Swim to 50 Part II

I'm feeling a heaviness in the legs today after the weekend's running workouts.  If I was making and following my own training plan, I'd wager I would suck it up and try to power through it.  I've felt this way before and run anyway.  But Mike has directed that today be a no-run day, and it's obvious he knows what he's talking about.  It was going to be a no-run day even if I'd properly done the recovery run yesterday.  Having run a little more intensely, resting the legs was definitely a good idea today.  (I even felt a slight tension in the right calf yesterday; nothing major, but giving them a day off made a lot of sense.)

So, instead, I did pool work, trying something a little different.  I wanted to try a "long slow distance" swim session.  That is if  2 miles can be considered long.  I typically swim for a half an hour, doing a variety of drills, normally broken up into 500 yard segments.  I can swim a mile in about 30 minutes, so I wanted to test myself and see what I could do in an hour.  I've done it once before, maybe a year ago?  I'd have to check. 

I followed my plan and swam 1500 straight freestyle, not trying to go fast, but just working on form and keeping a long stroke.  I worked to make 16 strokes per length, and no more than 18.  My turnover seemed very slow and, having seen video of myself, I'm sure I looked like I was keeping a leisurely pace.  But it was work. 

It wasn't as tedious at one might expect.  It was actually somewhat serene.  I locked into a rhythm and a breathing pattern, keeping track of my laps by alternating which side I was breathing on: odd laps to the north; even laps to the south.  I only stopped to push the interval button on my stop watch every 10th lap (500 yards).

After 1500, I added the buoy for the next 1500.  I expect to swim more slowly without the flutter kick, but without the legs, the oxygen debt is much reduced and I'm able to go four strokes between breaths.  It was also my intention to work as much upper body as possible and rest the legs, even though the kick uses different muscles than running. 

With 3000 done, I dropped the float and did a final 500 straight free, picking up the pace as much as I could.  2 miles is actually 3520 yards, so after the last lap, I did one more length just for good measure.  When I stopped the watch, it read 1:00:44.  I'd just barely missed completing 2 miles in under an hour.  Simply learning how to do a flip turn would probably have been enough to shave those pesky 44 seconds.

But I was pleased, and I wasn't really all that spent.  I found I'd go through cycles where some periods felt easy and peaceful, while others were strained.  I think I'm most comfortable and efficient breathing on the left side.  I also felt like I was able to keep my stroke lengthened even near the end when fatigue should have had my form breaking down. 

Looking back at the splits, I was surprisingly consistent:
1st 500 - 8:34
2nd 500 - 8:39
3rd 500 - 8:31
4th 500 - 8:47 (w/buoy)
5th 500 - 8:41 (w/buoy)
6th 500 - 8:40 (w/buoy)
7th 500 - 8:26
last length - 0:27

Good workout.  Different.  Not as many calories burned since I wasn't using the larger leg muscles and I doubt I ever worked my heart rate to anything above 140.  But it was a good change of pace and a nice test.  Ironman swim distance is 2.4 miles.  That's only about 700 more yards.  That would be about 12 more minutes.  I should try that sometime.

Planning to visit Laces this evening and have a sit down with Mike to talk about where I'm at and what the plan going forward is going to be.  I'm feeling like I'm in good shape and ready to press forward.