I finished the swim block yesterday.
I am now convinced that more is more. Normally this time of year I would swim about 7500 yards a week. During the last 100 days I have averaged ~18500 yards a week.
100 days ago PR for 1000TT scy was 14.56. Yesterday just to push myself I swam 4000TT in 59.06. The 1000 splits were roughly 14.32 14.32 14.43 and 15.16.
Once I am a little rested, probably early next week, I will swim an all out 1000TT.
In all those yards I attempted and completed two successful flip turns.
Now it is time to maintain the swim, start concetrating on the run and slowly start brining the bike into the game.
Short course racing for me next year. Looking forward to 2 hour racing.
I tried a swim focus block last winter (not 100/100 mind you) and the chlorine played havoc on my skin, body hair started to thin out, etc etc…have you experienced any side-effects? Any weight/bodyfat gain from the 3+ months in the water?
I tried a swim focus block last winter (not 100/100 mind you) and the chlorine played havoc on my skin, body hair started to thin out, etc etc…have you experienced any side-effects? Any weight/bodyfat gain from the 3+ months in the water?
Skin irritation is a problem. Also got Shingles 4 weeks ago. Things are starting to clear up a bit. Seeing the dermotologist tomorrow again.
Body fat gain has not been as issue as I also have been going one day of weights (P90X Core Synergistics) and 2 days of riding and 2-3 days of running.
Trick for me was to have a workout I can always do. 2000 yards of warm up, drills, then 4-6x100 on slow two minutes concentrating on form.
When I was pressed for time I just swim 2000 straight
After swimming 1.21 in Hawaii, I swore not to try and come back until I can put in a respectable swim time.
I need a lot more open water swimming however.
100 days was the only way i could think off to really motivate myself.
Congratulations on your swims. Doubtless I would benefit from doing the same!
I’m curious, what pool did you swim in where you could get access 7 days a week including Christmas, et cetera?
I live in the Chicago suburbs and swim at a pool there. When I started this I called it 100 consecutive days of swimming. Christmas Day I was sick to the point that I sayed in bed all day however I still could have a found a pool to swim in. Anyway, Saturday the day after Christmas Day I swam twice to make up for the missed day. The the swim challenge now became 100 swims in 100 days.
The pool by the house is open from 5.30am-10pm M-F and 7am-5pm sat and finally 10am-3pm Sunday. So no excuses.
I biked or ran in the morning, went to work for 8-9 hours and swam after work on the way home.
Just like I thank my wife for putting up with me while trining for Ironman, I thank her for putting up with me whie doing this.
Trick for me was to have a workout I can always do. 2000 yards of warm up, drills, then 4-6x100 on slow two minutes concentrating on form.
When I was pressed for time I just swim 2000 straight
Hopefully, you did more than just these workouts. You must already know what kind of progress you made, having done timed interval sets of 100s, 200s, 300s or whatever and seen the difference in times. Right? Wrong?
Please, please say you did a lot of quality (meaning: fast) swimming in there. If not, and all you did was those kind of workouts above, then you might be in for a bit of a shock when you do that 1000TT.
This is a timely subject, as one of the guys I swim with in the mornings just did a disappointing time in a 500yd free at a meet. He’s been swimming a lot (>3000 every day, and much more on Sundays), he just completed a set of 5x(6x100 on 1:20, 100 on 2:00), he did a ~17mi swim this past fall (in NY Harbor…in ~53 degree water…with no wetsuit). Problem is that he rarely swam faster than 1:15/100 at any point, especially in those 2000/2500yd sets they often did. So, what does he average in the 500 race? 1:15.x.
I threw in everything however looking back at it I could have tried to swim faster and on shorter rest a little more. I am not expecting miracles for the 1000TT. I will post the results on Wednesday.
I made good but maybe not great progress. During the block my 100 went from 1.18 to 1.10, 200 from 2.47 to 2.34 and I swam a 3x300 just under 4 minutes each, 30 sec rest. I was able to complete 10x100 on 1.30 and had at least 8 seconds rests. This was not ever heard off before.
I expect to swim 14 or maybe 5-7 seconds faster than that on Wednesday.
Last 30 days or so I started to swim faster and on shorter rest intervals. During that time and days 15-30 I seemed to make the most progress.
In my mind I was breaking the swim block down to trying to figure out what it took to make myself feel comfortable in the water, then hammering that down and then trying to take that to another level of swimming faster.
Well done. You should be noticeably faster in your 1000TT, and, most importantly, you’ll find yourself so much fresher in races out of the water. You put in the time and effort, and the payoff will be there.