As a general rule, I print out all of my workouts for Monday through Thursday on Sunday night. It allows me to have them all sitting on the dining room table, ready for the duffle bag (swim or run) or to guide me to the basement for bike sessions. Last night, I was a bit excited as I printed them.
Monday, short swim (short, of course, being a relative term) with a short bike in the evening. Tuesday, frighteningly short swim. Wednesday, short run with strength training. Thursday, another short swim. I was giddy. This looked to be one big step back week.
So, imagine my surprise when I started pulling weekly totals from my training program for entry into my log. Total swim distance of 14,100 yards. "Wait a minute, if I'm barely hitting 2000 yards a day for a total of three days, how am I at 14,000 for the week?" I am, after all, an accountant by day.
That led me to Saturday. Warmup 1000 yards. Just so you know, that's an ominous clue in and of itself. While I am certainly getting better at swimming and bringing my pace down, I haven't yet moved to the "1000 yards is a warmup" category. Well, not YET, anyway. After my "warm up," I get to do eight 500-yard intervals at time trial pace. Lucky me, my cool down is 10 minutes in the hot tub. After that swim, my first attempt at 5000 yards, my cool down just might be 10 minutes at the bottom of the pool. Perhaps the lifeguard will pull my limp body out of the water before that.
Seeing that on the schedule, particularly the "at T-pace" part, reminds me of the ultimate cruelty of irony (or karma, or Coach Mike, or whatever it is). On Friday, that T-pace would have been 2:11 per 100 yards. Today, it's 2:01 per 100 yards. That will teach me to see how beneficial training has been BEFORE finding out what is coming up on the schedule.
Of course, on the brighter side, you will note that my endurance pace has dropped dramatically. I guess I'll take that into the water with me on Saturday. "Yes, it's a long way to swim. But just look how it's already paying off." I'll take it all the way to the bottom of the pool.
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7 comments:
IronPol,
I read your gremlin post and I must admit swimming with contact is a gremlin on my back as well.
The only way to defeat the gremlin is to face it. I plan on swimming as much open water w/ contact as I can before IM.
As for the volume, you must be very confidence in getting through the swim. 5,000 yards...that's a lot of time staring down the pool.
True, true. I'm already trying to plan how to fit that into my schedule. I want to make sure I'm somewhere I feel comfortable.
Then again, there might be some benefit to doing it in a pool with which I'm less familiar. Much like it will be in August.
wow - huge workout - again, you the aqua-man! I just did 2200 for 45 minutes and had about all I could of the bottom of the pool...it's nice the Y is open 'till 9pm now most days - I can get in there when I miss my lunch swims - the boss will be happy about that...
Just curious if you've used an otter box-I'm thinking of buying one. More importantly, did you survive the maelstrom of kiddos? obviously you did, but that's one tough sitting day. Swimming 5k will be a breeze after that :-)
I think at this point I would need to pack a lunch in order to do a 5k swim. Good luck.
usually, i take a four-pack of cadbury eggs to the bottom of the pool. it helps.
Thanks for adding me to your link list! Good luck!
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