distance swim sets

first water, faster at a price

I repeated last weeks set of 12 x 100m @ 2:00, bettering my split times by about 3 seconds for most of the 100m intervals. And it wasn’t magical. I wasn’t faster because I implemented some new technique. I just pushed harder. And it hurt more. But I suppose if swimming hard felt good everyone… Continue reading first water, faster at a price

first water, subtlety

There’s a subtlety to good technique. Some training sessions are devoted entirely to technique, to developing the form in which you swim, run, lift, or otherwise contest your sport. For points-based sports like gymnastics or diving, I don’t know; but for those scored on indisputable metrics, such as time or distance, there is the concept… Continue reading first water, subtlety

first water, low and slow – or – efficiency and perspective

There are a bunch of concepts at play when training. Efficiency, for one, is painfully obvious but maybe not so easy to describe. That’s what kinesiologists are for. As a recreational or amateur athlete, I just need to know it when I see it. Like today. Time is always important to me in the pool,… Continue reading first water, low and slow – or – efficiency and perspective

first water, over easy

1000m swims are kinda hard for me. They hurt and I didn’t really feel like hurting this morning. So, I did my 1000m at a somewhat pedestrian pace. Or so it felt. In reality, my time was 5 seconds slower than last Monday, and almost 25 seconds faster than the previous Monday. Two weeks ago… Continue reading first water, over easy

first water, rad

I don’t know what happened this morning. I just wanted to swim hard for some reason. Clearly, I didn’t want to swim fast. Just hard. For the first time in a while I had to stop before something, maybe bad, happened. Or should I say, before having an epiphany in the pool, before breaking in… Continue reading first water, rad

first water, better

So, at least I counted right today. I’m able to record a time for 1000m instead of 900m. Things felt OK. A straight 1000m freestyle is kinda hard for me so just to get through it is good, let alone record a better time than last week. I would like to get my time down… Continue reading first water, better

first water, learning to count

I didn’t feel ultra-good this morning. Things were just OK. I’m nursing this shoulder thing and generally did not have the Eye of the Tiger for the straight 1000m freestyle I had scheduled for today. And stupidly, I lost count and ended up doing a 900m free instead. So, I’m not counting today. It used… Continue reading first water, learning to count

first water, 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 – puke

This week’s theme is distance. Yesterday, 1000m straight. Today, the dreaded 400/300/200/100 pyramid I “loved” from short course yards. Porting short course workouts over to long course is good, I feel. That is, it’s hard. And hard workouts make for good fitness. Today’s set did not disappoint. It hurt and I’m happy to have finished… Continue reading first water, 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 – puke

first water, one big swim

It’s been kind of a lot of years since I swam 1000m straight. It hasn’t gotten easier.da numbers: 1000m free time: ~18:30 Not super fast. This puts my 100m splits at ~1:51 on average. So, that’s not pathetic, but I’d like to get that under 1:45, which puts total time at 17:30. That shouldn’t be… Continue reading first water, one big swim