New Year's swims

I did The Cumberland* today. For those that didn't see the original posts earlier in the thread, it's a 1500 for time done like this: 500 free, 400 im, 300 back, 200 ***, 100 fly. I was swimming alone in a Speedo Endurance practice suit and no cap. Coming into it, I was most concerned about the free portion (and the fly following it), because I haven't been training free much at all. I started off smoothly enough, but my form started falling apart around the 400 mark. The 100 fly following that was terrible. Stroke counts were high, SDK's were low, and I was breathing way too often. Once that painfest was over, I spent the next 800 yards trying to swim strong while shaking out the lactic acid in time for the last 100 fly. I've been training plenty of distance backstroke so that was no problem. I held 6-7 strokes per length on the breaststroke portions; those are good numbers for a bad breaststroker like me. The final 100 fly was much easier than the first. I was far smoother and able to sprint the final 50. I finished in 19:36, right in line with what I figured I would do. To improve on that, I will need to train more free. I'm not sure if it's worth the tedium... Michael Heather: After an easy 100, I did follow The Cumberland** with a set of 50 flys.*** * I still do not know why it is called that ** Nope, still nothing ***:banana:

Polar plunge! :eek: OK, I lived. Will post pics on the "Where we swim OW" thread when I get some of our group/me. The bikinis were a nice touch! :D Water temp a touch above freezing, air temp dunno; wind chill was 9 deg F when I last looked. We did not have to push floating islands of ice out of our way.

One of the benefits of freezing water is that the algae doesn't grow quite so well, and it is less likely to hang from one's swim suit!

Hi, I did the Polar Plunge too! Very liberating!

Started the year with the traditional Savannah Masters set of 100x50 @ :55 but I used to do this on 1:00, had to make it a little more challenging.

Thanks to everyone for the different New Year's workouts. I used a couple with my high school team this week. The "Cumberland" was a real hit. They enjoyed the challenge and our winner was not decided until the last 50! I look forward to using these in the future.

Here is our New Year's workout for our age groupers since our Master's doesn't have practice during the holiday season: Warm Up 500 Choice 12 Months in Year 12 x 100 IM Order @ 80% on :15 rest *strong technique 4 Weeks In A Month 4 x 200 IM @ 85% *1 & 4 on :20 rest *2 & 3 on :15 rest 7 Days In A Week 7 x 100 on 1:40 @ 90% on :20 rest *Odds = 7 SDK's *Events = 5 SDK's 24 Hours in a Day 24 x 50 *1 - 10 on 1:00 *11 - 15 on :55 *16 - 20 on :50 *21 - 24 on :45 60 Minutes in an Hour 60 x 25 on :45 @ 100% New Year's Resolution 4 x Your Favorite Race @ Race Pace on 2:00 Rest Recovery 200 Choice Hope this helps "inspire"! I loved this idea and adapated it a bit for this mornings group I coached at cactus. We had only 3 lanes and about 10 per lane. LCM - 10 minute warm-up - 12 x 75's @ 1:30 50 swim/25 power kick - 4 x 200's @ 3:00 descend 1-4 - 7 x 100's - odds IM fast @ 1:50/evens free recovery @ 2:00 - 24 x 50's descending 1-6 1-6 @ 1:00 7-12 @ :55 13-18 @ :50 19-24 @ :45 - Finish w/60 seconds of vertical kick because we were right at 90 minutes

Thanks to everyone for the different New Year's workouts. I used a couple with my high school team this week. The "Cumberland" was a real hit. They enjoyed the challenge and our winner was not decided until the last 50! I look forward to using these in the future. Cool! The virus is spreading... from its, uh, unknown point of origin :dunno: Michael Heather: I'll see if I can find out. I've sent email to the guy that told me about it.

No, just water into my system!!

Nova Masters finished up the last of the 3 swim practices which make up The Triple Crown for our "New Year's Swim". Triple Crown: Part #1 = 50 swims @ 1:30 Part #2 = 75 swims @ 1:20 Part #3 = 100 swims @ 1:15 (your lane chooses the distance or rotation of distances for each swim) Photos are here under the "Practices" Gallery: multisportsoc.smugmug.com/Nova Masters We had a record this year of 128 swimmers participating in the TC practices. It is quite a scene - and social event for the team. Brunch following is well attended. But it is long and very difficult if you choose to push the distances hard. Last year I vowed never to do it again. Today I am saying the same thing. But it is easy to forget - and get caught up in the frenzy of masters swimming excitement around the pool deck especially when it is your own team :) New Year's day of course we were down at the Pacific Ocean for a Polar Bear Swim. Happy New Year Discussion Group!