HIGH SCHOOL ALUMNI (3/19/07 - 3/25/07)

This Saturday my high school is having an alumni swim meet. They had one last year, and I heard it was fun. The coach doesn't seem to be promoting it too much, nor is he very responsive to e-mails. But oh well. My old friend Adina will be at the meet, and I have convinced her to get in the water and start swimming again for the meet. I think its an added bonus, since we are all getting older and need any motivation to continue with exercise. I don't want to be one of those eldery people that are not active, so to continue with some sort of exercise is great. I'm excited to see her again. Also, I found a girl who was one of my big sisters from swimming, Heather Merten (now Cowden). She currently lives in Wyoming or somewhere in that area, is married with a boy approaching 10 years old a new baby girl. Ironically she was heading out to San Diego to visit an old friend this week and leaving two days before the meet. Now she has decided to prolong her visit to see me, Adina, anyone else and swim in the meet. Therefore even if no one else shows up from our time, seeing these two girls will make it worth it. Good thing I have been swimming so I won't look too bad.

MONDAY SCM 60 mins

Boy it was hard to get going. Our workout started with a 300 swim and 200 breast kick. We were all laughing that our bodies were not coordinated enough at 5:30am to do breast kick.

300 swim
200 breast kick
6 X 50s breast 1:00

Main Set Pulling:
8 X 100s on 1:30
3 X 200s on 2:50
400 faster than 5:30

6 X 50s breast 1:10
200 cool down
Total - 3,100 meters

As I said, my body wasn't ready for breaststroke. The main set of pulling helped me get going. The 100s I couldn't really get going and only ranged from 1:12s to 1:14s (1:04-1:07 yards). The 200s I started finally going good and went 2:22,2:23,2:24 (2:07-2:09 SCY). The 400 was probably my best (at least for the first 200). I went out around 2:22 and finished at 4:48. I almost lost my pull buoy, so I think along with fatigue was the reason for my slowing down. Oddly enough, I didn't feel like I was slowing down and thought I was going to come in on 4:45. I think it was my third 100 that was off.

The workout was just what I needed to get me going. Now I should get back to work and eat my Kashi Go Lean cereal!!

WEDNESDAY SCM

Morning workouts are tough! First off there of course is the problem of having to get up at 4:55am. That alone is a task. Since I normally don't wake up until 6:10, its a change. I do try and go to bed at least 30 mins earlier than normal and most of the time, am successful. Then of course its telling my body its time to work hard in the water. I'm beginning to see that I need about 20-25 minutes AT LEAST before that can really happen. Now this doesn't mean I am not working hard and doing the sets, but I really get going 30 minutes into it. Here was todays:

4 X 125s - 100 swim / 25 kick - warm up
8 X 50s - First 25 fly, 2nd 25 back, breast or free in that order (1:00)
Main Set (1 min rest after each set of 3):
3 X 100s on 1:40 (1:30SCY) - did 1:28s (1:19 SCY)
3 X 100s on 1:35 (1:25SCY) - did 1:25s (1:16 SCY)
3 X 100s on 1:30 (1:20SCY) - did 1:17-1:19s (1:10 SCY)
3 X 100s on 1:25 (1:16SCY) - did 1:18s (1:09 SCY)
3 X 100s on 1:20 (1:11SCY) - did 1:13 - 1:15s (1:06 SCY)
3 X 100s on 1:15 (1:07SCY) - did 1:08, 1:11, 1:14 (1:00, 1:03, 1:06 SCY)
1:00 minute of pushing water with kickboard for Drew's birthday
100 cool down
Total - 2,800 meters

As I stated above, it was hard to get going. The 8 X 50s were rough and to top it off, the pool was wavy with everyone doing fly. For the main set, I chose to take the first 6 to 9 somewhat smooth and just loosen up more, so that by the time the faster ones came along I'd be ready. The ones on 1:20 I started feeling good. I debated about doing the final 3 on 1:15. The set was to see how far you could go, and no one else was going to be able to make the 1:15s. In the end, obviously did it and was happy about it. The 1:08 was really easy as was the 1:11. The 1:14 started to hurt and I knew I just wanted to make sure I came in under 1:15. Had I had more time, I might have been motivated enough to try 1:10. I think had I done it, I probably would have been 1:09/1:10 on every one of them, LOL.

As you can see, I like to convert my times from LCM or SCM into SCY. SCY stands for "short course yards", which is a 25 yard pool. That is the pool length you see most of the times at high schools and what they compete in. I do this for two reasons. One, its to compare with Marc as we are having fun going head to head training. And two, it helps me see where my training is at all times, no matter what pool I am in. I chose SCY as the main distance and convert everything to that.

Finally - A shout out to my awesome boyfriend, Drew, who turns 33 today! Happy Birthday, I love you! We did the "gauntlet" today for his birthday. The "gauntlet" is a fun thing we do as a team for someone's bday. What you do is have everyone grab a kickboard. Then you stand on each side of a lane and make the lane as wavy as possible. Then the birthday swimmer has to swim a 50 fly or further depending on the swimmer. Its fun for everyone and the birthday swimmer literally ends up swimming fly standing still, just going up and down. It makes for a workout for everyone!!

THURSDAY -LCM

Spinning was for an hour. Good times. Sweat a lot. A lot of hills. Good times, good times!

Tonight was breaststroke drill night, so not much swimming got done. Since its now Monday of next week, I am going off memory:

500 w/u
6 x 100s (breast drill down / free back)
Around 8 X 50s doing different drills
Then we worked on more drills and push offs
6 X 100s of something.. then I got out

SATURDAY - SCY

So today was so much fun. Mount Carmel High School was the location. I graduated in 1991 and was looking forward to seeing some old friends. The previous night I had met up with old high school friends Adina Uribe '92, Heather Merten Cowden '89 and Natalie Trost '88. I can't remember Natalie's married name now. We all watched the high school duel meet again RB High and cheered them on, followed by reminiscing about old times back in the day. The next morning, we were all at our old high school ready for the duel meet between odd graduating years and even graduating years. Other old alumni from our time showed up including Damon Blackman '86, Brent Blackman '88, Tim Muprhy '88, and Mark Walters '88. Even our old club coach Neils Jorgensen showed up. It was really fantastic to see everyone and took us back to the old days. The guys from 1988 were seniors when I was a freshman so we recapped those days. Plus we all grew up together on club team so for us, it was more special than a regular high school reunion. We travelled the country and even to Europe together and were a big family. I had run into Tim last year but the others it had been 15 - 20 years. Brent looked the same and as nice as always. He swam great in the 200 free (1:58) and kicked the youngins butts. I did the same in the 100 IM and surprised myself going 1:00.87. I also went 28 a few times in the relay and individually in the 50 back.

I'm still on cloud 9 thinking about the weekend. I will look forward to it again next year, in hopes we can round up more from our time. A few guys didn't show up that I had hoped for, and others we need to find. Heather and Natalie, who live in Idaho and soon to be Alaska, respectfully, by the end of the day had changed their minds from this is fun....to I'm Totally Coming Next Year, and in return made it even more memorable. I hope maybe we can work in a dinner the night of the swimming as well so that we can all do more catching up. I want to thank Dan Peck (head coach of the HS) for organizing this.

SUNDAY - SCM

Well yesterday was fun, but I fell down and possibly broke my toe. Not good. Its all purple. On top of that, I am hosting the board meeting today and therefore can only swim for 45 minutes.

I really don't recall much of the workout (I only swam for 35/40 mins), aside from doing 6 X 100s of 25 fly / 50 back / 25 breast. I averaged around 1:19s I think.