TIME TO REFOCUS 4/2/07 - 4/8/07

After Sunday's great swims, I decided to take two days off to recover and refocus for IGLA in Paris. IGLA stands for International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics. Each year some country/state hosts the meet. This will be my 4th time attending it, as I went to Ft Lauderdale in 2004, Atlanta in 2005, Chicago (also Gay Games) in 2006 and now Paris, France in 2007. We leave for Europe on Sunday, May 20th and the competition is Thurs through Sunday of that week. I am almost certain what I am going to swim, but will decide most likely within the next week and register.

WEDNESDAY - SCM

Today was my first day back. Its amazing how just taking two days off can really be felt. Here was the workout:

500 w/u
200 KRLS
4 x 400s
as following:
1) 2 X 200s, first one 200 IM, second one 200 free
2) 4 X 100s, all free
3) 2 X 200s, all free
4) 4 X 100s, last one 100 IM
10 X 50s kick
100 cool down
Total - 2,900 meters

I really don't remember much time wise but it was ok for getting back into it.

THURSDAY - SPIN THEN LCM

Luckily I was able to get out of work in a timely manner, and make it to spin class at 5:30. Spinning always make me feel good, but sometimes I wonder why some do it. These two girls in front of Kurt and I were more just biking, not spinning. There's a difference. They never once changed their gears to get more tension and make it harder and hardly ever followed instructions. You might as well just go out of the room and bike on your own. But oh well, not my problem. There was also this one guy who I guess seems to have a crush on me. Kurt told me about him before and I thought it was just cute. So he walks over today and introduces himself to me and all I can think is "Who the hell wears colored contacts anymore?" The guy didn't wear them before and now he is. They look freaky. I mean come on. Who would believe they are real. Maybe that isn't the effect he is going for, but colored contacts look too fake to me. Kurt thought he looked like the devil. The weirdest angle is a side view.

Spinning was great and as always sweat came pouring out of me. I think I at least burned enough calories for one slice of pizza I had last night. Mmmmmmmmmm pizza. My weakness. I think I have pizza almost once a week, or at least 3 times a month. Therefore spinning and cardio are needed for me. After talking to Kurt after workout tonight, I am going to start working my core for the next month or so before I begin tapering down for IGLA. From what I have read and heard, working your core is very important and something I don't really focus on. Kurt is my hero for his discipline with all this, so I can only hope I am 1/2 as dedicated to these things as he is.

Here was my swimming workout LCM:

500 w/u
4 X 200s KRLS (1 of each stroke)
Main Set:
20 X 100s (alternating IM and Free) all on 2:00
(odds IM ascend.....start as fast as you can go, and get slightly slower until the end)
(evens free descend.....start slow and then get faster until the end)
100 cool down
Total - 3,400 meters

When the main set started, "Pussy Brian" wanted to overpower my brain. He started telling "Kick Ass Brian" that its ok to back off and get out early since I am just getting back into it. After #2 or #3 he thought he was going to win the debate, but then "KAB" stepped it up and realized this set could be good. My IMs started at 1:17 (1:07 SCY) and added 1 to 2 seconds for the odd 100s (all IM). Ken was right with me on the first one, and I thought the 1:17 wasn't too fast, but after converting it, I'm happy with it. The second 100 IM I decided even though I was backing off in effort as instructed, that I would add some legs to my ending freestyle for the first 3 or 4 of them. This helped me in distancing myself just a little bit from Ken. For the freestyle 100s, Ken and I were pretty much side by side for all but the last one. We started around 1:30s (1:17 SCY) and basically dropped about 2 to 3 seconds for each 100. At the halfway point we were at 1:22(1:10 SCY) and then I decided our times for the last 5 should be 1:21, 1:19, 1:17, 1:14 and 1:11. Ken was right next to me on the the #6 through #9 as we went 1:20(1:09), 1:18 (1:07), 1:15(1:04+) and 1:13(1:03). My forearms were hurting from either typing at work or swimming, but I wanted to put in a good last 100. I took the first 100 out fast with no legs and brought it back home with a strong kick to go 1:09 (0:59).

This was a great workout and I am glad "KAB" overpowered "PB" and stayed in the workout.

I want to give a shout out though to Kurt who was the star of the practice. He stepped it up on the freestyles and descended all the way down to 1:12. I was really impressed with him and I hope keeps it up. Way to go Kurt. He has told me he wants to start blogging, so maybe this will be motivation to get him going!

FRIDAY - LCM

Damn kids. Damn damn damn. One of them pooped in the pool. Pool was closed. They tried to be nice as they were pumping in chlorine stating that we could swim on one side of the pool. Um no thanks.

SATURDAY - SCM

600 w/u
5 X 300s (last 2 pull) on 4:00
100 EZ
2 X 400 IM
4 X 100s kick
4 X 200s (descend) on 3:00
100 cool down
Total - 4,300 meters

Good workout. Long and hard. The 300s were tough right off the bat. I was averaging about 1:17s(1:09s) per 100 in the beginning and it felt ok. I think I was down to 1:15s(1:07) on #3. The last two I pulled which made it easier. The last one I busted out a 3:38 which was good since I didn't push it too hard.

The 400 IMs were fun. Wavy but fun. #1 I swam a 5:45(5:09) and #2 I think I swam 5:37(5:01). I think those times are ok. I didn't push any of the strokes too much and definitely didn't do much going home on free.

The 200s I ended up descending. 2:40(2:23), 2:37(2:20), 2:33(2:17), 2:30(2:14). I think those were my times. I'm not sure. I was tired though.

SUNDAY SCM

Easter Sunday. Double workout for me. Swim and then directly to spinning.

500 w/u
16 X 75s on 1:05
500 social kick
8 X 50s under/over
3 X 200s (breathing 3/5/7/5)
100 cool down
Total - 3300 meters

I thought the workout was 3500 or 3600 but oh well. No worries. The 75s were tough and I had trouble going. I ranged about :57s to 1:00s on each of them but since the clocks were slightly off on each end, it was truly hard to gage what my times were.