three miles

I swam over three miles today. This morning I swam 160 laps or 3,000 meters, and after lunch I added another 110 laps, or 1.25 miles. 3 miles is 264 laps in our pool. Needless to say, I am very happy. 

First off, no problems whatsoever, no cramps, no tight feelings in any muscle, no tired arms, no nothing. That is very good. I can now be pretty sure the long swims "did their thing" as they say in the business.

Second, although I did not time it, I have the distinct impression that I swam fast too. It certainly felt fast. Unfortunately there was nobody in the pool this morning to compare to. In the afternoon, Alistair swam and even though I did not stay with him, I wasn't that much slower either. It was certainly a lot better than I had done previously. I also felt as if I could have stayed with him if I had wanted to push it a bit.

All that sounds good, but as they say in England, the proof is in the pudding. We'll see once I get to Lake Placid in July. Hopefully, I can keep up the training and then, we might show some real telling numbers. I know I have said this many times before, but this time is different, believe me. I would be surprised if it did not pan out on the longer distance.

More swimming

Yesterday, the weather was not great and I had lots of stuff to do so I went to the club and did my 45/30 routine. I actually ran an extra 5 minutes and finished 4.2 miles. I also worked out at a higher level on the stationary bike. The device lets you enter your weight and calculates calories burned, but my suspicion is that the numbers are too optimistic. I typically work out above 20 METs and burn nearly 1,200 calories in 45 minutes. 

I have to work really hard to burn 1,200 calories in one hour on my Griffen with the Ergomo power meter. Since the Ergomo measures power it can add calories burned. According to the documentation, Ergomo postulates a 25% muscular efficiency here. It seems the device at the club uses a much higher %.

Today started out pretty poor, but then it cleared up in the afternoon. Since it is Wednesday and school ends early, we all went to the pool. I swam 3,000 meters again, all freestyle and no stops. I think I am getting better. The long swims seem to help and I have two indicators that support this idea.

1. Part of the time, Alistair was swimming alongside and I found it much easier to keep up with him. He is always competitive and will try to swim faster than I do. Since we were the only two in the pool, that was easy to do. Under normal conditions, he gains one lap on me for every 5-7 laps I do, but now it was more like 1 lap every 10 or 12. Before I had been able to swim like that but never for longer than 10 laps. Now I can hold it.

2. I finished 3,000 meters in one hour so the 100m rate is 2 minutes even. In Arizona my 100m pace was 2:11. A 2:00 pace would result in an Ironman swim time of 1:15:47 or almost 7 minutes faster than what I did in Tempe. Seven minutes is a significant improvement.

We'll just keep hacking away at it. Eventually it will give.