Home base.
I am aware that endless talk about cameras and lenses is not the primary reason you come to VSL. I understand that secretly you want to know more about our swim workouts and you'd perhaps like to appropriate our workout parameters for your own use. That's okay. I understand. It's hard news.
So, after dabbling in the Zeiss Lens universe yesterday here is a palette cleanser focused on a Thursday morning workout with coach Jenn.
Another gray morning that's finally giving way to some sunlight now that we're all out of the pool and trying to get on with our days...
Here's the warm-up:
1x 400 consisting of freestyle mixed every fourth lap with an alternate stroke (back, breaststroke or butterfly).
1x200 with training fins on. 50 yards kick, 50 backstroke x 2
1x100 = 50 backstroke, 50 easy freestyle.
Main set:
15 x25 yards of butterfly. The stroke people love to watch but hate to swim. Why? because it's hard!
The set is on a :30 sec interval. Meaning one 25 yard swim every 30 seconds. So, 375 total yards of butterfly... And it was supposed to be sprints. Yikes. If you are prone to chest pains I think this would trigger them...
3 x75 yards mixed = 25 freestyle + 25 butterfly + 25 freestyle.
100 yards butterfly kick (dolphin kick) with no board, no fins, no nothing.
100 yards freestyle as recovery.
15x25 yards of backstroke, sprinting each length strongly suggested. Going slow? The coach will yell encouragement to you! I like backstroke so this was less daunting than the "fly".
3x75 yards mixed = 25 freestyle + 25 backstroke + 25 freestyle
100 yards breaststroke kick. No gear.
100 yards freestyle as recovery.
15x25 yards of breaststroke on a :35 second interval, sprinting each length strongly suggested. Going slow? The coach will yell encouragement to you here as well! I also like breaststroke so this was less daunting than the "fly".
3x75 yards mixed = 25 freestyle + 25 breaststroke + 25 freestyle
100 yards breaststroke kick. No gear.
100 yards freestyle as recovery.
200 yard freestyle warm down.
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A nice set to swim in one hour. Just shy of two hard miles.
Today's dissonance: I was the oldest person in the pool this morning. That just dawned on me. Young people --- they've got it made...
And here's a little something to inspire you to exercise: https://neurosciencenews.com/fitness-neuroscience-23228/
Taking a break to eat a big breakfast, oil a couple butcher block tables, not water a lawn, and write this pressing information for your enjoyment, and then it's off to Gold's Gym for an hour (more or less) of strength training. And that's pretty much the anatomy of the first half of the day.
I did break up my morning long enough to return an email from a client. It was a lengthy bid. Not even sure I want to do the job. Mostly just going through the motions.
Please feel free to steal the above workout for yourself. Might make your next swim more interesting.
I'd talk about diet but I don't have much to say about it. Make sure you are getting enough K2-m7 and be sure to take it with vitamin D3. I find it beneficial for blood pressure regulation. But I'm not a doctor so take anything I write about food with a grain of salt (see what I did just there? fun).
Addendum: what was I thinking about while swimming today? I guess that would be visualizing how I should be using my Sigma 65mm f2.0 lens. And on which camera. Otherwise I was continuing to think about the front end of my freestyle catch.
13 comments:
Now don't everyone rush to be the first to comment....
First ! Love the swimming talk!
Kirk:
I get chest pains just thinking about your swim regimen! I slept in an extra hour this morning, swam 2000 yards freestyle in my 32 foot long pool (at my "pace" that translates to about 42 minutes) and threw in the towel:). Now I am at work (play really) in my lab working with students. Not a bad retirement gig to be sure.
I am inspired by your varied workout. Maybe I'll try changing things up a bit!
I definitely won't be trying any flip turns or kick-offs as my pool is too short and if I bump my head there is no one to pull me out!
Keep up the great blogging. Given the demise of those big photo sites and the decline in the quality of big news media sites, your blog and that of Thom Hogan and Mike J. are about all I read anymore.
Thanks,
CDC
Not enough interest in swimming? So, what's your favorite SUV? And why should we care?
Great workout. Those of us who've trashed our shoulders wrestling and doing other stupid things in our youth wish that we could do even a tiny bit of it now.
I was taught the breaststroke, aged around seven, by a Scottish international swimmer. She certainly put us through our paces!
So your section on technique, I find absolutely fascinating
Swimming is great fun, but when you grow up in a small Texas town without one swimming pool…and you get bused 25miles just to take swimming lessons as a 2nd-3rd grader, then go to a small high school without a pool in another town without a municipal pool, a baseball team or even a cinder track…well, it isn’t likely to be a life sport that one gets started in and continues. So, I admire your workout regimen. While no competitive swimming was ever available, our little town had a number of WWII vets, their families, and a love of skiing, racing boats, fishing. BTW every kid could swim like fish from age 3 or 4, and at the swimming lessons we were moved into the life saver level at ages 8-9. Too bad we didn’t have races. Pretty sure we would have done very well against them city slickers. Again, tip of the cap to your swimming, a great aerobic exercise. Keep your dermatologist handy, like me…life on the water has been a blessing and a curse.
Ed, a quick note: I swim at 7 or 8 a.m. in the morning so I avoid most UV. That being said, I wasn't always so careful and had a squamous cell carcinoma removed from my left cheek back in 2020. I see my dermatologist at least twice a year for a full body check. Even between my toes! And the minute I see anything different on my skin I'm on the phone making another appointment. The dermatologist is thrilled. He's gotta pay for that second home in Telluride somehow. God bless him.
Second note: We've had a lot of people come to swimming later in life after blowing out knees running on pavement. They seem to be able to learn and adapt well. Most just want to swim freestyle but we eventually shame them into learning all four strokes. Even old dogs can learn to swim.
"Even old dogs can learn...." Yup, aint that the truth.
I find your swimming reports motivating for me. I ride my bicycle 80-100 miles a week (helps to be retired) when the moon aligns I can average around 17mph. Good aerobic workout. Great for the legs. On other days I head for the gym to put off the effects of "older" age. T shirt wisdom "old guys rule".
Just blabbing about the 50’s. Access to a pool came once a year on those 2-wk family vacations back in Ozzie n Harriet times. Then it was staying at a Motel with a pool and doing asinine stunts off the diving board. We learned all the strokes except the butterfly at swimming lessons, later one picks that up sorta by watching the Olympics and imitating. Was a life long jogger. Had knee injury a few years ago and surgery after stepping off a curb into a bit of a pothole while looking at cell phone and paying no attention. Cannot imagine doing your swim workout, again nod of admiration. Cultural comment: we built the house I have inherited over 60 yrs ago, dead-end oyster shell road, outside city limits. Population 1600 in “town”. Now 125,00 or more, a 4-lane parkway in front, and a gated community across the street. There’s a walking trail that runs along behind a dozen or so of the houses in the “community”. I get in a couple miles daily walking the dog on the trail. Every house has a pool and over the past several years I have never seen a single person in any pool, ever. What a deal. Times change.
Kirk-Thanks for sharing your swimming regime. Keep up the good work.
Here's another form of swimming that seems equally challenging.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/10/sports/scar-swim-arizona.html
I see you said:"---not water a lawn."
Are you joining me in conserving water?
Probably 95% of the water used by a homeowner is poured on grass.
I am going to cover my grass with an attractive combination of gravel, red lava-rock and river-rocks.
Kenneth, absolutely. We already have lots of area covered by 1 -2 inch river rocks. I'm currently reading a book called, "Lawn Gone" by a local, Austin landscape expert and we're in the middle of plans to convert another 1/3 of the acreage to "non-lawn." Doing it right takes time, energy and expertise. Expertise I don't have but can hire. Give me a year.
Also, we rarely water lawns. We have a septic system that does a nice job of it for us... And rainwater capture as well.
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