Shreds and Ladders

My arms are tired and I have to get a new swimsuit. I was going so fast today that I shredded it. Actually, I think the last 7 months of swimming in chemicals destroyed it. I got this huge gash from the crotch all the way to the leg seam. Basically, everything was in full view. Luckily, there's no one at the pool at 5am.

I was trying to figure out what workout to do as I laid in bed waiting for the time to actually get up and head to the pool. I always wake up just after 3am and then take little catnaps at 10 minutes a pop until I actually get out of bed. It's weird but it actually gets me used to the idea of actually waking up. It's like a built-in snooze alarm. I feel more refreshed if that happens compared to sleeping straight through til 4:35am when I wake up.

I got out of bed and proceed to put my stuff together. It's quite easy since I don't have to worry about going into the office after swimming. On top of that, I'm not running to the pool right now due to letting my calf rest so it's pretty simple. I put on my trunks, sweats, and pullover, grab my towel and I'm off to the pool. As I was doing this I was contemplating my workout fate. I thought I could go long like last week and do 2200 yards again. I'd try my best to keep it under 2 minutes per 100 just like last week. I thought maybe I should only go long and slow every other week as I keep reading and hearing speed workouts are good for ya. I did a 10x100yd on Monday and a 5x200yd on Wednesday. The Wednesday workout about killed me. I was thinking I could do 4x400yd today. I've done this workout once in December, the day I started my trek across the country. And then it popped into my head from out of nowhere, I'll do a ladder workout. I'll do 100, 200, 300, 300, 200, 100. This will be 1200 yds of intervals and with my warmup and cooldown I'd get some decent yardage. Perfect!

Since, I didn't swim yesterday I was well rested and proceeded to do my warmup. I started the workout and I was moving. I hit the 100 at 1:48. I was thinking not bad. I blitzed the 200 at 1:49, 1:52. This was my typical 200 yard interval time on Wednesday. I was thinking during that rest that if I can hold that pace for the 300 I should do a 400 as well. I'd add the 400 in the middle and then finish with 300, 200, 100. Basically, push myself and see what'd happen. I did the 300 in 1:50, 1:54(I was mentally slacking off), 1:52. Things are going great let's do that 400. This is where amazing happens. I hit the 400 at 1:49, 1:51, 1:52, 1:49. I saw that last 100 time and was stoked. I didn't feel like I was tired at that pace. During the rest, I started to think about how fast that would be in the wetsuit. The following 300 was tough and the euphoria was wearing off. I just wanted to finish. I still managed 1:49, 1:52, 1:53. Now I knew I was home free with just a 200 and wimpy 100 left. I finished up pretty strong with a 1:50, 1:50 for the 200 and a 1:47 for the 100.

I know these times for real swimmers are super slow. I look back at my first couple of weeks of swim workouts and see 2:20s and 2:30s for 100 yards as part of a total of 800 yard workout at the beginning of September. It wasn't until mid October that I was able to do a 100 under the 2 minute mark. I just gotta keep working. I might be able to go 1:10 in the water for the Ironman. That's 10 free minutes as my original goal was 1:20. Anything faster than that is free and gets me closer to that 10 hour mark for the entire thing.

5 months 10 days...