Set(s) of the Week

I am a keeper of all workouts...for every season I have been a head coach I have typed up each workout and at the end of the season I put them into a lovely Kinko's binded notebook. Every so often there is a day when I am just not feeling orginial so I flip through the pages and see something that will work for the day (with some modifications)...that is what we do.

Yesterday and this morning I re-worked some old sets...

Sam did 200 x 25's (a al Jacksonville Training Trip)
200 x 25
20 @ :5 rest, must do at least 3 of each stroke, no kick
20 @ :40 breast pull w/ buoy, no kick
20 @ :30 slk
10 @ :40 no free 3,6,9 AO
10 @ :35 choice underwater even easy
10 @ :30 pick 4 go AO, rest oyo
10 @ :25 free #5/#10 = fly
10 @ :20 make it
4 @ :5 rest
10 @ :30 AO big kicks
20 @ :30 AO big kicks w/ Zoomers
10 @ :30 AO big kicks
6 @ :5 rest
4 x
(3 @ :20
(1 @ :40
(2 @ :15
(2 @ :40
8 oyo @ :5 rest

Kasey did the following modified set
(a la the same Jacksonville Trip)

500 T turns w/ paddles, first 4 hand touches AO, no breath
10 x 50 w/ zoomers swim @ 1:00 go FAST
400 T turns w/ paddles, first 7 hand touches AO, no breath
10 x 50 w/ zoomers kick @ 1:00 go FAST
300 T turns w/ paddles, first 10 hand touches AO, 1 breath after 5
10 x 50 w/ zoomers swim @ :45 go FAST
200 T turns w/ paddles, first 13 hand touches AO, 1 breath after 7
10 x 50 w/ zoomers slk @ :45 go FAST
100 T turns w/ paddles, first 16 hand touches AO, 1 breath after 9


This morning Amanda (Palmer) did the following modified sets...
3 x
(6 x 25 fly @ :25
(3 x 50 back @ :50
(2 x 75 breast @ 1:20
(1 x 150 free @ 2:15

4 x 25 pull @ :20 3 breaths
4 x 25 pull @ :25 2 breaths
4 x 25 pull @ :30 1 breaths
4 x 25 pull @ :35 0 breath

I actually can't take credit for Amanda's...last spring I borrowed from (evil) Ed Denny (my coach at Fairmont State) the workout book from my senior year (which was typed up and kinko's binded) and this general idea was in there.

Team @ Cal

(thanks Mrs. Campbell)

Vulcan Dual Meet Challenge

Basically … We have 3 dual meets and at the end of all the swims the are combined to come up with invitational scoring.

Here are the scores and ‘stuff’ …

Friday night meet vs Mansfield
LHU ~ 102
Mansfield ~ 25

Saturday morning meet vs Slippery Rock
LHU ~ 86
SRU ~ 42

Saturday evening meet vs California
LHU ~ 45
CAL ~ 102

Invitational Scoring
CAL ~ 729
LHU ~ 630
SRU ~ 451
Mansfield ~ 244

Overall Event Winners…
Kasey Campbell 1000 FREE
Amanda Palmer 200 IM
Amanda Terray 50 BACK (meet record)
Amanda Terray 100 BACK
Amanda Terray 200 BACK (meet/pool record)

Overall we had some really good races and it is safe to say we had some fatigue set in towards the end of the meet … not overly surprising.

We are going into full taper mode for all those who are not already qualified for the conference meet. In 2 weeks we head to Edinboro for their last chance meet … everyone will be swimming 1 or 2 events…the PSAC swimmers will swim 1 serious event and 1 maybe not so serious event. Everyone not qualified for the conference meet will have the option to pick their event or events.

With the amount of work the women have put in I think that we should really see some fast swimming in 2 weeks.

(note: this posting was more informative than amusing … Ill work on that for the next one).

vs. Millersville

Amazing night of racing. I have a million thoughts running through my head, so this post has the potential to become unreadable towards the end...but I will give it a shot.

Coming off our our super training in Florida, we had a pretty intense week of practice. Double practices on Tuesday/Wednesday & Thursday. A new weight routine. A LOT of sprinting and AO swims lead me to really wonder how the women would respond to racing.

After the first race saw Shannon Wilbur (Dubby if you will) come from behind and have a great last 25 I knew the team would be okay. The trend continued ... race after race the women turned it on in the end. Just really fun to watch...so fun that after the first few raced I told Jo-el and Katie to put the clipboards down and just enjoy watching the meet. (Kim had the timing system under control and had zero issues!)

With the type of training we have been doing I was really suprised that the team swam as fast as they did ... no way they should be swimming this fast. I am just really proud of them.

Season Best Times Tonight:
(including a few first time of the year swim)

Vagnoni - 100 breast r
Gardner - 100 fly r
Wilbur - 100 free r
Lightcap - 100 breast r
Grenier - 100 fly r
Reitz - 100 free r
Campbell - 1000 free (kinda)
Kinard - 1000 free
Terray - 200 free (PSAC)
Schaefer - 200 free
Fountaine - 200 free
Samanka - 200 IM
Grenier - 200 IM
Faulstick - 200 IM
Vagnoni - 100 free
Terray - 200 back (A CUT!)
Schaefer - 200 back
Gardner - 200 back
Samanka - 500 free
Palmer - 200 breast
Lightcap - 200 breast
Grenier - 200 breast
McCracken - 100 free r
Fountaine - 100 free r
Williams - 50 free tt

(PS - that's a lot)

"i think i saw palm trees on that one"

good set yesterday evening.

2 x 200 @ 3:00 / 3:00
1 x 75 @ 1:00
2 x 200 @ 3:00 / 2:50
2 x 75 @ 1:00
2 x 200 @ 3:00 / 2:40
3 x 75 @ 1:00
2 x 200 @ 3:00 / 2:30
4 x 75 @ 1:00

first 200 each time was moderate ... 2nd 200 was fast, getting as much rest as possible

ps - amanda palmer enjoyed that set so much she gave us the great title

MEET v. Millersville tonight ... should be a good competitive contest.

Broken 100's

In an effort to put a little more emphasis on starts/turns/finishes we did some broken 100's at last night's practice. It worked out really well and will keep them, or a version of them, in our workouts a few times a week as we get ready for some taper meets.

Broken 100.

37 1/2 AO
~break
25 AO turn
~break
25 Slo-Mo turn-perfect
~break
12 1/2 AO finish

cocoa beach award photo

travel day / weekend

Jo-el and myself made it to Baltimore without any issue. Our Southwest jet was about half filled...I watched Burn After Reading and I think the Coen Brothers did it once again ... hilarious.

A few of the women had delays, but haven't heard any catastrophic delays or cancelations ... except for Katie. Akron, Ohio canceled a bunch of flights...her's being one of them. She is stuck in O'town one more night.

Long day of traveling ... looking forward to practice on Monday. We still have a lot of work to do as we get ready for some championship caliber swimming.

travel day marathon-ish

my and Amanda Terray's morning begun shortly after 3am ... you see her orginal connecting flight from Newark to Harrisburg was canceled last night so after calling customer service she was re-booked on a 6:40amish flight. With no other option we ventured for the Orlando International Airport at 3:30am...the dew in hand.

After dropping Amanda off I went back to the hotel (+/- 55 minutes...1 way) took a quick shower, checked out of the suites and about 10 minutes later the women started making there way down to the van. 7-11 slurpee and DD coffee/doughnut purchases were made (Nicole Faulstick was absolutly heartbroken to find sprinkles made their way on to her frosted doughnut) and we were back on the road. Everyone was dropped off at the Southwest gate b/c the first team flight is a Southwest one.

Jo-el and I made our way to fill the vans with the proper amount of gas and then dropped them off at (bob) carl's van rental. Our favorite worker, Stanley, was ready to check us in. He was the same gentleman who picked us up a week and a day ago ... he is from Oklahoma (sounding every bit the part) and came to Florida to work construction. Since there isn't much building these days he is going to mechanic school at night (even on New Year's Eve .... "which sucked") so he can join up with his son who races bikes. He is living out of a motel in downtown Orlando and as much as I would like to share with you all his short stories they are most certainly R rated...sorry.

Jo-el and I are hanging out at gate 123 where we found a little over half of our team waiting to take off ... from the looks of it, Ron Jon earned a few bucks from the LHU Swim Team as they are all decked out in their new shirts.

I am going to put in Kim's Netflix movie (burn after reading) and I can see a quarter pounder with cheese in my future.

2.5 hours until our flight ...

Go Panthers.

'the only thing that would have made this trip more productive would have been a powerball victory'

The Cocoa Beach Award 2009, as voted upon by her teammates, was given to Janel Kinard. The criteria was simply the person that had a great week of training and was a good teammate throughout the trip. Janel was very deserving and I'll get a picture up here once I get it from Jo-el.

The morale of the group remained fantastic during each practice ... there were some moments of unhappiness, soreness, sickness and ihateyouandyness...but all in all the women came down here with a mission to work hard and get better. I am very VERY proud of all their efforts. This was a great trip.............mission accomplished (too corny?).

Big shout out to Katie and Jo-el for doing an outstanding job with writing practices, dryland, motivation, van driving, ideas etc. ...no way this trip goes as smooth without them.

We finished up our last practice of the Cocoa Beach training trip with an okay set.

400 @ 7:00
8 x 50 @ 1:00
4 x 100 @ 1:45

2 times through...the distance people did the 400 AO, the sprinters did the 50's AO, and the stokers did the 100's AO. When you were doing AO, you were OYO. It was a good one.

************************

For next year's trip we will be staying at the Ron Jon Resort ... check it out.

http://www.ronjonresort.com/

... rooms may actually end up being cheaper per person!!

We will continue to train at the same facility...b/c it is awesome. (in fact we already have our lanes and times reserved!)

I will miss the daily Slurpee run, the freaking awesome sun, running on the beach, the wearing of flip flops and shorts daily, waffle house breakfast (yummy!) amoung other things.... won't miss the sand though, hate the sand!

Finally, tomorrow is our travel day ... the weather back home doesn't appear to be very condusive to air travel so wish us luck as we venture back to Lock Haven.

ps-today's blog title is a great quote by a great man (even if he can't finish a 40 ounce slurpee)... jo-el

lucky suit practice

Our lucky suit practice turned into a suprise recovery workout. Back in Septemeber I told the women that when we are in Florida we are going to be wearing the lucky suit 2 times ... the first being our meet day and the second being on the 'hardest workout of your life'

A few times after workouts this week the women have asked if that should have been the lucky suit workout and to be honest, a few of our workouts probably were some of the hardest ones they have ever done ... so this morning when I told them to wear the suit for tonight's workout, the freaking out started. The only problem with today is that next year when I say we are going to have the 'lucky suit' workout they will all expect a suprise recovery day.

Ill write it here about 365 days in advance ... next year's lucky suit practice will be the hardest workout ever :-)

On the non swimming side of life, the weather has been pretty much awesome, with the exception of a few hours yesterday, when the rain came pouring down. Today was our coldest day, but somehow I think we all managed to add to our base tan (or burn depending on who you ask) ... no real complaints on our end, especially since all reports to Lock Haven being a little chilly and not like Florida chilly, but sub artic chilly...

This afternoon Jo-el (our student asst coach) and I set out on digging a hole in the sand to China for some sweet and sour chicken...after about 10 minutes I broke a sweat and decided it would be more fun just to drive down the street to purchase some from "new china". Boy was I right .... delish.

2 more workouts to go.

dinner = delish

post day off morning

after a relaxing day off we had another really great workout.

appox a 30 min warm up

we did this straight through 3 times
((note the interval difference in the 100's))

400 @ 7:00
3 x 100 @ 2:00
200 @ 3:30 (always pull easy)
3 x 100 @ 1:40
:30 rest
2 x 50 @ 1:30 (always AO kick)

round 1
400=1st & 3rd 100=AO, rest easy
3 x 100 = 3rd AO, rest oyo
easy pull
3 x 100 = 1st AO, rest oyo
hard kick

round 2
400=2nd & 4th 100 = AO, rest easy
3 x 100 - 2nd & 3rd 50 AO, rest oyo
easy pull
3 x 100 = 1st & 2nd AO, rest oyo
hard kick

round 3
400=middle 200 AO, rest easy
3 x 100 = all 3 AO
easy pull
3 x 100 = all 3 AO
hard kick

"not blog-able"

Last night's practice included an 'intense' dryalnd ... four, six minute stations. Then we swam a 15 min long warm up swim followed by a couple 50's build to get the HR (heart rate elevated) then our main set.

21 x 100 @ 2:00 in sets of 3
2 AO (all out) from the block
1 EZ (easy/recovery)

The sets of 2 AO needed to be the same stroke for both.

The team really did well with this set...it was super intense and I didn't see one person back down. In fact a lot of the women stepped up and mixed up their strokes as requested. It was awesome.

Today is our free day and a lot of the women are enjoying quality time of doing nothing...or renting a surfboard and catching waves. Team dinner tonight! Yummy.

crackberry cam

taken about 6:21am this morning...

meet morning

We had a splendid morning o' swimming. Nice long warm up swim of about 60 minutes (or an hour) and then had our mini meet with the women of Northern Michigan University. It was a pretty good/quick time for the women and they had some fun ... not sure if there was enough time spent to actually become facebook friends, but you never know.

Wal Mart run for the women this morning...hope there is a redbox :-) (movie rental 'thing' that Kim and I enjoy back in Lock Haven)

We are going again tonight at 6pm ... with an intense dryland and a practice that will be sure to produce another whitty Janel comment.

(all day off tomorrow)

Go Buckeyes!

"that even hurt just to joke about"

Today was another beautiful day in Florida. Our 10am-Noon workout was our first one in specific training groups. None of the groups got off easy … super hard! The afternoon workout was just as intense if not harder (depending on the group).

In between practices the women found out that the sun does burn the skin. I personally watched a lot of football and set up a killer itunes play list to run to. I was able to get in a run before the evening workout.

Tomorrow morning will be a combined workout/meet with Northern Michigan University…should be a good time. It is always good to meet other swimmers who are enjoying some “fun” workouts in florida.

I enjoyed a delicious pizza from a N.Y. pizza place in town ... super tasty.

PS- the title quote is fully credited to Janel Kinard

travel day + practice 1 & 2

In order to visit the world wide web at our hotel we must go to the lobby. And with all the wonderful football games and nice running weather I haven't had the chance to make it until this morning. I will give you a quick update on our progress so far ...

Travel to Florida was pretty painless...everybody arrived on time or actually early. Janel, Sam & Erin's bags didn't make it from Baltimore with their flight, but since we were still waiting on some of the team to arrive when the next flight came in in they were able to pick up their bags...just a little later then they would have liked. No harm no foul.

(bob) Carl's van rental did a great job picking up Jo-el and I getting us to their parking area, we picked up the 2 rental vans, headed to the airport to pick up the team and head to cocoa beach. It is about an hour drive from the airport to our hotel. Apparently the speed limit doesn't apply to anybody on this particular stretch of highway. I was doing the stock 5mph over and was getting passed by EVERY moving vehicle (except the super slow car pulling a trailor)....but as I alway say, safety first.

The Wakulla Suites started our trip off on a bit of a sour note ... we arrived at 3:34pmish. Check in scheduled to start at 4pm. Our first (of 5) rooms wasn't available until 4:30ish. We scheduled a 6pm Wal-Mart run and were leaving as the last room was ready. Oh well, it was worth it when it was all done.

Wal Mart run found us eating at Denny's (wonderful service...not) instead of Fazzolis (sp?) b/c they were no longer in business. (just a side note ... the double cheeseburger is freaking huge...way hug-er than the picture in the menu)

A small forture was spent at wal mart on groceries and other items...jo-el bought a gallon of mouthwash for a week long trip (to be fair the wal mart brand was way cheaper then the little bottle of the brand name).

Our first 2 practices were meant to be ease our way into swimming long course meters ... but apparently they were "hard". I thought they were moderate to easy. I can't wait to hear what the team calls a practice that I think is "hard"

On our way to practice 3 ... our first practice by training groups.

PS - it is super sunny and super warm down here...it's okay to be jealous!

"the gps lady sounds like a chain smoker"

Happy New Year.

Jo-el, Kim (my girlfriend) and I traveled to Baltimore Maryland today. We all fly from BWI tomorrow morning. (Kim is traveling to Florida for a soccer coaching clinic)

Deb, my sister, is going to drive us to the airport in the morning and car sit (aka avoid paying parking) during the trip.

We stopped at Wendy's in Lock Haven (ending the boycott...but only for a day) and got on the road. The traffic was light and there weren't any major delays ... quick pit stop at a McDonalds about an hour away from Deb's place. The bags were unloaded and we headed to Damons (the place for ribs) to watch the Rose Bowl game...(leaving at halftime).

Early to bed tonight, longer travel day tomorrow.

Florida on Friday.