Masters swim!

Extremely pleasant. It was touch and go whether I would make it there - the alarm went off at 5:30 and I turned it off, reset for 7 and told B. that it was too early and I was going back to sleep! However really I was awake and a few minutes later decided that I would feel too much remorse later in the day if I did not get over there (I don't have access to that sort of pool to do a workout on my own, so it's not something I can easily make up later in the day).

They have three workouts a week and this is the only morning one - I may try and go Monday evening as well, though. Swimming should be the easiest part of my Ironman training, given ambition is completion rather than speed - really if I go to masters swim twice a week, everything else is gravy. So it is appealing to think of locking it in as a default. It's definitely a little easier for me to train in NYC than here - not so hot, more options - but with a little effort I should be able to make it so that I can have an amply sufficient training week here as well.

Warmup: 100 free, 4 x (25 stroke, 25 free)

Set #1: 3 x (4 x 25), odds freestyle evens stroke, descending each set of four (I did fly drill for first pair and full stroke for second)

Set #2: 2 x (300 free, 200 free, 100 free), negative splits by effort, :30 rest

Cooldown: 100 drill-swim by 25 (front scull concentrating on loose floppy hands - as opposed to the claw-like way I had been swimming previously!)

There weren't many people there - a small enough number that we were splitting lanes rather than circle-swimming. Nice to get feedback from coach on stroke! I have three things that I know are what I most need to work on for my freestyle stroke (aside of course from there always being room for improvement on body rotation): (1) left arm tends to get very straight and flop down into water, concentrate on high-elbow recovery and pull (2) bilateral breathing is good, but on right side I slightly lift my head up - keep neck neutral and rotate along long axis rather than jerking head out of water (3) claw hands as opposed to easy floppy hands with bigger surface area.

1900 meters