Of all three disciplines in triathlon, the one that comes the easiest for me is swimming. I swam for 2 years in high school and that experience has really stuck with me. I am by no means the fastest swimmer in my age group but I am usually in the top 10% for sure. That has been very helpful when it comes to triathlon. I don’t need to spend a lot of extra time in the water because I already have a pretty big advantage on most of the others in my age group. Because of this I have not (in the past) tended to work that hard in the pool.
I am working with a coach to help me achieve my goals this year and of course that comes with swim training. I worked with a friend before who helped me greatly when I was training for a 2.4 mile open water swim. But other than that, I have managed my swimming on my own. My coaching for swimming so far has included drills (belcht!) and shorter sets than I am used to. I told myslef to give it some time and see how my swimming reacted to a different style of training. Well, it is working!
This week is an adaptation week so my volume has been scaled back and I get to do a couple of timed tests to see how I am doing. Yesterday I swam a 200 at 100% followed by an 800 at 90% with 30 seconds rest between the two.
See interval #4 and #5? I am pretty sure I have never swam that fast before (I really can’t remember my high school times). What we are doing is working! I am excited to see how this translates over longer distances but an 800 at that pace has me very excited! You can see the two intervals below to see more detail. I will add a link alter for the Garmin data (Garmin Connect is being crabby right now).
Like you I swam in HS and some in college so swimming has been the “easy” part for me…ie I’ve never worked real hard to get better. That changed with a coach and damn it’s hard, but so worth it!! Your stats look great!! Enjoy the progress!! Good Times ahead!!
I am very excited to see how this speed translates to longer distances. Thanks for reading!