Glorious swim ... glorious day

Got up this morning and the weather was beautiful outside. I was able to wear shorts and flip-flops to the gym for the first time this year. Hopped in the pool to squeeze in as many yards as I could manage in the one-hour lap swim time window.

Here's what I did.

Warm up
150 free
Core
2,500 free
Cool down
100 breast

It was the longest swim I've done since changing my breathing patterns. After I hit about 1,200 yards, I felt like I couldn't stop, so I kept on going even after I hit one mile, which was my overall goal for the day. With only a couple of minutes remaining, I stopped at 2,500 and did some quick breaststroke to cool down before they kicked me out. I feel great, my shoulder is getting much better and I'm looking forward to swimming next week.

Total distance: 2,750 yards

Feels great to be in the zone again

Kelly joined me for another swim today and it was a goodie. I wanted to see how far I could go with the bilateral breathing, so I just went for it. I was tired for the first few hundred yards, but then got into a rhythm and it felt like I could go forever. After I hit 1,200 yards, I noticed Kelly finally had an open lane to himself next to me (he waited for one while doing sprint runs in the shallow end), so I decided to stop and do some sets with him. I was feeling like I could keep cruising for a long time, but I didn't want to press my luck with my shoulder, so I was pretty happy with that result. I'll try and increase it again here in the next couple of swims.

Icing the shoulder in my office after today's swim

Here's what I ended up doing

Warm up
150 free
Core
1,200 free
10 x 100 free sprints on 2:00
Cool down
150 breast

Total distance: 2,500 yards

2,000 yards in 40 minutes

I missed out on my swim yesterday, because I slept in. I couldn't sleep the night before and was wrecked the next day, so I decided to delay my swim until today. I'm glad I did. I felt fresh and I hit the pool without doing something else first, which gave me that much more of a boost in the water.

Here's what I did.

Warm up
100 free
Core
4 X 400 alternating 150 free and 50 breast (30 seconds rest between)
4 X 50 free sprints (on the 1:00)
Cool down
100 breast

I increased my bilateral breathing sets by 50 yards. I'll do the same for a few more swims before bumping it up to 200 yards before switching to the 50 breast set. The shoulder is sore, as usual, but I'm tired of pampering the damn thing if it's just going to be sore all the time even if I'm not swimming. I think I'm going to try one more swim tomorrow, this one a little shorter.

Total distance: 2,000 yards swimming

February swim Round 3

With a recent bout of knee pain from my run on Monday, my mind was off my shoulder and I was glad to get in the water today for my weekly swim. As usual, I did some cycling first, so I could get a complete cardiovascular workout and then I hobbled down the stairs to the pool. Here's today's swim.

My two best friends for short swims

Warm up
100 free
Core
5 X 300 alternating 100 free, 50 breast (30 seconds rest between sets)
50 fly (Barely managed it. Haha)
Cool down
100 breast

So far, my injury hasn't been hurting during my swims, but I'm still having a difficult time, because I'm simply out of shape. Missing so much time in the pool has set me back to square one and teaching myself to bilateral breath when I swim has been a challenge. I seriously saps my energy twice as fast compared to the way I used to swim. I used to be able to go thousands of yards without stopping and now I am gassed after 100 yards of bilateral breathing. And I still have to start incorporating flip turns. Ugh...

After one more session of doing my sets with legs of 100 free, I'm going to try doing 150 free followed by the 50 breast for a few weeks and then slowly increase the legs. The same goes for the number of swims I'm doing. For February it was once a week and for March it will be twice a week. I'd like to be back to my normal three times per week by April. Hopefully, I can get myself back into good enough swim-shape to be ready for the GSL one-miler in June.

Total distance: 13.2 miles cycling, 1,750 yards swimming