Tuesday swim practice

First TNYA practice for me in many a month, and very nice it was too to see familiar faces, and feel welcomed back!

Hmmmm, let me see, what did we do?

Curtailed warmup: 150 free, 150 IM no back (flags only at one end, and I wasn't sure how much time I'd have to do the whole warmup anyway - these were both in theory 200s), 50 free, 50 back

4 x 75 free as kick, finger-drag, swim (last person touches, first person goes)

4 x 75 kick-drill-swim (IM order, last person touches)

6 x 100 free descending: first two on 1:50, next two on 1:45, fifth on 1:40, one minute rest and sixth all out (I note that though I cannot make the 1:40, I was quite solid on the first four - I was surprised... - I need to get my top speeds a bit faster, I should be able to swim a 100 in 1:35 if I am rested and swimming all out, whereas actually I do not seem to get down below about 1:44 - but I am swimming the same time on #5 and #6, which speaks better to my endurance than to my speed skills!)

4 x 100 IM descending: now, these intervals I really cannot make, though there is no shame in that! Descending first three in theory 2:00, 1:55, 1:45, then a minute rest and the last one all out with goal of meeting or beating last time. On the final one I felt a calf cramp coming on as I turned from fly to back, so I flipped over onto my stomach and took it home in easy freestyle instead, so that was only 350 rather than 400. I cannot now remember my fastest time, but really it is more like 1:48 than anything faster...

It was an enjoyable swim, in any case, and afterwards we had dinner as a mournful farewell for lanemate J., who is going back to Singapore to become the principal of the school he attended as a Young Person!

1950 yards total

(It is my sudden insight that I will not sign up for that morning lane swim this fall, the M-Thurs. 8:30-9:30am one - it's not unreasonably priced, about $130 for 12 weeks that spare me the evilly crowded evening lane swim - but now that the Tuesday-Thursday evening workouts are back, I should just do those instead - I can swim 3 TNYA workouts each week at Columbia when schedule permits, or 2 workouts and 1-2 shorter later evening lane swims when it is not so evilly crowded - and honestly, though I would swim 5 times a week by preference, and though I like swimming in the morning and running in the evening [biking happens most conveniently at midday!], the imperatives of triathlon training are such that I should probably limit swims to 3/week at least until my October half-ironman is over, and probably until after my late November marathon. I do now understand how and why cycling is in many respects better - or, well, not BETTER so much as more directly applicable - cross-training for running than swimming is - and in any case biking is where I most need to build strength for FUTURE IRONMAN PLANS...)

(I am slightly having a week where mental insanity is making me crazy!)