Goodbye Childhood

Well, yesterday the news was just shocking, and today I'm saying goodbye to a big part of my childhood: Michael Jackson. I can't get enough of the stories about what people of our generation remember from their adolescence related to MJ, so leave a story if you still have energy after that brutal fin workout this morning, please.

*warmup: 500 straight: 5 free, one kick, 4 free, one kick, 3 free, one kick, 2 free, one kick, and of course one and one.

add fins for:

*200 done as 50 dolphin on back, 50 flutter on back rotating
*100 strong free
*50 floaty backstroke (unless you are behind Lanshin, when nothing with fins is "floaty")
repeat 3x

*200 done as 50 kick with head out of water, 50 kick on side, 50 arms out of water, 50 kick on side
*100 easy breaststroke with dolphin kick
*50 strong butterfly
repeat 3x

RELAYS!

Back from the South

Just back from Hilton Head and boy does it feel good to get in cool water again. This is the gorgeous pool I swim in there, and I LOVE it more than anything, but I always feel pretty fast when I return from 84 degree water to home.

Yesterday's workout:

*warmup: 4 x 175's with one length stroke

*100 kick scull in IM order, 4 x 25's fly, 200 strong free
*100 kick scull in IM order, 4 x 25's back, 200 strong IM
*100 kick scull in IM order, 4 x 25's breast, 200 strong free
*100 kick scull in IM order, 4 x 25's free, 200 strong IM

*2 x 100's free strong, 100 IM relaxed
*2 x 100's free relaxed, 100 IM strong

Two GREAT workouts

Today and yesterday: good solid mid to long distance freestyle. And boy did I need it. It's been a stressful few days, culminating yesterday with real live hate mail in my physical mailbox that claimed my writing is mean-spirited and an egregious display of bragging about my children (at least they didn't mention swimming - THAT would have made me upset). It was anonymous of course, but signed "Tired of Mean People". It made me feel sick and dirty to get it - no one likes to be told that they are making others feel bad, and I'm shocked to hear that I have, though I know that is the danger of this blogging thing. Yuck. I would also like to say to the author of that letter though that I, too, am tired of mean people. What I do with mean people is, I swim them out of my system:

Today:

*warmup: 400 free, 4 x 75's free descending

add paddles for:
*2 x 100's then a 500 free
*2 x 100's then a 400 free
*2 x 100's then a 300 free
*4 x 200's free with descending interval

Yesterday:

*warmup: oops, can't remember. something like today's warmup :)

*5 x 400's with varying focus:
100 fast, rest smooth
25 fast, 75 smooth repeating
50 fast, 50 smooth repeating
last 200 fast
whole 400 fast, med or easy depending on what you've got "in the tank"

TGIF, but not TGIF

Yup, Thank God It's Friday. But no part of me this morning was thinking Thank God It's Fins. Still, fins it was.

*warmup: 6 x 125 free with last length dolphin kick

add fins for:

*50 fly with only three strokes per length, 100 fast kick, 50 dolphin kick, 100 fast swim
repeat three times

*100 (3 underwater dolphin kicks), 50 back with dolphin kick, 100 (4 UW dolphin kicks), 50 back with dolphin kick, 100 (5 UW dolphin kicks)
repeat twice

*2 x 25's sprint, 50 recovery
repeat four times

Paddle Danger

It didn't really dawn on me why I never feel nervous about open water swim starts, until my BFF commented on how crowded she feels during them - being used, as she is, to swimming alone. WELL, frankly? I've found that swimming during morning workout with 5-8 people per lane during a long pull set is wayyyyyy more dangerous than open water swim starts, and it explains why I don't feel out of my comfort zone at all when doing them.

This morning some lame lane one person (totally kidding - I'm sure it was my fault, I'm just speed-jealous), cracked the back of my hand perfectly atop a vein where there ain't much skin or blubber to cushion the blow, with the slicing edge of their paddle. It hurt enough for me to throw the F bomb underwater (anyone hear it?) and by the time I had retrieved my paddle and got to the side I already had a half a golf ball sized lump.

"Holy Guacamole!" Dr. Lanshin said as she pulled in to finish the swim.

"Now THAT'S not what you want to hear from a doctor" said Tim.

"Well, will I die?" I said.

"No" Tim said. "Spit on it and keep swimming."

So I did, but let's just say I'm having trouble typing this. Here's what we swam:

*warmup: 15 minute straight swim (as far as I could tell)

add paddles for:

*400, 200
*400, 200, 2 x 150's
*400, 200, 2 x 150's, 3 x 100's

some sort of warm down I skipped to ice my hand.