So yesterday we had our swim test to decide the teams for the season in TCEC. Basti and Peter swam about 11:45 for 800m. Michael and Christoph swam about 12:50. I swam 13:30.
Now that is pretty much what I expected I would swim, ideally it would have been 15 seconds quicker, but 1:41 per 100m in a 50m pool is about my standard at the moment. Actually looking at it, it was slightly faster my best 1000m pace from last year, so really good for me historically.
The thing is though, it isn’t good enough! I need to be getting out of the water with Christoph and Michael at least, otherwise I’ll have to fight like a dog on the bike to be near the front for the run.
I am considering doing a swim block to try to knock off my 5 seconds/100m deficit in quick time. It fits well too as the tri season starts in 10 days, but the Freibad (outdoor pool) season starts on Saturday 19th of May. That means I have much better access to a 50m pool during the week.
So what would a swim block for me entail? Well Monday and Thursday are the team swims, so they would stay. If I could swim at least 5 days a week, for 16km or more total, that should be a pretty good kick in the right direction, shouldn’t it?
I’m going to see if I actually get my ass in gear and do this, if I do, this will be published along with some results. I have my baseline of 13:30 for 800m. I want to be able to swim at least 12:30 for 800m, that is 1:34/100m. I seem to benefit more than most from wearing a wetsuit, so I think if I swim 12:30 in the pool, I’d be getting out of the water with or ahead of the main RTV group in open water.
Week 1: 14-20 May
It’s kind of week zero, but whatever. My weeks total was about 15km over 4.5 swims, easily my biggest swim week ever.
Week 2: 21-27 May
Swam 750m in 13 minutes in openwater in Hachenberg, it seems like it was long though.
Longest swim ever, 3900m, miscounted or I would have done 4k! So I did just over 16k in 6 swims this week, not bad with a race in the middle.
Week 3: 28 May – 03 June
5 swims for a total of 16km again.
Week 4: 04 June – 10 June
5 swims for a total of 17km! Was a good swimming week.
Week 5: 11 June – 17 June
Just 2 swims – one shorter one before my seminar and one longer one on Thursday evening after work at TBB. Lets call it a down week!
Week 6: 18 June – 24 June
800m test in 12:58 on the Monday. 5 swims this week.
Epilogue
Writing 6 months later, I have decided to publish this after all! I kept swimming for a while after stopping writing here. In week 7 (25 June- 01 July) I swam 4 times, week 8 (02 July – 08 July) only twice but good long swims, week 9 (09 July – 15 July) 3 long swims. I was definitely starting to slack off on the swimming in week 10 (16 – 22 July) where I only swam once.
Then I got ill with my stomach bleed again, so I swam once, twice and once in the next 3 weeks, all for less than 1h. I actually remember the swim where in retrospect, I noticed that I was ill.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1724103086
I felt really weak in Mombach in the Freibad, I thought that I’d overdone it in the gym the day before. Then on the 24th, I felt like shit and went home early from work. I took the 25th off and that was that, I had had another stomach bleed.
So here I am in January, 12 pools swims done since the 23rd of July! It’s time to get started again, 6mins for 400m is a goal I’d love to hit in 2019, lets hope it works out better than my swim block in 2018.
I did swim 78 times in the pool in 2018, only down from 84 times in 2017 when I was actually fit and training for Roth.