Master's Swim

I'm still wondering why it took me so long to join the Pitt Master's swim program. Maybe because since I did not come from a swimming background I thought that you had to be a top tier swimmer to get to swim at Tree's Pool. This is so not the case as I found out when I started swimming with Pitt Masters last Fall.

Even though the alarm wakes me up at 4:50 AM, this is starting to become one of my favorite workouts of the week that I look forward to. I think it's mainly because every workout there is someone pushing me to get faster. This morning was no exception.

I swam this morning in a lane with Matt and Ryan, both great swimmers. Our workout today was 20 x 100's. I wasn't sure how my body would react after an awful bike session last night. I rode the trainer for three hours and my legs were slow and heavy for the duration. The first 10 descended on 1:45 then 1:40 then 1:35 then 1:30 then 1:25. I felt good in the water swimming most of the 100's in under 1:25.

The next 10 included 5 all out sprints. My goal was to hit these in under 1:15 and after I did my first one I came to the wall in 1:13 still feeling like I could have gone faster. At first I thought that I did the math wrong but as I later verified with Ryan, it was true that I swam a 1:13. Now in no means is a 1:13 fast in swimming standards, but this was fast for me and actually tied my previous 100 personal best. But the real excitement was knowing that I really didn't push it that hard to swim the 1:13.

Now I was on a mission to go even faster. My next 100 I went 1:11 and still felt like I wasn't going as hard as I could have gone. My next fast 100 was even faster at a 1:10. Still I could do better I thought. The fourth 100 I turned it up a gear and hit the wall in 1:08! Five seconds faster than my previous PR and it still wasn't an "all out sprint". Now I also didn't factor in that Matt went off the wall five seconds ahead of me and I was more than likely getting a slight draft off of his 6' 4" frame. I was still swimming my fastest 100's ever. My last 100 was slightly slower but was still around a 1:10.

After the set of 20x100 I was feeling really good in the water and didn't want to stop. Matt suggest an IM set (fly, back, breast, free). I usually do not look forward to these sets, but I've been working a lot on my dolphin kick and I'm starting to get good at it (at least with flippers on). This was the first I did the butterfly actually feeling like I was doing the stroke correctly. I was doing a dolphin kick and the fly felt easier than normal. It's small gains like this that really make your day.

Tomorrow morning I head back in the water for a long swim set with Matt. I'd really like to get in a 5000 yard workout, but I have a feeling I'll only squeeze in 4500 unless I crawl out of bed at 4:00 AM.

As for tonight, I hit the road for a 1 hour run and a speed session on the bike. Loving life and loving training!