Terry's "Zero-Cancer Zone" Practices

[terry]

I've swum nearly every day this week but haven't posted simply because I've been revisiting the practices I did last week. I'm recovering slowly from something that really cut into my stamina and strength so I've done purely restorative swimming for the past week to 10 days. During that time I did very little timed or tempo swimming, just repeating the same four to five Focal Points. Today I felt a little better so I did the following.

Saturday 3 September 2000LCM at Ulster County Pool
Tuneup 400 Cruise. I held pretty consistent at 45 SPL which is a few strokes higher than usual for a 50m pool at this easy a pace.

Main Set 20 x 50 as below
6 x 50 Slowing Tempo 1.14-1.16-1.18-1.20.1-22-1.24.
SPL dropped from 43 to 41.
14 x 50 Increasing Tempo in .01 increments (1.23-1.22-1.21, etc) from 1.23 to 1.06. I finished at 44 SPL, but was 43 SPL at 1.07. So my 29th 50 was 3 seconds faster (.07 x 43) faster than my first at same stroke count.

Late Afternoon 1200m Gentle and Perfect at Lake Minnewaska

[terry]

I'm changing the heading of my blog (formerly Zero Cancer Swimming) to the affirmation Vibrant Health Swimming (or maybe Health and Vitality Swimming). I'm using that header for the first time in 'print' today.

Sunday 4 September 2000LCM at Ulster County Pool
My Labor Day weekend goal is to swim twice each day over the 3-day weekend, once in the county 50m pool and once in open water. Today is day 2. This was most definitely my strongest pool practice of the summer, performance wise.

Tuneup 400m continuous. I held a consistent 41 SPL at super-gentle pace. Very pleased with that SL and with the consistency

Tempo Pyramid
Yesterday my entire main set was a 1600m Tempo Pyramid, starting at 1.14 and finishing at 1.06. Today I wanted to start at a faster tempo and see if I could maintain same range of SPL. And I did a shorter set (800m) as a preliminary to my main set.
I started at Tempo of 1.10 sec and 44SPL. I slowed by .02 to 1.20 sec, improving to 41SPL. Then I increased tempo by .01 sec returning to 1.10 sec at 42 strokes, a savings of 2 strokes and 2.2 sec.
59m pace at 42 strokes and 1.1 was 49.5 sec. RPE was 3/5.

Main Set SPL + Time set of 4 x 200 on 4:30 interval
My plan was to take 40-41 SPL on 1st 200, and increase by 1SPL each 200. I
Also I swam this way
1st 200 Cruise (2/5 RPE) Time = 3:53
2nd 200 [150 Cruise 50 Brisk (3/5 RPE0] Time = 3:47
3rd 200 [100 Cruise, 100 Brisk] Time = 3:42
4th 200 [50 Cruise, 150 Brisk] Time = 3:37

Late Afternoon 1200m Gentle and Perfect at Lake Minnewaska

[terry]

Monday 5 Sept - Labor Day - 2400 LCM at Ulster County Pool

I felt a little bit under the weather today so I swam as easily as possible, with the idea of seeing how well I could swim with truly minimized effort.
6 x 100 @ 41 SPL Descend from 2:06 to 2:01
3 x 200. Goal was to hold same SPL and pace as on the 100s. I succeeded.
4 x 100. Goal was to maintain same effort level and SPL but swim faster. I did, averaging 1:59 to 1:58
2 x 200 Goal was again to match SPL and pace from 100s. Again I succeeded.

8 x 50 with Tempo. Increased tempo from 1.12 to 1.05. Goal was to hold initial stroke count - 42 SPL - as long as possible. I held it to 1.06.

Late Afternoon approx 800m at Jones Beach