Completed my 10,000 meter swim this morning (100 x 100's) averaging 1:30 per 100 on an interval of 2:10. We have 5-6 folks per lane so it was a little crowded early on before others dropped out. The last time I did this was either high school. Rachel, my daughter came along for moral support.
My distance coach, Marcia Cleveland has said a curious statement several times when describing training for the Channel; you have to "let go ... don't try to control things". Little did I know how true this was to be when no sooner did I walk into the pool to learn yards became meters. The pool was a meter vs. yard pool, that means about 10% longer distance. My original 10,000 yard swim quickly became a 11,154 yard (10,000 meter) swim but this didn't phase me as I knew the distance was not an issue. My goal all along was consistency of time per segment.
I knew to play it cool early on as the "kids" thrashed away the first 20 or 30 sets while I averaged 1:30's per 100 meters. I felt very relaxed the whole way, keeping my heart rate at 130 beats per minute. By the end I was swimming as fast or faster than a good portion of these same kids consistently finishing between 1:20 and 1:25 per 100 for each of the last ten. Then of course Rachel, my daughter, said "come on dad can't you go faster, she said dad I swim my 100 free in a 1:03? ... with only the look of a proud father she could see, I said good point and said "well I probably should make the last one the fastest, so I clipped off a 1:13 and with that finished just a hair over 3 hours.
In the end a nice training swim and thats another 6.3 miles in the bag or as I am becoming fond of thinking ... that was 25% across the English Channel.
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