The Jazz Hands training log, an alternative swimming experience

Former Member
Former Member
Whenever I mention something about how I train, somebody flips out and asks for clarification. "Jazz Hands," they say, "do you really bathe in ox blood before workouts?" Or, "Jazz Hands, how many grams of testosterone do you inject weekly?" I hope to answer these questions and many more in my training log. I'll be covering water workouts and weight workouts, and I'll answer questions about both, as well as questions about my nutrition and supplementation. I hope my alternative swimming experience will give other swimmers ideas for their own training, and expand everyone's idea of just what kind of preparation a swimmer needs to go fast. I typically list weights this way: weight x reps. I list swimming sets this way: reps x distance. They are kind of the reverse of one another, but each one is the standard for each particular activity. I'll start with some recent workouts. Evening weights Saturday December 8, 2007 School mostly finished for me on Friday, so I decided to celebrate with some sumo deadlifts. Warmed up with 135, 205, 275, 345. Attempted 415, felt good and fast but something went wrong. I lost control of the bar and it swung and hit me in the right shin, leaving a big red rectangle. Finished up deadlifts with a bunch of singles at 345, and a few more at 365. Did a set of alternating negatives on the calf machine with 140. Evening weights Sunday December 9, 2007 Started with 90x4 on dips. I try to do dips as deep as possible. Did several sets of 185 on bent-over barbell rows. Didn't count reps. I mostly focused on form: back flat and parallel to the ground, no jerking and swaying. My form improved with each set. Finished with 90x5 on dips, a new personal best. My brother watched and said I went really deep on all of the reps. Morning swim Monday December 10, 2007 Started with 4x25 sprint flutter kick on my back, with several minutes rest. Went 19, 18, 16, 16. Did a couple 25s sprint free, my mind was wandering though. I was thinking about how Paul Smith says I can't do a good 100. Why not start it today? Back in the day, I used to do a 100 fly from a push every week or so just to see if I could keep up my endurance while I was swimming mostly 25s. If I remember correctly, I did about a 57 at my best. Pretty cool considering my best time in competition (high school) was a 58. So, 100 fly! I breathed every stroke, and finished in 59. The first 50 felt really good, but I died just about as bad as I ever had on the last 25. It felt like I was actually going backwards. My friend in the other lane watched me and said I split 26 at halfway. Twenty-six to 33 is not good, and I felt like I was going to throw up for the next half hour. I hope to improve on that a lot in the coming weeks.
  • Former Member
    Former Member
    What happened to the daily updates? You have a meet this weekend, no?
  • Former Member
    Former Member
    I was banned for two weeks. That's all I'm going to say about that. The meet in Anacortes went quite well. I met Kirk and David and talked to each of them for a little bit. Very nice guys. David had some personal best times, I believe. I saw him swim the 500 free in the lane next to one of my teammates. I'm still waiting for PNA to post the official splits, but my teammates got some splits with a stopwatch. 200 free 25.56 54.10 1:24.47 1:55.90 50 free 10.74 22.26 100 free 24.25 50.76 The 200 was a bit disappointing. I watched a video of it and I was swerving big time at the end. I went out very fast on the first 50, and then I realized I couldn't hold that pace so I eased up for the rest of it. The 50 was sweet, considering I didn't shave or wear a special suit. I jammed my finger pretty hard at the end of it, though. The 100 was okay, but I took it out way too slow. I was probably just tired from my first two events. Based on that meet, I definitely don't want to race the 200 anymore. I think there's potential in my 100, but I'm not really sure I enjoy that event. My 100 has never been very good, and it never really feels like my event in the same way that the 50 does. I'm used to not keeping a training log now, and I don't really want to restart it. I might do it again closer to Nationals. People know how I train now; the mystery is gone, and the purpose of my training log has been fulfilled.