Water, Water, Water

Ironic, isn't it, that after my post yesterday bashing swimming, I'm off on a swimming bender. Yep, this week for the first time in my life I will swim for five (5) consecutive days. This is something I've been wanting to do (though obviously not badly enough to actually do it) since I read Dan Empfield's article advocating a big swim week. I kind of hate the idea of swimming 13,000-15,000 yards this week (twice my norm and about half what a real triathlete does), but with the promise of a sweet payoff, I'm giving it a go.

It is quite acceptable to not see immediate results during this week. You may not get much faster, or any faster, during the mega-week of swimming. You will almost certainly have days in which you swim slower than before you started the week. But after the week is over, and when your arms have had an opportunity to absorb the work, and to recover from it, you'll certainly see that you've made a demonstrable, significant leap in your swim abilities.

Today was Day 2. I got it rolling with a thousand yards at a steady and fairly slow pace (1:58/100 yards). Then I did my 200-150-100-50 set hard, going on 4 minutes, 3 minutes and 2 minutes. Then I did 5x100 at <1:50 going on 2:10, 2:05, 2:00 and 1:55. Then a couple hundred mellow yards to cool down. Tomorrow I need to stretch things out a little bit on the yardage.

Image: Travelling Still, Infinity Pool, Sardinia, 2007, by Rob Carter