Threshold Swim

I made it to the gym by 5:00 am for the first time in what has to be a month. Could it have something to do with my 17 day vacation that starts Thursday at 5pm...who am I kidding more like 3:30pm on get-away-day? I think so.

Today's workout began with 30 miles on the dreaded gym bike trainer. Not even worth going into detail on this one. I did it and that's it. After the bike ride I rode my wave of energy over to the weights and got in a solid 30 minutes of upper body work. Perfect way to tune up for a high intensity swim. I always seem to swim better following a strength training session.

The swim workout seemed innocent enough at first. 20 lap warm up followed by 30 sets of 50 yards (2 lengths) with a 10 sec break in between. But the purpose of this swim was to tax your anaerobic threshold....all out for 30 sets of 50 (1,500 yards). The first 15 sets went well, my stroke felt good and I averaged 40 secs per 50 yards. I really felt my pulse increase and my muscles burn as I approached the last 5 or so yards of each set but was able to quickly recover in the brief 10 second break. My body is really dealing well with high stress (race like) conditions.

This pace continued through the next 10 sets (25 overall) and then I began to really feel it. The temptation to take it easy was strong but I resisted and powered through. Over the last 5 sets I averaged a much slower 45 seconds per 50 yards. As I have said before...I won't beat myself up over this one. The intent was to push my anaerobic threshold and I did just that. Plus a 41 second (50 yard pace) average pace isn't bad for a hack swimmer like myself. An easy 25 lap cool down and I called it a day. Nothing like 3 hours at the gym before you get to work?

Looking forward to when this race is over and I can workout like a normal person again. You know about an hour a day 4 or so days a week. Can't wait....only 74 days from IM Florida!

For now I have to take it one day at a time....tomorrow is an even tempo 70 minute run followed by a 100 minute bike ride. For those keeping score at home that is a 2 hour 50 minute workout:(