Tremonte's Swim Blog

Tinley's

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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

test set

I had a good chat with Justin on Thursday evening about setting up for this September's "A" races.  One piece of the plan is a test set every other weekend.  I'll be in Seoul next weekend so I figured I shoudl try and get the first test set in today, as long as my leg felt okay.

Thu 15 May: am swim w Brett at pro club. 3300 yards. 70 minutes.
warm-up: 200 s/k/p
a few sets with Mike -- I don't remember the details at this point.  A mix of swim, pull, stroke...
10x50 breathe control -- 5 breaths, 5, 4, 4, 3, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1.  made it all!

I liked this form of breathe control better than "every N strokes" b/c you can't game it by swimming inefficiently.  On #9 I breathed into the turn but fought all the way back w/out breathing.  On #10 I fought through the turn before breathing instead!

Sun 18 May: solo swim at pro club.
warm-up: 400 swim, 200 kick, 200 pull
4x50 descend @ :45 (33 32 31 30)
100 ez
4x50 desend @ :45 (31 30 29 30)
200 ez
TEST SET: 2x800 broken w/ 10min rest in between
  #1: 8x100 w/ 10sec rest: 62 64 65 64 66 65 66 66.
  #2: 4x200 w/ 20sec rest: 2:11 2:12 2:12 2:13
300 ez
2x4x50 drill/swim by 25
150 ez