29 December 2022 Though I made a solid effort at the 400 Kick-For-Time a couple of weeks ago, I felt like my training this fall had prepared me to challenge my best-ever time of 5:35.77 from 2020. Today was not set up for optimal performance as I only got a bit more than 2 hours of sleep due to an end-of-year work commitment that kept me "Power-pointing" until 3 am. Given other constraints and plans, today was the last time before the 12/31 deadline to get an official time i

18 December 2022 It's been over a decade since I last tried tapering for a meet where I switched out my normal mid-to-long distance focus for a sprint focus. Today's Swim Ontario IM Fast Masters Challenge made for a perfect target for an end-of-year racing experience: Held at the fantastic Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre A focused afternoon of swimming with the 50s of each stroke (in IM order) followed by a 100 IM. I really like what Swim Ontario did to create this event, squee

17 December 2022 While it is certainly not my preference to have a business trip right before a taper meet, this happens more often than not with my jobs over the years. This week was no different, with a flight out Monday and a planned flight back on Thursday evening. Monday, December 12th (Meet Minus 6 days) did not start well. I dropped into one of the city of Toronto's newer community centers on the way to the airport, hoping to get in about 2,500 meters with a mix of

11 December 2022 Race day for the Swim Ontario Masters IM Fast meet is in seven days and the psych sheets are out. With my swim specialty most decidedly not being sprinting and my advancing years, I had no illusions that I'd be in the fast heat of any of the 50s, but, assuming they're running the full 10-lane course, it appears I squeaked into an outside lane for both the 50 backstroke (?!?) and the 100 IM. For my entry times, I used my fastest times swum since coming to Ca

7 December 2022 With 11 days to go before race day, I looked back to the 2011 short course yards season for taper ideas. That year, I had made the decision to make that a sprint-focused season, so I figured it would be a good taper plan. Here's the yards rendition of the April 18th, 2011 short course meters I did. Warmup Sets (1,400 total) 1 x 600: 200 IM kick-drill, 100 free w/snorkel, 200 IM drill-swim, 100 back swim 4 x 100: on 1:30, free, gentle descend 1 x 50: easy 4 x

6 December 2022 Thanks to a late night of work stress, I gotess sleep l than desired, even more so because my body woke me up with my mind racing at 4:15 am instead of my targeted 5:15 am alarm. While that early rise did give me time to get some physical therapy stretch cords and light yoga done, along with a sufficient amount of caffeine before my swim, I wasn't feeling super peppy until near the end of the workout when I put on a cap my oldest daughter got from one of her

4 December 2022 I should not have been surprised that I couldn't really hit anything like peak speed today. I have not taken a day off from training for over week, but I think I'm on the right track. Today was a repeat effort of my Pulse Plot test set along with a little speed work at my local LA Fitness. Warmup Sets (1,300) 1 x 400: IM kick-drill 6 x 50: on 0:50, descend in 3s, freestyle, backstroke 3 x 100: on 1:50, dolphin-flutte kick on back descend 1 x 50: easy scull 8

3 December 2022 I caught a few replays from this week's US Open long course championships, highlight reels featuring Katie Ledecky and Summer McIntosh going head to head in the 400 freestyle, and Ms. McIntosh crushing the field in the 400 IM. What amazes me is that, in my prime - the summer of 1988 swimming on the University of Texas men's team and trying to make the Olympic Trials - I could not have kept up with these two women. In 1988, I was trying very hard to get under