Saturday, December 11, 2010

Finishing up 27 years with a BANG!

I will never forget the last day of my 27th year on this planet. My coach whooped my boo-tay this morning!!! haha! This morning was week #2 of his swim workshop. He really knows how to drop the hammer on us!

Swim:
100 WU
5 x 100 (25 right, 25 left, 50 @ 3 stroke drill)
100, count strokes per 25
5 x 100 (50 shark, 50 swim)
5 x 100 (50 paddle, 50 swim)
5 x 100 (50 fins, 50 swim)
5 x 100 (hard on 1:45, held 1:25's)
400 CD (50 paddles, 4 x 50 hard,  50 REALLY hard (35.5), 100 easy)
-----------------
3100 yards

My coach loves my stroke. I learned today that I am in the "fast" lane in the group of 16 folks (Sweet!) and that I have a very efficient stroke. We counted how many times we stroked with our right arm per 25, and my count came to be 8, as in I take 15-16 strokes per 25. The other two in my lane were @ 11 or around 22 strokes per 25. One guy is much faster than me, the other is slightly slower. So even though the one guy is faster, he uses up more energy to go faster. I feel good about this!

The big thing pointed out to me this week is that I need to work on my "catch." If I "catch" the water sooner, I will be pulling more water sooner, meaning propelling myself sooner and farther. One final thing that I am proud of is holding those 1:25's on 1:45 so late in the workout. There is one thing about hitting a 5 x 100 set in the beginning of a swim workout, but doing this at the end really skyrocketed my confidence in the pool, and its only December!!!

Sorry if I am gloating too much, but this was a REAL breakthrough swim for me!

Then we ran. 10.16 miles in 1:20:25 / 7:55 pace

Let me first mention that the group was small, only 6 of us. These guys include multiple Ironman finishers, first place podium finishers, a 9 time Kona qualifier (my coach), 17:xx 5K timers...........and me. You always hear that if you want to go faster, train with faster people. Yeah I totally signed up for the "fast" and "experienced" group. You don't get this kind of training experience by reading a book!

This run was humbling not only because of the pace, but also the freaking terrain!!! Look @ this course!

Multiple Slices of Humble Pie were eaten on those giant uphills.

And my resulting run splits:
Mile 1: 8:30
Mile 2: 7:33
Mile 3: 7:26
Mile 4: 8:36 (first big uphill)
Mile 5: 7:43
Mile 6: 7:14 (yay downhill!)
Mile 7: 7:14 (yay downhill!)
Mile 8: 9:26 (grumble grumble GIANT uphill!)
Mile 9: 7:48
Mile 10: 7:34

I needed this run. After last weekends 10K PR, this was a good eye awakening that last weekend was good, but its time (already) to step IT UP!


My poor right foot though, has taken a beating with the blisters lately. Time to bust out the moleskin and tape!

Sorry, its kinda gross....

That is all for me this weekend. Tonight I celebrate my brother turning 30 and me turning 28! Our birthdays are only 4 days apart. I am taking tomorrow OFF!

17 comments:

  1. Happy birthday! Love that you brought in your new year with a kick-ass workout. And I'm jealous of your stroke count--I'm around 20-21. Finally, your foot looks just like mine. I don't know why I'm suddenly plagued by blisters--same shoes, same socks, etc. What's up with that?

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  2. Dude -
    You are not gloating you are freaking ON IT. Nice early winter groove I am hoping to feed a little off your training mojo Im still trying to right the ship

    Your swimming efforts are paying off big time

    D

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  3. Awesome stroke count and speed!
    Definitely jealous over here. My swim time has gone the wrong way. Ah well, "it's only December". (somehow when you said that, it worked).

    So what's the B'day beer?

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  4. Happy Birthday!

    Jon your improvements in the pool are absolutely incredible. It is complete validation to the hard work you have put in and you deserve the these results - you are very inspiring dude! You made me feel good too b/c my stroke count is usually around 17-18, now I got something to work on to catch up (catch down??) to your count (-:

    Great run too! I've been doing a lot of group running and it is really helping me a well.

    You are going to SMASH Galveston!

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  5. Happy Birthday!! Have fun celebrating with your brother!

    Woohoo for the awesome swim! I am sooo jealous! I wish I could have your swim coach!

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  6. Happy Birthday to you and your brother! I hope you go celebrate with a couple of good beers!

    Congrats on the swimming! You are a swimming god and I am jealous! But you are right, swim with fast people to get better. I need to do just that!

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  7. Happy Birthday Jon!!! Have fun celebrating:)

    Wow, twenty-eight...you are still a young puppy:)

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  8. happy birthday jon! ur getting old! hahhah (joke, i turn 28 in 3 weeks)

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  9. happy birthday / happy almost your birthday / happy already was your birthday! (had to cover all my bases)

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  10. Happy, happy birthday! So glad you get to celebrate with family and a rockin' workout!

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  11. Awesome stuff Jon! Happy Birthday!

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  12. Happy 28th!!! Great run!! I ran with Faster peeps this morning! Im beat!!

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  13. Happy Birthday! Reading this both makes me sad and relieved that i couldn't hit that swim group. And no way could I have hung for that run.

    i've never used it (yet), but I've heard good things about spraying your feet w/ trislide .... ???

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  14. Happy birthday Jon! :) Sounds like a great birthday!

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  15. Happy Birthday Jon. We lived down the block from each other and we share a birthday....AWESOME!!!!

    Us 12/12ers rock so keep on swimming and making us proud.

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  16. I don't like this whole swimming business...

    Based on your previous times, our swimming seemed to be at about the same level. Now, it looks like you are going to be whooping my butt in pool! haha

    Keep up the great work!

    Have a fun birthday celebration with your brother. Have a cold one for me you old geezer. :)

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  17. Again
    sooooooo impressed with this 8 thing

    I did this again today in my 25y pool
    I am usually an 11 guy (sometimes 12?) rarely 10

    if I focus on getting long, rolling, using less strokes...I can get to 9 but am waaaaay gassed.

    If I push off the wall real hard, do the Amanda Beard one stroke breast and coast...come up THEN I can get 8 !!!

    D

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