Tempo Trainer Practice
I swam 10 X 100 yards @ 1.35 seconds per stroke and 2 X 100 yards @ 1.25 seconds per stroke.
My strokes per length ranged from 18 - 21. My stroke length clearly slipped as I swam more. It slipped within a 100 yard repeat and it slipped throughout the practice.
My first 100 @ 1.35 was the fastest by over six seconds compared to my slowest. I took the longest on the eighth repeat and brought it down again on the ninth and tenth. I gave myself a little extra rest after the eighth repeat since I saw a two second jump in the time compared to the seventh repeat. I also took a bit of extra rest after the ninth repeat, though not as much as after the eighth. My repeats from fastest to slowest were 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 5, 7, 10, 9, 8.
I gave myself 73 seconds rest after the first set and swam a 1:49.5 @ 1.25 seconds per stroke. Then I rested for about 58 seconds and swam a 1:52.9 @ 1.25 seconds per stroke. I would bet that if I swam another 100 yards @ 1.25 seconds per stroke it would equal or exceed my time for my first 100 yard (1:54.0) @ 1.35 seconds per stroke.
Overall, this workout showed a trend of settling in at about 120 seconds per 100 @ 1.35 seconds per stroke. Also, I think the clear trend in all of my workouts is that my body fatigues very quickly. So, I need to create a strategy for improving my strength and/or endurance.
I'm going to give some thought to "Strong before long" and "Fast before far."
For starters, I think I need to back off from swimming every day. Next, I think I need to back off pursuing less rest in between repetitions. At this point in time I think that less is truly more. I think my body needs more time to recover than I have been giving it, both in between repetitions and in between workouts (practices).
Tomorrow I have the Chi Running workshop. So, in any case I wasn't going to be doing a swim workout. My triathlon training starts on Monday, January 13, 2014. Mondays are rest days. I think I'm seeing that I need a rest day. I think that I will take this Sunday off as well.
For some period of time I think it makes sense to do just two swim workouts each week as the training program specifies. My fear of reducing my swim workouts that much is that my technique will slip too much in between workouts. I have this belief that I need the reinforcement every day. But, let me take this risk and see what actually happens. Maybe I will be able to focus better and train harder during the two workouts that I will do. Maybe I'm not getting a good return on investment for all the time I am putting in right now; there may be too much "junk" yards.
Quality instead of quantity. Less is more. Victory comes to those who persist. Slow and steady wins the race. This is a journey of many miles (literally). It's time to put more focus on enjoying the journey and worry less about the destination.
I think that this has been an extremely good "outseason" for me. It was a smart choice to devote so much time to swimming. Now it's time to transition into the "inseason."