Back to front

Swimming at 50m this morning. I arrived at the pool yesterday late lunchtime only to find a triathlon - a triathlon!! - in the pool, so that put paid to that idea. It was quiet this morning, but I didn't have such a great swim. The idea was 8x100m moderate, and 7x100m hard. They came in as:

(missed first one on the watch), 2:02, 2:01, 2:01, 2:02, 2:04, 2:06, 2:07

2:10, 2:05, 2:06, 2:06, 2:08, 2:06, 2:10

So, somehow, moderate is quicker than hard! I was tiring badly, my arms weren't holding up well, and it really shows in the times. I also messed up the rests and had too long on the moderate ones - should have been 5s not 45s.

However, swimming early @50m worked quite well, I have to say. I could perhaps be doing that again!

Crowded

Up to the Sportspark for a swim at 50m this morning. Saw Gill and David who had just got out - Gill joked "don't go in lane 4, it's full of crazy people!", but on examination lane 4 was the only one without breaststroke swimmers (4 lanes were in use by a club again), so I got in. It wasn't too bad for the first half but either people got crazier or more people got in, as soon I was being overtaken (and cut up when the overtaker was cutting it a bit fine with oncomers), bashed, and unable to touch at the end for people hanging about. I caught up with splashy kick lady from last week, it's kind of like swimming in a jacuzzi but with the POUNDPOUNDPOUNDPOUND of her kicking feet as a soundtrack. This week I pushed it to overtake her and managed to stay far enough ahead to not have her on my toes.

As soon as I was done, I ducked under into the nextdoor lane to cool down without inconveniencing the turbo people, and was immediately frustrated by the slow speed. And this was on a cool down, even swimming with just arms and very slowly. So basically there was nowhere for me to go. Thankfully I had done 300m warm up so only needed 200m cool down and I was out of there (actually a bit short as I turned early at one point just to get some clear water!).

100m splits were variable, at least for the first 9 - my watch didn't save any more than that as the memory was full :( So, from memory, I think it was 32:29 for the full 1500m , which makes 2:10 per 100m. The laps that did get saved varied from 2:06 to 2:22, although some were artificially longer as I waited at the end to be overtaken.

Saturday long swim

I am trying to make Saturdays a habit in the 50m session. Today was a bit harder as it was more crowded (club using 4 lanes), but I got through it. One or two lengths were subject to hold ups behind the crazy old man swimming jellyfish style, and at one point I took a 20s break to get away from a woman who was slower than me by just enough for me to be on her tail, but not enough to be worth overtaking. I accepted several lengths of slipstream (mass start training - heh) but then couldn't take any more of the pounding noise from her kicking. No watch, so no splits.

300m WU
1800m 40:26 = 33.7s / 25m
300m CD

I swam best towards the end but that was probably because the pool was emptying out - I got out just a few minutes before the changeover to 25m.

Olympic distance

Not a tri, just the pool :) Tried the 50m swimming this morning. It was fine, felt slow but that could be me and not the pool. I did do some arm stuff in the gym yesterday and so was a bit tired. But the pool was good, not crowded at all. One bizarre thing was that I felt much slower over the "shallow end" than down my usual "deep end" haunt. Surely there can be no reason for that - but it felt that way quite consistently! Twilight zone....

Session:
250m warm up
1200m continuous (27 mins, average 33-34 secs/25m or 1:07/50m)
250m cool down