ECT!

There has been more cross-training than swimming this week! Enough with the sludge!! Yesterday I willingly did 4 x 100 kick — largely because my arms failed to listen to my brain when I got into the water. And after an hour of pushing last night, and 40 minutes this morning, I am thinking the call of the hot tub is louder than that of the pool today! However, I will at least have a wee swim, as there is no practice in the morning. And with the amount of ECT this week, even if I back off in the pool, it won't be like I've tapered or anything!

Other than that, my Olympic obsession is pretty much swallowing what might otherwise be free time, so posting will probably continue to be light for a few more days!

More Bits!

I'm all over the map this week! So naturally, this blog is too. So some quick bits today:

♦ from Swimming World a nutritional fixes bit
♦ from a blog Jenny initially sent me to, I bring you some of the most beautiful coyote shots I've seen in a while
♦ if you have a chance to see the wonderful Fiona Reid & Nicola Cavendish in the quiet and thoughtful Mrs. Dexter and Her Daily, please do!
♦ and for the Estee Lauder afficionados, there's a wonderful bonus at Holt's

Tuesday Tidbits ...

♦ There's something fishy about this shoe! But my, isn't it something?

♦ This could be a more realistic selection for a turquoise bag.

♦ Joel, over at the 17thman, tipped me off to this article which has some interesting things to say about swimming and breaststroke in particular. Thanks Joel!

A Fine Way ...

To start the day! Much better than having to Fend Off Interlopers!



As usual, you ought to be able to click for a Bigger Boarder.

He Has a Point ...

The Boarder would just like to point out that if he is Yowling he probably has a Good Reason. After all he doesn't Yowl for the Good of His Health! And if I am questioning whether Someone is Out There on the Territory it is In All Likelihood due to my Inferior Senses. So I stand corrected. There was, in fact, a tom cat Slinking About that I could not see. Also, if I would just come when he First Yowled I would probably know what he was Yowling About at the Get Go! But at least Eventually I Catch On and so it Remains Possible I am Trainable. I have been put on Advance Notice that Super Sunday at the Olympics does NOT TRUMP Territorial Alarm Calls! He'll Focus My Attention Where It Belongs If He Has To Drag Me By My ELBOW!

Not Much, Really ...

It's probably good this isn't shown in in hues of blue! Although I will point out you can currently get a similar style in black at Bluefly. In other online shopping, I am currently stalking these, hoping that there may be another price drop before they sell out in my size ...

I was going to swim at noon today. I really was. Until my eyes did not want to stay open. So it will be a pulley compromise this evening while dinner's in the oven. On the up side, I met Auntie Jeanne and Aunt Anne at the store today — so naturally we had a long conversation about figure skating. And agreed it would be better to do that with our feet up over a pot of tea!

Other than that, I've got nothin'!

Wednesday Miscellany ...

♦ There is light cross-training falling this morning, so that will ensure I get out the front door before heading to the pool this afternoon!

♦ Steve Munatones over at The Water is Open has a positive review of TRISLIDE, an anti-chafing spray.

♦ Over at Masters Swimming Canada you can find some corroboration of what your coach has told you — your fingers should be in a relaxed position, not tightly squeezed together.

♦ I told you my hunt for a cobalt blue or turquoise bag was heading to the wrong price point, right?

Monday Miscellany ...

How exciting and energizing was it to be Canadian last night? It's so hard to quantify! And I really don't think we could find a more deserving person than Alexandre Bilodeau to have brought home a gold medal on home soil.

Right now The Boarder and I have chicken bones simmering — in due time he'll have chicken jello! First of course it will be chicken stock.

In the shiny things file, I bring you this page from Tiffany's — primarily for the rare orchids. They truly are enough to take your breath away. It is possible, that had I unlimited funds, one of these would be my pick!

Well ...

Maybe this doesn't taste as good as it looks — because sweets aren't really on the menu. I also seem to have a bit of a flu bug, which I till take as a sign that I am meant to spend a great deal of time watching Olympics. For those of you celebrating with dinners and bon bons this evening — enjoy! And Happy Chinese New Year!

Weather Report

Yesterday was an Outstanding Sunny Window Day. Feel free to click for a Much Bigger Boarder. Pretty much panther sized, really.

Friday Miscellany ...

♦ You know those days when "ugh" pretty much says it all? Yesterday was one of them. I'm thinking today will be better!
♦ This bit of gear caught my attention while internet time wasting, though. Available right now only in sizes for larger folks than I, but wickedly cool.
♦ My quest for the right blue bag has headed in the wrong direction — occasionally I am finding the right colour but even pricier purses.
♦ On the way to the 750,000 metre mark as of yesterday I was just shy of 681,000.
♦ After a brief flirtation with springlike weather this week, we're back down at -16°C (near zero F), but apparently it feels like -24°C. Neither The Boarder nor I know for sure — no noses out the door yet today! The mercury is to rise on Sunday, bringing with it forecasts of light cross-training.
♦ Last night after practice I went with some swimmer friends to bid adieu to an iron teammate who will be heading to a new job in Waterloo (Ontario) next week. Here's wishing him every success! And a transfer back here in the future.

Off Day!

I was going to reschedule my day off till Friday till I tried to get out of bed this morning. It is now likely to remain today! ;-) Plus the snappy sandals I ordered are expected to be delivered today, and if I stay home I can avoid a trip to pick them up! How's that for an incentive? Some folks might choose to wear fancy tights with them, but being short of leg, I can truly attest that these would not break correctly!

The Olympics are now just hours away — it looks like doping control is set to go. Let's hope the snow is also a go ... it certainly has been an unusual winter so far.

The Boarder reports Developing Sunspots are Promising, but The Orange Cat has been Wandering around His Territory, so he is currently Very Busy Repeatedly Checking the situation from Four Key Windows (one of which requires a sprint upstairs).

Carpe Diem

Hey, I have lats & rhomboids! I also have the keys to practice tonight, so will dash over to Plant this afternoon and hope to coerce those muscles into some fly. And although training is vastly preferable to vacuuming, as The Boarder has retired to my bed this morning, I will seize the opportunity to the Evil Machine around the main floor without terrifying him. But I will leave you with some sparkly things to look at, as Birks introduces a new collection.

Monday Miscellany ...

Sunspot Brushing! Fresh Chicken Jello for Breakfast! Thus far it has been A Good Day for The Boarder. Although he seems unclear on the relationship between spending time scrubbing pots and the likelihood of more Chicken Jello in the future. He felt my time could have been better spent. He has much supervising to do today — it is black box, green box, and garbage day — so he is currently ensconced in the Sunny Window. You should be able to click and truly admire his coat. He rather seems to be moulting.



I am rather fascinated by these watches — I really like the idea that the lotus rotates.

The pool was a busy place last evening, but busy in a good way. People were swimming in the lanes they belonged in, so eight in the fast lane was quite workable. By the end of the evening we were down to two or three, allowing me to get some stroke and kick in. Like a bad penny, I'll be back over there this afternoon!

Sunday Snippets!

Glass slipper anyone? Granted at $7500 a pair, they're certainly a princessy price! Maybe I'll settle for a trip to see the Winterlude ice sculptures!

It's a new week in terms of training. Having (finally) decided on Nationals events last week, the four months ahead are coming into focus. Must. Do. More. Fly. And. I.M. The Nepean meet is three weeks away — I have a slight case of nerves already! It's that long course 100 fly looming on the horizon ...

The Boarder reports that since his chicken bones are thawing it will be a Soup Production Day today! I will go out to buy Provisions this morning, and head over to my Home Away From Home (Plant) for an early evening swim, followed by dinner with a neighbour. He won't be as keen on that, but a little chicken goes a long way in the currying favour department!

Swim Bit!

I'm really beginning to feel like a pool rat!

On the up side, I have 14,100 metres in this week. And I swam my first long course 200 I.M.s today (our set was 4 x 400, 6th person touches 1st goes, as 200 I.M. + 200 free). So I've got that going for me! Whether I can convince myself to do a third pulley session for the week tonight remains unclear.

And now a short PSA on pacing:

I believe the easiest way to get a good feel for pacing and how fast one is actually swimming is to do descending sets. In addition to using the pace clock and taking your time for everything you do! Because that's a given, right?

If the instruction is "descend 1-2" the second repeat should be faster than the first. So if you have a set 20 x 50 on 1:00 descend 1-2, you should be reliably repeating odds slower than evens. Over time you get a feel for how fast you are going. There will be some natural variance, of course. Then you can challenge yourself further with a set in which you are asked to keep your times all at or below a certain benchmark, and longer distance pacing exercises, like the warm-up I did yesterday. If you are unsure about holding your pace over longer distances, you can do a distance swim and check the pace clock every hundred to see if you need to step it up (or slow it down) a bit.

And a brief note about watches. (Triathletes love their watches!) The pace clock works. Try to use it instead of relying on your watch. In competitive swimming and FINA sanctioned open water swimming watches are illegal. Even in warm-up!

Thursday Tidbits ...

♦ Another bag to lust after! The colour is ideal, but my budget unlikely to accommodate it! However, I will continue to stalk it, in case a bargain is to be found.

♦ Two of the three movieteers saw A Single Man last night. Tom Ford's aesthetic certainly did not disappoint, and Colin Firth's performance was wonderful.

♦ KD helped complete another Shoe Relay yesterday, so I am catching up with lifted shoes. This month I hope to order these and get them lifted before Nationals. I am all about air travel in shoes with velcro closures!

♦ At the moment (since September 1, 2008) I am at just under 665,000 metres, so perhaps I will hit the 750,000 mark by Nationals!

The Conversation Continues ...

Shirley continues to bring up excellent points! And hopefully I can continue to address them in a useful way.

Commenting on yesterday's post Shirley said: I appreciate the insights! Of the 3 sports in tris, I find it most difficult to gauge how fast I'm going in the pool. Couple that with the fact that I've never raced anything shorter than a 5K, which is technically still an endurance event, it was hard for me to wrap my head around how one trains to improve by a fraction of a second.

To get faster in the pool technique and intervals are important. The pace clock is your friend — although there are days it feels like the enemy! I'll talk a bit more about developing a feel for pace in another post.

Always trying to improve and maintain form and work the walls properly should be in the forefront of a swimmer's mind. The "train how you race" adage holds true! You never want to ingrain bad habits, because you know when you are racing all out they'll come back to bite you! So in freestyle you finish hard to the wall, arm reaching forward — every time. You don't flip onto your belly early in backstroke because you are tired or the person behind you is catching up as you are likely to be sent to Remedial Turn Lane after a disqualification.

In terms of intervals, you don't always want to swim the same set of repeats, but the same set of repeats can be used as a benchmark over time, or as a stepping stone to build upon. You might do a 20 x 100 or 10 x 100 set on the same interval a few times a year and compare the times you were able to repeat. In each of the past two weeks on my own I did a set of 5 x 100 on 1:50, 3 on 1:45 followed by one hard.

Then last night Coach Duane assigned our lane 12 x 100 (as 25 hard, 75 strong) on 1:45. Had I not been working my way down to that 1:45 interval time I could have found that set really tough. That said, it wasn't easy, but I was quite consistent, which is what you want. That hard first 25 is working towards sprinting. I'll post a real sprint workout when we get to one so you can get a feel for what we do, but in the meantime, here's a link from the Masters Swimming Canada website on a sprint workout led by Martin Levine of Westmount Y Masters.

And now, on a slightly different note, here are my (long course) Nationals events!

Day 1:
♦ 1500 Free
♦ 200 I.M.
♦ 4 x 50 Mixed Free Relay

Day 2:
♦ 50 Fly
♦ 4 x 100 Mixed Medley Relay

Day 3:
♦ 100 Fly
♦ 4 x 50 Womens Medley Relay
♦ 400 I.M.
♦ 4 x 100 Womens Free Relay

Day 4:
♦ 800 Free
♦ 4 x 50 Womens Free Relay
♦ 100 Breast
♦ 4 x 50 Mixed Medley Relay

And yes, I'm already at least a little bit terrified of Day 3!

On Predictions ...

Yesterday Shirley asked: In training can you tell how fast you are going to know whether you are going fast enough to do better next meet?

The answer of course is complicated! You can certainly tell if you are on the right track, and you definitely know if things aren't coming together as you'd like.

Like any athletic season, the swim year is structured and cyclic. Our Canadian masters pool season, September to May, is structured into macro, meso and microcycles building to a peak at Nationals. After weeks of base-building (when you are pretty much guaranteed to swim slowly), intensity starts to build. At the current point in the season the true sprinting in practice hasn't really begun, but intensity is increasing! I am getting close to distance race pace when doing hundred repeats in practice. So relative to sprints, I should be closer to distance best times at this point in the season.

Swimmers (and swim coaches) can appear obsessive about practice times. Every time we hit the wall, we check the clock. So do we know day to day exactly how we (or our swimmers) are swimming? Absolutely.

I have been struggling with faster paced freestyle, so I had a pretty good idea that the hundred free was not going to be top knotch. I didn't know it was going to be that slow! My two focus points have really been increasing fly tolerance and swimming I.M. (a new twist to my season). Bearing in mind that Nationals is long course, and I haven't yet swum a 100 fly long course, let alone a 400 I.M. this is a pretty big change in my training. There will be a limited number of butterflyers available for relays, so that adds another 100 fly and a couple of 50's to my Nationals slate.

Over the next four months, I will continue to work on fly distance and I.M. and overall strength, still not so much on freestyle sprinting. The last mesocycle will be sprintier. So in an ideal world, everything will come together over 4 days at Nationals.

Yet any time you stand on the blocks, things can go right or not so right. You usually know what's within reach, still you can always surprise yourself. Two years ago in the 50 free at Nationals I couldn't believe my eyes looking up at the clock. My training had been spotty after Worlds in Australia, trip back too long, 48 hours after landing I flew to Quebec City so I could help the team relays. I had no expectations at all, and not much in the tank. So to swim a best time in an individual sprint was a real shock!