Okay, so I know about "the set". ~15k of pure hell that took ~5hrs and was so physically demanding that the coach had to leave in the middle to get something to eat. :p
But for those of us who haven't trained with the NTC posse, what's the longest swim set that you've ever done?
===
I've been idly toying with doing the Bay Challenge for several years now. It's a 9k OW swim across English Bay from North Vancouver to Kitsilano. Perhaps fortuitously, I strained my R achiles at the NB 1/2 Iron and have not been able to run very much since - so I was thinking about jumping in this year. 3 weeks out from the event I talked it over with Will, who in his wisdom thought it might be best to do some specific preparation for a swim this long, and to test out my shoulders to see if they could handle such a swim. (I have a history of bad shoulders and swim aggravation) This week was a "swim focus" week and I logged 4 swims in 48hrs, and 17k in 5 sessions over 4 days(Mon-Thurs). One of those days was a double swim day, with my total mileage being just shy of 8000m. Yesterday I had off from the pool and have to say it felt a little weird.
Today I went down to Kits Pool to do an 8k straight set. All I can say is thank you to the Vancouver Parks & Rec board for creating and maintaining this pool. I can't possibly imagine doing this swim in a standard LCM pool, much less SCM. Hell, I had trouble counting to 30.
Kits Pool is 150 yards long, or 137.5m. That means 60 lengths, or 30 laps to get 8250m. Perfect - I can handle counting to 30 (or so I thought). The other nice thing about Kids Pool is its location - right down on the beach, there's no better place to be on a sunny day. There are usually a few real swimmers there, so I can check out some very nice technique as they fly by me effortlessly, and there are also a lot of hotties who go there to splash around - so I can check out their very nice form as well. :p
I showed up at the pool just after 13:00, and figured on a 2:30 session. Got my kit on, did a few arm circles on deck and dove in. I've been working on some changes to my swim technique of late, and my "new" form isn't fully ingrained as of yet. It also seems to tax my deltoids more than the old way. It's a LOT easier on my pectoral ligaments though, which is a good thing. Based on the week I've just had my shoulders were still pretty tired, and it took a good 1200m before I was feeling good. Once that was settled the first 4k went by pretty quickly. Nice! At ~ 5.5k I started to get kind of tired, and the workout ceased to be much fun at ~6.5k. The last 1200 was pretty tough - not physiologically, but mentally more than anything. Yeah, my R shoulder was getting a little sore - but not in a really bad way. I just wanted the set to be over and done with already. I had had enough of this shit. I was also getting hungry, which tends to make me grumpy. Finally I came in and touched for lap 30/length 60, nailing 8250m. During the entire set I stopped momentarily a few times when I had collisions at the wall, but kept true to the spirit of the straight set by never taking a rest break. The stops were 2-3s of me barking at some schmuck with no pool etiquette, and then right back to swimming. I lost track of what lap I was on twice (that I remember), and both times penalized my lack of mental sharpness by assuming that the lower number was correct (that's a 300yd penalty each time).
Hopped out of the pool and looked at the clock. WTF? Walked over to the clock and took a closer look. Yep - that's really what it says. 16:01. That means I was in the pool for 2:55. DAMN - so either I slowed down a lot over the course of the swim, or I really can't freakin' count. Either is possible (as is a combination of the two) but that's a full 25min slower than I had been anticipating, and 15min slower than my estimated "worst case" scenario. Bummer.
Add to shopping list: muscular endurance
Overall I'm still pretty pleased with how things went. This is the first time I've ever tried to swim more than 4k (straight), and both times I did that I was in a wetsuit in OW. My shoulders seemed to hold up okay (though tomorrow will tell) and aside from getting hungry and a little grumpy, it was a good swim. While I'm not thrilled with the time, I haven't exactly trained for this shit either. I'm certainly not concerned about making the 4hr cutoff for the race.
But thank Vishnu for that pool... :D
<If you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough>
Get Fitter!
Proud member of the Smartasscrew, MONSTER CLUB
Get your FIX today?
But for those of us who haven't trained with the NTC posse, what's the longest swim set that you've ever done?
===
I've been idly toying with doing the Bay Challenge for several years now. It's a 9k OW swim across English Bay from North Vancouver to Kitsilano. Perhaps fortuitously, I strained my R achiles at the NB 1/2 Iron and have not been able to run very much since - so I was thinking about jumping in this year. 3 weeks out from the event I talked it over with Will, who in his wisdom thought it might be best to do some specific preparation for a swim this long, and to test out my shoulders to see if they could handle such a swim. (I have a history of bad shoulders and swim aggravation) This week was a "swim focus" week and I logged 4 swims in 48hrs, and 17k in 5 sessions over 4 days(Mon-Thurs). One of those days was a double swim day, with my total mileage being just shy of 8000m. Yesterday I had off from the pool and have to say it felt a little weird.
Today I went down to Kits Pool to do an 8k straight set. All I can say is thank you to the Vancouver Parks & Rec board for creating and maintaining this pool. I can't possibly imagine doing this swim in a standard LCM pool, much less SCM. Hell, I had trouble counting to 30.
Kits Pool is 150 yards long, or 137.5m. That means 60 lengths, or 30 laps to get 8250m. Perfect - I can handle counting to 30 (or so I thought). The other nice thing about Kids Pool is its location - right down on the beach, there's no better place to be on a sunny day. There are usually a few real swimmers there, so I can check out some very nice technique as they fly by me effortlessly, and there are also a lot of hotties who go there to splash around - so I can check out their very nice form as well. :p
I showed up at the pool just after 13:00, and figured on a 2:30 session. Got my kit on, did a few arm circles on deck and dove in. I've been working on some changes to my swim technique of late, and my "new" form isn't fully ingrained as of yet. It also seems to tax my deltoids more than the old way. It's a LOT easier on my pectoral ligaments though, which is a good thing. Based on the week I've just had my shoulders were still pretty tired, and it took a good 1200m before I was feeling good. Once that was settled the first 4k went by pretty quickly. Nice! At ~ 5.5k I started to get kind of tired, and the workout ceased to be much fun at ~6.5k. The last 1200 was pretty tough - not physiologically, but mentally more than anything. Yeah, my R shoulder was getting a little sore - but not in a really bad way. I just wanted the set to be over and done with already. I had had enough of this shit. I was also getting hungry, which tends to make me grumpy. Finally I came in and touched for lap 30/length 60, nailing 8250m. During the entire set I stopped momentarily a few times when I had collisions at the wall, but kept true to the spirit of the straight set by never taking a rest break. The stops were 2-3s of me barking at some schmuck with no pool etiquette, and then right back to swimming. I lost track of what lap I was on twice (that I remember), and both times penalized my lack of mental sharpness by assuming that the lower number was correct (that's a 300yd penalty each time).
Hopped out of the pool and looked at the clock. WTF? Walked over to the clock and took a closer look. Yep - that's really what it says. 16:01. That means I was in the pool for 2:55. DAMN - so either I slowed down a lot over the course of the swim, or I really can't freakin' count. Either is possible (as is a combination of the two) but that's a full 25min slower than I had been anticipating, and 15min slower than my estimated "worst case" scenario. Bummer.
Add to shopping list: muscular endurance
Overall I'm still pretty pleased with how things went. This is the first time I've ever tried to swim more than 4k (straight), and both times I did that I was in a wetsuit in OW. My shoulders seemed to hold up okay (though tomorrow will tell) and aside from getting hungry and a little grumpy, it was a good swim. While I'm not thrilled with the time, I haven't exactly trained for this shit either. I'm certainly not concerned about making the 4hr cutoff for the race.
But thank Vishnu for that pool... :D
<If you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough>
Get Fitter!
Proud member of the Smartasscrew, MONSTER CLUB
Get your FIX today?