A swim challenge

Today I wanted to do something a little different in the pool. I've had some slow-ish swims lately, and I wanted to pick up the pace a bit, get back into the groove, and have a longer swim. So I did it all at once.

My rules:
- Start at the red bottom of the pace clock, and start stopwatch.
- Swim as far as I can at a steady pace.
- Stop when the pace clock hand gets back down to the bottom again.
- No looking at the stopwatch.

The first K was fine, with about 15 seconds in hand. Then my pace started getting a little bit slower. As the clock hand crept toward the bottom I'd push harder and gain some time. This probably varied between 58 and 62 second 50 m laps. There was some fun to be had passing the girls in the lanes beside me. They swam slightly different speeds of slower, so there was always one to be chased and passed. My inner shark approved.

As things went on I started getting a little sloppier, and I had to pick up my effort significantly to maintain pace. I suspect my kick was getting weaker. My shark buddy tried to help for a while, but said I was a bit out of tune, and he couldn't do much.

The last little while was with just a few seconds in hand. I'd come to the end of the pool, look up, still ahead, and push on for another lap. Finally I was getting close to the end of my rope, and I looked at my watch to see 57:58, meaning I'd done 58 laps, and 100 more meters is 3 K. I said wahoo, and picked it up. I surged past the 2 girls one last time. My shark buddy showed up to cheer me on. Form was good, and I felt strong.

3000 m 59:50

I could have kept going I suppose, but I was getting tired, and things would have fallen apart pretty quick, I suspect. But I have to be pleased. It's been a while since I've swum that far at that pace.

The spin this evening was light and fast. I felt smooth right from the start and warmed up at 85 rpm. Picked it up to 100 fairly quickly, in the easiest gear. This got my heart rate up to upper zone 1 or so.

Then I played with some speed work, 30 seconds at the fastest pace I could maintain for 30 seconds without bouncing, then 90 seconds at 85 or 90 to relax again. That got my heart rate up to the top of zone 2, then back down into zone 1 during the easy part. Mostly the fast spin was +125 rpm, and once was 130 for nearly the entire 30 seconds without any bouncing!

I did 15 reps of that, and had some cool down. I had been thinking of going for an hour, but stopped at 45 minutes. My legs have had a heck of a week, what with the long ride on the weekend, two long runs, and a fairly brisk ride on Wednesday. I did some stretching after. Sunday will be a nice long ride, and we'll see about a run after with all the snow. It's beginning to build up on the sidewalks and streets now.

The number this morning is 231.