Welcome to the 210 day fix blog, where one overweight, out of shape, middle aged guy shares stories of his journey back to fitness. What started as a tentative trial of the popular 21 Day Fix program morphed into something quite different: the rediscovery of the joy of competitive swimming. If you’re a regular visitor to this blog, scroll down to seen the most recent posts. If it’s your first time here, and you want to follow the story in chronological order, START HERE and follow the NEXT links at the bottom of each blog post. Hopefully you find the story interesting, and perhaps even inspirational.
I took the Sunday after Spring Nationals as a rest day, and started triathlon training on Monday. I had a structured plan in mind for running; the “Barry P” plan, to be exact. Taken from the Slow Twitch triathlete’s forum, the Barry P plan favors frequency and, eventually, volume, over intensity. From day one, the Barry P plan calls for running 6 days a week.; 3 days you go “short,” 2 days “medium,” and one day “long.” Somewhat unusually, the plan directs you to run for a certain time instead of a distance. For week one, the short runs are 10 minutes, the medium runs are 20, and the long is 30. Every week, you are encouraged to increase the runs by 1, 2, and 3 minutes, respectively. Early in the plan, it is suggested that all runs be at a light to moderate effort. Once you have a bit of a base, you can incorporate some intensity into one or both of the medium runs. My best in-shape 5k race pace is about 7:35/mile. I started out with my short and long runs at about a 10 min/mi pace, and my medium runs at about 9:30/mi.
For biking, my “plan” was a little more loose. Generally, I would try to do a long ride on Sundays, and at least a short and a medium ride during the week. I thought I’d even give some of the Spin classes at the YMCA a chance. Earlier in the Spring, I sold my aluminum Schwinn road bike and replaced it with a full carbon BMC GranFondo. I was excited to get out and ride my new bike, hoping it would be a little smoother riding with less vibration making its way through the chassis to my hands. At first, I didn’t find it much more comfortable. As I got the fit dialed in, and rebuilt my bike specific fitness, the quality difference became much more apparent.
I wasn’t quite done with my swim season, though. While my principal focus all winter and spring had been on peaking for the Spring Nationals, there was a post-Indy event I kept in the back of my mind; the USMS Open Water Sprint (1 mile) National in nearby Carbondale in early June. I did my best to hold as much of my swim fitness as I could through the first few weeks of triathlon training. It wasn’t easy, and not completely successful. Having gone from zero run and bike training to 9 total “lower body” workouts a week, my legs were understandably heavy when I was in the water. I found myself isolating the work to my upper body by using a pull buoy much more often; sometimes for an entire swim workout.
The week before the Open Water National, I backed off the bike and run a bit, and worked on my mile pace in the pool. By race day, Saturday, I had my legs back, but was still feeling a little fatigued. It hadn’t been a full taper, and I wasn’t going into the race in the strongest position I could have. Honestly, I was more concerned about not losing the run and bike momentum that performing at my peak in this race. I wanted to do well, but not so much that I was willing to set my triathlon training back more than a few days.
I figured out who the favorite was in my age group, and made sure I was lined up near him at the start. My plan was to swim right behind him, in his draft, as long as I could, and hopefully force a sprint finish. My battle plan didn’t last long, however, as another person managed to squeeze in between us right after the start. I was working hard to hold that position when another person merged in front of my at the turn buoy at ~500 yards. It took me about 100 yards to get around him. By that time, the other two had pulled a pretty good gap. I gave a push, trying to close it, but I was making zero headway. My effort at that point wasn’t sustainable. I’d lost contact, and there was no getting it back. I backed off a little, and settled into a comfortable rhythm. I swam the rest of the back straight, nearly a half mile, more or less alone. At the far corner, I merged in with a line of swimmers who had taken a slightly more inside line . It was a short 50 yards to the last turn buoy, and then about 500 yards to the finish. I had recovered from my early surge, and ramped the effort up again. I passed several swimmers on the closing straight, and finished with a time of 25:03. That was about a half a minute slower than I had hoped, but still good enough for 2nd in my age group.
Overall, I was pleased. This race was more than an afterthought, but far from my primary focus. In the end, it turned out to be my best National finish to date. There’s only one more step to go up from here. Maybe next year at the Open Water 2 Mile Cable Swim? And, to top it off, I won a new USMS embroidered Speedo backpack in the door prize drawing!
The very next morning, I was back at triathlon training with a 17 mile bike ride. A third trip to Dillon, Colorado, was on the horizon, and I had plans to do lots of riding while there. Check back for an recap of the Colorado trip.
After the State Meet in April, I locked in my program for the 2018 USMS Spring National Championships. I would race the 1000 freestyle on Thursday, the 200 freestyle on Friday, and the 100 Freestyle on Saturday. For the final training block, I worked on all 3 events fairly evenly, with a little more emphasis on the 1000 in the middle. For the last 10 days, I swam race-pace sets for each event in every workout, while reducing the number of reps as I approached the meet. As the workload was diminishing, I started seeing some pretty startling increases in pace in the 1000-focused sets. I didn’t exactly know what to make of it. Was it an indicator of speed to come in the race, or just an artifact of the shorter, less demanding sets? As the meet drew near, I was feeling really strong in the water, and starting to have confidence that I was, indeed, going to perform well in the 1000.
I got to Indy Wednesday evening and got a decent night’s sleep. I woke Thursday morning; partook in the the swimmer’s championship meet ritual of shaving my legs, arms, and torso; ate a light breakfast; and then made my way downtown to the Indianapolis Natatorium. The Natatorium is one of the premier swimming venues in the United States. Perhaps THE premier venue. The pool has been host to several US Swimming National Championships and Olympic Trials, and been the sight of several World Record swims. As Olympic Gold Medalist and NBC Swimming Analyst Rowdy Gaines says, it’s Swimming’s Wrigley Field or Madison Square Garden. It was exciting just to be in the building and take in the atmosphere.
I went to the locker room, squeezed my body into the tight fitting technical racing suit, and made my way to the warm up pool. Once I worked through some initial tightness, I felt very fluid and strong in the water. My confidence was high. By this time, I was aware that there were only 9 swimmers in my age group swimming the 1000, so I was assured of a top 10 finish as long as I made it to the blocks on time and didn’t get disqualified for a false start. I was hungry for much more than that, though. I wanted to at least match my 6th place finish at the 2016 USMS Open Water 2 Mile Cable Swim National Championship. I hadn’t actually swum the 1000 free in a meet in the last 4 seasons, so I didn’t have a true “Best Time” to beat. I had opened a 1650 free with a 1000 split of 12:28. I went out pretty hard in that race, and ended up slowing considerably on the back half, so I speculate I would have only been a little faster had the race ended at the 1000; maybe 12:23. At Indy, I felt like I had a ~12:15 in me, and maybe something closer to 12:10. My stretch goal was to break 12:10, and I thought I’d need a perfect race to do it.
My lane was near the center of the pool, next to a young women who was a member of the Butler University Varsity Swim Team. She was out fast off the blocks, and had almost a full body length lead by the 100 mark. I pressed hard to stay even with her feet. By the two hundred yard mark, I was starting to reel her in, a few inches a length. I got almost even with her by the 400 yard mark, and held it there for another ~150 yards. Then she seemed to hit another gear, and stretch the lead again to about a half a body length. I pressed hard to stay attached to her hip, half expecting to hit the figurative wall and fall off. But I just kept hanging on. At the 800 mark, I was still feeling quite strong. I pressed the pace to try to close the gap again. I made a little headway, but she then she responded with a hundred yards to go. I gave it all I had on the last 50, but touched the wall just behind her. The two of us had finished well ahead of the rest of the heat. I turned towards the scoreboard at the far end of the pool, and was flabbergasted to see I had gone 11:55.03. That was a full 15 seconds faster than even my most optimistic prediction. When the final results were posted, that was good for a 5th place finish, just 3/10ths of a second out of 4th. I was thrilled. I had, after 4 years of hard work and ups-and-downs , finally put up what I considered a truly “Nationals-worthy” performance.
I arrived to a much more crowded facility on Friday. Warm up was a bit chaotic, but I managed to find a place and get the laps I needed. I was much less confident about how the next race, the 200 yard free, would go for me. Until the last 3 weeks of the season, I had done very little specific pace training for this race. And I hadn’t swum it in competition in 2 1/2 years. My goal was less ambitious than for the 1000; I just wanted to beat my personal best time of 2:08.72 which I set back in March, 2015. As in the 1000, the swimmer next to me took an early lead. I let him go, and concentrated on my own race plan. Other than one poor turn, I executed well. My 2nd, 3rd, and 4th 50’s were all within a half second of 32 seconds flat. My final time of 2:04.74 was a personal best by nearly 4 seconds, and good for 16th place in my age group. I was more than satisfied with that.
Many of my teammates had come over Friday. After I swam my race, it was nice to sit with them, many of whom were participating in a National Championship for the first time, and share the experience.
My Stephens Family YMCA Heat Masters teammates and I pose for a pic at Spring Nationals
My one race on the slate for Saturday was the 100 yard free. This is the event that I have the most experience at. No matter what I’m focusing on in any particular season, I always sprinkle in some 100 free pace work to stay sharp. Earlier in the season, I had missed a personal best by just 1/100th of a second. After the monster swims I’d had the first two days, I was all but certain I would best that. What I was really curious about was whether I could swim a time that, after being put through a conversion formula, would better than the 1:03.50 I swam in the 100 meter (long course) free at Summer Nationals in 2015. Up until this meet, 2015 Summer Nats had been the zenith of my Masters Swimming career; the event where I was in the most fit and had performed my best. I felt like I was in even better shape and faster at this meet, despite being nearly 3 years older. The 100 yard free would be the closest thing to a direct comparison, and the tell-tale of whether or not I was it was true.
The previous two events, I had finished 2nd in my heat. I was really keen to win my heat in this last attempt. I figured it would take a heat-winning time to eclipse my 2015 performance. I was lucky to draw a lane near the center again; 3 of 8. I would have a decent view of lanes 4, 5, and 6, where the strongest challenges were likely to come from. I got a good jump off the blocks; maybe too good. I got to the water so quickly, I didn’t get my hands all the way together before I broke through. For a moment, I thought my race was lost. The mistake didn’t break my momentum as badly as I thought it would, though, and I surfaced just a bit behind the swimmer next to me in lane 4. I knew my strength in this event would be my closing speed, so I didn’t panic when I was about mid-pack at the first and second turns. I kept a steady pace through the 3rd 25, and was 2nd at the last turn, just behind the swimmer in lane 4. I got a good breakout and wasn’t feeling the usual onset of fatigue. At about 10 yards out, I went into head-down, no-breath, straight-arm, maximum-turn-over, all-out-sprint mode. Back in March, I’d take a breath in the last few strokes and missed a best time by .01 seconds. I wasn’t going to let that happen again. As I was pouring it on, the swimmer in lane 4 was losing steam. I easily got to the wall before he did, taking the heat win as I’d envisioned. My time of 55:45 was my best in the event by just under a second, and I finished 27th in a field that went nearly 70 deep. With the conversion factor applied, it came out to be nearly 4/10ths of a second better performance than my 100 meter free from 2015. It was a great way to cap off my meet.
(My 100 free race is at 3:16:30. I’m in lane 3, 3rd lane from the top)
4 years ago, only a couple months after I took up swimming again after a 27 year layoff, I set the audacious goal of scoring a top 10 finish at a USMS Masters National Championship Meet. I fell just short of that goal at the 2015 Summer Nationals. Various setbacks and logistical hurdles kept me from getting to Nationals in 2016 and 2017. When nearby Indianapolis was announced as the 2018 Spring Nationals location, I re-sharpened my focus. I worked my tail off in the pool from October 2017 through May 2018, and never gave up, even when my in-season meet results were disappointing. When I finally tapered my workload at the end of the season, I delivered what may have been the swim of my life in the 1000 free at Indy, and took not just a top 10 position, but a top 5. I felt tremendous pride in that accomplishment.
5 years ago, such a feat would have seemed impossible for me to imagine. I was 45 lbs overweight, and had done nothing for years to keep fit. Walking a flight of stairs or riding my bike a few blocks across the neighborhood would have left me winded. It would be great if I could identify one big thing that got me from there to here. But the truth is, it wasn’t any one thing. It was a series of small things, done over and over across a period of several years, that got me to the point where I could swim 1000 yards with some of the best of my age in the country, and hold my own. It was hundreds of small decisions about what and what not to eat. It was going to the pool regularly, even when I didn’t feel up to it. It was using that time in the pool wisely, focusing my workouts on the end results I was after. And doing those race pace sets over and over, even when the repetition was bordering on tedium.
Immediately after the 100 free on Saturday, I showered, dressed, and headed over to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to take in the IndyCar Grand Prix with a couple friends. I took a rest day on Sunday. The next morning, I kicked off triathlon season training with a bike/run Brick workout. Having finally accomplished what I set out to do in Swimming, I’m curious to see just how far I can take triathlon. Check back here to see where it leads.
The home stretch of the short course swim season was a whirlwind! In my last post, I took a slight diversion from my long distance training to do a short sprint training block, then threw down a best-in-two-years time in the 100 yard freestyle at my “homecoming” meet. My plan was to circle back to the 1650 yard freestyle at the next meet, in Bloomington, IL, with the objective of securing a National Qualifying Time. But Bloomington didn’t come together as planned. In that race, I went out on goal pace, but felt the fatigue setting in early. I was ~ 6 seconds ahead of my best performance at the halfway mark, but I really faded on the back half and finished 6 seconds behind my best, and well off the qualifying standard. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement.
I contemplated for a few days what to do next. There was one more chance to get a qualifying time in the 1650, at the Ozark region Championship, but nothing in my training suggested I had an imminent 20+ second improvement in me without a shave, a tech suit, and a complete workload taper. I didn’t want to “waste” that on a qualifying chance, I wanted to save it for Nationals. I decided to let the 1650 go for the season. As a consolation, I would enter the 1000 freestyle at Nationals. That would require very little change in my training program as workout sets for the two events are very similar.
I also decided to bring my 200 yard butterfly work back to the front burner. I’d worked on it quite a bit early in the season, but had let it go for a bit while I focused on the 1650. While I’d done a lot of training for it, I hadn’t actual ever swam the event as a Masters swimmer. I decided I’d give it a try at the Illinois Masters Swimming State Championship meet and, if I was pleased with my time, swim it at Nationals. Meanwhile, I kept plugging away at the 1000 free pace work.
The 200 fly is a grueling event. Frankly, not many Masters like to swim it which is precisely why I opted to give it a try; fewer competitors means a better chance at a good placing at a Championship meet. And so it was at State. Besides myself, there were only two other entrants in my age group. I finished first, but was a little disappointed in my time. I was within about a second of my objective time on each the first three 50’s, but I really struggled to bring it home, and lost another 4 seconds there. I enjoyed being able to call myself a “State Champion,” but I had no delusions about the fact that there were probably a half dozen guys in my age group at the meet who could have beaten me, had they chosen to compete in this event.
2018 Illinois Masters Swimming State Champion, 200 butterfly, Men 45-49
When the entry list for Nationals was published, the field for the 200 yard butterfly was extraordinarily deep. Many years, there are only 10-12 in my age group who enter; this year, the entry list was over 20 deep, and it was stacked with talent. The cut-off for a top ten in the Men’s 45-49 age group is usually somewhere in the 2:25-2:30 range. This year, it looked like it was going to take something considerably below a 2:20. I had gone 2:38 at State. While I believed I could have improved on that time by several seconds, it was clear I would be out of place in this event this year. I opted out, sparing myself, and the spectators, the agony.
With that decision, my event schedule for Nationals was solidified. I would swim the 1000 yard freestyle on Thursday, the 200 yard freestyle on Friday, and the 100 yard freestyle on Saturday. It was a perfect schedule, with only one event a day, and each successive day a little less demanding. I brushed off the training sets for the 200 free, an event I hadn’t swum in a couple years, worked it into a rotation with the more familiar sets for the 100 and 1000 free, and went about banging out one more solid training block before Nationals.
I visit my old High School, St. Charles East, for a US Masters Swimming meet.
After I fell a little short of my goal of swimming a National Qualifying Time in the 1650 in mid January, I decided to take a short break from the distance-focused training and do a two week sprint training block. I would put that training to the test at the St Charles Super Bowl Masters Meet on the first Sunday in February by swimming the 100 yard and 50 yard freestyle, and the 50 yard butterfly. I was hoping for National Qualifying Times in all 3, but was keenly focused on doing so in the 100 free.
For the first week of the bock, I pulled the textbook Ultra Short Race Pace Training (USPRT) set for the 100 free out of mothballs. While it was once a staple set in my training regimine, I hadn’t done it “by the book” in nearly a year. My three attempts went like this:
1/23
25’s on :30, target < :14.25
1st fail @ 17
2nd fail @ 21
set complete (30 reps)
1/25
25’s on :30, target < :14.15
1st fail @ 12
2nd fail @ 20
set complete (30)
1/27
25’s on :30, target <:14.10
1st fail @ 13
2nd fai @ 22
set failed @ 28
It was a bit of a shock to my system to do that much fast sprinting on such little rest again. Much gasping for air accompanied each set. But I managed to complete the set the first two times, and go very deep on a faster target time on the third try. In just 5 days, I had put in 2200 yards at 100-free race pace effort. I felt pretty good about my chances to get the NQT in that event.
I supplemented with some fly work; some long-rest, no breath 25’s (50 free pace work), and a couple of distance-pace sets, albeit abbreviated ones.
The second week, I backed off the intensity a bit, aiming to feel well rested at the meet. I did plenty more 25’s at :14.10 per, but I kept the volume down and the rest up. In a break from my custom, I didn’t swim at all the day before the meet.
The meet location was my Alma Mater, St. Charles East High School. I spent hundreds of hours working out and competing in that pool as a teen, but hadn’t been back in over 30 years. Little has changed in the past 3 decades. Even some of my former teammates’ names were still on the record boards. One of my former teammates was a meet official, and the daughter of another former teammate was one of the timers. I felt more than a bit nostalgic as I took in the atmosphere. I didn’t have long to bask, though, before my first race.
I got a good warm up in, then waited for my heat of the 100 free. When the time came, I stepped on the blocks with an odd mix of confidence, and nervousness. I got a great start, and felt strong on my first 25. My first turn was good, but I came a little close to the wall on the second turn, and didn’t get as much power in my push off as usual. I was still feeling strong after the third turn, and powered to the finish. As soon as I touched, I took a glance at the scoreboard to see my time. I had gone :56.43, well under the National Qualifying Time, and just .01 seconds slower than my best 100 yard free since I actually was in highschool. I gave a discreet fist pump to celebrate, climbed out of the pool, and made my way to the other end for cool down.
During the cool down, it seemed my heart rate was very slow to recover. I did many slow, easy 25’s, stopping for plenty of air in between each one, but my pulse rate didn’t want to come all the way back down. I’d been fighting just a touch of a cold all week, and speculate that may have contributed to the issue. Satisfied that I’d done enough work to clear the lactic acid from my muscles, I climbed out, dried off, put on some sweat pants and a pullover, sat down, and drank a little yogurt smoothie. Eventually my heart rate returned to normal.
I had quite a long rest until the 50 free. Given that, and the strong performance I’d just managed in the 100 free, I had high hopes to achieve another National Qualifying Time. I only needed to drop 0.35 seconds from what I’d done two weeks earlier. My start was quick, but a little deep. Unfazed, I dolphin kicked a little more than usual, and seemed to break out with decent speed. My turn execution seemed adequate, and I comfortably made it to the wall without having taken a breath, and without any perceptible loss of stroke rate. Overall, it felt like a well executed race. When I glanced at the scoreboard, I wasn’t surprised to see I’d finished first in the heat. I was quite disappointed, however, to see my time of 26.27; only a few hundredths of a second quicker than two weeks previous, and well short of a National Qualifying Time. It seemed that 100 had taken almost as much out of me as the 1650 had in the previous meet.
I didn’t have much rest until the 50 fly, and I never felt like I had the right stroke rhythm in that race. Most of the fly work I’ve done lately has been at a slower pace, and I don’t have nearly as much history of sprint butterfly work in the past as freestyle, so I couldn’t turn the sprint speed back on as easily. Therefore, I wasn’t all that surprised to see my time of 29.18, about 3/10ths of a second slower than my best time in the event.
Overall, it was a satisfactory day. I had achieved my primary objective of getting an NQT in the 100. I’d won my age group in all 3 events, and was able to walk out of my old school feeling pretty good about how fit I still was 31 years after graduating. It’s a far cry from where I was 4 years ago.
My diet hasn’t been perfect, but it continues to be more good than bad. When I got home from the St Charles meet, I splurged quite a bit on traditional Super Bowl Sunday fare, and it took me the better part of the week to recover. But, as of today, I’m at 185 lbs; down 12 from Jan 2, and at the lowest point I’ve been since probably some time in mid October. After a a short plateau, and a bit of a step backwards, it feels like I have momentum in the right direction again.
Now that I have the 100 free NQT in the bag, its time to circle back around to the 1650. I’ll take another swing at an NQT in that event in early March. It’s back to distance-focused training until then. Check back soon for any updates.
December was a mixed bag for me, fitness-wise. My swim training was outstanding. I logged over 56,000 yards in the pool again, staying late after team practice on the 31st to put in a few hundred extra yards to be sure I eclipsed my November total….by 50 yards, LOL! Towards the end of the month, I started to deemphasize the butterfly and shift the effort to more long distance freestyle work. I was seeing more gains there, and wanted to push a little harder with hopes of securing a National Qualifying Time in the mile early in the season. I had a touch of a cold in early January which caused me to miss a couple workouts, and dial back the intensity on a couple more, but by the second week I was back at it at full throttle.
Diet-wise, December was a disaster. Holiday season is tough, with temptations at every turn. Unfortunately, I fell for the temptations more often than not. On January 2nd, I tipped the scales at an alarming 197 lbs. With a New Year came new resolve, however, and I was able to string together 3 weeks of solid, if not perfect, food discipline. This morning I saw a post-Christmas low of 187 lbs. My intention is to get down to 175 and reassess whether I feel the need to go further from there.
After 3 and a half months of nothing but practice, the opportunity to swim in a meet finally came around this past weekend. “The Mile” (actually we swim 1650 yards) was the first event, and I swam a pretty good race. My 100 yard splits were pretty consistent, with just a little fade and flutter in the third 500. I was able to find another gear for the last 50 yards, and brought it home strong. My time of 20:53.97 was a little more than 20 seconds slower than my goal. I couldn’t be too upset, though, as I’d set a new personal best time in the event by nearly 24 seconds. It’s been two years since I last swam the 1650, and I wasn’t sure where I stood. Now I know, and can adjust my training plan accordingly.
My next event was the 50 free. I went a few tenths of a second slower than I would have liked, but thought it was a decent swim considering it came only ~90 minutes after the 1650. It was only about 20 minutes until my next event, the 100 free. By that time, with two warm ups, two races, and two cool downs under my belt, I’d already swam as much yardage as I would in a long-for-me practice. Not surprisingly, I was well over a second slower than my recent best. I muscled my way through one more event, swimming the butterfly leg of a medley relay, then went home exhausted.
I’ll take another swing at the 1650 at a meet in March. In the meantime, on Super Bowl Sunday, I’ll be going back to my high school for the first time in 31 years for a meet. My objective is to see what I can do in the sprints (100 free, 50 free, and 50 fly) when fresh. I’ve pulled the old USRPT sprint workout sets out of the closet to try to hone the pace. Watch here for a report on my homecoming sometime soon after.
I had a good month of training this November, logging over 56,000 yards. That’s a post-high-school record for me! Even in the train-up for Summer Nationals 2015, I never logged quite this much yardage in a single calendar month. I’m making progress with the butterfly (over 8k yards of butterfly in that 56k total) and with my ability to sustain my mile goal race pace through long (2000+ yard) sets. Using the insights I gained at the stroke clinic, I’ve been able to consistently swim a length in one fewer stroke. That is helping me both with speed and deferring fatigue. I thought going into the season that my goal of 20:33 for the 1650 yard free was a long shot, and now I’m beginning to believe it’s inevitable. I’ll get some sense in mid January, when I swim my first meet of the season.
I don’t have much else to add at this point; this is the boring part of the season when I’m working on building a fitness base. As my old coach used to say, work done now is like money in the bank that we can withdraw to pay for peak performances at our A-meet at the end of the season. I’m back at it hard in December, having already banked another 12,000+ yards by the 6th. At this point, I’m just trying to survive the Holidays without gaining any weight. When the New Year rolls around, It will be time for a hard re-set on the diet.
I was sick the last week of September, and the residual congestion kept me out of the pool until the second week of October. In the last 33 days, however, I’ve logged nearly 60,000 yards in 24 workouts. That’s the most swim-specific work I’ve done in that amount of time since I swam Summer Nationals in 2015. In mid-October, I was wondering if I was every going to be able to swim at anything near my Summer Nationals 2015 pace again; I was significantly slower at every distance more than 100 yards. By November, though, things started clicking and I was seeing reasonable freestyle pace progression at all distances.
In the post-meet analysis of my 2015 Nationals race videos, I observed that my form in the 400 free had deteriorated considerably over the course of the race. I swam harder as the event progressed, but, with the sloppy technique, much of that extra effort appeared to be wasted. My stroke count went from 42 on the 2nd 50 meter length of the pool to 54 on the 8th, even though I was several seconds slower on that last 50. That just looked and felt like too much efficiency degradation.
Since that time, I have put effort into improve my freestyle technique. I found a lot of various guidance online. Some of the most valuable information I came across came from Terry Laughlin’s “Total Immersion Freestyle” teachings. While “TI” is targeted primarily at beginner and novice swimmers, I still found many nuggets I could utilize. The traditional way of teaching and coaching swimming has been “propulsion-centric,” or focused on the pull and kick. The TI method emphasizes balance and minimizing drag. I tried to incorporate these ideas into my freestyle stroke.
Unfortunately, there’s only so much you can do to self-coach stroke technique. Occasional outside observation is almost always required to continue progressing. While I love my Masters Swim Team coach, she’s typically has her hands too full with less experienced swimmers to be able to give me much technique feedback at a practice. So when a United States Masters Swimming Stroke Development Clinic was announced for the Chicago area last Sunday, I quickly enrolled.
The largest block of the three and a half hour clinic focused on freestyle. There were no ground-breaking revelations for me for this stroke, mostly just confirmation that my self-assessment of deficiencies was on target, and that my self-coached corrections were generally correct in direction, if not always magnitude. I also come away with some useful ideas of how to isolate and emphasize certain movements through specific drills.
The takeaway from the backstroke segment was pretty much the same. I understood going in what my biggest flaws were, but come out with a better understanding of what I can do to correct them. I did have a “Eureka!” moment during the breastroke block, and emerged with a completely new understanding of what the proper kick timing is. I’m looking forward to implementing that change into my breaststroke going forward.
The block on butterfly was incomplete as the limited strength and stamina of many of the swimmers precluded them from doing much, if any, of the stroke. I was a little disappointed in this, so, at the end of the clinic, I asked the butterfly expert instructor if he could spare a few minutes of his time to critique my complete stroke. He kindly agreed, recorded me swimming a length of the stroke on an ipad, and then reviewed the video with me. While he was impressed with my head-down entry, which he says is the hardest part of the proper stroke technique to grasp, he pretty well told me to discard most of the rest of my stroke. First and foremost, he told me I need to alter my breathing timing, which was too late. He prescribed a drill for me to work on and sent me on my way.
Back in the local pool for training this week, I saw immediate dividends from the freestyle instruction. I made a some big pace gains on sustainable 100- and 50- yard repeats, closing much of the gap to my “best shape” pace of a couple years ago. Even though I’ll be nearly 3 years older, I’m beginning to believe that, at the 2018 Spring Nationals, I can indeed duplicate, and perhaps even improve upon, my previous best performances.
Butterfly has been a bit of mixed bag, as I struggle to overwrite the improper neuromuscular programming I’ve imprinted with my butterfly training over the last two years. As neither backstroke nor breaststroke are part of my competitive aspirations this season, I’ve only had a few lengths here and there to work on implementing any changes to those strokes.
It has been a good 5 weeks. My sprint freestyle speed is rounding into shape, and my distance freestyle speed is as good as it’s been since June of ’16. I made some progress with the fly, but had hit an endurance plateau. While I’m struggling a little with the retooled stroke, I hope it will eventually allow me to break through that barrier. Spring Nationals are 6 months away, which seems like a long time but really isn’t. I’ll start testing myself in competition again in January, and compete in a series of meets leading up to Nationals. Stay tuned for more swimming updates.
In the last installment, I mentioned that my “A Meet” for the upcoming swim season would be the 2018 USMS Spring Nationals, and that I was contemplating entering the 200 butterfly. I chose the 200 fly because it would be one of the events with the smallest fields, giving me the best chance at a top 10. As I’ve started working on my endurance butterfly foundation, I’ve been reminded why so few people in my age group choose to do this event; because it’s really hard!
The last two seasons, I’ve incorporated the 50 yard butterfly into my competition repertoire, and performed competently. I swam the event in 28.86 seconds in spring of 2016 and 29.12 in spring of 2017. The 200 fly, however, is a very different monster. A 50 fly is an almost entirely anaerobic event, something I was able to get through largely by drawing on the raw power I’d built training for the 100 free. There’s no way to “power through” a 200, though. It requires judicious portioning of the power output just to make it to the end of the race.
The problem is that the two-arms-out-of-the-water-simultaneously recovery phase of the butterfly stroke can feel like a power sap no matter how slowly you go. It takes both great conditioning and great form to properly pace a 200 fly, with nearly even splits on each of the last three 50’s. What sometimes happens in a 200 race, particularly in the 200 fly, is that the swimmer exhausts their short term energy system capacity before the end of the race, causing muscle tightness, a loss of stroke form, a reduction in power, and a substantial slowing. Swimmers often describe this is as feeling like a piano fell on their back or a gorilla jumped on their back. I’ve been working on improving my butterfly-specific fitness, and holding a slower pace that I hope to eventually be able to maintain for a full 200. I’ve made some progress, but I have a long way to go. I can complete a 200 fly, but the last 75 is ugly and slow. The piano falls on my back somewhere around the 110 yard mark, and by the 150 yard mark a gorilla jumps on and starts playing that piano!
I can continue to work on my fitness alone, but I’ve decided I need some help fine tuning my technique. I’ll be attending a USMS stroke clinic in a couple weeks where I hope to get some useful feedback on all my strokes, but particularly on butterfly. I need to get past the “I can survive a 200 fly (barely)” phase soon so I can start using Ultra Short Race Pace Training sets to build endurance and actually be able to race a 200 fly.
On the weight and diet side, I’ll be bluntly honest and say that I’ve been sucking, and haven’t made any lasting progress since my last post. I can’t explain why, but I’m really struggling to stay disciplined for more than about 3 days. Worse, I’m letting one indiscretion lead to an avalanche of bad choices. I’m starting to work like a champion again in the pool, now it’s time for me to start eating like a champion again. Maybe what I need to do is go back and re-read the beginning of this blog, and try to find some inspiration from myself.
If you’re still following this blog, you may be wondering what happened to me. Did I give up on fitness and healthy eating? Did I just fall off the face of the earth? Afterall, it’s been nearly a year since I last posted. And what a year it has been, one full of ups and downs. Please pardon my absence. I hope to get back into the habit of regular posting again going forward. In the meantime, allow me to play some catch up.
When I left you last time, I was about to try my first triathlon. I did a respectable job, given the relatively modest amount of bike and run training I was able to do in the short window between end of swim season and the event. I took a few weeks completely off from swimming after that, using the last of the nice late summer/early fall weather to enjoy a little more biking. In mid September, with winter meet season just around the corner, I was ready to pick the swim training back up in earnest. Then, on just my second day back in the pool, it happened, something I’ve heard others talk about but had never experienced myself in millions of yards of training: I seriously injured myself doing a flip turn. Now, I’ve come a little close to the wall and/or come over not tightly enough and grazed or even clipped the gutter on a flip turn many times in the past, but never so hard I couldn’t shake it off and continue. There was no shaking this one off, though. I hit it so hard I split the back of my heel wide open. I got out of the pool, hobble to the guard office, leaving a trail of blood in my wake. The guards put some gauze on it and wrapped it for me, but it was pretty obvious that I was gonna need stitches. I drove myself to the Urgent Care clinic and met with the attending doctor. When he grimaced at the sight of the wound, I knew it was even worse than I thought. He had a tough time getting it stitched up, as it was right at the junction of the sole of my foot, where the skin was very thick. When I asked “how long is this gonna keep me out of the pool?” his answer was a firm “quite a while.”
“Quite a while” ended up being two months. It was a serious setback, and I struggled to maintain a positive attitude. I couldn’t swim, couldn’t run. I biked a little, but my heart wasn’t really into it. I lost focus on my eating, and started putting on weight. Not long after my foot was well enough to resume swimming, I caught an upper respiratory infection that lingered for weeks on end. By January, I was up to nearly 190 lbs. It wasn’t until mid-February that I felt healthy enough to start swim training again in earnest. I set my sights on the Indiana Masters Swimming State Championship Meet in April, working primarily on rebuilding my sprint speed. I also tried to clean up the diet a bit, and shed some of the pounds I’d put on since my injury.
I swam the 100 free and 50 fly at the Indiana meet. Both my times were a little slower than I had done the previous year at the Illinois Championship meet, but I wasn’t displeased, given how much of my season I lost to injury and illness.
The very next day, I shifted gears, training wise. I backed off my swimming volume considerably, and starting ramping up my biking and running in anticipation of competing in more triathlons over the summer. I ended up doing 3 sprint triathlons, a 20k bike race, a 5k race run, and an ocean-swim/beach-run race while on vacation. My run speed didn’t improve much over the summer, but my bike speed did. Some could be attributed to training and fitness, but I did indulge myself in another new bike, a triathlon specific one, this time. I was able to get my weight down to the low 180’s, but struggled to stay on track long enough to break into the 170’s and stay. Something about cycling seemed to intensify my appetite. That’s somewhere around 15lbs above my low, but still 50 below my high. While I’m not quite as trim as I was 2 years ago, I’m in WAY better shape than I was 4 years ago.
Riding in the Tour De Charleston bike race
After the Decatur Lakeside Triathlon, with co-Worker Justin
Finish of the Outer Banks Run-Swim-Run race
Riding my spiffy new Triathlon race bike into the Transition Zone at the Sage City Triathlon
So where’s that leave me now? Triathlon season is over, and I’m back in the pool regularly. I’m just trying to rebuild my general swim fitness for now, but will soon start focusing my training towards some specific goals in a couple events. The USMS Spring Nationals are in nearby Indianapolis this year, and my team will be sending its largest-ever contingent there. The competition at Spring Nationals is very deep, so I’m considering some of the less popular (i.e. more grueling) events like the 1650 Freestyle, 400 Individual Medley, and/or the 200 Butterfly to give myself a better chance at the elusive top 10 finish. We’ll see how quickly I can reacquire the stamina. I’m struggling a little with cramping, lately, which is causing me to cut my workouts a bit shorter than I’d like. Hopefully the remedy is as simple as more regular swim workouts.
The Cable Swim Nationals was supposed to be my “A race” for the year, but I came away feeling quite disappointed in my individual performance. Not only did I fail to meet my time or finish position goals, I felt I had left a lot on the table. Poor breathing and sighting technique led to a cramp which prevented me from pressing as hard I as believed I had trained to. It wasn’t just a physical failure, but a mental one as well.
The 2016 Central Illinois Open Water Swim was on the calendar the weekend after the Cable Swim Nationals. I wasn’t planning to compete again so soon, but I felt I needed to do something to get the bad taste out of my mouth. I got my wife’s blessing, and entered the 1.2 mile race right at the deadline. My hope was to better my time and 3rd place finish from 2015. More importantly, I wanted to swim a better technical race than I had in Indy the previous weekend.
The course was a long, narrow, counter-clockwise triangle. We would start at about the mid-point of one of the long sides, swim towards the base, along the base, back up the length of the far side, around the sharp angle of the peak of the triangle, and finally back to the start/finish line. I positioned myself along side the start line buoy, while the rest of the field was lined up a bit farther to my right. I assumed by being right on the line of the triangle leg, my straight line to the first turn would be shortest. Apparently the rest of the competitors thought different. As our paths converged near the first turn buoy, I could see just 4 swimmers ahead of me. I passed one right at the turn, and one as we swam along the short base. Shortly after the second turn, at about half-distance overall, I passed another and found myself in 2nd place.
I was fighting to balance the desire to win with the need to maintain good technique and a sustainable pace. I concentrated on sighting the course more than the competition, and kept my head down and my stroke long between peeks. About half way up the long leg, I made a slight surge to see if I could close the distance, but, seeing little progress and feeling I was on the verge of overexerting myself, I reverted to a more relaxed pace. I decided I’d save for a final push off the last turn, ~400 yards short of the finish.
I gave it all I had, but had let too much distance grow between us to close all the way. I finished in second place overall, 48 seconds behind first, a minute clear of 3rd, and 15 seconds faster than I had gone in 2015. Most importantly, I felt I had swum a good technical race, with good sighting technique that kept me on course with minimal directional corrections and minimal negative impact on my stroke quality. Unlike in Indy, I felt I had used all the fuel in my tank by the finish.
Celebrating my 2nd place overall finish in the 1.2 mile race with Heat Masters teammate Rose, who finished 3rd in her age group in the 2.4 mile race.
If I had one regret, it was that I didn’t press harder to close the gap to the leader as soon as I found myself in second. It would have taken a strong effort to get on his toes, but if I had been able to do so, I could have possibly coasted a little in his draft, then mounted a more effective challenge at the finish. Perhaps it would have worked. Perhaps not. The fact that my post-race thoughts were about tactical details is evidence that I’m growing as an open water racer. While Indy was disappointing, I learned some lessons that I was able to apply right away. I plan to return to the CIOWS in 2017, and hope to be in position to fight for the overall win.
The 2016 CIOWS marked the end of my competitive swim season. The next event on my agenda was the Sage City Sprint Triathlon. Since my focus up that that point had been on peaking for the Cable National Swim race, I had done little biking, and even less running through the spring and early summer. I had just 7 weeks to try to turn myself from a swimmer into a triathlete.
210 Day Fix 