I decided that today was not a gym day, it was just too nice outside and I just didn’t want to deal with people today. Also, I had to shorten my lunch breaker a little bit because I had a Dr appointment this afternoon. Can’t miss too much time on one day. I try to be very careful on my workday as my workload has downstream effects for others.
Anyway I decided to do the Power-line Trail loop today, it’s easily accessible and not to flat, and I like seeing how my little prairie dogs are doing.
July 24, 2026 Outdoor Run Summary
Metric
Value
Duration
45:57
Distance
6.24 km
Average HR
131 bpm
Maximum HR
151 bpm
Minimum HR
52 bpm(likely at the beginning before the run)
Estimated Elevation Gain
~96 m (315 ft)
Comparison to Prior Runs
Date
Surface
Distance
Avg HR
Max HR
Jun 23
Treadmill (pre)
5.32 km
93
124
Jun 25
Treadmill (pre)
4.86 km
78
98
Jul 11
Treadmill
7.57 km
118
138
Jul 15
Treadmill
6.97 km
121
155
Jul 17
Treadmill
6.91 km
125
157
Jul 24
Outdoor
6.24 km
131
151
My Garmin Public Page for this run:
That’s it for today, I won’t have a swim day today. And, I may decide not to do anything over the weekend as all of my apps are telling me I may be over-training. I have to do a few things around the house here tomorrow, the dogs need a bath, the front lawn (what’s left of it) needs a cutting, and I need to spend some time pulling weeds in the back.
Decided on a little endurance today, switching between strokes in no specific patterns.
Metric
Value
Total distance
2,600 m
Total swim time
53:04
Number of swim sets
8
Overall average pace
1:49/100 m
Average heart rate
116 bpm
Maximum heart rate
147 bpm
Average SWOLF
40
Longest continuous swim
1,250 m
Longest freestyle set
150 m
Longest breaststroke set
200 m
And my sets came to a total of 2600 meters in 53:04, including rest times.
Set
Stroke
Distance
Time
Pace /100 m
Avg HR
Max HR
SWOLF
1
Mixed
1,250 m
22:46
1:49
109
125
40
Rest
—
—
0:40.7
—
—
—
—
2
Mixed
200 m
3:28.3
1:44
137
147
38
Rest
—
—
0:51.3
—
—
—
—
3
Freestyle
150 m
2:30.5
1:40
128
146
36
Rest
—
—
0:39.3
—
—
—
—
4
Breaststroke
200 m
3:58.1
1:59
131
139
43
Rest
—
—
0:53.9
—
—
—
—
5
Mixed
200 m
3:38.3
1:49
94
107
40
Rest
—
—
0:29.1
—
—
—
—
6
Freestyle
150 m
2:32.1
1:41
133
144
37
Rest
—
—
1:15.8
—
—
—
—
7
Mixed
350 m
6:34.2
1:53
121
135
41
Rest
—
—
0:53.8
—
—
—
—
8
Freestyle
100 m
1:45.6
1:46
114
128
38
I have to keep in mind that I need to decrease my times based on the results of the last Huntsman Games in 2025:
Event
🥇 Gold
🥈 Silver
🥉 Bronze
4th Place
100 m Breaststroke
1:19.22
1:28.57
1:32.97
1:37.95
200 m Breaststroke
3:01.02
3:38.74
3:39.92
4:00.27
800 m Freestyle
12:00.10
12:16.56
12:32.85
12:56.76
1500 m Freestyle
23:34.66
23:39.43
25:04.75
25:06.88
I really want to at least get in the top 4 or I will be so disappointed with myself. I think for my tomorrow workout I am going to try and swim my events again to see where I am.
Best training times based on events:
Event
Best Training Time
Date
Notes
100 m Breaststroke
1:47.9
7/22/2026
After a recovery following a 250 m breaststroke repeat.
200 m Breaststroke
3:59.5
7/19/2026
Race simulation workout.
800 m Freestyle
14:29.1
7/19/2026
Swum late in a 3,000 m race simulation after prior events.
1500 m Freestyle
26:09.4
7/19/2026
Continuous swim during race simulation.
Potential place right now based on training times based on comparison to 2025 winning times:
Event
Best Training
Gold
Silver
Bronze
4th
100 m Breaststroke
1:47.9
1:19.22
1:28.57
1:32.97
1:37.95
200 m Breaststroke
3:59.5
3:01.02
3:38.74
3:39.92
4:00.27 ✅
800 m Freestyle
14:29.1
12:00.10
12:16.56
12:32.85
12:56.76
1500 m Freestyle
26:09.4
23:34.66
23:39.43
25:04.75
25:06.88
The pace per 100/m for the top 4 were:
Event
Medal
Race Time
Required Pace (/100 m)
100 m Breaststroke
🥇 Gold
1:19.22
1:19.22
🥈 Silver
1:28.57
1:28.57
🥉 Bronze
1:32.97
1:32.97
4th
1:37.95
1:37.95
200 m Breaststroke
🥇 Gold
3:01.02
1:30.51
🥈 Silver
3:38.74
1:49.37
🥉 Bronze
3:39.92
1:49.96
4th
4:00.27
2:00.14
800 m Freestyle
🥇 Gold
12:00.10
1:30.01
🥈 Silver
12:16.56
1:32.07
🥉 Bronze
12:32.85
1:34.11
4th
12:56.76
1:37.10
1500 m Freestyle
🥇 Gold
23:34.66
1:34.31
🥈 Silver
23:39.43
1:34.63
🥉 Bronze
25:04.75
1:40.32
4th
25:06.88
1:40.46
And this is the comparison to my recent training performance:
Event
Your Best
Average Pace (/100 m)
4th Place Pace
Gap
100 m Breaststroke
1:47.9
1:47.9
1:37.95
9.95 sec/100
200 m Breaststroke
3:59.5
1:59.8
2:00.1
Already slightly faster
800 m Freestyle
14:29.1
1:48.6
1:37.1
11.5 sec/100
1500 m Freestyle
26:09.4
1:44.6
1:40.5
4.1 sec/100
I got a ways to go on some of these. 76 days left. Turns are going to kill me.
After a dry-land day yesterday I was back in the pool today working more on technique. I am trying to break several bad habits that I developed over 40 years of open water competition rather than pool competition. I need to make sure to improve flip turns, and breaststroke push offs from turns, as well as my underwater portion of breaststroke. I learned to compete in the dark ages of breaststroke where you could not have your head underwater at any time and you were only allowed one complete stroke after the wall with no dolphin kick. This has changes over the years.
Today’s workout:
Metric
Value
Total workout time
51:45
Total swim distance
2,525 m
Total intervals
20 swim intervals
Longest freestyle repeat
200 m
Longest breaststroke repeat
250 m
Fastest 100 Freestyle
1:32.1
Fastest 100 Breaststroke
1:49.6
Fastest breaststroke 50
0:50.3
Fastest freestyle 50
0:42.5
I had a longer than normal rest time in the center of the workout as the guy in the lane next to me wanted to talk a bit about some upcoming competitions.
#
Stroke
Distance
Time
Pace /100
1
Freestyle
100
1:32.1
1:32.1
2
Mixed (warm-up)
100
1:49.0
1:49.0
3
Breaststroke
50
0:50.3
1:40.6
4
Breaststroke
50
0:52.6
1:45.2
5
Freestyle
100
1:33.0
1:33.0
6
Breaststroke
50
0:51.2
1:42.4
7
Breaststroke
100
1:49.9
1:49.9
8
Freestyle
100
1:37.9
1:37.9
9
Breaststroke
100
1:54.0
1:54.0
10
Breaststroke
250
4:24.5
1:45.8
11
Breaststroke
100
1:47.9
1:47.9
12
Freestyle
50
0:42.5
1:25.0
13
Breaststroke
100
1:49.6
1:49.6
14
Freestyle
200
3:11.1
1:35.6
15
Mixed
100
1:43.8
1:43.8
16
Mixed
100
1:41.4
1:41.4
17
Mixed
100
1:42.0
1:42.0
18
Breaststroke
100
1:54.5
1:54.5
19
Freestyle
100
1:38.6
1:38.6
20
Mixed (cool-down)
50
0:53.8
1:47.6
Breaststroke
Total breaststroke volume: 750 m (50 + 50 + 50 + 100 + 100 + 250 + 100 + 100 + 100 m)
Longest repeat: 250 m
Fastest 100: 1:47.9 (following a rest after the 250 m)
Best other 100: 1:49.6
The 250 m repeat at 1:45.8/100 m is particularly noteworthy because it indicates a sustained a pace faster than your standalone 100 m breaststroke intervals. That may reflect a combination of pacing strategy, interval timing, or the way Garmin segmented the swim, but it’s a repeat worth watching in future workouts.
Freestyle
Fastest 100: 1:32.1
Best sustained pace: 200 m in 3:11.1 (1:35.6/100 m)
Today was a dry land workout. Need to give my shoulders some recovery time so it was the treadmill today for a “pleasant” 5.65K run. It wasn’t doo bad of a run and got my HR up for an extended period.
Metric
Value
Distance
5.65 km (3.51 mi)
Time
41:03
Average HR
134 bpm
Maximum HR
156 bpm
Average Running Cadence
70 spm (reported by Garmin)
Average Power
336 W
Max Power
439 W
Training Effect
5.0 Aerobic
Anaerobic Training Effect
3.3
Calories
564
Mile
Time
Avg HR
Max HR
Avg Power
1
10:37
124
153
305 W
2
8:51
151
156
387 W
3
8:45
143
153
390 W
0.19 mi cooldown
3:19
89
101
125 W
I don’t have too much more to say about this as I despise treadmill runs, but getting out of the pool a few days a week is important when I start having the “I don’t want to” attitude about swimming.
Tomorrow is back in the pool. I think I am going to work on my breaststroke technique. I also changed my watch from auto rest to manual rest on swimming as it may be more accurate with timing.
Slightly different workout today. I concentrated on shorter sets rather than distance. I don’t do well with short sets as it is just too many stop and starts and my times are never that great. Anyways the workout summary for today:
Metric
Value
Total Distance
2,525 m
Timer Time
54:45.3
Elapsed Time
56:55.4
Average HR
120 bpm
Maximum HR
161 bpm
Aerobic Training Effect
3.7
Anaerobic Training Effect
1.7
And my workout looked something like this:
Segment
Time
Estimated pace /100 m
100 m Freestyle
1:32.6
1:32.6
Rest
0:15
—
200 m Mixed
3:35.1
1:47.5
Rest
0:12
—
100 m Breaststroke
1:57.3
1:57.3
Rest
0:25
—
100 m Freestyle
1:38.9
1:38.9
Rest
1:03
—
100 m Breaststroke
1:55.0
1:55.0
Rest
0:32
—
200 m Mixed
3:41.6
1:50.8
Rest
0:30
—
100 m Freestyle
1:40.3
1:40.3
Rest
0:14
—
100 m Breaststroke
1:55.9
1:55.9
Rest
0:26
—
150 m Freestyle
2:25.8
1:37.2
Rest
0:16
—
150 m Breaststroke
2:57.9
1:58.6
Rest
0:36
—
150 m Freestyle
2:33.2
1:42.1
Rest
0:26
—
150 m Breaststroke
3:00.8
2:00.5
Rest
0:30
—
325 m Mixed
5:57.9
1:50.1
Rest
0:54
—
150 m Freestyle
2:30.9
1:40.6
Rest
0:24
—
150 m Mixed
2:47.7
1:51.8
Rest
0:33
—
50 m Breaststroke
0:56.7
1:53.4
Rest
0:21
—
50 m Freestyle
0:49.9
1:39.8
Rest
0:16
—
50 m Breaststroke
0:58.8
1:57.6
Rest
0:16
—
50 m Freestyle
0:50.3
1:40.6
Rest
0:37
—
50 m Breaststroke
1:03.6
2:07.2
Rest
0:10
—
50 m Freestyle
0:51.3
1:42.6
My watch miscounted on that 325 one, somehow it added a 25m lap, have no idea why. I never do any 25meter lengths.
I am OK with my freestyle times. I need start and turn practice with those. My breaststroke times suck. I really need to work on those, I am about 20 seconds too slow. I really think this has a lot to do with turns, and maybe some old habits that have never gone away.
I decided that today’s swim would be a 3000 Meter workout that included all of the events that I will be swimming in October. I know this in no way is a true reflection of race pace, but I wanted to prove to myself that I can do this.
My workout is below and the Gold, Silver, Bronze, and 4th Place columns are from the 2025 results in the same pool for the 60-64 year old age group.
Workout Segment / Event
7/19/2026 Time
Gold (2025)
Silver (2025)
Bronze (2025)
4th Place (2025)
Warm-up — 200 m Freestyle
3:40.9
—
—
—
—
Rest
0:26.4
—
—
—
—
1500 m Freestyle
26:09.4
23:34.66
23:39.43
25:04.75
25:06.88
Rest
1:50.8
—
—
—
—
200 m Breaststroke
3:59.5
3:01.02
3:38.74
3:39.92
4:00.27
Rest
1:29.8
—
—
—
—
100 m Breaststroke
1:58.3
1:19.22
1:28.57
1:32.97
1:37.95
Rest
1:57.0
—
—
—
—
800 m Freestyle
14:29.1
12:00.10
12:16.56
12:32.85
12:56.76
Rest
1:09.5
—
—
—
—
Cool-down — 200 m Mixed
3:59.1
—
—
—
—
Now is the time to start working on technique as I have gotten sloppy over the years. I also need to work on my turns. That is where I can shave 10 seconds off of each length, and it is enough to make a difference in the pool. Next week will probably be a series of shorter workouts, but more focused on breaststroke and turns. I think I am also going to start wearing a swim cap again with the hopes that will help me stop loosing core temperature as much as I do.
Today’s workout from Garmin Connect for anyone that is interested:
Well… I might have done something really stupid, but I broke down and registered for the Huntsman World Senior Games being held in St. George, Utah from October 6-10th (The games are more days than that, but that is the swimming portion).
I’m going to swim the 100M Breaststroke, the 200M Breaststroke, the 800M Freestyle, and the 1500M Freestyle. These are all endurance events, which has been the basis of my swim training for years.
I was looking at last years times and was thinking, “hey… I could actually place!” Nice part about getting older, the competition thins out.
The maybe “stupid” part? I have not competed in a pool event since college swimming….. when was that? Oh, 1986……. And what year is this? Oh, 2026….. that is about 40 years. I have been strictly open water since then. I really had decided I would never compete in a pool again, but there are some health concerns that I have been worried about and right now Open Water events do not make sense from a safety perspective.
I went back and looked at some of my swim stats for the last six months with regard to the events I plan on swimming and compared them to the 2025 Huntsman World Senior Games results and found
Event
My Current Training Time
🥇 Gold (2025)
🥈 Silver (2025)
🥉 Bronze (2025)
4th Place (2025)
1500 m Freestyle
26:09.4
23:34.66
23:39.43
25:04.75
25:06.88
800 m Freestyle
14:29.1
12:00.10
12:16.56
12:32.85
12:56.76
200 m Breaststroke
3:59.5
3:01.02
3:38.74
3:39.92
4:00.27
100 m Breaststroke
1:58.3
1:19.22
1:28.57
1:32.97
1:37.95
Training times are strange to compare to race results as they do not always line up. In a race event you are only swimming that event. My training times are part of a longer workout. Also, no block start for training, less adrenaline, and I have a tendency not to do flip turns in training (got to fix that). All of this has the potential to shave about 10-15 seconds off per 50 meters.
I have 11 weeks to the games. I will probably be posting more on my swimming to stay accountable to myself and show progress.
I have been a bad blogger for the last 17 days or so. Life gets busy, you hit a few roadblocks and all of a sudden the blog does not seem that important. I have been struggling with some health related issues again, and have been having some problems keeping my routine on a daily basis. I think some of this is resolved.
Anyways, to catch you up on the last 17 days since April 13th…… I spent a few days in Chicago for a pretty large Home Automation System inspection. It wasn’t a bad trip and I managed to stay in a hotel that actually had walking and jogging capability outside and not on crappy hotel treadmills.
I was able to finally get Climber to her second vet visit so her vaccinations are now all complete for another year or so. I have to make an appointment to get Res in. That will wait another month or so, he’s not due yet but we are moving them both back to VCA as we want them to have access to the 24 hour ER care, and I am tired of not having all of their medical records in one place.
Speaking of medical, I had my cardiac stress test this past week, obviously they could not pinpoint the issue that has been plaguing me for months. Something happens with my heart rate when I work out for a long period of time. It is bad that they couldn’t find it, I was never able to get my heart rate to max out. I just don’t understand why the medical community does not realize that when you have a heart rate monitor that actually tracks everything you do, and you can narrow down the exact conditions that cause the issue, that for some reason they absolutely refuse to attempt to replicate them. A 8 minute walk, run on a treadmill at 30% incline does not equal 30 minutes into a 6 mile run. And, I think I am having afib but with a heart rate in the low 40s my watch can’t determine afib or anything else. Heart rate to low.
As I mentioned I have been having issues with getting into a routine, this is primarily a routine in the pool with my swimming workouts. I have had real problems with the town rec centers, as great as they are, group activities and just general over-use has caused me not to be able to count on my swim workouts for the last month. I have had to be going back and forth between two centers and with one of them I have to change my schedule around to to swim lessons, teams, pool closures, etc. It has really been a distraction. So, I finally joined a VASA Fitness, a private chain of fitness centers that have pools. Today I did my first workout there.
It’s a nice, 25 meter, 3 lave pool, but the lanes are wide enough that you can reasonably share lanes. Also, it was clean and the water felt nice and was not over chlorinated. It was a good swim, now to see if in May I can get my distances back up again. Of course I do have an upcoming business trip or two that may cut into my swim time, but that’s OK I can work around those.
For April, I did have some wins with my workouts and fitness, it was overall a good month, with a few minor setbacks.
62 workouts, 15 swims, 3 runs. A total of 42 hours and 127.5 miles logged. On the health side:
I did see some progress on both weight and fitness. I think in the next month I should make my weight goals, the question is will I make my fitness goals. I really don’t know right now. My goal all year has been the start of the Mountain Lake Swim series. The first swim is a 2.5 mile swim up near Boulder, CO. I do have a concern that it may be un-wise for me to do this swim because of this stupid heart rate issue I am having. I am still going to train for it, but I am not sure it will happen. I really need a 5K swim to see if I can still do it, my max in the last year or so has been a 3.5K, I am short by 1500M. That is the goal this coming month, a 5K swim.
Anyways, I think that is it for now. I promise I will try to post a little more in May. I was doing so good before this few week setback in April. Talk to you soon!
I have been remiss in posting for the last two days, the bottom line is there was not much going on. Today, however, was a busy day. I didn’t get everything done I wanted to get done, but that’s OK, it was a Saturday. I started off the day with my normal get up, have coffee, let the dogs in and out, give them their snacks, and then wade through my personal email. do a quick check on work email – I always make sure nothing urgent.
When Jesse got up I too Res on his morning walk, today was a lone walk and we did about 3.25 miles. It was a good walk until Res noticed that I was starting to turn him back to the house, then he changed speed from bunny speed to snail speed. He likes being out and about and when I turn back to the house he notices.
When we got back home it was now Climber’s turn. I took her on a slightly longer walk because she walks a little faster than Res does and she needs her exercise, she needs to loose 9 pounds. We have cut her back on her food a bit. I am being a little stingy on her treats, and I am going to start figuring out how to start giving her more outside time during the weekdays. Anyways, her part of the walk was really good, except for something that I will describe after her walk gallery.
I love our Prairie Dogs, the are cute, they are funny, and even Res and Climber love to watch them. They are harmless. They build their colonies in empty fields, they do not build in peoples lawns, and they have family units. So, imaging my surprise and horror when I see some asshole in the field next to one of the churches up on Tower Boulevard in the middle of the Prairie dog colony.
What this idiot was doing was using a shovel to seal off one end of the tunnels and then he was sticking a long hose with a funnel into the other end of the tunnels and dumping something, I assume poison, down the hole and then sealing the colony into the holes. The way he was approaching it, he has done this before. As soon as I saw what he was doing and started taking photographs of him, his actions, and his license plate, he suddenly put his stuff away and got really nervous.
I want to point out that there are so many things wrong with this. First, poisoning entire colonies of Prairie Dogs is wrong. Second, he did not mark the field so no one knows what chemicals he was using. Third, if another animal gets one of the poisoned Prairie Dogs they will die was well. Poison is forever. Third, this is baby time, this is the time the young ones are born and in the caverns. Given where he was, this apparently is a sanctioned activity by the Church. Perhaps someone should sit down and read a few passages in the Bible about compassion and all that stuff.
I will be filing a formal complaint with all my photos to the State Wildlife Department, the Aurora Police Department, the Aurora Animal Control department, and the State Department of Licensing (wildlife control is a licensed activity and I somehow doubt this idiot was licensed.) There is nothing I can do for that colony of Prairie Dogs, but I can sure follow-up on this and make sure at least this idiot’s actions are seen and noted.
So, after I walked back home from that little discovery, I sat down and had breakfast with Jesse. And then I decided I wanted to go swim. I got to the Central Recreation Center, and believe it or not, got a lane pretty quickly in the lap pool. Unfortunately that did not last long. I had just gotten about 300 yards in when there are kids jumping into the lap pool without looking. It turns out that they had to close the main pool because yet again someone had a bathroom accident in it. This is now two weekends in a row, and that means that the pools will be bad tomorrow.
I gave up and decided to drive over to the Utah Indoor Pool that just re-opened and everyone keeps telling me that I should try. It’s a 25 meter pool, a little longer than the 25 yard pool I have been swimming in, But, it’s about 6 miles from the house and takes me a little longer to get to. I was able to get in a nice 2000 meter swim. I was annoyed, but recovered. I haven’t swum in a 25meter pool in a while so it took me a while to get used to the wall that had moved (25 yards to 25 meters — do the math kids.)
When I got home I decided to tackle putting the irrigation system box in place for the right side of the backyard, one more step to remove some heavy water use from the system (we are moving to drip and micro irrigation for anything that is not lawn area. It’s just not an easy thing to do as the yard is clay and I have to find the lines that I can disconnect and the ones that I need to tie into.
Anyways, then it was time to take Res and Climber on their afternoon walks, and feed them, feed us, and relax for the evening. I managed to get the laundry done, well actually waiting on the last load to finish drying, but one less thing that I do not need to worry about tomorrow. On my list of things I really want to do tomorrow is to dig out all of my hydroponic planting stuff from the shed, figure out where it is going to live this year, and then I want to build the double buckets that are now sitting in the living room still packed. This will be a part of the hydroponic setup this year, and I think that should keep me busy most of the day. I may skips my swim tomorrow, not sure yet on that one. I will see how I feel in the morning. Nothing’s wrong, but I do want to get some stuff done around here at the house.
Anyways, Res and Climber say goodnight and maybe we will see you all tomorrow.
And I think with this post I am caught up. Sorry, but I hate to admit that I was behind by two days of posting and then also needed to get today’s post in. Today was a “at home” or “in the office” day after yesterday’s travels.
Not all that much to write about today, I did get out to swim during my lunch break. I think I am going to shift my swim time a little later in the afternoon, to maybe 12:30-1:00pm start of my break. The pool is way too busy earlier and once again I was shoved up against a wall sharing a lane and I scraped the top of my right hand something awful. But, eventually I was able to get a lane by myself and finished my workout.
I only did 1750 today, but I do have problems with other people in my lane, would not be bad if the lanes were not so narrow, but me being 6’3″ and I have a very wide breaststroke kick. I need to work on that, but that is the last of my worries. I need to increase distance.
The rest of the afternoon was catching up on some other issues regarding tech support, processor support, and other related tasks. Finally I was able to finish at about 3:30pm MT and spend some time with Jesse and the dogs. Climber has a little bit of an attitude problem growing and we are going to have to deal with that. Jesse and I have always been about the dogs being dogs, but she is really pushing her luck recently. I need Mindy to make a visit and tell Climber to knock the crap off.
Anyways, I am tired today, so it’s enough for today, we will see you tomorrow.
