Statistical analysis and last night's practice: Feel free to skip.

NOTE: THIS IS PROBABLY A BORING POST. I WANTED TO MAKE THESE NOTES, SO I DID, BECAUSE IT IS MY BLOG, AFTER ALL. FEEL FREE TO STOP READING NOW.

I am starting a new workout log today: for once, my little notebook ran out right as the year was running out. How exciting to have a brand new cover and everything. My old log has quite the tattered cover, and it has the 2006 SCY national qualifying times stapled in the front, with the 30-34 times highlighted as a reminder of what the goals were. 2006's yardage amounted to 569,550, whereas in 2005 I swam 480,075, and in 2004 I swam 482,000. (Incomplete data for 2003--sorry).

Obviously 2006 was a bigger year than the two previous, but I do not think that reading these numbers in terms of calendar years tells a very accurate story. If we read the data in terms of seasons, then we see

2003-4: 324, 625
2004-5: 452,775
2005-6: 612,125
2006-7: incomplete data

That data wrap-up shows how last year I really swam quite a bit more than in previous years, even though I was on a generally upward trend in all three years. And if we want to look at the data in terms of August-December, so that we can also compare this year's so-called achievement, here is what we find:

2003-4 Aug-Dec: 166,050*
2004-5 Aug-Dec: 227,425
2005-6 Aug-Dec: 254,725
2006-7 Aug-Dec: 212, 150
* no data for 12 weeks in 2003, so I
estimated this figure based on average yardage per week for the year. Let's not
give it much statistical significance, shall we?

Now, THAT tells us something--namely, that I am off the mark for the first half of this year. I am not surprised, given that in 2004-5 and 2005-6 I was swimming with the children's team a couple of days a week, in addition to regular masters practice.

But let's let fall 2006 be bygone, and move on to now:

Last night's practice was a bit of a doozy. Frequently my evening practices are about 3500 yards, but this one went 4000, and with an extra challenge: the water was only 78 F (so said the lifeguard). This is only a few degrees cooler than the usual water temperature, but MAN was it cold. I felt like I never really warmed up, in that my muscles were tight and jerky the whole time. And by the end of the second main set, my toes felt cold. Yuck. But as Coach says, these are the joys of Westside. I tried to argue that because of the temperature I would not need to ice my shoulder afterwards, but he just gave me that look.

It was a good workout, so in the spirit of good starts, I'll note it down:

1000 warm-up (5 x 200 choice, switching every 200)
600 kick set (4 x [3 x 50 kick], one round for each stroke, descend within round)
200 drill/swim
1200 main set (6 x 200, for each: 75 stroke + 50 free + 75 stroke; for the stroke swim fly/back, breast/fly, back/breast, two times through)
800 free (8 x 100 free on ~20 sec. rest: 3 x 100 moderate, 3 x 100 tempo, 2 x 100 FAP)
200 cool (as if I needed to cool off!!!)
TOT: 4000 yards, 1.5 hours

That IM set was tough, if only because 75 fly at one time is not easy for me--let ALONE when the 75 of fly came at the END of a 200. But it was a good set for training for 200 IM, or even 400 IM.

The freestyle set was also tough, but because I have not been doing that much fast swimming this season. (And probably the cold-induced tightness did not help.) Our new team's workouts seem to be more steady state swimming than our old team's, which had much more interval training and fast sets. So swimming the 8 x 100 free and trying to maintain an interval and raise intensity over the course of the set was tougher than it should have been.

Note to self: talk to Coach about including more fast swimming in practice.