Renewed Motivation!

There was quite a bit of downtime in October, November, and December, especially when it came to swimming. I only went 6 times in those three months.

I'm training again for CB&I, and I have a new goal; for swimming, under 10 minutes. I was 10:53 last year, so this new goal has given me motivation to get to the pool.  I definitely hit a plateau last summer. As I was training for an Olympic, my swims were often longer slower endurance sets, which did little to improve short-end speed.

I've been focusing on improving my form and improving my stroke rate (which is tied to lung capacity.) Coincidently, I just started reading info about USRPT (Ultra Short Race Pace Training), curtesy of Tim Floyd. I think these faster shorter sets have been paying off (although I wasn't exactly following USRPT protocol).   Back in early December, my time for 550yd was 11:00. I've watched it drop over the last several weeks: 10:44, 10:17, 10:10, and today, 9:47!

I'm not ready to call it go to go. 9:47 in the pool doesn't account for swimming the wrong direction, sighting, and the time it takes to get out and cross the sensor. I've seen the best improvement in my back 400. Instead of dropping to a 2:00/100yd pace, I have been keeping it at about 1:50. If I could maintain my first 100yd pace of 1:35, I could be looking at 8:43. Applied to the times last year, that would put me at 7th/80 for the swim (I was 28/80 last year.) That's motivation right there.

Maybe my goal should be under 9 minutes?  I'm not going to podium, but it is motivating to be more competitive in one discipline.

2013 Annual Totals

I haven't updated this in awhile, but frankly I haven't done much.  I took some time off from running or biking in November to heal my Achilles, but it still isn't 100%. I tried to do other activity in the meantime, like weight lifting, but I enjoy the cardio more. With kinesio tape, I can run at least 3 miles without any pain, and I'm not sure if I have the free time to do the long distance stuff, so I'm not too worried about it.

2013 Totals
Swim: 43 hours, 109,000 yards
Bike: 106 hours, 1504 miles
Run: 72 hours, 360 miles
Other: 4 hours


Thomas Gerlach, a pro whose blog I follow posted his totals. I'm about 25% of the training time and about 15% of the distance (I'm slower!). Given that I have a day job and two kids, I'm pretty happy with that.