08/24/07: Recovery Week Continues w/ a Swim

Last night's swim had another great Benji set. After a 200 warmup, we did 3 400 sets:

4x100, 2x200, 400

One thing I really like about Benji;s practices is that everything has a purpose, versus merely going out and swimming a bunch laps or doing drills with no apparent meaning. The purpose of this set was to keep a consistent pace though each set, even as they got longer. Probably even more importantly than running, pacing is critical in the water....Go out too hard = major issues later. The first set I stayed right at 2'/100; the second set were both on 4', so far so good; the third set was 8'10", just a bit off.....

After a couple of drill sets, we had a bit of a team competition. First it was 50's on 35 seconds. What did I learn from this? 1. We have some REALLY FAST swimmers in our group. 2. I'm not one of them....50's on 35? Not a chance, at least not yet.....

Next was backstroke 50's on 45. As usual, the triathletes in the pool were given a bit of leeway, and could swim freestyle instead of backstroke...45 seconds....hmmm....Swimming as hard as I could, I managed to make the interval the first time; second trip not so much.....

Now for the depressing part....there are a few people in our group that can swim backstroke indefinitely on that interval.....So, I have a new goal....Be able to swim freestyle at least as fast as they can swim backstroke......

On a slightly less sarcastic note, since I've already managed to take off 30 sec / 100 in my last several races through a combination of consistent swimming and massive technique improvement, my goal is to take off another 15 sec / 100 by November. That would put me at 1:43 swim time for the ironman - perfect.....

Live with purpose....Enjoy the adventure.....