T52 - Uncharted Waters - Swim

Gainesville

Swim: long day,
warmup: 4 x 75, last 25 in each is backstroke.
main: 4 x 1000, each 1000 as (1 x 750, 5 x 50), rest 2:00 after each

2 Lipodrene

The title here is a little cliche, but I couldn't resist. This was the longest swim I'd ever done, and I was kinda impressed with myself for being able to do it. Like when I first started swimming again in the Fall of 07, I remember 10 laps being hard. Now I have warmups 3 times that long. Anyway, the way this workout was set up really made the long distance swim a lot easier to digest.

The first set of 15 laps was a breeze, and the sprints that followed went as well as could be expected. It was tough to just go all out on the 50s, knowing full well I had 3000 meters to go, so it became another case of "go as hard as you think will give you energy to do the rest of this." I'm not exactly sure why they threw sprints in on long day, but whatever. I'd have been happy with 4 sets of 20 laps, but then again I've never done an Ironman.

Swimming really is the most solitary of all the events in an Ironman. There's no music. There's no scenery save for the bottom of the pool. There's not even anyone to look at as in the water everyone is sort of an androgynous blob. So you start to think. A lot. Probably too much. Today I think I had myself convinced my last girlfriend had been cheating on me by the end of set one, had myself convinced that my sister was a lovestruck moron by set 2, started wondering about the validity of my life by set 3, and I don't even know what I was thinking about during set 4. None of if was logical, but being alone with your thoughts for that long makes you think up stupid shit. Especially when you can't even talk to yourself. The swim went well, but I think I found it mildly depressing by the end.

The 750 sets were all right around the 15-minute mark, which I'm finding promising. I don't expect to cut a whole lot of swim time off after this point, maybe a second or 2 per lap. But I think I've made the dramatic gain and the law of diminishing returns is going to rear its ugly head soon. No matter. The sprints were for the most part strong, although typically the end of the 2nd or 3rd 50 was half-assed. I took a gel at the halfway point, which I think helped. But I didn't really feel fatigued and aside from going mildly stir-crazy, I was very happy with how this swim went. As well as I'd hoped, if not a little better. Definitely getting back in stride. Or stroke. Whatever. Longest swim of the cycle, and definitely one of the best.