Of Swimming Bondage

It was a picture perfect morning - sky, water, air and companions - out at Lake Pleasant for our AZ State Masters Open Water Championships -



This is the third year we've done this and, while we're not getting huge numbers, the participation has increased each year. I really couldn't have asked for better conditions - once you got away from the shore where the dirt was dredged up by people walking in, the water was clear and a perfect 72-73 degrees. There were three distances - 1500 (called the Sprint), 3000 and 4500. Since I almost never get to call myself a sprinter and since I was not in great shape when I entered this event, I was in the 1500 distance.

I really liked that today's course was one, long 1500 meter loop. The waves were sent off in reverse distance order, 2 minutes between waves. For those of us in the lead of the sprint wave, that had both a benefit and a detraction. On the positive side, there was a line of people as far as we could see on every stretch of the course ahead of us: sighting was super-easy. On the downside, I had a good race going with a mid-20-something guy for about the first ~250/300 and last ~250/300 yards when I could see him, but I completely lost track of him during the middle part of the race when we were passing the mid & distance waves. It was great seeing him as I rounded the last buoy as it really motivated me to sprint to the finish. I managed to hold him off and win overall by a couple of seconds.

After the swim and an early lunch with some of the guys from the race, I hit the JCC and notched 2.2 miles on the treadmill. I followed that with a steam and called it a day.

I would have liked to have swim a bit more volume this week (I was about 1,200 shy of my 20K goal), but I think the quality and intensity of my training was better than the week before. I did my 400 IM test set yesterday and, while the drops weren't dramatic, all of my strokes are feeling better and stronger:

Warmup sets (1,250)

• 1 x 300: IM, kick-drill-drill by 25
• 4 x 100: on 1:30, gentle descend, started w/buoy, paddles & snorkel and stripped down to swim and was 1:14s on every single one
• 8 x 25: on 0:35, w/monofin going twice thru 2 breaths moderate, 0 breaths moderate, 1 breath moderate, 0 breaths AFAP
• 8 x 25: on 0:35, odds easy, evens strong IM order
• 4 x 25: on 0:30, going 5-6-7-8 AFAP strokes off the wall and then cruise
• 1 x 50: easy

400 IM Test Set (2,050 set / 3,300 total)

• 8 x 50: on 1:00, 2 each stroke, build the odds and make sure the evens are at your target 400 IM race pace
  
  • In SCM, my dream is to approach the 4:39.8 I did in 2008 in a tech suit. That race was split 1:03.8, 1:11.5, 1:21.1, 1:03.4 so target 50 times would be 33.5 (2nd 50 of fly), 35+ (back), 40+ (breast) and 31+ (free)
  • My SCY splits to dream of would be 29+ fly, 31+ back, 36+ breast, 29.0 free
  • 09/17/13 - 35+, 35, 42, 33
  • 09/23/13 - 33, 35, 40+, 31+ (much better!)
  • 10/06/13 - 34, 35, 41, 32 (a little sluggish)
  • 10/27/13 - 33, 34+, 41, 31- (much better than expected)
  • 10/30/13 - 33, 34, 40+++/41---, 31-
  • 04/01/14 - 0:33, 0:35, 0:40+, 0:32
  • 04/14/14 - 0:33+, 0:35+, 0:41, 0:31+
  • 06/01/14 - 0:33+, 0:35, 0:42, 0:31
  • 06/27/14 - 0:34, 0:35, 0:42, 0:32
  • 07/27/14 - 0:35, 0:35, 0:42, 0:32
  • 05/21/16 - 0:36, 0:37, 0:42, 0:33+
  • 06/12/16 - 0:34, 0:36, 0:41, 0:33
  • 10/02/16 - 0:35, 0:35, 0:42, 0:31+
  • 10/09/16 - pretty much the same as 10/02
  • 10/16/16 - 0:35, 0:36, 0:43, 0:33
  • 10/22/16 - 0:34, 0:36+, 0:42+, 0:33
  
  
• 4 x 100: on 1:50, do as 100 IMs, descend to your target race pace divided by 4, ideally starting on #1 no slower than 12 seconds above that
  
  • SCM target would be to descend from 1:22 to 1:10
  • SCY target would be to descend from 1:14+ to 1:02+
  • 09/17/13 - 1:23, 1:22, 1:19, 1:14
  • 09/23/13 - 1:21, 1:19, 1:15, 1:12+
  • 10/06/13 - 1:21, 1:17+, 1:14, 1:12-
  • 10/27/13 - 1:21, 1:18, 1:15, 1:11+
  • 10/30/13 - 1:21, 1:18, 1:14, 1:12
  • 04/01/14 - 1:21, 1:19, 1:14, 1:13
  • 04/14/14 - 1:20, 1:18, 1:13+, 1:11
  • 06/01/14 - 1:22, 1:20, 1:15+, 1:13
  • 06/27/14 - 1:20, 1:18, 1:14, 1:11+
  • 07/27/14 - 1:20, 1:16, 1:14, 1:11
  • 05/21/16 - 1:21+, 1:17, 1:15, 1:13
  • 06/12/16 - 1:21+, 1:18, 1:15, 1:12+
  • 10/02/16 - 1:23, 1:19, 1:16+, 1:15-
  • 10/09/16 - pretty much the same as 10/02
  • 10/16/16 - 1:26, 1:22, 1:18, 1:16
  • 10/22/16 - 1:24, 1:19, 1:16, 1:13+
  
  
• Masters' Two Minutes and an easy 50
• 2 x 200: on 3:20, build each stroke on #1, try to make #2 at your target 400 IM race pace divided by two (e.g., 2:20 in SCM, 2:05+ in SCY)
  
  • 09/17/13 - 2:49, 2:38
  • 09/23/13 - 2:49, 2:33
  • 10/06/13 - 2:45, 2:33
  • 10/27/13 - 2:43, 2:32
  • 10/30/13 - 2:41, 2:30+
  • 04/01/14 - 2:47, 2:36
  • 04/14/14 - 2:48, 2:30
  • 06/01/14 - 2:43, 2:32
  • 06/27/14 - 2:43+, 2:31
  • 07/27/14 - 2:45, 2:31
  • 05/21/16 - 2:47, 2:35
  • 06/12/16 - 2:45, 2:30
  • 10/02/16 - 2:48, 2:37
  • 10/09/16 - 2:50, 2:36
  • 10/16/16 - 2:52, 2:36
  • 10/22/16 - 2:54, 2:35
  
  
• 4 x 50: active recovery, on 0:45, 0:50, 0:55, 2:30
• 1 x 400: IM on 6:00, AFAP, from blocks
  
  • 09/17/13 - 5:36 (ugh-o-rama)
  • 09/23/13 - 5:15
  • 10/06/13 - 5:10 (1:11, 1:19, 1:30, 1:10)
  • 10/27/13 - 5:20 (1:13, 1:21, 1:32, 1:14)
  • 10/30/13 - 5:12 (1:14, 1:20, 1:28, 1:10)
  • 04/01/14 - 5:21 (no splits)
  • 04/14/14 - skipped it
  • 06/01/14 - 5:13 (from dive)
  • 06/27/14 - 5:08 (from dive) <= BEST EVER on this set
  • 07/27/14 - skipped it
  • 05/21/16 - 5:21+ (from dive)
  • 06/12/16 - 5:13+ (from dive)
  • 10/02/16 - 5:18 (from dive)
  • 10/09/16 - 5:18+ (from dive)
  • 10/16/16 - 5:19 (from dive)
  • 10/22/16 - 5:17 (from dive)
  
  
• 4 x 50: active recovery, on 0:45, 0:50, 0:55, 2:30