Monday, April 9, 2012

97 Days Remaining - 4000 yard swim & I didn't drown

Late Sunday night I put together my training plan for the week. I was ready to get back at it after two days of rest and a big training day yesterday. This week only calls for two swim workouts and at first I was thinking about adding my own third workout, but after reading the two workouts I decided to stick with the plan. I only swam twice last week so I thought maybe a third workout wouldn't hurt, but I always read about staying the course and not trying to make up for missed workouts.

The workout today called for a 3500 yard swim, but I later realized that 4000 yards was the total after including the warm up and cool down. This was a huge workout and by far my biggest volume ever in one session.

My warm-up consisted of a 200 warm up of 100 free, 50 pull, and 50 kick in 3:56

I also did 5 x 100 Descending each set with 30 RI. I hit the following times - 1:42, 1:39, 1:33, 1:27, 1:23

Main Set

1000 @ Race pace + 1:30 SI - I really did not plan for a certain time on this. I did not dial in what my race pace should be so I just swam by feel. About 25 laps in my stomach started hurting me and I was scared I might puke. I am not sure what hit me, but for about 7 lengths I struggled. I kept thinking about how terrible it would be if I barfed in the pool. Thank goodness the pain left and I finished strong. I swam the 1000 in 16:40. I was happy with this time being that I did not feel taxed on this swim and think I could easily maintain this pace for another 700 yards for my 70.3 Ironman. However, this swim did make me nervous for my swim come race day. I need to get over these nerves but ever since the days dropped under 100 I have been nervous.

I took a 30 second rest, let my stomach settle and then I started my next set.

500 - I wanted to swim well on this after the long set. I swam this in 8:04. I was happy with this time as this put me on the same pace as the 1000 set. I did shave some time off and still felt good. I was impressed with how well I was feeling during this workout.

I then moved to 5 x 100(75 easy, 25 fast) - This started out easy, but the last few I struggled to get going on the fast portion.

1:35, 1:35, 1:32, 1:36, 1:36

Last set was 10 x 100 @ race pace + 30 SI - I alternated each set between free and pull. My legs were tired and starting to cramp so I decided to add the pull so I could finish. I did the pull on odds and swim on evens. 1:29, 1:28, 1:32, 1:29, 1:33, 1:29, 1:31, 1:30, 1:31, 1:29

I ended with a 300 cool down. I did kicks with the board for the first 200 until I cramped big time behind my knee. The last 100 I swam freestyle with my fins to finish this in 5:54

I was very happy with this workout. My biggest so far and I felt really good. Mentally I had to convince myself to finish after seeing time escape and needing to get home and the feeling of fatigue. This was a big mental boost and something I needed. Next for my mental approach I need to get out in some open water and do some swimming with my wetsuit. I need to swim in my wetsuit and get a feel for what it is like to swim with this bad boy on.

I hoped to get a bike ride over my lunch, but when I arrived at home I realized I locked myself out of my house. So no bike ride. I settled with a sub from Subway. My eating is back on track and I hope that my weight gain is not too drastic this week. I will find out tomorrow.

Back to another 6B46 run tomorrow and between either tonight or tomorrow I get a bike ride in and stay on course for a good week of training this week.

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