Lengthening the swim, and swim t-test

Saturday SWIM 30 mins and 1200 yards

               RUN 4 x 1 min in total 30 mins treadmill session

Sunday  BIKE COMMUTE to work, into FoPa for bike race, then got a ride home

              BIKE 30 mins indoors. just because. 

Monday RUN 2 x 1 min in total 30 mins again 

              SWIM 40 mins and 1550 yards (I think), and 3 x T-test for swim

              BIKE COMMUTE rained out

Big gains this weekend on many fronts. Saturday was a back-to-back swim as I also swam Friday. So I kept the Saturday swim easy on the swim and more pull/kick/other to keep rested. The 4 mins of running felt great, stiff and clumsy, but that's expected. No hip pains or problems that I can pin point to the running.

Sunday I biked to work and enjoyed the lack of traffic, every one still in bed? Yay! After a few hours there I biked into Fo Pa for the bike race. Didn't ride around there much, then caught a ride home. Later in the day I did get 30 mins on the trainer to make it feel like a fuller day. 

Monday! More running, this time only 2 one minute intervals. They just didn't feel as good as Saturday's. More stiff and clunky, loud and off balance. And a little more pain involved. So just focus on walking, the feeling of connection between shoulder and leg, as mentioned in the previously light bulb moment post.

And more swimming, the goal this week is to get beyond my 30 mins limit, start some structure, and get the tests in. The little spiral swim book I have has these "t-tests", a series of 3 x 100 timed swims that are used to gauge progress on a monthly basis. Yay for my garmin's swim program!

I warmed up with mostly pulls, and about 10 mins in started the first 100. I didn't push the pace, reminded myself that I needed the 3 100's to be within 5 seconds of each other for it to really calculate effectively, and I knew I'd wear out fast. My form started to slip off in the 3rd length and in the 4th length is just felt awful. I was honestly surprised to hit the first 100 in 1:59! I did a kickboard lap (took about 2 mins), then repeated the 100 for a 1:56! Yowza.

Another kickboard lap, then the 3rd 100. And here I hit the Stop button instead of the Lap button on the garmin! Nuts! I figured it had to be around 1:56 - 1:59, but only a few yards into the resting lap I decided to do a 4th 100 to have a complete data set. Of course, right? My form really sucked in this last one, I was rolling all over, gasping for air and swallowing some, had to pause for an extra breath at the end of the 3rd length -- yet still pulled off a 2:00. I'd guess the extra breath put me over 1:59. 

So dang, that's surprising -- I think my 100y PR is 1:50 or 1:49? That's a LONG way off for my right now. And the pace today was non sustainable beyond 100 yards without a rest. But YAY! I've set a benchmark and have something to improve upon.