Blog

Swim test = :)

As you’ve seen, I’ve been getting back into training and generally having a good time with it. Of course, I wish I could be running more, but for now, I’m content building up slowly. I also haven’t been spending the time on the bike that I had initially planned, but circumstances have changed and I’ve adapted my training schedule.

One benefit of less running and cycling is that I have been spending more time in the pool; I’m swimming three days a week instead of two. My overall swim volume isn’t all that high (4,500 – 5,000 yards per week), but I feel like I’m getting some quality yards in and seeing some subtle improvements.

Today Coach John scheduled my first swim “test” since April. In the past, I’ve done 1,000 yard time trials and each time I did it, my time improved. My best time was in April when I swam the 1,000 yards in 15:28 (1:32.8/100 yards).

Coach John wanted me to go all out for 1,250 yards today. I was pretty nervous. I haven’t been pushing myself in terms of speed recently; I haven’t swam a set longer than probably 600 yards in a couple months; and I’ve never done a “test” longer than 1,000 yards. I certainly know I can swim 1,250 yards (or longer), but it’s still daunting to do it for time. When I first started doing the tests in December 2006, I’d only been swimming for a couple years and I erred on the side of caution, going out too conservatively. As I got more comfortable doing the 1,000 yard time trial, I learned to push myself from the start and made up a lot of time that way. Today, I wanted to go out strong and push the pace; if I ran out of gas before the end, so be it.

After a 400 yard kick/swim warm-up, I rested for about a minute and then got started. Even though I wanted to push the pace, my first 100 was a little too fast: 1:28. That’s fast for me when I’m doing shorter sets! (I tried to look at my watch at each 100 during my flip turn. I’m sure this slows me down slightly, but I like knowing my pace and it helps me keep track of overall distance.) For the next couple 100’s, I settled into a good, easy stroke, maintaining a stroke cadence of 15-16 strokes per 25 yards. I was hitting 1:31/100 yards pretty consistently. I started trying to calculate how much more slowly I could swim the rest of the 1,250 and still keep a 1:34/100 yards average. These are the kinds of games I play while swimming! But I was able to keep pace. Around 900 yards in, my stroke count increased to 17 per 25 yards, but I was still swimming 1:31 or 1:32/100 yards. I hit 1,000 yards at 15:12, which was a personal record for 1,000 yards! My last 250 were pretty tough. My form got progressively worse and I was mostly just muscling through the water. But I did manage to keep pace and concentrated hard on keeping my stroke count. I didn’t look at my watch for the last 10 lengths and just tried to concentrate on finishing strong. And finish strong I did: 19:02 (1:31.36/100 yards), considerably faster than my projected time and a faster average than my last 1,000 yard time trial!

I was pretty beat at the end and know that I pushed hard. Maybe not 100% hard, but I do want to save room for improvement!

p.s. we had our first real snow in NYC today. It started with some of the biggest snowflakes I’ve ever seen – like the size of my hand. It was beautiful!

Indoor ride – December 14
Time: 1:00

Treadmill run/walk – December 15
Distance: 3.2 miles
Time: 35 minutes (5 min. walking warm-up, 30 minutes of 2 min. run/1 min. walk)

Strength, PT – December 15

Swim – December 16
Distance: 1,850 yards
Time: 45 minutes
1,250 yard swim test: 19:02 = 1:31.36/100 yards (1,000 yard time was 15:12)

Indoor ride – December 16
Time: 30 minutes