100 @ 1:20. 4000 SCY.
4-Aug-2008: solo swim at E Boulder including 5x200 descend @ 2:40 (2:27, 2:23, 2:19, 2:15, 2:14) and 10x50 @ 1:00 HARD (30-hi, 30-hi, 30, 29-hi, 30, 30, 30, 29-hi, 30, 30). Pretty fast for altitude, eh? 3250 yards.
5-Aug-2008: another evening w Mark at E Boulder. Broke it up a slightly different way but again we did 4000 yards.
6-Aug-2008: open-water swim at some reservoir near Denver w/ Tate & the Riptide guys. ~2100 yards
7-Aug-2008: evening swim at E Boulder. 3000 yards
8-Aug-2008: swim at Spruce Pool w Dave Messenheimer. 4500 yards
9-Aug-2008: swim w Mess in Fort Collins. 5200 short-course meters
10-Aug-2008: no swim -- hiking w Dave, Kim & Grant. recovery day!
11-Aug-2008: no swim -- business travel
12-Aug-2008: no swim -- business travel
13-Aug-2008: last full day in Boulder. 3000 LCM at Scotty.
14-Aug-2008: travel back to Seattle

So the volume tapered off a bit at the end, but I swam the first 15 days I was there for a total of 53550 yards. Notice that while I was swimming every day a lot of the workouts were filler "gotta get it done" 3k-3.5k easy swims... such is the price of high-volume training, I suppose... and also a result of doing too many of my workouts alone. I really benefit from having somebody there to push me, as you'll see when I post today's swim.

Before Boulder

2008-08-25T01:22:00Z

catching up a bit on these posts...

3-Jul-2008: 3800 yards at pro club masters
4-Jul-2008: no swim (in Eugene)
5-Jul-2008: no swim (in Eugene)
6-Jul-2008: Lake Stevens 70.3 race. 3000 yards
7-Jul-2008: ez swim at Lk Samm. 2200 yards
8-Jul-2008: 3500 yards at pro club masters
9-Jul-2008: afternoon swim w Dave. 6000 yards.
10-Jul-2008: 4300 yards at pro club masters
11-Jul-2008: after-work open-water swim at Idylwood. 2100 yards
12-Jul-2008: no swim. track (running) workout. apple cup ride.
13-Jul-2008: solo swim w some drills. 5000 yards.
14-Jul-2008: no swim. lots of time building up the Ceepo
15-Jul-2008: 4400 yards w pro club masters
16-Jul-2008: no swim. tempo run w Club NW after work
17-Jul-2008: 3500 yards at the pro club masters, including Justin's favorite: the Cumberland.
18-Jul-2008: no swim
19-Jul-2008: no swim
20-Jul-2008: Seafair Triathlon. 1500 yards incl warm-up
21-Jul-2008: ez solo swim at pro club. 3000 yards.

catching up again

2008-07-02T20:33:00Z

may have missed a few in here, but hopefully this is most of 'em...

Sat 21 June - Cascades Edge Tri

Sun 22 June - no swim (I think)

Mon 23 June - 6k easy w/ lots of drills

Tue 24 June - masters workout... 3500 yards... one hour

Wed 25 June - no swim

Thu 26 June - no swim

Fri 27 June - no swim

Sat 28 June - no swim... some aqua-jogging in Lake Washington w/ Ben

Sun 29 June - 2k easy w/ some drills

Mon 30 June - no swim

Tue 1 July - masters workout at Pro Club. 3k yards. one hour.
warm-up: 400 swim, 200 kick, 200 pull
5x100 @ 1:30, <= 1:10 (67 66 65 65 66)
300 cruz pull
5x100 @ 1:30, <=1:05 (63 63 65 65 65)
300 cruz pull
3x100 @ 2:00 <=1:03 (64 63 63)
cool down

Wed 2 July - AM swim at Pro Club w Dave. 2 hours. 8000 yards
warm-up 1000
10x100 @ 1:45 as kick/swim by 50
5x200 swim @ 2:20 (2:13 15 15 15 15)
300 ez @ 4:50
5x200 swim @ 2:20 (2:15 16 17 18 18)
300 ez @ 4:50
5x200 pull @ 2:20 (2:15 17 16 18 20)
300 ez @ 4:50
8x200 pull @ 2:45 as 50fr - 100bk - 50fr
500 cool down

hello, summer. goodbye, Wednesdays...

2008-06-18T16:26:00Z

I learned this morning that today will likely be our last Wednesday morning outdoor workout for quite awhile -- the youth team at Samena uses the pool during the summer during our normal swim hours. I'll miss workouts like today's...

Last night. Tue 17 June: masters swim at pro club -- 4000 yards, ~1hr
warm-up: 800 as 75 swim / 25 drill
8x50 K @ 1
4x400 neg split @ 5:30 (2:20+2:15, 2:18+2:13, 2:19+2:13, 2:18+2:13)
ez 100
4x200 neg split @ 2:40 (1:09+1:07, 1:09+1:08, 1:10+1:08, 1:10+1:08)
cool down

This morning. Wed 18 June: Samena w/ Dave and Alan -- 8000 yards, ~2hrs
warm-up: 1000
4x1650 @ 22:00 as ...
swim ez (19:50)
swim hard (19:30)
fins (18:10)
paddles & buoy (20:xx... kaboom!)
cool down

I seem to be exploding regularly in the pool. Not a good sign. Then again, my explosions have been more "meh, I'm mostly cooked so I'll back off a bit for the last rep" than total game-overs... so maybe the situation isn't quite that bad...

ups and downs, strikes and gutters

2008-06-17T22:01:00Z

Mon 9 June & Tue 10 June:
HealthVault Solutions Conference
no workouts of any type

Thu 12 June: AM solo swim
warm-up
main set: 10x50 @ :50 averaging :30
drills & cool-down

Thu 12 June: PM masters swim
warm-up
4x25 fly @ :25
200 free @ 2:40
6x25 fly @ :25
2x200 free @ 2:40
8x25 fly @ :25
3x200 free @ 2:40
10x25 fly @ :25
4x200 free @ 2:40
cool down

Sun 15 June: test set at Pro Club. I suppose it is possible to fail these things.
long warm-up: 400 swim, 400 kick, 400 pull, 2x4x50 descend w/ 100 ez after each set (35-34-33-32, 31-31-31-31)
test set, part one: 8x100 @ 10sec rest - 64 65 66 65 66 65 66 66. Not bad, considering I didn't feel great.
10 min ez swim (600 yards)
test set, part two: 4x200 @ 20sec rest - 2:15, 2:15, 2:16, 2:17. Kaboom!!
4x50 drill
100 ez
Go home and take a nap.

For whatever reason (stress at work, recent illness & injury, sleep deprivation, ???) the body just didn't have it so I replaced my hard bike interval workout with a steady-state nap workout on Sunday. C'est la vie -- you can't force it if it just ain't there.

getting past the distractions

2008-06-12T04:31:00Z

As I mentioned in my other blog, it's been a busy couple of weeks with the HealthVault conference and Alcatraz and getting over my cold and my IT band issue... but I did get in a few good swims before I left for Alcatraz.

Sun June 1: solo swim at pro club.
3500 yards. 65 minutes.
main set: 2x10x50 @ 1:00 targeting :29 ...

Mon June 2: solo swim at pro club
technique day
3500 yards. 60 minutes

Tue June 3: masters swim at pro club
2900 yards. 50 minutes. (a bit late leaving work)

Thu June 5: solo swim at pro club
3000 yards. 60 minutes.
5x200 @ 3:00 "build to comfortably fast" -- 2:18 --> 2:14 w/ a good feel for the water

Sat June 7: open-water swim at Aquatic Park with Mess, Haven and Matt Greene
I felt quite good in the water that day.

Sun June 8: Escape from Alcatraz
I was about 90 second down on Potts, versus 2 minutes last year. Looking through the results, most of the guys who exited the water ahead of me are known as being pretty good swimmers.

not an illusion

2008-05-31T23:49:00Z

my lack of posts for the last 10 days hasn't been blogging laziness - it's been swimming laziness. I've been trying to fight off this sinusitis that I picked up in Seoul so I've been out of the pool a bit. But here are the days in Korea that I hadn't logged yet:

Sat 24 May: day-before-race swim in Han River. a few run-outs/dive-ins

Sun 25 May: Seoul ITU race plus warm-up & cool-down (w/ the mayor!)

Mon 26 May: workout in Yeouido Pool w/ some Americans and Aussies
about 3000 yards; 45 minutes

dial "D" for Distance

2008-05-22T03:24:00Z

Wed 21 May 08: at Samena with Dave. 2 hours. 8100 yards.
warm-up: 1000
10x200 @ 2:40 light descend 1-->5 and 6-->10. (~2:25-->2:18)
ez 300
3x1000 Pull @ 12:00 steady (about 11:40, 11:38, 11:35. Dave descends everything.)
ez 300
8x100 as 75 free + 25 fly, rotating the fly
ez 700

I didn't feel all that great through the first 3000 but I sort of hit my groove early in the pull set.

tuesday night

2008-05-21T04:18:00Z

I was a bit fatigued for this one as it came right after a tough bike ride. But here goes...

Tue 20 May: masters workout at pro club. 3100 yards. 60 minutes.
warm-up: 400 swim, 300 kick, 300 pull
500 for time (I went 5:35, Dave went 5:20)
ez 300 back
5x100 @ 4:00 w/ zoomers (59, 58.4, 57.2, 57.2, 55-high)
cool down