On Tuesday I hit a major swimming milestone…..I swam for 500m without stopping.This was a milestone I was hoping to hit before I registered for Ironman Arizona in November but I have managed to hit it much sooner. The reason for wanting to hit this milestone is that almost all of the Ironman 70.3 and Ironman training plans out there start with the assumption that you can swim 500m without stopping. It is considered the base level of fitness needed along with running for an hour and biking for about 60-90 mins.
By being able to swim 500m without stopping, I can now meet the minimum fitness level in all three sports. Of course, I need to be able to do it regularly and I will, but just knowing I can do it once is a huge confidence booster.
It’s hard to believe that it was less than 3 months ago (first week of July) that I learnt to swim freestyle with side breathing and right after the most I could have swam was 25m at a time before I felt like dying.
The next milestones I need to aim for and reach are:
- Swimming a total of 1,500m within a session, with breaks. This is a swimming mile
- Swim 1,000m without stopping