Week 6 - Wednesday Swim and Weights

Almost did it again, almost let the seductive ways of the snooze button lure me back to bed. Gave myself a little pep talk and reassured the fact that I would appreciate the workout once it was done.

Swim: 2000 yards
WU: 200 swim, 200 pull, 100 kick
MS: 1200 yard swim
CD: 200 pull, 100 kick

Weights
5 rounds of 5 thrusters (95#), 30 soccer toe taps, core
3 rounds of 10 hang cleans, 10 walking lunges with medicine ball twist.
Finished up with multiple varieties of box jumps and plyo push ups.

Week 4 - Friday Swim

Woke up tired this morning, did not want to get out of bed, but I slept in yesterday (and had to do my workout last night, hence why I was tired) so I got my lazy butt out of bed. I so much rather enjoy working out in the morning as opposed to evenings but I really like to sleep in as well, such a dilemma... oh well enough about my "first world" problems.

Hit the pool this morning with the intention of doing my long swim that I passed on Wednesday, did the standard 600 yard warm up then swam 800 yards straight through. Felt really good in the water after I got warmed up, I was swimming next to one of the regular early morning swimmers, Jerry, nice guy but man he creates a heck of a wake for such a skinny dude. Good simulation for rough water swimming, best you'll get in a pool I suppose, every time I share a lane with him I swear I end up drinking half the pool.

Afterwards headed up stairs for some weights, dead lifts were on the menu this morning. I think I'm going to just stick with the basics of power lifting moves like squats, dead lifts and power cleans, picking one of those to start my workout and then doing circuits of body weight exercise like push ups, burpees, pull ups, box jumps and my current favorite piece of equipment in the gym the rowing machine. I can piece together one heck of a workout with just those exercises that leaves my whole body hurting.

Today I did 5 sets of Dead lifts (135, 185(3), 135) each followed by 10 burpees, 25 crunches, and 6 pull ups. Then did 2 sets of 750m row with box jumps, lots and lots of box jumps, followed by more box jumps. Pretty sure my calves are going to be sore tomorrow from all the box jumps, good thing my long run tomorrow is only 10ish miles, going to try and meet up with Jay at Sunderbrook to run trails, never run there before should be interesting.

Until next time...Do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.

Week 4 - Wednesday

I have been in a funk that past few days, I think it's mostly due to 3 hard weeks of training and the chilly weather. Being a summer baby I have never enjoyed winter that much, so needless to say I wasn't super motivated to swim this morning. Good news was I was inside and the water was warm. I had a plan to just do my warm up and then swim 1000 yards straight through but after my warm up I changed it up. I ended doing 4x50 hard then 200 swim, 100 kick, 200 swim and 4x50 (25 underwater kick, 25 swim w/fins).

Afterwards headed upstairs to lift, did. 4 sets of squats 10 reps @ 135, 8 @ 155, 6 @ 175, 4 @ 185 each set followed by pull ups, push ups and crunches. Then did 4 rounds of 500m row, 10 box jumps, 10 burpees, 10 mason twists with weight.

Had to drive to Des Moines today and while driving along I-80 I was scanning through channels when I came across the song Jack and Diane. I've never really paid much attention to the lyrics but the chorus stuck out, "Oh yeah, life goes on, even after the thrill of living has gone..." talking about the thrill and excitement of life when you are young and vibrant and full of enthusiasm but after thats faded the rest of your life is still there. Got me thinking, why do the best years have to be behind me? When I was in high school or college? I think the key ti enjoying life is by constantly searching for that next "thrill". It doesn't have to be wild and crazy stuff, heck as any parent knows watching your kids grow up in front of your eyes can be a fearful and thrilling thing. I try to live by a philosophy of being happy in my current circumstances and not waiting for the next "thrill" to bring me happiness, I've found when I am able to accomplish that then I really enjoy the present moment no matter what is going on in my life.

Until next time ... Do today what other's won't, so tomorrow you can do what other's can't.

Week 2 - Friday Swim

Ended up getting another 45 minutes in on the bike last night along with some jump ropes and core, actually felt really good afterwards. Then hung out with my boys and watched Dual Survival, easily one of our favorite shows that and Gator Boys.

Woke up this morning a little tired but convinced myself to get up and get going.

Swim work out today was the following

WU: 200 each of swim, kick, pull
MS: 4x200 swim with 20 sec rest
CD: 400 mix

Swimming is starting to come back, getting comfortable in the pool again. Afterwards got a great workout in, 8 rounds of 500m rows followed by 10 burpees on the odds and 10 box jumps on the evens. Thia work out kicked my butt and had me sweating profusely by the end.

Until next time... Do today what other's won't, so tomorrow you can do what other's can't.

Week 1 - Friday Swim

Over slept this morning, would have been so easy to just say screw it and keep sleeping but I made myself get up and get ready to go to the gym. While checking Facebook found the attached picture thought it was appropriate for today.

Swim workout went as follows
WU: 200 swim, 100 kick, 100 pull
MS: 800 continuous swim
CD: 100 kick, 100 swim w/fins, 2x25 underwater kick w/swim back.

Lifted weights afterwards, hang cleans, pull ups, push ups, upright row, 3/4 dead lifts, shoulder shrugs.

Glad to have overcome the hurdle of over sleeping and still get in a good workout.

Until next time... Do today what other's won't, so tomorrow you can do what other's can't.

Week 1 - Wednesday

Woohoo! I actually made it to the Y for my swim workout today, first time in almost a month.

WU: 200 swim, 200 kick, 100 pull

MS: 4x(4x50 on the minute) with 1 minute rest between sets. The actual work called for 16x50 but my swimming endurance just isn't there yet so I broke it up in 4 sets. I was completing these in roughly 45 sec which is not far off from where I was last summer.

CD: 100 kick 100 swim w/fins

Afterwards I headed upstairs to lift weights. 1000 m row, squats, pull ups, push ups, lunges, dips, box jumps and finished it off with bench press and crunches.

Another day in the books, tonight I might get a half hour in the bike and definitely need yo do my stretching routine.

Until next time... do today what other's won't, so tomorrow you can do what other's can't.

Woke up tired...

After a long but very fun weekend visiting with old friends I was really tired this morning when i finally got out of bed and head to the Y for a swim.

Warm up
400 swim, 200 kick, 200 pull

Main set
8x50 first one was in 50 sec the rest between 42-45
500 yd swim easy 8:46
100 kick
2x250 forgot my times for these
500 swim was actually going to skip this and start my cool down but once I got going I decided to just do it and I'm glad I did, I hate cutting stuff out of my swim workouts.

Cool down
200 kick

Afterwards I went upstairs to lift but just did not have the energy or desire to do a hard workout, I ended up doing some bench presses and core work and cut it at 15 minutes. I'm going to run on the treadmill tonight after work since racing Wednesday morning so I'll lift tomorrow or Thursday instead.

Until next time...

Do today what others won't; so tomorrow you can do what others can't.

Wednesday - Biggest Swim of the Year

As the title of this post says today was my biggest swim of the year. The training plan I have been following has 2 workouts totaling 2500 yards and I have done each of those a couple times so I've been looking for a bigger workout to push myself and in the interest of full disclosure I totally ripped this workout from someone else's blog post (Thanks Aaron you just became my unofficial swim coach) and made a couple of minor adjustments. Here's what I ended up doing this morning:

Warm up - 500 yards
200 swim, 200 kick, 100 pull

Main Set - 2200 yards
8x50 swim with 10 sec RI
100 kick
5x100 swim with 15 sec RI
100 kick
2x250 swim
100 kick
500 swim

Cool down - 100 kick

2800 yards total

I was tired this morning when I entered the water, I woke up a little late and rushed out of the house to get to the pool so I really "woke up" during my warm up. I felt pretty good during the 50's and 100's but half way through the first 250 I started doubting whether I was going to make it all the way through another 250 and then a 500 yard swim. I put the 100 kicks in between each set to kind of give me a chance to rest my mind for the work to come and give my arms a little break so after the second 250 and 100 kick I decided I would just tackle the 500 yard swim one lap at a time. I was pretty tired going into it and I figured I would probably just get another 200 yards and then call it quits, it would have still been a good workout and I was okay with it. I think that may have been just what I needed to get me through the final 500 yards, once I had come to grips with being okay with quitting if I needed to I was able to push myself through. The funny thing was I ended up swimming very relaxed and once I got 300 yards down I knew I was going to finish. I was very, very happy with this workout and awfully pleased with myself for completing.

Afterwards I got changed and headed upstairs to lift weights. I was running short on time after such a long swim workout so I was only able to get my squats and leg press in, but it was still a good leg workout.

My youngest son is home sick today so I got an unexpected day off from work which was perfect timing, I actually took a short nap this morning before taking him to the doctor and may just get another this afternoon. On deck for tonight is an easy run then a tempo effort tomorrow morning.


Until next time...Do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.

Hitting a wall and finding a way around it

Woke up late this morning which didn't start my day on the right note. Felt like crap in the pool today, made it through my warm up but just felt sore, tired and out of sync, really hit a mental wall half way through my main set and had to take a minute to collect myself. Decided to just finish up the set I was on, cut the rest of the swim short and move on to my weight lifting. After wards I had a revelation that really put things into perspective, even though I had a crappy training session in the pool and cut my workout short I still put in double the distance of any of the races I'm currently signed up for and if it were running and I was training for a 10k and I had just put in 12 miles I would be perfectly happy with that. That thought really put the whole thing into a new light for me.

Finished up the morning with a good weight lifting session focusing on chest, shoulders and back.

This evening I got 24 miles in on the trainer, even though my stomach was hurting before hand, seems to be feeling better now. I think the over indulgence of fried, greasy nasty food yesterday came back to haunt me.

Today started off bad but turned around and ended up pretty good, kept a good positive mental attitude towards things and that helped keep things from spiraling out of control.

Until next time...Do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.

Training Week #9 - Tuesday Long Swim

Woke up feeling tired after my day yesterday, I rode 25 miles on my trainer last night before bed. Headed out to the Y for my weekly long swim, the schedule called for 2000 yds, but I knew going into it that I was going to push for 2250 with some extra laps on my warm up working on form. This is the workout I ended up doing.

Warm Up - 500 yards
200 Swim
200 Kick
100 Pull

Main Set - 1500 yards
500 Swim
400 Pull
300 Kick
200 Swim
100 Pull

Cool Down - 250 yards
150 Kick
100 Swim Easy

I started out slow but once I got threw the warm up I was ready to tackle the 500 yard swim. This would represent the longest continuous swim I have done to date and I was concerned I wouldn't be able to complete it with out having to stop. I used a trick I've often relied on when running long miles, I counted down the percentage completed as I ticked off the laps, 10%, 20% etc. and just focused on that. I like counting the percentage cause it forces you to forget about the actual distance or what you have left to complete, but keeps you focused on the positive of what you have already done. Another thing that was on the forefront of my mind was a recent blog post from Jeff Paul talking about fighting for one more round and pushing through those mental and physical hurdles you go through during training. Having just read this yesterday it really helped me mentally tackle this workout today and push to my highest swim total to date.

On deck for tonight a nice easy run and then a rest day tomorrow, thanks for reading...


Until next time...Do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.

Training Week #9 - Monday Morning

I ended up skipping my bike ride yesterday, I was up way to late watching UFC fights over at a buddy's house on Saturday and did not feel like getting out of bed at 5 am, I elected for 2 more hours of sleep and figured I would try and get in the ride later that afternoon, I didn't and frankly I don't care. My cousin and his kids were in town so me and the boys met them over at their hotel to swim which was fun, my boys love to swim and the opportunities for swimming in the winter are few and far between.

Woke up bright and early for my workout this morning feeling fresh and ready to go, which is rare for a Monday, but resting yesterday really helped that out. I got dressed and headed out the door for a quick run with the dog before heading to the Y for a swim. My GPS would not pick up a satellite, which normally frustrates me since I am such a stickler for the details but I was running the exact same route as last Monday so I knew it would be 3.25 spot on so just headed out after waiting a couple minutes. The run was okay, legs felt tired which was odd since I didn't ride yesterday and had a pretty easy week. My left knee did flare up, just a bit about half way through, I've noticed I always seem to have a flare up if I recently run on the treadmill which I did on Saturday. I know I change my form when I run on the TM so I'm guessing there might be a correlation there.

After I finished up the run I grabbed my swim bag and headed to the pool. 6am is the perfect time to get to the pool at the Y, it is dead. I made the decision last week to switch up my run and swim this week and I'm glad I did. I didn't have to share a lane and was able to really get in a groove swimming. My goal today was 1500 yds, but was able to knock out 1800 by adding in a drill set after my warm up and before my main set of 8x100's. Swimming 100 repeats is one of those workouts that can be described as love/hate. I love doing them because they go by quickly but I hate them because they are brutally tough and by the last one, I'm gasping for air. Finished up with a cool down set of kicks and swim. I am really starting to feel a difference in the water, especially now that I'm working on some form drills. was considerably faster during my 100's today then I have been in the past.

Thinking about finding a triathlon to enter sooner than the QC Tri, would like to maybe get 1 or 2 in before then, if anyone has any suggestions on good sprint distance or even Olympic distance close (within a couple hour drive) to the QC Area let me know. Also thinking I might go ahead and sign up for a 70.3, if I don't sign up I will chicken out or find some excuse as to why I can't. Some friends were aiming for Branson in September but that is the same day as the QC Marathon and I want to run that, know some people doing Racine in July and that may be a possibility still 4.5 months away so should give me plenty of time to train.

Until next time...Do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.