Focus on the swim

When I registered for Ironman Louisville, I was more than a little freaked out about swimming 2.4 miles. I had mental issues. I doubted my abilities. So I pushed myself to prove that I will be ready for the distance. I started covering some distance. And then I got bored. I got tired of putting my face in the water and just swimming. So I changed my plan again. I started focusing on technique.


Last Friday I went swimming with Mr. Muscle & one of the Intimidators. I thought I was mentally prepared, but I could feel the exhaustion in my muscles after a long week of workouts, after teaching PUMP that morning. I focused on technique again, but I only completed 1000 yards. I wasn't happy with the low yardage. 


Over the weekend while attending the Midwest Les Mills Quarterly, I thought about my swim workouts and my personality. As much as I like to wing it, I also know that I like structure and suddenly it hit me. I need a plan! I need a planned workout. No more just arriving at the pool and swimming until I felt like I had done enough. 


I went back to the Trifuel 36 week Ironman Training Program and decided to check out the swim workouts. In the beginning, the swim workouts didn't seem to be preparing me for the distance. There were a lot of drills, small sets. When I looked at where I should be in the plan, I liked what I saw. 


I took my swim training plan to the pool on Tuesday, reviewed it before I got out of the car and went into the pool.


Warm up: 2x200
Main Set: 2 sets of (3x300 w/20 sec in between) w/60 sec in between sets
Cool Down: 4x75 with 10 second rest  I did 10x75 with 10 second rest. Poor memory helped me get more yards. 


While swimming, I calculated my total yardage: 2950. Wait! What? 50 yards short of 3000 yards. Oh hell no! I did an extra 50 to hit 3000 yards. I was very happy with the workout, the plan and more importantly the results.


Diablo? Diablo who? He may have been on my shoulder for the warm up, but he soon sank back to the bottom of the pool.