T36 - 2 Swim Workouts For the Low, Low Cost of 1!!! - Swim

Gainesville

S: long day
Swim:
warmup: 4 x 75
main: 500swim, 500kick, 500pull, 500swim, all RPE 4
15 x 100 (25Easy, 25Build, 25Easy, 25Hard)

2 Lipodrene
"Long Day" would be a bit of an understatement. This was essentially 2 long swim workouts combined into one, and I thought my eyes were fucking up again when I read the training card and saw this listed as a 90 minute swim. In week 14. Well, whatever.

The first 500 was a bit lazy, since I knew I was in for a long night. But by the 9th or 10th lap I started feeling warmed up. I did Pull next, actually, and did it in just over 13 minutes, which I thought wasn't bad for a pull. Then 10 laps of kick, which is pretty interminable, but boy does it make you haul ass on those last 500 yards. Seriously crushed those last 10 laps now that my arms were rested and I had been kicking. Did them in 10 minutes, which, again, for me is crushing it. I usually average about 1:07 a lap.

Because it was a loooong swimming day, I actually got out of the pool after the first 2000 meters and used the bathroom. Not sure why swimming always makes me have to piss, but as anyone who's ever been on a roadtrip with me will tell you I have the bladder of an 8-year-old girl (although my niece Emily seems to be able to hold it, so it may be more like the bladder of a 50-year-old woman. Anyway, I went to the bathroom, had some Gatorade and a gel, and started the 15 EBEH.

Crushed those too, much as one can crush EBEH. The easys were really more of a moderate tempo, and the Hards I swam like I was angry. I've never really used anger as a motivating force in training, but let me tell you it worked Tuesday night. And I was angry about all kinds of things, and nothing at all. Things I had no business being angry about and things I should have been angrier about before. But the point is I swam the last 25 of each one like somebody has just shit in my Gatorade bottle, and I liked it. I'm not one who can feign emotion to use as motivation (why I was such a terrible football player. What did that lineman ever do to me?) but occasionally it works. Anyway, I finished this workout in 86 minutes, UNDER time for once. I was very pleased.

Interestingly, also, I had eaten an entire large cheese pizza for lunch and when I went to weigh myself post-swim I was 2 pounds lighter than I had been during my Sunday swim. Although I think the pizza contributed to the nasty acid reflux I was getting during most of the swim. Never made me stop, but it's starting to become a concern. Had a little muscle milk after, need to buy some more.