16 October 2021
With what appears to be a commitment (& success!) in Ontario to keeping our fitness facilities open, I'm getting encouraged that I'll have sustained access to pool time. As I turn 55 years old in 2022 and, hence, become the "young guy" in the 55-59 year old age category for Masters Swimming, I am trying to ramp up my training with an eye to some faster swimming by next spring. I'm looking back periodically to workouts I did in the fall of 2011, as I geared up my training then and went on to have a fantastic year as a 45 year old.
I had originally intended to do this main set from October 14th, 2011 this past Thursday, so that it would be exactly 10 years ago. Alas, as part of my effort to get into better overall shape, I had done a very light bodyweight set of dryland exercises on Wednesday evening and found myself rather sore come Thursday morning. My wife mocked me for being sore from 10 pushups, but ...
(a) it was a bit more than that ... a bit :)
(b) that just emphasizes that I do need to stick with and start building up my "land" fitness
... yet it still meant that I didn't feel up to this on Thursday, so did it Saturday afternoon. After a traditional 1,000 yard warmup (4oo IM kick-drill, 4 x 100 descend w/snorkel, 8 x 25 odd laps fast IM order), I did the main set Broken Mile in yards at my local LA Fitness:
3 x 200: on 2:40
2011-10-14: 2:05, 2:04, 2:03
2021-10-16: 2:10, 2:09+, 2:10+
3 x 150: on 2:00
2011-10-14: 1:30+ on all
2021-10-16: 1:37, 1:37+, 1:38
4 x 100: on 1:20
2011-10-14: 1:00.5, 1:00.5, 1:00.8, 1:01.1 (the coach got our times!)
2021-10-16: 1:04+, 1:05, 1:06, 1:05
4 x 50: on 0:40
2011-10-14: 29+ on all
2021-10-16: 32, 32, 32, 32+
In 2011, my time added up to 16:47, whereas I was 17:49+, roughly 6% slower. Beyond the fact that 10 years has passed, when I did the workout back in 2011, I was swimming with Masters stud Chris Stevenson, so essentially had a workout race. I don't have a hard time pushing myself and my perceived effort hard when I train alone, but I always can find another gear if I'm in a workout with someone to pace and race against.
I finished up with the 1,100 kick set (3 x 150 kick descend followed by 100 easy swim, twice through) and managed a solid 3,850 yards in total.
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