Weber State Masters

Today I did my first swim with the Weber State Masters team. I plan on joining their team in the fall, but for the remainder of the summer, I'm going to stick with my swim class workouts.

I let my U.S. Masters Swimming membership expire this year and I was previously registered as "unattached," being that I wasn't affiliated with any particular team. Josh, Chad, Gords and Goody have since started the Salt Lake Open Water team (ironically dubbed SLOW), and in years past I would have definitely been a member with that squad. However, since I now work for Weber State, I swim there regularly and I'm not doing much open water training in the near future, I figured the most appropriate option would be to join the new masters club at my alma mater. I'm excited to train with them regularly and compete in the South Davis Recreation Center meet in November, which I missed out on last year.

Anyway, here is the swim I logged with them this morning.

Warm up
3 x 100 freestyle
2 x 100 your choice (breast)

Main set
6 x 100 freestyle (50 drill, 50 sprint)
1 x 400 IM kick (w/fins)
5 x 100 choice sprint (rest :30)

Cooldown
2 x 200 your choice (free then breast)

Total distance: 2,400 yards swimming

Backstroke day

Let me start off by stating that I love backstroke. I was never allowed to swim it as much as I wanted while on the team in high school, so I relish any opportunity to swim a few 100 yards with it. But, I'm not terribly good at it, and it was obvious with today's swim class.

Pepper gave me some good pointers on my head placement and how to improve my shoulder rotation, but I still struggled a lot. You'd think that because with backstroke being the only stroke with your face out of the water, you'd be able to breathe easier. Wrong! You kick so hard and so furiously, that it wears you out. I practically crawled out of the pool today as we logged a bunch of sets with and without fins, working on our technique. Still not a ton of distance, but more than the past few classes.

Total distance: 1,100 yards swimming

Relay day

This morning's class wasn't particularly grueling, but it was a lot of fun. We divided up into teams for relays. Pepper did our best to separate us into evenly-matched squads and for the most part, it kept things interesting.

We mixed it up with all sorts of different relays, doing various strokes. In the end, we ended up squeezing in about 10 races, so, including my warm up, I didn't rack up much yardage.

Total distance: 500 yards swimming

Competitive streak

Today's swim class was fun. I mean, they are always fun, but this one was particularly enjoyable. The first few weeks of class have definitely been challenging, but most of the swimmers are new, so I'm almost always way out ahead of everyone else during the sets. It can get mundane. However, Patrick, the guy I usually share a lane with, is vastly improving. Today, we had a bunch of sprint sets with fins. Patrick is a cyclist, so whenever we do kick drills, he's a beast. Since we had a bunch of them this morning, him and I were going at it throughout our sets, and it was a blast. It's kind of nice to have a solid athlete in the lane with me as he keeps me motivated to really push myself and not slack off. I think we both were feeding off eachother's competitive streak.

That being said, he didn't quite beat me during any of our drills. ;) Maybe next time, son...

Total distance, 1,300 yards swimming

Week 10 report

Last week sucked. Plain and simple. I completely fell apart on several days, went way over on my calories, and I really have no excuse. I ate out too much, only worked out three times and I paid dearly for it, gaining a pound. I was so pissed off at myself that I didn't even want to blog about it yesterday.

My swollen wrist after this morning's swim session.

It's a new week, though, and I have some serious work to do in order to make up for it. I'm back up to 169.9 pounds with only two weeks left. I probably won't reach my goal of 165 by then, but I'll do my best to put together a big finish. After that, all bets are off. The baby is due any day now and Jen is my No. 1 priority right now. If she needs me to come straight home and help her with anything, forcing me to skip the gym, I'll do it. That being said, these last two weeks may be the toughest yet.

Once the baby is here, a new and greater test will begin. Will I be able to maintain this healthier lifestyle with much less time on my hands? The biggest reason most people have crummy diets is because they are often on the run and "don't have time" to cook and eat right. It's a lame excuse, but I think we've all been there.

Anyway, this morning's swim class wasn't as grueling as Tuesday's, but it was solid and a good way to start the day. I plan on a good session on the stationary bike later, as well. We did a lot of butterfly sets, which I'm not very practiced in. Just like I used to do in high school, I repeatedly smacked my hands and wrists on the lane line, trying not to whack anyone in the head on the other side of our lane. That's the biggest reason it's difficult to circle swim with fly. I saved their heads, but my hand took a beating. I'm gonna have a few bruises tomorrow.

Total distance: 1,650 yards

Jello arms

When I walked onto the pool deck for class this morning, Pepper had a big grin on her face. I'm always the first one out there and with nobody else around, she just grinned wider, and in true Ivan Drago fashion said, "I'm gonna break you today."

Indeed she did. Right off the bat, she had me doing full kick sets and butterfly. She followed that up with sprint sets, broken up by push-ups after every 25-yard sprint. I wasn't even 500 yards into the morning workout and my arms felt like total mush. In the end, though I ran out of time before I could finish the full set on the board. I went hard the entire time, so I don't feel too bad. With no working arms to speak of, it forced me to focus on a powerful kick. That was difficult, too, as I ran for an hour last night, so my legs were a bit sore.

Yikes!

Total distance: 1,450 yards

Not so fast, Cowboy!

I was looking forward to swim class all morning and it was totally justified. When I showed up, there were workouts waiting for us on the board, broken down into high, medium and low. I chose "high" and this is what it was.

The first part of today's workout.

It wasn't easy, but as I was plugging through it, Pepper, my instructor, stopped me and asked how far I was. I told her I was just about to start my IM set and she replied with, "Dang! OK, I'm going to add more for you." While it was a confidence boost, she certainly added enough that it completely wiped me out once I finished. Here's what she added for me and a couple of others.

The revised version. AKA the tougher version.

In the end, I was pretty tired. It was by far, the most vigorous workout we've done since the class started. It even included a two-minute treading water drill with no hands and that was brutal. Now, I won't feel too guilty about taking it easy on the stationary bike later today.

Total distance: 1,700 yards

Kick drills still kicking ... my ass that is

Today was the second day of swim class. My shoulder has been bothering me a little more than the usual ever since last Thursday, but fortunately, today's class was focused around technique and kicking. We did some work with kick boards and fins before incorporating some easy pull with fins, which was perfect. I didn't log a ton of yards, but that's just fine with me. I pushed myself hard during our drills, so I'm glad I got a metabolism boost for the remainder of the day. The class was small today, too, so it was nice to have entire half-lane to myself with no circle swim. However, my legs are still hurting. That was more kicking than I'm used to.

Warm up
150 kick
Core
150 kick drills (sprints of 25)
200 pull drills
Cool down
200 breast

Total distance: 750 yards swimming

I heart chlorine

Today was the first day of swim class. I'm taking it as part of the employee Wellness Pays program at my work, which allows us to take three hours of work time per week for fitness and health purposes. And let me tell you, the first class was wonderful. It wasn't much, but the second I opened the locker room door and got a big whiff of that humid chlorinated air, I felt like I was in heaven. I friggin love that smell!

My new home pool. Sorry Roy Rec Center. ... It's not you, it's me.

For the first day, we were simply divided up into the six lanes and tested with a 12-minute swim. There were no rules, just simply go as far as you can, with or without breathers, before the time runs out. I'm sure our instructor just wanted us to gauge our levels and give each of us an individual goal to reach by the end of the course. Admittedly, I was nervous. I haven't been in the pool for about four months and although I've been working out a lot, swimming is a whole different beast. Immediately, I felt it, as my shoulders tightened up within the first 200 yards (we weren't given time to warm up). I ended up doing 100 yards of breaststroke about halfway through, but finished with 700 yards when the whistle blew. Not a strong mark, by any means, but it was the most in our class (13 people) which definitely stroked my ego a bit.

In the end, that's all we ended up doing, which was a little bit disappointing, but I do understand this is a class for all swimming levels, so workouts have to be planned to work for everyone. Fair enough. I'm just happy to be back in the water, and it's probably not going to allow me to overdo it on my shoulder, too. I did an easy 300-yard cool down and hopped out. Showering and heading back to work is something new I'm gonna need to get used to. Weber State's pool is only a 10-minute walk back to my office. The second I sat down, I treated myself to a granola bar and a Diet Coke. Haha!

Total distance: 1,000 yards swimming

Weber State Wellness Program

As part of my new job at Weber State, I get to take part in their employee wellness program. It's useful, because the university pays its employees money to take part in activities that promote "wellness." This includes, annual checkups, visits to the dentist, maintaining a fitness log, reading health-related books and participating in events such as 5ks, marathons, triathlons, etc. It's pretty awesome.

Weber State's Swenson Gym

That being said, they also offer an annual fitness screening through their Health and Human Performance department. I underwent that yesterday to get a thorough analysis of where I stand healthwise. It included blood work, body fat measurements in a high-tech pressurized "Bod Pod" and various strength and conditioning tests using performance gadgets like the stuff you see in Under Armour commercials and Olympic training laboratories.

I'm still awaiting the results of my fitness evaluation, but my blood tests came back immediately. The results were encouraging. Measurements of my triglycerides, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, glucose, lipoproteins were all taken. I fell in the "optimal" range for every category, which shocked me. When I went to the doctor two years ago (almost to the day), I weighed in at 215 pounds and was told I had dangerously high cholesterol for a man in his mid 20s. I now weigh about 175 pounds (a loss of 40 pounds so far), but I still have more to lose and my eating habits are still fairly unhealthy, which is why I was a bit stunned to see I don't have any issues as far as cholesterol and blood sugar go.

When I get the fitness and body fat results, I'll be able to better gauge particular areas I need to work on. In the meantime, I'll continue working on increased cardio with light weight training. I went to the gym only twice last week, both at WSU's on-campus Swenson Gym because it is free to faculty and students. The jury is still out on whether I will go there more often or stick with Planet Fitness.

Tonight, though, Planet Fitness it is...