RIP- Fran Crippen

This is such a tragic loss in the swimming world. Crippen was one of THE best open water swimmers! Condolences to his family, friends, and teammates.

Swimnetwork - Swimming Mourns the Loss of Fran Crippen - USA Swimming Article

I've Got Work to Do!!!

Well, this morning's practice went really well. I'm having less and less trouble with my back, which is encouraging. The workout sets went really well. Then, the ugly truth was seen. It was our first timing session of the season. We only timed today in what we plan to swim for the November meet. I've decided to swim the 100 back and the 50 back. I timed my 100 first. I actually swam my 50 split in the 100 faster!! My 100 time ended up being 1:51.3. Not too bad for never having competed back, but bad for qualifying for Nationals. For Nationals, I need at least a 1:14.03. I need to trim 37 secs off of my time! I did only start from the wall, though. When I do my real start, I'm sure some time will come off. I think, I can't remember exactly, my time for the 50 was :51.8. That was BAD, but it was at the end of practice and I was tired and a little anxious. We'll see how much time I can drop between this week and the first of the month. I'm going to be doing a lot of speed training between now and then. I just don't want to embarrass myself at the meet!!

Inspiration

I was back in the pool all week this week. The first two days, I suffered from really stiff back muscles. So, I kept the yardage low and swam slow. Yesterday, I was back at practice. I got there about 30 minutes early, and put an easy 1000 in to get warmed up. I completed the workout with a couple of substitutions just fine. I ended up with over 2500. I found that the longer I worked, the looser my back muscles became. My back feels great today! I'm glad that I'm finally to the other side of this. Now, hopefully, I can work on training for our first meet, which is November 21st. I plan on swimming the 100 and 50 back.

I got the link for this video this morning. It's just the inspiration I needed for my training.

Swim Club Anyone? Swimnetwork - Keep Yourself Fit

This is a really great article that promotes swimming for college goers. It really helps to promote college swim clubs!!

Swimnetwork - Keep Yourself Fit - Bob Schaller, Ph.D., Senior Writer Commentary Blog Article

Finally!!!

My back has been good all day today. As much as I want to go to the pool, I'm still taking it easy today. This is the first day in a week that I've been without pain. So, I'm trying to make myself behave. I've decided that if I'm still good tomorrow, that I'll hit the pool for a good, slow stretch swim. Hopefully, that won't be a problem. I've been CRAZY being out of the pool for an entire week!! I'm really looking forward to tomorrow.

Still Down In the Back

Two days later, and I'm still having back troubles. I am feeling a lot better, but my work chair is nothing but pure pain!! I'm starting to believe I may have a pinched nerve somewhere in there. I have that pinched, burning, stinging feeling right over my right hip. As much as I would like, I've decided to skip practice for today. There's no practice Saturday or next Tuesday, due to our fall break schedule. Hopefully in a week, I'll be ready to go. I'm going to the pool on Saturday and just float and let my legs hang down to see if it will relieve some of the pain. If it doesn't get better soon, I'll be headed to the doctor's office.

Ouch! My Back!!

With all of the work outs I do you can imagine my frustration at throwing my back out, while vacuuming at home!!! I'm SO FRUSTRATED!! My chair at work is absolute pain today. I've taken Aleve, and I've got a heating pad going. The outlook for practice this afternoon is NOT good!

I think it all started on Saturday. We worked on stroke technique in practice. I worked on my fly, nearly all of practice. My practice consisted of underwater dolphin kick drills, 3, 3, 3, one arm fly drills, and full on laps of fly. I noticed Saturday night that my back was tender and twingy but when I got up on Sunday it was gone. I spent the day doing regular stuff. I had no problems all day yesterday, until I vacuumed. I woke up in the middle of the night in pain. I think it may be time to hit the house and the muscle relaxers and let my back have some much needed rest.

Thursday Workout

Warmup:

100 each:
Swim
Kick
Pull
Swim

Main:
150 Free (RI 10 sec)
150 Choice

4X25 Free & Choice (RI 15 sec)

4X25 IM Kick (free, back, breast, fly) X 2

4X25 IM (back, breast, fly, free) X 2

150 Choice cooldown

Our yardage was a lot shorter, but we worked really hard on stroke technique.

MTSU Swim Club Charity Project

Now through October 29th.

Extreme

Found this posted on the USMS forums today. Totally cool, but TOTALLY extreme!!

Base Jumping sous l'eau - Video humour

PRACTICE UPDATE: I did go and practice yesterday. That seemed to be the remedy for my sore legs. Off to the pool again today!

Let Cramps, OUCH!!

I'm not used to practice in the mornings. I'm an afternoon and night swimmer. So, I'm guessing that I was dehydrated at our past Saturday morning practice. As I was doing my backstroke sets and pushed off the wall after a flipturn, I got HORRIBLE cramps in my calf muscles. They were so bad that I had to stop and go to the ladder and stand on it. I was able to finish practice without any more problems. I noticed Saturday afternoon, that my legs were a little sore, but nothing too terrible. When I got out of bed on Sunday morning, I nearly fell over on my face. Both of my calves hurt SOOO BAD!! Needless to say, no swimming or running took place on Sunday. It took me forever to get warmed up enough to walk normally!

They were a little better yesterday, but I still took the day off from exercise to rest them. They feel much better today. They still hurt, when I point my toes. I'm debating whether I should go to practice today. I guess I could do the whole workout with a pull bouy. I hope I haven't really hurt them somehow. Stay tuned...