30 September 2024
For many years, US Masters Swimming has run a ‘virtual distance event’ that includes the 3,000 yard freestyle. I’ve done this periodically since 2012, recording the following times (in yards):
2012 – 33:18.5
2013 - 33:06.9
2015 – 32:21.9
2022 - 34:11.8
2023 – 35:38.4
As my business travel is not (likely) to allow me to race in any “IRL events” for the rest of this year, I decided to dedicate the fourth quarter to this. This will have the double benefit of giving focus to my training while supporting the “Million Meter” volume goal** I set at the start of the year.
Having found the great 25-meter-long Clissold Leisure Centre in Hackney last week, I planned to show up this morning right as a team exited the pool, hoping the eight lanes would allow me to swim in a fairly uncrowded lane. That plan worked like a charm as I never shared one of the two fast lanes with more than one person.
After doing my personal standard long warmup, I turned on my FINIS Smart Goggles and went for it. I have mentioned in other posts that I like to use a pattern of increasing stroke counts when doing longer races as a way to ensure I don’t start out too fast, and as a way to (hopefully) build my pace over the distance. My plan today was simple – swim 1,000 each using 13 strokes per length (SPL), 14 SPL and 15 SPL. I held to that plan with the exception of ramping up to 16 SPL on the last 300.
I also implemented my big change for my freestyle - breathing every two strokes all the time - using the "bi-lateral by length" approach I heard about on a recent Brett Hawke podcast with 800 Olympic champion Daniel Wiffen. I first did this last Monday; it still feels a bit odd, but I think the extra oxygen helped and it got closer to feeling normal by the end of the set.
I had zero expectations for today as my aim was to set a baseline and then try it “for real” at the end of October and then again mid-November when I’ll be in the USA for work and have more access to yards pools. I completely surprised myself, going 38:05.5, which, based upon triangulating various time conversion websites and distances, is about 34:23 as a 3,000-yard equivalent, well faster than last year and close to 2022. Even better is that my stroke count strategy worked and I negative split this – 19:07.4, 18:58.1. As a frame of reference, last November, when I raced a 1500 SCM, I was 18:29.8. My 200 splits show a nice downward trend over the swim:
** I’m a bit behind (more on that later), but this will help get me back on track.
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