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The Roller Coaster

Forget about all those amusement parks. Ironman training (or endurance training in general) is about the scariest roller coaster ride there is. Ups, Downs, Loop-the-loops, Abrupt starts and stops, Nausea… I could definitely go on.

I’ve obviously been feeling pretty sorry for myself recently. I probably focus too much energy on triathlon and these injury set-backs are really messing with my psyche and my ego – and my mood, to which my lovely wife can definitely attest. Added to that, I’m feeling less motivated and excited this year than I remember feeling at this time last year. It’s only my second year training for an Ironman, is it possible that I already need a new challenge? I do have the SOS triathlon in September and that is a new twist on triathlon for me.

But in general, I’ve been feeling down about it all. And then I go and have a swim workout like I had this morning and all that self-pity is gone (for the time being at least).

Coach John scheduled a 1,000 yard time trial for today. Remember those? I haven’t done one since last November 29. Today’s was my fifth attempt in the past 16 months. I also did one on April 4 and February 27 last year and on December 22, 2006. Each time I did the time trial test, I got faster. Sometimes by just a few seconds, but there were some big jumps in there as well. On my first attempt, I swam the 1,000 yards in 17:21 (about 1:44/100 yards). I was nervous just about finishing during that first attempt and held back too much. Reducing my initial time by a minute wasn’t a problem – I just had to risk failure a bit more. Most recently, in November, I swam 15:34 (1:33.4/100 yards).

I really wasn’t sure what to expect today. For the last few weeks, I’ve been doing mostly maintenance swimming – I figured it was just enough to keep my form, but not enough to make any substantial gains in swim speed, endurance or form. From recent swims, I know that I can comfortably swim 500-600 yards averaging about 1:35/100 yards. But I haven’t swam longer than 650 yards at once for a while, so I wasn’t sure what I could keep up for a full 1,000. Anyway…

Coach John’s instructions were to swim “fast, all out”. So that’s what I intended to do. I knew I couldn’t blow it all out on the first 100, but also didn’t want to leave a drop in the tank after finishing the 1,000. I tried to keep my eyes on my watch after each 100 to get splits, but it wasn’t easy and I don’t remember them that well. My first 100 was 1:31, which I actually thought was fine; a little fast for me, but not so fast that I’d be ruined. After that first 100, I settled in and swam 1:32’s or 1:33’s for a while. Around 600 or 650, I started to feel it in my arms and lungs. I was still swimming in the 1:33 range and I don’t think my form was suffering too much (though people standing on the pool deck might dispute that claim). When I pushed off at 900 yards, my watch said 14:00. A quick calculation and I realized that I could hit 15:30, which actually would be a slight improvement over prior attempts. For that final 100, I really did go all out. I hit my turns pretty well and sprinted to the wall. Bang! 15:28. Damn. That’s a strong 6 seconds off my prior best. It also meant that I swam my last 100 in 1:28, my fastest of the 1,000. New T-Time = 1:32.8/100. Solid.

So, for the time being at least, I’m feeling “up”.

Swim – April 2
Distance: 2,500 yards
Time: 50 minutes