Swim workouts = OUCH!

On my trip to sign up for Ironman Canada, I met a couple of really fast swimmers from the Portland Tri-club. They were predicting just under an hour for the Ironman swim. Fricking fast but they have had trouble with their running. So I told them if they'd help me swim, I'd help them get faster on the run.

So yesterday, my swimming had basically come to a standstill so I figured I'd drop Don an email to beg for some help. He responded that he'd be able to give me some technique drills and look at my stroke. He suggested I do the following workout to get an idea of where I'm at. Basically you warm up for 200-300 yards and then proceed to 10 100yd intervals. An all-out fast one followed by 30 seconds rest and then a slow one followed by 30 seconds rest. Odds are fast and evens are slow. I figured I'd just do a couple of those intervals to get my body ready for the full on 10.

I ended up doing 6 in the pool this morning an almost puked into the pull. What was totally sad was during my fast ones, this other swimmer in a couple lanes over was basically just cruising and still going faster than me. How sad is that! I did however but out my fastest 100 yards times yet but what's funny is my "slow" ones were only 20 seconds slower. I'm thinking I'm pretty much gonna be a slow swimmer.

Today's run didn't go much better as my running partners decided to hammer the last 1200 or so meters at the end of the 7 mile run. We were in what I felt like a full on sprint by the last 100 yards and they were pulling away from me. Ouch....I'm sure my legs tomorrow on the bike on the hills are not going to be happy.

We'll see how the body feels tomorrow...