Speed sets kicking my a$$

A week ago, I received the newest issue of Swimmer in the mail. There was a fun little article about developing a sense of pace and getting better at negative splitting long sets. With only five weeks left until the Great Salt Lake swim, I figured it's probably time to work on my speed a little more, now that my distances are on the rise. Doing one mile is no sweat now. I'm actually almost back up to three miles again. But I want to smash my time from last year's GSL 1-mile swim, so I'm going to focus on speed a little more, at least for the next month or so.

The newest edition of Swimmer.

A few days ago, Gordon blogged about Brandon Slaugh, who won the GSL swim with a time of 26:17 last year. That's pretty dang fast and the dude did it backstroking the whole way. I finished in 33:39 (13th out of 23, and 8th out of 15 non-wet suit swimmers). I'd love to be able to get around 28 minutes this time, perhaps finishing in the top 10 overall and top 5 in the non-wet suit category..

Warm up
200 free
Core
10 x 100 free (on 1:30, rest 20 seconds)
4 x 200 free (on 3:15, rest 20 seconds)
250 sprint
Cool down
300 breast and free (alternating every 50)

The sets were seriously tough. There's a huge difference between being able to go long distances at a leisurely pace and being able to do those same long distances quick and getting faster as you go. Today was a big wake-up call. Just the 100 free sets were difficult to keep my time. Twice I ascending to 1:31, which isn't good, but once I descended down to 2:49. I kept the rest of them consistent, though. However, I was able to negative split the 200s, doing 3:16, 3:15, 3:15 and 3:13. Still, that's only 1800 yards (about a mile) and I had 20-second breathers between them. I need to be able to drop those times a bit and slowly eliminate the breathers.

Total distance: 2,550 yards

Hidden Valley hike with Wes

Wes and I finally tackled the Hidden Valley Trail this morning. He's already been up a few times this year, but we wanted to go up and see if it would be a good spot for an overnight camp. It's graded as a difficult 2.5-mile hike with an elevation change of 2,046 feet and "difficult" it certainly was.

Nice little map of the trail. It's a pretty dramatic elevation increase.

We made it up in fairly good time (about an hour and 20 minutes) and added stones to the rock cairn to mark our reaching of the end of the trail. It was a tough hike, but it was short enough that I think we can certainly haul 50-60 pound packs up there within a few hours to stay overnight. The scenery, as usual, was beautiful and we made it back down within 30 minutes or so. I'm excited to go back up to camp.

Wes and I about half way up the trail, before we reached the valley.

The rock cairn at the end of the trail.

Raccoon Man!

Jen makes fun of me whenever she sees me after a swim. I keep my goggles on pretty tight, so for about an hour after I get home from the pool, I have a dark outline around my eyes from them. She says I look like a raccoon. So obviously, after longer swims, the outline sticks on my face for a little longer. And today, I set two new 2012 marks for distance, so I should just be called Raccoon Man for now.

That's me, looking fierce after a swim

Warm up
200 free
Core
4,000 free (1:11.24)
Cool down
150 breast

My shoulder felt FANTASTIC during my swim (I apologize for using all caps). At first, it felt like I was swimming through glue, but after about 2,000 yards I got into a groove and actually increased my pace for the tail end of my set, really focusing on a long smooth stroke. My last high was 3,300 straight and I only planned on doing 3,500 today, but said, "What the hell," and went for 4,000 while my shoulder still felt OK. Good day.

Total distance: 4,350 yards (new 2012 high)

Hiking, getting lost and more hiking

Trying to keep pace with the beautiful weather we've been having over the past few days, Wes, Kelly, Jessica, Jen and I all went for a hike this morning. Well, it started out this morning and ended up lasting longer than three hours. We took an 'alternate' route up Waterfall Canyon and ended up hiking for an hour before we even found the correct trail. By the time we reached the top, Jen and I snapped a few photos and went straight down.

Early in the hike, trying to find the right canyon

Thinking the other three would catch us fairly quickly, we went on without them. Big mistake. Jen and I ended up at the bottom of the 29th Street trail head when our car was parked at the 31st Street trail head. We humped through a golf course before finally running into Wes, Kelly and Jess. Apparently they took a much faster route down. By then, Jen and I were exhausted, so we all met up at Noodles & Company for some chow and went home. All-in-all, it was a nice hike right up until the end when I got lost. By then I was starving and pretty cranky. Hopefully the next hike will be a little less chaotic.

Not a bad little canyon hike, once you find it.

Rare weekend run

I joined Kelly and Jessica for a run at the Ogden River Parkway this morning. My knee hasn't been hurting so much, so I decided to give it a try. We got off to a late start, so it was already pretty warm outside when we hit the trail head. Kelly went ahead of us, because he was doing a 13-miler, which is a light run for his current marathon training standards. But Jess and I went nice and easy, stopping every one-half mile to do calisthenics such as push-ups, crunches, etc.

By the second mile I was starting to feel discomfort in my knee, as usual. By 2.5 miles it was starting to hurt, so we turned around. We were both getting kind of worn out from the sun already. I think it was in the mid 70s by 11 a.m. We stopped at mile-marker one and walked the rest of the day, so it wasn't a terribly long workout, but a decent one. Plus, it was such a nice day outside. I think the two of them are going to join Jen and I for a short hike tomorrow morning if the weather is this good again.

Total distance: 4 miles running

One-mile improvement, plus a short bike ride

It's such an awesome day outside! I wish Pineview Reservoir was warm enough to swim in, so I could enjoy the weather a bit more. The pool and gym had to suffice, though. First, I did a short 30-minute cycling session upstairs while reading my book. After working up a bit of a sweat, I went down to the pool.

Warm up
250 free
Core
1,750 free (28:47)
Cool down
150 breast

I knocked some serious time off my 2012 one-mile pool time. I even came within 17 seconds of my personal-best time. Perhaps, if I really push it, I can beat it next week. I didn't do a ton of yardage today, but all-in-all it was a good week, coming just 400 yards short of 10,000. Who knows, perhaps I'll jump in tomorrow morning for a bonus swim...

Total distance: 7.25 miles cycling, 2,150 yards swimming

Ladders and Five Guys

I was a little sluggish when I arrived at the gym this morning, but started to wake up a bit once I started my warm up in the pool. I wasn't sure on what sets I wanted to do, so once again, I kept things fresh and tried something different. I did ascending ladders. See below ...

Warm up
250 free
Core
250 free (30 seconds rest between sets)
300 free
350 free
400 free
450 free
500 free
550 free
600 free
Cool down
150 breast

I'm not sure I'll do it again, because the constant stopping slowed down my progress and I wasn't able to hit 4,000 yards before lap swim ended. I probably would have done it with ease if I just swam it all consecutively. Oh well ... lesson learned.

I don't feel guilty one stinkin' bit.

Anyway, I met Jen for lunch after my workout and totally blasted any of the calories I burned by eating at Five Guys. As always, though, it was totally worth it. Plus, I don't eat there too often so I don't feel super guilty about it. I effing LOVE Five Guys!!

Total distance: 3,800 yards