Swim Test #2 - Results
Its been on the
longer side of a month since my last round of testing. This past month
has been a swim focused block of training that had me in the pool at least 4
days a week. Immediately following Matt's advice, after the first round
of testing, for improving my swim I have crushed almost all of my swim
sessions. I have been making some serious headway in the water which has even
shocked me at times. I wonder if I'm turning into a swimmer and just how
much faster I can get? With that being said I had my swim test last
night, a 1000yds TT and . . . I have strong, mixed emotions about it.
Because of the holidays and the craziness that accompanies it I severely neglected my training. I was well aware that this would happen since last year I felt terrible about attempting to train with family in town and vowed never to do that again. Thankfully I learned from my mistake, a vital lesson for time crunched, age-group triathletes. So, from December 24th to January 2nd I didn't do anything! Not only didn't I do anything but I couldn't. I hit the wall and experienced fatigue after a successful building block. Being away from training for that long (I can't believe I'm saying that) leads to a few issues.
First and foremost swimming has a lot to do with your ability to “feel” the water and when I returned to the pool on Monday I had definitely lost that feel. I felt like I was working against the water versus with the water, my muscles were in some shock, I felt like a tugboat versus one of those sculling boats. This caused messed with my mental state because I knew my test was the next day. My anxiety was put into check after doing some hundreds with another swimmer. I was busting out 1:19-1:21 for each split and didn't even feel great while doing it. Maybe I'll do fine on this test after all?
Later Monday night I interviewed Meaghan and we talked about testing and weather or not I get nervous for them. My immediate response was, no. I actually get fired up for them since it's a time to display all the hard work you just put in during the previous month. Meaghan said she got nervous because, what if you have a bad day? The next month of training will all be based on those results. I had never really looked at it that way but there is truth to what she said.
Here are the results of my swim test:
Swim Test Round 1 (end of November)
Total Time: 16:10.96
Avg. 100yds split: 1:37
Swim Test Round 2 (beginning of January)
Total Time: 15:02.75
Avg. 100yds split: 1:30
I can't be upset with making progress because I'm moving closer to a long term goal of becoming the best 70.3 triathlete I can be. Improving my swim is definitely taking a step in that direction. Truthfully, after last night’s swim test I was pissed off to say the least. I blew it. I felt like crap in the water, my arms felt tired and pumped the entire swim, I never got into a rhythm, I didn't have that "pop" feeling of hitting on all cylinders. I knew after my first split of 1:26 that this was not going to be good. Right when I got home I filled out my training log and vented hard! Matt may want to go to church to cleanse his mind after reading my bitter, anger filled tirade about my shamefully disappointing swim.
On the other hand it’s hard not to be pleased, satisfied and excited about making progress but I know I could have swam better. I'm calling it now. My next test will have splits averaging 1:26. This will drop my overall time to around 14:20. What? You don't think I can do it? Wait and see!
I have a run test in two days and I now have similar concerns and anxiety because of my swim.
Because of the holidays and the craziness that accompanies it I severely neglected my training. I was well aware that this would happen since last year I felt terrible about attempting to train with family in town and vowed never to do that again. Thankfully I learned from my mistake, a vital lesson for time crunched, age-group triathletes. So, from December 24th to January 2nd I didn't do anything! Not only didn't I do anything but I couldn't. I hit the wall and experienced fatigue after a successful building block. Being away from training for that long (I can't believe I'm saying that) leads to a few issues.
First and foremost swimming has a lot to do with your ability to “feel” the water and when I returned to the pool on Monday I had definitely lost that feel. I felt like I was working against the water versus with the water, my muscles were in some shock, I felt like a tugboat versus one of those sculling boats. This caused messed with my mental state because I knew my test was the next day. My anxiety was put into check after doing some hundreds with another swimmer. I was busting out 1:19-1:21 for each split and didn't even feel great while doing it. Maybe I'll do fine on this test after all?
Later Monday night I interviewed Meaghan and we talked about testing and weather or not I get nervous for them. My immediate response was, no. I actually get fired up for them since it's a time to display all the hard work you just put in during the previous month. Meaghan said she got nervous because, what if you have a bad day? The next month of training will all be based on those results. I had never really looked at it that way but there is truth to what she said.
Here are the results of my swim test:
Swim Test Round 1 (end of November)
Total Time: 16:10.96
Avg. 100yds split: 1:37
Swim Test Round 2 (beginning of January)
Total Time: 15:02.75
Avg. 100yds split: 1:30
I can't be upset with making progress because I'm moving closer to a long term goal of becoming the best 70.3 triathlete I can be. Improving my swim is definitely taking a step in that direction. Truthfully, after last night’s swim test I was pissed off to say the least. I blew it. I felt like crap in the water, my arms felt tired and pumped the entire swim, I never got into a rhythm, I didn't have that "pop" feeling of hitting on all cylinders. I knew after my first split of 1:26 that this was not going to be good. Right when I got home I filled out my training log and vented hard! Matt may want to go to church to cleanse his mind after reading my bitter, anger filled tirade about my shamefully disappointing swim.
On the other hand it’s hard not to be pleased, satisfied and excited about making progress but I know I could have swam better. I'm calling it now. My next test will have splits averaging 1:26. This will drop my overall time to around 14:20. What? You don't think I can do it? Wait and see!
I have a run test in two days and I now have similar concerns and anxiety because of my swim.
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