All talked out
I’m not feeling very inspired to write this afternoon. Maybe I just wrote too much over the weekend?
Anyway, this morning I did a long swim. I think it was my longest swim yet – 3,650 yards (2.07 miles if I did the math right). The main set consisted of 9×300 with 30 seconds rest and 50 yard kicks after the fourth and seventh 300. I was supposed to swim each 300 faster than the one before it, but wasn’t supposed to exceed my T-pace from the other month (1:44/100) or go anaerobic. It felt pretty good. I swam pretty fast (for me, as always) and maintained constant speed throughout. In fact, the last two 300’s were my fastest. My speed on those last 300’s definitely had something to do with the fact that there were two other swimmers in my lane and one of them was a tad faster than me. I’ve seen her in the pool before and I think she’s a swim coach. There is no reason I should be comparing my swimming to hers. She joined the lane just before I started those last two 300’s and she had about a 25 yard lead on me when I started. I wasn’t about to let her make up too much ground. I pushed it, but not to the point of exhaustion. Usually, that incentive is the best. Today, for example, I did the first seven 300’s pretty consistently at around 4:54/300 yards (1:38/100 yards). I was supposed to do each one slightly faster than the previous 300, but I couldn’t really get it going too much – I was worried that I would poop out if I pushed it too much. The last two, when I was being pushed, I swam in 4:45/300 yards (1:35/100 yards). I could tell that I was swimming harder, but I still wasn’t straining too much. Three seconds per 100 doesn’t seem like that much when I write it here, but I think it could make a pretty big difference come raceday and given the nine seconds per 100 between that and my T-pace, it is an indicator of how much I’m improving.
Wow. For someone who’s “talked out”, I sure had a lot to write about that “long swim”…
Swim – February 20
Time: 1:16
Distance: 3,650