Saturday

Pool Progress



Skipping back a day first, I did a 1,000-yard time trial on Friday. I did one of these six weeks ago or so, too—soon after I resumed swimming after the long layoff. Clocked in at over 22 minutes on that earlier go at it. Yes, 22 minutes. (If I posted that on Slowtwitch, the first post in response would say, "Why didn't you ask somebody to help you detach that anvil stuck on your back?")

Today I swam it in 19 minutes, still slow but a nice improvement and the best part was that my splits were 9:43 for the first 500 yards and 9:17 for the second 500. So my pace on the backside of the trial was around 1:51.5 per 100. I never looked at my watch during the swim but I knew I was getting faster as I went along. My feel for the water was improving. With each stroke, I felt like I was grabbing more water and pulling myself over my hand with better efficiency.

If I can do 1:51.5/100 yards at IMCDA, I’ll be out of the water in 1:18:30, eight and a half minutes faster than last year. That would be sweet, but realistically I’m just gunning for a five-minute improvement. That’s not a crazy goal. After all—and I often forget this myself—I did once do a 37-minute half-iron swim. And even though I haven’t yet obtained the services of a coach, I am being much smarter about my workouts. I’m doing intervals and really holding myself to my time goals. I’m concentrating on keeping my head down, reaching and making it from one end of the pool to the other in as few strokes as possible. It also doesn’t hurt simply to get thy ass into the pool. Tomorrow’s swim will give me five swims in a week.

Today's bike ride: 3.5 hours, 64 miles (average speed 18.3), 178 average watts. I was pretty beat when that thing was done.

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